The three fillies looked at Applejack hopefully as she pulled herself together. Applejack's eyes wandered over the room, noticing the two coins laying on the floor, "What all have y'all been up to?"
Apple Bloom pointed at Sweetie Belle, "Sweetie did a nice song for eleven bits of coins."
Scootaloo flapped her wings, lifting from the ground briefly, "My wings work!"
Applejack smiled lightly, "Alright, good. Uh, congratulations..." Applejack slipped from the bed and stretched out slowly, "Ah'm still feeling a mite weak and dizzy, but I'm awake. Let's take stock ah things." She set her own saddlebag down and began to nose through it, finding a pouch of bits and setting it down. "Now... if I recall proper, ponies around here don't take kindly to nudity. If we want ta be respectable like, we'll want ta get some new duds."
Apple Bloom moved to tug open the pouch with her teeth and started counting quickly. "Thirty," she announced shortly.
Applejack nodded, "Bits ain't tha same as the coins they use 'round here, we should exchange them. Can ah trouble ya girls ta carry mah stuff?"
The three quickly gathered up bits of Applejack's belongings, leaving Applejack to reclaim an emptied saddlebag and put it into place. "First thing, I'm thirsty as a fish outta water. Let's go." She led the way out to the front. The original two purrsians had since left. Applejack approached the bar directly and tapped a hoof on it, "Excuse me?"
A voice shouted from the back, "Keep your pants on!"
Applejack sighed, glancing back at her lack of pants, but waited anyway.
What emerged wasn't a cat as they had all expected. Instead it was a pony, sort of. They were comprised entirely of gears and metal, clicking as they moved. "What can I do you for?" asked the masculine voice of the machine-pony. Seeing the shocked and confused expression of Applejack and her small charges, he sighed. "First time seeing a clockwork or something? It's not polite to stare."
Scootaloo pointed directly at him, "You're a machine!"
He nodded, "Alright, you're not completely blind. So are you here to order?"
Applejack cleared her throat, "Right, sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean nothing. So... what do you have to drink?"
He let out a raspy sort of sigh, "Cactus juice is a local favorite, got a few dwarven liquors in stock, and two kinds of tea, green and white. If you order food, you get a glass of water included. Here." He ducked his head down and came back up with a flat sheet of wood with a menu written out on it. "I don't normally give a hoot, but I can't help but notice the lot of you are naked as the sky. You get robbed something fierce, or are you some kind of performing troupe?"
Scootaloo tilted her head, "We're usually like this. Why?"
Applejack put a hoof out in front of Scootaloo, clearing her throat, "We were mugged on the way to th' city. Know a good place to exchange coins, then to pick up some new duds?"
The clockwork's expression flattened a little, "Do you have coin to get food with?"
Sweetie proudly produced the gold piece and floated it up to the countertop.
With a quick motion, the coin vanished, "You're all good with me. I'll even throw in a bulk discount, so you're good for today, three meals each."
Applejack smiled, "Right kind ah you." She tapped the menu, "Get us all some 'home style' taters and eggs, and make that glass of water extra large if'n ya please." Applejack then lead the way to a table. She sat on the ground, while the three fillies hopped up onto the chairs surrounding the table so they were closer to the eating surface. The table was much higher off the ground than Equestrian standard architecture.
The water arrived first, a clay mug filled with the precious fluid set before each of them. All four quickly drained their mug, letting out a communal sigh of relief. The bartender, still standing there, pointed out, "Clothes are as much for keeping the heat off of you as they are for looking pretty."
Apple Bloom looked baffled at the idea, "Ah thought clothes made ya warmer, not colder."
The mechanical pony smirked, "I had a feeling you weren't locals. Trust me, it works. I'll be back with breakfast." He wandered off into the back.
Applejack sighed, "This'll get us out of being stared out as bad as that tin pony in the back, but we're still in a bad spot, girls."
Sweetie raised a hoof, "I can sing more!"
Applejack smiled gently, "That ya can. I'd feel like a right heel relying on a fillie t' raise all mah money fer me. Let's do what we can first. Once we figure out how much money we actually have and got some right clothes, we'll figure it out, right?"
Scootaloo stuck out her tongue at Applejack, "We're not just fillies! We got you here nice and safe."
Applejack looked at Scootaloo flatly, "Yer right, y'all did get me here." She huffed, "We gotta get home. Everglow's not a safe place."
Apple Bloom tilted her head, "This is where tha magic came from, right?"
Applejack nodded, "Twilight learned it all, at great personal price. She literally died and came back ta get it all. I don't want you girls taking after that." She held up a hoof and pointed at each of them in turn, "I want allaya to play it safe. We are not here to sightsee or prove anything, just be safe." She shrank a little after saying that, "Ah wish she was here..."
Sweetie smiled brightly, "Don't be sad, Applejack. We'll help, promise."
Scootaloo bobbled her head, "I know you just see fillies when you look at us, but we're here for you, AJ. We're all we got, so, uh... what I'm trying to say..."
Apple Bloom extended a hoof at Applejack, "Sis, ah formally invite ya to be an honorary Crusader."
