Act Two Chapter Five
Sandpoint, 1 of Rova (Presumably 24 of September, 1000 SR), Afternoon
Let me draw you a picture: a baby dragon and his seven pony companions sit in front of a sumptuously laden table. Neither the baby dragon nor the ponies look like they should, instead transformed into human-thingies, but none of them seem to particularly care at the moment. The dragon stuffs his face with spicy salmon, while the others eat more pony-oriented food, such as greens and the like. They all use wooden cutlery with their newly acquired hands, though only the dragon should know how to do that. There is not much conversation, 'cause most of the group didn't have the opportunity to eat properly in over nineteen hours. A fair share of their numbers are scratching themselves, not used to the clothes they have to wear as human-oids. The prettiest of the ponies also jingles softly with each move she makes.
Hard to picture you say? Maybe, but that was the reality I had to cope with.
As I sat there, filling the hole in my gutter with curry-spiced fish I could finally in peace reflect on how we've gotten here. So here we are, in a place so alien to us it could very well be a different planet (which it might for all I know), in bodies not our own, having no idea how to get back home and… enjoying ourselves at a festival? Yeah, that sounds about right. But I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to Rynshinn's tent and her father's dagger.
Rynshinn came back from wherever she was off refreshing herself, and Rarity was in a bit of a pickle, having to decide what to do with the dagger. She could give the knife back to Rynshinn, but that would leave us without any means to get money. She could also force her to buy it back, but that just seemed wrong. The moral dilemma was eating away at her, the choice between the group's welfare and what was right a hard one for her to make. Finally, after an uncomfortable moment of silence she finally made her decision known.
"Here darling, you should have this." She said, passing the Messer to the surprised fashionista. "I simply cannot do such a thing as force someone to pay for the retrieval of their family's possession. It would be out of place to even ask."
Whatever protest those of us who wanted to sell the dagger had were silenced by the look Rarity gave us. It was clear as day –the decision was final, and nothing would change her mind. Besides, she already gave the Messer to Rynshinn, there was no going back at this point. Fortunately for us, Rynshinn was no stranger to showing gratitude.
At first it seemed as if the local seamstress was about to break down in front of us. The shocked expression on her face mixed with the sheer emotion in her forest green eyes was as touching as witnessing a reunion of long-lost relatives. She tenderly ran her thumb along the symbol that spelled her father's name, mouthing something inaudibly, and then looked at Rarity. The next second Rynshinn was embracing her, thanking profusely for Rarity's kindness and generosity (duh!), and asking if there was anything she could do to repay us. Of course Rarity wasn't going to go for something like that and was trying to politely decline the offer, but once Rynshinn made a certain proposition she reassessed her earlier conviction.
Our hostess knew we were in dire need of both new clothes and money. We told her as much. So it was no surprise that she quite quickly came to the realization what we would really appreciate in terms of thanks. Before Rarity even had the chance to protest Rynshinn decided that we could take whatever we needed from her store and promised she would refit them as soon as it was convenient for us, free of charge. Rarity of course tried to decline, saying that there was no need and such, but truth be told she wasn't opposing the idea too hard. It was after all a better outcome than any of us expected. The cherry on top however was when Rynshinn retrieved from a box hidden between some fabric a small bag jingling the unmistakable song of coins.
"I know it's not much…" she started, pressing the bag into Rarity's hands despite her protests. "…but I want you to have it. It should suffice for a few days in a tavern at least. And no, I don't want to hear any of this." She added smiling, cutting off Rarity. "A hundred or so sails won't ruin me, and I can see you need them. So please, make it easier for yourself and just take it. Besides, if it will make you feel better than think of this as an… investment in a potentially profitable partnership."
One: note to self –sail is the name of the currency around here, not actual sails. Two: what did she mean by "potentially profitable partnership"?
Unfortunately, Rynshinn didn't elaborate on the subject. When asked all she said was that we would talk more about it at a later date, preferably when she was going to make adjustments to our freshly picked clothes. Speaking of which, once we've gotten the "go ahead" from both the owner of this place and Rarity we renewed our efforts to find anything that would fit and not look like the thing we had on ourselves at the moment (mainly rags). In short order we managed to pick a substantial amount of articles of clothing and hurried to change into them.
It would probably be wise to mention that there was only one "fitting room" in the whole tent, and that it was makeshift at best. Normally that wouldn't be any problem; after all, we normally don't wear clothes. But being in a mostly coatless body (or being a mammal in general in my case) made it a teensy bit awkward to just strip and put something else on. Good thing I wasn't the only one that realized that. I mean come on, if even Pinkie Pie is racing for the changing room you know you've made the right call.
While most of us fought to get access to the "fitting room", Twilight had the opportunity to finally have a chat with Rynshinn herself. It was obvious that she wanted to bring up the subject of magic; from the moment she saw her perform that light spell it was clear that she wasn't going to let the issue slide. She approached the redhead fashionista and asked, quite bluntly might I add, how she performed magic.
The question itself caught Rynshinn off guard. She looked at Twilight uncertainly, not knowing how to respond, and only after a moment did she manage a reply. And by reply I mean ask if what she heard about most elves being taught at least the theory behind the arcane arts was just a load of hogwash. Surprised by this rebuttal Twilight was about to back out if it wasn't for Trixie's intervention, who with her ever present confidence, as well as quite the amount of fine talk managed to convince Rynshinn into believing that they were just testing her. How she manages to pull something like that off I will never know. The point is however she managed to convince our benefactor to share her knowledge, even if she wasn't thrilled about talking with Trixie after she earlier called her story a "sappy tearjerker". It probably had something to do with Rarity showing her interest on the matter.
I didn't get the whole story, as fighting to get into the "changing room" was higher on my priority list right now, but I did catch a few things. First off –Rynshinn mentioned that she wasn't exactly any sort of enchantress, and hardly even an amateur sorceress. She said that she knew only a limited few spells, and wasn't particularly good at them. The extent of her powers apparently was creating light, simple parlor tricks, and a few minor enchantments helpful in her line of work. She claimed that there were several more powerful magic users in Sandpoint, with Father Zantus being one of them (even though she wasn't sure for some reason if she should count in his abilities with the rest), and that we should ask them if we were interested in more details.
When asked about the source of her powers, probably the most important thing at the moment, she seemed even more clueless. All she could tell for certain was that during her teenage years some of her powers began manifesting on their own, and only after some dedicated studying under someone she dubbed Madame Mvashti was she able to control it with relative success. She did mention that that Madame-person claimed her magic came from within her blood and that it was her legacy, whatever that meant. She also mentioned something about some scholars of the arcane that throughout extensive study could control magic on a level well beyond her own, but she didn't know too much about that. She suggested talking with someone called Ilsoari Gandethus at the Turandarok Academy if we were interested in a more scientific approach to magic. Of course that was all Twilight needed in terms of encouragement. To be frank I didn't need a crystal ball to predict the future at this point; I already knew where we're going once the festival ends.
It didn't take us long before we were all set, wearing our new clothes and stuffing the spare ones in bags Rynshinn provided us with. Even though we've gotten the "go ahead" in regards to picking what we wanted to take, most of us felt that taking anything looking too expensive would be taking advantage on our kind benefactor. Key word being most. Even though I think Rarity was trying her hardest to restrain herself she couldn't help but take at least one of the more fashionable pieces of garment, not that Rynshinn minded. And Trixie... well, you probably already know. Flashy as all hey, like always.
After a quick farewell and a series of directions to Rynshinn's actual shop downtown we finally found ourselves back on the festival square. The sound of the crowd didn't lessen none, people going from stand to stand, enjoying the festivities. It was a really cheerful celebration, laughing and good-natured boasting coming from every direction, mixed with the sounds of music and singing, and street performers doing all sorts of entertaining stuff to the delight of the crowd. It was so much like festivities back home that for a moment I've nearly forgotten we weren't in Equestria. Thankfully, Twilight didn't.
