//------------------------------// // CHAPTER 006: Fallout Equestrian. // Story: Stormy and Merlos Adventures // by NoisyPegasus //------------------------------// Merlos awoke from his nap feeling rather refreshed for the day, even knowing later he’d be dealing with that mad flying pony house guest of his. He’d successfully gotten her distracted the day before with books about simple magic theory that ought’nt be very dangerous, even for someone like her. “Well, I suppose I had better go and make sure my home is at the very least still intact.” Chuckling sourly, Merlos rose from bed and made his way to the door. Scratching his behind absently through his robe, he exited into the hallway outside his bedroom. Immediately, an alien, soapy-like scent hit his nose rather than the usual dank, gritty and dusty one he was used to. “What in the blazes—?” Merlos stared all around himself, sniffing the air with confusion. Everything, he noticed, was eerily clean. Metal furnishings shimmered, broken debris no longer cluttered the hallway, and even the exterior of his door’s knob glinted with what must have been a whole day’s worth of polishing. Feeling a bit nervous, Merlos stepped carefully down the hallway. Have I entered some alternate realm? Surely I didn’t leave my dimensional perforator on. Am I simply dead? The questions came to him unbidden. He wondered what possibly could have happened. Did someone move into my home after my death? He immediately started planning on haunting whoever would have the nerve to do that. Merlos’ eyes drifted back and forth across his floor. It was shiny. The cobbles looked wet in places and brighter, as if still drying. He never knew the stone under all that rubble and dust was even capable of being polished. When he got to the first main room at the end of the hallway, however, his curiosity switched immediately to stark confusion, then a mix of worry and anger. “Where are my things?” Merlos looked around himself. Sure enough, the room was empty. Almost... In the midst of the otherwise empty room… was a lone, grey feather sitting on the floor. Merlos watched the feather for a moment, his ire mounting, before snatching at it angrily. His fist opened up to the reveal the damning evidence of what surely must be the cause of things. His bellow filled the tower from top to bottom. “STORMYYYYYYY!” Merlos continued to shout Stormy’s name as he jogged through the tower searching for her. During this, and amidst coming up with punishments or cross words to have with her, a perturbed thought connected a few dots. This is happening with far too much regularity for comfort. Merlos scowled as he rounded a corner and descended another flight of stairs. This time the little transplanar guest had gone too far. While everything from the floors to the ceilings of his tower had, in fact, been cleaned, almost all of the furniture and his property seemed to be missing. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I’d been robbed… but what thief goes to the trouble to scrub grime out of the crevices afterward? No, this is definitely her doing. “Stormy?” Merlos shouted again into a room, before moving on to the next. “Where in Weathervane’s name is that blasted— Stormy?” Merlos stopped fast after nearly passing by the doorway to one unused floor. Normally, it was a large room jam packed with nothing but old crates and benches―a former dining hall perhaps―but now it stood empty with the door slightly ajar. And sitting in the middle of the room was the pegasus Merlos hunted for so methodically. “There you are! What is the meaning of all this?” Merlos swept an arm out in a vague gesture toward the far wall. “Was I not clear enough about leaving things as they were? The floors, fine, yes, clean them if you must I’d say, but after everything that’s happened you really dared to do so without asking? Not to mention my things!” He put a hand up to his head to fully illustrate his disbelief. “And for that matter what of my belongings? They’re gone! What have you to say for—” Merlos stopped fast, noticing suddenly that Stormy didn’t seem to be paying him nor his words any heed whatsoever. The pegasus seemed to be sitting still and was alert, but she simply stared straight ahead. Is she paralyzed with fear? Merlos scowled. Well, she better be! “Stormy, look at me at once. Perhaps there is a major failure of communication between us on some cultural level, but I need answers.” He tried to meet her eyes, but even leaning down the pegasus failed to make eye contact with him. “Stormy?” Something felt off to Merlos, and he had a hunch that whatever it was tied in to the fact that the pegasus seemed to be… vibrating. “Stormy, answer me. Now.” Merlos gave the utmost severity to his words. Slowly, and very shakily, Stormy looked up at the one addressing her. Her eyes were wide and her pupils shrunken while a small, but slightly manic smile was on her muzzle. Her disheveled form―there were soap suds in her frazzled mane―stared at him blankly for a moment. Merlos raised an eyebrow. “Well? I demand an explanation. A complete one.” He could understand that she would be frightened. Still, whatever had happened, whether she were responsible or not, the amount of shaking she was doing seemed excessive. After another couple irritatingly long seconds, Stormy opened her mouth slightly, which seemed to allow her teeth to begin chattering noisily. This was punctuated further by the sudden clattering of her hooves against the stonework as she shifted her rigid posture. “I-I-I-I―” Stormy made an unsuccessful attempt at speaking, instead stammering. Merlos sighed. “What? ‘I’ what?” He placed his fists on his hips. “I-have-bees-in-my-teeth,” Stormy eventually managed to blurt out, and in an almost unintelligible garble of highspeed words. Merlos stared, then shook his head. “Come again?” Did she say bees? Oh, gods, I hate bees. And insects, for that matter. Stormy kept sitting there, shifting slightly, and looking as if she were struggling to try and move more. Her wings twitched and ruffled continuously. When she finally spoke again, it still almost impossible to understand. “M-M-Merlos-I’m-sorry-I-didn’t-get-permission-to-clean-first-I-totally-forgot-and-spaced-on-that-so-anyway-I-took-everything-outside-and-then-I-cleaned-everything-in-the-tower-and-oh-my-gosh-this-soda-you-had-in-the-kitchen-was-great!” Stormy finished by giving