6: I'd fly above the trees, over the seas, in all degrees.
I'd fly above the trees, over the seas, in all degrees.
Chapter published 10th Feb 2013
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Seated on a cushion outside Rosehip’s teashop, Rainbow Dash gently massaged a weary hoof while she waited for Twilight Sparkle to return with their drinks. Like any pegasus pony, Rainbow was far more comfortable in the air than she was on the ground and, while she’d been spending an inordinate amount of time on the ground these last few months, she still found her hooves and ankles got tired far faster than that of her unicorn herdmate. Not that she’d ever admit it though.
Spending the majority of their life either airborne or standing on soft springy clouds meant that pegasi hooves rarely built up a toughness comparable to that of a unicorn’s or especially to that of an earth pony’s. Pegasi also found that their hooves generally needed filing or trimming far less often as they grew so much more slowly that of the other pony races.
This little fact was, as far as Rainbow was concerned, a goddess-send as she still hated anyone getting anywhere near her hooves with a file. It was something she was still working on dealing with and by now could allow Lero to work on them for short periods, but even then the creeping fear along her spine would quickly become too much and she’d find herself hiding in the bathroom doing it herself.
Releasing her poor aching hoof as Twilight returned with their beverages, Rainbow took her tall glass of ice tea and took a long pull. Now that was good stuff. Nowhere as good as Lero mixed up for her though but still, it did the trick.
Twilight fussed about with her cushion, getting it just square with her edge of their table before settling herself down. Rainbow waited in silence while her friend took a long sip of her soothing mint tea, a satisfied smile spreading over the purple unicorn’s features as the tasty beverage took hold of her taste buds.
“So, anything else we need to get?” The pegasus asked as she gestured towards the two bulging sets of saddlebags on the ground between them. “We must have been to just about every stall and shop and farm in Ponyville by now.”
Twilight pulled out a weighty scroll and let it roll out across the table. Rainbow groaned as the end of the list unrolled itself over the edge of the table and carried on rolling for a fair way across the ground.
“I think we’re about done.” Twilight mumbled, not looking up from her list, Rainbow’s ears perking up at the prospect of heading home for the evening. “We just need to stop by Roseluck’s stall for some chrysanthemums and then we’re done.”
“I think we might be a bit too late for that” Rainbow noted, waving a hoof across the street where Roseluck herself could be seen pulling her cart homewards for the evening.
“Hey, Roseluck” The pegasus shouted across the street, waving her hoof at the pale yellow mare. “You got any chrisantherwhatsits left?”
“Sorry, all gone.” Roseluck called back. “I’ve been looking for you girls though, I have something I think you might like.”
After rummaging around in her cart for a moment, the earth pony trotted over to their table gently carrying half a dozen large yellow flowers.
After giving the unfamiliar blooms a good once over Rainbow was drawing a blank. “What are they?” she asked.
“I think they’re zucchini flowers.” Twilight supplied. “Or courgette flowers if you want to be fancy.”
“Exactly right.” Roseluck added. “I asked Lero if there were any flowers humans could eat the last time he came by my stall and he wrote me a list of the few he could remember. I asked around and found Golden Harvest has a small crop of these that she let me have. They don’t keep very well though so you’ll have to eat them soon.”
“Oh cool, it’s really great when we can all eat the same stuff.” Rainbow picked up one of the blooms and gave it an experimental sniff. “Not bad. So how much’d we owe ya?”
Roseluck waved a hoof at Twilight as the unicorn made a move towards her purse.
“Nothing, they’re on the house. When Golden found out who they were for she wouldn’t take any of my bits. After all the work Lero did for her on her irrigation tanks last week she said she wouldn’t dream of taking any money for them.”
Twilight tucked her purse back away in her saddlebag. “Oh my, thank you. We’ll be sure to let Lero know how much ponies appreciate his efforts.“
“We sure do, well some of us anyway.” Roseluck’s gaze flicked for a second towards Honeysuckle’s Sugar and Starch across the way. “Oh, and by the way, could you tell Lyra I’ve had word that her neighponese peace blossoms should be here in a couple of days.”
