Despite a mild lack of sleep, amongst other mildly annoying issues that he’d recently found himself facing, Xarzith could honestly say he was having to physically stop himself dancing around the street like an idiot.
The day had since started well enough for him. A shower, an early morning run along the Everfree’s boundary as Princess Celestia raised the sun, and breakfast upon his return, courtesy of a somewhat surprised pair of Big Macintosh and a coffee drinking Applejack; the red stallion had stood like a statue for a few seconds upon him coming through the door, as if trying to understand how somepony was up before him.
After telling them of his intentions, and Applejack agreeing to meet up in town a little later on, Xarzith had found himself making the trip to Ponyville, enjoying the sounds of an awakening Equestria and the slowly increasing sunlight as it had fallen across his back.
None of those, however, was what had put him in such a good mood.
This particular good mood had been caused by the reason he’d come to Ponyville so early; a meeting with the local building supervisor, just to iron out any small points before the building of his house finally got underway.
Before the white and blue stallion lay a rolled out sheet of parchment, a variety of drawings inked out across its surface along with their matching annotations, measurements, and alike. To any other pony, they would’ve been a little interesting perhaps, more so to those with a special talent in the construction industry, but to Xarzith they meant so much more.
They were the completed plans to a home. His home.
“So, as you can see kid, the foundations are gonna need vertical reinforcing rods here, here, and here,” the older stallion explained, pointing to various points on the plan. He was an oak brown earth pony named Timber Frame, with a set of crossed spirit levels and a hammer for a cutie mark no less. “You and I both know that Everfree wood’s tough as Minotaur steel, but those jocks up in Canterlot who do the regulations and what not don’t, and trust me, I’d much rather not have them trying to geld my team when some inspection officer comes down to give this place the ‘ok’.”
Xarzith just smiled and nodded. “Heh, you’re the builder here, Frame, you do whatever you have to.”
“I take it you’re not the most savvy when it comes to building huh?” Frame asked, offering a smirk of his own. Xarzith gave him a look, to which the older stallion replied with a chuckle. “Don’t you go worrying about anything, kid, I’m Ponyville bred; I wouldn’t skim something I was building in this town for all the bits in Equestria… speaking of which though, how do you plan on settling the bill for all this anyway? The timber I won’t charge you for since it’s yours, but the labour and all…”
“I’m getting a load of ice diamonds delivered from up north in the coming days,” Xarzith offered simply, eyes drifting back to the plan. “I can exchange them for you, or just let you have them to divide amongst your workers, whatever works best.”
A whistle escaped Frame’s lips as he lifted his helmet. “Well damn me to Tartarus, when Mayor told me ya’d paid her in them stones, I thought she’d been drinking a bit of the Apple’s good stuff… just how much are we talking here anyway?”
“You name the price; I’ll get you the diamonds.”
Timber Frame, now more than a little wide eyed and slack jawed, simply inclined his head in understanding, before scooping up the plans and heading back to where the trades-ponies were working, barking instructions all the while. Xarzith was sure he heard the words ‘ice diamonds’ somewhere in what was being shouted, as if it was being used to motivate his still sleepy workers.
Now alone for the time being, Xarzith couldn’t help but glance over at the surrounding piles of material, everything from the timber that he and the Apples had planked in the last two weeks, to the bags of foundation cement that had since arrived on site.
At that moment they were just piles of stuff here and there, sorted and stacked perhaps, but still placed in random locations around the sight all the same, and the white stallion help couldn’t but wonder how such differing bits and pieces would come together to form a finished piece… that, he guessed, was why there were ponies like Timber Frame.
“Well, you certainly seem to be an exception to the ‘morning pony’ rule,”
“Good morning to you too, Twilight,” Xarzith offered without turning, the alicorn in question coming up beside him a few seconds later. It might’ve been ironic, but she did smell strongly of lavender. “And might I add you’re up as well.”
Twilight might’ve been a princess, but he could tell that she was much more comfortable when spending time with her friends as an equal, not a ruler, and as such made sure to disregard as much formality as possible.
An amused snort escaped the purple mare. “Kind of hard when the block next to yours is a construction site,” she offered with a friendly shove in the side.
“Hehe, sorry, I’m not forcing you and Spike to wake up too early, am I?”
“Nope, I’m usually up this early, and Spike’s still asleep. Heehee, sometimes I wish I was dragon. I swear that Spike could sleep through a magnitude ten earthquake.”
