Chapter 8
To Trottingham...AND BEYOND!
I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I know the sun's shining down on me, forcing my eyes to open. I stretched out and cracked my neck, a habit I picked up back on Earth. I looked around to see that Jade was still sleeping, muttering something in her sleep. I stood up and cracked my neck, an old habit that I wish I could break. Scarlet was still sleeping on the other side of camp, tossing and turning in her sleep, muttering something about a parasprite taking her money. Weird. I decided to let her sleep a little longer given how much work she did last night, so I dug the alchemy book out of my bag and studied it.
I tried to figure out why my first transmutation had taken so much out of me when I noticed a small footnote at the bottom of the page explaining basic transmutation. It read “Transmutation works differently for each species. With species that have a natural well of magic, such as unicorns, the alchemic reaction will draw on their magic reserves instead of the energy of the world around them. If this occurs, it could severely injure or in extreme cases kill the alchemist. If you are a user with natural reserves of magic, focus on drawing the power from the earth and the the world around you instead of your inner magic".
With this information in mind, I walked away from the camp so as not to disturb my sleeping companions and drew the same circle as before in the dirt, this one smaller so as to burn less energy. I went through the steps again, this time taking the book's advice into account, and placed my hooves on the circle. The circle began to glow and blue electricity crackled as the transmutation started, the ground beneath slowly starting to shift into the form I desired . After a few more seconds, the glow ceased and my finished product was revealed, a simple ball like last time, except this time I had my name inscribed on it. I slowly stood up afraid I'd pass out like last time, but found that I felt no dizziness or fatigue at all. Now that I had figured out how to do alchemy correctly, it was time to have a little fun.
After about an hour, I had made a miniature statue of myself in a heroic pose, a model of the solar system (or at least the one back in my dimension), and a scaled replica of both Ponyville and Canterlot. Why? Because I can. The drawback, however, was that even though I was able to do transmutations without passing out, I find out quick that doing multiple transmutations one after another will wear you out. By the time I was done, I was exhausted. I walked back to the camp, which was a great feat given how tired I was, to find Scarlet cooking something in a skillet.
She looked over her shoulder to look at me “Where'd you run off to?”
“Nowhere, just working on a little experiment” I said honestly.
Scarlet cocked an eyebrow and said suspiciously “What kind of experiment?”
“All in good time my dear Scarlet. Now, on to more important things, like what are you making there?” I asked, the smell of the food invading my nostrils as I spoke.
Scarlet shrugged and said nonchalantly “Eh, just a little breakfast”.
After breakfast, which was a gods-send given how tired and hungry I was, me and Scarlet discussed the plan from there.
“Ok, here's my plan for right now. First, we get Jade to Trottingham so she can get some proper medical treatment and stock up on supplies. Second, we keep going from Trottingham to Ponyville. From Ponyville, we can catch a train to Canterlot, sound good?” I asked Scarlet.
Scarlet had a puzzled look on her face “Why do we need to go to Canterlot, I mean I know it's Canterlot and all, but why do we need to go there?”
“I have some business I need to conduct there. That reminds me, while we're in Ponyville I need to get a cake.”
“A cake?”
“Again, business matter. So, sound good?” I asked, confident in my plan.
Scarlet tried to hide a sneer “I still don;t like the idea of us taking that dog with us, but the rest of the plan sounds solid, very strange and mysterious, but solid.”
“Good then we can get going as soon as...” I never got to finish my statement, because just then I heard a scream so horrible it chilled my blood to icicles. Me and Scarlet whipped around to see Jade thrashing in her sleep, screaming and yelling someone's name.
“CHRONO, CHRONO, PLEASE, LET HIM GO, CHRONO!!!!!!!!!” Jade yelled in her sleep.
I ran up to her and tried to shake her out of her nightmare “JADE, JADE, WAKE UP, JADE!” I screamed, trying in vain to awaken the shrieking diamond dog. Scarlet ran up with a bag of something levitating beside her “Move, I've got this” she said waving the bag under Jade's nose.
“What is that?”
“Smelling salts, they should wake her up” and as if on cue, Jade sat bolt upright, extending her paw, as if she was trying to grab at someone. She blinked once before she realized she was having a nightmare. She looked around to see me and Scarlet, her muscles tensing in fear. She scooted back, raising her paws in defense “Please don't hurt me, I mean no harm” she said, her voice quaking in fear.
I raised my hooves and said “Relax, we're not here to hurt you, we actually helped you out. We healed your injuries. You were having a nightmare, yelling about someone named Chrono” my voice calm.
Jade looked at me like I was crazy, then looked at her paws and arms to see the bandages wrapped around them. She looked back to me and said “You healed me?”, she said in disbelief.
“Well, technically Scarlet here healed you” I said indicating mare in question.
Jade looked at Scarlet and said “Thank you.”
Scarlet looked away and said “Whatever, it was nothing”, a rude tone to her voice.
I walked up to Jade and said “That must have been some nightmare, you were screaming louder than a banshee, mind telling me who this Chrono person is?” my voice sincere and caring.
Jade's paw went to her neck, wrapping it around the claw hanging from her choker. A small tear came to her eye “No one, just.....”She never finished, because she proceeded to burst into tears. They weren't regular tears either, they were the kind of tears you only shed when you've just seen someone you love killed right in front of you. I went up to Jade and wrapped my arms around her in a hug, making sure to be careful of her bandages. She was surprised at first, but then cried into my chest, giving in to her sadness. I stroked her fur and shh'd her, trying to calm the weeping dog.
