Locksmith

by QuartzScale

21. Homecoming

I was finally back in Equestrian Airspace in a dark ship that was camouflaged against the night sky. I looked down and noticed that it kind of looked a bit weird. Any portion of the land that wasn’t Equestria were lost in a fog… I even made the ship fly around the planet before I even thought of disembarking. It was really strange to see the world in its entirety. I quietly stowed away that knowledge and looked back through my pack at the Moogle Gem I was given. I placed it on the floor and pressed the strange button that was on it.

The gem spiraled out into the same holographic marker that appeared within the second game showcasing a small moogle on top of a munny gem holding a balloon that had it’s name on it. The name on the balloon read… Stiltzkin.

“Welcome to the Moogle Synthesis Shop. My name is Stiltzkin and it is a pleasure to do business with you… Oh a new client. Seems like we need to form a little business deal now don’t we.”

“Name’s Nebula Gray… I guess we do. So what’s the deal then?”

“Well… I only work for intrepid explorers and Yen Sid was one such explorer. So tell me… Are you even qualified to be an explorer?”

I pulled out the orihalcum from my bag and showed it to the holographic marker. I heard a choking noise and the sound of thrashing coming from the screen. It took a few minutes before the voice came back.

“Jeez… I would have accepted your word. No need to give me a heart attack with one of the rarest metal out there. Fine looks like we got ourself a deal. Anything I can do for you right now?”

“Can you make anything?”

“Yes I can make anything. Moogles are universe class synthesis masters.”

“Could you make me some small accessories using the items I have on hand right now? I have a bit of munny but I also need to get some of the currency of this world. They aren’t part of the rest of the universe as a whole just yet.”

“I suppose I could… Let’s see what you got.”

He took about ten of both my lucid shards and dark shards and after an hour made about thirty pieces of jewelry all made to fit on hooves. I had never even shown him my hoof yet he was able to craft something far beyond what I had seen back on earth. All of them were strangely complex regardless of their simplicity. The Lucid jewelry were all clear and held the essence of emptiness. The Dark jewelry were obsidian like and held the essence of darkness. When I smelled it, it strangely didn’t smell like darkness.

“That’ll be 700 munny kid.”

I looked at the marker and hoofed over the munny. I was down some munny but that was a resource that was easy enough to get. I placed the thirty random assortment of jewelry along with the moogle gem back into my saddlebags. The pauldron was still attached to me but I left that on. From what I was told the ambient magic in the air would charge it up. Maybe it was a bit… much but I decided to be different… open. I really didn’t want to go back just yet. This would be slightly embarrassing.

“No. No backing down. C’mon you can do this.”

I angled the ship and found the closest save point I could. Strangely it was right in front of Vinyl and Octavia’s house… but it was night time right now. That didn’t matter at the moment since I was a nocturnal creature. Before I left I placed the ship in geosynchronous orbit around Equestria and warped back down to Ponyville.

It was midnight when I warped in. All the houses were dark and the only light came from the weird tree library I had seen a while back. I stayed on the small porch area of the house peering around. Ponyville wasn’t exactly the jewel of nightlife debauchery as most cities on Earth could be. Still I made due with my time and examined all the things I brought back. I had a plan to at least sell some of them since jewelry didn’t seem to be a big thing here. Canterlot though would of course be a much different prospect. The rich probably wouldn’t even care of the color because it would be a rare jewel being used for decoration. A little underhanded… underhoofed… whatever it was, but it would make me some bits to at least keep myself financially secure.

‘Step 1: Read up more on what Equestria’s economy is like. Step 2: Talk with the three mares in my life and see where that goes. Whether or not it’s going to be good I should follow through and speak with them. Step 3: Build a home base in Ponyville. Though this was optional because I would then have to deal with Pinkie Pie. Sacrifices would have to be made… damn it. Step 4: Explore other worlds. I need to be stronger and with Equestria mostly in light because of the lack of darkness beings able to survive the world, it’s next to impossible right now.’

“I wonder when I am in this chronology… another new word in my brain… urgh…”

I kept my voice quiet. While I was groaning in frustration I didn’t need to expose myself to all of Ponyville at this point. My whole body then started to shiver… I felt something watching me. I looked around finding nothing really and even looked towards the Tree Library. The telescope on it was not being used to peer around the town. There was nothing in the sky and no sign of a pegasus floating around on a cloud. It felt just like my first week when I was facing Nightmare Moon…

‘I didn’t finish off the Nightmare fully did I?’