Unbeknownst to her, Xarzith winced, but kept up a smile.
“How is Spike doing anyway?” he asked, turning to face her directly. “I haven’t seen you two around Sweet Apple Acres the last couple of days.”
Twilight blushed and played with her hooves. “I’ve been studying and reading up on a lot really, and Spike’s been trying to keep me from losing my head,” she let out a dry chuckle. “I really should give him some time off actually…”
“I could spend some time with him,” Twilight gave the stallion a look. “What? We get along don’t we? Besides, it can’t be healthy to keep a growing dragon locked up all day, especially in a wooden building.”
A few moments of silence carried on after that, during which the two friends, or at least what Xarzith hoped was a friendly relationship, just stood and watched as the various workers went about their tasks. Exactly where she intended to go with this conversation was a mystery to the stallion, but something told him that despite her general friendliness, she was still looking to find something.
Eventually, Twilight broke the silence.
“I overheard that you’re getting more ice diamonds.”
“Yeah. Working for Applejack’s family is great and all, but they pay me with board and food, and I’m in need of something to pay for all of…” he motioned to the construction site before them. “Well, this.”
“Is your mother going to bring them down from the Crystal Empire by chance? I’d love to ask her some questions about dragon tongue.”
“I’m surprised you remembered that,” he replied, huffing a little at the question. “Maybe yes, maybe no. She’s my source, but I’m not sure what her plan is, honestly. The biggest issue is that the cost of shipping a load of ice diamonds out of the empire would be enormous, but at the same time… uh, well, let’s just say she’s not so good around other ponies up north, let alone those who live somewhere like Ponyville.”
Twilight’s muzzle scrunched up for a moment, before she sighed and shook her head. “You know, Xarzith… there seems to be a lot about you and your family that you don’t want to tell anypony,” she stated, her wings twitching ever so slightly against his marble colored side. “Why is that exactly? I don’t want you to take it personally, we all have the right to keep things to ourselves… but you seem to want to keep a lot to yourself.”
“Should’ve seen that one coming.”
Xarzith rolled his eyes. “You’re too good sometimes, you know that?” he groaned, Twilight’s ears flattening back and her face falling a little at the statement. He shook his head at the action, annoyed at having scolded her for something so trivial. “Look, it’s not that I have a problem with you, your friends, or your town for that matter… but a lot of the places I’ve been haven’t reacted well to me, this thing especially,” he put a hoof to his horn. “Ugh, I guess I just find it easier to keep my defences up.”
“I can respect that, but I want you to know that Ponyville is a remarkably accepting place. Your family background doesn’t matter here. Rarity couldn’t stand her family before she moved to Ponyville, but being friends with ponies like Applejack and Rainbow Dash made her lighten up.”
Xarzith nodded, still unsure of what he thought of that particular mare after meeting her; she was nice and remarkably generous by both reputation and one-to-one experience… but she didn’t seem to like the outdoors or the outside world in general that much.
“I’ll… keep that in mind.”
A silence once again took its reign for the next minute or so, this one though carrying with it a combination of awkwardness, unease, and perhaps even a little hostility; he couldn’t really blame Twilight, she was just trying to be friendly and get him to open up; but thinking over it, opening up was not a prospect that Xarzith found particularly inviting. Given what had happened all the other time’s he’d open up… yeah, definitely not near the top of the to do list.
He decided to change the subject. “Anyway, I’ve been meaning to ask somepony about this, and I think you’d be the best source of information; do you have somepony like an apothecary here in Ponyville?”
Twilight gave him an almost startled look, before putting a hoof to her chin. “Well, we have Zecora,” she recomposed herself. After apparently noticing his own confused expression, she continued. “Zecora’s a zebra who lives just within the borders of the Everfree Forest. She can help you out with most issues involving potions, cures, or potion reagents… why?”
He shrugged his shoulders, looking away from her. “I may need to go see her one of these days,” he answered simply. “Anyway, I better be off. See you later, Twilight.”
Without another word, the stallion began walking off down the otherwise nigh empty street, leaving a confused and increasingly edgy alicorn in his wake.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Spike!”
A moment passed before the young drake could reply, during which he found himself precariously close to falling from his ladder. After that moment had been and gone, and he’d managed to hold on and not end up falling, he quickly descended to the library floor.
He quickly came to regret that decision.
