Ponyfinder: Potions and Swords

by David Silver

12 - Join Our Party!

"It'll be fun!" Aeorean circled Dawn with a big grin and hopeful eyes. "We haven't partied in ages."

"The gods did not urge this." Dawn looked to Zecora. "But I am not deaf to your needs. Though troublesome, your friend did leave a good impression on several." His left ear flicked back. "Still they whisper of her and hers." He turned, directing a hoof deeper into the temple. "Speak with the priest of Luminace."

Aeorean frowned at that. "You're one of those. You're a priest of everything!"

"That may be true." Dawn cracked a little smile. "But only of pony gods. Still, yes, I do bow my head towards Luminace, kind and knowing one."

Aeorean sprang forward at Dawn in a pounce, not that he made contact. "So why are you sending us to a different one?"

Dawn was quiet a moment, meeting his friend's eyes. "I know this is difficult to grasp, but the gods have needs of me, and they do not include this venture." He raised a hoof just as Aeorean was about to speak. "I am needed elsewhere. I will see you to the priest, if you like?"

Aeorean sagged a bit. "We can find the way," he sighed out, pointing onwards. "Let's go."

Longma tossed her head. "Enough wasting time. He clearly has no interest."

"In this, you are incorrect." Dawn was already moving away despite talking. "The gods are cruel." Despite his words, he was soon gone.

Jon nudged Zecora in the side lightly. "He really seemed to want to know more about you, I think."

Zecora was following Aeorean into a side hallway. "Let us speak to this priest of books. Perhaps they will have gladder looks."

Aeorean shook his head with a little snort. "Dawn is like that sometimes. He's not a bad guy, but whatever the gods want, he's giving."

Longma leaned in, almost brushing Aeorean aside. "Is that a bad trait for a priest to have? I would imagine that their purpose."

Aeorean flapped his wings, regaining his balance. "Most priests pick one god, but not Under." He inclined his head. "He took 'em all! I don't know how he even starts to make sense of it all."

Jon imagined someone in such a situation, not that priests of anything but 'God' were common where he was from. Still, he knew the concept. "He doesn't try to have a meeting with them all." His friends were keeping half an eye on him, but they didn't stop his musing. "He's following the religion, you know, as a whole?" He brought his hands together, fingers touching to form a circle with the bottom of his hands. "With the gods being part of it?"

Aeorean seemed to consider that a moment. "Not sure. He sure seems to have little thoughts about each of them. Remember what he said?" He pointed back where Dawn had been. "Blaze be praised, Night Mare this, and so on?"

Zecora accelerated as they approached an open doorway, books beyond it in obvious view. "Ah ha, this must be the place. A fitting place for knowledge to give chase."

"Hello there." A new zebra, though far more equine in shape than Zecora, was adjusting his glasses with a hoof. "What an interesting linguistic tic you have. It's delightful. Is it intentional? religious? A sort of personal challenge?!" He flashed a bright smile. "I can appreciate any of those."

Zecora inclined her head at the other zebra. Striped, surely, but shaped... differently. "I do not presume you to be of my kind. Despite that, perhaps our minds may be aligned. I am lost, abandoned in the stars. I have gained new friends--" She gestured at the others. "-- but know not the path of ours."

The new zebra clopped his hooves with a little giggle. "You may be the best thing that happened today." Suddenly he began speaking an entirely different tongue, and then another, and a fourth without pause or even delay, his eyes on Zecora intently.

Zecora returned with a strange tongue of her own, and the zebra sat up. "Oh. It's not often I hear a beast folk language, how delightful. Yes, yes. We are friends now." He offered a hoof towards Zecora. "We have so many words to share."

Aeorean began applauding. "Good job, I think?" He inclined his head. "What did either of you just say?"

Longma snorted softly. "I recognized one of those languages. My sword yet thirsts? Are you threatening us? You don't seem the sort."

The new zebra shook his head quickly. "Oh my no. It's just a traditional greeting of those people. It is a bit ghastly sounding, isn't it? Now." He stepped down to his hooves. "I feel certain you did not come to share words with me, as fun as that was." He gestured about at the shelves. "Did you come to read and find wisdom? There's plenty of room, so sit a while and learn. Luminace be praised."

Jon gestured at Zecora. "She wasn't just 'sharing words'. She said what she was looking for, a way home."

The new zebra applied a hoof to his forehead, almost knocking his glasses free. "Oh! I do feel daft now. I thought that was... never mind what I thought, it was wrong. Please, forgive me." He refocused on Zecora. "Where is it you come from? I don't recognize your tribe, even if it has some superficial resemblance to my own."

Aeorean gestured with a grand wave of a wing. "This is Zecora, and she's awesome, but also from another plane? Which kinda makes her even more awesome if you ask me." He paused to muse on that a moment. "She's trying to get back though. I'll miss her, but friends help friends."

The zebra smiled at Aeorean's words. "You act in good friendship, and Luminace smiles on us all. Are you all friends of the lost one, trying to guide her home? It warms the heart to see it."

Longma snorted softly. "I don't feel like lying, so not really? I'm waiting for this to be over to get a little vacation in, and I am at least a little curious about these two." She tossed her nose towards Jon and Zecora. "They're right up my alley."

Jon agreed more easily, "Yeah. She's already helped me out, and she wouldn't be here if I hadn't messed up." Not that he knew exactly what he could have done differently... "She deserves to go home if that's where she wants to be."

