Of Ponies and Peddlers
The Bronze District of Gray Smoke didn’t exactly live up to its name. Most of the metal shingles and wooden frames that made up the buildings of each block had turned rusted, splintery, and worn down. A deep, dark smog hung over the place, pierced in random places by dangling lamps filled with flitting, luminescent insects of unknown hatching. The place was beyond noisy, with the sounds of metalworks and carpentry echoing out of every establishment.
Across a bridge and blessed with a breeze of high winds, the east section of the Bronze District was a great deal easier to breathe in. Here, market bazaars were lined up with various merchants attempting to peddle all sorts of wares from across the continent. The populace was heterogeneous, consisting of ponies, rams, mules, diamond dogs, and various forms of equines.
To Rainbow’s surprise, the crowd was remarkably amiable. She couldn’t tell if their cheer was an artificial product of their intense desire to sell wares, or if perhaps there was a genuine, humble euphoria hanging about the impoverished place, so high up in the sky beyond the cares of any Ledomaritan gun or Xonan soldier. Still, she was too encumbered with two things to make a firm judgment. For one, she had a group of fellow ponies to look after. For another, she was trying to weather an intense coughing fit.
“Well, perhaps if you didn’t hover so high off the ground, Rainbow,” Belle said in a slightly chiding tone as they trotted along East Bronze District. “Maybe the smog wouldn’t get to you so badly.”
“I don’t get it…” Rainbow wheezed as she eventually relented, hovering down to trot at the street level alongside her friends. “This city is so high up in the clouds! Wouldn’t they know better than to trash it all with this pollution?”
“You speak as if you’ve been in a sky city before,” Josho grumbled from where he trotted alongside Roarke.
“For your information, I was born in one,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Heh!” Josho grinned into the ashen mists. “Like where? Stratopolis?”
“Stratopolis is a myth,” Rainbow Dash sighed.
“But this place certainly isn’t!” Ebon Mane exclaimed from where he trotted ahead of the group. He spun about and walked backwards while grinning at them. “Say all you want about the air quality, but don’t you agree that this place is just… bustling with life and diversity and emotion?”
“I feel like I’m flying over a tobacco farm that’s caught on fire,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Wow, there really is no pleasing you, is there?” Ebon smirked. “Either you’re griping about soldiers chasing us or the smog!”
“Hey!” Rainbow frowned. “That’s so not true! I’m not hard to please!” She blinked. She glanced aside at Pilate and Belle. “Am I?”
“Erm…” Belle shifted where she walked. “Well…”
As Pilate leaned on his beloved for guidance, he tilted his head over in Rainbow’s direction. “You are prone to a great deal of stress and worrying, Rainbow. I’d judge it as a simple byproduct of your intense care for your fellow ponies.”
“Look, I’m not an uptight kind of a mare! Really!” Rainbow Dash smiled innocently into the haze of the streets. “I’m totally chillaxed! I mean, look at me right now!”
“Unngh…” Roarke moaned into her helmet. “I don’t see the whole point of this leisurely stroll.” She swiveled about. “I’m going to check out the lower rust districts for something to resupply my gear--”
“No you friggin’ don’t!” Rainbow suddenly shrieked, her eyes wild. “We are not splitting up! No way! No how!”
Belle stifled a giggle.
Rainbow spun about and gawked at the group. “What is it now?”
“‘Not an uptight mare,’ Rainbow?” Belle smiled.
“Well, it’s just that… I…”
“She’ll get the picture eventually.” Roarke waved as she trotted off on her lonesome. “I’ll head back to the docking station after I’ve found what I need.”
“Don’t go off like this!” Rainbow’s voice cracked. She sounded like a teenager trying to shout down her parents. “I mean it.”
“Eh, just let her go, Rainbow,” Eagle Eye said in a dull tone. He smirked. “Do you honestly think you can tell her what to do even if you wanted to?”