a winning smile, although her teeth kept chattering. Merlos blinked. “What?” He tried his best to process what his ears thought he had just heard. It was as if someone had spoken through a time warping disturbance. “I… think I heard the word clean in all of that.” He looked around again at that. “Which I would say is obvious… but now that I think about it, what isn’t so clear to me is just how you accomplished such a feat.” The night before he had gone to bed and nothing had been out of its proper place. The dust had caked everything nice and thick, niter grew from the walls, and all of the furniture had been left where it lain for decades, much of it decayed into shambles. “And in just one night,” Merlos continued, and squinted at his strange visitor while wondering what could be amiss. “Furthermore, why are you acting like thi—” The words died in his mouth as his eyes came to rest on a peculiarity laying beside Stormy, just behind her tail. Merlos quickly leaned down past her and snatched up a tall, empty glass bottle with its cork unplugged. He quickly read the label and discerned what it was. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked calmly, then whirled about on Stormy. “Did you drink this… this entire thing!?” He could feel the rage that had been boiling in him quickly piercing the calm he had managed. Stormy once again exploded into speech, grinning bigger. “When-did-you-start-speaking-whale, Merlos? You-talk-so-slow! Can-I-learn-whale-too? I-wanna-try-I-wanna-try. Oh-my-gosh-a-fly, look-how slow-its-wings-are-moving.” She stopped speaking again, and paying attention, instead opting to look somewhere above herself, eyes flickering in tight circles at the ceiling with disturbing speed. “I don’t— What are you saying?” Perturbed, but not yet beaten, Merlos glared at the creature that currently seemed capable of only spitting nonsense at him, and that creature certainly didn’t seem to be finished. Stormy stood then, her legs dancing as if to some diabolic tune. “Hay-hay-hay-hay, Merlos! Merlos! Hay-hay-hay-why-aren't-you-talking? HAHAHAHA! You're-like-a-statue-from-canterlot.” All the while she talked, she danced from hoof to hoof with her wings suddenly buzzing at an inordinately accelerated rate. “Stormy, listen to me,” Merlos growled, interrupting. “Molesting my home and cleaning my things without permission is bad enough.” He paused to point to the bottle in his hands. “But drinking this haste potion! No wonder you— You aren’t listening to me, are you?” Stormy was giggling and bouncing where she stood, but did certainly gave no outward signs of comprehending things. Merlos managed to take a breath to calm himself once again. It was quite obvious that he would need to be level-headed in order to compensate for the pegasus’ current state. “Stormy, I want you to try and calm down. Can you do that?” Unfortunately, the moment Merlos posed the question, she was gone. He blinked, and looked around in disbelief. “What in the blazes?” When he looked around he found Stormy vibrating in another spot, just outside his peripheral vision. Then, just as quick, she suddenly appeared right in front of him again. Merlos squinted angrily. “Are you paying attention to anything I’m saying?” he asked, doing his best to gain the shaking pegasus’ attention, her hooves tapping on the floor like mad. Stormy snapped her head up and bent her hooves above her. “I am cute-foalio! I need brushies for my gray coat!” Merlos connected his right palm hard to his forehead. With that, it was clear that getting through to Stormy in her current state was all but impossible. “Very well, you just burn off the rest of that elixir, and I’ll see to finding and reappropriating my belongings…” Merlos grumbled to himself as he left the room and the sound of clattering hooves and gibberish behind him. “And we’ll talk about what I’m to do about you later…” Merlos found his things quicker than he thought he would. “Come on, you… blast!” Merlos gave up his struggle against trying to dislodge a rather stubborn cauldron from a mismatched pile of other random objects. Sure, he was using a wand of levitation to move things, not brute force, but it was still trying work nonetheless. The pile was one of many, all of them positioned haphazardly right outside his tower’s front door in the courtyard. Luckily, the old fort’s interior was large enough that there was actually enough room for all of the junk that Stormy had apparently decided to haul outside. Merlos wiped away a streak of sweat already forming on his brow. “This is both demeaning and annoying! Surely I have another spell to organize all of this quicker.” He left behind the pile of things and struggled his way up the towers stairs toward his chair. Afterward, he produced his spellbook from underneath his robes. “This is by far the most frustrating thing I’ve ever had to do. Now, let’s see what I have… Can’t just teleport everything in this state unorganized as it is… Maybe I could―” The sound of a small explosion right behind Merlos interrupted his deliberation, and promptly made him tumble forward out of his chair onto the stonework. “Who dares―!?” Merlos flipped over, wand at the ready in order to face some sudden, deadly threat… and found Stormy hovering casually with a placated smile. “Of course.” Merlos groaned and replaced his wand. “I don’t suppose you’re coherent yet? And what was that boom?” “You’re-funny-Merlos. What’s-up!” Stormy giggled, bobbing a little in the air. Not put off at being ignored, Merlos replied curtly, while also dusting himself off. “Not my spirits, that’s for sure. And what are you doing now?” He hoped for a reasonable answer, but instead the little pegasus disappeared from sight again, and faster than he could track. “That potion had better run out soon.” Merlos threw up a hand in frustration and turned back to his work, only to jump from Stormy suddenly being there behind him. “S-Stop that!” Merlos clutched a hand to his heart. He didn’t quite feel like he was going to have a heart-attack, but he did feel as if he should have by then. Stormy head tilted, her wings buzzing loudly where she hovered. “Stop-what?” “That!” Merlos growled before explaining further. “The random disappearing and hyperactivity!” “Ohhhh.” Stormy held a hoof to her chin, wearing a genuine enough look of understanding. Merlos felt his shoulders relax, and scanned his possesions