Getting to know the locals
This farm wasn't anything like Sundance imagined a farm to be. There were crops, but not food crops. Ingredients of some kind, if he had to make a guess. Several huge vats stood out, and from these vats wafted a rather eye-watering stench. It wasn't the worst thing that Sundance had smelt, not by a long shot, but it did smell like rotting fish—which made it particularly unpleasant. Even to Sundance, who knew very little about the subject, it was obvious this was a place devoted to alchemy.
His job, at the moment, was to keep quiet so that Megara could do her job. Beyond that, his job was to pay attention, so that one day, perhaps someday rather soon, he could do the same job that Megara was currently doing. Which is to say, keeping others safe. Slowly but surely, he began to understand and appreciate Megara's job—but there was so much to do. How did Megara keep up with it all? And now, she had more than doubled her workload in an effort to help him and teach him to do—well, everything.
Overall, it was intimidating, and made Sundance wonder if perhaps he should hire somepony for this job. He might very well have bitten off more than he could chew, but remained committed to this course of action. Even if he did hire somepony for this job later, he would understand and appreciate the effort required to do this job well. Ultimately, whatever he did, whatever he committed to, this would make him a better ruler, so he resigned himself to his task.
"I've seen this ogre you're after."
The unicorn was clean. Well groomed. Fastidious and soft-spoken. Clearly educated. If he was afraid of Megara and River Raider, he didn't show it in the slightest. His name, curiously enough, was Scab, and he was a resident living within the barony's borders. A squatter, but deserving of protection all the same.
Nearby, a vat wooshed and released a cloud of steam. Less than a second later, the fishy smell grew overpowering and Sundance struggled against his rising gorge. He hated his companions just a little, because they didn't seem bothered by the stench—not even in the slightest.
"He came out this way a few weeks ago. I applied some chemical deterrent and he departed with all haste."
"Chemical deterrent?" Eyes a-glitter, ears pricked, Megara's face showed interest.
"I'm an alchemist by trade and training," the unicorn replied.
"An alchemist?" Tail swishing, Megara continued with her many questions. "What's an alchemist doing way out here? Anything dangerous?"
"All alchemy is dangerous," Scab replied. "What I do, specifically, is make fertiliser and pesticides for the farmers. That's what pays the bills. But that's not my passion."
Scab seemed eager to explain himself…
"And what is your passion, might I ask?"
"Finding a cure for sleep!" A feverish gleam appeared in the unicorn's eyes. "So much of our lives are lost to the debilitating disease of sleep. I've made it my life's work to find a cure! Just imagine what we could accomplish if we overthrew the tyranny of sleep. Just imagine the production! Factories churning out goods night and day! Workers with no fatigue… scholars whose eyes never grow weary! What great things we could accomplish if sleep did not hold us back from our potential!"
"Why does a blacksmith work with blueprints?" asked Hornet.
Almost right away, the manic, fervent gleam vanished from Scab's eyes and was replaced with something utterly unrecognisable. After a prolonged period of confused recovery, a wordless grunt of questioning could be heard from him. Sundance too, suffered a moment of incertitude and wondered if perhaps Hornet was trying to tell some sort of joke to diffuse the situation. Why did a blacksmith work with blueprints? Also bewildered, Megara cast a sidelong glance at the not-pegasus, but had nothing to say.
"So the ogre came out a few weeks ago?" asked Megara.
"Yep." Scab nodded. "He's lucky that I chased him off. I have daughters, five of them. All of them were raised to be alchemists, and all of them have a keen interest in explosives. Finding new ways to make things to bang or boom. If the ogre had stumbled into them…" As his words trailed off, his eyebrows raised and his eyes widened, as if he were witnessing some dreadful sight.
Then, as an afterthought, he added, "The gals get that from their mother. My wife… she dabbles in alchemy, and she also makes wands. There's good wood in this area. Unique wood. Good wood for making foci. The wife learned alchemy so that the wood could get treated. Make it stiff. Rigid. Hardened. A wand has to endure a lot of stress."
Barely able to keep a straight face, Sundance chewed his lip and remained quiet.
"I have to know," Hornet said, her tone soft and unassuming, "Why would a loving parent name their offspring 'Scab'?"
Distracted for only a moment, Scab was quick to recover. He looked down at Hornet, who looked up at him, and said, "It's short for Scabbard. I was born with a caul over my head. My mother thought it to be some manner of superstitious omen."