Rallying us up like the natural born leader that she is, Twilight presented us her plan. For the time being we were to stay together, try not to get into trouble, and if possible –attempt to blend in. Seriously, easier said than done. Looking at our hair-colors and –styles we would be sticking out like a sore hoof even if we acted like the locals. But I digress. With the money we've gotten from Rynshinn we were probably set for a few days, but she wanted to be sure about that and decided that any and all purchases were to go through her or Rarity (who was left in charge of the money for obvious reasons) first. We were also not to draw to much attention, seeing as we were alien to this world an whatnot. She did give Pinkie a pointed look back then, but I think she knew it wasn't going to sink in with the party mare. But hey, one can dream, right?
It may sound weird that I would say such a thing in a manner as surprised as this, but Twilight's plan actually worked. I mean for the most part it worked, but still –it was a surprise nonetheless, especially considering Twi didn't have time to develop it thoroughly. No one wanted to bother our group, mostly because they were too busy having fun, and having more than one pair of eyes looking out for trouble significantly lowered our chances at ending up in an uncomfortable situation. That and we would be able to notice any potential cutpurse. Celestia knows how many pickpockets usually work on days like this.
Surprisingly enough we also didn't bring that much odd looks from the locals. True, here and there some looked at us funny, especially considering how differently from them we appeared, but besides that nothing really happened. For a society that looks mostly the same they were surprisingly open minded. Maybe we actually were in a less varied society and somewhere people with our colors were more common? That or they had colorful visitors. I idly wondered which of it was true in this situation, and why most of the odd looks seemed to ignore Pinkie's vibrant appearance, but after noticing a group of similar-looking smallish individuals possessing bright blue, orange, green, and purple hair I concluded she looked relatively normal for her new species. Go figure.
Of course not everything went perfectly as planned. For starters, Pinkie wasn't content to just watch the festivities. It wasn't nearly as much fun as she was used to, and that wouldn't sit well with her. So no wonder that at some point she disappeared from our group, only to be later found amongst the street performers, wearing a jester's outfit I'm sure Rynshinn didn't have in her tent, juggling a weird assortment of items, amongst them a potted plant, a kitchen knife, and a live cat. How that worked I will never know. And then there was the whole sail-revelation.
The sail-revelation was, as one can imagine, us finally figuring out what was so special about the local currency. It started simple enough: Twilight wanted to finally start her research on human… -oid society, and to do that she needed to take notes. Sorry, she needed me to take notes for her. Either way she needed writing materials. Good luck trying to find an open stationary shop during a town-wide celebration one would think but no, someone just had to have such a stand set up. Because everybody needs parchment and quills during a festival.
Wow, where did that come from?
Putting off questions why would anybody set up a stand selling quills, ink, and other various writing utensils for later Twilight immediately found herself in front of the clerk, an elderly-looking (can't say for sure if old or not with humans) man with a short-trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. The guy seemed nice enough, your average sails-stallion from back home, though that meant more trouble than one would imagine. Especially once he let it slip that writing materials weren't the only things he was selling. Long story short: he owned a bookshop, and a little bit of his other wares were for sale right here, right now. It took the combined forces of Rainbow Dash and Applejack to drag Twilight from the stand. And so it rested upon me (and Rarity, which for me was a bonus all of its own) to make the purchase.
Having secured a sizable portion of writing materials which knowing Twilight's tendencies would last for less than a week we came to the matter of price. First off, we had no idea how much was a sail worth 'round here. Seriously, the power of the local currency was lost on us. Secondly: nopony had came up with the idea of actually checking what the currency even looked like in the first place, and let me tell you, it would save us a lot of trouble. So to sum it up the price of five sails for the whole thing seemed adequate to us at that point. That is until Rarity opened the bag of coins from Rynshinn.
Have you ever seen a gorgeous mare, the exemplar of both refined style and etiquette, whose simple look could make most stallions swoon over her without as much as trying reduced to a slack-jawed, mumbling, wide-eyed filly with problems controlling her own drool? Because that's exactly what happened to Rarity. Not that I blame her, what she saw in the bag was most definitely worth drooling over, in more ways than one might I add.
There is a common misconception among other nations concerning the Equestrian monetary unit, the bit. Most assume, falsely, that Equestria is so rich that it mints its currency out of pure gold. Of course, that's not true in the slightest. Gold is rare and one of the most valuable metals known to ponykind. Most of it is either used as a material for exquisite works of art or stored in the Equestrian Central Bank, which in turn mints the bit and gives it the power behind it. Of course one could still pay with gold and such, but who in their right mind would walk around with something that valuable? No, the bit was minted out of aluminium bronze, an alloy that had a pleasant, yellow hue and that was much cheaper than gold. How do I know all this? Let's just say gems aren't the only thing a dragon likes to munch on and leave it at that. As to the local currency, well… Here things seemed to be a little bit different than back home.
The sail was a coin only slightly larger than the bit. Its obverse depicted a sort of coat of arms, the symbol of some sort of bird of prey, probably an eagle or something holding a sword in one of its talons. The reverse showed a type of ship I didn't recognize under full sails, probably the namesake of the coin. The odd part however was that it was made entirely out of what I could only assume was pure gold. That's right, freaking gold coins! I didn't know what to think about this, nor did Rarity, who by the way was still staring at the contents of the bag with a completely dumbfounded expression. One thing was for sure however; if we were to go back home right now we would be stinking rich!
Of course we couldn't marvel at the fact we were loaded just now. The clerk was beginning to get annoyed; he was still waiting for his payment, and we just stood there, staring like a duo of mentally retarded ponies who saw money for the first time in our lives. Thankfully it took only the man clearing his throat to snap Rarity out of here revere and finally pay him. Though now knowing what the sail was all about I get a weird impression that he just ripped us off. Just a hunch.
Having secured Twilight her writing equipment we could finally seriously participate in the festival. That is directly after Rarity informed the girls that the local economy might be slightly different than the one in Equestria and let it slip that we may have enough gold on us to buy Carousel Boutique four times over. To say the girls were surprised by this was an understatement. The most prominent reactions probably belonged to Applejack, who suddenly became extremely interested in the contents of the money bag, and Trixie, whose eyes gleamed with poorly concealed greed. Then again Rarity's hold on the money left little room for interpretation: she wasn't going to let it out of her hooves hands without a fight. That was however secondary, and after Twilight (or should I say I) noted that little find down we could begin operation "Try to Blend in".
The Swallowtail Festival was not, as we believed at first, contained only to the square in front of the cathedral. It stretched out far into the town proper, which was obvious enough thanks to the decorations many of the buildings sported. Streamers and wires with colorful paper lanterns attached arched over the more narrow streets, and some smaller stands we missed earlier were set up here and there. Vendors were selling their wares, ranging from toys and trinkets and various sweets, all the way to the more exotic stuffs, like glass carvings and similar expensive-looking works of art. One would think this was market day and not a celebration dedicated to the consecrating of a cathedral. I think the weirdest stand we passed by was a stall owned by a rather unpleasant looking man, displaying a large choice of weapons of all things. Seriously, you’d think that during a town-wide celebration selling weapons would be at least frowned upon. But hey, who am I to judge? And Twilight had something to write about, so…
The other significant part of the festival were the various games that were both being set up and already played. Their nature ranged significantly, some simple tests of brawn like the usual Ring the Bell (RD just had to test that one) or arm wrestling, others –of agility and eye-hand coordination, like Ring Toss or Ball and Bucket Toss. And of course the sack race that Pinkie desperately wanted to participate in. By the way, even with her small stature she all but trashed the much larger competition. Probably had something to do with the fact she always bounces.
There were also more rural competitions, like trying to tie up an oiled up piglet (Applejack seemed to be interested, but a look entitled "get a speck of muck on your clothes and I shall end you" from Rarity easily prevented her from doing that), or guessing games involving country products. Here AJ excelled, having spent most of her life on a farm giving her an edge over her competition, mostly townsfolk. Suffice to say she won a great big jar of… pickled onions? What kind of prize is that? Applejack seemed content though, even if Rainbow was good-naturedly making fun of it, so it must have some meaning.
