Chapter 4: Hippolytus.
Spike the young purple dragon who was Twilights ever faithful companion was spending time over at Rarity's clothing boutique since Twilight was gone on a strange mission without him. Plus the reason why he was staying with Rarity was because she could feed him gems when she had the time to go find some.
The dragon wasn't complaining that he got to spend a lot of time with Rarity; she was his little heart's desire. Spike was going to be a gentleman about said desire because he was quite aware he was too young for her and it was a pipe dream at best. He'd be better off with having a crush on Sweetie Belle who had her own charm.
Rarity was like a beautiful gemstone to him, one that he covets despite the fact that he wasn't going to achieve it. However that didn't mean he wouldn't try to get the best for Rarity with whatever was within range of his meager abilities. He'd never let Rarity get near a guy that wouldn't treat her right.
Other than being entirely affectionate towards Rarity and helping her with her clothes making, he would actually enjoy spending the large amount of free time he had been given.
After a while of randomly wandering about, he saw what looked like an oddly distraught Rainbow Dash covering her head with a pillow while screaming some weird things. One of which sounded like 'get out of my head Pinkie'. Seconds later he saw a sad Pinkie walk by him without a word which confused him a bit.
Things were quiet around Ponyville and Spike was glad for a little downtime where he was free to do as he pleases, which was everything Rarity told him to do. He might not be her prince charming, but he was going to earn his special place in the heart of that wondrous unicorn.
Yawning it was beginning to become late in the evening, he wondered how well Twilight was fairing out there with that Dolly pony. He really didn't see a need for a mailing service when his magic could handle all of Twilights letters. He tended to not notice that not everyone could afford to ship things around magically and that sometimes the mail had to be delivered by hard work and determination.
Spike liked it when things were simple and quiet like this. He picked up a topaz gem from the ground and bit down into it, his teeth being strong enough to help him eat some of toughest minerals around. It brought up the reason why dragons sought wealth so much and why they were considered greedy. They ate riches and minerals on a daily basis for food.
If Spike really thought about it he could get a small hobby in carving gems into shapes for fun, profit and snacking purposes. In fact he just had the idea to carve Rarity's appearance on a particular gemstone, life couldn't be any better. But first he had to practice before he'd even think of ruining such a precious gem.
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A pair of hidden eyes watched from its hiding place in a dark castle set atop of Mangora Mountain. It had felt when the Kobold had been destroyed. It also felt the Wereponies and Vamponies disappear from its senses having been restored to their normal forms. Mail ponies… it was always those damn mailing system ponies.
But soon its vengeance would come to pass as they were coming to it and even if that fool who thinks he's in charge fails to destroy them, it would be prepared to unleash its full might on those interlopers when it was finally free of its confines.
It would not be stopped again by lowly mailing service ponies!
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They made their way northeast, not one of the three of them complained. Derpy was holding an injured Dolly on her back not minding that she was getting a bit of her blood on herself. Twilight was carrying the out and cold Trixie who fell asleep in quite a messed up childlike state. Twilight wasn't quite sure what brought that on in the first place but it must involve Dolly's blood spraying the ground when she was clawed by the Kobold.
Zecora just simply brought up the rear carrying Dolly's supplies and her own, she was still suspicious of Dolly because she refused to show her hidden gift. That gift was not a cutie mark or even her danger sensing spark. There was something more that Dolly was hiding, for all of her time she was just biding.
It was getting dark and in the distance they could see lights, they were on the outskirts of Fetlock Forest and moving into a swampy terrain which they treaded carefully through. It was all because Derpy believed in Dolly when she said she knew someone that would be able to help her injuries that they were even going this way.
Twilight once again checked a map with her lit horn keeping the surrounding area bright for them, there was nothing on it to mark anyone living out here and yet those lights weren't local phenomenon. This bears investigating and why did Dolly know of a settlement when she didn't, her maps were up to date and everything.
Shifting the sleeping Trixie on her back and looking to the darkening sky, Twilight sighed; as the three of them made way for the tiny village they were finally beginning to see form in front of them from out of nowhere.
