If it weren't fer the summer I'd probably be out of business. It'd be a might harder to get work if there wasn't a little warmth in the world. Thank Celestia and her mighty sun fer the warm seasons.
That said, it was early spring, and it was cold down in the valley. And rainin' to boot. I could already feel the cold tryin' to nip at the tips of my wings. I tucked my legs in a little closer as I flew, regretting I didn't dress a little bit thicker. I ain't never handled cold well, always preferred hot drinks an' food to cold, always kept at least 3 blankets on my bed. Oh, beds... That reminded me, somehow. If it was rainin', that might put a damper on the moods o' everypony down in Ponyville, who probably got it just as bad as out Canterlot side of the valley. I might have t' be real charismatic to convince 'em to help me. Good thing I got the looks of my father then. I'd say it'd of been good to have his wits too, but he was a politician, so that probably wouldn't of played in my favor, really.
I guess that's why I ain't too fond of government jobs.
...
The vastness of the flat planescape below Canterlot Mountain was, well, vast. Really, the whole lot of it was excellent land, perfect for farms, for agriculture centers, alla that. But there weren't many places of genuine civilization out here. At least, not pony civilization.
Out here, the land was diamond dog land. They'd been out here fer as long as the land itself, and there ain't no good in tryin' to take land that ain't yours, so ponies just don't normally settle out here. Seriously, settlin' in somewheres where there's already a native civilization is like tryin' to fill an already full cup. Alla that is gotta go somewheres.
Diamond dogs were, fer a lack of better understanding, strange. Well, not strange as in weirdo-ew-keep-away-from-me strange, but strange as in outside of the norm, strangers, something unknown. As far as anypony does know, their entire livelihood has always been exclusive, keepin' to themselves an' not really ever botherin' with much of anything out on the surface. I suppose they gots themselves a whole civilization of their own down under the Earth, where it's full of plenty o' gems fer them to... Do whatever it is they do.
I had a ways to go, so I had packed a bit of food for the trip. Not much, as I could just buy food once I got to Ponyville. Some crackers, a bit of dried fruit. It'd be only another, maybe, 7 hours before I actually reached Ponyville, provided I didn't get attacked by- No, I'd already decided against that. I figure there's got to be a reason a dragon would attack a town. Dragons ain't dumb, they'd have to have some good reason to go at a town of ponies. Especially considerin' the tenacious nature of us ponies. Still kinda worries me though. I guess I'd find out eventually, huh?
...
Headed south, I caught sight of the first bit of genuine pony civilization out here. A patch of farmland, a plantation, looked like.
It's good to take breaks when making long flights like this, so I figured I'd settle down there for a bit. Maybe the rain'll pass while I'm there! So I flew on round to where I could see the front of the property, where a road winded along a hedgerow until it split, one carryin' on and the other leadin' to the main building of the plantation. It looked like a beautiful piece of land, and it was! Whoever put this out here musta been one hay of a savvy farm pony. It'd have to be a good few ponies, considerin' the size of the property. It had 3 buildings, one big white one and 2 smaller ones on either side, with a nice flower garden out front and a pretty big plot of farmland out back. I sure hoped they didn't mind me stoppin' up here fer a while!
I landed up just before the front garden, and unhitched myself from the cart. It was holdin' up amazingly, and felt a whole lot better than that ol' apple cart I had, which was at least twice as heavy. I left the cart under a tree off the side of the road, and trotted up to knock on the door. It looked like they were still makin' some improvements on the house, 'cause a scaffolding was up along the right side of it, leadin' up to the 3rd floor. I couldn't get a good look at what the work was that was bein' done to the house from my angle, though.
I stepped up to the door, fine oak with a faintly red polish, givin' it a real pretty contrast to the white of the rest of the building. It had one of them knockers on it, a brass head of what looked like some sort of a boar with a ring hangin' from its open maw. I went ahead and swung that 3 times, which I generally considered the proper amount of times to knock on a door if you ain't familiar with the folks. I stood there for a moment longer, probably wasn't nopony just stood there waitin' to open the door whenever somepony knocked. That'd be real weird.
