//------------------------------//
// Chapter 94: Fetch Quest. Part 3 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

What was the value of a manticore? A lot, or at least, that was my guess, based on Scootaloo's reaction. 

"Fifteen hundred bits?!" Scootaloo exclaimed in despair. "Are you sure that there isn't anything that you would be interested in trading for?"

The earth pony stallion, Final Jeopardy, shook his head. "Nope, can't think of anything that I would trade him for. I need the cash; that's why I brought him here—to sell him, and manticores aren't cheap."

"That's more than I've got," I said as I wiggled my money pouch in disappointment. "Sunflower might be getting just a nice pillow. Any way I could talk you down to about nine hundred bits? That's all I've got. Actually… more like eight hundred ninety; I bought some cupcakes." That would leave me broke for the rest of the day, but I'd get a new allowance tomorrow.

Scootaloo turned and gaped slack-jawed at my pouch. "You have that much money in there? You didn't tell me you're rich."

I shook a large bit out of my pouch into my hoof. "I have eight of these big ones which say one hundred on them and a bunch of smaller ones with smaller numbers on them. The smaller numbers added up to a hundred when I counted them earlier. I'm not familiar with Equestrian currency, but I figured that was what it meant."

She looked at the large coin longingly. "Yeah, that's what it means. If I had three of those, I'd have been able to avoid all this trading by buying that music."

Final Jeopardy considered my coin and shook his head. "I could possibly part with it for less. I really need to offload him and need the cash, but I couldn't go for less than a thousand, minimum. It's the only way to recoup the costs."

"I guess that's that then," I said with a sigh. I shook two more of the large coins out of my pouch and offered them to Scootaloo. "Here you go. Consider a reward for saving me from the fate of being a manticore's plaything."

She backed away from my hoof. "You can't just give that much money away, and I don't need a reward for doing the right thing."

"I honestly don't know how much this is in terms of Equestrian money," I replied, then felt the need to clarify. "Well, I know how much in terms of numbers, but not the worth. Go ahead, take it. I have to spend it or lose it by the end of each day. Giving it to you seems like a good way to spend it. I think the pony that gave it to me would approve."

She tilted her head. "Who gave it to you, and why do you have to spend it or lose it?"

"Wild Growth, she's the one who took everyone on this trip. She gives us a daily spending allowance, but we have to return our unspent bits to her each day and get fresh bits the next day. We can't hoard them from day to day. I think that is her way of trying to recover some costs. She's rich and generous, but that doesn't mean she is careless with money," I explained and lifted my hoof higher. "Here, take them. I can't keep them anyway."

Scootaloo looked at the bits and then at the manticore. "You said you're trying to get something for your friend? Is she on this same trip as you?"

I nodded. "She is."

"So, she gets the same allowance?" Scootaloo asked. 

"Yep."

Scootaloo grinned. "Then why don't you and she pool your bits and get a thousand?"

I blinked. "That could work. I have to find her to do that. Want to help me look? Her name is Sunflower Smiles; she's a yellow pegasus with a pink mane with some green stripes in it. Her cutie mark is a white flower inside a sun. She may or may not be lugging around a full-body Daring Doo pillow."

"Uh… you girls do know what ponies use those full-body fan pillows for...right?" Scootaloo asked timidly. 

I rolled my eyes. "I do, but I don't think Sunflower does. I may be a virgin, but I have the most exhaustive sex-ed teacher ever, and she told me about every kinky thing you can imagine and many you couldn't. However, Sunflower is kinda innocent and sheltered, and I didn't want to shock her. I wasn't sure how she would take knowing the pillow she could be saddled with was normally used for… other things in bed." I paused and hung my head in shame. "I'm such a dirty marshmallow for knowing this stuff. I don't want to have to explain it to her. She might mention it to my friends back home, and they'll tease me about it relentlessly."

Scootaloo chuckled. "All the more reason to track her down before she ends up getting embarrassed or finds out how much you know about specialty fan pillows. If you're going to insist on giving me those bits, it's the least I can do."

"How do you know about specialty fan pillows?" I asked, curious.