"The power of friendship is without measure," sighed the studious zebra as he started towards a shelf, eyes running down the many spines of the books. "Now, we need to know what plane she comes from exactly. I could cast a banishing spell, but she may then end up somewhere besides her home, just not here, and I hardly imagine she wants to risk that."

Zecora sat on her haunches. "With this I can be of little help. When it comes to things like this, I am but a whelp."

Longma suddenly smirked. "Do you know a Twilight Sparkle?"

"No, no, afraid I--" A book thumped onto his head, falling free as he grasped at the shelves. "Ow, what?" He had to fetch his glasses, sent drifting away from the impact. A soon as he got them back into place, he returned to the book. "A chance, or a message?" He leaned up and over to read. "Oh. Oh! Yes..." He tapped at the book softly but repeatedly. "Twilight Sparkle. One of the last audiences with the queen! How exciting! Um, but what about her?" He turned back to Zecora, one ear raised.

"That was me," reminded Longma. "She's from the same world, does that help?"

"Oooo, actually..." And back around he went, flipping through the book. "Actually... Yes." He thumped a hoof down. "This will not be easy, but a possibility. Muy Bueno!"

Zecora advanced behind her distant cousin. "What is it you have found? Something small or profound?"

"A creature from your world." He moved out of the way, hoof still on the page. "She called herself a siren. Not any local variety of siren, but she was--"

Zecora had joined him, reading with sweeps of her eyes over the book.

"Glad common came with... this," noted Jon, also reading, from higher and a bit further back. "Adagio!" His outburst got a look from the room, and a few loud hisses for quiet from others studying nearby. "Sorry, um. The, her." He pointed a bit more emphatically. "Lead singer of the Dazzlings."

Zecora pushed the book away a few inches before turning to peer at Jon. "I feel the time has long since passed. I feel it is time you shared your origin at long last."

The other zebra looked happier than alarmed. "Your entire group is full of mysteries. I'll admit it, I'm jealous. So much to learn, so many friendships to juggle." He sighed longingly. "What an amazing journey you must be on, together."

Aeorean burst into giggles. "He's not wrong, but neither is she. Jon, time to tell us." He nodded firmly at their human friend. "I have a feeling it isn't all that bad, so what are you waiting for? We're already your friends."

"I'll go first," volunteered the zebra without anyone asking him. "My name is Süss Śōdha, but you can call me Sues, most do." He chuckled softly, placing his hooves aside his face to lean against them. "I'm an investigator of the mysteries, here at Luminace's temple. Before you ask, I can't join your party but I would love to, I can't emphasize that enough. But my duties are here, and just walking off on them wouldn't be terribly nice of me." He inclined his head. "That also means I'm not a cleric or divine sorcerer, so I won't be the one casting any fancy spells today."

Jon nodded stiffly at the introduction given. "Yes, hi Seuss--"

"Sues," corrected Sues, adjusting his glasses.

"Sues." Jon rubbed his un-gloved hands together. "I am from a world possibly farther away than Zecora's. We have exactly one sapient species, and you're looking at it."

Longma tilted her head. "Do you mean besides dragons?"

"There are no dragons." Jon turned his hands upwards in a shrug. "Not even a single one. I know, a sad situation."

"Ugh..." Longa turned up her nose in clear disgust at the very idea of it. "How do you survive?"

"With varying amounts of efficiency." He wobbled a hand. "It was alright, but this place has dragons, and ponies, and lots of other interesting things. I'm enjoying my time here."

"Well hello," bubbled Sues in warm greeting. "A party of exotic travelers, it seems. What about you?" He looked to Aeorean with clear expectation of another revelation of absurdity. "Are you secretly a god?"

Aeorean blinked at the notion. "If I was, wouldn't your god be upset about me being here?"

"She is a friendly god," assured Sues with a slow nod. "Assuming you came in friendship, I doubt she'd be that upset."

Zecora leveled a hoof at Jon accusingly. "While that is the start of a tale, How do you know of them from where you hail?" She tapped at the book behind her with her other hoof as if to bridge the two concepts.

Jon let out a sigh. "Hard to... explain, but from... where I'm from. You--" He pointed at Zecora with a lone finger. "Are a story, part of one, I should say."

Sues suddenly began to giggle, covering his snout with his hooves as best he could. "Author be praised. You really are a story? Their convictions, proven by the word of a plane walking alien? Today just keeps getting better by the moment. Luminace take note!" Since Luminace was not there to do it, Sues grabbed a quill in his mouth and got to scribbling down some notes to please his curious divinity. Someone had to keep track of those things.

Author's Note:

Sues is a pure soul and I love him already.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Sues needs some Librarian delivered banananas.

OOOK.

[Earthpatriot117]

Well this should be an interesting conversation. Lol
Take your time explaining jon. Xp

[Chrome Masquerade]

"Hello there." A new zebra, though far more equine in shape than Zecora, was adjusting his glasses with a hoof. "What an interesting linguistic tic you have. It's delightful. Is it intentional? religious? A sort of personal challenge?!" He flashed a bright smile. "I can appreciate any of those."

I like the reason described in "Woundsalt, Mother Bucker!".

“Yeah, sorry Zecora. I didn't tell 'im about it yet.” She takes her leg out of my mouth. “She ain't doin' it to act mystical. She's still learnin' the language, Y'see. So she challenges her Equestrian by rhymin'!”

“Sure, the rhyming can be annoying,
but no expensive tutor I'll be employing!”