Brayden's POV
The sun itself shone high above the horizon as I could feel my bare feet tread across hot desert sands that seemed to loop on forever in this endless landscape. Already it has been hours? Possibly a day gone by already since we had left to find the Hippo queen. Out here, I was unable to tell how long time could be told here.
The temperature in the desert though, it was quite unbearable for both myself and my friends. Both of them were sweating and it was no wonder they would be since they have fur on them. I mean, look at Pinkie, she is practically close to fainting at this point. Usually she would have water bottles stashed somewhere in case of a cold water emergency, but not this time. She wouldn't go this far out beyond Equestria.
Even before we had entered the deserts outside of Equestria's borders, we had to get past the Badlands where I had been captured by the changelings a bit of time ago. I had to dig up a lot of courage just to even walk past it because I had ran away last time and ended up in Queen Chrysalis' own hooves.
Still, it's good to know that of all the changelings, there is the good one Thorax living in the Crystal Empire.
All of my friends looks exhausted with sweat coming down from their own foreheads. Rarity almost looks like she is on the verge of just simply collapsing into the sand, not even caring if the insects that roamed here crawled all over her. Her mane looks to be very messy along with Pinkie's, whose mane has small hairs poking out. Though this must be the first time seeing my close friend without her mane being stylish, and naturally down.
I was thirsty... but there is nothing to drink. I was close to collapsing as well, but I was doing the best I could to keep my strength in, though I did look very exhausted. I almost couldn't handle the rest of resisting against the heat.
Pinkie right behind me, panting from the heat and the sweat coming down her forehead. "There's sand in my... everything..." I can hear her say in a tired, exhausted voice. Then there is a small chuckle from her, making me turn around to look at her. "Saving... Equestria..." Instead of another strained chuckle, what followed was a demented laugh like the sun above had drove her absolutely nuts like everypony else. I had that feeling she would become Pinkamena at any given moment. "Oh look!" She proceed to pick up a skull lying down in the grains of sand, picking it up and holding it close to her face. "Maybe this guy knows which way to go!"
A small little bug that roamed in the desert like the other ones we've seen in groups earlier here, crawls onto Pinkie. It moves around her head, moving down after that and wandering off back into the desert. My eyes were still on the crazed Pinkie who was listening to the silent, inanimate object she carried. For Celestia's sake, whoever that skull was is long gone. So yeah... she really should expect silence from something long since dead.
"What's that, friend? We're lost?" Pinkie crazily said, dropping the skull back into the sand. The skull landed softly into it, leaving no marks nor any sinking hole around it. My close friend of course, looks like she will have her mane inflated at any moment with a crazy grin on her face, dementedly laughing with a cough afterwards. Then she falls face first into the sand, collapsing. I figured that this either was her actually collapsing or she actually did faint.
Couldn't do anything with everywhere on my own body sweltering in the heat. I want to take off my shirt which could be one of the reasons, but I do not think my friends really need to be seeing that, even though Rainbow would be trying to get a picture so she can embarrass me afterwards when this is all over.
"I feel like... this desert goes on for... for an eternity..." I gasped out, strength inside me fading slowly and crumbling under the intensity.
Spike is very much gasping as we are close to dry, yet brownish rocks in the desert. Apparently his scales can resist cold temperatures, but it cannot do well against the scorch. "We could be going in... circles! Endless... sand..." He paused to inhale on each chance he could. "Nothin' for miles... but sand... and this rock... and this cactus..." I felt too dry-throated to acknowledge the small piece of cactus that was stuck on the baby dragon's butt. "And this roooooooooaaaaaad..." He absolutely collapses onto the hot grains that my bare feet couldn't stand. "...this rooooooad..."
Twilight who looked exhausted from all of the trotting could see the pattern of brown, desert rocks below resting there, sweat crawling down from her forehead. "A road?" Her voice wondered, following the path of rocks to the left side. I listened to her, unable to make a sound in my voice as my throat is dry. "Where there's a road... there's a..."
She paused for a moment, and I follow right behind her as she slowly begins to move her way up slope of the short dune. In the sky of what was becoming orange, I could see a bit of a distant yet close shadow overhead. A few of our friends follow behind for such a short distance. I can see Applejack dragging the unconscious Pinkie Pie along in the sand, groaning a bit from what strength she had.