Before they got to close two lights shined on them as they reached the outskirts of the village. In front of them are what appeared to be two cloaked griffins, by the look on their faces they weren't pleased to have visitors at this hour and they were both male. Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Griffins were doing out here or even why they had a village on the ground of all things, griffins tended to live in mountainous areas.
"Halt, who trots there?" They were shining their lanterns on the alert DERP members narrowing their eyes at them a bit. One took notice of the red coated mare laid out across the Derpy's back, his eyes softened a bit before narrowing them again.
Before either Twilight or even Derpy could say anything, the second guard spoke up. He was looking at Dolly's hair clamped down over the left side of her face with what appeared to be a small drop of blood dropping from it.
"Molting feathers, I guess it's true that the Warg's have been a bit more virulent lately, allow me to escort you to the village elder's home." The first guard looked mad with the second guard and was about to ask something when he was quickly quieted by the second guard throwing his front left talon around his friends beak.
"You are to keep to the patrol route so keep going until I get back." The second guard said to the first as he avoided saying any names. He turned and motioned for Derpy, Twilight and Zecora to follow him. While the other guard moved off to supposedly continue his patrol looking around warily while holding his lantern high.
Following the guard Twilight thought about asking what a Warg was because obviously he had the wrong idea about what caused Dolly's injuries.
"Um, excuse me sir but we haven't run into any of these Warg things you mentioned." The guard looked back on Twilight his pupils shrinking; he muttered something under his breath before he turned back to them. From what little Twilight could see his feathers were orange and his eyes were dark green he also didn't seem too heavily muscled for a griffin and there was something about him that tickled something at the back of Twilights mind.
"Then I need get back to my friend faster now, tell the elder what has happened to your group and he'll see to getting some healers on it. We've had a run of trouble lately and I respectfully ask that you stay out of it; it is our trouble to deal with. " The guard just ran off back to presumably meet up with his friend on patrol and a bit of confusion among the aware DERP members.
There were several structures built like what you'd see in ponyville, they were left outside a large building that seemed to have three floors. It was standing near the center among all the other structures which were in a square formation pointing inwards. There were a few signs to be read on a few of the buildings, right now they were just fine entering the building they were left outside of and getting a place to sleep. It was too dark to go sightseeing and they hopefully would find someone inside to patch up Dolly.
Zecora opened the door given the fact that Twilight and Derpy were busy carrying extra weight and let them pass into the building before she closed the door behind her and taking scope of the room in front of them. Apparently the elder's home was what some would consider a five star hotel given the reception area and the large female griffin behind the counter with equally large wings and golden feathers flowing throughout her grand form. The lower half of her body was hidden by the reception table; she was currently reading a book with a bored look on her face when she heard the door shut and looked up.
"Huh? Oh my goodness is that… HORUS we need some healers or at least one right now!" The golden feathered griffin with soft blue eyes yelled into a tube after pulling the cork from it, she put the cork back in before turning to address the group that just walked into the inn.
"Hmmmm… what's all the yelling about Marehute! If it's another injured 'night watch' guard then that'll make it the fifth time this week. Anyway I'm sending Luwi right on down so tell them to relax and keep as much blood in them as they can manage till he gets there." The voice or Horus as if it were was coming from a nearby box on the ceiling, it sounded very old; the Griffin that was sitting in front of them was obviously the oddly named Marehute who turned to them putting a sheepish smile on her beak. (Marehute is pronounced 'Mare-ah-who-tay'.)
"Sorry about that, the old crank has been so overworked lately. Who are you guys and what happened to Ms. Verance this time? I assume you also want to room here in the Chipotle inn." Her voice was calming and soothing. She sounded like a nice griffin and when she saw the confused look on their faces she sighed.
"Is this your first time here? Well I might be willing to give you guys a tour of our village first thing in the morning as not many equines or otherwise know about our village or even come through here often. Things are usually quiet around here in our sequestered part of the world." Then she turned around and start looking at the room keys, there were probably not that many rooms because there were about six keys in all. Choosing one she turned back to them and waited expectantly.