"Oh, I see. Thank you."
"Don't mention it, Miss."
"This ogre… he hasn't been back?" asked Megara.
"No." Scab grinned and the fevered gleam reignited in his eyes. "The big brute has a sensitive nose. The chemical deterrent, it smelled bad. He went running off, clawing at his nose and bellowing something in ogrish. Which is really just a series of unintelligible beast noises, but I understood the gist of his crude communications. Hasn't returned, so I can claim the deterrent was a success. I plan to cook up a batch and trade it. Safety in a bottle."
Alchemists, Sundance decided, had to have an eye kept on them—Corduroy included.
"How's business?" asked Megara. "Selling your goods, I mean. Profitable?"
One of Scab's eyes narrowed, while the other one widened. He squinted at Megara, refusing to look away, as if he were sizing her up or reading her character. "Checking up on me, are you? I'm not one to brag about the size of my brain pan, but I know who you are. I know who he is. Ready to soak me for taxes now, are you?"
"You know who I am?" asked Sundance, who now felt a growing sense of alarm. What dreadful miasmas might be unleashed as baron repellant? He had every right to worry.
"I have a radio," Scab replied. "Wasn't hard to sort out. Though… the radio describes you as a big, burly, majestic fellow. Which you're not."
Upon hearing this, Sundance's mouth pressed into a tight, firm, straight line while his nostrils flared wide.
"I'll admit to squatting," Scab said directly to Sundance. "Everypony else was, and so I thought I would as well. The old lord never came out this way, and to be honest, I was starting to think that you wouldn't either. Now comes the tricky business of figuring out how to stay here."
It took Sundance a moment to unkink his face, and when he did, he replied, "Well… I have no intentions of making you leave. I want you to stay."
"So you can bleed me for taxes, I reckon." Scab scowled and shook his head. "We deal in trade, mostly. Not much coin. You'll find that's true for most of us. We wouldn't be out here squatting and trying to scratch out an existence if we had coin. We trade for everything and rely upon each other to survive. So if you can't tax us, what do you plan to do?"
"Go and beat up an ogre," Sundance replied.
Brows deeply furrowed, Scab was now confused.
"You live on my lands. An ogre threatens you. Threatens your trade. Your survival. Something must be done."
"Huh." Wary, squinting, Scab studied Sundance with dubious caution. "I'm guessing that you're willing to trade for our continued stay. Can't say that I have much to offer that you'd be interested in. I could give you a daughter—"
"What?" Sundance, alarmed, spat out the word before he choked on it.
"You could take your pick," Scab continued, his face now a mask of shrewd cunning. "Trained alchemists, all of them. Feisty. Fiery. Especially Firecracker. She's a firecracker. When she got a firecracker as her mark, I knew she'd be trouble, and I—"
"No! No, no, no! This is unacceptable!"
"Well, I don't have anything else that's valuable."
"I don't want one of your daughters, sir."
"Well, why not?" Scab demanded. "I made them. Trained them. Schooled them. Raised them. I know their value."
"You just… you just can't trade away one of your daughters. What is it exactly you expect me to do with her?"
"Well, you could marry her—"
"What if she doesn't want to be married?" asked Sundance, who felt panic rising within him.
"Oh, she does. She was asking about a husband just the other day. And by asking, I mean threatening me with the prospect of mayhem if I don't do something soon. I told you she was a firecracker."
"I… wait… what?" Stammering, Sundance couldn't form a proper sentence to save his life.
"If not marriage, I'm sure you could find other uses for her. She's worth her weight in gold. And feed. Oh by the ancient alicorns, how she can eat. I won't go as far as to say that she's fat, but she's like her mother… pleasantly plump and—"
"I can't believe that I'm having this conversation," Sundance blurted out.
"You're noble for facing the ogre, and I appreciate that… but you're also a bit rude—"
"Rude‽" Stiff-legged, Sundance had trouble keeping his wings at his sides.
"Aside from all these interruptions, my daughters clearly don't meet your lofty standards."
Hearing this, Sundance's mouth fell open and all he could do was just stand there.
"Look, I love my daughters. More than you know. And when a golden opportunity comes along for one of them to have a good life, I'm going to take it. They deserve better than to be farm-wives. They can read. Write. Do complex maths. I've spent the whole of my life preparing them to be the best possible unicorns they can be. You show up with your retinue of guards because you're important… how could I not want that for my daughter?"