I don't really blame her though, as I feel I should carry Pinkie and allow AJ to save her strength. My eyes still over the dune could catch the shadow taking more into shape. Twilight stopping at the top of the dune lets out a gasp of surprise with hope gleaming in especially when she has formed a smile on her mouth. Only when I had reached the top next to her, did I see what the shadowed figment was overhead.
What I had thought was somepony in the desert, instead was nothing more than a city in the distance. A city in the middle of the desert, featuring what looks to be for trade and meant for that whether with other items or not.
The others who had seen it afterwards looked to be amazed by the look of the city in the distance. A sign close by confirms the name of what I thought was a city, but was a town instead... "Klugetown".
Pinkie who had been unconscious wakes up immediately, bouncing ahead with her mane restored, and being the happy pony she was. "Oooh! A city! We are doing it, you guys!" She says excitedly.
"You know what they say," Rarity says to all of us with the relieved look on her face, yet eager in her tone. "Where there's a city... there's a spa!"
"Who says that?" Rainbow Dash asked her as we trotted down the road.
Applejack could only clear her throat to get Rarity's attention. "'Case ya forget, we're on a mission to save Equestria."
"I can multitask." Rarity insisted to her.
"Girls..." I said to both my close friends behind me as we make our way down the road. "We just found this city. I don't really think we should be messing around too much since we are in territory that we have never been to before. Who knows what danger is there."
Pinkie just went 'pfft' to that warning I brought up. "Don't worry Brayden," She tells me. "Who knows, they might enjoy a little party that I bring along!"
"Brayden is right, Pinkie," Twilight says to her. "We don't know Klugetown, so we don't even know how friendly the residents are here. But for Celestia's sake, I hope they are reasonable and tell us where this Queen of the Hippos is."
As we approached down the end of the path and towards the gates of the town, I knew that if there was any kind of threats at all, I would be the first to warn them with the Song of Order on my back. Still, I'm all about giving things a chance unless they already have shown their shady or evil side.
At least there is somepony there... a lizard-like creature handing out free water, so I guess a quick water break will do as we go in.
"Oh look at all of you," The lizard fellow greeted us as he saw the sweat moving down of our foreheads. Though sly he looked, his reptile-like hand reaches into the cooler in front of him for the packs of water bottles. "Come from quite a long way? You must be exhausted."
"All the way as far as Equestria." I said to him, my throat was dry so I could tell that I was sounding a little raspy.
He pulls out the water bottles, handing one to me first, then to everypony else. "Equestria, hmm?" He asked. "So a bit up north for all of you fellows."
Spike was already quick to grab a water bottle that was made of the finest steel, practically chugging it down with each sip he took. "Oh sweet Celestia, it's a miracle to have these at last!" He told us with relief in the tone of his voice.
I was taking a sip of that fresh, cool water as it brings the stinging dryness to a halt. Having a bit of water with me was great as Spike had told us. Twilight with each sip she took from the water bottle she had, has her right front hoof on top of my left hand, just to make sure that I was okay and I wasn't going to faint. I mean, I've only done that once in front of her... no way would I let that happen again.
"Thanks mister!" Pinkie greeted the lizard, having finished her water bottle. "I guess everypony else here in this 'Klugetown' is just as friendly as you?"
He shook his head, answering her question. "Don't really much count on that. There are many here that are shady and trying to earn Storm bucks from quite a sale or offer. Even the most simple thing, they will make bargains for. So do be careful."
"We will, thank you." I said to him as I turn direction to the arch that lead into Klugetown.
The girls and Spike were right behind me when we were right past that arch, seeing the distant shadowed windmill all the way down here. A few civilians of the town similar to the one at the front don't look to notice any of us coming in from the desert as they are busy trying to do business.
I can hear some squawking above us, when my eyes had turned to look up at the orange tinted sky in order to hear what kind of bird squawking it was since it was not any bird I have seen in Equestria before.
"A rare bird?" Fluttershy said, a little happiness in the tone of her quiet voice when she watched as the tooth-beaked desert bird flew above over our heads in the same direction we were headed in.
Turning to the corner of an alleyway, we watch as the yellow-sharp teethed bird squawks in the middle of its flight, but looks to be silenced by a lasso. It couldn't have been Applejack who did that, considering that she is with the group. Plus this was ahead of us, so I can see where the end of the rope would be.