After a moment Twilight realized it was time to introduce herself and their group to her and stepped forward. Derpy was off to the side carefully laying Dolly on the floor paying extra attention to her back right leg as to not make it even worse for the mare. Zecora stayed quiet and moved over to check Dolly's pulse shaking her head that the pony wasn't waking up anytime soon this night, she went over too Twilight and carefully removed Trixie from her back. Twilight gave her a thankful smile and a thank you before turning back to finally talk to Marehute as she had been too busy watching what they were doing.
"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and we're um… well our group is called DERP which means dependable and exceptionally reliable ponies or that's what Dolly calls us. Yes it's my first time here and I was wondering… How does Dolly know this place existed? How come it's not on any of the maps I have? Why are you griffins living so close to the ground? Why are you smiling like that and yes I would like to go on a tour of the village in the morning, do you have a library here? " Twilight was so full of questions and Derpy wanted to know an answer to at least few of them.
Marehute wondered why she hadn't noticed that she wasn't exactly a… looking at herself and remembering that the night guards wore thick protective cloaks it stood to reason why the purple pony with a violet and magenta highlight running through her dark blue mane hadn't notice something peculiar about her yet. The lower half of her body was behind the counter and thus she was prepared to step around the counter and correct Ms. Sparkle about what she was, because no one apparently warned the mare about her species yet.
She didn't get the chance when her friend a healer named Luwi arrived stumbling into the foyer in a flurry of feathers from the hallway leading to the staircase carrying a medical kit. That wasn't why Twilight, Zecora and Derpy started staring at him. They were staring at the blur feathered wings; the blue coat and a griffon with a cutie mark symbol on his pony rear end that was roll of bandages next to his coarse looking colt like tail. His pink eyes blinked warily at the starring crowd before he turned to the golden eagle headed Marehute.
"Okay I'm here, sorry it took so long Marehute who is it this time." Luwi had a rather strange inflection in his voice that was almost tenor, as he stood up on his talons and hooves he looked at the crowd of a gawking Pegasus, a curious unicorn and a zebra that seemed to be slightly befuddled by his entrance. His eyes trailed down to a familiar red coated winged pony known for coming in with injuries and sighed.
"Again, she really needs to learn to run from some of her problems instead of taking them all head on or else she'll keep coming back to us like this. At least she's not as bad off as last time she was dragged into our quaint village. So are you giving her the same room as always?" Luwi was halted by the fact that he was still receiving stares and that Marehute had a talon on her face sadly shaking her head.
"Luwi I don't think they've ever seen a Hippogriff before in their lives. What you just did was overloaded the poor dears by coming in like that, now see what you can do about patching up Danger Dodger there and I'll see to it that these ponies and… you're a zebra right? Anyway, I'll see to it they get some accommodations." Marehute watched as Luwi nodded to her while moving over to Dolly and started to pull bandages and stuff from his box, all the while clicking his beak in exasperation at Dolly's wounds.
"What's a hippogriff?" Twilight finally managed to ask as they were finally coming down from the shock of seeing a part pony griffon; one would think that such a thing impossible to even happen.
"I guess I have a lot of questions to answer then huh, well a hippogriff is part griffin and part pony. You sure are one curious mare hope you don't have a thing against Hippogriffs like some griffins do, sure we may be different but we aren't bad. Now as for all of your other questions Dolly knows of this place because once a long time ago she was delivering mail while taking any short term job she could find. She helped us out a lot not to mention started a mailing service here. Why we're so close to the ground is the same reason why we're not on any maps, we like to have some anonymity here in our village of Hippolytus. We're kept up to date on things by random travelers and strangers that come through here and I think you'll like meeting Simari tomorrow she sells and acquires books through mail order, but she's often a strange one to talk to. Alright here's the room you'll be using, number six Dolly's personal little hideaway. We serve salsa and chips in the morning at breakfast if you don't like spicy stuff you can ask me if we have anything else. Also if you are sickened by meat eating then I and others here will refrain from eating meat in front of you." Marehute at least had some new customers and frankly it was on the house if they were dragging poor Dolly in from whatever she got into this time, looked like she fought a single Warg but every pony knew those things travel in packs.