Returning her eyes back to the table all that greeted her were a pair of blank expressions.
“Her what?” Rainbow asked.
“Her neighponese pe…. Oh, you didn’t know did you? Oh, Luna’s teats, I shouldn’t have said anything; I just thought she’d have come to talk to you first. Look, You didn’t hear anything from me, ok.“ The earth pony had started to slowly back from the table, a rather sheepish smile across her face. ”Ok, thanks, bye.” With that she legged it back to her cart and pulled it swiftly away, almost running over a startled Davenport as she went.
Turning an incredulous face back to her herdmate, Rainbow asked. “What’s got her spooked? And what’s a neighponese peace blossom when it’s at home anyway?”
“Erm.” Twilight ran though her prodigious memory to see what she could pull up. Rainbow could easily imagine her eyes spinning over in her head like little egg timers as she did so. After a few seconds she seemed to come up with something.
“Well they’re a rare plant from the far east islands, hardly ever seen in Greater Equestria. I only know about it as there were a lot of books about Neighpon left around the house when I was a little filly. A fascinating culture you know; lots of earth ponies and hardly any pegasi even now, maybe a little too fond of octopi if you ask me but…”
“Twi!” Rainbow interrupted. “Kinda gettin’ off track here. The peace blossoms?”
“Oh, oh yes” Roused from her reminiscences, Twilight cast her mind back to what else she could remember. “Well they’re very rare and generally only found on the slopes of Neighpon’s biggest mountain. They taste foul but are prized as an ingredient in a number of traditional neighponese folk remedies.” Tapping her chin with a forehoof she paused for a moment. “They don’t travel well, first losing their colour with a day or so and dying off completely within two more. But the most striking thing about them is the colour of the petals, which are an absolutely spectacular mint gree… Oh my.“
Both ponies sat for a moment with matching expressions slapped across their faces. Expressions that could only be described as ‘dumbstruck’.
Finally the pegasus’ face broke out into a huge grin.
“Yes.” Rainbow pumped a forehoof skyward in a victory pose. ”About darn time… Looks like AJ’s gunna owe me ten bits.”
Twilight took just a few more seconds to recover.
“Wow.” She said. “This must be why Lyra came to me a few days ago with a large metal flask and asked me to put the most powerful stasis spell I could manage on it. Even so, it would only last a week or so at the most, nowhere near enough time for even the fastest runner to get a peace bloom back to Ponyville by hoof before it perished.”
“That crafty mare, she’s bought herself a relay flight.” Rainbow was looking smug. “I had four of my best endurance flyers all ask to take this week off to go camping together. Cloudchaser, Flitter and Blossomforth I can see going away together but taking Thunderlane with them did seem a bit strange. We got everything well in hoof for this week though so I didn’t see a reason to say no. Lyra must have made them all an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
Twilight just looked confused.
“I’m confused.” She said.
“Don’t sweat it, it’s an old pegasus trick from back in the warring periods.” Rainbow moved their tableware around the tabletop to help illustrate her point. It wasn’t often she got to lecture the town egghead and boy was she ever going to enjoy it.
“I’ll bet Lyra’s given them the flask and they’ve flown out towards Neighpon as a team with three of them stopping along the way at three different relay points. Each of the three sets up water and rest stations between the relay points while the forth goes all the way straight to their destination. When they get there they’ll rest a bit, then they’ll pick up the blooms and seal them in the flask.”
Rainbow moved her forehoof to the cup closest to Twilight, using it as the destination point.
“Then they’ll fly almost non-stop at full speed, grabbing water on the wing as they go, until they reach the first relay point, passing the flask to their replacement while they recover at the relay point’s rest station their replacement set up for them. Same happens at the next two points until the last flyer heads straight here to Ponyville bringing Lyra her blooms all still sealed up fresh as a daisy salad.”
