19 - Heart and Stomach
Fireflower and Sonata were practically leaning on each other by the time they stumbled into Tall Tale.
“We made it,” groaned Fireflower, looking around as the scenery transitioned from forests to buildings. He’d never actually been in a city before, having only heard about them from his siblings’ stories. “So…where do we start looking?” Despite his hunger and his exhaustion, he was eager to begin searching for his brothers and sisters, hoping against hope that they’d be reunited here without anything else happening.
“Like, how about that restaurant?” Sonata pointed to a building down the street, where a sign read “Healthy Horse Grill,” and didn’t wait for Fireflower’s acknowledgment before heading towards it. Her companion didn’t hesitate in following her.
The two of them had pushed themselves hard to reach Tall Tale so quickly, having covered well over fifty miles in just over twenty-four hours. While their primary motivation had been to find the ones who were most important to them – for Sonata that was Lex, while Fireflower wanted to find his missing family – there had been another reason for them to reach the city as fast as they could.
That reason was made obvious by their rumbling bellies as they sat down in a booth. After they had parted ways from Lex, the lack of food hadn’t been an immediate concern. But after the first day, the two had realized that they had a serious problem. Neither knew how to forage, nor could Fireflower catch anything with his spinneret so badly damaged. The result had been an undercurrent of desperation, driving them to get to Tall Tale as fast as possible.
“But seriously, after we’re done here, where should we start?” asked Fireflower as Sonata nodded pointedly at a waiter. “I mean, we know that they’re here, right? After what they said at the train station they just have to be!”
The two had passed the train station on their way into the city, whereupon several ponies had approached them to check on the two strangers making their way into the city. They had regaled the pair with stories of monster spiders and strange ponies with dark magic, much to the delight of Sonata. Fireflower had been more alarmed at the idea that the “spiders” were attacking people, and had started to protest that they wouldn’t do that.
Needless to say, those reactions were not the ones the guard ponies had expected. It had only been due to some quick thinking on the duo’s part, making up a story about being investigators of weird phenomena, that they’d been allowed to pass at all.
“I’m sure they are,” nodded Sonata, “and we’ll figure out where to start looking right after we eat. After all, it’s a well-known fact that people get all dumb when they’re hungry.”
“It is?” asked Fireflower, blinking.
“Totes!” insisted Sonata. “It’s got something to do with, like, the level of nutrients in your blood or something, and if they’re too low then your brain gets all underworked and stuff.”
“Wow, I had no idea!” Fireflower’s eyes widened slightly as he absorbed this new knowledge. He’d thought that Sonata had come here just because she was hungry, but she’d been thinking far ahead!
“Yep. I saw it on TV one time.” Noticing Fireflower’s uncomprehending look, Sonata started to explain. “Er, TV is a thing from this other world I was on, and it’s kinda-”
“Hello, and welcome to the Healthy Horse Grill, where every meal is guaranteed to be as healthy as it is tasty!” Their waiter made his presence known, smiling as he passed out menus to the pair. “Since today is the equinox, we’re serving a special to commemorate the princesses who raise and lower the sun and moon. For just one hundred bits, you can get a combo platter with grilled-black vegetables on edible hay skewers along with a serving of vanilla yogurt and freshly-peeled apples, all with our choice of beverage! We also have-”
“That sounds great, we’ll each take that,” interrupted Sonata, eager to get to the food.
“Certainly! And to drink?”
“Oh, um…” Pausing, Sonata gestured to Fireflower, indicating he should answer.
“Er, just water for me, I guess,” he fumbled, not sure what his choices were.
“I’ll have the same.”
“Two combo platters and two waters, coming right up!” Retrieving the menus, the waiter went back to place their orders.
Waiting for their food to come out, Sonata tilted her head for a moment as something occurred to her. “Hey, I just realized. You know what Lex looks like and all, but I have no idea what your brothers and sisters look like.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess not…” For an instant, Fireflower wasn’t sure why she was mentioning that, until the obvious answer came to him a moment later. “Wait, you want to help me search for them?!” The idea shouldn’t have been shocking, but it was. He had just assumed that they were each going to look for their respective targets, or even split up to try and find them separately. Somehow, he hadn’t considered the possibility that they’d work together once they’d arrived.
