Ring The Bell

by Seeking Dusk

Foibles of Introductions

It had been a quiet day in Coltborn. The sky was partially cloudy, a light drizzle scheduled for a few hours after sunset, leaving the late afternoon hours fairly pleasant for those who needed to be out and about getting tasks done. The small port was bereft of much activity as well, most of the boats already moored in their docks. Still, there were a few ponies, and otherwise, making their way through streets, some heading home, others heading for a meal out and, in the case of one green coated pegasus, getting some last minute grocery shopping done before all the vendors packed up for the day.

“Let’s see… I got milk, cheese, spinach, nuts, the rolls from Bran that Peppermint likes,” he muttered to himself, going through the rough list he made before leaving. Despite his wings, he stayed grounded. “We had enough hay and daisies for the next few days, I got some eggs yesterday… Still not sure why I didn’t get everything else while I was at it…”

While he was distracted with his musings a passing diamond dog, a wooden crate slung easily on his shoulder, called out cheerfully to him. “Hail, Swift Mist! Out for shopping?”

“Evening, Rufus,” Swift said, looking up with a grin. “I am. You?”

“No need,” Rufus said. He tapped on his crate with a claw. Rather than mining, the diamond dog had a small farm near town, raising things like yams and carrots. “Dug up the potatoes. Taking these to sell tomorrow.”

“Potatoes?” Swift’s ears perked. He had a certain love for Rufus’ potatoes.

“I’ll save you your sack, Swift Mist,” Rufus laughed, his tail wagging. “Just send Doppler with the regular to pick them up.”

“Thanks Rufus. You’re the best!” Swift grinned.

“So you tell me, Swift Mist,” Rufus waved before continuing on his way.

His day made brighter, there was a bounce to his trot as Swift continued home. Two more stops got his saddlebags filled and his list mostly completed. He found himself distracted by the temptation of the confectioner sisters at his last stop. Not flirting, but the chocolate covered blueberries and hard candies.

Ashamed of his weak will, Swift popped a mint in his mouth as he left the stall, finding solace in the fact that it at least tasted good.

“Excuse me,” somepony called out. “Could you help me out a bit? What town this is?”

“It’s Coltborn,” Swift responded easily, a bit confused as to how somepony wouldn’t know the town they were in. His confusion only intensified when he turned to the speaker. His jaw slowly dropped as he took in the details. Long limbs, furless body, small eyes, forelimbs ending in hands with fingers, an awkward bundle slung over the shoulder and a bag hanging at the side.

He was looking at a human. An honest to Celestia human.

“Um… you okay?” the human asked as Swift gaped silently for a moment. Swift raised a shaky hoof, then spread his wings and took off without warning, leaving a very befuddled human behind.

-----

“Doppler!” Swift yelled as he burst into the kitchen, startling his roommate. Unfortunately for the Doppler, he had been getting a jug of beet juice when he was startled.

“Swift… you’d better have a bucking good reason for barging in like that!” Doppler yelled, beet juice dripping from his drenched face and mane, his formerly white fur now closer to the red of his mane.

“Oh, sorry, Peppermint,” Swift blinked sheepishly at his roommate. He grabbed one of the dish towels and tossed it at him.

“Sorry ain’t cutting it,” Doppler fumed as he tried to rub the juice away, which had the unfortunate effect of working the juice, and its stain, further in. “So, you plan on telling me why you made me wear my juice instead of drinking it?”

“Right! There’s a human out there!” Swift said excitedly, his wings trembling. “A one hundred percent genuine human is out in the town!”

“Yeah, right,” Doppler gave a dismissive flick of his wing. “And I’m an alicorn princess. See my pretty horn?” He gave Swift a rather rude hoof gesture. “Now seriously, what’s your deal?”

“Human! Here in Coltborn! Not in Canterlot, not in Manehattan, not even in Ponyville, but in our town!”Swift gushed as he undid his saddlebags and let them fall to the floor. Unladen, he leapt over to Doppler and jabbed a hoof in his chest repeatedly. “Last time you took the Manehattan run during the convention and I missed the one that turned up there!”

“Easy, easy!” Doppler said, tossing the towel aside and batting Swift’s hoof away. For a pony that got started in the weather business, Swift was rather enthused with fantasy. “You sure as hay got convinced about this one…”

“Of course I am! I actually got to talk to a human!” Swift exclaimed. He paused as he realized his own words. “I actually got to talk to a human… and he didn’t know where he was…” A grin stretched. “He probably doesn’t have a place to stay…”

“Swift… what are you going on about?” Doppler asked, slightly distracted by the pink he could see on his muzzle. He needed a mirror.