Twilight was hanging on her every word in wonderment about how such a thing could exist; she had to study them in a creepily excessive manner. Derpy however was the first to relax around them as if they were friends of Dolly then they were her friends too. Zecora looked perplexed as the mixing of pony and griffin should not be even vaguely possible, she was learning something new every day she spent in Dolly's company.
Walking around the counter Marehute showed her golden coat and that her tail end also pointed her out as being a hippogriff, her cutie mark was also visible for all to see. It was a bed with golden feathers sticking out of it.
"I make my own beds and I lie in them to test whether or not if their comfortable enough if you're wondering, plus it also represents my love of running an inn. So tell me what happened to Dolly, did she fight a dragon again? Or was it ogres this time? Just name a creature and then I'll give you the key to you room, you all look like you can use a good rest. I'll see if I can scoot a cloud over to make a shower for you in the morning." Marehute really wanted to know what Dolly got into this time.
"We we ran into a Kobold." Twilight saw an instantaneous look of glee cross the face of the golden hippogriff with a great smile on her beak, it reminded her of a certain Griffin in particular though it was just probably her imagination.
"Hah, he so owes me fifty bits now! I was right that she would be dealing with some form of magic the next time we saw her. Oh, sorry for the outburst, here is your key enjoy your stay at our humble Chipotle inn." Marehute smile to them as she moved back behind the counter and picked up her book to continue reading. She looked up to see that Twilight was still staring at her.
"Well go on and get some sleep. You guys look like you've had a long day; we'll talk in the morning. If you want my name I'm Marehute Gotfrieda and it's been nice meeting you." Marehute wasn't easily annoyed, but she knew they were staring because they were having a first encounter of the weird kind moment. She watched as Twilight nodded dumbly as she was still slightly freaked out by their being half ponies; Derpy walked up took the key and tapped her lightly across the face before getting her assistance with dragging Trixie up the stairs.
"What about Dolly?" Twilight queried looking to Luwi as he wrapped some bandages around the left side of her face.
"Go on, I'll bring Dolly to your room after I'm done. Hmmm… broken leg, Marahute you owe me twenty bits." Luwi was prodding Dolly carefully to get the full extent of her injuries, as they made for the stairs they could hear Marahute cursing under her breathe at having only acquired thirty bits in the betting pool.
While they were heading up the stairs Derpy realized that Marehute's last name was the same last name Gilda had. Now she understood why the griffin was a vegetarian and was trying to be friendly with ponies. She'd have to ask how Marehute was related to Gilda in the morning. After opening the door to their room they looked around inside and their jaws were left wide open, the décor wasn't impressive but there were several beds and a couch that looked to have an indent and happened to smell oddly like Dolly.
Twilight carefully removed her bags from her body and set them on the floor; she then followed up by removing Trixie's before levitating her into a bed and tucking her in. Zecora was removing Dolly's and her bags from herself and then carefully took to lying on her own bed, Marehute made some very nice beds.
Derpy shrugged off her own bag but didn't crawl into bed and just sat down on the couch after sniffing it a bit and Twilight looked to her and noticed the look on her face.
"Worried about Dolly? I'm surprised she managed to teleport without magic. I'm really curious to hear her explanation of how she did that or what caused that explosion, because I don't think balloons could actually do something like that." Twilight only got a nod and Derpy pulled out some muffin flavored candy from her bag. Twilight has never heard of muffin flavored candy before, the wrapping made it clear that it was. Derpy just popped it into her mouth and settled back as her mouth worked the candy over. Giving it some thought Derpy handed the wrapper over too Twilight to inspect.
Looking at the wrapper Twilight blinked owlishly at the inscription and who made the candy. Apparently one of the stores on their stint in Ponyville had apparently gotten some in stock and it was new stuff that Derpy was willing to try. She went after almost anything with muffin in its title.
Blueberry muffin flavored candy what would ponies come up with next? Sure Derpy knew it wasn't as great as a real muffin but she could taste a dry if flavorful crust as if she had muffin in her mouth. Ponyville also went through more muffins than any other place in pony kind, just for the very fact that Derpy lives there.