“Well duh! What’re friends for?” She replied, flashing him a brilliant smile that would have knocked Fireflower over had he not already been sitting. He managed a nod of acknowledgment, suddenly unable to bring himself to speak.
Although he hadn’t known Sonata very long, Fireflower felt as close to her as he ever had to his siblings…maybe even more. Over the last few days, they had gone through so much together. When he’d been sad, she’d cheered him up. When he’d been scared, she’d calmed him down. Every word she’d said to him had always been unfailingly kind. Even now…even now she was thinking about how she could help him, despite having someone else she was looking for.
The thought of her actually wanting to be with that harsh, unpleasant pony made about as much sense to him as planting a flower in a dank cave. The same way it couldn’t bloom under such conditions, Fireflower couldn’t imagine someone as wonderful as Sonata being with someone as awful as Lex. He felt guilty even thinking that; he knew how much the red-horned unicorn meant to her, and that he had no real right to question her choices, especially after all she had done for him, but still…
“Hello? Fireflower? You reading me?” Fireflower blinked, coming back to himself as Sonata waved a hoof in his face. “You totally spaced out for a second, there. Everything okay? I don’t want you to collapse from hunger just before the food gets here.” She giggled at that, the thought of fainting from want of food just before being served being funny to her.
Rather than joining her in her laughter, however, Fireflower felt almost light-headed. Even now she was worrying about him. “Sonata, I have to tell you something.” He could feel the words bubbling up inside of himself, and knew that he couldn’t possibly hold them back. Even if she didn’t feel the same way, he had to tell her. “I think…I think that I lo-”
“And here we are! Two combo platters and two waters!” The waiter, utterly unaware of what he’d just interrupted, slid their orders in front of the pair. “You all need anything else?”
Practically salivating, Sonata shook her head quickly. “This looks great! Thanks!” Without any further preamble, she dug right in, picking up a hay-skewer of fried vegetables and chowing down. Not having eaten in two days, the taste was almost overwhelming, and it was enough to push everything else from her mind.
In contrast to her, Fireflower sat frozen for a long moment before the enticing aroma pulled him out of his reverie, and he slowly started to eat. What had he almost done? What could possibly have possessed him that he’d almost said…what he’d almost said. He knew how she felt about Lex, and besides, they weren’t even the same species! By any measure it was crazy! But even so…as his eyes slid from his meal over to her, watching as she dipped an apple slice into her yogurt and munched on it with an expression of unbridled joy, he could feel that urge to open his heart to her rising up again.
Pushing it down, Fireflower focused on his meal. By the time he finished, he felt reasonably sure that he could keep himself under control. Sonata had been right; going too long without food really did make you dumb.
Leaning back, Sonata rubbed her belly contentedly. “Oh wow, that has to have been the tastiest food, like, ever!” She savored the feeling of being full for a few moments longer before turning her attention back to Fireflower. “So, what were you gonna say just now?”
“Huh?” He tilted his head, not sure what she meant.
“You started to say something. You ‘think you lo-’, remember?”
“Oh! Oh yeah, ha ha, I did…” He chuckled nervously. “I, um…I was trying to say…”
Sonata smiled curiously, unsure why he was suddenly acting that way, and then all of a sudden it came to her. “Oh! I get it!”
Fireflower’s heart leapt up into his throat. “Y-you do?!”
She nodded, and gave him a gentle smile that turned the food in his stomach into butterflies. “Yeah, and there’s no need to be embarrassed. If anything I should be embarrassed for not realizing it sooner.”
“Th-then…!”
She nodded again. “You think you looked at your siblings’ pony forms when you first got here, but you’re not sure you remember what they were. That’s why you didn’t answer when I asked you about them, right?”