Aside from the three earlier mentioned types of games there was also one that in normal circumstances would never appear in Equestria. It was both too hard to perform back home to make a game out of it, and it had rather militaristic origins, so for the most part it wouldn't be that popular in Equestria. In Eagleland maybe, but not in Equestria. I'm talking about Crossbow Target Shooting.
Back home crossbows were used only, and I mean only by the military. Usually mounted on the back of a pony, it was either cocked and fired by another pony, or in case of unicorns by themselves. In rare cases there were additional firing and aiming mechanisms attached to the more advanced repeating crossbows that could be utilized by any kind of pony, but those were from what Shining Armor said last time we talked rather complicated to make and operate. All in all they were hard to come by and difficult to handle by an untrained pony, so there was no reason to even make a competition like this. Here however, in a land filled with bipedal creatures with prehensile upper limbs it was way easier to properly use crossbows, and so they were more popular, to the point that there were games made that included using them. That's at least what Twilight wanted me to write down.
It was… actually fun, the crossbow game that is. I even got to participate in it, after I all but badgered Twilight to let me try. After a quick instruction (never had this type of contraption in my claws hands before) from the guy running the contest I had the basics down, and got a slightly too large crossbow to shoot with. The mark was about eighty or so hoofs from me, placed just in front of a cliff so that any stray shot would sail harmlessly into the sea. I didn't question that decision, after all it was the guy's bolts that were going to be lost. Nonetheless I readied my shot, preparing just like the guy running it told me to, and slowly, letting out my breath from my mouth I squeezed the trigger mechanism.
The recoil of the weapon hit me hard on the shoulder, making me almost stumble where I stood, but I've kept my gaze on the fast flying object I just launched. The bolt sailed through the air with a soft whizz, cutting through the air with impressive speed. The things that Shining mentioned about this weapon, that it could quite easily pierce through armor ringed in my head, and now I could safely say that I could believe that. Small and fast enough, the bolt seemed to be designed to do nothing more than to shoot right through solid plate. It neared its mark in less than half a second and with an audible *thunk* it sunk in the wooden target.
I stared at my handiwork, mouth agape. Before me AJ and RD, as well as several locals tried their luck with the contest. Dash sent her bolt to the crashing waves below, missing the target entirely. Compared to her Applejack's shot was like one made by a pro. Her shot hit the target, but surprisingly it wasn't as accurate as mine. Her bolt struck the second ring from the middle. Compared to them however, my shot seemed… surprisingly accurate. It wasn't a bull's-eye, I didn't have that much luck, but I managed to send the bolt into the ring surrounding the perfect mark. How I did that was beyond me: beginner's luck, hidden talents (yeah right), or dumb luck, I don't know. What I do know is that my shot, as weird as it may sound, was amongst the best that day, at least from what the owner assured me. That is until he himself showed how it's done and scored a perfect bull's-eye. But all in all he was a cool guy and even gave me a prize for my shooting.
Feel the power of my Willhoof Tail hat!
All in all we had some fun, most of everypony finding something to amuse themselves with. Pinkie was her usual self, Applejack and Rainbow Dash pushed each other in another of their friendly competitions, and Rarity and Fluttershy for the most part cheered them on. Twilight of course was too busy with her research to do something fun, but then again research was her definition of fun. Probably only Trixie didn't enjoy herself, preferring to brood on the sidelines, watching us with that superior look of hers but mostly ignoring us, accompanying us only because she had to. Not that I cared of course, in fact I was grateful she was brooding right now. The less she opens her mouth the better.
After a few more hours of unhindered mingling with the locals, participating in various games and activities, and getting the feel of Sandpoint we realized something that we should have realized hours ago. None of us, with the exception of Twilight and Trixie have eaten anything in over fifteen hours. Nineteen in my case, considering I was too caught up with the glowy mystery thingy to stop and eat anything. And no, sweets bought during the carnival didn't count. The point is we needed food and we needed it now. Remembering where the long tables were being set up and figuring food must have been there as well we headed back for the cathedral square, hoping to grab a bite.
Only one word sums up our decision adequately.
Jackpot.
The tables, the same ones we saw being set up hours ago were now filled to the brim with various dishes, most of which we saw for the first time in our lives. Piles of deliciously smelling food were stacked on their surfaces, plates filled with exotic cuisine only waiting for us to taste them. It was like a buffet only waiting for us to dig into it, and dig in we had.
It took some time for us to find a table that wasn't filled exclusively with omnivore-oriented food, but once we did it was like looking at a ravenous horde of bunnies invading a cabbage patch. Having most of the vegetarian stuff to themselves the girls seemed to forget about manners (most of them, with the notable exception of Rarity) and stuffed their faces with whatever they could get their hands on. For a time I actually accompanied them, chomping on salads and the like, but then my nose was assaulted by the most delicious aroma I had ever smelled. Following my sense of smell I quickly located the dish which fragrance made me drool uncontrollably. There, like a prize just waiting for me to reach out and grab it was what I could only describe as the strangest and yet most delicious looking dish I have ever seen.
Who would've thought that simple salmon curry would have such an impact on me.
My sudden and completely nonchalant shift from greens to meat (well, fish if you want to get technical) didn't go unnoticed by the rest. Twilight was… used to it I guess. She knew I could and on occasion would eat meat, even if I could live on pony chow for the most part. Rainbow wasn't disturbed by it because she probably witnessed similar things when she was closer friends with Gilda, and Fluttershy… well I guess living with animals, some of them carnivore in nature made her more open minded than most ponies. Pinkie and Trixie for the most part didn't care, the former too busy stuffing her face with… was that a cupcake?… to notice and the latter just don't giving a buck what I did. Probably the only ones remotely disturbed were AJ and Rarity. Applejack stared a bit as I chewed on my curry, more transfixed by what she was witnessing than anything. As to Rarity… as much as it pains me, she seemed positively disgusted with my choice of food, the green tinge on her face and sudden lack of appetite easily recognizable. I just hope it wouldn't affect my chances with her…
Which brings us to the present. The girls, most of them having filled the holes in their guts were slowing down, beginning to chat amongst themselves. Probably the only one still digging in with gusto was Pinkie. Seriously, where does that mare fit it all in? No matter, the important thing was that the girls were beginning to discuss the various carnival-oriented subjects and Twilight skimming through her (my) notes, checking if we didn't skip anything. Talks ranging from Rainbow's customary boasting to Rarity's and Fluttershy's discussion on the finer parts of the local fashion seemed so content, that for a moment one could think we weren't stranded somewhere where we shouldn't be. The girls, they seemed at peace. Even Twilight, who not so long ago was freaking out that she couldn't contact the Princess seemed far more calm and dare I say content. It was… I don't even have the right word for it. Calming? Comforting?
Frightening?
The downward spiral of my thoughts was interrupted by the arrival of a new face. I saw the person, the woman I think she was, some time ago. Once we found the more vegetarian-oriented table she seemed to observe us from afar, and kept doing that for the better part of the last half hour, only now deciding to come to us. Sitting next to Trixie (who gave her a once over, as if trying to determine if she should insult her or not) the mysterious newcomer gave us a look that I couldn't quite place. It was as if it was stuck somewhere between a curious glance and a piercing, half-lidded glare you give a foal after he or she did something wrong, and incorporated everything in between those two.
"Having fun I presume?" She said, her accent one I didn't recognize. A bit throaty if I was to describe it. "Hope the food is to your taste."
