Verse 53
“And it turned out it was never with the band’s equipment. Lightning Dust put her drumsticks in her luggage for ‘safekeeping’ and forgot all about it.”
Glitter Drops giggled at her best friend. “At least she’s happy now. Come on, don’t fret over the Knights so much. We haven’t had a lot of time to ourselves since you started touring Equestria.”
Tempest gave her a funny look. “We hang out multiple times a week, sometimes every day.”
“Hah, I guess that’s true. Maybe I’m still used to seeing you every day in the Northern Watch. Everything was so easy and simple then.”
“Simple, maybe. But easy? We had to track down loose ursa minors and fight the remains of ancient shadow magic.”
Glitter Drops smirked. “What, you going soft on me, Fizzy?”
“Not in your dreams.”
They walked down a wide path of packed soil that cut through the central plateau of the Rainbow Falls’ Trader’s Exchange. Looking up, Tempest could just barely see their stage overlooking the fair from a higher part of the mountain range. Surrounding them and bumping shoulders were creatures of all kinds, dragons and yaks and changelings, among others.
“You know, seeing all this,” Glitter Drops said, “makes me wonder about how things are back in the Crystal Empire. Do you think everything has settled down again?”
“It’s only been one season since the city almost tore itself apart,” Tempest said, giving her honest opinion. “What I realized about Equestria when I came back is that things don’t change as quickly as they seem. The parties, the celebrations, it makes us imagine the world to be a perfect place. And perfect doesn’t need adjusting.”
“When I was grabbing some stuff from our old lodge, I talked with some of the other ponies on the Watch,” Glitter added. “They said dragons started moving out of the Crystal Empire over the winter. Not a lot of them, but that means this is the first time that the dragon community is actually shrinking.”
“Princess Cadence has to be doing something about it, right?”
“She is, but it’s not like she can stop ponies from having opinions. A lot of crystal ponies say they don’t have a problem with dragons, but they also think it’s too soon to let them become full residents. Less than a decade ago the Crystal Empire didn’t even exist.”
“Less than five years ago the dragons weren’t organized enough to be a kingdom,” Tempest added. “What’s their point? That they need more time to be a part of the world?”
Glitter Drops sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Fizzy. Taking time off work and just spending it with you has been so fun, but I feel like I’m running away from it. When your tour ends, I think I want to go back to working in the Northern Watch.”
Tempest paused her walk, shifting to the side of the road before overeager traders began pushing them out of the way. “Are you telling me you want to go back to work, or are you asking me to go with you?”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I wasn’t even thinking about that,” Glitter Drops said, her voice pitching up as she reeled in her own words. “Playing for the Knights seem fun, I’d never want you to give it up if you don’t want to. That said, now that you’ve mentioned it, it’s not like you can’t have two jobs, right? And it would be nice to be Watch partners again, right?”
“Yeah,” Tempest gave her a bittersweet grin. “I won’t lie, I’ve thought about it too. But Starlight has two jobs and she’s leaving the band after this concert to focus on her career as Headmare. I don’t know if I want to try splitting up my time like that.”
“Woah, really? She’s quitting the Knights?”
Tempest nodded. “We still have a few songs to record together, since our new guitarist is still getting used to playing with us. But this’ll be her last live performance.”
“Okay, but she’s a Headmare with hundreds of students to look after. Compared to that, remember how many days we spent just staring at melting ice?”
“Yeah, okay, you got me there,” Tempest chuckled. “I guess I can talk to Luna about it. I won’t lie, it’ll be nice just relaxing in our lodge again. You’re right about it seeming so… simple.”
Sunset Shimmer flittered around the trader’s exchange, excitedly waving around a polaroid camera she had gotten by trading just a pair of human gloves to a dragon. It was hard to find anything with fingers to match the claws that dragons had, and the young drake was happy to exchange what he thought was a frivolous toy for some practical hand warmers.
“You really like taking pictures, huh?” Starlight mused as they walked through the footpaths, pausing occasionally at a stall to take pictures beside hippogriff and kirin stalls.
