Story Name
For Jinglemas2022
Admiral Biscuit
A knock at the door perked Ms. Peachbottom’s ears. She set down a gingerbread slab--soon to be a roof on her gingerbread house--wiped her hooves on a dishtowel, and trotted to the front door.
She caught the receeding rump of the mailmare. Hearth’s Warming was such a busy time for the postponies, sometimes they were even dragging wagons around filled with cards and parcels. Pity, it was always nice to chat and catch up on gossip, but it would be rude to keep her neighbors waiting for their packages.
I wonder who it’s from? She hoofed the package up and looked at the return address. Gloriosa Daisy. That was an unfamiliar name. The address was weird, too: 32845 Lone Pine Rd. Were there any streets anywhere with that many houses on them? It didn’t seem likely.
She didn’t recognize the town name; maybe ponies numbered things differently there. Maybe the first house was number one, then number two, and so on.
The shipping address was correct, if somewhat illegable: 6 Cresthaven Terrace, Mus . . . IA 52761.
Another big number.
As if that wasn’t weird enough, the package had a weird stylized bird on it, similar to archetectural reliefs she’d seen in the northlands.
Ms. Peachbottom knew what to do when a package was mis-delivered: return it to the post office, inform the ponies there of the mistake, and then it was out of her hooves. They’d figure out where it needed to go, and they’d get it there.
Just as soon as she finished her gingerbread house--it wouldn’t build itself.
[SOFT BREAK]
There was a long line of ponies at the post office. An unbelievably long line . . . it was hard to belive so many ponies lived in Mustangia, or that they’d all want to mail packages at the same time.
It was a nice way to exchange gossip.
<gossip>
And then [PONY] said something which would set an entire advanture in motion. “Why dontcha deliver the package yourself? You’ve been wantin’ to go on a vacation, and an excuse just landed on your lap.”
“You’re right.” Ms. Peachbottom grinned. “All the postponies are working so hard, I’m sure this only got overlooked ‘cause the address is kind of blurry.” She pulled the package off her back and showed it to her companion. “I wonder if it’d be better to return it to Gloriosa, or deliver it to Flaming Embers [real place in Muscatane] myself? Do you think that’s a dragon name?”
“Could be,” [PONY] said. “Or maybe it’s a kirin name.”
“I bet it is. Ooh, I’ve never been to the Peaks of Peril.”
“I hear they’re really pretty.”
“And the archetecture, it’s not like anything ponies make.” Ms. Peachbottom turned to see the line extending behind her--not only would she save some of the hard-working postponies some time if she took care of it herself, but everypony in line behind her might get served quicker. Everypony won.
[SOFT BREAK]
Ms. Peachbottom was the kind of pony who was always ready for anything, because you never knew what might come up. She was also a trot by the direction of her horseshoes pony, because that was just a great way to live life.
Just the same, getting to the Peaks of Peril took some planning. She couldn’t just trot there.
She could, with a connection in Manehattan, take the train there. Well, almost there. There’d be some walking she’d have to do to get to the kirin village.
Everything she needed fit into her flower-print suitcase, and she was at the train station in ample time to get a ticket. On its way out of town, the train took her past the post office, where ponies with parcels still stood in a line that stretched out the door.
Not her! She settled back in her seat and watched the world go by--first the town and then the surrounding fields and then into the wilder lands, largely untamed by ponies.
The rail line followed villages she knew, and then it turned off and started passing through new towns. She’d brought a newspaper to read, but kept her muzzle against the glass whenever the train went through a village or town, seeing how the ponies built their homes and businesses.
[SOFT BREAK]
Manehattan was a slog, it always was. The train slowed down and sometimes it ran on the street, other times on elevated iron bridges, and occasionally underground until it finally arrived at the Manehattan Station.
Ms. Peachbottom had a few hours until her next train left. She wasn’t fond of the vast open atrium, high enough for pegasi to bring in a rain shower if they wanted to. But the detail in the columns and reliefs, the gentle gilding and the murals of trains and Equestria . . . a train station was meant to inspire a pony to travel the world, to go where her own four hooves couldn’t take her, and by golly, she was inspired.
