“Relax,” I told Twilight as we headed along the street, “Just remember, they are more afraid of you than you are of them.”
For some reason Twilight had been acting nervous since I told her we were invited for dinner. Luna couldn’t come because it was too early for her and while she had put most things aside for our visit, there were some duties she couldn’t dump so she had condensed them all to one night. She had wanted to, but couldn’t. But both Sunny and Sparks wanted to come.
But Twilight seemed strangely nervous.
“It’s nothing like that,” Sunset pointed out from Twilight's other side, “She used to be friends with Minuette before she moved to Ponyville.”
“Ahhh,” I said and nodded, “I get it. Didn’t know that.”
Twilight sighed, “Not quite… we weren’t really friends as such, I was always so busy with my studies. But… we knew each other and studied together sometimes. But we could easily have been,” she said, smiling sadly, “I suppose I feel bad for not making the effort. And not reaching out to her since.”
“It’ll be fine,” Sunset told her with a smile.
“Does she know I’m coming?” Sparks asked and looked at me.
I shrugged my wings beneath my cloak, “Mentioned it in my RSVP.”
Seemed only considerate to send one and say how many of us were coming. I guess some of my lessons with Sunshine have stuck.
I quickly regretted the shrug and pulled my cloak tighter around myself again as the shrug made my cloak let icy wind inside.
Uhhhuuuu. It felt like it went right through me.
There were some things to be said about the monster infested jungles of Nocturnis, at least they weren’t cold!
Twilight flicked one ear nervously.
“Relax, Sparks,” I told her softly as we approached the door, “It’ll be fine, I promise. She knew she was inviting you, it’s not exactly a state secret that I’m together with you, Luna and Sunny. Besides, she’s with Swift, he would have told her.”
She paused and took a slow deep breath before she nodded and we continued up to the door before she reached out and tapped her hoof against it.
It took only moments before it opened to reveal a grey coated unicorn wearing a nice white dress. She smiled and then bowed, “Your highnesses,” Rising High said, “Welcome!”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile, “But there really is no need for that.”
Rising High stood back up and nodded a bit nervously, “R-right, you said that before. Uhm… oh! Yes, come in, sorry.”
I smiled at her and we walked inside. I lit my horn and slipped my cloak off, hanging it at a hook by the wall.
“I told you we should have dressed up,” Twilight whispered quietly to Sunset.
“Relax, it’s fine,” Sunset whispered back.
Bat pony ears are great sometimes.
I smiled at Rising, “I hope we’re not too late.”
“Not at all, Pri-,” she started to answer before she cut herself off, “...Page.”
I suppressed a sigh as I headed towards the small dining room. That’s just going to get worse with time, isn’t it?
“Page!”
“Hey Swift,” I said and walked up to him, tapping hooves with him with a smile, “So where is Cloud?”
“Eh, not here yet,” He said with a shrug. He was wearing his dress uniform.
“So… Minuette forced you to dress up?”
Swift smirked, “Something about ‘royalty coming for dinner’, no idea what she’s on about.”
“What we do to keep our mares happy,” I agreed.
Quietly. So nopony else heard. Seemed safer like that.
I glanced around a bit, I had not seen this room last time I was here, it was pretty nice, last time we just ate in the kitchen. Not very large, but more than enough for our little group and nicely decorated with a couple of paintings to go with the windows out across the snow covered back yard.
“So, want a drink?”
“Yes please,” I agreed, “But better not be anything too strong.”
“You’re an alicorn, you’ll live,” He said with a smile and walked over to pour us a horns width of amber liquid before he returned with a pair of crystal glasses in his magic.
“The drink yes, my marefirends, no,” I said and sipped the drink, “Speaking of which,” I then said and looked around, “I seemed to have lost them on the way.”
Swift looked past me, “Likely intercepted by Minuette. I think she wanted to talk with Princess Twilight.”
“Ah,” I said and nodded, “Makes sense, they knew each other once.”
There was a knock on the door.
“That’s likely Cloud and Ocean Dream,” Swift said and put his glass down, “I’ll go invite them in.”
I nodded and he quickly trotted out towards the door. I sipped my drink and moved to look out the window. It was a nice little garden with a small greenhouse and several sets of outside planters for vegetables. Currently all covered with snow.
Too bad that sort of thing wouldn’t really work on a wide scale or we might start farming in Nocturnis now rather than wait for securing the ground. Maybe hydroponics?
Ah yes, what better way to make farming easier but then pump hundreds of tons of water into the trees.
Brilliant idea like always, Page.
I sipped my drink again and then turned towards the door as I heard hoofsteps, “Cloud! You look like you got in a fight with a tree and lost.”
That got a grin from the pegasus as he walked inside. His wings were bandaged against his side, another bandage went across the front of his barrel were poking up from his shirt by his neck and he had some scrapes on one cheek. He wasn’t wearing a dress uniform, but he did have a shirt and tie on. Maybe Sparks had been right, maybe we should have dressed up a little.
“Not far from,” he said and held his hoof out, “But I swear, not my fault. The lightpost snuck up on me in a sneak attack.”