“‘You pick up the habit when you have a smartphone,” she answered. “And this is the first time I’ve seen so many different creatures in Rainbow Falls. I came here a few times with Celestia, but back then the yaks were still isolationists, and I thought the kirin were just legends. Half the time I look around and I feel like I’ve jumped into a brand new world.”
“Yeah, that’s partly the reason why I needed you with the Knights. With more students coming from outside Equestria, the school’s going to need more dorms and classrooms, not to mention more teachers and tutors.”
“I can’t believe Ponyville’s growing so fast,” Sunset said, taking a picture of a songbird that had perched on top of a dragon’s gemstone stall. “A castle and a school, it’ll be like a mini Canterlot in no time.”
Starlight nodded. “I know you’re still in college back in your world, but if you ever need a more permanent place in Equestria, there are a few new neighbourhoods being built outside the White Tail Woods. It’s not too far from Ponyville, I could move the portal to a house there and you can use it whenever you’re in Equestria.”
“Thought that place was a nature reserve for the Running of the Leaves?”
“Sure, that’s why it’s not in the White Tail Woods. It’s just outside.”
“Huh. Well, I’ll give it a thought. I mean, it can’t be worse than Canterlot City rent. I didn’t even get a marble countertop.”
They stopped mid-conversation, the two mares miming each other in their shared shocked expressions as one particular stall came into the periphery of their vision. Hanging on racks behind a grey-feathered, falcon-headed griffon, were an arrangement of electric guitars and basses.
V-shaped guitars, Stratocasters and Super Strats, and a few with custom body shapes, such as one which resembled a warped skull, or a few that looked like thick cartoonish lightning bolts.
Sunset whistled. “What’s a girl gotta do to get her hands on one of those?”
“Woah, easy there. Coco already got us new guitars for the concert tonight. Once I’m done with the tour, it’ll be yours. I’m kind of attached to my own guitars anyway.”
“Yeah,” Sunset whined, “but I want a new one now.”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “Fine, we’ll take a look. But don’t cry when he wants to trade something we don’t have. There’s no way he’s going to part with those guitars for nothing.”
Silverstream gave the pearl earrings a close inspection. “It’s authentic,” she finally said, giving Smolder the go ahead to trade a polished agate from the Dragonlands for it.
The young dragon eagerly grabbed the box from the seller, an aged hippogriff fisher, and stashed it away in her backpack.
“Thanks for the help,” Smolder said, “gemstones I can handle, but I’m totally lost when it comes to pearls.”
“You know, you could have just gone to Mount Aris to get these. We have more pearls than we know what to do with.”
“Sure, but this way I can get rid of random rocks from my family’s gem horde. Don’t tell anyone, but that stone might’ve looked nice, but it’s super common in the Dragonlands.”
Silverstream’s brows raised with surprise. “Fair point. What’s next on the list?”
Smolder checked her claw where she had scribbled the descriptions of accessories she wanted. A polished red coral necklace, spider-woven silk, and a set of pearl earrings. They were all crossed off.
“That was the last thing,” she said.
“What’re you planning to make, anyway?”
“A dress,” Smolder said, confiding with a moment’s hesitation. “It’s not really something I can do back home, smoke and lava aren’t that great for fabrics, and I wanted to try mixing in something different. Ponies and dragons both use gemstones for their accessories, so I figured I could try a sea-theme instead. How about you? Didn’t you bring anything to trade?”
“Oh, I did!” Silverstream opened her bag. “I didn’t have any books growing up because paper and seawater don’t mix, but we did carve stories on stone tablets and whale bones.” She produced what looked like a piece of a whale’s spine, the cylindrical vertebrae roughed over with etchings.
“My room’s full of these bones, I figured I should probably get rid of them.” Silverstream chuckled. “Gallus might get freaked out if he saw I had a bookshelf full of carved bones.”
“Yeah, I can see how that might concern him,” Smolder said. “But who’s going to want whale bones?”
Silverstream shrugged. “Anything can happen in Equestria. Maybe I’ll find a historian. Or a paleontologist.”