I looked around and out in the forest I finally saw the same eye looking back at me… coming from multiple creatures. As I looked them all over I saw over fifty pairs of eyes staring down at me. For that entire night we were locked in a staring match with only me on vigil against a horde of monsters waiting. I knew they knew I was ready for them. They also knew that I knew I was only one pony against them.

Three hours passed before they finally traipsed back into the forest. Looks like leaving Equestria will have to wait until later. The night was still young and I looked back on everything that happened so far. I had a lot of things to handle… a lot of mares, girls… whatever, in my life now, and for some reason the Nightmare found a way to survive. It’s probably at its weakest point right now but there’s no time to hunt it down in the forest just yet. I still don’t know the layout of it well enough and the only reason I made it to the castle was due to my wings keeping me above the treeline most of the time.

I immediately took a position on the awning of the small house upside down and folded my wings in. I rested my eyes keeping my ears open and constantly shifting for any unusual sounds. By the time I calmed down enough it looked to be about six in the morning if the chiming of the clock tower was anything to go by. I closed my eyes for a quick power nap. If anything I was more tense about my social obligations rather than my fighting ones. The nightmare was weak but crafty enough to not want to bring any attention to itself. With the princesses together once again and the Elements of Harmony found it would be remiss of the Nightmare to do anything without a plan. Now that it knows I’m here maybe it wants revenge more than following any real reason. I did manage to turn it into a puddle of nothing after it came down to try and possess me.

The next chime I heard was at eight and I opened my eyes and looked down at the front door. It was still probably too early to knock… at least until I heard voices from inside. There was a lot of complaining for some reason. Sounded like something about when somepony would appear. Probably not me so I just waited a bit until the arguing came to a stop. When it did I heard somepony start working in the kitchen and I decided that now was the time to do something. I wasn’t motivated by the rumbling of my stomach at at even though I hadn’t eaten since my training session… Wow I really am crazy. I landed somewhat gracefully on the porch and raised my hoof to the door.

“I told you we have to be patient until he’s done with his meeting blast it all. Now stop complaining about everything.”

“You tell them Tavi.”

“Vinyl you’re not helping.”

“Psh I’m doing plenty right now.”

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping the vibe chill.”

Octavia glared at Vinyl while Fresh Coat went to the kitchen. She was sick and tired of the arguing already. All of it had been on who would sleep where. Needless to say it went pear shaped the moment that everypony wanted to sleep. Eventually they settled on who would go where around midnight. Strangely they felt something was off during the night as if nightmares were floating around their head… and just as quickly left before they got any worse.

“Whatcha gonna make Fresh Coat?”

“I have no idea. I’m gonna look through their fridge right now Spitfire. You helping or you just gawking.”

“Ease up I’ll help out.”

They got to work setting up a little breakfast for the six of them if only to give them something to do other than argue. Sunshower and Redheart were sitting on the couch going over something they had worked on the night before. Supposedly it was a chart on who would get to go first.

“I’m first Redheart. I met him first anyways.”

“Fine but we still gotta decide on the order for the rest of us.”

“I think we could use some die from one of the board games Vinyl bought.”

“We’re really getting ahead of ourselves already.”

All the ponies finally sat down to eat making a few extra in case somepony was still hungry. That was when a knock sounded at the front door.

“Probably just the mail. Ditzy always comes around this time.”

Octavia went to the front door and opened it for the visitor.

“What have you got today for us Dit-”

She stopped when she saw me. I waved a bit with the hoof that had the pauldron on it. She didn’t speak though. I wanted to step inside the house but I remembered how rude that could be… plus I think she was just coping with seeing me so soon.

“Tavi, is it Ditzy!”

Octavia didn’t answer. She sprang on top of me and hugged me tightly. Seriously I think I was gone for maybe two days at the max. Honestly I wasn’t sure if she liked me as much as the other two did but I guess I was wrong. When I finally got to get up she fixed herself up to look like the proper mare she was when she first opened the door and invited me in. I sat on the couch while she rushed into the kitchen leaving me both hungry and in a ponderous state.

“Tavi what’s wrong?”

“He’s back…”

I didn’t know that anyone could get that quiet. There was a bit of shuffling around but it didn’t sound like anyone got up off their chair. While bored I pulled out the Lexicon from my saddlebags to hide the glow from summoning it and looked through some of the pages that appeared after meeting with those in the Mysterious Tower. Still there was no sound… for another five minutes. When I was about to finish the first voice came out.

“Dibs.”

“Vinyl you can’t call dibs. It’s not right.”

