Lending Things

by SilverEyedWolf

Chapter the Fifth: Coal goes on a walk

Coal glanced around himself, lifting a handkerchief to wipe at the back of his neck. Normally he'd pay somepony to be doing stuff like this for him, but nopony seemed interested in the pay he'd offered them. They'd actually looked confused, then played it off as a joke.

"That'll be three bits for the bagful, sir."

"Ah, yes," he muttered, jumping slightly at the words pulled him from his reverie, reaching into a pocket and letting three coins slip into his palm, then onto the counter between them. "Uhm, thank you."

The stallion nodded up at him carefully before scooping the coin into a lock-box under the stall's counter.

He lifted the grouping of chard and pressed it carefully into the large canvas sack he had strapped to his thigh, emulating a saddlebag as much as he could.

He dipped his head again at the stallion before moving awkwardly away, shifting his vest nervously as he wandered towards the flour mill. As he walked along he traced old arcane symbols into his palms with his thumbs, not putting any intent into them but just tracing the lines as he moved through a crowd that barely gave him a first glance, much less a second.

He supposed that passing two months with no larger issue than one angry mare would numb even the smallest town to the weirdness that was his store.

As his mind wandered he found himself at the stall in front of the mill much sooner than he'd been prepared for. As he haggled down the price for a bag of flour he found his mind firing and drawing, well, not conclusions. Suspicions.

As he slipped the hefty bag of flour into his thigh pouch, he moved to the side and peered into town, lifting a gloved hand and pushing up a thumb, as though to blot out the market.

"Sir?" asked a voice down by his hip, causing Coal to look down at the vendor behind the stall, dirt-brown of body and dirty-blonde of mane. "Can I ask, uhm-?"

"I didn't walk long enough to be here," Coal told him, the nervous inflection that had been tinging his voice for the afternoon lost. "I was in the middle of the market not too long ago, you see, and I was walking this way to buy my last item. And before I knew it, I was here," he said, gesturing to the stall.

"Ah," said the stallion, nodding and looking into town. "I myself have found often been lost in thought while traveling around town, and at my destination before I knew it."

"Well now, that's the thing," Coal said, bending his knees and squatting beside the pony. "I have not. As a matter of fact, I do not get lost within my own thoughts, especially when I need my head around. So I could not have been lost in my thoughts, not while walking through town," he concluded, holding both paws up and framing the market between digits. "So now I'm attempting to measure the distance between here and there, to see how long it should have taken, and then I'm going to walk it again to see how long it does take."

The stallion gazed up at him for a moment, slowly frowning, before looking towards the distant wooden market. "Well buck," he whispered, his ears twitching.

The two males stood there, measuring in their heads for a few moments before Coal stood up.

"Alright, so, it should take me around twenty minutes to travel, what is that, like five-thousand feet?" Coal said, looking down for confirmation.

"Feet?" the stallion asked, his brow creased.

"About a mile," Coal said, the stallion glancing at the center of the market and slowly nodding.

"That's a bit longer than it would take me, but I guess you've got two less legs than I do," he said. "Hold on though, before you start. You've piqued my interest and I'd like to try it out with you."

Coal nodded absently, still gazing into the market, and the pony closed the window on the stall that was part of the mill before putting up an 'on break' sign. "Alright mister minotaur, whenever you're ready."

Coal nodded, before looking down and offering his clenched paw. "Coal," he said.

"Barley Bran," the pony said, gently pressing his hoof against the knuckles. "Not usually a pony of science, but I've definitely heard the 'curiosity hurt the cat' phrase before."

Coal chuckled. "My kind of pony. Don't suppose you grow barley then? I've got some uses for the grain."

"I do actually," he said, as they stood in front of the stall. Cracking the cover open a notch, he pointed at a separate woven bag. "That one's barley flour, but if you meant it when you said you wanted the actual grains, I got a couple of bags in the back for ponies that like to make tea out'a the stuff."

"Fantastic, I'll liberate one of those bags from you after the return trip," Coal said as he rubbed his paws together. "In the meantime, though, shall we?"

They were quiet in the beginning, keeping their eyes on the market and the road in front of them. Coal frowned when he heard Barley start whistling, but after a moment of focus was able to block it out. As a matter of fact, he was so successful at blocking out the whistling, that after a few paces he discovered he couldn't hear his hoof-steps anymore. After a moment an exclamation mark went off in Coal's head, and he paused in his steps to look down at Barley.

The pony wasn't there anymore.

Frowning heavily, Coal looked behind himself to see if he'd outpaced the distracted pony, but saw nothing but birds in the sparse trees on the trail behind him.

There was the sound of approaching hooves, and Coal turned back towards town in time to see Barley Bran himself, galloping towards the biped.

"What the buck, Coal?" Barley panted out, slowing to a stop in front of Coal. "We were walking, then I started whistling and looking around the path, and when I looked forward again I was in the marketplace!"

Coal hummed, tapping the mask's bottom point. "I think you lost concentration, and that let whatever is happening to distance here happen. Whatever force is doing this took hold of you, and carried you along to your intended finishing point, the market."

Barley frowned.

"So, some mysterious force teleported me to my destination as soon as I wasn't paying attention?" he summed up, his frown deepening when Coal nodded. "What has that sort of power?"

"Depends," said Coal, once again sitting on his heels as he stared into town, tapping the mask over his face. "Local distortion like this has been known to crop up by itself, in places of power or many lives, or even in places where power is used consistently. Powerful teleportations, in this particular case, I presume."

They both jumped a bit when a particular purple pony princess popped into presence beside them.

"There you are Barley, I've been looking for you!" Twilight Sparkle said, laying a hoof on Barley Bran's shoulder. "I ran out of tea ages ago!"

With a popping noise, both ponies disappeared from beside Coal.

Slowly, he raised a hand with a singlular digit pointed skyward, before dropping his arm beside him and shrugging.

"Gods damned miniature physics breakers," he murmured under his breath, patting his pockets as he started on his way back to his store. As he walked, the ponies that were around him took notice of a jaunty tune being whistled from below his mask as he strode along.

Author's Note:

Another chapter, another clearing of the cobwebs. Do you enjoy the sweeping of the floor, the actions of the upkeep? Does a painter take pleasure in the long, slow strokes of a brush? A woodcarver, in the motions of pulling a creation from the stave?

I hope so. I do.