//------------------------------//
// Chapter 97: Welcome to Mountainshade 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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"YOU'LL BE HAPPY HAPPY FOR YOUR NEXT STAY; WE ARE ARRIVING AT MOUNTAINSHADE!"

Sunflower and I had been sitting and watching over the side of the ship. There wasn't much change in the surroundings— lots of trees and mountains. However, we were coming up to a much larger mountain than the rest, and there were whispers of smoke coming up from in front of the mountain that could indicate chimneys. 

Sunflower fluffed her wings. "I'm not looking forward to it. A city built mostly in caves sounds awful."

Roger was way, spending time with his mom. Blanche and Jonathan had been excluding themselves away together since their experience with Discord. I wondered if there was something romantic going on or if it was just that they had gone through a lot together that the rest of us hadn't, so they now felt distant from us. I mean...how could the rest of us truly understand all they went through? 

"Try to think about it as a bigger version of our dorm building," I suggested.

"Our dorm has windows," Sunflower muttered. 

"Maybe the mountain has windows," I countered. 

She turned and looked at me. "It's a mountain; it doesn't have windows. Sorry to bring up Lord of the Rings again, but I'm thinking of the Mines of Moria. If there's a long narrow bridge over an endless chasm, I'm out."

The intercom did a brief screech before the sound evened out. 

"All passengers, this is Wild Growth speaking. Would you please gather your belongings and form two single-file lines starting at the exit ramps? You will receive additional currency and information about where you will be sleeping tonight after you are all lined up. I will be addressing the other ships' passengers in addition to ours briefly after we disembark. Please, be orderly so we can all enjoy our time with our gracious hosts more quickly.

I perked up. "Additional currency in the same day? Hooray! I'm not dead broke!" My ears perked up to the point they hurt. "Hey! This would be a good place to get Nightscape a gift, or maybe a gift for my friend Josie, or maybe I can find something to bribe Phobia Remedy into forgetting I crawled up her butt."

None of these brilliant ideas seemed to matter to Sunflower. In fact, the announcement just seemed to have frazzled her even more. "Information about where we are going to sleep tonight? We aren't sleeping on the ship?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I would think you would be thrilled not to be sleeping in those closets they pretend are cabins."

She shook her head. "Those at least have windows and aren't in a big scary cave!" Her tail flicked in annoyance. "And the only reason no one can forget about your butt incident with Phobia Remedy is that you keep bringing it up."

I beamed at her. "You were paying attention to me!" I looked at her frown, and I lost some of my pep. "It's going to be okay. You've got your family here, along with me, Blanche, Jonathan, and Roger. That's a good support system. If you start feeling anxious, you can lean on any of us. Plus, focus on it being part of an adventure to see strange new places; that's your thing."

She still didn't seem happy as she turned and looked back over the side of the ship but seemed to perk up suddenly. "Hey! There's the town...it's kind of small."

I followed her gaze. In front of the large mountain, there was a valley that had been cleared of trees. There were rather quaint little cottages with small gardens hugging all the hills on the outer parts of town. The inner part of town looked like a small market made up of carts and several long rectangular grey buildings, which made me think of warehouses. Most of the paths in town seemed to be simple dirt roads, but a flagstone road headed towards the mountain and where it ended was obscured by trees—a second less impressive paved road looped to the side of the mountain, branching into two paths. The first path ended abruptly at a large terrace. The second path ended abruptly at some train tracks with a modest-looking train station. Our three airships seemed to be on course for the terrace, so I assumed receiving airships was what it was used for, although it didn't seem to have any facilities. 

"Sunny-flower! You need to get ready to disembark!" Sunflower's mother called out to her as the mare hurried to the cabin.

I giggled. "Can I call you Sunny-flower?"

Sunflower blushed. "No! That's just my mom's thing, nopony else's!  She's right, though. We need to stop gawking and get our stuff. Catch you in a few."





It took a while for the ships to land and everyone to gather on the ground of the terrace. They had already given me a nice new sack of bits, this one slightly heavier than the last, and a slip of paper with an address that hadn't been explained to me yet. A few of us compared slips of paper, and the most anyone could guess was these were the addresses for where we were staying. However, there were many different addresses, and only parents with foals seemed to share addresses. Why were they spreading us out so much?