briefly, trying his best to find furniture that wasn’t irreparably damaged amidst the various piles. “Look, Stormy, please focus. What you did was dangerous! I understand you couldn’t read the label, but under no circumstances should you have imbibed a liquid you weren’t familiar with! Now just look at the mess I have to clean up.” After levitating a couple tables up with a wand, both of which sagged weakly in the middle, Merlos turned his head back around angrily. “We’re going to have a long talk now about— Where did you go?” He looked around the courtyard, but once again could see no sign of Stormy anywhere. “Hi!” Merlos felt his heart explode up into his chest from both the suddenness, and the close proximity of a voice suddenly in his ear. “AH!” “Whoa, calm-down-Merlos! Why-so-uptight?” Stormy grinned from ear to ear, then leaned forward as she sipped from what curiously appeared to be a glass of water with ice clinking inside it. “Uptight!?” Merlos lowered his hand from clutching the cloth over his heart. “I am no such thing, and you weren’t even listening to— What are you drinking now?” He immediately honed in on what was held in Stormy’s strange alien grip. How a pony could hold anything was mystery enough without considering where she possibly could have gotten ice. “Just-water-with-ice,” she chirped merrily. “A cup of ice? And where are you getting this ice from?” Merlos demanded. Stormy gasped, then put on a look that was far too excited seeming. “Okay-so-after-all-that-work-cleaning-you’re-welcome-by-the-way-I-was-super-thirsty-so-I-wanted-some-ice-cold-water-but-where-could-I-get-ice-from-and-I-was-like, duh! From-the-top-of-the-mountain!” Stormy finished with a grin, and then was suddenly gone, the tiny flares of mach cone trailing away along with the same sound of thunder from before. Her little glass of water spun slightly atop the stone cobble where it had apparently been left behind. “The mountain?” Merlos repeated in disbelief, albeit to himself. “The nearest range is miles away!” He realized he was alone, but sure enough, a gray streak returning from the vague direction of the distant mountaintops peeled through the air, then stopped right at his feet. Stormy placed a chunk of ice as large as her head down, then exhaled a quick breath of air. “Phew! Kinda-heavy. See? Mountain ice!” The sound of a thundering crash followed, then came a powerful wind followed promptly by dust and small, pelting rocks. Once the wind had passed, Merlos calmly reached up with both hands, then pulled his beard down from where it had blown up and over his face. “Stormy?” he said calmly. “Yeah, Merlos?” Stormy grinned up at him, her wings flapping nonstop behind her. Merlos then cast a spell that froze her in place. It was temporary, but he had briefly considered something more permanent, as well. “You and I are going to have a little chat.” Stormy zipped around in the sky, corralling clouds and trying to tighten them up into a nice thunderhead. With difficulty, she was able to infuse some of her magic into the clouds, making them thicken up with her pegasus magic. The clouds themselves, however, were strange and very... loose, or perhaps chaotic was a better word for them; she wasn’t sure. The cloud thing idea had come from one of her ‘potion-trip’ induced thoughts. This one had been of making it monsoon on top of Merlos’ tower and simply running a squeegee around inside to get it clean. As an added bonus she’d hoped that would maybe also cool the angry wizard off a bit. Buuut her mind had still been under some mind altering effects of large concentrations of haste potion. She could definitely understand why it hadn’t been a great idea. For instance, she had no idea where she could get a squeegee from. “At least I feel like it’s wearing off.” Most of Merlos’ haste potion had worn out, but Stormy still felt she could still fly in a straight line for days. That had her worried a bit after it had been explained that she’d probably be dead on her hooves for days once it completely wore off. “I hope I’ll still be okay for that trip we’re going on.” Stormy hummed, mulling that over until her creation at hoof neared completion. After building up the thundercloud enough to be called a proper one―this one was definitely at least a little better than her earlier makeshift cloud bed―Stormy flopped atop it and sighed merrily. She could feel the crackling of magic inside of the cloud threatening to make her giggle from its tickling. The dour mood hanging above her like a second storm cloud kept her from enjoying her work, though. “Well, it’s done. Not sure what I’ll use it for now though… Geez, what was I thinking?” Stormy sighed, staring up at the sky. Merlos is super angry at me… again. Can’t imagine what I can possibly do to make it up to him now, either. I mean, I just cleaned his entire house! Hm, maybe an apology cupcake would work... Stormy rolled over, back legs kicking idly. “I wish he’d at least let me help him put everything back. Now I just feel bad.” While continuing to mope, and dread all the nasty things that Merlos had said might happen to her from drinking that entire potion, something caught Stormy’s hearing. “Hm?” That was when she heard a whistle. Idly, Stormy peered over the side of her stormcloud and down towards the earth. There, a long ways below, she saw a speck waving up to her. Curiosity got the better of Stormy, and after fluttering down, she landed before what turned out to be another human. She recognized the human somewhat, too, having seen him during her drug induced hyperness from the morning. He was probably the closest thing Merlos had to a neighbor, she guessed, given that he lived just down the hill. “Oh, have you been watching me?” Stormy said, half to him and half to herself. She wondered why a human would be watching her stitch together a thundercloud. The stranger spoke to her. However, he might as well have been gargling water, as Stormy couldn’t understand any of it. The human, whoever he was, wore loose rags and a wide brimmed hat. Stormy quickly decided that he definitely needed a trip to a tailor or something. Yeesh. The derelicte look was so two seasons ago. “Oh, just great. That language spell-thingy Merlos cast yesterday wore off… and I didn’t ask him to cast it again before flying away.” Stormy sighed, scratching a sheepish hoof behind her head. She had flipped through several books