Ahead of us for who had captured the bird, are two pig-like creatures that look like they would almost go well with a video game series back on Earth. They had gripped onto the bird that they've captured, looking at it mockingly.
"Don't worry, little one. We'll let you go..." The first pig-creature says to the bird with false comfort.
"To the highest bidder!" The other finishes his sentence, both of them laughing like complete maniacs when they have slammed the bird into a small cage, letting it squawk like crazy in there, unable to be free. I turn my head to look at Fluttershy who had witnessed deverything involving the bird. She looks absolutely devastated to see that.
"Storm King bobbleheads!" We can hear a vendor calling out for any sales that he can find.
From what knowledge I can gather from this place, it appears to be that we had entered from a random part of Klugetown's neighbouring square to the marketplace that looks very branched out into corners of the sandstone-like buildings. But merchandise based off of a tyrant bent on all of Equus' domination? No thanks.
"Hey! You with the horn." We can hear a vendor in the corner calling out to us. His tone sounded very deep and mysterious, but had a vibe that was quite suspicious as if he was planning something and even then, I knew that his eyes were piercing onto my wife Twilight. On his stall, there are what looks to be unicorn horns which seems absolutely terrifying to both myself and her. "You selling?"
I open up my left wing, using it as a barrier to protect Twilight in case he was thinking about doing something to her that he would regret doing if he tried. Twilight who was shocked to see all of the severed horns there at the stall, walks along without saying a word. Last thing I ever saw from the hooded vendor was a grin of malice when he watches as we go along. He was even slightly taller than me.
I can hear Fluttershy sounding worried about the birds in the cages that we had gone by. She didn't want to alarm them any further when they all began to squawk more. She was quick to gallop along back to the group, standing next to me. I had lowered my wing after we had moved away from the vendor.
Ahead of us, there is a wagon with a strange turtle-like creature loading barrels from the ground to be used as shipment for goods perhaps? A sign at the side of the wagon shows that it is owned by a 'Pushkin' who is the same creature we are looking at. He is trying with a bit of a grunt to get some barrels on, but they all tumble back onto the ground.
"Hi there!" Twilight introduces herself to the loader. He turns, instantly shooting a look of annoyance at her. "Here, let me help you with that."
Her horn channelled magic to summon auras around the barrels that had fallen. Though she was helpful for that part, that Pushkin fellow didn't look really happy to see somepony from outside his town helping him apparently.
"Hey! No magic around my merchandise!" He yells at her, causing her to flinch even when she had fixed it for him.
She moves away from the annoyed vendor, who is eyeing us as if we are going to cause more trouble. Needless, I shot him back a look that asked him what was up with his attitude towards my friends and kept on walking.
Already we had entered a large street which didn't look too busy, but there were a lot of creatures that I haven't seen before. Like seriously, a large cow or bull creature standing on two legs. I mean, true it's not close to Iron Will or one of my Ponyville friends Daisy Jo who happens to be a cow. Different similarities, but it is different genes I suppose.
"Okay," Twilight turns to look at us. "We just got to stick together. Be careful who you talk to, and try to blend in."
"I'm already sure that they are onto us. Already ran into two vendors and we look like troublemakers already," I looked around for a moment. "And by chance, this place doesn't look to have any kind of security force or anything, so what you said there. Be sharp."
"Umm, I don't mean to ask that... but where's Pinkie Pie?" I can hear Fluttershy's soft voice asking us.
I turned around for that moment to check up on Pinkie Pie since she was with us moments before. There was no sight of the pink pony with us. I swear if she had wandered off because of the sight of a party, I'm going to have to give her a talking to and tell her that she just can't go join a party at this time even when Twilight's and my own life are in danger.
"CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE?!"
My ears caught onto the sound of Pinkie belting out in an announcing tone in her voice that had gotten loud and was trying to get attention. Twilight of course, upon hearing this, lets out an annoyed and frustrated groan. Ahead of me, I can see the pink pony in the middle of the street calling out.
"CAN ANYPONY TAKE US TO THE QUEEN OF THE HIPPOS?!"
Only one of the Klugetown citizens in the street had caught the attention of Pinkie Pie and had approached her with an annoyed expression on his own fishy face. By chance, he did almost look like a fish, but had two legs, and to be honest... looks a little bit fat.
"You want something? You gotta give something!" He insisted with mild annoyance in his voice.