The chatter died down as Wild Growth stepped out in front of the crowd and gave us all a big smile. 

"Thank you all for your patience," the great green earth pony said in English, voice carrying easily over the crowd. "We are a privileged group; we are the first large group of tourists to visit Mountainshade. They have occasional visitors from elsewhere in Equestria, but these mostly involve business and are infrequent. We are definitely the first Earthlings to step foot or hoof here."

Wild Growth let this sink in for a moment before continuing. "As such, this is as much a big deal to the citizens of Mountainshade as it is to us, perhaps more so. This is their opportunity to show off their town and the unique culture that exists here. It is their opportunity to show both worlds that this is a place that people should want to visit."

She gestured behind her to the trail that led down to town. "It is also placing responsibility on us because it is up to us as the first real tourist group to demonstrate to the town that tourists aren't a bad thing. If we misbehave, they may not be eager to have others visit. I'm imploring you to be kind and considerate of our hosts. They may have very different customs than what we are used to. This is their hole, where they should feel safe acting within those customs. I ask you all not to make disparaging remarks about anything they say or do. Just understand it is likely going to be very different from what you may have experienced elsewhere."

"What're these sheets of paper for?" a human tourist from one of the other ships called out as he had up his. 

Wild Growth looked over to the man. "As I have heard some of you were speculating, those are the addresses where you will be sleeping tonight. Mountainshade has nothing that resembles a hotel, but many night ponies here have graciously decided to open their homes to us. Please, be courteous guests. The ships will not be available for boarding again until tomorrow."

"Why not?" someone called out.

The senator frowned slightly. "Princess Twilight and her friends are going to be conducting a safety inspection. It is best for us not to be in their way. They may come into town as well and ask some questions. Would you please cooperate with them and answer to the best of your ability? It is a minor matter, and they are working to resolve it quickly. It isn't anything that will impact our stay."

Roger was standing close to me and snorted. "There were a lot of lies in that last answer."

I turned and glanced at him but didn't say anything. I could ask later. 

"In the heart of trying to be sure we are tourists that make them happy, I have provided you with extra spending money," Wild Growth announced. "Now, I doubt these ponies will provide anything resembling a receipt for any of your purchases tonight, but I am offering for this single destination a full cash refund to you—that you may keep, for any non-perishable item that you buy here that would fail to make it through customs. I want you to spend, and spend freely. We are ambassadors for our world and the world beyond this mountain; we must make a good impression."

"Hear that, Rebecca? No putting your head up night ponies' butts," Sunflower giggled.

I shook my flank. "What? They might like that here."

"Your belief in that is a lie," Roger said dryly. 

"Loosen up, Roger! I'm just having fun," I scolded. 

He shook his head. "Sorry, my mom has been acting oddly today, and it's getting to me."

I blinked. "What's wrong with your—"

Wild Growth didn't let me finish. "Now that I have covered everything pertinent. You're welcome to walk down to town. There should be a welcoming committee waiting for you. I won't be joining you. I have other pressing business to attend to."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Other pressing business that didn't take her into town when the ships were supposedly off-limits? Where was she going, out into the woods? Wasn't she even going to be there for the welcoming committee? She was a senator, so it was possible government business, but shouldn't that be in town?

Whatever it was, it seemed to be urgent because the mare pushed her way through the crowd and walked towards the ships—no, walked past the ships to a destination unknown. 

"Looks like there's nothing to do but walk down to town," Roger said and proceeded to go in that direction. 

I sighed. Roger was moody, Blanche and Jonathan were avoiding everybody, and Sunflower was fighting against her claustrophobia. This leg of the trip was off to a miserable start. Hopefully, everyone would get over themselves soon, and if not… well, then I would have to use my best lovable chubby marshmallow charm. 

There was only one way to go. "Come on, Sunflower. Time to find out how scary these caves are. I think it's going to be okay. Who wants to live in a scary cave? It must be a happy cave—a nice, happy, homey cave.

"Happy cave," Sunflower repeated with uncertainty. "What does a happy cave look like?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. Let's go find out."

We walked with the group as the path looped around to the front of the mountain. A small welcome group was indeed there waiting for us, and I mean small. There were three ponies and not another pony in sight. It was composed of a night pony stallion, a night pony mare, and an earth pony stallion. All of them were wearing clothes, and they looked like nice clothes—the stallions were wearing vests and dress jackets, and the mare had a beautiful blue dress on that had so many frills that I could barely make out the wings at her side. She wasn't going flying around in that thing. I tried to imagine Nightscape wearing a dress like that, and I laughed as I imagined her outraged reaction. 