the day before to try and get an idea of Merlos’ language, but that was difficult when she couldn’t read any of it except for spells, and those weren’t any help. Unable to guess what the stranger wanted, Stormy simply stated back to him, “I. have. no. idea. what. you. are. saying. but. I. am. Stormy! Nice. to. meet. you!” The stranger, probably a farmer judging by his pitchfork, rubbed his head for a moment before shaking it. He proceeded to point at the cloud hovering overhead, then to the sorry looking crops that surrounded them both. He finished by pointing to his hand thing, which he bunched up, then used his other hand to wiggle his fingers just beneath it. Stormy looked at him like he was crazy the whole time, until it dawned on her what he wanted. “Oh! You want me to make it rain! Yeah, I can do that.” She paused and rubbed a hoof under her chin. “Then again, if my Papa told me anything, it’s that if you’re good at something never do it for free.” The farmer blinked at her expectantly, wearing a grin and obviously not understanding. Stormy shrugged. “Buuut I’ll give you a sample of what I can do!” With a quick flap, she wasted no time, and rocketed up into the air. The energy from the haste potion was noticeably still coursing through her veins, and while she felt a little tired, pushing the storm wasn’t all that taxing. Now, how high up should this sucker be, exactly? Stormy would have asked the farmer if maybe he knew, but counting out that option all she could do was draw on her limited memories of watching other weather pegasi work, and what she had been taught growing up. Stormy flew above her cloud a few times to check her “aim”, guesstimating that it was about right. When she got it at the right spot, she yelled, “Here it comes!” and got to work. She landed atop the cloud then bounced as if it were a giant trampoline in order to ‘wake up’ the rain. Thunder suddenly boomed across the sky, and Lightning arced threateningly, a few bolts spraying up above the cloud in an out of control fashion. Oh no you don’t! Stormy knew precisely how to fix this. Probably. This is my big chance to show that I know what I’m doing and I’m NOT going to mess it up. Stormy dived over to the messier part of the cloud and began to weave and knead it with her hooves, ignoring the lightning shooting out and around her face just inches away from her. The last thing she wanted was a nasty shock and a singed mane, but it was less dangerous to her than others. As Stormy had hoped it would, the lightning stopped thanks to her work, quickly calming back to a steady rumble. “Alright, let’s try that again.” After bouncing atop it a few times with a few well placed ‘boings’, Stormy heard the steady hiss of the rain beginning to release from below. She kick-launched back into the air, then circled below to witness her hard work pay off. A grin split her face. Yup, my weather camp instructor would be so proud. Hay, maybe even my parents would be. Then again that seems a little unlikely, given how seriously they take the old weather business back home. Her hooves outstretched, Stormy sped around the storm while working in a mild rotation to get it moving around the field on a steady wind. The action would act as a sort of automatic watering system which would hopefully cover most of the ground below evenly. Stormy sighed, watching the cloud float off slowly, then blinked as shouts and cries of glee caught her attention. Below, the farmer jumped up and down like a crazy person, cheering. Water already welled up in the irrigated paths of his crops’ fields. Well, he looks happy. After a thought, Stormy flew up high into the air with a growing smile on her muzzle. But this oughta really brighten his day! With her smile at full capacity, she turned around and dove back towards her cloud. Stormy put her forehooves before her and used a little pegasus magic, ready to do the move she had developed for her own use at the best young flier’s competition. “For the wonderbolts!” Stormy cried out. Rocketing down like a bullet from the heavens, she tucked her wings in and flared them right as she passed beside the cloud. The move just barely grazed the cloud, and an arc of blue lighting exploded out in a ripple as response. The sound of cheering stopped its way up to her from the ground, before beginning again a second later. Stormy landed, watching her cloud with a sidelong look. “Well, how was that?” She grinned and waited a moment for a response from the farmer, before remembering. “Oh, right. Well―” Another rumble sounded off, interrupting. This time it came from her stomach. The farmer, amidst his grateful seeming expressions, made a look of understanding and chuckled. Stormy laughed, too. “Geez, Merlos wasn’t kidding. I’m so hungry I could eat a… a… darn, I can never think of something to finish that sentence for some reason. Oh well, I hope he isn’t too angry to feed me.” Stormy looked up at the farmer to say goodbye. “Well, I gotta go, I… hm?” The farmer put his hands up to make the one finger gesture, speaking his silly human language, then dashed off towards his house. “What was that about?” Stormy raised one eyebrow, but waited patiently since he seemed to have wanted that. As the seconds ticked, she could feel for certain that the haste potion was mostly burned out of her system now that she was sitting still. Her wings suddenly felt like lead weights to her. “Uggh…” Stormy drooped forward. “I’m gonna sleep for a week…” Then, a smell hit her nose, and suddenly it was like all of her energy returned in a flash. Stormy looked up and immediately recognized what the farmer brought out. It was most certainly a pie tin! There may have been a language barrier between them, but she certainly did speak pie. “Oooh! Pie! I love pie!” she said excitedly, while giving happy wing flaps as the farmer brought it over. He offered the pie out to her, to which Stormy gave his arm a friendly nuzzle after accepting it. “Oooh, thank you. You know I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship!” She giggled, taking a sniff at the pie. “Oooh, cinnamon pumpkin? My, you oomans and dorfs certainly know good pies.” The farmer pointed at himself and said something a few times. “John Hammond. John Hammond.” Stormy head tilted, then nodded as she picked up his meaning. “Oh, that’s your name? John Almond?” she repeated back. The farmer clapped his hands