As soon as the group slowly exited the magnificent castle, they were greeted by the Ornithomimus and Nomingia from before, but also a tall slender brown Struthiomimus, an assertive stocky grey Hagryphus and a pair of sleek maroon Kinnareemimus.
The Ornithomimus was the only one to speak. He spoke in a gentle yet strong tone that was also soft enough to melt chocolate.
“Hello Equestrian citizens. I’m Velox. I shall be an escort for one of you.” he said as he glanced over the ponies and dragon before him.
Immediately Rainbow Dash perked up slightly. This guy was clearly not as boring as the others, but she still didn’t like him that much. He looked at her and smiled in a friendly soft way.
“I’ll go with him,” Rainbow said to her friends, “if he can take me to the weather guys.”
“Uh, you guys can explore the city,” Twilight intervened, “I kinda wanna stick around the castle.”
“Okay Twilight,” Spike replied for the whole group, “I’ll be going down to the city, see what the shops and townsfolk are like.”
Twilight smiled as she went back inside the castle. Spike and a Kinnareemimus went south to the market and sandstone terrace houses. Rarity, Carnithimus and the other Kinnareemimus went west to go to the high-end fashion and jewellery stores, Rainbow and Velox went north to the weather areas, Pinkie and the Hagryphus went east to the fun housing area, Fluttershy and the Struthiomimus went southeast to the Botanic Gardens, and Applejack and the Nomingia went northwest to the gingko farms.
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“The shops of Maniraptora seem to go for miles, Reed!” Spike noted as he and his escort wandered through the town.
“Oh yeah. There’s pawn shops, fruit shops, department stores, jewelers, general stores. You know it, we got it.” Reed replied to his dragon friend.
“A pawn shop, eh?” Spike wondered. He knew he had an old Ponex watch in his bag. Perhaps it was worth a lot of money? He saw a sign that said ‘Famous Silver and Gold Pawn Store’. He and Reed slowly pushed open the thin black steel and glass door and entered the mild store. There was plenty of raptors buying all kinds of trinkets and odds and ends. A bald-headed grey male Oviraptor was behind the counter, along with a rather pretty yet stocky beige female Falcarius. Spike almost hopped towards the counter and presented the Falcarius with the Ponex watch.
“Hi there. I’m Fall. What do you have here?” the Falcarius asked sweetly. She looked at Spike with slight amazement. He was the first dragon she had ever seen, and he was making a very good first impression of them.
“This is an authentic Ponex watch from the 1950s.” Spike told Fall, as if there were camera-raptors recording everything to put into a reality TV show that teaches the only history that the current generation will watch, on an ironically named television channel. Fall picked up the watch and held it close to her eye to inspect the golden watch.
“This is in perfect condition,” she noted, “You wishing to sell it?”
Spike responded with a nod. “How much are you willing to offer?” he asked
“Roughly 2 thousands bits.” Fall replied. Spike accepted the generous offer and Fall wrote it up. She also rather cheekily wrote down her phone number and email address on his receipt. She clearly wanted to stay in touch with Spike. She didn’t have romantic feelings for him, rather wanted to make a new friend.
Spike took the receipt and blushed slightly as he and Reed exited the pawn store and continued their trek through the town
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Rainbow and Velox wandered through the northern side of the city. Rainbow was looking for the Raptania weather team. Eventually they found them. A sleek black male Microraptor and a sleek blue female Zhenyuanlong were shifting the clouds.
"To you, Zhao!" the Zhenyuanlong said as she kicked a cloud towards him. The Microraptor kicked it and it disappeared.
"Not sure how that works, author." Zhao said to himself, "I mean, just kicking a cloud makes it disappear? Okay, author, your choice. Just as long as we raptors look accurate and the city feels believable."
The Zhenyuanlong facepalmed at this.
"Zhao, what have we said about breaking that wall in public?" she scolded
Zhao looked down. "To not do it." he replied.
"Good." the Zhenyuanlong said as she looked down and saw Dash and Velox. She flew down to them.
"Hey." Rainbow said gleefully, "You the captain of the weather team here?"
The Zhenyuanlong immediately shook her head.
"No." she answered, "I'm just in charge of Zhao. I'm Yuan."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Rainbow Dash" Rainbow said. Yuan looked at her, then at Velox.
