//------------------------------// // 04 - Shakedown // Story: A Very Minty Summer Sun Celebration // by Zobeid //------------------------------// In the open space of the fairground, near the food vendors, three pony stallions huddled. Jet Set and Filthy Lucre had been joined by a larger earth pony. His coat was dark gray, mane and tail a rusty red, a red-and-white striped shirt tightly stretched over his burly frame, and (strangely enough) a cutie mark resembling a violin case. “Is dis da joint?” he asked. Jet Set nodded in the direction of the fried ice cream vendor, pointing with his horn. “There’s the fellow I got the coins from. So, how do you think we should approach him?” Filthy Lucre shrugged lightly. “Oh, we can’t be bashful about it, can we? Never get anywhere that way. Just follow my lead.” He trotted over to the stall, with Jet Set and Basher Doubloon following. They barged past a few other ponies waiting for ice cream, with Basher giving one a firm shove. Luke addressed the vendor, “Sir! I’d like to ask you a couple of questions, if I may.” The ice cream seller blinked. “How can I help you gents?” “Well you see, my friend over here got a few unusual coins from you earlier today, and we was wondering if you stumbled on any more of those.” The vendor’s mane tossed as he shook his head. “Sorry, nope! I haven’t got any more of them.” Luke pressed closer. “But have you seen the ponies you got them from? Maybe they passed by this way again.” “I, err… I noticed they went to the punch stand too. Say, what is this all about? Are they in some kind of trouble?” He glanced at the silent earth pony, who glared back with an angry grimace. “Oh, I hope not,” Luke said, affecting a tone of concern. “But we really should check up on the poor dears. Perhaps you could give us a better description of them, aye?” The vendor glanced at the other ponies waiting impatiently for ice cream. Ears drooping, the pony backed away from the counter. “I, um… I don’t really know if I should. I wasn’t really paying that close attention, I don’t remember any details. Could you, um, just move along and let me serve these other customers, please?” Luke stepped back from the counter and nodded toward his much bigger companion. The earth pony reared and put his grubby front hooves on the counter, and yelled, “What’sa bucking matta wit you, huh? Buck you! You tink you can bucking hold out on us, you bucker? You better remember what dem bucking ponies look like, you bucking hear me?” Behind him, a lot of ponies suddenly decided they didn’t want ice cream at all, and they scattered away from the stall. Cringing with his tail between his legs and his ears drooping, the vendor whimpered, “I don’t know nothing, mister. I just sell ice cream. Please don’t hurt me!” Luke nudged up alongside Basher and said, “That’s all right, we don’t wanna hurt nopony. You just tell us what those ponies looked like, and we’ll leave you right alone.” The ice cream pony hiccuped, then said, “I-I… Okay already! One of them was all *hic* pink, and the other one was green with a *hic* pink mane and they were with a big white pegasus, and that’s all I remember. I didn’t *hic* look them over that close.” Luke smiled. “There now, that wasn’t so bad, eh? C’mon, Basher! We’re done with this one.” Basher snorted before turning to leave the sobbing (and hiccuping) ice cream pony and follow Luke to where Jet Set waited. Jet held a hoof in the air uncertainly, giving Luke a sidelong look, and said, “I say, I say! Was that performance really necessary?” “Of course it was! I told you Basher knows how to get ponies to cooperate, didn’t I? Can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, isn’t that what they say?” Basher perked up his ears. “What wazzat you say, boss? You need me to break some legs?” “Not now, Basher. Maybe in a while.” Jet Set frowned, his head low. “I’m afraid I can no longer be a party to this enterprise.” Luke quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, is that so? Well, if you’re such a dainty toff, you’d better just toddle on home! We can take it from here. You’ve already got your swag anyhow, don’t ya? No need to get your hooves dirty with the likes of us — but you best keep your trap shut about this, am I clear?” Jet bristled. “Are you threatening me, sirrah?” “Maybe I am. Basher?” Basher pawed at the dirt with a hoof and tossed his head. Jet winced, despite himself. “So that’s how it is? Very well, I wash my hooves of you!” Then he turned and walked away, head held high. Basher laughed, “Bwaha! What a bucking fruit!” “Come along, Basher! We’ve got a lead on them. Let’s try the punch stand next.” They went a short way over to Berry Punch’s stand. Chewing on a piece of gum, she eyed them warily, having been well within earshot of Basher’s outburst. “What do you want?” Luke forced a smile. “We’re looking for a couple of earth ponies, dearie. One of them is all