and laughed in delight. He shrugged, then pointed at her. Stormy, picking up on this as introductions, replied, “Stormy Weather.” The farmer grinned and repeated the name back to her, but also held his hand out for a hoofshake. “Alright! Nice to meet you, Mr. Almond! Well, I really oughta go, but thanks for the pie and… What is it?” Stormy, noticing that Mr. Almond was looking over her head, not at her, turned around. As soon as she did she gasped, and nearly dropped her pie. The sight of her thundercloud roaming away from the fields, and adopting a collision course with Merlos’ tower, immediately filled her with impending dread. “Uh oh.” Stormy swallowed hard as that cloud sagged into the side of the tower, then ripped open and released its water and lightning in a matter of seconds. The crack of thunder that rolled out over the hills was loud enough to make her ears feel like they’d popped. “Uh, Mr. Almond, I gotta go! Was nice meeting you!” With a few panicked flaps of her beleaguered wings, Stormy clumsily took back to the skies. “Oh geez, he’s gonna kill me!” She flew a bit further before thinking, He really wouldn’t do that, would he? “Stoooormy!” yelled a familiar voice in the distance. Stormy gulped again, and began evaluating whether it might be safer to try striking out on her own. With her belly full of pie—Stormy had decided it would be best to give Merlos a few minutes to calm down—she stepped tiredly through the stairway threshold and into the tower. She was feeling the pull of the day’s work and play tug at her from all directions. Then, she noticed Merlos, who was pointing an angry finger at her. The dress wearing man spoke to her in an angry tone and waved a finger harshly. Stormy stared at him blankly. Sorry, what? Your spell wore off. I can’t understand you.” She gave him an earnest shrug, still dreading the conversation that had yet to come. Please don’t turn me into a… orange or something! An orange? Geez, I really am tired. After a momentary squint and groan from Merlos, Stormy felt the familiar fuzziness of his translation spell touching her ears again. “Where are they?” he demanded with a spookily calm voice. Stormy stared at him a moment, looking around as if to expect something in plain sight to point out to Merlos. “Uh, where is what?” she asked back sheepily. Not asking about the thundercloud first thing had caught her by surprise, but she definitely wasn’t complaining. Merlos’ nostrils flared, as if he were fighting very hard to maintain his calm. “My. Scrolls!” he roared. “Scrolls?” she repeated back, before scratching her head with a hoof, before a hazy memory of hauling a bunch of dusty paper around by moonlight returned to her. “Ohhhh, the papers. That stuff’s in the stable building,” she answered, gesturing with her free wing outside towards one sunny window. “The stables?” Merlos began. ‘Why are they all out there? Bring them back in!” Stormy stifled a yawn. “But I’m tirrred…” Merlos visibly bristled in response. “Everything outside is all just broken or rotting furniture, anyway,” she went on, sounding like she was about to pass out on her hooves. “And that paper… sorry ‘scrolls’ were super dusty. You couldn’t have been using any of it, right?” Merlos exploded. Again. “But it was my furniture in my home!!” He rubbed his face and began again. “Don’t you think you have a responsibility after drinking my potion to—” “The orange soda?” Stormy had felt a pang of guilt while Merlos prepared his diatribe. “Orange soda? Orange soda? You little fool! That was a Marathon haste potion! More worryingly you drank it all and are remarkably still alive!” Merlos stormed over to a table and snatched the empty bottle from earlier then waved it at Stormy. “Yeah, I remember! But I had just wanted to—” “I put this in my morning tea as a pick me up,” Merlos cut her off, his fury growing with each syllable. “A single drop, mind you, keeps me going for half a day, and you drank it all like some commoner’s ale!” He spat, and caused Stormy to scoot back a little. If Stormy had been near sleeping before, she was brought to fully-wake. She trembled out of fear from Merlos’ tirade, her tail was tucked under her frame and her ears laid back. Her eyes even shimmered a tad with unshed tears. “Well, I didn’t know what it was, and a-afterward I only wanted to repay you,” she said. Merlos groaned, one of his boney hand-things cupping itself over his eyes. He then gestured with the other and started up the stairs. “Just follow me, Stormy.” Stormy watched him swiftly turn and climb the stairs, not waiting for her. She briefly looked behind herself at the still-open door, before breathing out tensely and following. They traveled up to the floor where Merlos had his comfortable living space where they eventually went into a room across the hall, now clean from its former contents, The strange glowing stones set into the walls gave the room its only illumination. Merlos spun around after reaching the corner. The smell of clean water was in the air instead of the moldy decay that had once hung there. “Now, I promise I won’t yell again… but where are the troughs that were in this room?” Stormy, fretted again, her voice just a squeak. “Um, outside? Behind the stable thing, I think?” She then quickly stammered out, “Oh, but uh, I cleaned them out really good! So don’t worry. They’re sparkling now!” Stormy grinned, awaiting what would surely be praise for at least something she’d done right. Merlos clenched his hands into fists, his boney hands creaking. “Those were— Those were expensive potion regents and ingredients! It takes months for those to stew properly, and you cleaned them? They will cost a fortune to fix!” “H-Hey, you said you wouldn’t yell…” Stormy winced away, ears tucked back. Merlos puffed his cheeks out, before burying his face in his hands and leaning back against the wall. “Oh, which god— scratch that, which gods did I anger to be saddled with you? Hm?” Stormy frowned sadly, ashamedly looking at the floor. “I’m sorry for the millionth time… I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow though…” Merlos rolled his eyes. “What about the jars that were on that shelf there. I don’t suppose there’s any luck that you placed them in the stables as well?” Stormy blinked, feeling a bit of reprieve with the ease of Merlos’ tone. “Uh, well, I’m pretty sure— That is, I-I think that everything in this