Her eye went over to the long queue at the Equestrian Post kiosk. She could turn in the package, take a tour of Manehattan and be on her way back home, but she’d already bought her ticket to the Peaks of Peril.
Instead of getting in that line, she instead joined a different queue: [NAME] pizza. Manehattan Pizza was famous and she’d never tried a slice. Everypony said that it was the water that made it good.
She wasn’t a gourmet or a food critic, but it was good, thin and crunchy and with a white sauce that perfectly balanced the crispy salted timothy grass.
[SOFT BREAK]
The train to the Peaks of Peril wasn’t as nice as the Mustangia to Manehattan train. The locomotive was old and the coaches creaky; the trip out of Manehattan wasn’t any faster than the trip in had been. It was a different route, though; instead of looking up at the tall shiny buildings and down on the broad ways, she was funneled along the backside of stores and warehouses and alongside a train yard which gave way to a canal yard.
That canal paralleled them until finally the train climbed up on a spindly trestle and curved alongside an alleyway which had been repurposed into a battleground for foals. Two snow-forts were built up at either end, although the opposing forces were battling it out in open ground.
One filly got distracted by the train passing by and was rewarded by a flurry of snowballs to her barrel.
<MORE>
[SOFT BREAK]
<missing section (in gDoc)>
She took their advice to go through the mountain, rather than over the Peaks of Peril.
<desx from episode>
Ms. Peachbottom looked around in wonder at tke kirin village. <do some kirin research, does it have a name?> Dozen of kiren milled around. The valley was spring-like despite the snow-topped mountains which surrounded it.
Unlike most villages she’d been in, there were no signs. She counted off the houses--there were at least six, so it was possible the package was meant to go here.
Or else Flaming Embers lived somewhere else now. Not all the kirin lived in the village anymore; the Mustangia Daily said that there were kirin enrolled at the School of Friendship.
Well, Rain Shine would know.
Who was Rain Shine? She hadn’t thought to ask any of the kirin waiting on the station platform.
[SOFT BREAK]
Rain Shine wasn’t hard to miss. She stood a head above the other kirin, her tail was at least twice as long, and she wore a golden diadem between her ears.
Many ponies would be nervous around royalty, but Ms. Peachbottom had personally met Her Higness, Princess Cadence, Protector of the Crystal Empire.
There was a cluster of kirin around her, but they parted and let her through. “Excuse me,” she said. “Your highness.” Ms. Peachbottom wasn’t sure how kirin royalty was normally addressed.
Rain Shine bowed her head “Do you bring word of Summer Chills?”
“It’s not all that cold . . . it’s not even summer.”
“Our student, Summer Chills. She attends the School of Friendship. I thought you were from Equestria.”
“Sorry for the misunderstanding. I live in Mustangia. I got a package delivered to my house in error, it was addressed to an, uh, Flaming Embers. Wonder if you’ve heard of her.”
A half dozen kiren looked at each other, and then as one they all shook their heads.
Rain Shine also shook her head. “Could that not be a dragon name?”
“Well, it could be, I suppose. My friend [NAME] said it sounded like a kirin name, that’s why I’m here.” She lifted the package off her back and showed it to the assembled kirin. “See how the address is all smudged?”
Rain Shine studied it. “Do homes have numbers in Equestria?”
“Usually.”
“And names?”
“Your town doesn’t have a name?”
“Why would it need a name? It’s our home, it needs no name beyond that.” Rain Shine wrinkled her muzzle. “What will you do if you cannot deliver your parcel?”
“I’ll deliver it, no mattter where I have to go,” Ms. Peachbottom said. “Maybe to Mount Eris next, Flaming Embers could be a hippogrif name.”
“Not the dragonlands?”
“Well. . .” Ms. Peachbottom leaned in close. “Just between you and me, I’m kind of afraid of dragons. They’re big and scary and can breath fire, you know.” She scuffed her hoof on the ground, and then said a little louder, “Trains don’t go to the dragonlands anyway, so I don’t think anypony could mail a package there.”
“Would you like a travelling companion on your journey?”
“Trips are always better with two ponies,” Ms. Peachbottom said. “Usually it’s only me, though, most of my friends don’t get around a lot. But that’s okay, half the fun of trips is the friends you make along the way, isn’t that right?”
