A Brush with Royalty
On a sunny afternoon, Ponyville’s outdoor market is the place to be. Not just for buying the freshest foods, but for meeting old friends and making new ones. Everypony crowded around, checking out the booths and what they have to offer, or gathering in little clusters outside the most highly-trafficked areas in order to catch up with an old friend or to gossip.
You’re with a cluster of your friends when you spot a pony you’ve never seen before. Well, not exactly a pony; she’s a kirin, standing a full head taller than everypony else.
She’s not the first kirin you’ve seen, but she’s the biggest. And as she turns her head in your general direction, you see the sunlight glint off her tiara. She’s not just any kirin, she’s their leader. Queen Rain Shine.
What she’s doing in Ponyville is beyond your understanding, but that doesn’t really matter. She’s famous! You need to meet her, and what better place than an outdoor market?
You glance back at your friends and debate whether or not you should mention spotting her. They haven’t, not yet.
But they will, and who knows, maybe one of them has an in with her. You know Applejack and Fluttershy are good friends with Autumn Blaze. What if you just hung out near the Sweet Apple Acres booth? Rain Shine might make her way over there.
But first. “Guys, that’s Rain Shine.”
“What?”
“Where?”
“Who?”
“Rain Shine, queen of the kirin,” you say, pointing a hoof in her direction. “Here in Ponyville!”
“Are you sure?”
“Her mane isn’t blowing in a nonexistant breeze, can she really be a queen?”
“She’s tall.”
“Might just be Prench.”
“Or Saddle Arabian.”
“Oh for Celestia’s sake.” Your friends are weird. “I wanna go meet her.”
“Go ahead, I’ve got to get back to shopping anyway. These saddlebags won’t fill themselves.”
You say your goodbyes—for now—and split up, stepping back into the hustle and bustle of the market. Your saddlebags won’t fill themselves, either, but right now you’ve got other priorities. What’s the fastest way across the market which will get you from here to where she will be by the time you get there? And when you do, what are you going to say?
“Hey.”
You snap your head around to spot a familiar face. Hayseed Turnip Truck, one of Applejack’s distant cousins. He’s wearing a dirty green bill cap and a stained t-shirt, sitting at a booth piled high with fat turnips. “You wanna buy some turnips?”
He’s not from Ponyville, he’s an outsider who sometimes comes to market. You vaguely remember him being from Seven Top or something like that, a little village up the rail line a ways. Famous for turnips and not much else.
You’ve stood rooted in spot for long enough that he turns his attention to another pony who’s passing by, and she comes over and starts studying his wares.
For a moment, you spot Rain Shine across the green, and then she’s lost again in a cluster of nearby ponies.
“You okay?”
You turn your head back around. Hayseed’s completed his transaction, his customer departing with a cloth bag full of turnips held in her mouth.
“You look lost. First time at market?”
He’s got scraggly, buck teeth—he needs to clean up, get a dentist to give him a proper floating and maybe braces to straighten them out, too. Not really presentable. Maybe market day isn’t a reason to get dressed in finery, but it certainly is an occasion where one should be well-groomed.
You plaster a pleasant smile on your face and answer his question.
CHOICE
>I could ask you the same. Do you know what a bath is? (villain)
>Sorry, I was distracted by Rain Shine, Queen of the Kirin. Tell me about your turnips (hero)
[CHOICE A: Villain]
“I could ask you the same,” you reply. “Do—” and then you stop, because that last part is just a little too cruel.
“Couple of times a year,” he says, genial enough. He might be an ugly stallion, but he’s a polite one. “Turnips make good eating, you know. Soup especially. And they keep just about forever, so you don’t have to worry about them wilting or spoiling in a week or two, or losing their flavor. They’re loaded with magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.”
“I hate them,” you tell him. “They don’t have any flavor and they’re too chewy.”
“Well, maybe you ain’t cooking them right.” He reaches under his stand and pulls out a notebook. “I sell a turnip cookbook.”
He puts it on the counter and opens it. It’s not professionally printed at all; in fact, it’s all mouthwriting. Not very good mouthwriting, either. With teeth like those, it’s no wonder.
“Absolutely not.”
“Alright.” He grabs the notebook in his mouth and puts it back under the stand. “Well, thank you for stopping by. Have a good day at market.”
“You too,” you say absently and head off in the direction where you last spotted Rain Shine.
•••
An hour later, and you’re beginning to wonder if she left the market, or if you’d somehow imagined seeing her. You’ve made two circuits of the market already and haven’t seen her in at least a half hour, maybe longer.
And then, just as you’re passing near Hayseed’s booth, the crowd parts and you spot her again—she’s sitting behind Hayseed’s counter, and the two of them are chatting like old friends.
[CHOICE B: Hero]
Hayseed’s not the most presentable of ponies, but his turnips are fantastic. He certainly puts more attention into them than he does his own personal grooming, and you can respect that. Plus he’s a kind, polite, earnest pony.
“Sorry, I was distracted by Rain Shine, Queen of the kirin.”
His ears perk up. “She’s here?”
“Coming from the direction of the train station,” you say.
“‘Scuse me.” He plants one forehoof on his stand, sticks a hoof to his mouth, and lets out an ear-pinning whistle. “Sorry,” he says as he drops back down. “Just she don’t know where my booth is.”
“You know her?”
“Oh, sure do. Last year the two of us walked all the way from Seven Top to Ponyville when she got off at the wrong station.’ He chuckled. “I didn’t know she was royalty right then, just a pony in need.”
“Really?” This market day just got a lot more interesting.
“Yeah, even saved my life when we got attacked by timberwolves. Thought I was a goner for sure.”
“Pardon me.” You hear a gentle, regal feminine voice right behind you and above you and instinctively step back and to the side. Queen Rain Shine is standing right next to you.
“Am I interrupting your business?” she asks, looking down at you.
You don’t reply; for the moment you’ve forgotten how to form words.
“Oh, no, we was just chatting,” Hayseed says. “I was talking about how you saved me from them timberwolves.”
“You would have done the same,” she says, picking up a turnip with her magic and then biting into it like an apple.
“I can’t burst into flames.” Hayseed looks over at you, and you plunk a bit coin down on the counter, pick up a turnip, and take a bite. “So there we was,” he begins. “Snow up to here, trudging along the path, and out of the woods. . .”
•••
An hour later, you’re still at the booth, the three of you chatting like long-lost friends. It is now officially the most interesting market day ever.