Now I don't make a habit of countin' seconds, but in this particular case I did. It took about 20 seconds fer somepony to get to the door an' open it fer me. A little earth pony foal, light yellow coat and an orange mane. She looked up at me fer just a moment, then turned round and hollered great big into the house. "Daddy, there's some strange pony at the door!"
I tried my darnedest to stifle a laugh.
A sort of young sounding voice carried back through the house from somewheres deeper inside. "Well let them in then! And don't say things like that about ponies, it's rude!"
I didn't manage to stifle the laugh that time.
"My daddy said to let you in," the little foal said, lookin' about straight up at me.
"Well thank ya kindly, miss!" I gave 'er a little nod and stepped on in, makin' sure to wipe my hooves off on the doormat outside before I did, as it just ain't civil to track dirt an' whatnot into another pony's home. Any home, really. Any establishment at all. Shucks, I wouldn't even track mud into the cave of a manticore.
"Who are you mister?" The little foal asked me. Oh boy, did I love when folks asked me that.
"Why, I'm Barron Skyes, the fastest courier pony outta Cloudsdale!" I whinnied. "And who are you, young mare?"
"Oh, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. You're not allowed to know who I am."
Again. Failed with the whole not-laughing thing.
It wasn't long until the fella the youngin' had called daddy came to greet me. He had on a plain white button up, his fur was orange and his mane was a light shade of pink. His cutiemark was hid behind a pair of black slacks.
"Name's Provolone Slim, friend! What brings you all the way out here? There hasn't been more nonsense with that dragon, has there?" Somehow, it sounded like he was defending the dragon in that statement, but I shrugged it off, as it in fact didn't have anything to do with me.
"No, sir! Name's Barron Skyes." I offered my hoof for a hoofshake, which he took. It's just polite. "I'm on my way to make a delivery, but the weather's kind of puttin' a damper on that. I was hopin' you wouldn't mind me stoppin' up here to let the rain pass?" It always pleased me to have a good, neighborly conversation between strangers. "If'n you've got someplace I can stow my cart, I'd be a might appreciative, friend."
Provolone nodded knowingly. Fella probably understood pretty well the importance of keepin' yer equipment out of the weather. "Well, as long as you don't mind telling me a bit about yourself while you stay, I don't have any objections." He bopped his filly's rump lightly with his hoof, saying, "Go on, Butters, go show the stallion where he can store his cart."
The little filly, Butters apparently, bound out the door without a word. I chuckled as I followed behind, and quickly got hitched back into my cart. I pulled it along, followin' where Butters lead, around the left side of the house, where she came to a gated fence between the two buildings. She got up on her hind hooves to reach up and slap the latch on the gate, then swung it open, leadin' to the rear yard of the property. To the far right was a large stable, with a small fenced area behind it where a herd of cattle grazed, apparently indifferent about the rain.
Butters lead me to the left, however, where a shed stood on the other side of the left building. It was a decently sized shed, and it looked almost new, or thoroughly well kept. She did the same as she'd done to the gate, openin' up the big door of the shed, and let me pull my cart into there, where there was a whole bunch of farm equipment, like plows, trailers, rakes and all other sort of tools. A loud clap of thunder rang out as I came unhitched from my cart, and that little filly jumped up great big and rushed inside as the rain seemed to double its efforts to drown the world.
Poor thing, I remember how storms had scared me when I was her age. "You think thunderstorms are scary on the ground, imagine one right beneath you!" I teased her.
"I-I'm not scared..." the filly whimpered.
I just laughed and nodded my head. "I know you're not. I never was either," I said with a wink. I think that got me on her good side, 'cause she giggled a bit. Oh, the wonders of youth.
After I got my cart settled into the shed, we headed back to the plantation house, again making sure to wipe my hooves before entering. Butters led me through the foyer into what looked like the largest living space I'd ever seen. One big room, seemingly taking up its space in all three stories, with a big chandelier made from antlers hangin' from the high up ceiling, a big fireplace on the far wall, and an assortment of really nice looking furniture in ebony wood and white leather. This Provolone Slim fella had it nice. Like I said, Earth ponies is tenacious.
