Chapter 3 - A Day at The Market
I quickly catch up with the rest of the group and walk next to them. They continue to make some idle chat about things like school and the weather-which they all presumed Rainbow Dash was all over today, and that she was the most awesome pony ever. Or something like that.
"So, we're going to the market to sell... apples?" I ask.
"Mmm Hmm!" answers Sweetie Belle as she nods her head quickly. "We're going to have some sort of advertising cutie mark by end of the day, I just know it!"
"Well at least you're optimistic," I add. "Reminds me of a little phrase that a friend once told me."
"What's that?" asks a suddenly interested Applebloom.
"Hakuna Matata." I answer happily. I bet she's going to say something like Hakuna ma-wata isn't she?
"Hakuna Ma-what?" Close enough.
"Hakuna Matata. It means no worries," I answer. Well, there's more to it than that, but I doubt they'd want me to break into song and dance here explaining the meaning of it.
The group giggles a bit at the sound of the words, but Applebloom seems to like it. The rest of the walk over to the market passes fairly quickly. When we get there, Applebloom starts setting up the apple stall while Scootaloo stocks it with the apples she was carrying. Wait, where did those come from anyway?
"I'm going to go look around a bit. I'll catch up with you guys later," I call out and start to walk towards the busy market.
As I walk away, I hear a bit of an argument break out between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo says something along the lines of 'We're girls not guys', and Sweetie corrects her saying 'It's a gender neutral term, you dodo.', or something like that. Do they always argue over semantics like that? Either way it's pretty funny.
I pass by a few stalls until something catches my eye. "A scroll shop..." I mumble to myself. I've really got to stop talking to myself, this is how habits start. Anyway, this shop appears to sell various scrolls, whether they're magic or not I'm not sure. Two scrolls catch my eye that are on display. One of them is titled 'Cat Facts' strangely enough, while the other one I can't make out. It's written in another language or gibberish, either way I don't understand. Maybe I'll come back later and take a closer look.
Turning and walking away a little too quickly, I bump into a purple unicorn. With a THUD we are both bumped down, and a scroll of her own gets send spiraling out of her magic aura and onto the ground. It appears to be a... a checklist? Seriously? Anyway, I help her gather up the books and things that flew out of her bags while she rolls the scroll back up. "Sorry about that, wasn't paying attention."
She takes the books from my hooves with her magic and places them in her saddle bags. "Sorry, no time to talk! I'm very late! Oh man, I hope Spike is doing alright with the library," she mumbles quickly and trots off.
"Strange ponies..." I mumble as I get back up and check myself for any damages. Hooves? They're okay. Face? Still fine. Wings? They're fi- WHAT? "How did that get there?" I blurt out a little too loudly. I quickly excuse myself from a now staring crowd and walk over to a shady secluded tree and hold out my wing. Inside it seems to be a few bits out of nowhere. Where did I get these? I don't remember finding them, and I didn't sell anything...
Did I... no, no I couldn't have done that. Don't even think about it, Shadow. Just go look around again.
After a bit more looking, I come across a cool little stand selling various clothing items, and Sweetie Belle seems to be there looking at some saddle bags.
"Hey Sweetie," I call out and join her. Gee, I hope I can call her Sweetie. Does she prefer the whole name? Oh well, it's over with. "What are you up to?"
"Hey Shadow. I'm just looking at some new bags, a girl can never have too many you know! At least that's what Rarity tells me," she suddenly gets a big grin on her face, then announce "You should totally get a bag! Oh my Celestia yes you totally should! I can even help you look for the best one."
"I guess that's not such a bad idea. Which one do you think would be best?"
She scans over the large amount of bags on sale. Some catch my eye; a crimson red one, a beige bag, a dark blue one, and none of them have any marks on them. "Well, you've got a grey coat and black mane with a blue stripe that Applebloom lik-err, a blue stripe. I think either the black bag or the blue one would be a nice start," she begins. "Excuse me, how much is it to get a cutie mark added to a bag?" she asks the stall manager.
"Just an extra bit on top of whatever the price of the bag is, but you can come back any time for the same price," she explains happily.
"Alright Shadow, you should get the beige leather one, I think it'd contrast nicely," Sweetie Belle smiles. I hope she is right, I don't want to look like an idiot with my new bag.
"Alright I guess, you're the expert. How much?" I ask.
"That'll be six bits." replies the stall manager with a smile. Weird, that's exactly the amount of bits I got earlier... Oh well, better not question it. I plant down the bits on the table and take my new bag. It fits nicely on my side, and my wings can even go over it since it's pretty small.