The bickering and bartering between dragons and ponies and yaks and changelings bewildered Daybreaker almost as much as what they were trading for. Antiques, relics, nick knacks and trinkets, most of them could simply be purchased with money.
She saw some blonde-haired farm pony debating with a seller over the value of a rusted pitchfork, claiming it was an heirloom. Of course no one wants your garbage, Daybreaker had thought to herself as she passed the mare. Another stall, she noticed, was trying to pawn off coins minted in the first year of Celestia’s reign. The tarnished gold pieces seemed to stare back at her, and Daybreaker noticed a familiar looking face stamped on them.
Forgotten and irrelevant. The Daybreaker of this world, Celestia, was no longer in power. Why would anyone trade for such an old coin? Of course, some pony wanted them. A scraggly-bearded stallion with a fiery orange mane had beheld them as if they were priceless works of art, and nearly gave over a collection of tattered books for a set of old coins.
Daybreaker scoffed as she trotted away, pulling her hood even further over her face. She couldn’t bear to look at him. Learn to barter, nerd. Gold could be melted down and recycled easily. The knowledge printed on ancient pages, not so much.
At a crossroads where the paths through the trade fair converged, Daybreaker’s wandering came up to a notice board which had posted the itinerary for the weekend, along with directions. Today was dedicated to specialty crafts and collectable items, there even was a whole row of stalls dedicated to trading cards. Tomorrow would be little more than a yard sale, and give sellers a chance to be rid of their own unused goods. And in the night between them, the trade fair had a festival planned.
Daybreaker ignored the street food and party favors. She had no desire for face paintings and caricatures. Not that they were options for her anyway. Her eyes settled on the music performances, a long list of singers and bands from all over the world, not just Equestria.
They were all inconsequential. Nightmare Moon is performing first. No, not Nightmare Moon. Daybreaker caught herself, shaking the confusion from her head. Nightmare Knights they may have called themselves, but Luna was still only a shadow of her sister.
Still, a shadow was better than a dead memory. Daybreak shifted her eyes to the timetable. The performance was set for 6:30 PM. A slow sigh left her lungs as she looked down to the short shadows on the ground. It had barely passed noon. Six hours of watching mindless drones waste their day away was going to drive her mad.
Rolling her eyes, Daybreaker dragged her hooves towards the food stalls, the only places which accepted real money. She’d find some food to enjoy, the only worthwhile thing this world seemed to offer, and then curl up in some corner until it was time to see her “sister.”
Or so Daybreaker expected the rest of her day would go. An alien, yet unnervingly recognisable laughter rang her ears as she joined a line for hamburgers and fried potatoes.
It cannot be. Why are you here?
Standing at twice the height of anyone else in the line, a white-coated alicorn with a pastel mane laughed, passing jokes and casual conversation with the cook as he wrapped up her lunch.
Celestia balanced the plastic tray on one hoof, though she could have easily levitated it. Her smile, her laughter, her meandering strut alongside ponies as if they were equals, was everything Daybreaker had lost to time.
She wouldn’t have asked for me if she had you around, Daybreaker thought as she left the line. Don’t walk around with that stupid grin. You must know our sister is about to go on stage. Why come now?
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Well for Equestria better or worse they will get cell phones in the future in My Little Pony new generation
Trust me Rainbow dash and Fluttershy have to deal with that mess the last time they were there
Ummm I don't know what to say about that that's just weird
Ohh Princess Celestia is here oh boy things are gonna get very awkward isn't it
So a lot of things are happening so far it looks like fizzlepop and glitter drop are talking about going back to the Crystal Empire after what just happened but at the same time feels about don't want to leave the band meanwhile Sunset was pretty excited to see new creatures which I don't blame her because she's been gone for a long time and things really did change in the other side it looks like smolder and silverstream are shopping or basically trading there stuff and the other side daybreaker was basically just walking around waiting for the time that Luna and her band started playing but what she did not expect is Princess Celestia is here I wonder what was she doing there I thought they were fighting let's hope they can talk to each other without any arguments Maybe well I guess we'll find out next time
This is gonna be like Jerry Springer worth of drama about to spill.
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