Provolone Slim stepped into the room from what looked to be a kitchen, off to the right of the big living room. He had a towel thrown over his withers, and was wearing an apron. Cooking, I assumed.
"You ate anything lately, Barron Skyes?" He asked me, confirmin' my suspicions of cooking. He nodded towards the kitchen, saying, "I'm fixing up a real nice meal. Stew, bread, potatoes. The fixings."
Shoot yeah, this fella knew what was good! "Why you've got to be somethin' real generous, there, mister Slim. I appreciate it. I left right after breakfast from Canterlot, so..." I paused for a moment, tryin' to figure how long it'd been since I'd left. "Say, what time is it, exactly?"
Provolone checked a pocket watch he had in his shirt pocket. "Quarter to 11. I figure you delivery ponies have to keep a pretty tight schedule, huh?"
Quarter to 11? Yikes, that might throw a wrench in the monkey. "Well usually, yeah. The job I'm on right now isn't too tight though, and I ain't gonna make no headway in the weather like this anyhow." I'd end up havin' to pull an all-nighter probably, but that shouldn't hurt anything.
"Well, if you say so. Go ahead and show him to the dining room, Butters. I'll be just a few minutes longer." Provolone went back into the kitchen, and butters began trottin' off through a doorway set into the wall to the right of the kitchen entrance, under a set of stairs. Inside was indeed the dining room.
Rich ebony wood seating, ebony dining table, cast iron wall sconces which lit up as Butters flicked the light switch next to the door. Beneath the table and seating was a brilliant maroon rug, with a rich tapestry of what looked like some kind of a battle between knight ponies. Seriously, this fella must have been loaded. Or something. On the walls - which were painted a similar color to the maroon of the rug - were various paintings of even more knight-like scenes; a knight at a river with his maiden, a knight posing with his sword, a group of similarly dressed knights all around a table. The table in that specific painting seemed awful familiar.
"Ya'll have a real nice place here, miss Butters!" I had to say, it was really nice. A proper house. A proper home. "Did your father build all of this?" I asked her as I stepped around the room, looking at the various paintings.
"Him and his friends did, back before I was around." She replied, taking a seat in a tall bar stool next to a fancy looking seat which I assumed was her father's. "He would be able to tell you more, I don't know too much about it."
I stored that away as a topic to discuss later. I had a fair interest in architecture, and this place was really piquing my interest.
...
After a few minutes Provolone Slim brought in the food. A basket of rolls, a big pot of stew, a bowl of mashed potatoes, and a pitcher of iced tea. This fella must've been from southern Equestria.
He gave us each our own serving on the plates that were already set at the table. I did notice there were 8 places set. It was probably just for the sake of decoration, but it still seemed a little odd. Oh well, ain't no good to judge another.
He brought in bowls for the stew as well, which he then filled as he placed them at our places at the table. It was a seasoned vegetable and herb stew, with a nice dark broth that was steaming hot. Smelled delicious!
Finally, Provolone took his seat next to his daughter, whom I had chosen to sit across from. "Well tell me a bit about yourself, Barron. What kind of delivery are you making that brings you all the way out here from Canterlot?" Provolone asked me as he began eating his meal, dipping a roll into his bowl of stew.
I tasted the taters first, and found them exactly to my liking. The right amount of salt and just enough pepper to have a little bite to 'em. "Well," I began, "There's a gala comin' up in a couple of days, and some of the orders of food got... Misplaced," I decided that wording would be best. "I'm makin' an emergency run to Ponyville to get another order."
Provolone Slim nodded. "Well I don't see any badges on you. Are you a private contractor?"
"Sure am. Took to the courier business as soon as I had enough bits to put myself out there." The stew was excellent, a perfect mix of garlic, onion, bay leaf, greens and fronds. "My family has been in politics for a pretty long while, and I decided to break the chain, I suppose."
Provolone seemed to agree to that, chuckling a bit. "I don't blame you. There's not much of a dirtier business than the business of politics. But I have to ask, what does a lemon have to do with delivering?"