"I guess we should head over to Applebloom now," Sweetie Belle suggests. I nod to agree and we head back to the apple stall, not too far away. Applebloom greets us with a smile. "How's business doing?"
"Not too bad, no cutie mark yet but ah've gotten a few bits from sales. Applejack is going tah be so proud!" Applebloom almost glows with an aura of happiness. Sheesh, I could learn a thing or two from her.
"You two have fun, I'm going to go see if I can drum up some, uh, business for you." I say. Applebloom gives me a strange look, but agrees none the less. I hate having to lie to ponies, especially her. Did I just think that? What's wrong with me...
I decide to head over to that scroll stand, but I can't remember where it is. There's too many ponies in this crowd, maybe if I just squeeze through here...
My wing subtly slips into the stallion's saddlebag next to me as I squeeze past the crowd. I snag a few bits with my wing and pull it out, but not quickly and abruptly, it has to be slow and steady. I successfully pull my wing out and as I walk away I slip the bits into my newly acquired saddlebag. My heart beats faster than ever before as I act natural and walk towards the stand. Did I just do that? I did. I just stole from another pony. Did he know? I check behind me casually, and he seems none the wiser. What a rush that was. How much did I get?
Three bits.
Less than exciting, but I guess It's understandable. I get to the stand and take a look at the scrolls. That same scroll rests at front of the stall. "Hi. What's this scroll here?" I ask the unicorn stallion working the stall. His coat is a dark blue, his mane a long light blue and green, but that's all very hard to make out through that black cloak he's wearing. Strange, but whatever.
He eyes me up and smirks. "It's a very ancient scroll, designed to-when used-increase nimbleness and finesse in various tasks."
Wow, that sounds interesting alright. "How much?"
"Two hundred bits."
WHAT? That's ridiculous! There's no way I could afford that, ever!
Unless...
"Uh, maybe I'll come back later," I reply, a plan already forming in my head. He simple nods and goes back to casually leaning against his stall. I begin to walk back to the apple stall.
"Hey Applebloom. Still workin' hard I see?" I make idle chat. Wait, did I just said 'workin''? Gosh I better not be picking up her accent.
"Yep! In fact, ah was hoping tah take a break. Mind takin' over for me?" she asks earnestly. She does deserve it I guess, but that doesn't mean I can't play with her a bit.
"Anything for you," I say with a wink, causing her to blush a bit as she walks off to Scootaloo. That worked perfectly.
A little while passes, and the sun is almost down and most stands have closed. The group walks over to me, all laughing and enjoying themselves.
"Hi... Shadow," greets Applebloom awkwardly.
"Hey," I reply simply with a smile, while Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo giggle to each other a bit.
"Hey so, we hate to break up this wonderful scene of yours, but we were about to head back to the clubhouse," Scootaloo says, earning a jab in the side from a blushing Applebloom.
"Sure thing. I'll pack up and meet you girls back there later," I reply, learning from my earlier mistake of saying guys by habit. They leave and I start packing up. After I'm done, I set everything down and head over to the stand with the scrolls. The unicorn that was there seems to be gone, at least for now. I quickly trot over and look at the scroll with the strange symbols. "Increases nimbleness and finesse with certain tasks, hmm?" I mumble to myself. I know it's wrong, but I can't help myself. I swipe the scroll with my wing and put it into my saddle bag for use later. I run over to the apple stand and head back to the clubhouse.
After I get a decent amount of distance between here and the stand, I stop at a tree by the edge of the path. I take out the scroll from my bag as I look out onto the sunset horizon. "Here we go," I say to no one in particular and try to use the scroll.
And I wait.
and wait.
...
"It's a fraud! Nothing happened!" I declare, tossing the scroll over my shoulder into the forest. I begin to head to the clubhouse, but I hear somepony, or something walking behind me. I turn only to see nothing there. Turning again to face my front, I am confronted by the same stallion in the cloak. "Aaah!" I yell out and fall back, startled by his sudden appearance.
He smirks at me and says one thing. "You're gonna go far, kid," before he teleports off to who knows where.
As I recover from my scare, a few seconds later there's a bright flash out of nowhere. I look around me, and see nothing again. Time to head back to the clubhouse.
When I finally return to the clubhouse I am greeted by the three fillies collectively gasping and staring at me.
"What?"
...
"What? Do I have something on my face?"
Silence still. I set my saddlebags down and walk over to the three fillies. "What is it? Tell me!"
"Shadow..." starts Applebloom. "You 'ave a cutie mark!"
...
No way.