I grinned and tapped my hoof against his, “I bet it did,” I said before I frowned, “But seriously, how are you doing? You look like you took quite an impact.”
He grimaged slightly, “Looks worse than it is, really, Worst is my wing, snapped one of the bones, I’m going to be grounded for a month.”
“Well, that sucks.”
He nodded, “No kidding,” he agreed before he smiled, “At least I did get the nice pain potions.”
“Which means no drinks for you,” I said and sipped mine.
“Yes. That,” he agreed with a small sigh before he smiled, “But I have somepony I want to introduce to you.”
I grinned, “So I heard,” and checked that we were alone before holding my hoof out, “Good job.”
He grinned and hit my hoof with his again.
Nice
Well, as much as i like this series, chapters like this is not what i expect from it. They don't have "weight", they don't add anything to the plot (from what i can see) and overall skipable. When initially i seen them as good additions, now i see them as just fillers for word count or even just for the sake of update. Don't get me wrong, this story, and every other one in this series is great overall, it's just chapters like this one that i don't like.
11027240
thats what slice of life is my guy, its nice.
Why is that a bad idea?
Who could it be...
He did something dangerous, a stunt to impress them....
If it's someone canon,then it could be Gilda or Rainbow Dash or Lightning Dust?
Or just by species if it's new character, so dragon,griphon or pegasus
11027276
Very few trees are like the one in that new Pokémon movie with the jungle and the magic spring.
They more often tend to fall over when they get too top heavy.
11027282
Ok
So generally they don't have much space on the ground and can't farm in winter...
But what if the farming would be done on trees?
Like greenhouses on trees?
Just create platforms,like on the big branches or even connect these big branches with other trees's. or do it inside wide trees and do multiple levels
Dirt shouldn't be that to transport.
The same with water
They probably already have pipes or magic to transfer water to homes.
So why not do it on trees?
I was binge reading through all the chapters again and when I got to this one my mouth said "where are the chapters?" Without any input from my brain... I swear I'm not addicted, I can quit anytime I want!
11027294
Read my comment again. Your answer is there.
11027312
Oh right, they would also tip and fall
But that would happen if they make trees too heavy in their higher parts
So the center of gravity wouldn't be that high to tip it
11027276
Or with a name like Ocean Dream, it could also be a seapony.
Great get together ♡ Bros metting and bring there mares along.
HOURS EARLIER...
Swift: Mercy! *gasp* MERCY! What's the point of surviving the jungle if I die here?!
Minuette: Not my fault you ate all those croissants at the tea shop! NOW HOLD STILL!
*Minuette further tightens the corset Swift will wear under his uniform*
Swift:
11027429
Somehow it'd be weirder but also funnier if they were wearing fancy dress saddles like that episode in season 1 where twilight put a saddle on to go outside
11027349
they're probably built like earth sequoias, redwoods or Kapoks which don't really behave like regular trees since they're really tall and think they're better than all the other trees anyways.
As someone else mentioned before, Nocturnis sounds like the right temperature and humidity for coffee and cocoa beans.
Seeing as there's no easy soil access yet, they could experiment with tree grafting?
The coffee and chocolate would make good exports, plus the fruits before processing are perfectly edible and could form a part of the local cuisine
Considering that "pumping hundreds of tons of water into the trees" is something trees need to do in order to survive....
As discussed here, 21-metre trees are estimated (presumably most of the variation being due to species and environment) to use between 10 kg and 200 kg per day, mostly in the leafy treetops where photosynthesis happens.
The highest recorded estimate of single-tree water use (of "an overstory Euperua purpurea Bth. tree growing in the Amazonian rainforest") was 1180 kg per day, ie more than 430 tonnes per year.
Why pump water up into the trees? Gutters and collection tanks up in the trees. It certainly rains enough there
11027550
you wouldn't even need that, just the ambient air has enough water, there's a lot of plants that live up in the canopy of rainforests
11027435
Well I couldn't have Swift hiding saddles under his uniform so corsets it is!
Cloud does have a rough time of it, doesn't he? Boor bloke.
11027240
We're catching up with characters who haven't been around much lately and as has been mentioned, enjoying the cake of life that this series is.
Grammar jackboots:
Assuming he's thinking in metric: hundreds of tonnes of water
another bandage across the front of his barrel was poking up from
Yup
Nopony at least, can't be to sure about those dastardly cuddlebugs though
"Ocean Dream"... it's probably just my paranoia but Page and company did just recently visit a changeling Hive by the ocean... again it's probably just my paranoia but we'll see
11027483
Nocturnis: The Town that Never Sleeps, for realz
11027307
Why are the chapters always gone?
11027939
Taking nocturnal to a whole new level
11027250
With Hiver it's more like "Cake of Life"
11028291
more thinking of a good old fashioned genocide but I don't think hiver is gonna go that way
11029228
not quite the whole cake, celly has the last slice
11027240
I feel like you may not understand what 'Slice of Life' is.
Pump nothing. Rains enough that a collector and pipe on each tree would suffice. Could even get indoor plumbing thataways.
You live in a rainy jungle in a world with weather controlling ponies. Might be more plausible than you think.
11631343
Bat pony's are not that good at manipulating weather like the pegasus