room went behind the stable.” She studied him, waiting for what seemed to be inevitable at this point, and cringed the moment he started to look furious again. “I’ll just bring them back in!” Stormy said, in an effort to keep him calm. That, and she was starting to feel more than happy to flee the angry wizard. “I’ll be right ba— Wha?” She stopped when a blue wall appeared before her in the doorway, cutting off her escape. It swirled with shimmering energies she’d seen from unicorns, and knew it would keep her from getting through the door. “What do you notice about this room, Stormy?” Merlos grumbled rather solemnly. “It doesn’t smell like a sewage treatment plant exploded anymore?” Stormy offered, turning around with a nervous grin. “Funny.” Merlos answered, then gestured to a wall. “There are no windows. Sunlight kills the sensitive fungus that was in those jars! So, don’t bother bringing them back in.” Stormy cringed again as the wizard once again lost his temper. “You horrible accident, why did I take you in? You’ve been nothing but a disaster! An orcish warcamp would have at least left most of it all alone. But no! I get a little pegasus who— Who— Oh, forget it.” The blue wall disappeared. Fighting her urge to cry, Stormy growled back before she could stop herself, and started to feel herself get angry, too. “This place was a health hazard! I did what I could to help and I’m only sorry I didn’t ask some things, first. I did a lot of effort, perhaps more than I’ve done in my entire life! You could at least go easy on me!” Merlos scowled, first at her and then at the ground. Then he looked up. “And were you the one responsible for that stormcloud spell that nearly knocked over the tower, earlier?” Stormy felt her angry look dissipate, and she blinked at Merlos. “Oh, uh— I… yes?” She put on a shaky smile. “Uh, I think I’ll just go and—” Merlos stared back at her, then, he snapped his fingers. The little pegasus suddenly disappeared with a soft bamf of sound. Stormy was instantly whisked to another place by magic. Wherever it was, she landed in some grass and oophed loudly. “—bring everything back in.” Stormy shouted, nearly scaring the hay out of Knott, who was just about to bite into a sandwich. “What the hay? Where am I?” Ges—who sat across from his brother—stared wide-eyed while chewing on a frond of grass. “Well, you don’t see tha’ everyday,” Ges mumbled. Knott collected the parts of his scattered sandwich, hastily constructing it in accordance to the five second rule. He then looked at Stormy, noticing she was seemingly itching for a fight. Stormy huffed a bit, wanting to scream and cry at Merlos. She turned to scamper up the tower stairs—apparently Merlos hadn’t sent her that far—when a gruff voice said to her, “Hold yer horses there… er, just hold it. Saying horses in’t offensive, is it?” Stormy ceased her stomping up the stairs and stopped to look back. She recognized the speaker as being the dwarf, Knott. “Huh?” Knott shook his head. “Nevermin’, anyway, judgin’ by tha’ flash o’ light, and my need to change my pants later, I think y’ticked off Merlos to th’ point he magicked yeh away just now. Yes?” Stormy frowned, not answering, then settled for a simple nod. Ges chuckled, then patted a stump beside his own. “Figured as much. In that case, come sit with us and mellow out. You’re lucky he just sent you away.” Stormy looked to the other dwarf, her glare returning. “But he—” Ges shushed and spoke to Stormy, ushering her to come to over. He even reached behind himself and... retrieved some oats, by the looks of it. “Gah! No oats, please!” Stormy exclaimed, putting up her forehooves while trying not to faceplant into the ground from her exhaustion. “Those things smell all salty and sweaty. But… yeah, fine.” Still, she sighed and trotted over to take a seat sullenly beside them. Ges paused, then opted to pet Stormy’s face. “There. Much better than tusslin’, eh? Everythin’’ll be alright now.” Stormy didn’t push him off this time. She barely had the energy to frown, as matter of fact. She even felt her eyes grow heavy, the fight and will to resist gone. Strangely, she began to think it wasn’t just because she was tired, rather that it was Ges. His voice was like that of an angel calling her to sit next to him. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Stormy mumbled, then yawned hard. She didn’t noticed sliding off the stump from her sitting position, nor did she register curling up into a ball on the ground. “Aye, when you’re rested up yeh can settle things.” Ges shushed her response, reading her body language and seeing her exhaustion as he chose to simply lull the pegasus to sleep. “Wish you wouldn’t do that ‘round me. I ‘lready took me afternoon nap.” Knott ate his sandwich in peace while they listened to Stormy's high pitched whinny-snores, stifling his own yawn. “Huh, so you think this ‘as to do with Merlos’ yard sale that he put on?” He looked around at all the furniture and junk that was outside, then shrugged and offered a carrot slice to Ges, who politely turned it down with a wave of his hand. Ges sighed and sat back up, stretching. “Hm, migh’ be. Think we ought to return that stuff we carried downstairs, then? Or ought we sell it back to him, eh?” The two brothers stared at each expectantly, then burst out laughing. When Stormy awoke she felt a lot better. Her limbs were still sore from her impressive workout, but she felt rather good about it. It was strange, as she lay there she recalled being angry at Merlos, but she couldn’t summon up the desire to be once again. Stormy remained still for some time, perhaps several minutes, before lifting her head up from the improvised mattress of hay and linen she found herself on. Wherever the bed was, it was somewhere cool. “Finally awake, are yeh? Was beginnin’ to think you’d need a prince to rouse yeh. Hah.” Stormy’s ears and head shot up, and she looked over to see a squat shape hunched over in a candle lit corner of the room. “Evenin’, lass,” Knott greeted. He waved with one hand, something clenched in his fist, before looking down to begin scraping it against something else. “Oh, uh, evenin’? Stormy repeated back, then rubbed her bleary eyes with both hooves. They felt like they each had a pound of sleep-dust in them. “Where am I, Knott? Uhhh, you are Knott, right?” She looked sheepishly at him, unsure a little if she’d gotten the name