//------------------------------// // Back in the Saddle // Story: The Adventures of Cleansing Flame // by Fire_brand //------------------------------// Journal: Winter is upon us, and I’m glad I work the forge. It helps to keep me warm during the day. I haven’t talked to the girls about picking the journey back up yet. I want to go, but these ponies rely on me now. Thanks to that I’ve gotten most of my techniques in iron and steel back. Still a few I need some serious practice on, but they only come into play when forging something that requires strength yet flexibility. Not many projects around here require that. Needless to say, it’ll be interesting if I can ever get my hooves on crucible steel. I keep hearing rumors of how legendary that stuff is. I get my morning kiss from Applejack as I head out to the forge. As usual, as I arrive there are a few foals running around playing in the snow. I stoke the forge and look at my orders for the day. Some horseshoes, a 2 hoof length of chain…that’s it? Oh well time to work. I finish the horseshoes quickly and move on to the chain. The chain takes the rest of my work day to finish. I would have finish sooner but Applejack stopped by to have lunch with me, and how can I say no to that? I asked Applejack to gather the others in the castle. She looks at me funny but agrees anyway. At the castle, I don’t have to wait long for all six girls to arrive. When they all arrive I say “Well girls, I’m planning to continue on the journey from where I left off. Would any of you like to join me again? I promise I’ll be sane this time.” Applejack says “Heck Flame Ah’ve been wonderin when ya’d continue, count me in!” Pinkie speaks up “Of course you can count me in! The cakes don’t have any trips planned so I don’t have to foal sit until after winter wrap-up. Plus who know what other sweets we’ll discover” as she dissolves into bliss thinking about new sweets. Fluttershy also chimes in “I’m in, the animals are hibernating to I have lots of time off.” Rainbow also agrees “I can count on the other weather ponies to hold the fort for winter this year. Plus this is the Wonderbolt off-season, count me in.” Twilight speaks up “Of course I’m in, who know what new things we’ll find out there!” Rarity is the last to say something “Well of course I’m in but…” she steps over as gingerly smells the air around me “Uh, you smell gross and look like you rolled in a bed of coal again! A spa visit is required for you before I go.” That hurt “Hey now, I’ve been doing a much better job of cleaning myself now. Besides I can’t smell that bad, I only just got off work.” Rarity doesn’t miss a beat “I’m not saying you’re at fault darling, it’s just that you work in the forge. It’s expected that you get dirty. I just don’t want to smell it at all times again.” With that the girls get an odd look in their eyes, like they’ve been dying for a reason to get me back in a spa. I take a few steps back “Can we talk about this? Didn’t we already go through this once?” Rainbow flies above me “Of course we did, just consider this payback for snapping on us.” I pretend to admit defeat “Alright, I’ll go. But I just have one question.” I say this last part with a devilish smirk “How are you going to put me in the spa if you can’t find me?” with that I teleport one floor up. I put my ear to the floor and listen to the mayhem I just caused, and it is glorious. Rarity is panicking; she really wanted me to go get squeaky clean again. Twilight sounds like she wants to be impressed but is peeved that I got away. Applejack and Pinkie are just laughing. Rainbow is furious that she can’t get her revenge. I don’t hear Fluttershy at all…and that bothers me. After a few minutes of listening I barely manage to hear her talking. I keep listening until I’m positive they all left to look for me, then go find Spike. At least he can understand not wanting to be dragged to the spa. I find him diving into a large stack of gems. I walk on up to him “Hey Spike, what’s up?” “Oh hey Flame, not much. I got this pile of gems so I thought I’d dine on them.” “Hey sweet…wait…what? Dragons eat gems?” “Yeah, I especially love turquoise. Of course we can eat regular food too, so what’s up?” “Not much, just thought I’d hang out for a while.” I manage to stay hidden in the castle for 3 hours before Twilight teleports back to find Spike and I making dinner. I slowly turn my head around “Uhhhhh, Hi?” Twilight looks like she wants to be mad, but at who I wonder. “So Twilight, you didn’t think it’d be here did ya?” She looks slightly embaressed “Not really no, nice thinking though. We all thought you teleported to Sweet Apple Acres or to your forge.” I laugh “Oh come on, I’m not that predictable am I?” Spike