Applejack looked at the small hoof a moment before a smile broke free of her. She bumped her hoof against Bloom's, and soon the other two had joined in. "Alrighty then."
It was just in time for platters of food to arrive, set before them with delectable aromas. Talk paused to devour the food set before them, filling bellies eager to have it. The entire group looked a bit happier with that particular edge worked off.
Applejack pushed to her hooves, "Alright! Ah'm feeling a bit better. Let's get ta work." The fillies quickly got to their hooves. Apple Bloom approached Applejack, looking up at her with a silent question.
AJ shook her head, "Ah'm still a little under the weather."
Bloom pouted a little, but let the matter drop. Soon they were outside in the building morning heat. Following the clockwork's direction, they pushed their way through the crowd with Applejack forming the front of the displacement wave that the others followed in. They found a small building with a sign, 'Tasha Emerald's Fine Jewelry and Coin Exchange'. Applejack nudged the door open and slipped inside.
It smelled dusty, and was quite small. It was barely half a room with a purrsian seated behind a counter. There was no jewelry or coins in sight. Sweetie blinked as she looked around, "Are we in the right place?"
The male feline smiled in that way only felines can, "If you're here for an exchange, yes. If you are penniless beggars here to plead, or desperate robbers, no."
Applejack shook her head, "We're here ta trade, uh, but where's allayer stuff?"
He waved a paw lightly, "I learned long ago that the convenience of easily-viewed merchandise does not compare with the hassle of thieves and brigands. You have entered my store, you clearly want what I have. What do you have?"
Apple Bloom scurried up to the counter and set down the bag of bits in front of him. "Here ya are!"
He pulled open the bag with deft fingers and spilled out the Equestrian bits. He held one up a moment, then produced a scale and weighed it with a soft 'hmm'. He then bit into it roughly, worrying his teeth into it. "Not pure gold, mild artistic value. Did you make this yourselves?"
Applejack shook her head, "No sir. Right proper currency where we're from."
He shrugged then, "That must be a long way away. I have never seen this coin before." He smiled, "Good for you. Rarity can be its own value. Shame it isn't pure gold, but I suppose that would be a poor choice for currency." He flipped one of the coins before setting it back down on the pile, quickly sorting it out into sets of ten. "Fifty. Very well, fourty proper gold for the lot."
Scootaloo quickly started to agree when Sweetie shoved a hoof against her mouth, silencing her. Sweetie smiled up at the feline, "Surely you could offer a little more than that? I didn't think we were walking into an establishment owned by a poor pony."
He scowled and bristled instantly, "I am no pauper!"
Applejack got nervous at the prompted reaction, "Uh, she did--"
He slapped the top of the counter, "You'll get fourty-five coin and be thankful for it!"
Sweetie leaned forward, gazing at the larger feline with a measured look, her eyes half-lidded, "Fourty-five? For such exotic treasures? Get our coins, Applejack, we shouldn't be seen dealing with the destitute."
"Fine!" shouted the storekeeper, "I'll match it even. Fifty gold coins. You'll not find a better price in the city, I promise it." He crossed his forelegs over his chest. "For such a small pony, you haggle like a pirate."
Sweetie nodded, "A pleasure doing business!" Her sweet tones only brought an angry grunt as the shopkeep produced a small sack and counted out fifty gold coins to place in it. He tied off the top of it and thrust it towards Applejack violently without a word.
Applejack numbly collected the sack of gold coins the storekeeper offered and led the girls outside. Once they were in a relatively quiet place, she turned on Sweetie Belle, "What was all of that?!"
Sweetie grinned triumphantly, "Just some things I picked up this morning when I did my singing, and watching my sister haggle with ponies back home." Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly offered hooves and bumps were shared around.
"That was great!" exclaimed Scootaloo, "Now we have enough money to get by."
Apple Bloom bobbed her head, "If we want ta stay at tha same place, we're good fer about five days wit' food." She frowned, "Oh, but we gotta get clothes..."
Applejack blinked, "That place was ten a night? Ah reckon we can do a fair bit cheaper than that. But, first, let's get those duds. Ah feel like ah'm being stared at."
David, between this and your other series, I think you might have no life...
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Sweetie is a pretty fast learner. Though I would have though a business pony like AJ would have haggling skills.
5860490 He does have a life. Writing awesome stories.
this is really shaping up to be a excellent story right out of the gate.
good work David Silver.
Harts Fire
5860494 I know, but I mean outside of writing, because he always has some three-odd chapter updates daily, which can't be quick.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5860490
5860494 Hey, I was busy running a real-world game of Ponyfinder yesterday. The party was routed with only two survivors after they ran into two sultry pony succubi.
5860509 Okay, well, either way, check your messages.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5860494 AJ does not usually dive right into insulting her haggling partner, hence her being shocked when Sweetie practically went for the throat and didn't let up. Sweetie played hard ball and it worked out.
Insofar as I'm aware, that's not how you spell "y'all."
The apostrophe goes between the "y" and the "a" in "y'all."
"Sightsee" is a compound word.
That should be "Crusader," capitalized since it's part of the formal name of their organization.