right; they all kinda looked similar. She was reasonably sure Knott was the biggest dwarf, though. “Haha, aye, you’re correct.” Knott took a swig of something, then set about working again. “And yeh’re just in mine and my brothers’ residence, below the tower. Figured yeh’d appreciate sleeping in a bed rather’n the wet grass yeh laid down on outside.” “Oh, thanks…” While looking around at the seven or so beds ringed around the room, Stormy listened to the gentle scrapes Knott made with the stone he ran along the metallic edge of something. The dim lighting of the brother’s basement room was dark that making it out was difficult. “What are yeh doin’— Er, what are you doing over there?” Chuckling, Knott looked up from where he sat on a tiny three legged wooden stool. A cutlery stone was in his hand and small sword laid across his lap. “Sharpenin’ one o’ me blades. We’ll be traveling south on the river soon. Always best to be prepared… ‘specially of late.” Knott sighed. “Tough times come and go, but lately they’re ‘specially plum tough.” Stormy eyed the blade nervously. “Oh… I see. It’ll be safe though, right?” Swords were something she’d only seen on the guards and Canterlot, in books, and maybe once in passing by a store window… It made her uneasy, but somehow, her stomach was still rumbling steadily. She got up off the bed, her legs a bit wobbly under her weight. Now that she thought of it she was terribly thirsty also. Knott nodded thrice. “Oh, aye, you can be sure o’ that, lass. With Merlos, myself and the others there won’t be a thing on tha’ river we can’t handle.” He chuckled again, running his blade harder on the stone. “Certainly not with Merlos and I.” After that, Stormy sat awhile, in silence, and just listen and watched Knott work. When her stomach became to much for her to bear, she got up and headed toward the large door across the room to leave. She thanked Knott and left the basement, cantering up the stairs to make her way to the ground level floor. There, she exited the tower and entered into the courtyard. Stormy wasn’t familiar with using the side exit, but the view from it always told the main tale of the tower’s past. In the night, the large wall with a broken down section on one side looked spooky, but it still spoke of a successful siege sometime in the past; that was something else she’d only ever heard of in books, fighting and stuff, but here she saw evidence of it firsthoof. Stones lay in a messy pile, many too big or heavy for her to even consider picking up without help. Much of it was scattered around, some with lichen growing upon it, some with pits of dirt now sprouting weeds. The keep in its heyday had likely been an impressive sight with such formidable walls standing, but those days were long gone. After cantering through the courtyard, Stormy passed under the archway at the main gate. The portcullis was warped and misshapen, as likely it had seen many exciting battles; she felt intimidated just by passing under it. Stormy made her way down the path and to the river to sip from it, not wanting to upset Merlos anymore by drinking his potions on accident or eating his foods. She also decided to just eat some of the hay medley he had gotten her. It would have to do for now anyways, as plain and boring as it was. Stormy just drank for a while, before wading into the river and looking at the messy hobo horse in the moonlit water’s reflection. She made a face at herself. Her mane and tail quite clearly needed a really good brushing. Right then she’d even put up with Feather Duster—her family’s maid—and the rough brushing she always used if it’d fix her mane and tail. Stormy took a few steps further into the water, using it to help sooth her very dirty legs. Twigs and clumps of mud and debris washed out of the gray hair that surrounded her fetlocks. She wanted to get them trimmed terribly. By her parents insistence, she made regular trips to a spa, a ferrier, and of course a barber who would help keep her appearance pristine. Living in Canterlot meant keeping up appearances so neighbor’s wouldn’t get haughty and bothersome; although really they did it anyway, so what was the point? Stormy sighed, thinking on her life back home. Now, without any of that stuff, she felt a little bit of the memory of her life’s comforts sting at her. “I don’t wanna think about it!” With little to no ceremony, she jumped further into the waters and began paddling. The river was rather wide and definitely deep enough to swim in, and Stormy didn't mind the current carrying her as she played in the water a bit. It certainly had to be helping clean out her mane a bit. It felt good to bathe, the mild itch of her coat now felt soothed and she was certain that she smelled better too. Still, she wished she had a few bottles of her favorite shampoos and conditioners. After making Merlos so mad, she was certain that for now she would just have to let the hope of amenities like soap and a hot bath go... Nice things like that were just so far away… So very far away. After drifting a ways downstream, Stormy eventually climbed back onto a bank. There, she flared her wings and gave them a quick preen. Her mother was big on telling her to keep up her wings, and yesterday she seemed to have put them through a lot of work. Once she got them in an okay condition, she broke into a gallop to launch herself into the sky. After quickly locating Merlos’ tower on the horizon—it being the tallest structure for many miles around and her memory of everything being from a bird’s eye view—she turned towards its direction and flew straight toward it. Even in the dark it was easy to spot. The ache in Stormy’s wings returned as she flew. Annoyed with the amount of work she was putting into her wings, she beat them with a hummingbird’s buzz as she tried to gain more altitude. She knew how to harness her magic for flight pretty well, but that felt out of sort, too. Instead, she opted to fly close to the ground in case she needed a break on the way back. Even more tired than before, Stormy landed before the stable. She looked at the fresh bales of hay within beside the junk still deposited near it all. Inside there were also the other ponies that lived in the stable, and they seemed to eye her with jealousy as she picked at a wire and nibbled at some of the hay. “Look guys, this stuff is for me, alright? What can I say. Besides, I’m