Several of the kirin, Rain Shine included, nodded. Then: “Let us go, then. There is a parcel to be deliverd.”
“You?”
“Why not? It has been many years since I’ve ventured beyond my home.”
“Have you ever been on a train?”
Rain Shine shook her head.
“You gotta get to the train early to get the best seats.”
[SOFT BREAK]
The train left once daily, and they’d missed it. Ms. Peachbottom spent the rest of the day getting to know the kirins, and she got a sleepover at the palace, which was like every other house but bigger, as would befit a taller kirin.
It wasn’t uncomfortably large; unlike the soaring archetecture that some ponies preferred for their palaces and train stations, the ceiling was only a few hoofspans above the top of Rain Shine’s horn.
There wasn’t a guest bedroom, but Rain Shine’s couch was oversized and very, very comfortable.
<brief train station interlude>
Predictably, the train to Mount Aris connected through Manehattan. The now-familiar--to Ms. Peachbottom--path to the station was filled with wonder for Rain Shine. All the buildings, all the ponies, even a canal boat piled with coal.
In the station, Rain Shine’s eyes were drawn to the relifs and columns and high ceilings, while everypony elses’ eyes were drawn to her. Over the last twelve years, ponies had united the world in ways that Ms. Peachbottom never could have imagined, and yet there were new things to discover.
[SOFT BREAK]
The train to Mount Aris was newer and plusher and filled with holiday-makers and tourist and creatures of all types, enough so that the duo didn’t seem all that out of place.
Where she’d had a private seat on her way to the Peaks of Peril, now the train was crowded. Nevertheless, they’d gotten the best seats by virtue of being the first ponies on the platform.
Even with the crowding, everycreature was in a festive mood. Hearth’s Warming was upon them.
[SOFT BREAK]
Her mood lasted until the train had reached the outskirts of Manehattan, then she turned to Rain Shine. “Do you celebrate Hearth’s Warming?”
Rain Shine shook her head. “I know of the legends, of the world grown cold due to the greed and selfishness of the pony tribes, but we do not celebrate it. Instead we have our own winter festival when the days begin to grow long again.”
“Do you give gifts?”
She nodded. “Calendars. And we all feast in the great hall on red bean porridge and dumplings and then welcome in the new year.”
“Excuse me ladies.”
The two looked up at a bipedal cat--something neither of them had seen before.
“You mind sliding over? My paws are weary, and all the other seats are taken.”
Neither of them minded. “Are you bound all the way to Mount Aris?”
“And beyond,” he said. “Back home. Trains only get me so far, and then after that it’s either shanks’ pony, or else I’ll get lucky and Captain Celaeno’s airship’ll be in port.” He grinned, then extended a paw. “Name’s Capper. Some call me Dapperpaws, but those days are past.”
“I’m Ms. Peachbottom.”
“Rain Shine.”
“Pleased to meet you both.” He settled into the seat next to Rain Shine, who hadn’t packed any luggage. “What brings you to Mount Aris?”
“A package.” It was sitting on the seat next to her, and she told the story of its provenance.
“You’ve met the right cat,” Capper said. “I . . . well, I don’t know a Flaming Embers personally, but I know people who know things and sometimes that’s as good as knowing it personally. Have you considered the pony who sent the package?”
“It’s not somepony I know,” Ms. Peachbottom said. “Or else I would have given it to her, told her how the address got messed up. You don’t know her, do you?”
Capper shook his head.
“Rain Shine?”
The kirin shook her head. “Noone in our village has a name anything like that. We also don’t have any pine trees.”
“Are you headed home for Hearth’s--for the holidays?”
Capper shrugged. “You could say that. Some Abyssinians feel like the Princesses have abandoned us, like they forget we even exist. Like they abandoned us to the Storm King.”
“Do you think that?” Rain Shine asked. “We don’t really interact with the ponies much.”
“Well, when it really counted, they came through.”
Rain Shine nodded. “We--Applejack and Fluttershy came to our village and taught us a valuable lesson. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be speaking to you right now.”
“Applejack and Fluttershy? I know them, I’ve met them, too.”
“So have I,” Ms. Peachbottom said. “They’re about the friendliest ponies anypony could ever meet.”
<more?>