In a long line of screwups, Kas was at a loss. Just a little bit! He was sleuthing around town, checking everything out in depth as best he could. Every available building, every active business, any gaps he could fill to make him seem less obvious as he was now. There weren’t many monochromatic earth ponies around here… and even less that were Elements of Harmony. He didn’t even know how widespread that information was, but it was pretty much the exact thing he DIDN’T want to happen!
He’d been caught in this haze of friendship and magic so far that he had kinda forgotten about his past circumstances. Some folks just don’t know when to let something go, after all. And they believed that he belonged to them.
His eyes twitches. This place was dangerous, and he was dangerous for this place. Sure, it had its fair share of illegal activity, and he found that brawling pit easily enough… but even that was pedestrian. He’d looked around a bit more when he was leaving, and apparently other places like that one were pretty far spread across the world, which he now knew as Equus. He thought that was funny. Imagine if you called a place Huum, or something. Better than dirt.
He needed to focus. “Okay. The others had shops. Pinkie had Sugarcube Corner, Rarity had the place with the clothes, Applejack sold apples, Twilight… might sell books? And, uh,” He stops, spacing out. “Rainbow probably takes bribes to make weather better at certain places, I dunno. Does that count? And Fluttershy, um… no, she definitely doesn’t sell animals. Fuck.” Kas began softly banging his head against a nearby tree. “Four outta two… ain’t bad…”
“S’cuse me, mister…? Are you okay?”
Kas stops mid head bang, looking over to the side. He squints, not seeing the source of the voice.
“Ah-hem. Down here.” And he looks down, spotting a yellow filly with poofy red hair and a bow.
“Oh! Hi. I’m okay, this is just how I think.” He chuckles, rubbing the growing bruise on his forehead.
“Okay…? Also, ah’ve never seen you around before, who’re you?” She leans around, trying to look at his side for some reason. She was trying to be subtle about it, and failing.
He stands tall and proud. “I’m-” before wincing at the sudden pain he had just inflicted on his head, “Ow. Kasikov.” The stallion rubs his head again. “But just Kas is fine.”
“Uh huh… well, nice ta’ meet ya, Kas! Ah’m-” And he holds out a hoof.
“WAIT! Don’t tell me.” He rubs his chin with a forehoof, staring intently at her. “Apple Biscuit.”
“Nope, thas’ mah great uncle.”
“Caramel Apple?”
“Nah, thas’ mah cousin.”
“...Apple Cake?”
“Hah! He an’ Granny still ain’t on speakin’ terms after last reunion!”
“Apple… Apple?”
She stares at him silently for a second, squinting. “I don’t think that’s anypony.” The filly huffs. “It’s Applebloom! How’d’ja know I was an apple, but not WHICH apple?”
Kas snickers, holding a hoof up defensively. “To be fair, there are a lot. You just proved that.” He then baps her on the noggin gently. “Also, you got that distinct apple smell to you. Like Applejack! And I didn’t even know apples could smell that obvious until I met someone that worked on an apple farm!”
Applebloom stares at him in silence, as if finding a hard time telling whether he was telling an elaborate joke or not. “Yer’ serious, aren’t ya? I don’t… can other ponies smell that?!”
To her relief, he shakes his head. “Probably not. I can smell lots of things other ponies can’t. Like colors!” He takes a sharp whiff near the tree. “To no ones surprise, trees smell like chocolate.” Then he frowns. “They do not taste like chocolate.”
Trying to save herself from having her brain reset more from the conversation, Applebloom shakes her head to speed reset it herself. “Anyway! Ya’ know mah sister? That’s nice! Are ya’ll friends?”
Kas continues to smile, shrugging. “I dunno! Probably not!” She stares at him once again, leading his smile to falter a bit. “Am I that hard to talk with?”
Her eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “No, no! That ain’t it!”
Now it is Kas’ turn to have his eyes go wide, and he shakes his head as well. “Shoot! That was supposed to be one of my thoughts! I’m… bad at keeping those as thoughts. I’m sorry.”
She relaxes a little. “Ah, I get that… s’pose I was just confused is all. Ah’m sure she’d be friends with ya, though! Ya remind me of Pinkie Pie, a bit!”
