//------------------------------// // Some Comforts // Story: DiE: Glarin Ungard the Berserker // by InsaneJustin //------------------------------// Glarin was sitting inside a rocking chair in front of his home. He was sitting relaxed as he rocked back N’ forth watching the young ones play out in the yard. After a moment he heard the familiar sound of hooves upon stone. “Dinner is ready Love, call our little ones inside so we can eat.” Glarin turned to look at the source of the voice and saw it was Princess Luna. With a confused smile on his face he nodded his head. “Yes, of course dear...” Glarin said without really thinking about it. He got up out of his chair and took a deep breath. “...Foods Ready!” Glarin watched them all run up to the house. But it started to get strange, some were ponies while others were dwarven children. Except they looked like him, just smaller. Not the way dwarf children should look at all. Then the icing on the cake walked by. It walked on two pony legs with a bulky upper dwarf body. With chiseled facial features and a full on beard. It looked up at Glarin and spoke with a childish voice that didn’t match the way it looked at all. “I love you daddy.” “Bawhhaa!” Glarin sat up in bed with a cold sweat dripping down his face. He looked around his dimly lit room and heaved a sigh of relief. “What a bloody nightmare.” Glarin hopped out of his bed and shook his head. Ready to tackle the new day and forgot the nightmares that seemed to come from time to time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spatzi was up early. The stone beds made it hard to sleep for very long. She would need to get something to make it more comfortable, the only problem was where she would get the money in order to buy some blankets or pillows? Let alone find something other than rocks in this place. The only soft thing she found was that single pillow upstairs. As she wandered around the halls she could see some of the other ponies that the princess dropped off the other day were also awake. She walked over to greet them. “Hey! So how long are you all gonna to be staying here?” the mares looked tired as they turned to look at Spatzi. They gave her a weak smile with a chuckle. “Not so sure. Hey, do you know if Sir Glarin has any bed sheets or pillows? Is everything here made of rocks?” Spatzi thought for a moment and shrugged. “Pretty sure everything is made of rocks. The old mans cheap like that. I’m sure if you put in a request he would do something about it.” The mare seemed to perk up a bit along with the others near her. “Oh really? That would be wonderful. That hotel was bad, but at least they had real beds...” Spatzi looked a little dejected at that. “Ah, I heard something about that from some of the guards. I’ll go let him know. Maybe we can go get something done by today.” The ponies thanked her as she turned to leave. It felt weird to be thanked for doing something. It actually felt kinda nice to not be yelled at with curse words. She began to run down the hallway in search of Glarin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Glarin was busy setting up one of the rooms the guards had cleared out in preparation for the first shrine he was going to set up. A Shrine to Moradin of course, then came Berronar, then Clangeddin, and last but not least to the Luck Maiden. Maybe a few others for good measure, but he never really worshiped any of the others. As he set up the Sacred Forge Spatzi opened the door and rushed up to him. “Hey old man! The new guests were wondering if we could give them some blankets and pillows so they could sleep better! It looks like they didn’t sleep well last night, and to be honest I find it hard to sleep as well...” Glarin stopped what he was doing and looked over at Spatzi for a moment then sighed. “I was afraid of that...” Glarin walked out of the room and motioned for her to follow him. They went to a back room Spatzi had never been too before, mainly because the door was so well hidden in the wall the hallway looked like it ended in a dead end. Glarin pushed a portion of the wall in and the wall moved outward with a groan and slide out of the way. “Whooah, I’ve never seen this room before...” as Spatzi walked in behind Glarin she could see a moderate pile of bits in the far corner with 3 sacks next to it. “This is my treasurery, and as you can see, its in a sad state. Damn mail ponies. Thieves is what they are. Thieves in uniforms!” Glarin picked up an empty sack and began to push bits into it until it was half full. He spun around and held it out for Spatzi to take. “Alright, head into town and get them some comforts, I’ve got work to do around here.” Spatzi looked at the bag and at Glarin. “Y-you’re just going to let me do it?” Spatzi was taken aback, he had known her for less than a week. Yet he was trusting her with a large sum of money. “I trust you enough to not run off with it. Just try not to spend all of it. You’ll need to get enough for 20 beds, not including your own as well. Those guards I’m training are lucky I even feed them, so don’t worry about getting anything for them. Just our new guests.” “Well, how much did you give me? Things like soft beds are usually expensive you know...” Glarin thought for a moment, and released a low growl, then scooped some more from his pile into the bag “You should have about...” He lifted the bag up and down a few times looking at it. “...about 6,000 bits in here. Give or take a few hundred. Remember to haggle it down cheaper because you’re buying in bulk. When every things said and done tell them you’ll come back to pick it up later. That’s when I’ll send some of the guards with you to pick everything up. No way in hell am I going to pay those thieves in uniform again.” Spatzi gulped at the large sum of money he was literally just handing to her. “W-well I’m not really, I don’t know how to haggle...” Glarin hummed to himself for a moment. “Its not too hard to haggle a price down. You always go for a number considerably less than what they offer you. Shops have a habit of charging at least 100-300% more than what they paid for something. And if they ask you that stupid question of ‘how much are you willing to spend?’ you cross your arms and tell them ‘I wasn’t planning on spending any money actually. I’m mostly just looking at the moment.’ That usealy gets them to drop prices to make a sale.” “Well still, I’m not so sure...” “What? Scared to go buy some things by yourself?” “I’m not scared, y-you old man! I-I-I just... Nevermind, I’m going!” Spatzi snatched the sack from Glarins hands and did her best to run out the door with it. It was pretty heavy though, and she stumbled from side to side trying to maintain balance as she kept the sack on her back. Glarin just grunted as he watched her leave. With a smile he headed back to the room to finish setting up the shrine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spatzi was out and walking around the town. She needed to find a place that sold mattresses, and then blankets and pillows. Hopefully the money Glarin gave her would be enough for everything. As she walked through the town she avoided the market place as that area mostly just sold food stuffs and other nicknacks. She needed to find some kind of bedroom store, or something. She eventually ended up at a place called Sweet Dreams. The outside didn’t look like much, but it had a picture of a big moon for the shops symbol. If a moon didn’t symbolize sleep, she didn’t know what else it could mean. So she opened the door and walked on inside. It didn’t look like a store that sold things like bedding or anything like that. In the center of the room was what looked like a bar with benches all around it with some tables near the walls. The building also looked quite smoky as well. “Hey kid, what are you doing in here? You need to be of legal age to come in here.” Spatzi flinched a bit at the harsh sound of his voice “O-oh, I was just looking for a mattress store. I t-thought with the name Sweet dreams you’d sell stuff, like... that...” As Spatzi looked around she noticed a few griffins and some ponies eyeing her with the shop keeper, he was moving a pipe around in his mouth as she spoke. “Ah, you’ll wanna go three streets over to a place called Celestia’s Beds N’ Sheets. They got a sun symbol on the front door, can’t miss it.” his voice wasn’t as harsh this time around. “Thanks a lot Mister!” The pony just nodded his head at her as she turned around and left the shop. Now with a sense of direction of where to go, Spatzi started heading three streets down and began to look for the store with a sun symbol on it. That shop keeper was right about one thing though, The shop wasnt hard to miss at all. Forget the sun symbol on the door. The sign was a large bed with Celestia inside it sleeping, with the words Celestia’s Beds N’ Sheets carved into the side of the bed. With a bit of a laugh she walked through the door and a bell went off signaling her entrance. Where she was immediately greeted by the pegasi sales pony. “Hello and welcome to Celestia’s beds N sheets, home of the greatest Cloud Mattresses straight from Canterlot! Was there, anything I could help you with? Anything at all?” Being a sales pony that worked off commissions in probably one of the slowest business ventures, he was desperate to make any kind of sale, even if it was just a pillow. “Ah yes, well, I was looking for a nice mattress and, you wouldn’t happen to also sell blankets and other things as well, would you?” the sales pony’s eyes glinted in the light as he eyed the sack on her back. He could taste a sale coming. He might be able to make rent this month. Heck if he convinced her to buy a top end mattress he might make rent for two months. “Oh yes! We are having a special where if you buy a mattress it comes with a free full bed set. The full set includes your sheets with a comforter, two pillows and two pillow cases! Depending upon the mattress you pick out the thread count for the sheets ranges anywhere from 150 - 1200. Of course you can always upgrade to a higher quality with any mattress type.” Spatzi looked thoughtful about what he had said. She tried to look like she understood what he was talking about with the thread count. She really had no idea what thread count was. But had to make it look like she did. “I see, well I’m just going to have a look around if you don’t mind.” The sales pony nodded his head and waved a hoof with a bow allowing her to walk freely around the store. She walked off and looked at all of the different mattresses, all of them looked the same with varying prices. The cheapest she saw was 165 bits, but if they were also getting sheets with a blanket and pillows with it. That would mean for all 20 it would cost a total of... a lot of bits. She thought about what Glarin had said, haggle down the price because of bulk buying. But... those poor ponies needed something better than the cheapest available. She overheard some of the guards talking about how they used to be slaves or something. Forced to work for the Black Star Gang. She had heard of them while she was in Las Pegasus. She