"You two dating?" she asked. Velox and Rainbow immediately blushed.
"What? Oh nonononononononono!" Rainbow replied.
"Well you two are going to be shipped by the fans anyway, you might as well make it canon right now." Zhao remarked, then Yuan gave him a look.
He sighed and said, "Shutting up."
"We're just trying to find Pyro and Olympic." Velox said.
"They're further up north." Yuan said as she pointed towards two orange-brown Pyroraptors clearing the clouds. Rainbow's eyes widened with joy as she and Velox wandered up to the Pyroraptors.
"Great." muttered Velox, "Now there's ANOTHER two ships for Rainbow. and now I'm starting to sound like Zhao"
The Pyroraptors kept clearing the clouds until the one with a forest fire cutie mark saw Rainbow Dash.
"Hey Olympic." he said, "There's a beautiful pony at 7 o'clock."
"Don't be silly Pyro." Olympic said, "There's no ponies in Raptania."
"Really?" Pyro asked. "Then who's that?" he pointed to Rainbow Dash.
"Hi." Rainbow said. Olympic's eyes widened when he saw her.
"My oh my aren't you beautiful" Olympic said, "I'm Olympic."
"I'm Rainbow Dash." Rainbow said and then she thought, "Why are these raptors trying to flirt with me? I mean, it's nice that they like me, but would they stop flirting with me?"
"That's a nice name." Olympic replied as he smiled.
"So you're in charge of the weather here?" Rainbow asked
"Yup." Olympic answered
"And I'm Vice-Captain." Pyro added
"Nice." Rainbow said, "I'm the captain of the weather team in Ponyville"
Olympic and Pyro smiled. "It's awesome to meet you." they said.
“It’s awesome to meet you guys too.” Rainbow answered.
“You know, there’s a lovely pub near here. Care for a pint?” Olympic asked, to avoid any awkwardness in the conversation.
Rainbow nodded. “Sure, if you guys are buying.” she smirked. The Pyroraptor brothers chuckled as they opened their wings and flew to the pub. Rainbow opened up her wings and flew as well, leaving Velox in the street ambling there grumpily.
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Carnithimus, Rarity and their escort (who is called Kin for whoever is wondering) were wandering through the upper-class housing area and shops. There was a high-end wedding shop, a high-end furniture store that wasn’t all do-it-yourself and foreign in design, a high-end jewellery store, everything was high-end and pricey. They passed a very fancy and very massive train station, with a locomotive roster that resembled GER Class P43s (look them up), and teak clerestory carriages. Rarity was astounded by the vastly fancy culture. And the raptors were just as fancy with perfectly preened feathers, immaculate clothing and voices that were quintessentially posh.
Soon they encountered a little lavender female Apsaravis fluttering down to the cobbled streets. Carnithimus smiled as he approached his childhood friend.
“Apsara! I wasn’t expecting you to be around this part of the city.” he said as he hugged the little bird.
Apsara hugged him back softly. “Well I knew my pedantic Pelecanimimus pal would be here so I flew straight here.” she chuckled.
Her attention was quickly halted by seeing Rarity standing beside Kin. “Who is your new friend?” she asked.
“My name is Rarity, darling.” Rarity replied as she walked up to Apsara and held out her left hoof.
“Apsara. It’s a delight to meet you.” Apsara answered as she shook Rarity’s hoof using her left wing.
“Well it’s a delight to meet you too.” Rarity smiled.
Kin was the only one not happy. He never was. He had been taught to only show mediocrity as an emotion. But that didn’t stop him from being a walking philosopher.
“M’lady. Whilst the greetings are warm, soon it will be time for us to depart for the castle.” he spoke, in his soft British tone.
Apsara giggled at the Kinnareemimus. “You’re so weird Kin. Just speak casually for once.” she said amongst chuckles.
Kin shook his head and replied softly, “That is an impossible feat for me.”
Apsara giggled more as she continued her conversation with Rarity.
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On the dirt paths of Ponyville or on these cobbled streets of Maniraptora, Pinkie bounded along through the spectacular city that she could very easily get lost in. She was most interested in the citizens. They looked so goofy and bizarre compared to ponies. And the jobs they were doing were equally bizarre in how they were carried out. Gigantoraptors carried huge piles of bricks to construction sites, instead of getting a machine or using magic. Shops were not open windows, but rather inside the buildings. Both the Rinchenia customer and the Elmisaurus shop owner were carrying out their transactions with no fuss. It was all a city of great fun to her and her Hagryphus escort.