The girls' conversations died down abruptly as all eyes were on the newcomer. From what I could tell she was slim yet well toned, having just enough meet where it counted to dispel the image of a pushover. Unlike most of the locals, who had tan or pinkish-white skin, her skin had an almost unnoticeable olive hue to it, and her hair, which was cut just above the shoulders, was the first multicolored hair we saw on any person around here, mainly black with two white highlights framing her face. As I'm still not well versed in what passes for attractive amongst humans I can't tell for sure if she was pretty or not, but comparing her to how Rarity looked now she seemed to be quite close actually. With high cheekbones and a beauty spot on her right cheek she could be considered attractive I guess. Then again she also had multicolored feathers braided into her hair and worn rather masculine-looking clothes, so yeah. The most prominent of her features however was the mark on her exposed left upper arm, vaguely reminiscent of a cutie mark. Then again I didn't see anything like this on Fluttershy's arm, so it might've been some form of body pain or a tattoo of some sort. And besides, I've never heard of a viper cutie mark before. The thing is she looked, at least compared to most locals, quite exotic.
"Em… yes, the food is delicious." Twilight answered uncertainly. The way the woman's accent worked made it difficult to pinpoint what was her problem exactly. "Is there something we can help you with?"
"Help me?" The newcomer seemed surprised. She shook her head in the negative after a moment though. "No, I don't need any help. What I do need is answers." Here she looked directly at me for some reason, and the look she made me almost choke on my food."Tell me, for this I must know: why is it that you all, with the exception of the Little Master here avoid what most deem to be the best dish on this table?"
Okay, not gonna lie –I did not expect a question like that. For a moment there I was sure she was gonna ask about something more serious, or why I was unknowingly insulting her for all I knew, but no, it was about the food. Me and the girls exchanged confused glances, wondering what's this all about as the woman leveled us with that unreadable look of hers. Finally AJ gathered her wits and answered, her southern drawl as strong as ever.
"Ah dunno what ya're talkin' 'bout. This 'ere salad is hoof… Ah mean finger lickin' good."
The woman leveled AJ with a look, silent for a moment as she tried no doubt to decipher her accent. "I don't believe I made myself clear. Let me rephrase my earlier inquiry: why are you avoiding the salmon curry?"
"Ah… than why didn't ya say so in tha first place!?" Applejack smiled, completely ignoring the tension in the air. "We kinda don't eat meat… well, most of us don't." She added as an afterthought, shooting me yet another glance.
"You don't eat meat?" The woman arched an eyebrow and shifted her gaze to Twilight. "Is that right? Or is it just that it's not to your taste?"
"Yes, yes it is." She answered, nodding. "It's really nothing personal, and judging by Spike's reaction it must be really… *gulp*… delicious, but we just don't eat meat."
"Best fish I had in my life!" I added helpfully, lifting the plate and eating a spoonful to stress my point. The woman studied me for a moment and then looked back at Twilight, her expression unchanging.
"So I'm to believe that you're all vegetarians?" She asked slowly.
"Pardon me miss but I must inform you I am quite frankly appalled by the behavior you are displaying." It seems that Rarity had finally enough of what could only be described as an interrogation this woman was subjecting us to. "You come here, rudely imposing yourself on us without a word of explanation, and you dare to treat us as if we committed some grievous crime? Just who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to treat us like criminals?"
Suffice to say the woman was shocked by Rarity's outburst, not that I blame her. It was rare to see this side of Rarity, the perfectly civil yet badass mare giving you a piece of her mind. It took our interrogator a moment to compose a reply.
"I'm sorry, I didn't intend for this to come out as it did." She shifted uncomfortably on her stool, the look on her face finally changing from the unwavering glare to an apologetic smile. "If I came out as rude than you have my most sincere apologies."
"Well, ya kinda were rude." Rainbow supplied bluntly, giving her a flat look. "Who are you anyway?"
"I didn't introduce myself?" The newcomer asked, abashed. "Now this is really awkward. So much in terms of good manners." She muttered to herself, after which she gave us another look, this one far less pointed than before. "My name is Ameiko. Ameiko Kaijitsu, owner and proprietor of the Rusty Dragon Inn." Not sure if cute name for inn or insulting. Will go with former.
"Wait, so you're an innkeeper?" Rainbow looked her over again. "You don't look like one to me."
"Yeah, I get that often." The newly dubbed Ameiko shrugged. "Comes with having an adventuring episode. But right now I'm just an innkeeper. And a cook." She added, glancing at me and the plate of salmon I was finishing. It was enough in terms of clues for Twilight to deduce what this all was about.
"So you made all of this?" She gestured towards the food and received a nod in return.
"Yes, this is after all a table dedicated to showcasing the Rusty Dragon's wares. And truth be told it's why I came here and pestered you in the first place. For years my spiced salmon curry was the consumer's choice, if you know what I mean. And now you come along, ignoring it for the most part and choosing appetizers and greens over the fan favorite. I kind of wanted to know what's this all about… and why I have a sudden feeling I'll need to prepare a new pot of seaweed soup." Ameiko added, looking at the contents of said pot, or rather the lack there of.
"*slurp* Oh, so that's what the green mushy stuff was!" All eyes fell on Pinkie, who was happily slurping down a bowl filled with, well, green mushy stuff that it appears was seaweed soup. "*slurp* This thing feels yummy in my tummy, can I have more?"
"I'll let Bethana know we need more soup." She said, her smile morphing into a toothy grin. "Have to say though: it's nice to know someone besides me likes kelps. You and me Pinks, we're gonna get along just fine."
"Great!" True to her way Pinkie beamed at Ameiko, but the bowl was still calling her name and moments later she was gulping down the soup in great big swigs. We just shook our heads and continued what we were doing.
"Say, you're not from around here, are you?" The self-proclaimed chef asked, averting her gaze from Pinkie and looking at Twilight. "I mean I know about everyone in Sandpoint, as well as the usual guests from out of town, but I've never seen you guys before. At least I don't think so. I would remember a colorful bunch like you… no offense."
"None taken." Twi assured, though this made us a bit wary. We kinda had to play along and pretend we were form around here, but we knew next to nothing about this place. How could we pretend something if we didn't know the first thing about what's over the bend, not to mention miles from here? Still, Twilight put on a brave face and did her best. "Yes, we really aren't from around here. Didn't even know there's going to be a carnival until we came here."
"That's strange, I thought word got all the way from here to Magnimar with how Pops and Kendra were advertising it in the region. You must be really from afar." She concluded, looking at us with newfound interest. "Lemme guess: refugees from Korvosa?"
Refugees from where now? Korvosa? What kind of name for a place is that? Come to think of it, what kinda name is Magnimar? Boy, the local names sure as hay are weird. Ameiko's words did however present an opportunity, one which Twilight utilized to the best of her abilities.
"Yes, that's exactly what we are! Refugees from Korvosa, that's us!" Did I mention Twi was a pro at lying through her teeth? She's almost as good at it as AJ. Suffice to say Ameiko didn't look convinced, but didn't push it.
"Okay… with all the strange things happening there lately your arrival here is not in the slightest weird. Especially if you think about their approach to people not fitting their definition of normal. Desna knows how much of a hellhole that place is, especially considering their ties with Cheliax. Acting like their colony they are, goddamned diabolist bastards… no offense."
"Again, none taken." Twilight tried to assure her, in the meantime scribbling down information she got from this conversation. Of course that brought a look from Ameiko, one of confused curiosity, but she didn't dwell on the matter.
"You said you own an inn, correct?" Ameiko turned around to face Trixie, who once again eyed her, this time with interest. "That usually means one offers rooms to travelers, yes?"
"Yeah, I have a couple free right now." She nodded, a look of recognition on her face. "And let me guess: you're looking to stay a bit in Sandpoint, yes?"
"It appears the Great and Powerful Trixie will be gracing this town with her magnificent presence for some time. It would be therefore appropriate to house one of Trixie's greatness in her lodgings… and Trixie supposes her lackeys will also need a place to stay." Oh, she didn't.
"Not to burst your bubble but we're the ones paying the bills." I decided to take her down a notch before somepony else beat me to it. "I would be really careful with whom I'm calling a lackey if I were you. You never know when you might need cash."
