Of Scholars and Couriers (Sort of)

by Aced4Remakes

Chapter 4: Sugarcube Corner

"Onwards! Towards the party!" shouted Jacob dramatically. He lead the others towards a gingerbread house in the distance, north-west of the town centre. The ponies followed behind him, Aaron bringing up the rear.

The Staff of Magnus loves a good party, though it thinks it will have to wait just a little bit longer. It casts Clairvoyance, only having it affect Aaron. He continues walking but glances sideways, it leads to an alleyway, he waits until the others are not paying attention and then casually strolls after the glowing rope.

The alleyway is dark, it does not fit with Ponyville's rustic charm. there are a few ponies in here, a mare and her colt getting harrased by what seem to be twin stallions. The stallions are buff, scruffy earth ponies and have inverted colour pallets, red and blue, and they both have purple eyes.

"Now, you just need to give us what we want and we won't harm the foal" says Red,

"Yeah, give us what we want!" parrots Blue,

"Look luv, we will even cover his eyes while we do it" says Red. The mare seems to fold, doing what she needs to do and ready to take it like a mare. She trembles, turns around and slowly lifts her tail.

It doesn't even raise half-way. Aaron, a silent observer until now, has seen enough to get the gist of what is going on. He raises his voice.

"Hey, whats going on here?" he asks sternly. The two would-be rapists look shocked and they shake at being caught. They turn around slowly, see Aaron's strange appearance and seemingly regain their confidence. The mare has a hopeful, pleading look on her face as she turns around too.

"Look, Freak, move along and you won't get hurt" says Red,

"Yeah. Freak!" parrots Blue,

Red suddenly grabs the colt, pulls a knife out of nowhere and holds it to the colt's throat.

"Button! No!" screams the mare.

Aaron has, at this point, grown tired of this random encounter. He reaches out and waves his right hand upwards, palm up. The knife comes soaring towards him, he catches it by the blade. The metal crushes between his fingers. He drops the remainders of the knife to the ground and stalks towards the twins. They are both trembling now, and as a contrast, the mare is standing tall and confident. Red drops the colt and cowers under the soul-haunting gaze of Vokun.

Aaron gets up close and goes "Boo." The two stallions squeal in fright, backing away, tripping over eachother, and eventually turning around and running without looking back.

The mare hugs Aaron, "Thank you, my name is Nursery Rhyme and my son is Button Mash, whatever can we do to repay you?" Aaron is taken back by this. In Skyrim, Nordic culture has its citizens not really acknowledging certain acts, much less those as the DragonBorn. He is speechless. The colt, Button Mash, is now hugging his thigh, "That was awesome! Thank you!".

Nursery Rhyme's gaze turns sultry as she looks at him, "No, really, anything at all," Aaron is deeply disturbed.

"Anything at all?" Nursery nods her head, "Well..." he draws out. "I could do with directions to Sugarcube Corner." Nursery Rhyme looks disappointed and slightly sad, but she nods her head anyways. She finally stops hugging Aaron and motions for her son to do the same.

"Okay then, we were heading there ourselves, we were taking this alley as a shortcut when we were ambushed by those two brutes." Nursery Rhyme motions for him to follow, her son bouncing happily along side her.

They reach Sugarcube Corner within a few minutes. They enter the building, the bell rings as the door opens, and every inhabitant becomes silent, and turns their head toward the door. The ponies seem confused, having conflicting memories about him. They remember Aaron entering the shop with his friends, but they also remember that he didn't. Jacob, seeing the Staff of Magnus pulse faintly, pieced this together. Jacob stood up and spread his arms wide and greeted his friend loudly, "Aaron! It's about time you got here! We had to start the party without you!" He went over and hugged him, Aaron stiffening in his arms. This broke the tension and the party started where it left off.
Nursery Rhyme and Button Mash go off to enjoy the festivities on their own.

About half an hour later, Jacob notices a familiar brown pony beckoning to him. Jacob gets up and follows the pony out the back door of the shop. A few minutes later, he comes back in, limping heavily, covered in what appears to be green blood and a white substance and carrying a new weapon. The weapon looks like a toilet plunger attached to the end of an M1903, there are red glowing runes on it giving it a daemonic appearance, the weapon looks like its shots would pack a punch and create holes in anything it hits. There is also sand coming out of his trousers.
He sits down and winces, shifting around in his seat.
Aaron leans fowards and sniffs. He frowns under his mask, it smells like Falmer blood yet doesn't look like it. Either way, he unhooks a vial of concentrated healing potion from his belt and hands it to Jacob who smiles weaky in thanks, uncorks it, and drinks it. a white-gold glow swirls around Jacob, accompanied with a whirring sound. He looks better already, sitting straighter and the strain to his physical body being repaired.

"Thanks," Jacob says, "What was in that?"

"The ingredients are as follows: blisterwart, which is a mushroom, wheat and cilantro" Jacob swears he can hear Aaron's smirk.

"Cilantro?"

"Cilantro," Aaron confirms,

"Why cilantro?" asks Jacob,

"It enhances everything," said Aaron with a tinge of amusement.

"Really?" says Twilight Sparkle, having been listening in. Jacob jumps in his seat and glares at her, Aaron is as stoic as ever.

"Yes." Says Aaron, "It enhances everything, from cooking to alchemy."

Twilight is sceptical, which is shown in her expression. "I am pretty sure you are lying about that."

Aaron's shoulders sag. "Yes I am. The true effect that cilantro has is that it allows one to safely dilute potions that would normally explode... It also makes it taste better." He adds on as an afterthought.