The night pony stallion stepped forward and gave our group a big bow, extending a single wingtip towards us. He held the position for about five seconds before rising and smiling at us. 

"Greetings, friends!" he called out to us. "Welcome to our humble city. We hope your journey here was peaceful and relaxing. I'm Mayor Bug Bite, and these worthy ponies with me are my wife, Spider Bite, and the director of the sun town, Marble Slab. Please excuse the vacantness of the sun town; the earth ponies are all getting ready for bed."

Marble Slab did a brief then addressed us. "Yes, I'll be going to bed soon enough too. Earth ponies in this town keep to a bit of a different schedule than most earth ponies. We tend to rise an hour or two after midnight and go to sleep around sundown. It isn't quite the same schedule as our nocturnal friends, but it's close enough that we can all work together much of the night and have somepony up and awake at all times."

Spider Bite curtsied, which was an impressive sight in all those frills, and then greeted us. "If you stay up late, they'll be joining us before you know it. Although we understand most of you don't keep a similar sleep schedule. Still, our night ponies will make sure you have an excellent time. Everypony is taking this moon as a holiday."

I nudged Roger. "Um, don't Equestrians use the term moon to mean a month?"

Roger shook his head. "That's a misconception. Moon is actually a very flexible term that you have to understand the context to understand what is intended. Sometimes they mean a month, sometimes they mean a year or even decade, sometimes they mean a day. It can also mean a week or simply an indeterminate amount of time. Saying ten moons in one context can mean something very different in another, and five ponies can use the same expression and have five different time frames in mind— depending on which five ponies say it."

"Oh...what do these ponies mean?" I asked. 

"I think they mean a single night," Roger advised. 

"Gotcha."

"Why don't they use it for a month?" Sunflower cut in. "I mean, it makes most sense that way. That's how we got months to begin with."

Roger gave her a look like she was stupid. "Because Equestria's moon doesn't rise or set naturally, therefore, it doesn't have phases. It is always full unless Princess Luna feels like not making it full for some reason, which she occasionally does when she is feeling bored, lazy, or just wants to do something different than normal that night. Equestrians call moons we would mistake as phases, lulamoons, and it is considered a good omen that a foal is destined for greatness if born under a lulamoon."

I grinned. "And now I learned something today!"

"You also learned that manticores like to cuddle ponies and use them for toys," Sunflower reminded me. 

"I learned two somethings!" I said cheerfully. 

Roger snorted and pointed at the three Equestrians who had just finished their speech and were turning to lead the crowd forward. "While you were learning something, I think we missed some critical information."

"You were the one who gave the big explanation!" Sunflower fussed.

I groaned to myself. Why did everyone need to be in a bad mood this evening? 

"I'm sure it wasn't that critical," I assured them. "We just need to go with the group, and everything will be fine. Sunflower, we are about to see a place in Equestria few Equestrians have even seen. Roger, maybe your mom is being weird because we are going into a night pony city, and she doesn't know how to feel about it. She'll probably be much more at ease once we get inside."

Roger turned his head and looked back through the crowd. I followed his gaze and saw a night pony mare who was keeping her distance from everyone else and looking around anxiously. She did seem on edge about something. 

"Why aren't you with her?" Sunflower asked him. 

Roger shook his head. "She's avoiding me, not the other way around. Why aren't you with your family?"

Sunflower fluffed her feathers again and looked out in a different direction where she found her family. "Because they keep going on about how brave and proud they are of me, and they keep acting like I know everything about Equestria. I love them, but it's too much. Especially since I'm not feeling very brave, and I don't know half as much as they seem to expect."

I didn't have any family here, so I looked at the crowd to find Blanche and Jonathan instead. I found them, but they weren't together at the moment. Each of them had gathered with their family. I suppose if to them they had been gone for months on an even stranger alien world, fighting for their lives, they might want to spend more time with the family they weren't sure they'd ever see again. I wish they'd be more forthcoming about exactly what they'd gone through. I spotted Ulysses in the crowd as well, who had gone on the same journey with them, but he seemed utterly at ease. That wasn't surprising; the guy did seem to be something of a sociopath. 