But before she and you readers could start to think that this area of town was a purely oviraptorosaur populated area, she saw a Beipiaosaurus’ door being tended to by a very bizarre, forest green, male Yi. His bat-like wings folded and creased as he dug through his toolbox to find his electric lockpick gun to unlock the door.
“There we go ma’am.” he said calmly, “I’ve just got to go back to my workplace and we’ll have a new key for your door. In the meantime, you mustn’t lock the door from the outside.”
The Beipiaosaurus was happy and thanked the Yi for his work. He smiled, picked up his toolbox with his sparrow-like feet then was about to fly off when Pinkie Pie shouted at him in her excited greeting voice.
“HELLO THERE MISTER!” she exclaimed. The Yi was very surprised at this and almost hit his head off a shop sign. He sighed then flapped down to where Pinkie was.
“Um, hi. You have a problem with your lock?” he asked kindly. Pinkie immediately shook her head quickly, making her hair turn even fluffier than normal.
“Nope,” she began, “I just wanted to meet you because you look so awesome!”
The Yi blushed slightly at this comment. “Did she me shirtless or something?” he thought, but then replied, “Uh thanks.”
“I mean, how come all the other dinos have feathery wings but you have DRAGON WINGS?” she asked excitedly.
The Yi’s blush very quickly disappeared. “Oh. Well I’m an Yi qi. We have bat wings instead because our third finger is far more elongated than our others.” he remarked.
“Awesome. I’m Pinkie Pie. I’m here to sign a treaty between my home place of Equestria and Raptania.” Pinkie announced quickly, before finishing the explanation with a characteristic squee.
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Pinkie Pie. I am Key, I’m kind of the main locksmith in Maniraptora, and the only Yi qi you’ll see here.” Key commented softly.
“Well I’ve gotta go back to the castle in a few hours, but I can hang out with you for the remainder of the time.” Pinkie replied, eager to get to know Key even better.
“I wish I could hang out, but I’ve got work to do. If you want to tag along though then that’d be fine.” Key answered. Pinkie quickly nodded then took Key’s toolbox and placed it on her back as the pair went to Key’s next job.
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If there was such a thing as heaven, then Fluttershy was there in the Maniraptora Botanic Gardens. The bluebells were a vibrant cerulean, the violets stayed violet, and the air was refreshing pleasing. Her Struthiomimus escort was near the entrance, but she saw a familiar Austroraptor wandering through the azaleas.
“Cabazi?” she asked worryingly. He looked up and turned to face her.
“F-Fluttershy?” he said bewilderedly, blushing softly.
“Y-yeah. It’s me. What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked softly.
“I come here to empty my head of the world around me.” Cabazi explained, “To clear my mind of all the chaos in Raptania.”
“But I thought that being royalty was exciting.” Fluttershy replied.
“Not when you can’t make any friends, go outside without fifteen thousand guards around you, have fun, or even speak to a ‘commoner’” Cabazi remarked, annoyed just by the thought of it all, “And soon all I’ll get to do all day is sit on an extremely uncomfortable copper throne.”
“Oh my. That sounds truly awful. I don’t think I could do that. I couldn’t be that alone.” Fluttershy gasped as she wandered closer to the Austroraptor prince. “He looks so lonely….” she thought.
“I don’t know how Dad manages to do it. But I know I’ll never be able to do that. I don’t even get to pick who I marry. The other lords make a vote and force me into a relationship that I don’t even want.” Cabazi vented quietly yet angrily.
Immediately Fluttershy hugged the feathery prince, causing him to blush deeply. “It’s okay Cabazi. I’m sure the lords will pick you a lovely bride.” she said softly.
Cabazi smiled and hugged the buttercream pegasus back. “You’re so kind Fluttershy. How come you don’t have a coltfriend?” he asked.
“Because no stallion really makes me click, if you get my meaning.” Fluttershy replied. It was true. No stallion did match her standards. Discord was making an attempt to, but she saw him as only a friend. But the longer she embraced the raptor prince, the more she saw him meeting her standards. She blushed deeply as she realised what she was doing, so she stopped hugging him and shuffled back slightly, looking into his silver eyes.