Sonata was sure she was correct just from seeing the look on his face. It was frozen in an expression that combined surprise and embarrassment. Poor guy, she’d really put him on the spot! “Well,” she continued, “don’t worry, we’ll figure it out somehow. In the meantime, let’s get out of here.”
Waving a hoof, she smiled at the waiter as he trotted over to them. “All done? Can I interest you guys in some dessert, or should I get the check?”
Sonata sighed internally. She knew Lex would hate this, but, well…he’d said that she should use her powers in an emergency, and this was an emergency, right? Waving her hooves, she sang a quick enchantment, the pony in front of her giving her a curious look. Fireflower’s was more knowing, but still curious since he didn’t recognize the exact spell she was using.
Once the last note left her lips, their waiter’s smile changed, becoming friendly rather than just polite. Knowing that her spell had worked, Sonata smiled at him in return. “Actually, could you do us a teensy little favor and get rid of the bill for this?”
The waiter’s smile wavered. “I don’t know…I’m really not supposed to do that. I mean, I really want to help you out, but, well, that’s really against the rules.”
Standing up, Sonata leaned closer to him, batting her eyes. “Like, pretty please? I’d really appreciate it if you could help my friend and me out. We’re really in a jam, and all we can rely on is your friendship.”
His face looked confused for a second, as though he wasn’t sure why he was putting so much stock in what she said, and Sonata knew that he was trying to fight her spell off. But she had been enchanting people since long before he’d been born, and knew how it’d turn out. Sure enough, his features relaxed a moment later and he nodded. “Well…when you put it that way, how can I say no? You all go ahead, I’ll take care of things here.”
“Aw, thank you so much!” Sonata beamed at him in thanks before turning around and ushering Fireflower out with her.
He glanced at her as they quickly put the restaurant behind them. “What was that? I know it was magic, but I’ve never seen that kind before.”
“It’s my special talent,” replied Sonata. “I can use magic to make ponies do what I want.” She sighed a bit, giving Fireflower a smile that was tinged with sadness. “I used to use it all the time, until some friends told me that it was wrong to mess with ponies’ heads.” She paused before adding, “Lex used to say the same thing.”
Not wanting to see her looking like that, Fireflower immediately spoke up. “I think it’s great!” She looked up at him, slightly surprised by the vehemence in his voice. “I mean, um,” he stuttered, trying to figure out what he was saying. “You can use it to, you know, to get ponies to do good things, without having to threaten them or hurt them or anything bad like that…” he trailed off, realizing that he was babbling, and that he probably sounded like an idiot.
“Aw, you’re so sweet, trying to cheer me up!” Sonata threw a hoof around Fireflower’s neck, pulling him in for a quick hug that left him grinning in a way that he definitely knew made him look like an idiot, though at that moment he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Everypony! Stay away from the town square!”
The moment was interrupted by a shrill cry from above them. A pegasus mare was flying overhead, shouting that warning over and over again. In the distance, several other pegasi could be seen, echoing the same message.
“Hey!” Sonata yelled up at her. “What’s going on?!”
“It’s the spiders!” came the reply from the pegasus. “They’re attacking again!”
Stats
Page generated in 0.081 seconds
Total duration
1,003 users online
1,789,451 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Lex has a thousand bits for rebuilding, and Sonata and Fireflower just downed 200 bits of grub, and they aint even on the overpriced strip in town yet? Thats gonna hurt.
Witch spiders are which and why.
6660158 Yeah, wow. That meal was ridiculously expensive. Isn't it like 3 bits for a meal at a normal restaurant?
6660158
6660262 It cost Fluttershy 2 bits to buy a single cherry in Putting Your Hoof Down (or at least, that was the normal cost before her "negotiating" went south).
A single cherry weighs 7 or 8 grams, according to Answers.com. By contrast, in the United States, cherries typically cost anywhere from $1 to $6 per pound.
A single pound converts to just over 450 grams. That means that there are somewhere between 56 to 64 cherries per pound, so let's say 60 just to make it even. In that case, the USD cost per cherry is somewhere between $0.016 and $0.10 per cherry. In other words, the value of a single Equestrian bit is worth somewhere between two pennies to a dime.