Ahh, here we go. "Well, you see, my mother was actually a baker. She taught me how to bake all sorts of things, and I took to lemon pies. Real odd, I know, but somehow that ended up bein' my cutiemark." I snickered. "I honestly had no interest in makin' a future out of lemon pies, so I took to helpin' with the logistics side of mother's business, and eventually I ended up doin' delivery services for her. That's how I got into bein' a courier."
"So I assume your father had it in politics?" Provolone asked.
I nodded. "Sure did. And his father before him, and his father before him, and so on. Ran for gov'ner of Cloudsdale 3 times, and didn't win once."
"Well there ain't much politics for around here. Down here in the plains, you only gotta look after yourself and your own." Provolone said, looking to his daughter. "We got a saying around here. Order's for the weak." He laughed.
I laughed too, however not quite so much. "Well, y'all just about know everything about me now. How about you, though? I gotta say this is an awfully big house for just the two of you."
Butters looked up to her father, whom looked to her, then to the various paintings on the walls. "It was a lot more, once. I didn't come here alone," he began. "I used to be a different pony, Barron. Didn't have no family to look after, no land to keep. These paintings you see all around you? They're of the order I was a part of, long ago. We liked to fancy ourselves as knights, but really we were just a band of mercenaries. We'd done a bunch of bounty hunting down in Saddle Arabia a good while back, before one of us defected and moved away. We ended up coming to Equestria looking for more work, but things aren't quite the same up here as they are down in Saddle Arabia. We built this house as our sort of base of operations, hoping to maybe make it a little more official, but eventually one by one everypony else ended up getting... Well, they aren't around anymore."
Well, shucks. Wait, hold on a second! "Saddle Arabia? Did that fellow that first defected go by the name of Yuri?"
Provolone eyed me a bit suspiciously. "He may have, why?"
All right, maybe 'defecting' is a little worse than it sounded. "Well, my cousin, Yuri Lucatiel, used to do some merc work down there. Couldn't be that he was one of your pals, was he?"
"Luca? He's still around?" Provolone sounded genuinely surprised at that. "Unicorn, can wield a whole bunch of weapons at once, real patient fellow with no humor?"
"Yeppers, that sounds like him. By gum, I do believe you an' I ain't so separated after all!" Who'd of thought I'd meet one of my cousin's old warrin' buddies out here!
"Well that's... I really don't know what to think. He... We'd all thought he'd gone and got himself killed. I can't believe he's still around!" His tone shifted to something actually happy soundin' then, a decent contrast to the topic of his previous statement. "This has to be some meeting of fate between you and I, Barron Skyes. So what's prim and proper Luca doing these days?"
I laughed at that. I musta been in a giddy mood today, laughin' as much as I was. "He's been doin' a bunch of carpentry work up in Canterlot. Has his own shop and everything. He's the one that made my cart, in fact. Just today."
For once, Butters piped up, saying, "A whole cart just today? How?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it past him," Provolone replied to his daughter. "That Luca sure was a wizard with his magic... Us Earth ponies never really did have much of an interest in that sort of thing. The magic, I mean."
"Yah, I'd imagine a lot of carpentry went into this here house, so one of you had to of been somethin' good with carvin' wood and alla that," I speculated.
"Well, Luca had already left the gang when we moved up here." Provolone began to explain. "It'd been about 2 years since he left when we decided to come up to Equestria. None of us knew he had come up here too. To start a carpentry business, no less!"
I nodded to that. It made sense, now. Yuri havin' come up here with his family, for his then baby brother. I can comprehend how tough it is t' leave a group of friends like that. But when it involves family, you'll find you might do a lot of things you might not like in order to protect the ones you love. And now his brother is joinin' the Equestrian Royal Guard. Time sure does carry ponies far.
...
As the conversation wound down, so did the meal, and the weather. I, as a good guest, helped clean up the dishes and what not. Politeness is a bit of a policy for me. It's gotta be, considerin' I'm a self employed courier!
I looked out a window, to see the first patches of blue sky through the breaking cloud cover. It looked to still be raining in some places off in the distance, but it had stopped around where I was, so I took that as a good sign. Pegasi tended to let weather take a more wild approach out here, which is how you get patchy rains like what was goin' on now.