That makes his smile return to its proper state once again. It was nice to know he wasn’t a total outcast for once.
“Say… what's yer cutie mark for?”
“Hm?”
She points a hoof towards his flank, where the three happy theatre masks sit, leaned up against that ribbon.
“Ohh, that..” He totally blanked. What WAS it for? What did it mean?
Applebloom squinted a bit. “D’you make masks, or somethin’?”
The inaudible ding of a lightbulb flashing above his head echoed in his ears. “Yes. Yes! That is exactly what I do! And I was about to see about purchasing a shop so I could start selling my many masks to the masses of Ponyville!”
Of course, Kas wasn’t aware that cutie marks sometimes could have more subtle meanings, or even multiple meanings at once. But he had a theme, and by god if he wouldn’t run with it right now.
“Ooh, that sounds AWESOME! Rooty Banks is lookin’ for a good buyer fer’ her store, got two floors and everythin’! I know her, so… maybe if I go with ya the deal would be better?”
“As good an idea as any, chum!” He gestures ahead. “Lead the way.” While the filly giggles at the strange stallions antics, leading him onward through Ponyville over toward a building with a bit of a plain look to it, and cosmetic roots jutting out of the sides. At least the name had some kick to it, ‘The Root Stop’.
The two enter to find a earth pony mare across a counter, who seems to be tying off some bags full of what Kas can only presume to be roots. Probably alchemy related stuff. Or essential oils. He can’t tell which is worse.
“Howdy, Miss Banks!” The mare jolts at the sudden, loud greeting from Applebloom. A slightly panicked looked is seen when she looks out across the room, but it softens when settling on Applebloom.
“Oh… Applebloom, you were the last pony I was expecting today, ahaha.” She looks up behind her, stiffening visibly when she realized the filly was not alone. “Who… is this?”
Kas holds up a hoof, but Applebloom jabs a hoof of her own against his chest. “Ah’ got this.” He gives a firm nod, with a small ‘You got it, boss.’ She clears her throat, looking up at Rooty Banks. “Mah’ friend here would like ta’ speak with ya about purchasin’ this estate.” Applebloom hardly could get through the sentence before the mare was bounding over the counter and shoving forms against Kas. Applebloom blinks. “Wait- just like that?”
Rooty nods quickly, with Kas wasting no time in scribbling his signature down on several of the forms, nodding slowly. “Ahaha, yup!!! I like to keep stuff simple. All further payments and such go to Mayor Mare, of course… but the sooner I finish up here the sooner I can… expand elsewhere, right?” Applebloom gives her a suspicious look, which Rooty looks like she may crack under any second… but is saved by the intrusion of Kas as he passes the forms back to her, along with a pouch full of bits.
“There we are! Pleasant doing business with you! Or, does it count as ending business? Since this was your shop.” Kas tilts his head in thought, looking up at the ceiling.
Rooty just laughs, grabbing up her bags and scampering over towards the door. “Who knows! And who cares, ahaha.” Her smile falters a little when she passes by Kas, with her whispering something to him as she passes. ”I’m sorry.” And just like that, she was gone.
“Huh… she seemed nice.” Is the simple reply from Kas, who smiles softly at the vacant shop.
“More like nervous. Way more so than usual, an’ she is a nervous pony.” Applebloom shrugs, before looking up at Kas. “What now?”
That was a good question. An excellent one in fact. He did that thing where he does stuff on a whim and he proceeds to not at all think about the downsides of that. “Uhh…” And that was nearly all his money from his last match! This place had been cheap, by housing standards if conversions from bits to dollars was anything as realistic as what he was thinking. He barely had enough for food, and thank god most of the water around here was clean. “...the library.”
He walked up to the counter, pulling off a keyring the mare had left for him, and stashing it away. Where it was stashed? Who knows. The filly looks up at him inquisitively. “What fer’?”
“Well, I’m gonna have to do some studying up on financing, and stuff…” Stuff that included mask making, but she didn’t have to know that.