starvvvving.” Stormy’s stomach growled even as she munched. Inside the strange hay, she found paper bags of stranger olive-drab and tan bars. Whatever it was, it wasn’t too bad; the alfalfa and clover mixed in made it like eating a protein bar from a GM store. However, it wasn’t all too great, either. The months old molasses and bits of old cut fruit gave her the impression that Merlos obviously wasn’t going to ever eat anything like this himself. Stormy did eventually share a little with the ponies present, not minding a few friends, even if they held little in common with her. Funnily enough, they too seemed nonplussed by the free food and left their portions on the ground without a single bite taken. “That bad huh?” Stormy said to them, and nibbled on her own. It was worse than stale hay, but she guessed needed the calories. Her body ached for them. With a belly full of the foods she curled up by the door and gave her wings a proper preening, knowing full well her mother would bind them up for a day after letting her feathers get into the train-wrecked condition they were currently still in. Stormy spent quite a bit of time getting her feathers sorted and lapped in place, shedding a few broken ones and even plucking one that had managed to split. Finished, she nickered to herself over having better groomed wings. They were easily the only part of herself that she felt was at all presentable. She went back to munching on the brick like bars of feed, munching on it quietly before she felt a familiar warming sensation. The translation spell? “Hi, Merlos.” Stormy greeted, without looking up. She kept nibbling at what was now her fifth brick of the food. Never thought I’d ever be eating bricks… “Your spell hadn’t run out yet.” “Well I had just cast it earlier today in case you awoke…” an aged voice responded, and was followed by a robed figured stepping into view outside the stables. “And hello, Stormy. You’ve been out for a while.” Stormy looked up at Merlos, expression flat. “Not really, I slept for a few hours after you sent me away. Soon as I woke up I got some water and had some breakfast.” She began wiggling said bar of breakfast at him, or as she’d decided to call it: Meals Rejected by Equines. Merlos blinked in surprise at this. “Stormy, that was two days ago. After my tenants found you… well, suffice to say I’ve been checking on you to make sure the worst thing the potion would do is leave you tired and hungry. Too much of any kind of magic can have consequences—” “Yeahyeah, you already told me…” Stormy nibbled on the bar, masticating in thought. After swallowing, she said, “Huh… I never thought I’d ever sleep for two days.” “You know, a thank you is considered polite when one is indebted to another. Hmph.” Merlos pulled up a stable stool and sat on it. “Anyway, I’m willing to bet you’ve probably been binge eating and drinking since it wore off. How do you feel?” Stormy, in a moment of amusement, glanced at her MRE bar. “This is food?” she quipped. Merlos rubbed his beard, giving a wheezing laugh. “It’s not that bad, is it?” Stormy pointed at the bars left on the ground by the dwarven ponies. “I tried sharing, you know? They didn’t seem to like it.” “I paid top coin for that stuff…” Merlos looked at the bar crossly for several quiet moments. “Here, pass me one. I wish to see what that supposed heavenly feed is like.” Stormy tossed Merlos an untouched bar and surprisingly he really tried in vain to bite into it a few times. “Is this a brick or animal feed? What is this!? This isn’t food. Not for animals or man.” Stormy shrugged, smiling. “Well, it’s what you bought for me.” Merlos sighed and used a levitation spell to move the bar out of Stormy’s hooves. “Okay… We’re going to Halia tomorrow. There, we’ll do some grocery shopping for you. Until then, you know what’s in my pantry and you’re still welcome to it. I don’t know, however, what to do with...” He tossed his bite-mark ridden bar at the other remaining bags. “That junk, but for now you’re eating something that isn’t going to break your teeth, at least.” Stormy opened her muzzle to deny any wish to eat what was in the wizard’s pantry, but he continued. “And… we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot, so to speak. I mean, if that was obvious enough, and obviously I need to revise some rules, as well.” Merlos straightened up and met Stormy’s eyes starkly. Still, he seemed a far sight more relaxed than he had before “I’m still pretty angry with you for drinking that potion, mind, but you also weren’t really in your right mind while you were under the haste potion’s effects.” Stormy perked a little at hearing this, but kept quiet while listening. “So, I believe I will accept some of the blame, but only for placing a potentially dangerous substance in the kitchen… As for the rest… some of my furniture did need to go.” Merlos sighed, turning away to look up and out of the stables at the moon. “But in the future, never mess with my scrolls... or my tapestries… They came with the castle and I thought they were pretty intriguing.” “Half of them were solid black and fuzzy with mold.” Stormy dead panned. Merlos scratched at his beard, suddenly wearing a pensive look. “Well, yes. And I left those particular ones in the rather impressive pile of my other articles which you brought outside. Those, I’ve decided I’ll destroy or try to sell… And I brought in the things I want to keep. And... honestly, I’m a little grateful for the cleanup now that it’s all said and done.” Stormy began to smile. “Aaaand?” she intoned, doing her best to make her voice sound irritating. Oh yeah, I’m milking this for all it’s worth. Merlos shot a glare at her, but softened in quickly into a mild frown. “And I’m sorry for yelling at you,” he rushed out. Stormy laughed. “Aww, I forgive you.” Merlos stood up indignantly, towering over Stormy. “But don’t let it go to your head! You still did a bad thing. You’re a bad, mischievous pegasus!” He jutted a finger at her. “Hey!” Stormy glared at the appendage, tempted to bite it if she didn’t think it was as filthy as the old human’s tower used to be. “I’m not a dog!” “Well act like a civilized little pony and I’ll start treating you like one.” Stormy crossed her forelegs and put on a sour face. “That’s more like it. Kinda.” Stormy hid her grin, mostly content with how things had gone. “So, you mentioned something about getting new food?”