Trixie's mouth worked for a moment, no sound coming from her lips as she glared at me. She knew full well however that my words weren't only empty threats, as one glance at the less than amused girls was testament to that. She sighed finally, sending me a hateful look.
"Trixie's companions will need accommodations as well." She rephrased, most of her grandeur demeanor gone.
"Okay, so rooms for what, eight people?" Ameiko counted us up quickly, frowning slightly. "Might be difficult finding enough rooms, but I think I'll be able to work something out. How long will you guys be staying?"
"Until we figure out what to do next." Twilight supplied, scratching her chin in thought. "That could take anywhere from a few days to a month or so."
"Hold on a minute darling." Rarity interjected, a look of dismay on her face. "I can understand a vagabond like her is used to staying in places like that, but do you really want us to stay in a dingy inn of all things?"
"Hey, I will have you know that my inn is as clean as an elven ar…" Ameiko trailed off, noticing Trixie watching her with an arched eyebrow. Probably had something to do with the fact she was kinda an elf right now. "What I mean is it's clean, alright? And I do not appreciate you insulting my home like that, whoever you might have once been!"
The look on Rarity's face clearly reflected her emotions, in this case a sense of surprise at the notion that someone may call an inn their home. Then again from what I know most innkeepers live in their place of work, so it shouldn't be that big a surprise. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Ameiko was protecting the good name of her establishment with such fierce determination? Because she was seriously peeved at Rarity's remark, and it was clear that she was willing to go to great lengths to defend her home.
"If you don't like my standards than you can go try your luck at the White Deer." She continued, sending an icy glare at my lady. "But be warned –Garridan's prices are for fellows with deep pockets. You can either spend half a falcon a day at his place or a fifth of that price in the Rusty Dragon, and you'll get much of the same. But don't let me stop you. You're free to spend your gold wherever you want."
"Falcons?" I blurred out before I bit my tongue. "I thought the local currency was sails?"
Ameiko begrudgingly took her glaring eyes off of Rarity and leveled me with a flat look. I could already tell I just said something unbelievably stupid. Why am I not surprised?
"What do you mean by that? Both are respected around here and… oh!" A sudden look of realization appeared on her face. "You're from Korvosa, I almost forgot. Bet you're used to the Cheliax currency."
"Em… yeah?" I nodded weakly. The feather-wearing woman nodded sagely, as if she just figured out a great mystery, and I wasn't going to prove her otherwise. Besides, Twilight seemed interested in this turn of the conversation, the quill in her… hand…proof of that.
"Figures it would be like that. If I didn't know any better I'd say Korvosa is already a Cheliax city. Well, from what I remember the Cheliaxian monetary system is as follows: a pin…"
"Aren't you perchance forgetting about something?" Came an annoyed question, asked with the unmistakable voice of none other than Rarity. She was sitting at her spot, arms crossed in front of her chest and glaring at Ameiko resentfully. "I do not appreciate being ignored, especially if I'm in the middle of a conversation. It's beyond rude and clearly points at the lack of…"
"Ah think that's enough Rarity." She was interrupted by Applejack, who just to be on the safe side blocked Rarity's mouth with her… hand (this is really gonna take some getting used to). The alabaster mare wasn't too pleased about that, her glare now directed at the farmpony, but if AJ was intimidated by it, she did a great job hiding it. Instead she smiled at Twilight reassuringly. "Ya'll don' fret none, Ah'll take care o' miss complain-a-lot, try ta talk some sense into 'er. Dash, lend me a hoof now, will ya! This' a work for at least two."
"On it!"
"Well… that was… interesting?" Ameiko said slowly, having problems with coming to terms with what just happened. Twilight only shook her head and asked her to continue her earlier though, all the while Trixie was watching the scene between the farmpony, the athlete, and the fashionista unfurl with an evil smirk on her face.
"Right, I was about to explain how things work here." The innkeeper finally snapped out of her confusion and looked back at Twi. "Well it's pretty simple really, much like it must be in Korvosa. You have your pinches, your shields, your sails, and your crowns. That's the basic Cheliaxian system, all of it decimal increments of the former. In Sandpoint, as well as in Magnimar and most civilized parts of this part of Varisia we use the Andoran system. Basically your pinch is our cap, your shield is our wolf, and your crown is our falcon. The name sail stays the same in both systems. But if you're still confused than you might as well use the standard copper, silver, gold, or platinum piece and be done with it. Everybody will know what you mean…"
My mind must have frozen at that point, because I haven't felt so numb since that one time Twilight practiced a paralyzing spell on me. Ameiko's words echoed in my skull, growing louder and louder with each passing second, until the only thing I could hear was one simple yet completely unbelievable word repeating again and again. Platinum.
They used platinum to mint coins here. Platinum! The single rarest and most expensive precious metal in the world, worth so much that a single ounce could buy a house in the noble part of Canterlot. And they used it to mint coins! Just how loaded were these people?!
I wasn't the only one that reacted so strongly to this revelation. The moment the meaning of Ameiko's words reached her Twilight lost focus and pressed the quill too hard on the parchment, snapping it. Trixie's eyes went as wide as saucers as she stared dumbly at the innkeeper, as well as Rarity, who looked somewhat like a victim of a stroke. AJ and RD didn't look that much different either, the two of them forgetting about their task of "educating" their fashionable friend. Only Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie didn't react in any way, probably not really caring about this revelation. But still: platinum coins?!
Our shocked behavior didn't go unnoticed by Ameiko. She eyed us suspiciously, once again finding us acting strangely no doubt in the span of less than ten minutes. If she hadn't figured out that we weren't telling her the whole truth before, she obviously did now.
"This is the first time anyone has reacted like that at the mention of cash." She said slowly. "Especially at the mention of platinum. I know some can live their whole life without even seeing a platinum falcon, but this? This here takes the cake."
"Cake? What cake? Where?" I really wasn't surprised that this phrase brought Pinkie's attention. Truth be told I would think she's ill or something if it didn't. The point is however Pinkie took interest in our conversation and was eagerly looking at us, as if expecting somepony to pull out said cake from who-knows-where.
"No cake here Pinks." Ameiko responded, her eyes still trained on us.
"Aw… but you said something about it. Why do you tease me so?"
"I wasn't trying to. It was just an expression."
"An expression of what? Something good? Something sweet?"
"…you really haven't been paying any attention to the conversation, have you?" She stated flatly, looking at Pinkie. The mare in turn beamed at her with that too-large-for-comfort smile of hers.
"You mean the one about platinum falcons and all that jazz? Like the thing that one platinum falcon is worth ten golden sails, which is worth a hundred silver wolfs, which is worth a thousand copper caps? Or that Korvosa is like a super-duper close ally of Cheliax, borderline their vassal?"
"Em… yeah, I'm talking about all that." Ameiko was at a loss of words. Considering its Pinkie she's talking to thought that was hardly a surprise. "But you looked like…"
"I wasn't paying any attention, to busy eating?" She finished for her and snorted in amusement. "Oh you silly filly, of course I was paying attention. I'm obliged by contract to pay attention to any plot I'm a part of, even if it's the plot of a B-class fan fiction written by a self-proclaimed scribe."
"Err…"
"By the way: girls? Are you seriously boggled by the fact there are platinum coins around here? Seriously, think about it. We're in a different place with different rules. Maybe people here have way more shiny stuff than back home? They may have more gold and stuff, but they may, I don't know, not have rock farms around here?"
"Rock farms?"
"It's a gnome thing."
"…do I even want to ask?"
"It's not that interesting, really. It has lots to do with cuboids, lei line theory, high-pressure press, and nuclear fission. I've worked with it since I was a itty-bitty Twinkie-Pinkie on my parents' farm, along with my two sisters."
"Em…"
"Told ya it's boring. Hey! How about I'll tell you the story of how Fluttershy here went all badass on a boar. It's a gem!"