As the two of them leave the building, Kas locking it behind him, Applebloom scrapes her hoof against the ground. “Seems like ya’ got a lot ta’ do before ya’ do much of anythin’... when you DO start doin’ things though, come find me! I’ll be out with the others crusadin’...” She gasps, bouncing in place. “Ooh! I didn’t tell y’all about the crusaders! I’ll introduce em’ to ya later! See ya, Mister Kas!” And with that, she prances off, with the same speed and energy as someone that had forgotten about a prior engagement and had gotten easily distracted. He would know, since it was pretty much a constant looming threat in his day to day life.
He smiled fondly as the filly bounded off, before bounding off himself toward Golden Oaks Library, slamming the door open and causing Spike and Twilight inside to jump in fear. “TWILIGHT! We have an EMERGENCY of the highest order!”
She immediately stands at attention, defensive. “What is it, Kas?! Timberwolves? Cockatrices? ...Manticores?! I know most of those usually stay in the forest, but I was combing through the archives and they have been known to delve into here when food is scarce or they just get plain unlucky out there in the wild, and-”
“NO.” She winces, shrinking back a little in fear at his loud proclamation. “I REQUIRE… KNOWLEDGE.”
And her smile grew three sizes that day.
Cozied up in a corner of the library, he had multiple books stacked up next to him. Stuff on being an entrepreneur, the value of bits, financing, proper bill management in Ponyville, mask construction, all sorts of things. He’d been meticulously combing through the books, eyes sliding back and forth across the lines as he gathered all he could from them. In the meantime, whenever Twilight spared a glance over toward him, she always felt herself being awed.
“I really can never figure you out… I actually thought it might be impossible for you to stand still at some point, yet here you are!” She exclaims, snickering softly. He looks up at her, amused.
“Technically, I’m sitting.” The response makes her roll her eyes, slapping a hoof against the open air dismissively.
“Still. I’m impressed to see just how committed you are to this. Even I’m not sure how willing I’d be to part with any of my books…” She shuddered, as if feared by the thought of selling even one of them. Damn, guess he was wrong on that front. “...Though I could always cast a duplication spell on them. Does that count as plagiarism? Shoot, I should look into that.” Then, of course, she goes and does that. With her now combing through a separate part of the library, he shrugs, continuing to rapidly absorb all the knowledge he can here.
She trots back over, sitting across from him as she rapidly flips through a book. “Apparently it can vary depending on who owns the rights to the books. Obviously if it is public domain, it can freely be distributed and sold… technically, there is nothing stopping a fellow unicorn from coming in and duplicating books themselves in here! I guess that is why I have my grants… maybe I could write my own books?” She looks across toward him. “What do you think, Kas? Oh! Do you need help, by the way?”
He grins up at her, nodding. “I think you could write some awesome books! And I also think you just want an excuse to read, so c’mon.”
At being found out so fast, she flushes in embarrassment, before trotting over and taking a seat next to him. In a long list of surprises from the monochromatic pony, she found out that he could read almost as fast as she could.
First things first, he was ensuring this place looked nice and tidy. Twilight let him borrow most of the books he needed, which were piled high on a table off in the corner. The place had collected a small amount of dust, and there also was a lot of broken glass. It was kind of concerning. Broken jars that presumably held roots, but he had no idea how they got broken.
Nervous and clumsy was a tough combo, maybe that was why she sold out? He sifted through some files, containing the deed and other details to the estate. The upstairs was solely a living area, with a nice view onto Ponyville, but he started to get a strange feeling. Like a twinge in his ear. It was supremely uncomfortable, and he lacked the digits to properly poke around in there to see what was up. It could almost be classified as an itch.
He went back downstairs, swapping out his broom for a mop as he went to make sure no root stains were left in the floor, when he heard banging at his door. “Closed, sorry! Gotta tidy up…” …and actually get some stock, but he’d never say that. And then, a violent crunch is heard, the door swinging open.
Two burly ponies enter, one dark blue with a buzzed grey mane, the other silver with messy blue hair. “Aww, is this a bad time?” The silver one coos, sneering toward Kas as they step inside.
The blue one wore hefty saddlebags, which jingled slightly as he walked. “Time to pay up, Banks. Otherwise, you quickly have bigger mess to clean up.” He tilts his head to the side, resulting in a resounding serious of cracks. “Since I split head open to find needed bits.”
Kas sighs, but he is smiling as he looks down, shaking his head. “Ahh, nuts.”