“I’m going to invite him to stay here!” Swift yelled joyfully, charging out of the room at an even greater pace than he charged in.

“Hey! Hold up, Swift!” Doppler called, but his roommate lived up to his name, at least over short distances, and was already out of the building they called home and shop. “Luna’s flank, sometimes I don’t get that idiot…”

The kitchen lacked a mirror, so he grumbled his way to the washroom to use the one there. His entire face was pink, dark in some places, lighter in others. He licked his lips and tasted beet.

“I’m gonna buck him in the face…” Doppler hissed, hitting the faucet to try and wash the stain out of his coat. He was at it for maybe ten minutes, the stain being one of the more stubborn things he had to deal with in a while. His frustration continued to build as he worked at it, his threats towards his roommate escalating to tossing him off Neighara Falls with his wings bound and punting him back up, his threats towards beet juice even more extreme than that.

He had managed to get his coat down to a pale faded pink when the bell hanging over their storefront door jingled. With a sigh, he grabbed a towel before hollering out to the customer. “Be with you in a second!”

The second was actually closer to half a minute, getting both coat and mane dry, and he mostly calmed down by then. Trotting out to the shop, he put on his best customer service face, a greeting already on his tongue. “Evening. Welcome to Book and Courier!” His smile wavered when he saw who was out there. "You've got to be kidding me..."

-----

“Ah did see a strange looking fellow,” Ol’ Yellow, one of the local earth pony rancher, said slowly in response to Swift’s somewhat frantic questioning. He liked to think Coltborn was far more rural than it was. “Lanky an’ dressed up like some city pony.”

“Yes, and? And? Where did he go?” Swift said and he danced on his hooves, antsy. Ol’ Yellow was the third pony he had questioned, trying to track the human.

“Eeeh, I ain’t quite certain mah self,” he admitted, sedately chewing on a stalk of barley. “Ya might wanna try Miss Trots. She always has her eyes open.”

~~~

“Goodness!” Dainty Trots said, the feathers on her large broad brimmed hat jauntily waving. She had ordered it about a month before from some designer in Manehattan and Doppler had gotten the job of delivering payment and couriering it, and a few other pieces, back. “I did see that, what did you say it was, a hewn ann?”

“Human!” Swift said.

“Well, whatever it was, it did call out greetings to me. Quite the courteous one, he was,” Dainty Trots nodded was a faint sigh. One that quickly faded as she glared at Swift. “Your friend would do well to learn from somepony like that.”

Swift winced. Doppler’s tendency of slipping into the coarser side of language when riled up wasn’t much of an unknown in town. Even if it had developed from a young colt’s self defence reflexes. Dainty Trots continued. “What that colt needs is a good mare to straighten him out. I know that June Berry is seeking again…”

“That sounds interesting and all, and I’ll make sure to mention her to Dop, but I’m kinda in a hurry, Miss Trots,” Swift cut in. He wasn’t about to get drawn into Dainty Trots’ gossip hour. “Do you remember where the human went?”

“Hmm,” Dainty Trots tilted her nose in the air a little. “I believe he headed down East Run Avenue.”

“Thank you, Miss Trots!” Swift said before taking flight.

~~~

“That weird minotaur thing? I’m pretty sure it headed towards the Tower,” Blossom Rose said.

“Are you sure?” Swift said, hovering before the peach coloured mare.

“As rain!”

“Okay!” He was off again.

~~~

“Aye, I did see a fellow like that,” Norbert, the stallion of the only griffon family in town, said.

“Which way did he go?”

“Up Watercress Road.”

~~~

“You mean it isn’t a mare? Funny how things work out, eh? No wonder she, I mean he looked at me like that,” Strong Oats laughed, not ashamed at all he had hit on a man. “I think sh-he went into ‘Bout Everything You Need’ after I talked with he- him.”

Swift shook his head and headed off again.

~~~

“Well of course I remember it, not every day somepony like that comes into my store,” Bits Galore said cheerfully. “Looked around, hit its head on the wall a few times, smiled, then headed down Lakeside.”