"I, err…"
"Ameiko, there you are!" The poor, poor innkeeper was spared the horrors of talking more with Pinkie thanks to the timely intervention of an already known to us individual. From the crowds still filling the streets the familiar form of Father Zantus emerged, the same warm smile still present on his bearded face.
"Pop… I mean Father Zantus! To what do I owe this pleasure?" Ameiko eagerly greeted the prospect of getting away from Pinkie's verbal barrage, quickly closing the distance with the priest.
"Come now Ameiko, no need to be so formal. I'm well aware of how I'm called around town." His smiled widened a bit seeing the guilty look on her face. He glanced at us however, and that's when his look changed into a more serious one, but only slightly. "I see you've already met our guests."
"You have no idea." She muttered barely audible. "I take it you know each other?"
"You can say that." Father Zantus nodded and turned his attention to us, luckily after the girls managed to somewhat regain their composure. "Hello again! I see you've replaced your wardrobe, no doubt thanks to Rynshinn. By the way: I happened to run into her. Haven't seen her so happy since her mother passed away, the poor girls was devastated by it… She did mention you helped her with something though, couldn't speak highly enough about you."
"Oh, eh… It was nothing, really." Twilight quickly responded, still a bit dazed from earlier. The priest however seemed extremely pleased by her response for some reason.
"Such modesty." Ameiko looked at him funny at that, probably thanks to the combined forces of Trixie and Rarity, but she didn't say anything. "Anyway, I was looking for you girls."
"You were?" Twi asked, this time not even bothering to hide her surprise. "Why's that?"
"Oh, nothing bad I assure you. Quite the opposite actually." He smiled the most sincere smile he could muster, trying to alleviate her (and our collective) fears. "I wanted to speak with one of your friends if that's not too much problem… I'm sorry, I can't seem to remember her name. I'm talking about the pink-haired half-elf girl."
All eyes fell on Fluttershy, most of our gazes confused as to why the man wanted to speak with her. The pegasus in question however acted true to her name, and once we looked at her she seemed to shrink in our eyes, shielding herself from the world with her hair.
"Y-you want to speak with m-me? What for?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Fortunately, Father Zantus seemed to possess a surprisingly keen sense of hearing and understood her without problem. He let himself sit opposite Fluttershy and spoke in a soothing voice:
"I wanted to speak with you about the Swallowtail Release ceremony and about what happened during it." I can't be sure but there was something in his eyes at the mention of that, a sort of glow and childish wonder I had a hard time associating with someone of his age, whatever it may actually be. "I haven't seen something like that in all of my years, nor did any of my faithful. They already call it the Swallowtail Miracle and word spreads that you may be a favored of Lady Desna herself."
The who-what of what now? This guy made less sense than Pinkie did most of the time, if that's even possible, and judging by Fluttershy's reaction she was agreeing with me wholeheartedly. I seriously didn't know what he was talking about, but from what I gathered it was something important from his point of view, possibly having to do with that weird religion of his. Unless…
"It's considered a blessing of the Great Dreamer when a single swallowtail butterfly lands on a person during the Swallowtail Release. But for them to swarm around someone?"
Bingo!
There was one thing that I failed to mention during my earlier recap. You see, during our foray into the festival grounds we happened upon a highlight of said celebration. A wagon had been pulled up onto the cathedral square, covered with a large sheet of light blue cloth, and Father Zantus was preparing for a speech. People gathered around him, eager to hear his words, and out of courtesy (or in Twilight's case want of knowledge) we joined them.
It quickly became apparent that this was a religious rite as the priest was recalling an old legend pertaining to his deity. In this story Desna, who I assume was the goddess, has been battling a nightmarish entity named Lemashtu, and grievously wounded she was cast from the heavens to the realm of mortals. There she was found by a poor, blind child, who in the goodness of its heart nursed her back to health, unknowing that it was aiding a deity. In her boundless gratitude, Desna cured the child's blindness by transforming it into an immortal swallowtail butterfly, so that it could witness with its own eyes the beauty of the surrounding world and explore its wonders for all of eternity. Or at least that's what I gathered from the story. As far as those go it was okay, maybe a bit dull, but I could see why some choose to follow a religion with such a message. The thing is however that the story was only just a prelude for what was about to happen.
Father Zantus concluded his tale by saying that from there on out, in memory of the child's transformation and their goddess' return to the heavens it is customary to release a swarm of butterflies as part of the Swallowtail Festival (hence the name, duh). And not to prolong the wait, the priest and a number of what I assume were acolytes removed the blue sheet from the wagon, revealing a score of open containers and a storm of large, azure butterflies. The insects took flight in a large swarm, momentarily obscuring the sun itself, and they were about to disperse to the four corners of the world if it wasn't for a certain pegasus mare.
As if led by some invisible force the flurry of butterflies fluttered straight for Fluttershy, to the confusion of onlookers and unmistakable delight of the interested pegasus. Those of us used to 'Shy's connection to the animal world weren't that surprised, which couldn't be told about Trixie, who was making a great impression of a fish out of water, but even then it was like nothing we've ever seen before. The mass of the colorful insects, their wings of mesmerizing azure lazily fluttering covered the normally timid mare from head to toe, prompting her to giggle softly in joy. It was no doubt like returning to the comfort of what she knew from home, a feeling of peace and security filling her being as the butterflies acted towards here like the ones in Equestria. For a second there she could forget where she was and into what she was transformed, only enjoying the moment of tranquility.
Soon enough however Fluttershy asked her new blue-winged friends to take flight and continue on their way, and so they did. Once again a storm of azure butterflies took flight and within seconds dispersed, fluttering on their merry way, leaving a smiling, content Fluttershy in their wake. Her good mood didn't last for long however, for the moment she noticed that everyone, and I mean everyone was looking at her she reverted to her normal, shy persona, especially considering most of those looks were in fact disbelieving stares from flabbergasted believers, who must have just witnessed something rivaling a miracle in their eyes. Suffice to say we quickly bailed her out and sought refuge amongst the crowds that didn't see the whole thing, and we had piece. Until now that is.
Father Zantus was studying Fluttershy with his kind, dark eyes intently, as if an answer to a great riddle was hidden somewhere in her face. It unnerved her to no end, Fluttershy never liking to be the center of attention, but her position as well as the sense that fleeing would only worsen things for us told her to stay where she was and try her best to put up a brave facade. The priest's unwavering gaze shifted finally to her only visible eye, and a smile bright enough to light a room at night sprouted on his face, calming the timid mare as well as showing his… was that admiration?
"There is something in you, child. Something truly beautiful, transcending the flaws of mortality." He said cryptically. His words did however manage to make Fluttershy blush like mad with their double meaning. "The Song of the Spheres echoes within you, and it depends only from you if it will be heard echoing in the wind, or playing in your heart."
"I… um, I-I… thank you." Fluttershy managed to squeak out, bowing her head and hiding behind the curtain of her pink locks. Father Zantus gave her a kind nod, and then cleared his throat, as if he wanted to make it clear he was changing the subject.
"Now, having that out of the way I wanted to ask how do you girls… and you, small master, find the festivities this year." Well look at that, he finally noticed me. Took him long enough. Not that I'm complaining, I was still confused by his earlier thing with Fluttershy, but it's nice to finally not be ignored. "I do hope you find the festival to your liking. It took a lot of planning and was extremely anticipated by our people for months, but in my humble opinion it was worth the wait."
"Hold on a second there Z-man!" Pinkie, who moments ago was sitting at her place in front of the table was now standing on a stool next to Father Zantus in an attempt to be at his eye-level. And just like that any sort of mysticism went down the drain. "You were in charge of putting together this party?"
"Why yes, amongst others." The priest nodded uncertainly, eyeing the pink mare warily. Pinkie in turn looked him over as if mentally assessing him, her face scrunched in focus. "Is there some sort of problem?"