Rainbow then moved her forehoof from cup to spoon to table decoration (already nibbled on when Twi wasn’t looking) until she made her way back to her own partially finished glass of iced tea.
“It’s the fastest way for non-unicorns to move something fairly small across really long distances. Ain’t easy though, and sure as sugar ain’t cheap. Lyra must be pretty serious about this if she’s willing to put her money where her mouth is over it.”
Twilight looked like she was thinking it all over, her brain moving at a hundred thoughts a second at least.
“What do you think Lero will say when she offers him a flower?” She asked, carefully moving all the tableware back to their original positions before taking a sip of her tea.
“Well, yes, I hope.” Rainbow looked taken aback that it would even be a question. “Come on, Twi, you’ve seen how much they’ve been together recently, the way she’s been acting around him the last few weeks. It’s a good thing she’s not in heat or the poor guy’d have no chance. Oh boy, I’d hope she wouldn’t break anything. That’s totally my job.”
A smutty smirk spread across the pegasus’ face. It was a good job it was Lyra they were taking about making a move on their stallion here. Any other mare and Rainbow would have been spitting feathers about now.
“Well, I guess you’re right. They have been spending an awful lot of time together recently.” The unicorn admitted. “And there’s no flowers native to Equestria that match Lyra’s coat quite like the peace bloom, well none that will be ready at this time of year. That she’s going to these lengths shows that she’s neither willing to wait for the seasons to change nor does she believe another flower dyed to match will do. Both show an impressive amount of dedication.”
Twilight stopped for a moment to look over the top of her cup at her herdmate. “So if she comes to see you first what are you going to say?”
Now it was Rainbow’s turn to look confused. “Why would she… oh yeah, lead mare and all that.” The pegasus waved a hoof around, she still wasn’t happy about this lead mare thing. “Well she totally gets my vote. But it’s not really up to me is it. It’s Lero she likes so it’s Lero who should make the call. I know he’s found it hard coming around to the whole polygamy idea thing but I think he’ll go for it.”
Twilight nodded her agreement as she took another sip of her tea. “Maybe, but also remember we are a herd, I know you’re not big on mares but she’d be as much courting you as she would be Lero.”
Rainbow sighed as she lifted her glass. “I know, I know. Look, if Lero wants to invite her into the herd then I’m all for it, anything else can work itself out as we go along. I’m just looking for everypony to be happy, ya’know.”
Both mares sat in silence for a few moments, lost in their individual thoughts as they finished what was left of their tea. Finally Rainbow broke the - slightly stunned - silence.
“Sooo, neighponese peace blooms, eh? Mare sure is pretty serious about this.”
“So it would seem.” Twilight replied, putting down her now empty cup.
“Sweet.” Rainbow added as she put down her glass and made to grab her saddlebags. “I think this herd’s about to get at least twenty percent more awesome.“
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Grrr, again not the chapter I sat down to write. It's done this twice to me tonight.
I will get this damn REDACTED chapter out soon, I swear.
Take your time, I'd say, this chapter was quite lovely in and of itself. We need more stuff on Lyra joining the herd, Lyra's first dates with the herd and Lyra's first nights with the herd, anyway. AnonAuthor gave us only the barest of bones on that stuff (though I think I remember hearing somewhere that's because he's writing those chapters himself). Regardless, another lovely piece. The courgette flower surprised me, didn't know that little bit of info. Reading fanfics is educational! =D
Two updates in one night? Slow down bub, you're making the rest of us look bad!
Ooh, more about Lyra Bestpony.
I know skipping around is frustrating but I must say you write very well. I don't care if the chapter is about something later in the story, as long as it is beautiful. Keep writing, you have a wonderful gift.
