I slowly blinked awake, but didn't move.
Light still filtered in through the small high window from the setting sun so I just pulled my wings tighter around myself, slowly blinking against the light before closing my eyes again.
It was my night off anyway, I could stay on the perch a bit longer. Tonight I'll check out the market and look in at Midnight and then visit one of the other bars. Maybe that guard one.
We'll see.
That was all I had planned for tonight, but right now I needed to think.
Luna was right. Of course she was. They may be my ponies, I can't control their every thought or action. I could only do my best to provide the kind of environment that was needed. At best, I could advise and guide.
So everything wasn't my fault directly.
If my ponies did something dumb, it wasn't my responsibility... not entirely my responsibility. All I could do is to try to guide them.
Reminded me of that old saying of horses and water. In a way, that made things a lot harder. I could only set things up so they did things I wanted them too by their own free will.
The ponies here would never trust the ones in Equestria, that much was certain. The majority of bats lived their lives in fear of being discovered.
That sort of thing leaves a mental mark. Buck, I have canceled more nightmares about that very subject than I can count.
That Nocturnis had just been a dream and they wake up, finding themselves back where they used to live.
So, experience causes this. What could counter it would be more experience, good experience with ponies from Equestria. Which means... tourists.
We need to attract tourists, set up nice hotels. Maybe even safaris where they can view the local wildlife.
Everypony loved Jurassic Park after all. Well, until they all got eaten anyway.
It would even help the local economy. Come see the wilds of Nocturnis, now give us all your bits.
...Slogan may need some work.
I didn't like the idea of ponies coming to gawk at my bats, but maybe this could actually work. It'll be expensive, and we'll need a more comfortable way to get ponies from the train station and to town than our current cargo barge.
We'd need hotels. Real ones, not just a converted bunkhouse.
If we weren't going to dig ourselves even deeper into debt for this, we would need investors. Rich ones. Which meant Canterlot most likely.
...But that wasn't a bad thing really in this case. Yes, I didn't trust most of the nobility any further than I could buck them, but there were other rich ponies there. And rich ponies liked the return on their investments.
Anypony that invested in this would be incentivised to talk well of Nocturnis and bats in general.
Getting somepony to invest would be a pretty hard sell... normally. Maybe using my status as an alicorn for something useful for once would be a good idea.
I need to run this past Tight Bit as soon as I'm back to myself. He'd have the numbers to tell me why exactly this was an awful idea.
Whatever, I'll think about it more later.
Unfurling my wings, I stretched with a wide yawn before letting go with my tail. A flap with my wings and I landed neatly on the floor.
Man, I really have to sleep by my tail more often.
Beds were nice and all, the cuddlefactor with Sparks was much higher. Sunny didn't really cuddle during the day, it got too warm for her. But Sparks latched on to whatever was close enough in her sleep and that was usually me.
Even so, I really should try to hang from my tail from time to time.
Yawning, I pushed the door open after slipping my bags on and headed out of the loft.
Ponies were everywhere. Going to work, to the market or wherever they were off too in the early night. I waited for several moments for a chance to launch myself into the air, but it seemed like the entire population of Nocturnis had decided to walk past this door at this time. I shouldn't be surprised, the loft was actually fairly central. It was one of the oldest buildings in Nocturnis after all.
Giving up waiting for a window, I just joined the crowd instead and started to make my way in the general direction of the market.
Basic food may be free at the feeding hall, but I wanted to check what the market had.
Every time I visited from the palace, it looked good. Plenty of ponies buying goods, even food. Or maybe I should say, especially food. Food seemed to be the majority of things sold at the market.
Not a lot of clothes.
No real demand in Nocturnis, even light clothing quickly got way too hot even for a bat to wear. And when it wasn't hot, it was raining and coats dried way faster than clothes.
It didn't take long for me to get to the market and things quickly calmed down as ponies exited into the larger space.
Sniffing the air, I picked up a scent of something roasting and headed to find breakfast.
It didn't take long for me to find a source of it.
Lizard on a stick, ten bits.
Never tried one, and slightly pricey but not too bad for meat, but I had seen them before and seen other bats eat them. So I bought one and moved to the side to figure out how to eat the thing.
Turns out, is what they say. Tastes a bit like chicken.
Okay, other than breakfast, I wasn't really here for shopping even if seeing what was for sale was a good idea. What I really wanted to visit the market for was listening in to conversations.
Fine, fine, not the most ethical way to find out what people are thinking, but it does give you an honest opinion.
So finishing my lizard on a stick, I discarded my stick in a trash box before starting to browse through the stalls, keeping my ears on a swivel.
"...kidding me, way too expensive. I wouldn't give more than..."
"...orry about her. Her grade..."
"...saybe after the next rainy period. They're a..."
"...ucking useless. The Prince would never allo..."
My ears perked up slightly and I drifted in that direction, trying to pick it up again. A couple of mare bats were talking next to an apple cart.
"I don't know what you want from me, Light," the left one said, "I'm just saying that it would be nice with some more options here. I haven't seen cinnamon in over a month."
The other one shook her head, "We're not canterlot. I used to live in a small town, it's not much better there. Most we had were seasonal stuff then too, spices we had to buy when they were for sale. Pouring bits into a hole to import more spices... Prince Page wouldn't allow that sort of waste."
"Oh, but a massive bath house was fine? I don't even want to think of how much that costs."
The second mare rolled her eyes, "So I don't see you and your daughter there every couple of nights? Not like those bits were thrown into the river, a lot went to the builders. Citizens of the town."
"Okay fine, but still, I thin..."
I continued on, tuning out the conversation. That did remind me though, I have to remember to visit the bath house at some point.