Pinkie zipped right into his arms, practically giving him an awkward expression on his face. "Well, how about a big warm hug from a grateful pony friend?" She asked with the brightest smile on her face.
The fish creature definitely gave her an answer to her offer and question. The only thing that really happened was him just giving her the emotion upon his face of saying "whatever" silently and just dropping her onto the ground before walking off for some more stuff to browse for.
"Pinkie! What are you doing?!" I called out to her as I pass by Twilight, trying to get to Pinkie as she is just going up to these random creatures that are absolute strangers to us. She doesn't know them and neither do they know her. The sound of my friends' hooves are behind me as I moving to my close friend who is just giving our presence away.
"How about this comb that I've never used?" Pinkie offers to some passerbys who don't really much too care what she is offering. Neither do the vendors at all since they look to have their own stuff to sell for quite a price. "A picture of my sister Maud?" She approaches one of the pig creatures, which is not like the ones that we saw earlier. She has a breath mint in one hoof that she is offering to him. "This breath mint? Seriously, buddy. Help me help you."
The only response the pig creature gave to her was quite a belch in the face. From this close, the smell of his breath was a little bit disgusting. I should be thankful though that Rarity didn't get within that range to smell it. Otherwise, prepare for the rants about manners and stuff.
"Pinkie, you can't just take off!" Twilight warned her, and though sounding a bit cautious, she was quite stern about this. She clenches her teeth together when speaking to her to make her point. "And you don't need to announce to every-"
"Relax, Twilight!" Pinkie insisted with a bright smile on her face. "I totally got this!"
"Are you sure about that?" I asked her, turning my head to look at all of the vendors and citizens. "Everypony here is looking directly at us, and I'm pretty sure all of your shouting did show us as complete newcomers here."
"Look at all that dirty, primitive clothing as well," Rarity commented, sounding a bit cautious about this just like Twilight. "If I had a business here, I'd be giving them brand new clothes. Forget about the spa though, this looks as dangerous as it seems."
I turn back to Pinkie. "If any of these strangers lay a hand on any of you, I'll give them a warning."
"Please Brayden, ease down. We're not looking to pick fights," Twilight says to me, placing a hoof on the top of my hand. "We just need to find somepony around this 'Klugetown' to see if they are willing to take us to the Queen of the Hippos."
There is the sound of footsteps approaching, and my eyes turn towards one of the vendors that Pinkie was talking to regarding her comb that she never used at all. "Well well... look what kinds of things all of you have here..." The lizard vendor slyly examines all of us with those lizard eyes of his.
"How much for the giant gecko?" He offers in question, pointing directly at Spike himself who is next to Twilight.
Spike took some offense to those words, but even then neither of us expected them to be wanting to buy something from us, even when they refused to help. "Who you callin' a gecko?" He threatens, almost wanting to charge at the vendor.
Twilight's right wing pops up to block the baby dragon from starting trouble, placing a careful expression on her face. "Spike isn't for sale." She insisted, though judging by the smile of the vendor he wanted to try to convince her to give up her assistant and best friend.
One vendor just pushes herself into the gathering crowd, raising up two fingers, looking directly at the elegant unicorn Rarity who is rather shocked at the vendor who tried to buy Spike and is still trying. "I want that fancy purple hair!" The vendor practically announces as if it were an auction that I was attending. "I'll give ya two storm bucks for it!"
A gasp came out from Rarity's mouth upon hearing the offering price for her own sweet mane that she takes great care of. "TWO STORM BUCKS?!" She sounded shocked as she raised her voice. "It's worth more than that!"
"Look at that shining claymore! I'll offer you everything for it!" Another vendor shouts at me, practically like he is just begging for it.
"No way! This thing is important and I cannot just give it away for even a high price!" I said, getting rather annoyed even when the crowd is this large now.
The crowd around me and my friends were huge, and everypony here was already making bets on everything we had, even betting on wanting to keep us as part of their own collection. Hey, we are actually beings that can take care of ourselves and don't need to be treated like pets.
"Back up everyone!" We can hear a voice that wasn't mine nor any of my friends speaking. I could practically hear it from above before a figure landed in front of us, with a tail practically raised in what looks to be alarm. His voice sounds quite calm in the situation, and it reminds me of someone I saw in a musical movie back on Earth. He has his paws out, keeping the crowd from getting closer. "Back it up!"