Now, given that Equestria is a relatively affluent nation, its purchasing power is probably quite a bit higher than that due to quite a few things that we take for granted as being necessary purchases being free there (e.g. clothing is a luxury, rather than a necessity), but it still holds that the Equestrian bit is, by itself, not worth very much. Each coin is akin to something like a Japanese yen, rather than being worth an American dollar or more, which is what a lot of people seem to think.
Throw in that the restaurant that they were at was having a special discount on that meal, and it's not that hard to see 100 bits per order as being reasonable.
That 1,000 bits that Lex and Sonata were given wasn't meant to cover their rebuilding expenses for Vanhoover. It was supposed to let them get to Vanhoover in the first place.
6661185 It's also 2 bits for several tomatoes, which are about a dollar each. In the same episode. And other times ponies are buying cakes and drinks for two or three bits, which would be $2-$5. The value isn't entirely consistent, but you're taking the most inconsistent outlying example. Bits are also rather large and it wouldn't make sense for ponies to have to carry around thousands of them as pocket change.
Actually... I did a websearch to see if anyone compiled the various bit values, and 10 cents might not be the worst outlier. 8 bits for an entire bushel of apples? 3 bits for a bag full? Oh, and 4 bits for a single apple, in case you thought it might be internally consistent with weird relative values for things.
6661685 Let's look at tomatoes as an example. They usually cost between $1 and $2 per pound, so we'll assume $1.50 per pound of tomatoes. Likewise, the sign at the tomato stall shows 2 bits for 3 tomatoes; since that's the specific number of bits that are required, then we'll assume that 3 tomatoes is the specific number that are bought for that price.
Now, Wikipedia says that "The most widely grown commercial tomatoes tend to be in the 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) diameter range", which is the size of a small tomato, weighing about 90 grams each. So altogether, that seller was selling 270 grams of tomatoes, which isn't 1 lbs (450 grams) in weight but is instead about 0.6 lbs.
So if 1 pound of tomatoes costs $1.50, then three-fifths of a pound of tomatoes would cost $0.90. If two bits can stand in for that, then that's about $0.45 per bit, in terms of value. Now, that's more than the $0.02-$0.10 range estimated earlier...but it's not that much more.
So how can we account for the difference (besides the meta-contextual explanation of a children's show not bothering to be consistent with itself)? Well, the obvious answer is that cherries are more expensive in Equestria, or at least Ponyville, since it's self-evident that the same amount of money will buy a lot more tomatoes than cherries. This really isn't surprising, since cherry trees are noted as "being a difficult fruit tree to grow and keep alive." They also don't tolerate wetness, which is why Cherry Jubilee lives in Dodge Junction. Given that Appleloosa doesn't seem interested in growing cherries - and that we don't see many other desert towns in the show, or on the map of Equestria - it's easy to imagine that cherries are comparatively rare.
...or at least, are rare compared to tomatoes. That's also intuitive, since tomatoes are vines, not trees, and require far less space to grow and work to harvest. It's noted as being "one of the most common garden fruits in the United States, and [...] have a reputation for outproducing the needs of the grower."
Insofar as burgers or meals go, I'm not sure that I recall that off the top of my head, but given that a fully-prepared meal tends to cost more anyway, not just for the food but also the price of preparation and service, it seems to hold that it'd be quite a bit more expensive than a cherry or a few tomatoes. (By contrast, I'd imagine that in Ponyville apples cost almost nothing, given how readily-plentiful they are, courtesy of Applejack's farm).
EDIT: As you noted, that seems to be the case.
But as we both noted, all of this is speculative. The show is far less worried about internal consistency than its fans are, and as a result some guesswork is unavoidable. Given the relative affluence of Equestria as a whole, it seems to make the most sense to have their money not suffer nearly the same amount of inflation that ours has.
were gonna say
were you perhaps?
6675867 Whoops! Fixed now, thanks for catching that!
6676645 I'm a typo spotter! Ok, I'm pretty lousy at it, but I found some. Also, caught up!