“I understand….” Cabazi muttered softly. He realised what was going on. He was breaking the rules. He was falling in love with somepony. She wasn’t royalty either, she was just a normal citizen. And the treaty wasn’t signed, so their love would be forbidden until then.
“So, it’s starting to get late.” Fluttershy added awkwardly.
“We should start heading back to the castle if we want to avoid traffic.” Cabazi noted.
Fluttershy nodded, then held out her right to hold Cabazi’s hand. He blushed as the two exited the Botanic Gardens to head back to the castle.
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Applejack knew Equestrian farms inside and out. If there was a game show about them, she’d win it in a heartbeat. But Raptanian farms were different. The setup was similar, large buckets under the trees. But then the similarities end. The buckets are placed in large trailers which are carried to a quality inspector who sorts the ginkgoes. Once he has finished that, the trailers are delivered to wherever they are needed. Small locomotives at the train station carried wagon after wagon of the fruits to their destination. But Applejack noticed that instead of kicking the tree, the farmer jumped up into the tree to grab the fruits. She saw a yellow male Qiupalong doing exactly this. He managed to get two, but then he groaned.
“I wish there was a faster and easier way to do this.” he muttered.
Applejack knew she shouldn’t intervene, but she couldn’t help it. She walked up to the tree he was working on, prepared to buck the tree and gave it a powerful kick with her hind legs. The ginkgoes behaved like apples back home and fell into their respective baskets. The Qiupalong was impressed.
“Thank you very much,” he said, “I’m Harrows by the way.”
“Ah’m Applejack,” AJ replied, “So what are these fruits?”
“They’re ginkgoes,” Harrows answered, “Wanna taste?”
Applejack nodded, and almost instantly Harrows picked up a perfect quality ginkgo and handed it to Applejack. She tasted the soft fruit and smiled.
“This is delicious.” she said among chews.
“Well that’s of the good quality ones.” Harrows remarked as he lifted a pair of buckets and carried them to a trailer.
“So, how long you been doing this for?” Applejack asked as she finished off the ginkgo.
“All my life. I could pick ginkgoes before I said my first word.” Harrows answered jokingly, and Applejack chuckled lightly
Harrows also chuckled at the orange Earth pony who was giggling as well as blushing. The two eventually sat down under a tree to watch the sun slowly set.
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Twilight wandered through the polished castle hallways. There was more than enough headroom for the purple alicorn to glance at all the architecture and paintings that plastered the white marble walls. Eventually she came across a skinny grey male Parvicursor who was using his elongated head feathers to levitate his sixteenth platter of utensils. She sensed in him the same feelings as Spike, but very much expressed in a darker way. Spike being cheery and helpful out of his heart, and then this Parvicursor who looked agitated as all heck.
“Hello.” she said softly, in an attempt to be friendly. But all she got was a glare from his orange eyes.
“I have no time for you ponies. Can’t anyone see that wee Vic here has a lot more work to do?” he snapped as he quickly left.
Twilight looked shocked as she wandered back into the throne room. Vic wasn’t there thankfully, but she could see Rarity and Carnithimus returning, along with a lavender Apsaravis. She trotted up to them.
“So how did you enjoy the city?” she asked Rarity.
“Oh it was simply fabulous,” Rarity replied, “We even met Carnithimus’ childhood friend, Apsara.”
Apsara waved at Twilight, who waved back nervously. Reed and Spike were the next to enter the castle, followed by Fluttershy and Cabazi.
“So Spike, that’s why I prefer the brass armour instead of the silver one.” Reed explained to his new best friend as the pair walked up to the growing group of characters.
Applejack and Pinkie were next to return. The two were chatting about the raptors they met, and were almost competing about who met the best raptor.
Finally after another half-hour, Rainbow and Velox returned. They wandered in slightly drunk off Raptanian beer.
“Ah see you two enjoyed your time here.” Applejack smirked. Rainbow walked up to her and draped herself over AJ’s back.
“Mum, can we go home now?” she asked drunkenly.
The ponies and raptors all laughed as they went to their living accommodations and Celestia’s golden sun set.