The convenience of "easily-viewed" merchandise.
I'd call them "forelegs" rather than "arms."
5860585 Fixes applied to avoid crippling purrsian fines.
5860626 This chapter felt like it continued to lay additional groundwork, as the characters adapted to the lay of the land and tried to figure out how to simply get by, which is what you do before forming a plan for the future. At this point, it's still a question of them getting used to the alien nature of Everglow, as driven home by that (rather irascible) clockwork pony. Still, they're getting their legs under them well enough, as Sweetie Belle's surprisingly-canny haggling session showed.
It was rather amusing to see the CMC declare that they weren't just helpless fillies, and that Applejack should rely on them, since by any standard they're exactly as young and precocious as they seem. As Applejack noted, it was their fault that they ended up in their current situation; it may not have been on purpose, but that's sort of the point - a failure to consider the impact of the consequences of their choices is what leads to most of the trouble they've ever gotten into. It's their nature to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and that's going to continue to get them into trouble.
In a way, that's going to be one of the harder hurdles for this fic to overcome. The nature of a narrative is to have the characters change over time, especially in the case of children, who are naturally changing anyway as they grow. However, for characters that are children, changing them too much can result in them losing their most familiar/likeable qualities. My intuition is that the story simply won't go there...even after killing a creature for the very first time, Spike and Twilight seemed to get over it after a day of crying it out (though to be fair, Twilight was still struggling with all of those gnolls she helped kill). But then again, we haven't seen what happened to Fluttershy either, so maybe not everypony will turn out to be resilient.
It remains to be seen how the CMC take it when they end up in a place where there are no good choices, only hard ones.
5860631 I'm glad to hear I haven't fallen into any obvious holes yet. This was, I think, one of the more challenging options on the poll, which was likely why people grabbed it up. That, or people like the CMC... or hate them and hope they suffer terribly in Everglow, but that wouldn't be nice, right?
I do hope Sweetie's performance didn't come out of nowhere, narratively. She was being sweet and diplomatic in her first conversation, and made use of what they told her in the second. Purrsians hate being called poor, and can be driven to show off their wealth through it. It was a lever she had and she made use of it. Will it work every time? Likely not...
5860689 I came very close to noting Sweetie's rather pointed style of negotiating, as she's typically the most sociable of the trio (Rarity's influence, no doubt). However, I felt that her having watched that exact same tactic being used a day earlier was a good explanation for why she'd turn around and try that same trick, particularly since Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are both straightforward enough that they wouldn't think of it.
5860755 For your giggle of the day, imagine Fluttershy trying it.
It's the quenchiest!
elsewhere she says "outta"
yer here," she
5860888 Fixes fixed! Quenchiest indeed...
Although the whole ponies-wearing-clothes issue is a readily-available source of culture shock, I would think that the people of Murrage would be much less concerned about it than those of Kadiston. Since the Purrsians are furry, they wouldn't be worried as much about decency as humans, and you already established that the ponies don't really care. From what you have said about Purrsians so far, it seems like the main reason Purrsians would dress is to prove that they can afford clothes. If anything, going naked should make the ponies smaller targets for thieves. Given the climate, AJ's style of wearing nothing but a wide hat seems the most practical (though she might want to get one with vents; traditional cowboy hats get pretty stuffy inside). In fact, I think I know what kind of hats they would wear: AB would wear whatever AJ wears, Scoots would have a sombrero and Sweetie would have a cork helmet.
5860914 Did you make that reference on purpose, or was it just a natural inclusion for a dessert menu?
5860915 Mildly smaller target for thieves, but a bigger target for everyone else for looking like beggars. No one wants to look like a beggar in cat town.
5860921 I'll never tell!
Sweetiebelle swindled someone with her newly-acquired haggling trick and she didn't even check her flank; s### is starting to get real.
5854708 It might be a good idea to put a link to the character sheet in the description of this story, for the benefit of any new fans you may have.
5860953 Good idea, and I got my first downvote. It had to happen. I'm damn proud to have lasted this long without getting one.
5860988 Well it wasn't me, I already up-voted this. A 95.6% approval rating is still pretty respectable.
That's bards for you. The moment they open their mouths, someone's in trouble.
Also, a clockwork pony? In a desert? Maintenance must be a nightmare for him. All that sand in his gears...
In any case, the party's back on its hooves. Now to get directions for getting to more familiar environs... unless Applejack wants to recuperate a bit more.
5862038 Applejack has no idea where she is, or where Viljatown (a much nicer place to be so far she's seen) is in relation. That may be a good question to ask for her once they're presentable.
Of course Sweetie has a high Charisma/Fellowship/whatever. It's only natural. *nods*
Ah'm
Also, why's she saying it "Ah'm" and "I'm'' in the same sentence?
Pretty sure there should be a space or apostrophe in there somewhere.
Ah'm
6828025 Fixes everywhere!
I wonder what other knowledge Sweetie Belle picked up from her sister. She might be able to help identify gemstones if the find any. I expect that the CMC have more surprises in store for the readers.
mite, as in a little bit.
9124254
Elderly typo fixed.