Eventually they all managed to get some sleep, only Twilight dozed off last wondering why Dolly always got this room and why didn't it sound as expensive as it looked? Was it free or did Dolly actually always pay for a room this large, it seemed very nice if Spartan like Dolly's house.
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Fluttershy stared out at the stars, she was feeling very lonely in fact she hasn't seen her friends all day and if it weren't for the animals she tended to she would swear they were avoiding her. Luna was flying by when she noticed the sad mare on the edge of ponyville in a small cottage; a friendship opportunity was to be had.
Ditzy had led Luna on an exciting afternoon of building crashing before she had to move the moon across the sky while her sister slept, Ditzy was just another friend to add to her ever expanding list thanks to Derpy the mail delivering mare. She was beginning understand how to get more social and this was a step in the right direction for her, by actively seeking out friendship with this pink haired Pegasus.
Luna quickly became friends with shy mare offering her a small bit of night time friendship if she needed someone to talk to in the evenings when she was available and Fluttershy quietly accepted her kind offer. Fluttershy had troubles with going to people instead of them coming to her and maybe she could invite Luna to on a spa get together with Rarity, before she knew it she had already done so over a muffin and a cup of tea.
Luna despite her ever growing list of friends knew better then to just let any old pony on her list, she wanted real friends, some ponies she could trust and she knew she had met one of the kindest ponies to ever exist. She was going to stay on the good side of things and do make her sister proud and stay away from negative feelings or thoughts, much less negative influences.
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A sunbeam hit Derpy's face and she slapped a hoof down over it instantly waking her up and looking out one of the two windows to their room, it was morning and Celestia was raising the sun for a whole new day. She really couldn't hear much movement except for the snoozing sound of every pony in the room and a zebra.
Turning to one of the beds she noticed a white mane poking out from under the covers, she instantly trotted over to that bed and threw her hooves around the lump in bed and gave it a tight hug.
"Yeah, yeah I'm glad to see you this morning too Derpy. But can you please stop hugging me your kind of aggravating my burns and I do have a broken leg you know" Dolly said lifting up her head where the only the right eye was visible as she had bandages cover the left side of her face. Dolly threw the covers off herself revealing that her back right leg was held in a wooden tightly wrapped splint. Her midsection had bandages wrapped around it for her back; it came with a soothing balm medication. Her minor scrapes and cuts were nothing to really worry about.
"You're awake." Derpy said carefully not trying to wake anyone else in the room.
"Yes, but I'm not the one you should be worried about, how's Tricks doing Muffin Queen?" Dolly got a really short story involving Trixie falling asleep next to her after having fallen out of the sky unceremoniously.
"Do you think I should wake her?" Derpy was afraid to do so, as she wondered how Trixie would be acting, would she be herself or would she be that little foal who sadly lost her mother in the as of yet unexplained incident.
"No, but if you wait a moment I'm sure Marehute will be in here to take requests for breakfast if you have any and she does do muffins. Wonder what I did to earn my stay here this time, it's almost like she's trying to find a reason for me not to pay her every time I come here, I swear that's why one of her daughters dislikes her so much. She's just too nice for her own good." As soon as she said that the hippogriff herself opened the door to their room and moved on in coming to check up on her guests. She was wearing an apron and had a notebook and pencil ready to take some requests but found only two of her guests were awake. Oh well, any other requests could come later.
"Well this time I made thirty bits because we bet on how you were coming into town. So yes I have a reason to give you your room this time. The last few times she came into town she did it on a hot air balloon, then there was the gopher thing coming right up in the middle of our fair village spooking everyone and there was that one time that you were about to just plain walk into town before that giant scorpion creature popped up out of the ground and attacked." Marehute was getting an interesting look from Derpy, which was curious and wanting to know more.
"The balloon was because my wings were messed up and I was missing quite a few feathers that day and I had to deliver to your village, the gophers were starting an underground mail destroying racket that I had to break up and the scorpion thing could happen to anyone." Dolly really didn't know whether or not a giant scorpion would pop up out of the ground underneath someone at random, but she was sure it was a onetime thing that could in fact happen to anyone.
