1 |
INT |
18 |
[Harvesting] You roll an 18 (required 10). Success!
After having spent the better part of the afternoon inside, your party decides to make the most of the remaining daylight with a short trip to Sungrain Fields. You exit the house together, and head southeast to the windmill.
As you walk along the beaten dirt roads of Hoofington, you point to a house here or a market stall there, and tell your foalhood friend all about the little community you've come to be a part of.
Honourshine: "You've always had a knack for fitting in, haven't you? Figuratively speaking."
You grin — your low-hanging fruit knowingly nipped in the bud —, and tell Honourshine that living in a small town is very different from the luxurious lifestyle of high society; ponies here take pride in the work they do, not in what it earns them.
Honourshine: "I suppose you're right. While I have more bits than I know how to spend, I've almost forgotten what it's like to feel excited by a discovery."
Moonflower: "Are ya excited now?"
Honourshine: "Well, I certainly am curious to see where this goes, at the very least."
You arrive at the edge of Sungrain Fields, where you grab a basket and a sickle, before continuing onward into the endless sea of breezeblown crops. After browsing the different grasses to choose from, your party settles on some fresh wheatgrass for dinner, with some lemongrass mixed in for extra flavour.
Once back at the windmill, you split the harvest into three bowls, and hoof one to each of your friends. Then, you all make your way to a quiet spot in the park to enjoy your simple yet tasty meal while watching the colourful valediction of the setting sun.
Honourshine: "I've never given it much thought before, but do the potions you made not sound like magic spells?"
Moonflower: "Oh yeah! S'kinda like castin' a spell on yourself when ya drink 'em."
Honourshine: "Do you think the two are related in some way?"
Moonflower: "Ooh, I dunno! Maybe it's got somethin' to do with arcane too, but we met an alchemist once who made a potion that makes your hair grow super fast, and he said unicorns can't do that yet."
Honourshine: "That's... oddly specific."
Moonflower: "Heehee! And I only make potions, but I know there's other kinds of alchemy too, like changin' rocks and metals into other stuff. We even met an alchemist who made herself a whole friend! He was kinda nice. And super big!"
Honourshine: "She made herself a what?"
You nod, recalling Novelty and her equinculus Subject Eleven from Midgard. You recount how the latter could seemingly phase in and out of reality, and alter his own form at will. Last you saw him, he looked like a very large (and well-endowed) stallion, and seemed quite fond of his master.
Honourshine: "I... see. There's more to alchemy than I thought. Subject Eleven, though? That's an unsettling name, if you can even call it that. I wonder what happened to the others."
You admit that you didn't think to ask. That said, you did receive a letter in the past month about them moving to an embassy not far from Amblerta; perhaps you could ask later, should you find yourself on the western coast again.
Moonflower: "We should totally check it out someday! And visit Basket while we're in the area. Heehee!"
As you finish the last of your meal, the twilight on the horizon slowly begins to cool down. You feel satiated, and ready to head back inside before the wind grows colder.
Enter a comment
(Not part of the command: Do we have a couch in our home in case she doesn't want to share a bed? If not we may have figure out what to do.)
Note to self: Consider buying a couch or even a second bed in case we need a seperate sleeping spot.
But what if we send out Moonflower to buy a couch and she comes back with one with really ugly colors? And then Trailblazer has to pretend to like it to not make her sad. But every time he's the living room he sees that horrible couch just standing there, silently mocking him. XD
(Though if Honourshine really wants to go back to the inn in Ponyville, we should escort her, unless we're really sure Moonflower can handle it by herself; we'd regret not being there a lot if any of our companions got seriously hurt.)
You know, I didn't think about the angle of Honourshine being a full-on Canterlotian by now. Idyllic... I wish more jobs in modern society had more purpose to offer, not just money. Though many jobs frequently lack both. Also, it seems Moonflower's business empire is a remote prospect.
Not sure how money management works in this world, but maybe there are stock exchanges and other investments, or at least parking the money in a bank account that pays interest. 😛
I didn't have the occasion to point this out before, but the Eleven x Novelty ship seemed inevitable. 😉
Clear Fountain does know our address and suggested she might visit us, if she finds the occasion (2019-08-26). Though maybe she has her hooves full with "freehearted" ponies near the embassy by now.
A reader did actually ask the very same question when we learnt his name. We really should ask Novelty about this if we ever see her again. Albeit it's not the kind of story where I would except any dark twists and the reveal that Novelty is really some sort of evil mad scientist who got rid of Elevens predessors when they didn't met her exceptions.
Moonflower must've been reading my mind. A few weeks ago I thought about making another trip to Amblerta in the future to visit both Apple Basket and our friends from Midgard in their new home. Of course, this would probably take at least a few months in real-time so I'm not sure if most readers would actually want to do that.
I wonder how Honourshine will check out of the inn. I want to assume she traveled light and didn't leave anything behind, and she simply needs to send a brief note or something.
More minor additions to the lore of how magic/potions may work. We've seen that potions aren't solely the province of magicless ponies, such as Twilight in the School for Gifted Unicorns (Celestial Advice flashback), and Twilight as a potion teacher to Apple Bloom in Twilight Time.
I like hearing Honourshine's cerebral commentary. 🧠
It seems the train ride got pushed later than may have been planned? There is a timeline where we left for Fillydelphia immediately after accepting the quest. Hopefully we still have time to track down Dirt Flaxen's old band.
I kind of intend to skip to tomorrow with my command. We have a lot of (understimulating?) travel ahead.