Provolone Slim trotted up to stand beside me. "The news you've given me today is truly life changing, courier. I appreciate that. I consider you a good friend, Barron Skyes. If you ever need someplace to stop up again whenever you're making another impossible emergency delivery, feel free to come on by. You'll always be welcome here."
"Well, thank you kindly, Mister Slim." I extended a hoof for a hoofshake.
He grinned as he took my hoof. The sort of grin someone gets when remembering old times, nostalgia I think they call it. "Actually, it's Sir Slim. But you can just call me Slim." He turned to look out the window again, lookin' up at the slowly partin' clouds. "We actually did get knighted, most of us anyways. Ponies aren't uncommon in Saddle Arabia, and the natives down there are pretty similar to us really, but the cultural differences are still pretty strong. If Yuri had been knighted, maybe he would have stayed with us. It's not for me to say, as I don't know what brought him to leave."
There certainly seemed to be a few cultural differences. I'd never heard of anypony gettin' knighted in modern day Equestria. "Well, considerin' how you an' him go back a ways, I figure I'm safe tellin' you." He turned to look at me as I said that, an eyebrow slightly raised. "Yuri brought his whole family up here. His mother and father, and in fact his newborn brother. The new born was the biggest cause for him defectin' from y'all, as he figured a life of bounty huntin' and monster slayin' wasn't goin' to be too easy on the poor lad."
Provolone contemplated that for a while, before eyeing me suspiciously for the second time today. "Yuri couldn't of had a brother. Not a blood brother, at least. This explains a lot, Barron. More than you know." He moved to sit down in one of the fine chairs of the large living room, to which I followed suit, taking my place on a couch across from him. "The job we did before Yuri defected was the first job we got as genuine Saddle Arabian Knights. It was to save a certain high value individual from a certain party of... Let's say, interlopers. The job payed massively, and the money ended up being used to get us here to Equestria, and a lot of it went into this very house. That job, though... It was strange. The HVI was some weird lookin' newborn foal, apparently stolen from its mother before she ever got to see it. The foal... Well, he was a pony, a unicorn in fact. But, he had some differences to the rest of us. He was real dark colored, and well, the phrase Braun used was 'penta-corn.' The foal had 5 horns." Slim paused for a moment, his eyes lookin' distant as he reminisced about the old days. "Honestly, as a Knight, I ain't allowed to tell you much. It's got a lot to do with old religion though. Dead and dying gods, they say, are more vengeful than any force of nature... Anyway, we did the job, but for some reason Luca was up at arms about the whole thing, and he ended up not accepting his part of the payment. That added up to about 5,000 bits, mind you. Soon after, we got word the foal had been given up, and that same day Luca defected."
I sat in silence for a bit, letting alla that sink in. It made much more sense now. 18 year old brother of a 50 year old, no physical similarities. I sighed as the last puzzle piece fell into place. "Well, Slim. This sure does explain a lot, if what you're tellin' me is true - and I'm inclined to believe you're an honest pony. Rolo, Yuri's brother, has antlers, that look like 4 additional horns on the sides of his head. And his coat is real dark. So yeah, I figure what you're figurin' is pretty close to reality. Heh, you know what Rolo is doin' now?" Slim raised his head a little, prompting me to provide him with the answer. "The gala I'm gettin' these platters for, it's the preceedings for an initiation ceremony for the Royal Guard. Fella is gettin' sworn in this saturday. Him and all 5 of his horns," I made light, which I often found to be a good way to keep conversations sedated. You don't have a politician for a father and not get a few lessons in bein' charismatic.
Slim got real quiet then, nodding his head slightly. Eventually he spoke after a sigh. "Ah well, it's all behind me anyhow." He looked past me, towards the door of whatever room was behind me. "Butter Sweet, how would you feel about a trip to Canterlot come saturday?" Slim asked his daughter as she trotted into the room. She stopped up as she came to the coffee table between me and Slim, looking between the two of us. "Say Barron, is there an age limit for this gala of yours?"
Butters' face lit up at that, grinnin' real wide as she awaited my answer. "Haha, it's open to all ages, Slim. Management for it is comin' from the Princess herself, in fact."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to go see what all the fuss is about, won't we Butters?"
It always pleased me to see children happy like that.