We walked with the group as the path turned around the mountain and into the trees, meeting up with the wide flagstone path I had seen earlier. I now found that the flagstone path was divided into two lanes by a line of trees in the middle, which helped conceal most of the sky when combined with the trees to the sides of the road. After a minute or two of walking down this path, it opened up to a clearing, and what a sight it was.

This was the entrance to the mountain. An overhanging cliff butter out above us, blocking out the view of the sky and hiding the entrance from view from the air. It had to be about sixty or seventy feet from the ground to the overhang. The cave entrance itself was a massive hole in the side of the mountain, at least fifty feet high and twenty feet wide with its sides polished down to a smooth surface. On either side of the entrance were two massive monolithic statues. The statues depicted the two alicorn sisters, but not in any way I had ever seen them depicted before. Neither was in royal regalia; instead, both of them were clad in battle armor with wicked-looking halberds at their sides forming the side frame to the cavern entrance. Both sisters seemed to be glaring down with contempt upon those standing before them. 

"It seems somebody hasn't forgotten that they're a conquered tribe or who conquered them," Roger mused as he gazed up at the two nightmare alicorns. 

"This isn't looking too happy," Sunflower whimpered. 

"At least it isn't dark," I said.

It wasn't dark. On the sides of the statues opposite the cavern entrance were large fireplaces shielded by screens. The screens limited the light the fireplaces gave off, but not wholly, giving us enough light to see by, but not letting the place get overly bright. Within the cavern itself, there seemed to be more soft light sources in hues of blue, yellow, green, and red.

Several people in our group stopped to take pictures, and our welcome committee paused while they did so, not seeming that impatient. The stop wasn't a long one, and within two minutes, we were advancing again into the maw of the mountain. 

The roof of the passageway declined quickly, so before we were out of sight of the entranceway, it had dropped from the towering fifty feet or so down to a mere twenty, then soon after ten. Bioluminescent moss covered the walls and ceilings, and it came in a variety of colors, never giving off enough light to make it bright but always giving enough light to see by. The path itself turned and descended towards the mountain roots rather than forward or up.  

Sunflower was getting more anxious by the second as we continued our trek into the mountain, and I gently laid a wing on her back to help calm her. Roger likewise took up a position on her other side, close enough that he was almost touching her. She whined and whimpered, but she kept walking with us. 

"Look at all the pretty moss. It's like Christmas lights," I softly said to her, trying to think of something that would put her more at ease.

Sunflower looked around as if seeing the moss for the first time, and her ears rose a tiny bit. "It is pretty."

Then the drumming began. 

This about broke the timid pegasus, and Roger and I had to practically restrain her from turning around and running. 

"D-drums in the dd-deep!" Sunflower cried. 

"You read too many fantasy books!" Roger grunted as he held her still.

I was trying to help keep Sunflower from running when my flank started shaking in rhythm to the beat. "Hey...I think I know this song."

Sunflower suddenly paused and listened before blinking. "Wait...I know it too. It can't be what I think it is."

She stopped struggling, and soon we walked through the end of the tunnel into the city proper, and it was a sight to behold. 

It was one massive cavern, I was unsure how high the ceiling was, but it was more than high enough to fly within without worrying too much about slamming into something. The same moss that grew in the tunnel grew here, on practically every stone surface. That wasn't the only source of light; at the roof, several large crystals added their pale blue light to the city. This was no dark and scary cave; it was a big and moderately well-lit one. 

The city itself had buildings built into the cave walls and along the floor of the cave. They were simple, rectangular buildings, made of stone, sometimes two or three stories, but most often one. They came complete with standard windows and doors made of ordinary glass and wood. The stone surface of each of those buildings was also covered in the strange glowing moss. Wooden ridges crisscrossed through the entire cavern, and there were also entrances to side tunnels leading deeper into the mountain visible. 

And the whole place was literally crawling with night ponies. They were on every bridge, in every doorway, on top of houses, and in front of the houses. 

And those night ponies were partying.

They were beating drums, blowing in trumpets, singing, toasting mugs, and cheering, and the target of all this joyful celebration was very clearly our big group of tourists. 

"A very happy cave," I said dumbly. Sunflower nodded in silent agreement.