made it a point to avoid that side of town because of all the nasty rumors... She wanted to do something nice for them. Even if it did mean spending all of the money he had given her. Glarin, that old man had to stop being so cheap. She stopped in front of a bed with the highest price she had seen so far, it was marked at 540 bits. It was labeled as a Cloud Mattress. She set the bag of bits down and hopped on top of it. The sales pony eyes glinted again as he got a smile on his face when he saw her hop on top of it. Spatzi sank into the bed. Every single one of her curves was being cradled in such a gentle way. Even her tail that usually made it uncomfortable to lay on her back was being gently hugged. The bed was so soft with the sheets so smooth. It was like she was floating upon nothing at all. The mattress that had enveloped her was slowly warming, lulling her to sleep. She was so comfortable she almost fell asleep, and would have if the sales pony didn’t come by at the moment her eyes closed. “I can see you are enjoying Equestria’s best Mattress. With the combined techniques of both pegasi and unicorns they were able to create clouds that any creature could lay upon. The comfort that only griffins and pegasi could enjoy is now available to all.” “Wait, this is a real cloud?” The sales pony nodded his head. “Yes it’s a real cloud, shaped by pegasi and enchanted by the best unicorns to give it a solid form. Solid yet still retain its cloud softness that every pegasi grew up on. Even Rainbow Dash, the Element of Honesty can vouch for its softness. Seeing as how she’s always sleeping on a cloud.” Spatzi loved this mattress, but the price tag was a little high, she doubted she would be able to afford 20 of them plus one for herself... Unless she haggled him down. Spatzi hummed a bit in thought before speaking. “It’s a nice mattress I’ll give you that, but it’s out of my price range.” The Sales pony looked baffled, no ones ever denied buying a cloud mattress after they tested it, well besides pegasi who had brought an actual cloud into their cloud homes. “Well, how much were you looking to spend?” That was the question, the question the old man had warned her about. Good thing he told her how to answer it. “Actually, I wasn’t planning on spending anything, I’m just looking around mostly.” The sales pony felt his heart sink, maybe he wouldn’t make rent this month after all. He thought making money would be an easy thing to do. His Commission rate was 60% and even selling the cheapest mattress in this store got him a 1/4 of his months rent. But still, he had to try. Maybe if he dropped the price of the cloud mattress she would be more inclined to buy one. She did after all have that large bag, but if she didn’t want to spend 540 bits, then it probably wasn’t as full of bits as he thought. “What if I lowered the price to, say, 450 bits? Would you be more interested?” Spatzi crossed her arms as she stood on her hind legs. “Slightly more, but lets say... 100 bits.” The sales pony looked baffled at the extremely low price she offered him. “100?! But that’s how much we pay! That’s wholesale!” The sales pony quickly covered his mouth with his hooves in an attempt to prevent himself from saying any more foolish things. Spatzi smiled, this haggle game was fun. “I see, then how does 140 bits sound then?” The sales pony shook off his shock when he realized she was playing a haggle game with him. “400!” “200!” “370!” “230!” “350!” they had been moving closer as they shouted numbers, they were nearly face to face now, each not really willing to go much farther. “250!” “330!” “270!” “300 bits! That’s my final offer!” Spatzi looked at him for a moment. “290, or no deal.” The sales pony was obviously sweating as he contemplated it. He stood there silent looking at the floor. Spatzi took it as a no and began to walk toward the door with the bag of bits in hand. “Wait!” he yelled in desperation, he was seriously cutting into his own paycheck at this rate, but he needed to make at least a few bits. “Hmm?” Spatzi stopped to look at him. “295 bits is the lowest I can go and not get in trouble with the higher ups...” Spatzi smiled at him and lugged the big sack out from behind her and set it on the ground in front of him. Spilling its contents onto the floor. “Deal, I’ll take 21 of them.” The sales pony looked at all the bits that littered the floor around his hooves and then back up at the smiling Leoequss. She had played him, quite well actually. He cracked a smile at what had just happened and then chuckled about it. He would make rent after all, for this month and probably the next few. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After they had counted out all the bits, she had a total of 6,237 bits. After he rung up all the mattresses the total came to 6,195. Leaving her with a total of 42 bits left. At least she didn’t spend it all in one place. Because she lacked a saddle bag she just tossed the remaining bits into the sack and told the sales pony she would be back with some other ponies to pick everything up. “I’ll be back!” Yelled Spatzi as she happily left the store. 