pink, and the other is green with a pink mane. I heard they came around here.” “A lot of ponies come around here.” “And did they buy anything from you, miss?” Berry popped her chewing gum and said, “That’s none of your beeswax, is it? So, do you want a punch or not?” Luke glanced to his side. “Basher?” Basher muscled his way up to the stand and put his hooves up on the counter just as he’d done before, and yelled at Berry, “You bucking think you’re a real bucking smartass, don’t ya? You tink you can bucking backtalk us? I kill you! You’re bucking dead, you hear me?” Berry’s eyes narrowed and her ears lowered, but she didn’t cringe the way the ice cream vendor had. She said, “You need to chill, mister. Yeah, you could use a cold hard berry punch!” Her hoof caught him upside the head with a hollow-sounding WHOCK! Basher staggered back from the stand, blinking for a few seconds, then his legs gave way and he toppled over on his side. Luke rushed to his side and tried shaking him. “Speak to me, kid! Say a few syllables! Utter a few adjectives!” Basher twitched and muttered, “uhhh… dis and dat… dese and doze… da ting of it is…” Berry called out, “That one’s on the house!” A few ponies that had been hanging around and watching applauded, stamping the ground and whistling. When Star Catcher finally located her friends, she found Pinkie Pie and one of the vendor ponies struggling to dislodge Minty’s head from a cotton candy machine. Star Catcher sat on her haunches and watched for a few moments, then said, “I swear, I can’t leave you two alone at all.” Pinkie Pie looked up, though she didn’t take her front hooves away from Minty. “Hi, Star Catcher! Minty had a little accident.” “I see that. So… Why did she put her head in there, I wonder?” Pinkie Pie grunted softly as she tugged on Minty’s shoulders. While she pulled she said, “Don’t even try to understand why Minty does things! I gave up on that years ago. It’ll only make your head hurt.” A pained whimper came from inside the cotton candy machine. The stallion who’d been operating the machine sighed and said, “I’ll get some warm water to pour in. It’ll dissolve some of the sticky stuff and maybe turn her loose.” While he went for for that, Pinkie Pie knocked on the side of the machine with a hoof and said, “Minty, are you okay in there?” Minty responded by hooking her hooves over the edge of the machine’s bell and trying to pull herself out, but the effort was in vain. Then she gave up and whined, muffled but understandable, “I’m OK, I just want ouuuuut!” “We’ll get you out, Minty! Hang on!” yelled Pinkie Pie, louder than she really needed to. She glanced around at the other ponies who were gathering to watch. “Does this sort of thing happen all the time?” Star Catcher wondered. Pinkie nodded, grinning, and said, “One time I threw a birthday party for Minty and when she went to blow out the candles on her cake her mane caught on fire. That was a party nopony will forget. Oh, and then there was the time she wrecked Ponyville’s Christmas tree…” “Don’t tell her about that!” yelled Minty from inside the metal bell. She pushed with her hooves, trying again to get free. Pinkie thumped the machine with her hoof again and said, “What about the time you hid your sock collection in my oven?” “Not my fault!” cried Minty. “Why would you even light a fire in an oven without looking in it?” “It’s called pre-heating, duh!” Just then the other pony came back with a pitcher of warm water and started pouring it into the machine around Minty’s head and neck. She strained again, and gradually she pulled free — with sticky strands of her mane trailing behind until the stallion splashed them with water again. Once out of the machine, Minty slumped to the ground, ears drooping. “I’m really sorry, mister,” she said. The vendor pony sighed and said, “At least you’re all right. Now I’ll have to clean the whole thing before I can start it up again. You just leave the machinery to the pros from here on, okay? Here’s a wash rag, so you can get the sugar out of your hair.” Pinkie Pie took the rag in her mouth, dipped it in water, and started dabbing at Minty’s mane. While she was thus occupied, Star Catcher said, “Minty… Why did you stick your head in the cotton candy machine?” “I had to! The candy was the same color as my mane.” Star Catcher stared for a moment, waiting for the rest of the explanation, then realized that was all she was going to get. “But that… that doesn’t even… unnngh!” She winced and rubbed her forehead. Pinkie spat out the wash rag so she could speak. “See, Star Catcher? I tried to warn you about that.” Minty stood up, shakily, on all four hooves. “Hey mister!” she said. “You should add peppermint to your cotton candy formula. I bet peppermint cotton candy would be really cool. And then you could do wintergreen too, with green coloring. I wonder if you could make them both together in the same machine?” She