What I was seeing in front of me was a two-legged walking tall cat that was as tall as I am. He has light malachite green cat eyes, and a red coat with a patch, dark grayish indigo hair on top other than his moderate gamboge coat with lighter chest fur. I can only watch, but I actually believe that this is the first one that has come to our rescue that looks quite close enough to the civilians around here in this town. Still, he surprisingly looks different from a cat usually in Equestria... like Rarity's cat Opalescence.
"You are all in some serious danger!" The cat persists, moving to one of the vendors who practically gives him a mild, yet rude look as if not taking him seriously. "Now you didn't touch any of them, did you?" He moves his paw to point us all out to the vendors who were paying attention to him. "Just look at all those natural colors, and look at that human who is the size of me! You think they're natural?" He remains audible, but leans closer to the vendor. "They're infected with... 'pastelis coloritis'."
All of the vendors gasped with a little bit of fear in their breath. I wanted to smile at the clever cat's schemes for getting them away, but I knew I had to remain calm and not make an absolute fool of myself.
"Now ya listen here fella," Applejack says, trotting up towards the vendors right next to the cat. She sounds rather insistant that we don't need help. Seriously Applejack, now isn't the time to be lecturing unless you want a vendor to buy that Stetson-like hat of yours that you wear on your head, and even then, I will stop them from giving it away. "There ain't-"
The cat's tail swung into her mouth, stopping her from saying another word as he continued to speak with the vendors. "Don't worry, don't worry..." He remains calm, just as he sweeps his tail away from Applejack's mouth and moves it by itself towards a paint can nearby. "As long as not a single one of you are covered in purple splotches, then you'll be absolutely dandy." His tail dips into the paint which comes out purple at the end, whipping it towards the fish creature that Pinkie talked to earlier.
I was close to cracking laughter and giving away his own distraction, but I had kept calm with a straight face. "Uh-oh..." The cat says as he points right at the fish creature.
The fish creature who had touched Pinkie because she offered a hug to him was quite alarmed by this, looking right at his left arm before letting out a horrified gasp that had the others quite scared now. "What do I do?!" He almost screams.
"Enjoy your last moments, and don't touch anyone," The cat warns him with quite a clever smile on his face when he briefly turned to look at us. "Because parts will definitely fall off."
The fish creature already screams, running off along with all of the vendors who look to not want to be near us again at this point. All that was left standing is me, my friends and this cat fellow who is standing there, chuckling a bit to himself at all that he had done to save our own skins.
Curious indeed about this cat. He looks quite close to the society of two-legged cats that the Equestria newspapers had reported on when the Storm King had invaded the capital of Panthera months ago which was somewhere on the other side of the ocean. Wait, perhaps it might be so! I did recognize the King and Queen from the news report, so seeing an Abyssinian cat... amazing.
"Well, all right." He turned to look at us, walking around us as if he was studying us. Following what he had just said was a purr coming from him. He finally stops in his tracks as I watch Rainbow flapping right past me to interact with him.
"You... are... awesome!" Rainbow gave him praise, as his cat eyes turned to look at her with a smile on his face, nodding from her response.
"And quite charming." Rarity approached the cat, who looks down at her with the same response, but more accurate to what my close friend had said. Spike on the other hoof, doesn't look very impressed with this cat fellow, especially when Rarity's giggle gave away that she might be falling for this fellow.
The cat curtsies before us, no hesitation to introduce himself. "Capper's the name. Charming's my game."
"Wow," I actually made my first response to him when he finished his curtsy. "You are actually as tall as I am."
All Capper can do is chuckle at my comment. "You're not the only one that has ever said that. Jack told me that before all of you came into Klugetown. Why out here? It's quite dangerous."
Jack? So there is another human here besides me, my Earth friends and Takeo who is out to kill me? Quite a mystery that I will have to look into once this journey to the Queen of the Hippos is done and over with.
"Ya seem to stand out a lot here." Applejack says to him.
"It was a long journey, and I didn't want to go back to Panthera when the Storm King had robbed the kingdom of its treasures and worth. I've made it quite fine well here... especially... since my friend left me..." At the mention of his own friend, his head is lowered and his ears flop a little bit.
"Your friend? What happened?" I asked him.