42 bits She had 42 bits left. Perhaps she could find a sweets shop. They had to have one someplace in town. She went off in search of a bakery or a candy store, its been awhile since she’s had anything sweet to eat. As she traveled off in search of a candy shop she was stopped by a pegasi as she rounded a corner in a part of town that was less traveled. “Hey kid, what happened to your huge sack? Don’t tell me you spent everything already.” Spatzi backed off a bit. “W-what do you want!? Leave me alone!” The pegasi didn’t back off however and just moved in closer. “Just hand over the sack, maybe there’s still enough left for some drinks.” Spatzi kept backing up until her backside was against the wall of a building. She was starting to panic, so she flared out her mane. “Just leave me alone! I’m warning you!” “That’s cute kid, just hand over what’s left of your money so we can both move on.” He reached out his hoof to take the sack off her back when she lashed out and swiped his arm. He reacted a second too slow as her claws dug into the flesh on his arm causing him yell in pain. “You little hybrid freak! I was trying to be civil about this!” He spun around and bucked her. Spatzi tried to jump back and out of the way but in her panicked state, forgot she was already backed into a wall. His buck landed on her stomach knocking the wind from her lungs and pushing her into the building. She fell to the floor wheezing for air as the pegasi grabbed the sack and dumped the bits out onto the floor. “42 bits? Well that should be able to get me a few drinks at the bar. Stupid little crybaby, shoulda just hoofed me the money.” He spit on her as he left, leaving her as tears began to well up in her eyes. “Give it...back...” Spatzi just watched as he began to flap his wings and take off. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Pinkie, is it really necessary to have a party right now?” asked Glarin as he watched her set up streamers and balloons, much to his displeasure. “Of course it is silly! Little Spatzi left on an errand so it’s the prefect chance to set up her Surprise party!” Glarin grumbled again. Even after telling this pink energetic pony that today was not a good day for a party, she just kept setting up party materials. How she was able to keep pulling things out from her mane was a mystery. But then again, he remembered how many of the older dwarves had a habit of storing things like food and tools in their long thick beards. Perhaps she was part dwarf in that manner. “Glarin, I brought the small ball of iron... What was this for again?” Glarin took the small iron ball from Starset and looked it over. It fit nicely into the palm of his hand. “Pinkie asked for a small ball, the only ball I have is this iron one from the weight room... Pinkie! I got your ball!” Pinkie jumped down from the top of the ladder “Yippe! Hand it over quick!” Glarin held out the metal ball for Pinkie to take, only for her to look at it quizzically. “This isn’t a toy ball!” She exclaimed “I don’t have any toy balls...” Pinkie just looked at the iron ball thoughtfully for a moment before turning away. “Well thats fine, I can just use one of mine from one of my emergency ball stashes.” Pinkie walked over to a bookshelf in the room and pushed it aside revealing a hole that she reached into. She then pulled out a few balls then replaced the bookshelf. “I don’t remember having any books... Let alone that Bookshelf!” Glarin just watched as the pink pony bounced from one place to another as she continued to set things up. He was still trying to figure out where that bookshelf with the books came from. It was made of weak and dirty wood for dwarf sake. It was at that moment that one of the guards came running into the room. “Sir Glarin! Spatzi has returned, shes coming down this way...” Pinkie let loose a loud gasp “Quick! Everyone hide!” The guard just shook his head. “No, shes... I think something happened. She covered in dirt, but she won’t tell me anything.” Glarin raised an eyebrow at that. Pinkie had stopped bouncing around as she heard what the guard said. The door opened slowly with Spatzi walking inside. She slowly walked up to Glarin with her head hung low the entire time. “I got the stuff. You can go pick them up at a place called Celestia’s Beds N’ Things...” Glarin nodded his head. “And my change? Was there anything left?” Spatzi seemed to flinch at that. “I-I don’t have it...” Glarins eye seemed to twitch at that. “What do you mean, you don’t have it? What happened?” Glarin waited, but she kept looking at the floor. “It...I’m...” Glarin was starting to loose patience with her being so timid. “Spit it out lass! What happened!” Spatzi looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m just a stupid little crybaby that let a stupid Pegasus take it from me! Ok?! Are you happy now?!” Glarin didn’t respond the way she thought he would. He didn’t yell at her for losing the money, or losing to some stupid Pegasus, he didn’t even look angry. “Do you remember what he looked like?” Was all he said. Spatzi nodded her head as she used a paw to wipe away her tears. “He was orange, I didn’t see his cutie mark or notice anything else...” Glarin turned around to look at everyone else in the room. “EVERYOONE!” Yelled Glarin, he was so loud that the room shook, he was beginning to emit a dangerous aura. “GATHER EVERY ORANGE PEGASUS IN TOWN THAT MATCHES SPATZI’S DESCRIPTION!" "IMMEDIATELY!” Without hesitation every single one of the guards saluted Glarin and sped off outside toward the town. Glarin turned back to face Spatzi once again. He didn’t look angry. “One last thing, did he call you a stupid little crybaby?” Spatzi nodded her head, and then she heard him growl. “Here, take this back to the weight room. I need to get my hammer...” Glarin handed her the small iron ball he had been holding onto the whole time. As she looked at it, it was no longer round, it was more oval shaped with indents that were big enough for Glarins fingers to fit inside of.