jumped up and put her hooves on the edge of the machine starting to peer into it again. “Nono!” yelled the stallion as he moved to block her and then push her back. “Please stay away from that!” Minty pouted. “I’m only trying to help.” “I don’t need any help. Please, for Celestia’s sake, just sit over there and do nothing!” Minty slunk away and sat on her haunches beside her friends. Pinkie Pie looked at Minty, then at Star Catcher, and said, “Hey, Star Catcher… I thought you went to the jousting matches. How was that?” “Oh, I arrived late and missed everything but the final round. I did get to meet one of the jousters, though. And I saw a griffin.” “No way!” said Pinkie. “Coool!” added Minty. “I didn’t know griffins could joust.” Star Catcher slumped. “I don’t think it did,” she said. “But I just don’t know why they would even let a griffin in the city. I tried to warn the ponies, but they treated me like I was crazy. And they… they chased me away.” “That’s just mean,” said Pinkie Pie, and she hugged Star Catcher’s neck briefly. Minty said, “Maybe it was a tame griffin.” “I guess,” said Star Catcher. “I didn’t think that was even possible. I thought they were only made to be soldiers and killers — like manticores, cockatrices, gnolls, minotaurs, and all the other monsters from the wizard wars.” Pinkie nuzzled. “You better just forget those ponies that were mean to you, Star Catcher. We came here to have fun. We’ve still got partying to do.” Minty nodded agreement, and Star Catcher forced a smile. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m not going to let it get me down. However… Girls, there’s something strange about this city. There’s been a whole lot of things since we got here that don’t add up, and I want to figure it out.” She glanced upward towards the castle spires rising from the mountainside above the city. “From the first glimpse I got of that castle, I had a feeling something wasn’t right. So let’s be careful, okay? Keep your eyes open, and your ears too. Listen to what ponies say.” Pinkie and Minty both nodded. Then Pinkie said, “Is there gonna be any more jousting? Did we miss it all?” Star Catcher folded her wings neatly once again and said, “I’m afraid so. However, tomorrow the grand tournament is scheduled. That’s a mock battle with earth, unicorn and pegasus ponies all fighting together, and I gather they’re going to have a fire-breathing dragon too. That should at least be worth watching.” Minty frowned. “Wait, a dragon? That sounds a lot more dangerous than a griffin, even.” Star Catcher shrugged again. “Maybe it’s not a real dragon. Or maybe it’s a hatchling. Or maybe the unicorns have cast some kind of powerful charm or geas on it. I’d have guessed a fake dragon for a fake battle, but I’m not sure about anything here anymore.” “A fake drake!” Pinkie declared. “Wait, I thought a drake was like a duck. Maybe that’s why they put geese on it? If you made up a goose to look like a duck, and swim like a duck, and quack like a duck, you’d have a… mph!” She was brought to stop when Minty stuffed the damp rag in her mouth. Pinkie’s jaw continued to work and she made muffled sounds for a few moments. Then she spat out the rag into her hooves and rolled her tongue around in her mouth a couple of times. “Hey, that tastes like sugar. And, um, menthol?” Minty giggles softly and asked, “So what do you girls wanna do now?” Pinky said, “I know! Let’s go get some more hard cherry lemonade, then we can look at the schedule again and see what’s next.” “Aster! Aster! Over here!” Brass Bit called out across the street to her friend and waved a hoof. The young pony trotted over and replied with a smile, “Hey, Beebee! What’s up?” Brass Bit bounced with excitement. “You won’t believe this. I overheard Papa talking with a pony in the shop, and he said that he got some rare coins from one of the vendors at the fair grounds. He was buying something there, and he got them in change.” “What, like a wheat shilling? I’ve found those in change before.” “No, it was something way better than a wheat shilling. It was something really rare, and Papa even had me go get the Basher to help them go and look for more.” “Wow. I wonder if we could find one?” “Papa seemed to think so. I mean, the pony who came in had like three of them. There’s got to be more. Wanna come with me and give it a try?” Aster hmmed. “We’ll need some bits, won’t we? Nopony’s gonna give us change unless we buy stuff, right?” Brass Bit put a hoof on her friend’s withers and said, “We’ll just have to break open our piggy banks. If we find one of those coins it’ll be like winning the lottery. Do you have any idea how much they could be worth?” “How much?” “Lots!” “Wow! Okay, I’ll run home and get some bits. Maybe Amy Dextrous can come too? She’s always got spending money.” “Hmm, yeah, she’s okay. But don’t tell anypony else! I’ll meet you at the fair grounds entrance.”