Twilight looked annoyed-no, annoyed probably wasn’t the right word; frustrated was perhaps a better description, as she came marching in through the library’s doorway, swiftly and loudly shutting it behind her.
Within a heartbeat her magic had plucked a piece of parchment and a quill from her desk, and then thrust them into his awaiting claws. All the while, Twilight had gone about positioning herself in the middle of the room, the alicorn now pacing in a small circle while she grumbled to herself.
Spike took a nervous step back. He’d seen her in similar moods before, which had generally been accompanied by events such as Applejack refusing everypony’s offers of help due to pride, Rainbow Dash’s ego getting the better of her, and Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie sense tearing at Twilight’s sanity.
In other words, he was expecting the worst.
“Spike, I want you to take note of everything I say, understand?”
Spike just gulped and nodded.
“Okay. Point one; subject’s horn is curved in a convex line but is otherwise symmetrical. Point two; subject appears to have an aversion to large amounts of heat or sunlight without the assistance of medication, apparently caused by environmental differences between Ponyville and place of birth. Point three; subject lacks a cutie mark, despite easily being of age…”
“Twilight,” Spike interjected, lowering the scroll he’d previously had been writing on. “These are all things about Ice… why do you want me to document these?”
Twilight, much to his surprise, actually stopped her pacing. She let out a long sigh, before facing him. “Because whether we like it or not Spike, there’s something not quite right about that pony.”
“But he’s been nice to everypony so far, what’s changed?”
There was a pause after those words had left Spike’s maw, during which Twilight did little more than breath, and look at the floor with her eyes closed, as if trying to accept a fact she found either frightening or repugnant.
“I know he’s been nice, and that’s what’s bothering me the most,” the mare said eventually, sounding almost sad at the words. “Spike, let me ask you something; how many ponies have ever been out right friendly to you when you first met them, other than Fluttershy?”
“Well… he did say that his parents knew a dragoness,” Spike countered, despite the slight stab of pain in his chest. There were very few ponies who’d had no apprehension upon meeting him, even he’d admit that.
“I know, but isn’t it a little strange that his parents knew a dragoness intimately enough for her to teach them to speak dragon, and he just so happens to have a horn exactly like King Sombra’s? The only unicorn in history I’ve ever heard of to have a curved horn. I can believe in coincidence, Spike, but not on that scale.”
Unsure of what to do, Spike asked the first question that came to mind. “Well… what do you think, Twilight?”
A hoof found its way to the alicorn’s forehead, and she let out a huff before answering. “I remember asking Applejack that very same question. Truth is, I really don’t know, Spike. I’m dealing with a pony with some of the most bizarre magic I’ve ever seen, a strange horn, no cutie mark, and happens to speak dragon.”
“You… you don’t believe he’s related to King Sombra… do you?”
Twilight gave her younger sibling a perplexed look.
“Well what if somepony in his family a long time ago was Sombra’s brother or something! And Sombra banished them so they couldn’t contest the throne! Ice did say his family lives in the mountains in the north of the empire.”
Twilight was about to deliver a rebuttal to how crazy such a conspiracy sounded, but stopped herself just before the words left her muzzle; as crazy as it did sound, given that Xarzith’s family had indeed been surviving there after the disappearance of the empire, that wasn’t a completely baseless claim.
“I highly doubt that Spike, but I’ll admit that I can’t rule it out either,” she said flatly, resuming her prior pacing of circles. “Really though, there are so many angles to look at this that’s it’s going to be impossible to figure out the correct one without any physical proof…” she stopped. “Hang on.”
Spike’s eyebrow arched as Twilight’s front hoof found its way to her chin, a strange look crossing her face… one that reminded him far, far too much of the one she’d worn when Twilight set out to disprove Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie sense.
“Xarzith mentioned earlier that he’d be needing some potion regents, and I suggested he go see Zecora… if she recognized the ingredients that he was after, and what they could be used for, then maybe we could figure out just what it is that he’s been calling ‘medication’ all this time.”
“But, why would you want to know what’s in Ice’s medicine?”
“Spike, I can accept a pony taking a few days to adjust to a new climate,” Twilight replied sharply, lowering her hoof. “But two weeks is beyond normal! Whatever it is that he’s been drinking is not regular medicine. Come Tartarus, I’m going to find out what is up with that pony.”
Spike could only swallow in no small amount of nervousness; if the past was anything to go by, this was going to get very complicated, very quickly.