Heaving a gasp, Sundance deflated.
"Sir… Scab… there's been a bit of a misunderstanding." River Raider moved closer, hesitated for but a second, and then closed the distance. "Please… allow me to sort this out for you and explain the situation. This can be sorted out. And if Firecracker wants to come and live with us, she can. She's more than welcome. And Sundance will look after her just like he looks after all of the others in his care. But he's not noble… not in the traditional sense. He's just some dumb pegasus from the city. What you've said has discombobulated his poor little brain. The very idea of trading lives is unfamiliar to him. And arranged marriages. And everything else you said.
"Also, we're not his guards. Megara is his teacher. Well, I suppose Hornet is now his guard, but that was just sorted out this morning, so it really hasn't settled in just yet. This is her first day on the job, and the ogre hunt is for training. I'm here because Nutmeg made me come. Otherwise, I'd be at home. And I guess I'm also here to save Sundance if he gets into trouble, like he is right now. So… are you willing to listen? Good. Allow me to sort this out…"
Purpose. Sundance understood purpose. He knew why Megara did all of this and allowed this to happen. Each of them had a purpose, a role to play. Sorting that out was the real trick, the hard part, the sort of thing that some ponies spent the entirety of their lives trying to accomplish. Megara didn't have a lifetime. She had deadlines. Results had to happen quickly. Rather than just teach him, and hope that everything sank in, today, she had shown him.
Through action, word, and deed, she had shown him how to be authoritative. How to connect to others. This whole interaction with Scab, it was a means for him to learn. How to govern. More than being a ruler, Sundance had to be fair. No easy task. While River Raider spoke with Scab—she liked talking, at least if his own experience was anything to go by—Sundance made an effort to sort out each of the lessons so far.
While Scab and others like him lived with stubborn independence, they still needed him. There were ogres in the world. While Scab had five daughters that were by all accounts, quite scary, none of them had gone out to slay the ogre. They remained at home. Together. No doubt hoping that the ogre would not return. The ogre was some other farmer's problem, so long as it stayed away. Such was life, and Sundance understood this in much the same way he understood purpose.
Megara's purpose was to hunt down ogres. Because farmers farmed, and alchemists did whatever it was that alchemists did. He thought about his own peasants, the owlbear, and Cucumber's death. While the others had made an effort to fight—a noble effort in Sundance's eyes—it was Cucumber who'd battled. The peasants were farmers—Cucumber was a soldier. He was old, and frail, and feeble, and probably couldn't see very well, and his knees ached, and his back gave him fits—but when trouble came, Cucumber was ready. Trouble was not ready for Cucumber. But the old unicorn was gone, and sorely missed.
Yes, Sundance understood purpose. Megara was trying to prepare him for that. The world was his classroom, and ogres his assignments. There was a purpose, a reason for everything that Megara did, and it was his purpose to figure it out. That was the lesson. He'd spent his life being meek. Submissive. Good natured. Soft spoken. But now was the time to roar like a monster. To rain down death from the skies. It was time for ogres to live in fear, in terror of the swift approaching storm.
But to become the storm, first he had to learn how to thunder…
"So… nothing changes," Scab said.
"No," River Raider replied. "Nothing changes. Spread the word."
"And the money situation…"
"Isn't a situation." River Raider was patient. Calm. Composed.
She was almost a stranger to Sundance, who had never seen her this way before.
"The goal of the barony is to move away from currency and to provide. For now, just keep going as you are. Trade and be fair to one another. In time, when there is more organisation, there may be some changes. But nothing drastic. We do not wish to take anything away from you, such as your lands."
"And if we need help?" asked Scab.
"Dispatch a pegasus to Castle Daybreak. We'll do what we can… but please, be patient and understand that we're still working to get everything established. But, if help is needed, help will be given."
"I must confess, I like the sounds of this." Thoughtful, perhaps hopeful, Scab nodded. "I'm willing to contribute, if necessary. I can make fertilisers and pesticides easy enough. Not sure how to transport them, but I can make them. And I have daughters ready to serve, if necessary. I find myself in a peculiar place… I thought that stuff on the radio about Equestria's neo-feudalism was a bunch of hooey. But after what you've said… after all that you've said, Miss… I find myself wanting to be part of something bigger."
