Of Another Realm

by Chillisocks

Humble Beggings A.K.A. The Groan Chapter

Chapter 1
Of Humble Beginnings

We enter the scene as our protagonists are traveling by carriage along a dusty canyon road to Ponyville.
Zerume stopped the carriage to wake Chillisocks for his shift."Oy, Chilli, ya shift!" Jeremy exclaimed while shaking Chillisocks. Chilli then groaned at his awakening in despair, as he would have to pull the carriage AGAIN. To this he responded,"why can't Dawn pull the carriage, I just got off my shift!" Dawnchaser simply groaned at this. In response, Chilli trotted over and gave him a light kick to the ribs, and sleepily enveloped the yoke in green magic to put it on.

Zerume twitched his ears at some strange sound, when suddenly a griffon descended from the sky onto the poor carriage. When Zerume looked up he noticed that the griffon had an entire gang behind him, circling above in a vulture-like fashion.

Zerume groaned, (A common theme at this point in time), this was the third time this happened. It was ridiculous how many griffon bandits patrolled this road. By now they didn't have any valuables whatsoever, (aside from a large amethyst which has now had made it's way into Dawnchaser's stomach.). Despite this fact, they kept returning repetitively.

Zerume stepped forward, "Alright, what do you want?" he sighed.

These Griffons had unique demands, which were quite different from the other's demands of food and bits. They were looking for an earth stallion, to be more specific, one of a red coat and blood red mane.

"Sounds dangerous." Chilli shuddered, "I certainly wouldn't want him to hold my man-satchel."

Zerume answered the blood-thirsty griffons quickly, "Nope, Dawn, you seen him?"

To this the great friend simply groaned.

"Pity," the griffon scoffed "Well then, anything other than information we can take?"

Chillisocks immediately stops the carriage, and long jumps onto it. "Dawn is digesting my Grandmother's prized possession. If you want to cut him open, I wouldn't object."

The griffon started walking towards Dawn with an upheld talon, suddenly Zerume slams down his hooves and yells:

"OBJECTION!"

Startled, and obviously not recognizing the reference, the griffon looks at Zerume.

"Here, I've got a couple bits in my man-satchel, take those and leave our friend un-gutted please."

The griffon accepted the bits and flew off, "You know, you'd think a guy would wake up in that sort of situation."

Feeling mischievous, Chilli snuck up on Dawn to dump water on his face, right before the jug was tipped enough to splash onto Dawn's seemingly unaware head, he slaps Chilli,

"Go through with that and I'll make sure you won't ever see straight again."

The rest of the mid-afternoon went relatively quietly (I say relatively because Dawn and Chilli have a tendency to never shut up.)

+*+*+*+*+

"There it is, Ponyville, in all it's Midsummer Celebration Glory." mused Zerume to himself, while Chilli walked up behind him,

"Dude, Talking to yourself is MY thing." Chilli then started to ramble to himself about how apples were way too stereotypical.

Dawnchaser walks up to them both and swiftly wacks them upside the head. "We all do that. Now look, let's just get to a place where we can eat."

The colts start walking through town. Zerume was noticing a rather large amount of stares, most likely because of his strange color scheme. He sighs to himself, "Why do i always have to look so weird for pony standards...?"

"Hey cheer up! How many green ponies do you see astrollin 'round?" Said Chilli trying to cheer up his friend. Chilli was a green unicorn with a black and neon green highlighted mane, and a pale light green coat. Zerume was a unicorn with an unusual neon green mane, with strange sky blue highlights and an orange coat suckin on a sucka and also wearing a sensual blue vest. Dawn, was an somehow not overweight pegasus with a dark brown coat and a red highlighted dark blonde mane, with a sucker sticking out of his insatiable maw.

"So once again, why are we here in Ponyville? We could have saved you two a lot of walking and me the threat of almost surprise surgery." Chillisocks couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"It's simple. My boss's big celebration thing is here this year. I've never seen her raise the sun before, so she figured there's no time like the present. I dragged you two along because I'm much too lazy to go by myself. Besides you two are my friends, and I payed for you to go, so quit 'cha whinin! Besides, we're a few days early so we can go see the town." stated Zerume.