interjects “Wait, were you hiding from Twilight?” Twilight cuts me off “No Spike , he was also hiding from Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. Rarity wanted him to go to the spa so he took off and hid.” Spike looks like he wants to barf "GROSS!" I interject “Speaking of which did everyone give up already?” Twilight nods “Yeah, Rarity was disappointed, but we want to head out tomorrow so make sure you scrub that coal off or she’ll try to drag to to the spa again.” I nod my head and walk back home. Walking in the front door I’m greeted by Applejack “Flame, now where were ya this whole time? We looked all over Ponyville but couldn’t find ya.” “If I told you wouldn’t that ruin my hiding spot?” I notice Applejack start acting sultry “Aww come on now Flame, ya can tell me.” She gives me a deep kiss, nibbles her way to my ear, and whispers in my ear “I won’t tell anypony.” And there’s my weak spot. Applejack has done this to me a few times now and it always makes me tell her whatever she wants to know…and she knows it. So with my heart practically jumping out of my chest I say “In the castle, I never left. It was the last place I knew anypony would look.” “Well Ah guess that settles it right girls?” I’m thoroughly surprised as the other 4 girls enter the room. “Awe dang it, I’m not getting out of this am I?” The girls gather around me and say “Not a chance.” Fan-freaking-tastic, I'm been dragged to yet another spa. Rarity gleefully walks up and orders the usual for them and the stallion treatment for me. So now for the second time in my life I'm being scrubbed clean in a spa. When did this become a fad? At least the Aloe sisters seem to have a better idea on how to clean off coal than the spa in Stalliongrad. They don’t take forever to scrub the coal out of my coat. Walking out, squeaky clean, I say to the girls, but glaring at Rarity “This will not become a habit.” Rarity, still smug, says “Of course not.” as a fake halo seems to appear above her head. I shake my head sighing “Can we just get to bed? We have an early train to catch and I doubt we’re packed for the trip.” I stop by the forge to put up an ‘On Vacation’ sign and put out the forge. I don’t need to burn down half of Ponyville while I’m gone. The next morning Applejack and I wake up early to pack up our saddlebags and head to the station. We meet everypony there and take the train to Haliflanks, a 3 day train ride. They all look worried for me “What? You think I’d come back from 3 years of therapy and still be terrified of trains? I moved on.” Pinkie energetically says “Good! Now we can all play games together!” Pinkie now pulls a deck of cards out of nowhere and deals everyone cards. Fluttershy asks first “Uh, Pinkie, what game are we playing?” “Go fish! It’s easy and with this many people it’ll take a while.” So we play Go Fish for the next 3 hours. We all win a few times, except Pinkie…she wins a lot. I don’t know how she does it but she’s really good at cards. We go through about 10 card games throughout the day. 5 of them are not much fun with more than 4 players, and we didn’t want to leave anypony out. 2 of them needed one more player to even up the teams. So we ended up playing Equestrian slaphoof, Go fish, and, Detrot Hold ‘em the entire first day. Day two was mostly a day of gossip. I tried not to get involved with it, electing to try and slink off for snacks. Didn’t work out too well though, Rarity kept pulling me back in by asking question that only I could answer just to keep me there and ‘involved’. Day three was a bit more interesting. The stewardess found a bunch of difficult puzzles that we used to entertain ourselves. Mine ended up being a picture somepony who looked to be Star-Swirl the bearded. Arriving in Haliflanks was a welcome relief. I think my rump fell asleep halfway through day 3. Disembarking the train, Haliflanks looks to be an aging city. 90 percent of the ponies I see are earth ponies. The girls and I walk around a bit to gain our bearings, and then we decide to take a tour of a decommissioned mining tunnel. Rarity however, requires some extreme convincing that she won’t get dirty…at all. I say “Come on Rarity. The tunnel we’re looking at used to be used for gem mining, not coal or iron ore. I doubt you’ll get dirty.” But alas, she pouts “I don’t care if it was used to mine diamonds. I simply refuse to set a single hoof underground.” Applejack gives it a shot “Rarity, ya do know they cleaned up the tunnel right? They have ta make sure it’s safe and clean fer visitors.” Rarity responds “I’m sorry Applejack, I won’t go.” and sticks her muzzle in the air. Pinkie comes running up with a flyer for the tour “RARITY! Are you sure you don’t want to go? It says