"Oh, I wouldn't call it a problem per say." Pinkie shook her head, sitting on the stool she was standing on moments before, still unusually serious. "It's more like I've made some observations pertaining to this here festival, and I wanted to share them with someone from the management."
"Is that so?" Father Zantus seemed intrigued, or simply wanted to amuse Pinkie. "Very well then, I'm all ears."
"Okay, but just so we're clear on this: I am a certified member of the Royal Party-Planners Guild and a partylogist with a degree in Party Organization. I would also like to point out this conversation will be conducted with the proper amount of seriousness on my part, as show by the serious hat I am currently wearing." Wait, what…
"…is it just Trixie or is the pink one wearing a top-hat?"
At least I wasn't seeing things.
With Father Zantus busy talking (or listening) to Pinkie Pie, and Ameiko nowhere to be seen the girls and I could finally put our guard down, even if only a little. Our overenthusiastic companion worked as a great distraction, giving us a prime opportunity to quietly converse amongst ourselves.
"Does anypony have any idea what in tarnation was that priest-fellar talkin' about?" AJ was the first to voice her thoughts, shooting wary glances at Father Zantus. "Ah didn't get a darn thing out of his mumbo-jumbo."
"Hey, don't look at me, I'm as confused as you are. All I know is that he was talking about that butterfly-incident and then he went all googly-eyed over Fluttershy." The meaning of her own words reached her only after a moment and Dash looked at her pegasus friend with a sly grin spreading on her lips. "Seems like somepony has herself an admirer~♪"
As could be expected Fluttershy reacted swiftly by blushing up a storm and avoiding eye contact at all costs, letting out one of her adorable squeaks. Fortunately for her, Rarity came to her rescue just in time to prevent Rainbow from teasing her friend to bits.
"Rainbow Dash, would you stop that?! Do you have no shame? You know full well how sensitive Fluttershy is, teasing her like that is most definitely not helping her in any way!"
"I know, I know… I just wanted to lighten up the mood a bit, that's all."
"Good." She nodded sharply at her, only to shift a bit in her place moments later. "Besides, it's utterly ridiculous to think that good man was interested in Fluttershy in that way."
"Um, Rarity?" The pegasus in question looked at her friend, a rare annoyed look on her normally kind face. "I'm sure you didn't want to and that it's just a misunderstanding, but what you said… it was… em… it wasn't very polite." Rarity, with utter surprise written on her face spun around to look at Fluttershy.
"What are you talking about darling? I didn't…" Her mouth turned into a silent "o" as she realized what her earlier words implied. "No, no, no dear, it wasn't at all what I've meant. What I intended to say is that the way he looked at you was far from what could be associated with romantic interest. Believe me, I would recognize a lovestruck look if I saw one, and this one just wasn't it."
"Then what do you suppose the look was about?" Twilight asked, probably making a mental note to ask Rarity how to interpret looks later.
"From my experiance darling I would guess that he was curious, very much so, and I also noticed a hefty dose of wonder. Of course he did mention it had much to do with that butterfly-incident –by the way you looked absolutely stunning while covered in butterflies darling –and therefore I would guess that it left an impact on him, one either mental, or, as he is a holy man, spiritual."
"True, considering the whole thing with the butterflies was a religious thing to begin with." Twi nodded, referencing Rarity's suspicions with her (my) notes on the subject. "Besides, it did gather lots of attention from those who witnessed it. I wouldn't be surprised if there will be more similar things happening in the near future."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow our cover or anything." Fluttershy apologized quickly, already blaming herself for a catastrophe that didn't even occur. "If I knew this would happen I would've asked them to fly away quicker than…"
"Nah, it's no biggie." Rainbow cut her off, smiling reassuringly at her as the others, me included, nodded at those words. "A bit of extra attention never hurt anypony. And besides, it's not as if you did it on purpose. It's not your fault."
Fluttershy smiled softly at us in response, appreciating the reassurance of her friend. Meanwhile a certain showpony seemed torn between commenting on the no doubt too emotionally deep display she was forced to watch just now and asking what Rainbow meant by Fluttershy not doing something on purpose. It was easy to forget that she didn't know the first thing about 'Shy and that she was bound to be confused by half the thing we did. I seriously wonder how she was managing to cope with Pinkie's randomness this long without asking the obligatory "how" question. All in all, if Trixie had any questions they weren't going to get answered anytime soon, 'cause Twilight decided that with this issue solved we could go over the next one.
"Okay, with this all settled we can move to more serious issues." She said, gaining the girls' attention. "First of all: we need to talk about money."
"Trixie's wage stays the same if that is what you are aiming at, Sparkle." The showmare quickly butted in, glaring at Twilight as if her words were a declaration of bypassing earlier agreements. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be swindled out of her…"
"I'm not talking about that." Twi interrupted her tirade with a flat look. "Contrary to what you may believe the world doesn't revolve solely around you."
"…did Twilight just snark at Trixie?" Rainbow breathed out, staring wide eyed at the two unicorns glaring daggers at each other.
"Seems that way." I nodded, as surprised as her.
"Sweet!"
"Fine then! What is it that you wanted to discuss, Sparkle?" Trixie huffed annoyed, glaring at Twi in the most prideful way she could muster.
"What I was trying to talk about was our earlier reaction to the fact platinum is a legal means of payment and is used to mint coinage." She glared back at the infuriating fraud for a moment before she looked at us and sighed, shaking her head. "As much as this may sound weird coming from my mouth I think Pinkie had a point; we shouldn't be too shocked by that, or anything we find strange around here really."
"Eh, Twi? Ah hate ta argue but are ya even listenin' to what yer sayin'?" Applejack seemed perplexed and regarded Twilight with a confused and quite a bit scared look. "Ah mean yer agreein' with Pinkie Pie of all ponies. She may be a great friend an' all, but she's Pinkie for cryin' out loud! That mare makes less sense than a coyote strapped in pink polka-dot pajamas on Zap Apple harvest."
That's… an interesting allegory.
"Normally I would most likely agree with you AJ, but the truth is that Pinkie just made too much sense to ignore." Twilight countered, still looking like she wasn't believing she was saying this. "Listen: for all we know we're not in Equestria anymore. We may be hundreds of thousands of miles from home, probably even light-years from Equis. For all purposes we may be on a completely different world altogether. Who's to say what passes here as normal and what doesn't? We, guests in these parts, or the locals, who lived their whole lives here?
"We know next to nothing about how this place, this… Varisia or whatever this land is called works. Like Pinkie said, they may have a world rich in precious metals, or it can support completely different animal life than our world. For all we know they may not even have ponies here. On the other hoof Equestria may have things unheard of in this world, like rock farming for example…"
"Is rock farming even a thing?" I asked, now curios. If Twilight was willing to talk about it then it must have, but what purpose would it even have?
"Yes Spike, it is. From what I know it's a bit of earth pony magic that enables them to grow various forms of gemstones within rocks. Of course I don't know the details, but from what I understand it's the main reason why large gems are relatively cheap in Equestria while smaller, natural occurring gems are worth tremendous amounts of bits." And suddenly the Pie family went up to the top ten of my favorite pony list.
"So what you're saying, darling, is that we should not act surprised when we encounter something absolutely bizarre while in this place and accept things how they are, even if it means spending a night in an inn instead of a hotel?" Rarity was trying to decide what Twi was trying to say and voicing her discontent at the same time.
"What I'm saying is that we should keep an open mind about things. I'm not saying that we should take everything like it's completely normal when it clearly isn't, but if it concerns the mundane and the locals seem to act like if its nothing out of the ordinary than we shouldn't make a scene, not like with our discovery of magic and definitely not like when we learned about gold and platinum coins. And besides: we can't be too picky about things until we learn more about this place. Maybe humans don't have hotels, or Sandpoint is too small a town for one."
"I… suppose I will have to endure if that is the case. It's going to take a toll on my beauty sleep however, of that much I am certain."