“Shh, it's all right, you don't have to tell us, just calm down” I said in the most comforting tone I could muster. Scarlet stood by, silent as the scene unfolded before her. Scarlet may not particularly like diamond dogs, but she still had respect for emotion, and something in her eyes told me she knew where Jade was coming from.
After a while Jade stopped crying and calmed down. We introduced ourselves, Scarlet still sounding a bit rude but nicer after earlier. Scarlet explained that her injuries were healed for now, but she had some internal injuries that would require a professional hospital.
“I am...unsure, ponies no like my kind, what if they hurt me? She said in that broken way diamond dogs spoke.
I looked at Jade and said “You saw what me and Scarlet did to those dogs last night correct?”.
Jade nodded nervously
“Well if anyone, pony or not, tries to hurt you, we'll do the same thing to them.” I said, my voice serious.
Jade had a shocked look on her face “Why you do that?” she asked.
“Do I need a reason?”
Jade looked shocked, as if someone had just plopped a case of gold in front of her and told her she could keep it. “Well, if that will be all, let's get ready to go shall we” I said with finality.
Scarlet, who had been silent up till now, piped up “Wait, before we do anything else, I need to check yours and the dog's wounds” she said. I didn't complain, but Jade pulled her paws closer to her body, obviously she didn't trust Scarlet. I put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her “Relax, she won't hurt you, she's the one who healed you, I highly doubt she'd want to ruin her good work. If it makes you feel any better, I'll go first to show you have nothing to fear, sound good?” I said with a smirk.
Jade nodded, and Scarlet set to work checking my wounds. As scarlet unwrapped my bandages, she kept glancing at Jade, still wary of her. When she finished unwrapping my bandages, her eyes widened in surprise “What the hell!”
“What?”
“It's healed, overnight, again!” Scarlet said completely dumbfounded
“You can't be serious” but sure enough, where my nasty spear wound once was, there was nothing. Scarlet and I both looked at each other. After a few seconds, Scarlet stood up and started pacing around, muttering to herself as she did so.
“This is not possible, a wound like that, even with my best medicine would still take at least a week to heal” she turned to me “so how is it that you healed up overnight, for the second time I might add? You're not using some kind of magic to screw with my head are you?” She asked accusingly.
I shook my head “No, the only magic I know is what I learned from those books back at your house” I said defensively.
“Then how is you can recover so quickly from such grizzly wounds?” Scarlet asked still confused.
I shrugged and said “Your guess is as good as mine” I said
Scarlet just sighed and said “Whatever, we'll figure this out later” she said and set to work changing Jade's bandages. Jade was still wary of Scarlet, but after a while she just laid back and let Scarlet do her job.
Once Jade's bandages were changed,we gave her some of the gems we recovered from the dead dogs to eat, gathered our stuff and set off for Trottingham. I offered to carry Jade on my back, but she insisted on walking, even with her injuries. After some arguing, we agreed that she could walk, but only if she used some crutches I made from a couple tree branches.
After about ten hours of walking, stopping periodically so Jade could rest, we finally reached Trottingham. The town was pretty good sized, probably the same size as a medium-sized city back on earth. Ponies walked through the streets going about they're everyday business. Pegasi moving the clouds and delivering the mail, kids playing, shop owners selling their wares. It seemed like a pretty nice place to live. As we walked into town, all eyes turned to us, and it was no surprise why. It's not everyday one sees a unicorn, a zebra with a giant sword on his back, and a diamond dog on crutches just waltz into town. Scarlet noticed the stares and looked very uncomfortable, but I gave her a reassuring look and she relaxed.
When we finally got to the hospital, getting more stares from the patients and staff, we finally got Jade some proper medical treatment. The doctor said Jade would have to rest for a couple days while her injuries healed. They gave her some medicine to help speed up the process, Scarlet suggesting they use some of her own herbal remedies as well.
“Scarlet, I'm gonna go out an run some errands, you stay here with Jade, okay?”
Scarlet ground her teeth in frustration and said “Fine”.
“Please try and get along with her Scarlet,” I said and headed off to run my errands.
My first stop was a leather shop to get a sheath made for my sword, which the sales pony agreed to quickly once he saw my gems. Secondly, I dropped off Silver Thorn's fur at a tailor so he could make me a cloak, which cost me a bit extra considering it was shaved fur but I didn't really care.
My final stop was at the blacksmith, who looked more than happy to be getting some business.
“What can I do for you sir,” the tan earth pony stallion said with a grin.
“Can you make bracers?” I asked
He beamed “Sure can, want any special design or just regular?” he asked enthusiastically.
“Actually I do have a request” I grabbed a piece of paper from my bag with several transmutation circles drawn on it “I need these symbols etched into each bracer, if you can that is” I said.
The blacksmith stared at the paper for a moment before saying “Uhh, any particular reason?”
“Not important, can you do it?”
“Sure I can, and how will you be paying for all this.”
I emptied a few gems out of my bag “Will these do?”
He stared at the gems for a moment, a big smile playing across his face “Definitely, shouldn't take me more than a day or so to complete. What's the name on the order?”
“Shadow, and what is your name?”
He held out a hoof “Bruiser,” he said.
I shook his hoof “Pleasure doing business with you Bruiser,” I said and walked out of the shop. Just as I was about to head back to the hospital, I heard a loud scream coming from the town square.
I sighed “Geez, I can't get a moments piece can I?” I complained and ran towards the square to see what the problem was.