Rainbow frowned, her hooves squirming against the surfaces of the street. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean… ponies are bound to be looking for us. Why wouldn’t they?”
“Rainbow, we’re hundreds miles away from the last place the Ledomaritans ever conceivably saw us!” Belle exclaimed. “And we scaled the distance in a vehicle that was easily four times faster than their major flagship!”
“And we’re in neutral territory!” Ebon chirped. “As neutral as it gets!”
Rainbow Dash squinted icily at him. “Riiiiight…”
Eagle Eye blinked at her expression, at Ebon, then back at her. “Is there something wrong, Rainbow?”
“No…” The pegasus sighed, gazing down at the floor as she trotted along. “Not really.” Her muzzle scrunched as her ears folded back. “Okay, maybe one thing.”
“What is it?”
Rainbow lifted her head and looked around at the various equines milling about the bazaar. Several of them were looking in her direction. “I can’t help but feel that… like… everypony is staring…”
“Staring?” Pilate remarked.
Rainbow gulped. “At me.”
“Well, I can certainly think of a reason,” Ebon Mane remarked with a smirk. “You have something that all the ponies who live and work here wished they had. Because it would make their lives a great deal easier to live. I would know!”
“And that is…?”
“Pfft… heheheh… wings, you fuzzhead!”
Rainbow blinked, glancing all around her as several pairs of eyes reflected her embarrassed gaze. “Oh. Right. That.”
“Funny…” Eagle Eye smiled. “I’ve almost gotten used to them myself.”
“I can’t even see them and I am used to them,” Pilate said. Belle giggled.
“Ugh. I’m surprised, really,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “These ponies have obviously seen a lot of creatures come and go. Why would they be so shocked by a mare with feathers?”
“Oh, I’m sure they have mares here with feathers,” Josho said as he pointed towards an establishment up ahead, flanked with neon lights. “Only, they don’t stay on long. Heheheh…”
“Ungh…” Josho rolled his eyes. “Such an animal. I swear.”
“Hey. Survival of the fattest, pal.”
“Meh.”
“Well, they’re just gonna have to get used to me,” Rainbow Dash muttered. She looked at the others as she trotted along. “Not that it matters. We’re not gonna be here for very long anyways--” She bumped into a stallion carrying a tall stack of antique dishes.
“Unngh!” The merchant fell back with a grunt. He looked up and gasped at his airborne wears. “My pl-plates!”
Without a second thought, Rainbow Dash zipped into action. Wings blurring, she flew to each falling piece of kitchenware and snatched them up in agile blue hooves. In no time at all, she had them balanced once more in a neat stack. Breathing easily, she floated down and placed the stuff before the recovering merchant.
“There ya go, bro. My bad,” she said with a nervous smile.
“That… you… h-how…” the Bronze District native stammered.
“Whoah! Did you see that?!” another merchant exclaimed.
“That was incredible!” gasped a shopper. “She’s faster than lightning!”
“Amazing!”
Several equines began clapping their hooves against the floor, smiling jubilantly.
Rainbow Dash blinked, gazing back at them as a nervous twitch swam from ear to ear. “Look, I was just trying to save his stuff. I bumped into him, after all.” At a jingling sound, she looked at her hooves to see a pair of gold bits rattling to a stop. “The hay is this?”
“Do it again! Do it again!” a shopper exclaimed with a bright grin. Several other ponies had gathered around.
“Please…” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “My friends and I are just passing through.”
“Awwww… but those wings are fantastic!”
“Yeah. So I’ve been told. Ahem.” Rainbow hissed over her shoulder. “Ebon, could we get a move on, please?”
“What’s the matter, Rainbow?” Belle whispered, smiling. “We both know you’re not a pony who likes to pass up an opportunity like this.”
“The heck do you mean by that?”
“Hey, everypony!” Josho trotted up and telekinetically stretched one of Rainbow’s wings out. “Who wants to see the amazing winged pony do some air tricks?!”