here you can keep any gems you find in the tunnel!” Upon hearing this Rarity’s eyes are sparkling “We get to keep any gems we find?! Well then what are we waiting for?” So we go up to the tour office, and sign up. Rarity looks excited, but takes every precaution and is wearing booties, tied up her mane and tail, looks to be wearing a gas mask, and is wearing a clean suit. I almost ask but Applejack stops me and shakes her head as in to say “There’s no arguing with her on this, just accept it.” So we take the elevator down into the old mine shaft. I think we drop about 100 hooves until we reach the bottom. The mining tunnel is quite impressive. It is wide and has clearly been reinforced. The tunnel snakes around following a single track. As we follow the guide, he stops occasionally to talk about the different gems found within the tunnel and how the extraction methods changed over the years. Throughout the entire tour Rarity’s horn is lit up, assumingly searching for gems. We follow the guide for what feels like an hour before reaching the smallest part of the tunnel. It seems to go back a little farther but only one pony at a time can go through due to its small size. We all take turns exploring the final 10 hooves of the tunnel. Rarity is last and comes out looking quite disappointed. So we make our hour trek back to the elevator and leave the tunnel. During the walk Rarity looks extremely bitter but doesn’t say a word, making all of us very nervous. As we exit the mine shaft Rarity starts taking off the suit and starts going off “Oh I can’t believe you got me to go down into that dirt hole. The air down their was stifling, the amount of dirt was appalling, the smell was quite unappealing, I do believe I got some dirt in my fur, OH and look at my pedicure, its ruined, I shall have to get another, the lack of gems was also apparent. Keep any gems you find, what a lousy gag…” Around the middle of the first wave I stuff my hooves in my ears in an attempt to shut out the shear absurdity spewing from Rarity. After 2 minutes I can’t take it any more “Rarity, please stop. Your’ complaining is hurting my ears.” But she keeps going. So I walk over to Twilight “Don’t you have any spells to silence her? Please? How can you stand this?” But I get no response. “Twilight…can you hear me?” I catch her attention with a hoof then pantomime my pain and plea. Thankfully this works and Twilight casts a spell, making all sound go away. I walk next to Applejack as we wander around. I feel bad for anyone who can hear Rarities complaints, but we can’t hear them so whatever. I see and point out a few things that would be interesting to visit; as does everypony in our group…except the still complaining Rarity…holy moly can she motor on. All I see is moving lips but judging by the look of disgust I can tell she’s still going. We spend the rest of the day in silence. Arriving at the Dancing Diamond Hotel, Twilight releases the silencing spell and thankfully Rarity has ceased her incessant complaining. As we enter, we are all awestruck by the grandeur of the hotel. All the woodwork is of hoof crafted Cedar, they have marble pillars, and granite table and counter tops. A section of the grand hall is taken up by a ballroom floor and a space for the orchestra who are currently playing. Almost in a daze I say “If this is the grand hall I can’t wait to see the rooms.” Rarity stutters “So…gorgeous…how in the…but the mine…uhhhhhhh” as she falls backward feinting. Twilight and Rainbow help Rarity as we get our rooms. I thought they’d be more expensive, but they’re only 125 bits. Its only 8:45 so I decide to have a little fun. “Hey Applejack, want to head down to the grand hall for a little bit?” “Sure Flame, whaddya wanna do?” I put on my best poker face “You’ll see.” We head down and I guide her towards the dance floor “Come on Applejack, let’s dance!” Applejack looks like she’s about to panic “But Ah’ve only ever square danced before!” “Don’t worry about it, just follow my lead” as we step into the waltzing ponies and join in. After a few minutes Applejack gets the hang of it and has relaxed. “Since when did ya learn ta dance like this?” I feel my face heat up “I may have been taking lessons.” Then the song ends and the orchestra strike up a slow tune, turning the waltz into a slow dance. This garners a giggle from Applejack as she playfully says “Well Flame, Ah didn’t ya were into dancing.” I know this’ll be cheesy but whatever. “Only if my partner is you Applejack.” At that she lays her head on my shoulder as we dance, letting me guide her. Sadly the slow dance is the last song for the night so we head back to our room and fall asleep locked in each other’s embrace. Today was a good day.