“I called it so dibs is in play Spitfire.”

‘How many ponies are here…?’

“Then how about getting up already Vinyl.”

“Shush Sunshower I’m already up.”

“Yeah cause the chair moved all of three inches already.”

“Get off my flank Redheart. Hey wait… Tavi?”

“Yes?”

“Where’s Fresh Coat?”

The silence came back while I was introduced to a new pony. She was a unicorn with an light orange coat and black mane. Her eyes were a very deep magenta and she wore a green hat backwards. She was also staring at me. When our eyes met I didn’t really know what to say or do but for some reason her pupils got bigger… wait that only happens when you find something you like… oh…

Before I could fully commit to the act of speaking I felt something land next to me. I really was distracted. It was a pegasus with a brilliant gold coat and very orange hair and eyes that seemed to pierce into me. I may have gone into a blinking fit when she got this close. She seemed to be eyeing me up and judging me. Though her eyes trailed mostly to the pauldron on me.

I was about to say something when another pony came up to me. She physically turned me to face her and looked at the scar against my left cheek. She was a very white or very light grey pony with very light pink hair. Her eyes were blue and seemed to be examining the cut I got. It was a bit weird though because I thought that particular scar had been healed. I think I about doubled my blinking fit because all three were focusing on me. I heard some other hoofsteps and had both Vinyl and Octavia join with Fresh Coat to watch Redheart work. Sunshower was hovering around me and seemed to be focusing more on Redheart than me.

“Um… could I have my face back?”

“Hm?”

“My face could I have it back?”

After a little recognition she looked a bit embarrassed and backed away letting my face go. It wasn’t obstructive and I may have enjoyed the feeling of her hoof against my cheek but it was getting awkward with all the stares which were getting out of hoof at this point… I think I’ve been naturalized.

“Sorry bout that.”

“It’s fine… I remember you from the hospital. You were the one who hugged me right?”

I think some of the girls blanched and stared at the mare in question. Really should have asked for a name already. While I was focused on the nurse pony that I met I did notice the pegasus next to me seemingly entranced by the pauldron. While her hoof started going towards it my hoof went up and caught hers.

“So… whatcha doing there?”

I think her eyes went wider when she noticed I was actually paying attention. I released her hoof and she seemed apologetic.

“Just curious…”

“I get that. I’m not exactly forward in what I like to talk about. I don’t even know who you three are… At least not by name.”

I looked over to the nurse who seemed to realize that I had no idea who they were. Vinyl seemed a little perturbed and immediately ingratiated herself to the free side on the couch. She was very close though this wasn’t out of character for her. She raised her hoof and pointed at each pony giving me a little description of them as well.

“Nurse Redheart. She works as the head nurse of Ponyville General. Fresh Coat. She works as a painter in the Canterlot area. Spitfire. Captain of the Wonderbolts.”

“Ok I’ll commit that to memory. So… what happened while I was gone?”

“Well…” Vinyl started.

Nurse Redheart

Head nurse of Ponyville General. Is very much a working mare sometimes losing herself to her work. That same nature made her one of the most well received nurses in Ponyville and the most competent. She is very sarcastic when she gets going but overall acts motherly to all ponies.

Fresh Coat

Painter pony in the Canterlot area. She is a very excitable mare usually going on tangents while she speaks whenever she is working. Has a tendency to speak her mind and sometimes say a bit more than she would say. Also seems to know how to use all her charms to her advantage. Very dangerous

Captain Spitfire

Captain of the famous Wonderbolts. Her appearance seems to scream drill sergeant in though her demeanor when out of costume shifts to one of humbleness and understanding. Has a bit of a temper and enjoys a good throw down provided the opponent is on their level. She also seems really reluctant to show emotions a lot of the time.

Comments

[Lorddarkrai2000]

The poor moogle almost died from shock

[QuartzScale]

8194713 Don't worry the Moogle will survive.

8195743 I'm glad you are enjoying it. Next chapter will be coming out soon.

[Discordofchaos]

now will he live through the first heat season

[QuartzScale]

8198324 Good thing that isn't until Hearts and Hooves day... Shit... I probably need to get him back to the library.

[QuartzScale]

8203127 Its going to come back two more times. I'm setting up the second one now and Nightmare Rarity will come up as well. I'm gonna try tying in a lot of things. See how well that goes.

[Fluffy-Boi]

Welcome to the Moogle Synthesis Shop. My name is Stiltzkin

!!!!! Stiltzkin!!! My favorite Moogle!!!