"Help us," River Raider said to him. "Spread the word to others. Get organised."
"Townstead," Sundance said. "I have no idea how to do it, but I know it can be done."
"You'd let us do that on your lands?" asked Scab.
"Yes!" Sundance spoke with a little too much enthusiasm.
"Well, alright then. I'll talk to the others. Good luck with the ogre hunt. If you ask me, I think he's off near Sorrow's Fen. Some great earth pony hero named Artax died there. Difficult for a pony to traverse, but probably not a problem for an ogre. Have a good look around that area. Watch out though, there's a lot of trolls out that way."
"Thank you." Sundance bowed his head, and when he didn't feel as though that was enough, he bowed just a little lower. "Without hard working ponies such as yourself, I wouldn't have a barony. We're all in this together. Now, if you will excuse us, we have to go and deal with an ogre while there is still daylight."
"Best of luck… and good hunting, I suppose."
"Again, thank you." Lifting is head, Sundance offered up a smile worthy of his great grandmother, a thing of beauty and light. "Let us be off," he said to his companions. "There is much to do!"
A number of very important things happen in this chapter. I honestly didn't expect the ogre arc to be so big, to be honest. And I've trimmed a lot of it away. It's shrunk down a bit.
So... check in time. Are you folk surviving? I've got cabin fever!
Stats
Page generated in 0.069 seconds
Total duration
903 users online
330,596 hits today, 2,314,256 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.®
Things here in Texas are just hot and dry - every day I am thankful for air conditioning!
Neverending Story reference?
We could only hope to be as eloquent as Sundance when faced with the prospect of trading lives.
Silly pony alchemist sleep we how we deal all the day crud and it keeps us sane.
10391604
Imagine raising five daughters. Do you think that you'd get much sleep? I mean, he has a good justification for his obsession.
10391548
Bingo.
things got a little sticky for a moment but got smoothed over in a good way.
I wish someone would give me a wife xD
I know a young lady who has a similar attitude to such matters, if a bit more classically rigid. She sowed lead-shot into the base of her handbag so it would pack more of a wallop. Unyielding and fearsome, a Sargeant Major in a skirt, and my oldest friend.
There are people who are unable to sleep.
Dreadful way to go
10391978
I don't sleep much. At all. Some nights, I only get 2 or 3 hours of sleep. It's worse than it sounds, because sometimes I operate on a 30 hour cycle. Other times, 24 hours, where I am awake for 20ish hours and sleep for just a few hours.
And then there are times when I am awake for 40ish hours and then still only sleep for 2 or 3 hours.
It's a bad way to go.
Checking in: life goes atm. Everything’s on hold as what I might have money to do is being saved as prices hike up more than I want to pay.
Life’s kinda on hold atm.
Nice use of the interrobang.
The line between a high-grade fertilizer and a high explosive can be a fine one, as was so recently demonstrated in Beirut. Marrying off Firecracker might just be a matter of self-preservation for Scab.
Sorrows fen, artax, nope didnt need those feels anyway...
10392486
More so because her fuse is lit.
10391995
Sorry to hear that your sleep is bad. Hopefully it gets better soon.
This is definitely a good chapter to set up some fun wild times for later!
And suddenly I realize having Nothing to deal with would be far worse than mere ogres.
Five alchemists with a love of explosives? Sounds like the Sundance bomber plane found someone to make its munitions.
Not to mention they found a source of fertilizer and pesticides for their farms.
I wonder how many of the swatters had the same impression about how the Barony works, as Scab.
Sundance could be getting a sizable influx of people from around the Barony, wanting something.
10392520
Kudzu... in reference to the lyrics of a song from an artist in my neck of the woods - "I shot six holes in the freezer..."
Classes starting back up. It'll be nice to be busy again.
Have you established exactly how big the barony is? Because if seems to have quite a few settlements (official or otherwise). And how does it compare to real life baronies, is the eqeuestrian feudal system similar to irl medieval ones because I don't recall hearing about landed nobles besides barons. Unless all title holders are styled Lord, like in the UK (except dukes and knights).
Not sure what day of the week it is anymore, it all blends together. Some days I can't fall asleep until 0400 and wake up at 1100. Waste my time in the garage working on my bikes. You don't realize how lonely you are till you dont have any human contact for the better part of a month.
10393093
He has, and it's absolutely enormous, about the size of Wyoming, iirc, and just as mostly empty.