~~~

“Nope. Just asked me what ah was fishing for, then kept on walking, he did,” Angler reported. “Seemed like a nice fellow. Friend of yours?”

~~~

“I… give up,” Swift whimpered, tired and almost at tears. A genuine human, one of three he’d heard about, and he messed up and missed him.

“Hey, Swifty! What’cha doing?” A bespectacled unicorn mare waved at him from her front porch, a book propped up before her.

Swift waved back without much enthusiasm. “Evening… Song.”

Evening Song giggled at the play on her name, even if it was one Swift used every time he crossed paths with her. She was also one of his best customers. “So; what’cha doing?”

“Wasting time,” Swift sighed.

“Weird. Thought you’d be in your shop since you were going on about humans so much,” Evening commented.

“Huh?”

“Well, a human did go into your shop,” Evening continued.

Swift stiffened. Then he took off, wings whipping up a cloud of dust. Evening protested, coughing and waving a hoof trying to clear the air. “He could have at least warned me first… Or at least said goodbye…”

-----

“So… you’re actually real,” Doppler said, holding out a hoof at the human. The human met it with a closed fist. Doppler shook his head and swore. “Bucking Tartarus. Was sure Swift was making stuff up.”

“I’m… sorry?” the human said uncertainly. He looked around the room, several books shelves on most walls, a few boxes near the door. One wall was devoted to a large map and chart, a marker hanging from a length of string.

“For what? Not like you have something to be sorry about,” Doppler said, examining the man.

“I guess?” the human shrugged. “I’m Nathan.”

“Doppler. Call me Dop.”

“Cool,” Nathan agreed. “So… who is Swift?”

“My roommate. Said he met you. Green pegasus. Violet and yellow tail? Kinda mare-y mane cut?” Doppler tossed a bit of a description at Nathan.

Nathan, having crossed the paths with a lot of ponies, and other creatures, thought about it for a moment or two. He snapped his fingers. “Had brown bags filled with stuff?”

“That’s the one.”

“Yeah… he took one look at me and ran off…” Nathan rolled his eyes.

“Yep. Definitely the right pony.”

Somepony crashed into the door, startling both Doppler and Nathan. There were a few groans before the door opened, admitting a slightly frazzled looking, but grinning, Swift. Nathan blinked while Doppler shook his head slowly.

“Hi?”

“Human! In my store! There’s a human and he’s in my store. Our store. Here! Now. Right there!” Swift’s grin broadened to disconcerting levels as he rambled. “See Doppler? Human. A human! The human! He’s here! There, right there!”

Doppler slapped him with a hoof. Nathan jumped and took a few steps back. Ignoring the human, Doppler raised an eyebrow. “Better?”

Swift worked his jaw. “Ow… Yes. Did you have to hit me so hard?”

“No, but you got beet juice in my coat, flank stain. Retribution,” Doppler stated.

“Whatever…” Swift muttered. He worked his jaw a bit more and turned to the human. “Hi… Sorry about, well, the really awkward- okay, can we start over?”

“Sure, I guess,” Nathan response, looking a little worried.

“Excellent!” Swift clapped his hooves together happily. “Okay, from the beginning. Hi! I’m Swift Mist. This is my roommate and business partner, Doppler. Welcome to Books and Courier. It’s nice to meet a- um, forget that part! What brings you to our wor- town, no; Store! Our store?”

“Hey, I’m Nathan Bell. I’m really new so I’m trying to get my bearings and find out where I am and such. It’s nice to meet you.” Nathan extended a hand towards Swift. Grinning, Swift matched it with his hoof and they shook.

Author's Note:

And thus; the story of Nathan Bell begins in my contribution to the Silver Verse.

Comments

[Istaran]

Alright! Great to see the snowball starting to roll. :)
An amusing introduction with a nice bit of characterization. Lots of background ponies: curious to see how many of them get expanded upon and take major roles in the story as things go forward. Looking forward to seeing more.

[No one is home]

New comment because I jus started reading. So quick question, is Coltborn Auburn, TX? Or some other town/city? Or just random pony-city? Or is this answered in a future chapter because somebody who read this already asked that question and I'll learn when I keep reading. If so, sorry for the stupid question.

[Seeking Dusk]

6740058 To be honest, it's not really anywhere specific. I did browse the map around the Niagara Falls area for inspiration and used Port Colborne as the base for the name's pun, but the rest is just small 'middle of nowhere' town stereotypes I came up with.