"But what's there to see in such a small town?" Chilli inquired.

"I hear Sweet Apple Acres is picturesque."

"But the Zap apples aren't in season, and all I care about right now is food. Know any good restaurants?" Dawn interrupted.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we're about out of bits considering the multiple robbings." Zerume looked over at a lower class restaurant.

Dawn followed Zerume's gaze "That'll do!" and gallops full speed toward the restaurant.

"Well, alright! Not my first choice, but there's no changing Dawn's mind on such things." Said Chilli, less than cheerfully.

+*+*+*+*+

The two friends follow after the third oh-so-nomish-friend into the restaurant, which was much darker than expected.

Zerume seemed a tad frightened, "Well, I guess food is food despite the light level."

Dawnchaser was currently digging into a large plate of hayfries, which Chilli already knew he was going to have to pay for.

It was then that Zerume's eyes dart to a corner of the room where there were two quite beautiful mares. "Hey Chilli, look over there!"

Chillisocks lets out a low whistle, "Those are some pretty nice looking girls over there."

Zerume turned to him and deadpanned, "I was talking about them being out of place numbhooves."

"Right, exactly what i was thinking..." Chilli said with a lingering stare.

"Alright, I got to find out what's going on here." Zerume proceeds to investigate said mares in question. On closer inspection, it seemed a to be a pristine white unicorn with a curly purple mane and a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane.

"Alright you two, I got to figure this out, what are two mares of this caliber doing in such a dank place?" inquired Zerume.

The pegasus shrunk back into her chair at his demanding voice, The white unicorn merely blushed at what she took as a compliment. His attention immediately went to the butter-yellow pegasus who he seemed to unintentionally frightened. All the while Chilli grinning at them both in the corner waving like an absolute featherhead.

Seeing the butter-yellow pegasus in fear, Zerume immediately attempts to calm her with a barrage of shushes and calming sounds "I'm not really trying to flirt with you two, the pieces just don't fit to say. what just are you doing here?"

"Well darling, the spa closed today so we may as well try a new place-"

"I'm Zerume," he interrupted "That featherhead waving over there in the corner is Chillisocks. He's a bit of flirt. Over there burying his head in hayfries is Dawnchaser, he's the semi-useless guy. we're here for the summer sun celebration. We arrived a few days early to get some sight-seeing and such done."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Zerume, I'm Rarity, and this is Fluttershy." The butter-yellow pegasus meeped at the mention of her name, "If I may ask, how have you come across such a strange name?"

"Back when i was born, my actual name was Sidenote. it didn't really fit me well because I am a mystery wrapped in a enigma wrapped in a quesadilla"

"For now i'll get out of your mane, i'll go grab the featherhead and keep him from bothering you."

Zerume proceeded to head to the front of the establishment and pull Chillisocks by his ear to the table Dawn had devoured his meal at.

Zerume threw Chillisocks into one of the seats, "Hey Dawn, how was your, umm meal?"

"Meal? that was my mid-day snack! The main course is going to be out in a second!" at this Chillisocks held his man-satchel to his chest saying a silent goodbye to the contents.

"Anyways Dawn, we've got to find some lodging. I'd leave you here but there's no doubt you're going to rid Chillisocks of his hard-earned bits." at this, Dawnchaser seemed to stare into Zerume's very soul. making it crystal clear he did not wish to leave.

Zerume fortunately was one of the few stallions that could control Dawn. "Dawn, just because you're my friend that doesn't mean I HAVE to pay for your room. Now, either you leave, or you sleep-"

"IN THE GUTTER LIKE THE TRASH YOU ARE!" Chillisocks interrupted

Zerume facehoofed. "-right. now finish up your second course and Chilli and I will be at the hotel, and Chilli, you're paying for his meal." Chilli's heart dropped.

"But why?"

"You're the only one with bits left and plus that was just mean."

As Zerume was leaving he muttered something about royal jobs not paying nearly enough, immediately lightning struck, barely missing his flank.