Scootaloo blushed bright red. "My sort-of adopted big sister took me to some Daring Doo conventions when I was younger. You see things at conventions, and she had to explain it to me. Rainbow is normally blue, but she was bright red throughout that conversation. I think I was too. She says that wherever there is a fandom, there's a bunch of ponies trying to make clop."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, I know. You should read the fanfictions my best friend writes—pure smut."

Scootaloo sighed. "I mentor a lot of younger ponies, and every once and a while, something comes up, and I have to sit down with a colt or filly and have that conversation. I'm not their big sister, but a mentor can be like one, and it's part of a big sister's job to have that conversation if their parents don't. You're from Earth, so you might not understand. Here in Equestria, a lot of parents are less involved in their foals' lives. I know me and my friends rarely saw ours growing up—although Apple Bloom's passed away when she was too young even to remember them. That comes up too much, too; things are getting better than they were a generation or two ago, but ponies dying of disease in their twenties or thirties is still far too common. Mine are still living, but I always worried in the back of my mind that each time I saw them would be the last, even if they were never there for a single one of my big life events—well, other than learning to walk or the first word, very early stuff. Others raised me, and somewhere along the line, it became the normal habit for many parents to have somepony else raise their foals. That means it falls on the big brothers and sisters, and the mentors, to explain uncomfortable subjects, but I feel so bad for the foals that have no parents to ask, or parents that are completely absent like mine were."

I gave her a sad look. "For growing up with it as the normal, you seem to take it pretty hard."

"Visiting Earth and seeing how usually at least one parent was always involved with their kids hit home for me," Scootaloo said without looking me in the eye. "It isn't like every parent is absent here, but there are still too many who are.  Going to Earth made me realize I wanted things to change here. I saw my parents maybe a dozen times after I started school. Sweetie Belle's parents unloaded her on her sister not long after her sister was off on her own, and they only came around on holidays after that. I hear so many stories like that from the foals I mentor. That shouldn't be the norm for so many foals. I want things to change."

Final Jeopardy coughed into his hoof. "Um… excuse me, but you spending all this time talking isn't getting me my bits."

We looked at one another.

"I know where the stand with those pillows is. I'll head that way and bring her to the bookseller. You already gave me a good description of her. You check back where they have the book. If I don't find her, I'll meet up with you where you are at, and we can circle out from there," Scootaloo instructed. I nodded in agreement before taking to the air again. 

This time I didn't rush through the air. I took things nice and slow. There would be no crashing, tumbling, or going splat-splat this time. I was going to find Sunflower with no hiccups.

The great things about flying were it was faster, let you avoid all the obstacles on the ground, and gave you an excellent view of everything below. My talk with Scootaloo had me at that moment much more appreciative of the blessing I had been given by being able to fly at all. I might not be the best or even average in the sky, but I was in the sky, and that was something to treasure. Talking to Scootaloo had also given me perspective about my home life too. 

I found Sunflower practically pressing herself up against the book vendor's stall. She had both her wings up and perfect and the pillow clasped between the two wings on her back. It was a very awkward and strange way to carry something. I came in for a gentle landing next to her. 

Sunflower looked at me expectantly, and the look quickly turned into a mix of disappointment and horror. "You don't have the lamp."

"Not yet," I replied. "I need to get a manticore to trade for the lamp."

"A what?!" Sunflower shouted. She nearly dropped the pillow but quickly scrambled to keep it clamped between her wings. 

I waved a wing at her. "I've got a plan, but I need to get five-hundred bits from you to do it. Do you still have that much?"

She blinked. "Yeah, but that will leave me very little spending money for our next stop tonight."

"I won't have much left either, less than a hundred," I said with disappointment. "It's what it's going to take. If you don't want to do it, I understand. At least you got the pillow for your trouble."

Her eyes went wide. "You can have the bits. I don't want this thing!"

I eyed it. "I figured it was one of those. How bad is it?"

She shrank back a few steps. "Bad, really bad."

My curiosity got the better of me. "Can I see?"

Sunflower backed up another step, shaking her head rapidly. "No! It has an image on both sides, and on both sides the pose is very...it's bad."