Several cheers lit the air.
“Hey!” Rainbow frowned and jerked her feather appendage away from the stallion. “Jerk! Let go! What’s the big idea?!”
“What do you think?” Josho pointed at the ground as another pair of bits rattled to a stop. “They have no idea what they’re in for, red eyes.”
“We certainly could use the currency,” Pilate stealthily added.
“Uh uh! No way!” Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches with a frown. She folded her forelimbs and grunted, “I am not some sort of sideshow freak for you guys to show off!”
“Who says anything about freakishness, Rainbow?” Eagle Eye smiled. “Come on! This is your opportunity to dazzle a crowd for once instead of beating evil bad guys to a pulp! That’s ‘harmonious’ in some way, isn’t it?”
“Uh uh!” Rainbow shook her head vigorously. “I’m not doing it! It is completely, totally uncool!”
“Hahahaha!” Rainbow grinned as she spun several flips in the air above the marketplace. “This is so, totally cool!” She spun upright with a devilish grin. “Alright, ya smog huffers! Who wants to see me do a triple spinning barrel roll?!”
Over a hundred ponies had gathered at this point, and they were cheering like mad. Gold bits flew into the air, which Belle and Eagle Eye promptly collected, pouring into a saddlebag that a smiling Pilate was holding.
“With these sparklers!” A merchant ran up and tossed some lit pyrotechnics up at the pegasus. “They’re available in Northern Bronze District! Five per bit!”
“Ya hear that, everypony?!” Rainbow Dash snatched four sparklers, one in the crook of each hoof. “Best place to buy flashy things! Norther Bronze District! Tell ‘em Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pegasus in the smoldering skies, sent ya! Now feast your eyes!”
She proceeded to fly up into the air, twirling. The air flashed with sparks all around her. Then, with an ear-splitting dive, she shot back towards the street, spreading her wings and rolling over the crowd, raining innocuous sparks on their chuckling and cheering heads. The applause redoubled.
“Wow…” Eagle Eye grinned. “She’s a natural!”
“Heh. Only you would be an expert on fabulousity,” Josho muttered.
“Oh, shove off.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Josho pointed towards a local tavern. “You lemme know if she flies a hole into something.”
Eagle Eye frowned. “You’re not gonna get sloshed, are ya?”
“What do you take me for, fruitcake?” Josho returned with a grin as she shuffled away from the growing crowd. “Don’t worry. I just figured I’d get familiar with the local crowd. It’s high time one of us talked to these locals anyways, you think?”
“Hrmmmm…” Eagle Eye squirmed as he glanced aside at the others. “I’m a bit worried.”
“What?” Ebon Mane shrugged as he smiled up at the twirling pegasus. “He’s committed to staying on the wagon, isn’t he?”
“No, I mean, won’t Rainbow be upset that we’re kind of splitting up more?”
“I don’t think she’s in the position to care at the moment,” Ebon said with a wink. “She’s happy. We’re happy. It works.”
“Heh. Yeah, if you say so.”
“She certainly sounds cheerful,” Pilate said. “I fear, however, that we could be taking advantage of her.”
“Oh, beloved, please,” Belle replied with a soft smile. She likewise gazed up at Rainbow as she continued her elements. “She’s in her element right now. Even if she doesn’t realize it. It’s not in the battlefield or in the machine world. But it’s here.” She sighed slightly. “I think her old friends would be proud.”
“Oh?”
“She’s still managing to be herself after all these months.”
“That’s a good point.” Pilate nodded, then readjusted his grip on the bag full of money. “This is starting to get ridiculously heavy.”
“Want me to hold it, darling?”
“No, that’s not an issue,” Pilate said while Rainbow zipped and spun overhead. “I just wonder if these streets are safe enough for us to carry it very far.”
“You’re the last pony who needs to be paranoid right now, Pilate.”
“Huh?”
