The three fillies looked at Applejack hopefully as she pulled herself together. Applejack's eyes wandered over the room, noticing the two coins laying on the floor, "What all have y'all been up to?"
Apple Bloom pointed at Sweetie Belle, "Sweetie did a nice song for eleven bits of coins."
Scootaloo flapped her wings, lifting from the ground briefly, "My wings work!"
Applejack smiled lightly, "Alright, good. Uh, congratulations..." Applejack slipped from the bed and stretched out slowly, "Ah'm still feeling a mite weak and dizzy, but I'm awake. Let's take stock ah things." She set her own saddlebag down and began to nose through it, finding a pouch of bits and setting it down. "Now... if I recall proper, ponies around here don't take kindly to nudity. If we want ta be respectable like, we'll want ta get some new duds."
Apple Bloom moved to tug open the pouch with her teeth and started counting quickly. "Thirty," she announced shortly.
Applejack nodded, "Bits ain't tha same as the coins they use 'round here, we should exchange them. Can ah trouble ya girls ta carry mah stuff?"
The three quickly gathered up bits of Applejack's belongings, leaving Applejack to reclaim an emptied saddlebag and put it into place. "First thing, I'm thirsty as a fish outta water. Let's go." She led the way out to the front. The original two purrsians had since left. Applejack approached the bar directly and tapped a hoof on it, "Excuse me?"
A voice shouted from the back, "Keep your pants on!"
Applejack sighed, glancing back at her lack of pants, but waited anyway.
What emerged wasn't a cat as they had all expected. Instead it was a pony, sort of. They were comprised entirely of gears and metal, clicking as they moved. "What can I do you for?" asked the masculine voice of the machine-pony. Seeing the shocked and confused expression of Applejack and her small charges, he sighed. "First time seeing a clockwork or something? It's not polite to stare."
Scootaloo pointed directly at him, "You're a machine!"
He nodded, "Alright, you're not completely blind. So are you here to order?"
Applejack cleared her throat, "Right, sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean nothing. So... what do you have to drink?"
He let out a raspy sort of sigh, "Cactus juice is a local favorite, got a few dwarven liquors in stock, and two kinds of tea, green and white. If you order food, you get a glass of water included. Here." He ducked his head down and came back up with a flat sheet of wood with a menu written out on it. "I don't normally give a hoot, but I can't help but notice the lot of you are naked as the sky. You get robbed something fierce, or are you some kind of performing troupe?"
Scootaloo tilted her head, "We're usually like this. Why?"
Applejack put a hoof out in front of Scootaloo, clearing her throat, "We were mugged on the way to th' city. Know a good place to exchange coins, then to pick up some new duds?"
The clockwork's expression flattened a little, "Do you have coin to get food with?"
Sweetie proudly produced the gold piece and floated it up to the countertop.
With a quick motion, the coin vanished, "You're all good with me. I'll even throw in a bulk discount, so you're good for today, three meals each."
Applejack smiled, "Right kind ah you." She tapped the menu, "Get us all some 'home style' taters and eggs, and make that glass of water extra large if'n ya please." Applejack then lead the way to a table. She sat on the ground, while the three fillies hopped up onto the chairs surrounding the table so they were closer to the eating surface. The table was much higher off the ground than Equestrian standard architecture.
The water arrived first, a clay mug filled with the precious fluid set before each of them. All four quickly drained their mug, letting out a communal sigh of relief. The bartender, still standing there, pointed out, "Clothes are as much for keeping the heat off of you as they are for looking pretty."
Apple Bloom looked baffled at the idea, "Ah thought clothes made ya warmer, not colder."
The mechanical pony smirked, "I had a feeling you weren't locals. Trust me, it works. I'll be back with breakfast." He wandered off into the back.
Applejack sighed, "This'll get us out of being stared out as bad as that tin pony in the back, but we're still in a bad spot, girls."
Sweetie raised a hoof, "I can sing more!"
Applejack smiled gently, "That ya can. I'd feel like a right heel relying on a fillie t' raise all mah money fer me. Let's do what we can first. Once we figure out how much money we actually have and got some right clothes, we'll figure it out, right?"
Scootaloo stuck out her tongue at Applejack, "We're not just fillies! We got you here nice and safe."
Applejack looked at Scootaloo flatly, "Yer right, y'all did get me here." She huffed, "We gotta get home. Everglow's not a safe place."
Apple Bloom tilted her head, "This is where tha magic came from, right?"