2099306 When the whole thing's finished we'll just have to read through it properly then. Also I really wanna know what happens to the herd in that latest chapter and how they got in it in the first place :C
i really do enjoy the Xenophilia universe just so well done
Wow this is something different in updates, you can move around the chapters before uploaded them or did you move it after you uploaded it? Because now it seems like everything is being placed in a proper order.
Oh yeah, here's a mistake you made:
>“Exactly right.” Roseluck added. “I asked Lero if there were any flowers humans could eat the last time he came my stall and he wrote me a list of the few he could remember. I asked around and found Golden Harvest has a small crop of these that she let me have. They don’t keep very well though so you’ll have to eat them soon.”
*“Exactly right.” Roseluck added. “I asked Lero if there were any flowers humans could eat the last time he came by my stall and he wrote me a list of the few he could remember. I asked around and found Golden Harvest has a small crop of these that she let me have. They don’t keep very well though so you’ll have to eat them soon.”
Many flowers are distasteful to humans, and some are even mildly toxic; however, there are many flowers that are perfectly safe for human consumption, and may have distinct flavors that cannot easily be replicated with other ingredients. Common examples of edible plants includes the following flowers: appleblooms, citrus blooms, daisies, clovers, dandelions, roses, tulips, violets, pansies, chrysanthemums, geraniums, marigolds, lavenders, saffrons, lilacs, sunflowers, snapdragons, chicory, and several others.
THE MORE YOU KNOW GUYS
I know it must be frustrating that you aren't writing the chapter you want, but these other chapters you end up with are still enjoyable. This should happen more often.
2099115
Eh no rush mate, this is prime quality fiction and is, in fact, so good that i don't mind what you write as long as it's coming.
I'm still sitting on pins and needles waiting for it, but this stuff is more then good enough.
Twilight seems hesitant about Lyra joining the herd - hope she's okay with it.
Hmm...
Assume awesomeness(Twilight) ≈ awesomness(Lyra) ≈ awesomeness(Lero)
Let x = awesomeness(Rainbow Dash), y = awesomeness(others)
x + 3y = 1.2(x+2y)
x + 3y = 1.2x + 2.4y
0.2x = 0.6y
x = 3y
Therefore, Rainbow Dash is three times as awesome as any other member of her herd.
I for one thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, I love seeing more of Lyra's beginnings with the herd. The original story left me wanting for more of her side of the story, and this is by far my favorite version of Lyra. I love the concept of her being a young master of the still way, and such an enigmatic individual... I think it suits her well. I hope to see more Lyra in the future!
Took a bit for the whole flower-color thing to click in my brain.
Wow, determined critter, ain't she?
wow this chaper is the beginning of lyra joining the herd? and it was uploaded on my bday as well! cant believe i missed this
Excellent... Since reading this particular story I have been regretting missing this moment (and possibly the moment that he says yes or at least the arc that leads to him saying yes that is.) in the timeline.... You made my day!
Also I do not mind the jumping back and forth in time so far. It is fun! My only worry is whether things are lost in translation in the updates that are out of order that I might miss (if you glossed over them) if they had not been written in order (So many maybes!). So far that has not happened but you have left a few major emotional milestones that I would like to have out lined so far. Such as how Rainbow came her foster motherhood (kind of wrote the ending for that but what the hay), twilight and their pregnancy, how the changelings got involved(!) much less if they get out alive and even the courtship/integration of Lyra into the herd. Riveting stuff.
Also good way to carry out the interesting publishing order without over thinking it. This deserves a
.
Worldbuilding at its finest. Wow. It's immediately clear that not only would this fit, it makes perfect sense right away - enough to immediately understand what's being meant (and I wonder why Twi didn't catch on immediately - it's obvious).
Also... What about Twilight? Doesn't she get a say in this? How does this work, exactly?
9787516
I can't imagine she wouldn't get a say, considering just how important it is that all herdmates be happy and work together, but at the same time, I don't think she needs to actually say it. She knows her opinion, and is asking Rainbow hers and Lero's. If she were seriously against it, or even just unsure about it, she'd say so.