"Glad we're on the same page then. We should count ourselves lucky that we even managed to run into somepony… er… someone like Ameiko in the first place and try not to make an enemy in her. Especially since she's already suspicious of us."
"Amen to that, sister!" Pinkie agreed, nodding vigorously.
"Thank you. Now… wait, Pinkie?!" Twilight made a double take and sure enough Pinkie was sitting right next to her, grinning from ear to ear (literally). "What are you doing here? I thought you and Father Zantus… Wait a moment, where is he anyway?" She looked around in search of the bearded man, but try as she might, she couldn't spot the kindly priest anywhere.
"Oh, some sort of his coworker-acolyte fellow came by and said something about the consecration ceremony being almost ready. We had to cut our discussion short." Pinkie explained, absentmindedly grabbing a carrot and munching on it. "And we were getting to the interesting stuff too. I was about to present him a plan for a hall of mirrors and explain how it would bring more traffic to town."
"Well… that's a… shame?" Twi said slowly, uncertain how to react. "So you talked about anything interesting?"
"Oh, you know, the usual party-oriented stuff. Pops wasn't very talkative though, he mostly listened and nodded from time to time." Pinkie seemed a bit downtrodden about that, but whatever frown threatened to appear on her face was wiped out by an excited smile as she continued. "When he was leaving though Z-man invited us to the consecration ceremony. He said it was the centerpiece of the festival and that after that the main part of the fun would start. Can you believe that? We spent all this time having fun, and it wasn't even the main event!"
"Yes Pinkie, that's very interesting." Twilight answered evasively. It was clear enough that she wanted to change the subjects, especially after hearing from Pinkie that the festival was about to shift into high gear. She probably knew what was about to happen. "Now, why don't we…"
"Can we go there?" Twi's closed eyes and slight frown would be answer enough for most ponies, but not for this pink mare.
"Pinkie, I don't think that's a good idea." She started slowly, like if she was explaining something to a particularly slow foal. "You remember what happened last time we've been near a religious rite, right?"
"But there won't be any butterflies this time, honest! Please?" She insisted, and it was clear Pinkie was desperate to go. She even rolled out the heavy artillery: the famed and feared Pinkie-style puppy-dog eyes, complete with oversized, wide eyes and a trembling pout. How she managed that in her new form was, like most things Pinkie, beyond my understanding.
Twilight put up a valiant effort to withstand this emotional assault, but there was nothing she could do against a look like that. After less than half a minute it was all over. "Ugh… Fine! We'll go. Just try not to bring too much attention to us, okay? The last thing we need right now is a repeat of the butterfly incident."
"Yay!" Pinkie cheered and bounced out of her chair and in the direction of the cathedral. And so the girls and I, some of us less enthusiastic than others (I'm looking at you Trixie) followed her.
The cathedral square was already crowded by the time we decided to follow Pinkie. It was apparent that the consecration ritual was about to start any moment now, and a large percentage of the townsfolk didn't want to miss it. There was a feeling of excited anticipation in the air, people waiting anxiously for the ceremony and for the real part of the festival to start. Almost everybody here was too busy talking amongst themselves or paying attention to the platform and Father Zantus bustling about on it to pay us any mind, which in Twilight's opinion was for the best.
As we waited amongst the crowd of Sandportians we began noticing some familiar faces. One of the guards from earlier, the gruff one, was patrolling the crowd with a bored expression, as if he would rather be anywhere but here. Priest Naffer was hobbling about, probably giving the whole scene to his fellow priest, engaging some of the locals in cheerful conversation. I think I spotted Rynshinn at the verge of the gathering, a mix of nervousness and anticipation written of her face, and not too far from her there was Ameiko, a confident air about her as she watched the bearded priest busy himself on the stage. One could say that everyone that meant anything was here.
As I was looking around from my porch on Applejack's shoulder and trying to spot any more familiar faces something caught my eye. Turning to face it I felt my blood run cold as ice and a pit form in my stomach. There, high above the street level, partially obstructed by one of the massive stone domes of the cathedral was the thing that was responsible by our presence here. Hiding like the cowardly thing that it was, the white glow seemed to look upon us as if mocking us, like we served no other purpose but to amuse it.
I frantically looked around, trying to figure out what to do. I wanted to tell somepony, point it out, get back at the thing that played with our lives like we were of no real consequence. I think I also wanted the others to see it, to make sure that it wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me, that I wasn't slowly going insane. I desperately wanted it to be true, but at the same time I dreaded the consequences it would have on us if it turned to be true. If it had enough power to do all that it did to us, if it really existed, it could just as easily get rid of us, permanently.
Scanning my friends in search of any recognition on their part I noticed that one pony in particular was watching it with interest. With eyes glued to the luminous creature, Trixie seemed to study its every move like if expecting it to lunge into action at any moment. Feeling both relieved and terrified, I managed to ask a simple question.
"You see it too?"
She didn't even look at me as she responded. "The thing that supposedly dragged us here from Ponyville? I see it." I can't put my claw on it, but she sounded different when she said that. Gone was the ever present superiority of hers, replaced by what I could only assume was rare seriousness.
Trixie's unusual tone of voice seemed not to go unnoticed by the others. Applejack shifted slightly so that she could see the silver maned magician. "What're ya'll talkin' about? What do ya'll see?"
"There, on top of the church." I pointed out with my claw finger, barely controlling my voice. "The thing that I told you guys about. It's here."
"What? Where?" Rainbow also seemed interested at that point. She looked where I was pointing at and let out a surprised sound as she noticed the glowy thing. "That thing took my wings and brought us here? Oh, let me get my hooves on it…"
"Um, girls?" At this point everypony was looking at it with various levels of surprise, fear and/or anger, Pinkie included. And even she looked to be serious for once, her normal bubbly persona replaced by an unusually calm one. She did however massage her knee with her hand for some reason. "Not to be a bother, but this thing gets my knee all pinchy, and you know what that means."
For some reason that short declaration made all the girls save Twilight and Trixie stiffen up like if she just declared that a rampaging dragon was nearing Ponyville. A terrified glint appeared in their eyes, even in Rainbow's, and they began looking around frantically as if in search of a place to hide. Just what the hay did a pinchy knee on Pinkie Pie mean?
I was about to ask what was going on when a sudden movement from the stage caught my eye. Father Zantus appeared to be holding something in his hand, above his head, and after a second he threw it on the ground. Whatever that thing was, it emitted a loud, resounding bang. All eyes shifted towards the priest, who seemed about ready to deliver a speech, but as Father Zantus was about to start he was cut off by a terrified shriek and a loud, painful, dog-like yelp.
Seconds later another scream was heard, then another, and soon enough the whole crowd gathered on the square began panicking. People were running in every direction, bumping into each other and pushing one another out of the way. But there was something more going on. Amongst the shrieks of fright I could make out something different. High-pitched voices, almost completely masked by the screams of people but completely different from them. They sounded like… giggling, cackling even, screams of glee and delight, and singing, a catchy but strangely unnerving melody spreading around town, coming from different directions all at once and forming an almost intelligible cacophony of sounds, spreading like wildfire. And the worst part was that I could understand them. They weren't in Equestrian, but I could understand their meaning without difficulty. But at that moment I wished I didn't.
Goblins chew and goblins bite,
Goblins cut and goblins fight,
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump,
Goblins slash and goblins bump,
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
Chase the baby, catch the pup,
Bonk the head to shut it up!
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We the goblins—you the food!
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3810710
P.S. cool avatar you got there
Finally a another chapters
. And truly great chapter witch cliffhanger at the end. I only hope next chapter come before summer holiday
.
3811717 Thank you. And I am kinda a zombie virus. I am also the cure for cancer. Plus, cool story, bro.
Did trixie grow up in a town with no other unicorns.
So twilight made a mistake involving trixie. She causes fights between them seemingly on purpose, she makes people not want to help her and she treats them all like slaves.
Twilight should grow a backbone and put twixie in her place since she needs them mor than they need her.