Belle leaned in and nuzzled him with a smile. “Just relax. If this town was bad news, I’m sure we would have run into trouble by now. Face it. The battle is over.”
“Yes… Yes, I suppose it is,” the zebra said with a calm voice.
Far behind them, beyond the crowd, a robed figure watched the scene. The equine was still, its features shrouded. Its head tilted up to gaze at Rainbow’s loopty-loops, and the hood fell back slightly. Swiftly, the pony raised a hoof up to slide the hood forward once more. In so doing, a trio of colored bands could be seen just above the fetlock: red and green and blue.
Quietly, like a fading shadow, the cloaked figure snaked into the nearest alleyway and became one with the smog.
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Now, before everyone starts yammering about Stratopolis, I'd like if we could just take a deep breath, calm down, and not go around building castles in the sky.
Sorry...
I'm just waiting for Stratopolis to show up.
Anybody remember the story on the Midnight Armory? I have an idea and I can't recall the descriptions of it that we've received.
Just had to jinx it. Nobody could stop talking about how peaceful it was for like, 5 seconds and lo and behold, shadowy cloaked figures.
Belle at least has her point about Rainbow Dash, and I am glad there is at least that moment for her, and all of them.
Rainbow Dash is aware of the Laws of Dramatic Tension: if the split up, they have more chance to run into trouble.
That said, it is nice to see Dashie being her old self for a bit. Belle is right; after so long of fighting and fleeing, Dashie needs this.
Thirty-five wide-arm pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Come and bask in the awesomeness of the mighty Rainbow Dash!
Watch in awe as she performs daring tricks beyond your wildest dreams!
I'm pretty sure that'd be Eagle Eye.
Don't worry, the shadowy cloaked figure is just a pony late to the rave party. What else could those multicolored bands be?
Calling it now! Time traveling Scootaloo with her multi-coloured Rainbow Dash bracelet (tm)!
Never split the party. Isn't that adventuring 101? Apparently not in Ponyland.
It is nice to see Rainbow being her old carefree showoff self again. Yet that hooded figure seems to indicating that it unfortunately won't last. Am I missing the significance of the shadowy figure's color bands? There's just so much story leading up to this that I can never tell if significant items like this are things I should remember or are things yet to be discovered.
EE meh'd? I hope Kera doesn't mind...
Heh, I knew she couldn't resist the urge to show off. She really needs to unwind anyways. She deserves it. She's been flying around so much for travel that she's barely flown around just to enjoy flying.
And someone had to jinx the good vibes...mysterious shadowy figure is mysterious.
3203983
The city is always an interesting place -- enough people to find a niche, no matter where you are.
RD's finally showing off her tricks again. I'm surprised she was against the idea in the first place.
Seems like trouble is appearing, at last. Or a new Jury member, which seems just as likely, given the author's previous record.
Nice for Austraeoh to have a chance to be her old self for a while.
~bass
3204008
The bands are all colors of a rainbow. That's the only thing I know of.
Now that's interesting. Fore-shadowing, we got some crazy-crazy Rainbow just being awesome and of course, the team have splited up so if something will attack this is gonna be really bad. I'm actually more interested, if Terra is still chasing Roarke, because that wasn't confirmed ( if my memory is good ).
Wrong a-word.
Yay flying is awsome!
What if Stratopolis drifted east and either crashed somewhere or crossed over to the dark side of the world?
Cadence isn't acting weird, Twilight. Stop being so paranoid.
That's the first time Josho mentions the local brothels. In retro perspective that took him surprisingly long.
3204264 Terra is
deadheavily injured and incapacitated since her head didn't explode.Don't worry, Rainbow. Something wouldn't be mentioned so often in the story unless it was completely irrelevant and non-existent. I'm sure of it.
Also, it's almost unsettling to see a line break in this story.
3203971
Nonsense! It's obvious there's a subplot here revolving around Josho having a split personality.