"You know… with the way you're holding your wings erect like that; someone might get the wrong idea," I said, examining her wings. 

At this point, it looked like Sunflower was ready to cry. I had worried she might get embarrassed, but I had no idea it would be this intense. I needed to do something to help. 

"Hey," I said soothingly. "This is a good chance to practice laughing things off. I mean, this is the kind of vacation thing that leads to a great funny story to tell the girls back home."

"I can't think of any way to make this funny," Sunflower lamented. 

I thought about it for two seconds. "You can pretend like you saw the pillow and thought about getting it for Julie or Ashley. Suggest that you were sure one of them would have wanted it. Then you can watch them squirm."

"Maybe," Sunflower replied. She didn't seem too confident. 

Scootaloo chose that moment to come running up. "There you are! I see you found her."

I nudged my head towards Sunflower. "Yeah, and the pillow was even worse than we thought, but she has the bits."

Scootaloo chuckled as she came up beside me. "Maybe worse than you thought, but I've seen things that can't be unseen. Whatever they printed on that pillow, it can't shock me."

Sunflower had stopped crying and was now staring at Scootaloo in disbelief. "Y-y-you're Scootaloo. The Scootaloo!"

"Um...yeah, that's me," Scootaloo said uncertainly. "Is something wrong?"

Sunflower nearly dropped the pillow again as her face brightened up. "You're one of the founding members of the original Equestrian Cutie Mark Crusaders! I was a crusader when I was a filly!" She looked at me with excitement. "She was a founding crusader, Rebecca!"

"Oh, I didn't know that. I never was in the CMC," I replied. "Up until I got my mark, I lived in primarily human areas, so we didn't have any CMC chapters near us."

Scootaloo gave her a soft smile. "Nice to hear that the Earth chapters are doing great, but I'm not directly affiliated with those. Those were started independently by foals on Earth."

"You still inspired them, and they still tell stories about you and the original crusaders," Sunflower said, nearly breathless. "We didn't have much money growing up, but my parents still paid to have me join the local chapter."

Scootaloo blinked. "Wait… you pay for membership back on Earth?"

Sunflower nodded. "Well, yeah. It has to cover all the supplies and a little bit for running the overall organization."

Scootaloo gawked at this. "We… we never even considered doing that here. I never even considered ponies would be willing to pay. Our supplies come from ponies donating, and there is no organizational budget aside from what me, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle can spare from our other jobs."

"Speaking of donations," I interrupted. "If you want mine, we need to hurry up and get Sunflower's bits."

Sunflower blinked. "Scootaloo is selling the manticore?"

I shook my head. "No, long story on that. She did save me from a manticore. I'll tell you about it later. I need those bits to combine with mine to buy the manticore."

"And I'll help you get the manticore to the lamp seller since the manticore might still want to keep you as his toy," Scootaloo offered. "I doubt he has forgotten you so fast, and manticores can be pretty grabby about what they want."

"He just knows he will never see a better squeeze toy than me," I said, jiggling my belly jelly.

"I'll just come with you. I want to see the manticore," Sunflower said. She was still doing everything she could to hide the image on the pillow, but at least she seemed to have relaxed a little.

It didn't take long to get back to Final Jeopardy and trade him the bits. Mortimer—that was the name of the manticore—tried to grab me again, but I managed to stay out of reach. Scootaloo seemed to be reasonably well-versed in handling wild beasts, and she took the lead with the leash while Sunflower spent her time gaping at our recent purchase. From there, it was only a short walk to the lamp tent. 

The lamp dealer came out to meet us, looking pleasantly surprised that we had actually obtained the manticore. They also had enough sense not to bring it into the tent with all the fragile glass inside. We waited for the dealer to tie the manticore up behind the tent and return with the lamp. It didn't take too long before I was holding the atrocity against home decor in my hooves.

I looked at the lamp in my hooves. "To think, a guy required a manticore to trade for this ugly thing."

The lamp looked at me and sneered. "Well! I never! Maybe you don't appreciate fine art as much as I thought!"