He turns to look at me. "Perhaps if all of us know each other a little more, perhaps I can explain to all of you what had happened and how it all led up to here." He tells me, not wanting to tell us at the moment.
"Well, in that case..." A smile crossed onto my mouth and I extended my hand to his paw which he takes and is shaking. "I'm Brayden, the Paladin of Equestria to the North and the Son of Celestia. Some royal guards in Canterlot call me by paladin, but my friends and everypony else call me by my name."
"So you are of a status, hm? Kind of like your alicorn friend here, right?" He looks directly at Twilight when he mentions her.
"Actually, in a way, me and her are more than friends," I said to him, turning to look at Twilight who is listening to our conversation. "She is there for me when nopony else would. We've been married for some time ago, and are there to protect each other."
"Two star-crossed lover destined for one another, one I have seen in newspapers of events across Equus, and another of another world I haven't seen other than Jack who's origin remains a question for me."
"I have all of the answers to that," I said to Capper in regards to this Jack fellow. "Perhaps you can be willing to help us? We're looking for the Queen of the Hippos."
"Queen of the Hippos?" He questions quite warmly, turning around and signalling us to follow him. "Follow along, and don't slow down my new friends!"
Pinkie is the first of the group to follow behind the charming Capper, eager to show us the way where the Hippo Queen is. Twilight looks to be a little suspicious though, as if something was wrong or if she didn't trust him for that reason of wanting to give us help.
Her wing stretched out to block the pink pony from proceeding further. "I don't know if we should trust him..." Twilight comment, a tone of concern in her voice.
"Why shouldn't we?" I asked her, her eyes turning to look at mine. "This is the only one out of all others in this town to offer us help. This is the opportunity to get even further away, especially if Tempest and Takeo come looking for us."
Pinkie bounced up and down like the excited pony that she was. "We could definitely use a friend out here!" She exclaims happily.
I can see Capper get between both Twilight and Pinkie, looking at all of us. "You know what? Little Cotton Candy Hair is right." He says, actually agreeing with me and Pinkie for once. This is one rare time where I have to disagree with my wife, even though I will take her side on other matters. "And, if I do say so myself..."
By that deep breath that he was taking in, I can tell that he was just about to sing a song.
This town is not a nice place
For little fillies all alone
There are lots of twists and corners
That could lead to the unknown
Let me guide your way
And I'll be sure to help you through
You could really use a friend out here
And luckily for you...
I'm the friend that you need
When you're lost and don't know what to do
I'm your pal, your amigo
Useful and resourceful too
And my help, you'll concede
Is a plus guaranteed
You can call and I'll come running
Just follow my lead
'Cause I'm the friend you need
I'm a friend, quite a friend
I'm a friend indeed
You need a bud to stop the danger
A pal to stop the creep
A chum and not a stranger to assist
You need a bro who is cunning
That can help you take the leap
A friend who knows what's lying in the mist
Don't fear these darkened alleys
They're scary, yes, I know
Why, you could use a friend
To protect you wherever you go
And such a dazzling beauty
Covered in dirt and muck
But now your fate is changing
Now you are in luck
'Cause I'm the friend that you need
When you're lost and don't know what to do
I'm your pal, your amigo
Lookin' out for friends like you
And my help, you'll concede
Is a plus guaranteed
Just call and I'll come running
We'll say it's agreed...
Entering past the gate to the windmill, which I can presume is where Capper lives, I didn't see him following right behind as he allowed us to go first. I place my ear against the door of the gate, hearing him quietly talking to somepony.
I listened to what I could decipher, only hearing the names 'Jack' and a 'Verko'. Probably something that he is taking a break from whatever he is doing here in Klugetown I guess, but I shouldn't jump in and ask what is happening. I join my friends by the bottom of the mill, waiting for him to pop out from the gate, by which he does.
'Cause I'm the friend you need!
I'm a friend, quite a friend!
I'm a friend indeed!
When the song had finished up, we had arrived at the top of the bottom mill to a trap door that had been placed there, which he opens up from the bottom. He is the first to enter into his humble windmill home, and I follow right behind him, placing my hands onto the wooden planked floor as I climb upward.
Capper makes the necessary introductions to his place. "Welcome, young human prince and my little ponies, to my little manor!" He sounds quite proud by the tone of his voice.