Wow, even Josho is putting himself off now XD
“Hey!” Rainbow frowned. “That’s so not true! I’m not hard to please!” She blinked. She glanced aside at Pilate and Belle. “Am I?”
“Erm…” Belle shifted where she walked. “Well…”
WRONG ANSWER, Belle.
That is not how you lay low, Rainbow Dash.
And I called it. Smoggies.
As for this robed figure... I'm calling them a fanatic of some stripe. Possibly a cult?
3205480
And a sex change!
"what do you take me for, fruitcake?" Josho returned with a grin as she shuffled away from the growing crowd.
Sigh... just can't stay away from your enemies, can you, Dash?
3204499 This is a thing for us isn't it?
Y'know, for one of the less well-off districts, they sure do have a lot of gold to toss about. Imagine what Gold district must be like.
Hrmmm, you sure pick up on those emotions, don't you, Ebon Mane? I suppose a bustling crowd ripe with emotions must be like crack to
a changeling likeyou.Ebon is a robot. Here to take all the cooking jobs.
Code name Zabadudabu.
3203983
You know, EoP could actually fit quite well into the Austraeoh series now that I think about it... Aside from 5 of the Mane 6 dying of course. Maybe the cataclysm in EoP was caused by the machine world dying? Who knows?
3207289Probably. Even she needs a breath of fresh air every now and then.
3207313Oh, that's right. I wonder why she wasn't wearing them.
Never carry around an obviously huge bag of gold.
Otherwise, someone will quickly come to help relieve you. (no matter what city you're in)
3207985
i hope she didn't lose them, it her last possession from ponyvile i think
Aw, goddamn ponies jinxed it.
"Oh, let's casually meander about this quaint little skytown, our numbers steadily dwindling and our presence increasing all the while. What's this, a giant bag of bits in my hoof? No one could possibly want this! Or to take advantage of a rare multicoloured flying pony with some big-ass bling! No sirree, not gonna happen!"
Although I have no idea who that random cloaked pony was. Maybe he's really just a jewelry salesman who spotted EE, obviously a connoisseur of fabulosity, and he was simply slipping into the fog to rethink his marketing strategy before approaching him?
At least Dash got to relax in the air a bit before this whole thing comes crashing down around their ears. Unless the hooded figure is actually Prowse and he only seems ominous because of his quirky fashion sense...
Eh, I dunno. Onward!
This will not end well.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
I agree with Belle here. It's great to see Dash still acting like her good old self all these miles away from home. And now we have a shadowy figure with the colors red, green, and blue. This could get interesting...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
3235395 moar bits pleez
3207563
I'm not surprised I'm not the only one who found
, but I'm surprised we are the only ones to mention it.
Until I have reason to believe otherwise, I think ebon is a (nice) changeling. would provide an additional reason for him to want his cooking skills to not suck.
But since there is no traumatic wedding event, It will be interesting to find out how Rainbow Dash reacts if/when he is revealed.
3206748
Well, duh.
Stratopolis is bound to show up eventually.
Oh come on. Shadowy figures. Way to break up the happy.
-Spirit
ominous....
It never gets any easier, huh?
Who are you, and what have you done with Rainbow Dash?!
Never mind!
...I thought Belle was supposed to be smart?
Great, now that you've split up, attracted attention, and worst of all, BECOME HAPPY
total party wipe incoming
Wat
We also have red, green and blue. Who is that?
This keeps popping up... Just saying, I'll bet ya 10 bits stratopolis is real.
6020282 Sucker bet, no deal.
Just because it's neutral doesn't mean there aren't Ledo forces present.
This chapter was a nice change for the story. Got to see Dash in the air doing what she does best. Showing off. Heh. Also... what's up with this city in the clouds? Pegasi are able to walk on clouds naturally, and unicorns or earth ponies with the aid of magic, so how does this city work exactly? Now that they've been spotted by some unknown pony, let's hope that their peace can still last.
~SolidFire
Never. Split. THE PARTY.