Applejack nodded, "Twilight learned it all, at great personal price. She literally died and came back ta get it all. I don't want you girls taking after that." She held up a hoof and pointed at each of them in turn, "I want allaya to play it safe. We are not here to sightsee or prove anything, just be safe." She shrank a little after saying that, "Ah wish she was here..."
Sweetie smiled brightly, "Don't be sad, Applejack. We'll help, promise."
Scootaloo bobbled her head, "I know you just see fillies when you look at us, but we're here for you, AJ. We're all we got, so, uh... what I'm trying to say..."
Apple Bloom extended a hoof at Applejack, "Sis, ah formally invite ya to be an honorary Crusader."
Applejack looked at the small hoof a moment before a smile broke free of her. She bumped her hoof against Bloom's, and soon the other two had joined in. "Alrighty then."
It was just in time for platters of food to arrive, set before them with delectable aromas. Talk paused to devour the food set before them, filling bellies eager to have it. The entire group looked a bit happier with that particular edge worked off.
Applejack pushed to her hooves, "Alright! Ah'm feeling a bit better. Let's get ta work." The fillies quickly got to their hooves. Apple Bloom approached Applejack, looking up at her with a silent question.
AJ shook her head, "Ah'm still a little under the weather."
Bloom pouted a little, but let the matter drop. Soon they were outside in the building morning heat. Following the clockwork's direction, they pushed their way through the crowd with Applejack forming the front of the displacement wave that the others followed in. They found a small building with a sign, 'Tasha Emerald's Fine Jewelry and Coin Exchange'. Applejack nudged the door open and slipped inside.
It smelled dusty, and was quite small. It was barely half a room with a purrsian seated behind a counter. There was no jewelry or coins in sight. Sweetie blinked as she looked around, "Are we in the right place?"
The male feline smiled in that way only felines can, "If you're here for an exchange, yes. If you are penniless beggars here to plead, or desperate robbers, no."
Applejack shook her head, "We're here ta trade, uh, but where's allayer stuff?"
He waved a paw lightly, "I learned long ago that the convenience of easily-viewed merchandise does not compare with the hassle of thieves and brigands. You have entered my store, you clearly want what I have. What do you have?"
Apple Bloom scurried up to the counter and set down the bag of bits in front of him. "Here ya are!"
He pulled open the bag with deft fingers and spilled out the Equestrian bits. He held one up a moment, then produced a scale and weighed it with a soft 'hmm'. He then bit into it roughly, worrying his teeth into it. "Not pure gold, mild artistic value. Did you make this yourselves?"
Applejack shook her head, "No sir. Right proper currency where we're from."
He shrugged then, "That must be a long way away. I have never seen this coin before." He smiled, "Good for you. Rarity can be its own value. Shame it isn't pure gold, but I suppose that would be a poor choice for currency." He flipped one of the coins before setting it back down on the pile, quickly sorting it out into sets of ten. "Fifty. Very well, fourty proper gold for the lot."
Scootaloo quickly started to agree when Sweetie shoved a hoof against her mouth, silencing her. Sweetie smiled up at the feline, "Surely you could offer a little more than that? I didn't think we were walking into an establishment owned by a poor pony."
He scowled and bristled instantly, "I am no pauper!"
Applejack got nervous at the prompted reaction, "Uh, she did--"
He slapped the top of the counter, "You'll get fourty-five coin and be thankful for it!"
Sweetie leaned forward, gazing at the larger feline with a measured look, her eyes half-lidded, "Fourty-five? For such exotic treasures? Get our coins, Applejack, we shouldn't be seen dealing with the destitute."
"Fine!" shouted the storekeeper, "I'll match it even. Fifty gold coins. You'll not find a better price in the city, I promise it." He crossed his forelegs over his chest. "For such a small pony, you haggle like a pirate."
Sweetie nodded, "A pleasure doing business!" Her sweet tones only brought an angry grunt as the shopkeep produced a small sack and counted out fifty gold coins to place in it. He tied off the top of it and thrust it towards Applejack violently without a word.
Applejack numbly collected the sack of gold coins the storekeeper offered and led the girls outside. Once they were in a relatively quiet place, she turned on Sweetie Belle, "What was all of that?!"
Sweetie grinned triumphantly, "Just some things I picked up this morning when I did my singing, and watching my sister haggle with ponies back home." Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly offered hooves and bumps were shared around.
"That was great!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "Now we have enough money to get by."
Apple Bloom bobbed her head, "If we want ta stay at tha same place, we're good fer about five days wit' food." She frowned, "Oh, but we gotta get clothes..."
Applejack blinked, "That place was ten a night? Ah reckon we can do a fair bit cheaper than that. But, first, let's get those duds. Ah feel like ah'm being stared at."