Looking up off from the wooden planks, the first sight when I turn was a slightly worn, yet comfy rug there in a living room setting. The rest of the windmill home itself looks to be like he is one for collecting all kinds of random junks and turning them into wonderous masterpieces. Hanging above us are what look to be like what is to be many small chandeliers, but are mostly just pots carefully secured onto by ropes.
There is a painting ahead that looks to be an old painting of an Abyssinian captain standing proud with its cat tail raised and overlooking the seas. Only difference here is that Capper created the face of himself to replace the old picture of the captain. Unless this is a story that has been told throughout their legends, I know almost nothing about the enchanted lands beyond Equestria.
"Ooh!" I can hear Rarity say behind me as she is examining the place and the artifacts around us. "A sort of a roco-hobo-Bohemian hodgepodge."
"Apologies for the state of my litter box, I wasn't expecting guests," He says to us with a chuckle, as I turn and see him walking down towards a pantry to grab what looks to be some tea, and maybe some snacks for us. "Why don't I make all of you some tea and we'll figure things out from here?"
Rarity looks more than satisfied to hear about the suggestion of tea. "We haven't had those since we left Equestria. Of course we'll be happy to have those."
"As long as we focus on trusting this cat to lead us to the Queen of the Hippos, I'm in huge relief." Twilight commented, trotting over towards the bookshelf. Haha, of course my wife or as I sometimes nickname her 'the bookworm' would like to peek at the books.
Capper uses his tail to place the kettle onto the top of the stove, starting it to boil up the water inside. Me? I haven't had tea in a while either, but I'm looking forward to tasting whatever this Abyssinia tea is. Perhaps it is a rare kind of taste, like a fruit from outside of the borders of Equestria.
"So... y'all sure y'all want the Hippos?" Capper asked all of us while he takes out the snacks from the same pantry, placing them onto the table. A majority of these snacks are fruits, so I reached to the middle of the table after moving closer, grabbing a fresh apple.
Pinkie hops on over to the table, taking a seat as she looks at Capper with a playful expression on her face. "Yessirree! The Queen of the Hippos!"
"Not like the Queen of the Lions, or Tigers, or Bears?"
"Oh my!" Fluttershy stated as she gets up onto a chair at the table. Me? I was taking my seat, leaving a seat open for Twilight. I was more smiling about the pop culture reference that both the cat and my closest friend had made. Even if I said no more pop culture references, I guess I can let this one slip by because it reminds me very much of childhood back on Earth.
I can hear the magic aura of Twilight's when she picks out a book from the shelf, trotting over beside me and taking her seat. "I think I might be a bit interested in looking through this book, Capper. Do you mind if I take a look?" She asked the cat who turned and looked at her with a warm expression on his welcome face.
"I don't mind at all," He said to her, laying out grained crackers onto the small plates for us, leaving us a couple of seedless grapes as well as cheese. Though I am unsure if it the usual cheese from the Equestria cows or if it is from the goats, since they provide Equestria with that as well. "Take as much time as you want to look into the book. It should tell you a lot about everything here in Abyssinia which is from here, all the way to across the ocean to the other side."
"Thanks." She said to him with a smile. Her eyes are guided back to the dusty leather cover of the book, opening it up and beginning to skim through the pages to see if there are anything interested for her violet colored eyes.
On the stove, the kettle begins to sound off as the steam bursts out in the boiling. Capper uses his tail, turning the top of the stove off, grabbing the kettle and bringing it to his furred hands. He grips onto it, pouring each of us the hot water which I know I will let set to cool down. Then he dips every one of the tea bags into our cups.
"I have a feeling that with you, human prince, this will be quite an interesting conversation." Capper says to me, taking a seat at the table and looking at me.
"Please... call me Brayden," I respond to him with a chuckle. "It's how my friends call me. I may be a prince due to my bloodline, but I don't want to be the talk of the town."
"Very well," He chuckled as well, grabbing an orange from the center of the table. "Would you like me to cut the orange for you?"
For that question and generosity that he was showing me, I smiled as well as Rarity who was watching the conversation between us. I didn't know about this, but I guess my heart is telling that Capper himself would prove to be quite an ally for us.
"That would be nice. Haven't had an orange in months. I have an apple already, but I have plenty of room in my stomach to fill." I said to him, leaning back in the chair, taking the tea cup that was filled in my hands, removing the tea bag.
"One cut up special Abyssinian orange coming right up!"