"Very well then, what do you guys want for breakfast other than our usual chip and healthy portion salsa pot of the morning?" Marahute's attention was grabbed by Derpy frantically waving a hoof at her.
"Muf… fins…" Derpy stressed each part of the word and moved her front hooves from one spot to another and then looked at Marahute pleadingly.
"Do you mind if the muffins are covered in hot sauce? I make some sweet cornbread muffins and the hot sauce makes it even more delicious." Marehute got a wide broad smile like no other from Derpy, she was set for the day and she wouldn't have to resort to her candy, coffee mix or instant muffins.
"Do you want anything for your morning glory to eat Dolly? By the way, the showers are prepped this time." Marehute didn't want to leave without giving Dolly a chance to order something special for breakfast.
"Have you improved the spicy and zest of your sauces I want my own little dipping bowl with the hottest salsa you got." Dolly saw the smile on Marehute's face as she scribbled down their requests and left the room.
"Ugh where am I…" Trixie slowly lifter her head up and looked around blearily and caught sight of a patched up Dolly and an up and about Derpy who didn't seem very coordinated at the moment tripped over a chair that wasn't in the middle of the room a second ago.
"Welcome back to sanity and to the village called Hippolytus, Tricks. I visit every now and then, sometimes under bizarre circumstances. We are going to discuss your mother sooner or later Tricks because I can't have you flipping out on me when things get dangerous. Derpy could you wake up Zecora and Twilight, then help me bathe?" While Dolly was getting carefully out of bed making sure not to set her right hind leg down, Trixie watched as Derpy moved to shake Twilight and Zecora awake.
The waking and confounded Trixie couldn't remember much of what happened yesterday after the Kobold attacked but she remember it claw at Dolly's face then nothing. Well maybe not nothing, she still could recall a flash of launching a fireworks spell directly into the things face. For once she had been powerful against a scary monster and she couldn't even remember what else she did so she could tell a story about how she and her friends bravely defeated it. Wait; did she just seriously consider Twilight as one of her friends? Plus what did Dolly mean about her mother, what did she know about that day?
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The breakfast table was a rather quiet affair as the DERP group looked upon several injured bandaged hippogriffs, a few regular griffins, uninjured hippogriffs and two uninjured female Pegasus ponies with a nail cutie mark and the other a hammer cutie mark.
Marehute came in and set down several trays full of food for whoever wanted any and then she made her way over to Dolly and Derpy to give them their special orders. After that she dropped off a batch of chips for all of them with a large bowl of salsa for their personal use. As soon as Derpy bit into her first cornbread muffin her wings shot straight out and became stiff in front of everyone, she blushed slightly.
Twilight tested the salsa and her eyes watered before she spat out a stream of fire, causing Dolly to look at her strangely as she currently had the hottest salsa in the inn and wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. If Twilight couldn't handle the mild flavoring what could she handle? Dolly was pretty sure using some liquid rainbow as part of a salsa recipe would destroy Twilights ability to taste anything for days on end.
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As promised Marehute was showing them around the village starting with the Inn being near the center of the large square formation their village made up, all the buildings were connected to the outer wall circling the village. They didn't have any gates but they usually have two entrances guarded well enough that they didn't need them.
Hippolytus village was simply like any other settlement. It had a small restaurant, a professional blacksmith, its one inn, its small special stores that you couldn't find anywhere else and a few shops for everyday needs. The only thing that was different was the locals who were all vastly different from each other and coexisting peacefully as they mingled.
"So where's the fire this time Marehute?" Dolly asked out of the blue knowing for sure that Marehute and the village was in some kind of trouble given they had injured guards at the breakfast table.
"Oh that, yeah that's nothing for you to concern yourself with we're perfectly fine Dolly. We have just a slight wild, aggressive and really gruesome problem, but it's nothing to worry about honestly. Now how about we go meet Simari? You haven't met anything like her before Dolly I guarantee it." Marehute didn't sound convincing to Dolly and she knew she didn't sound convincing to herself. This Simari person was something new and it would undoubtedly be an interesting distraction.
So Dolly thought why not go along with it, that is until it becomes too hard for Marehute to ignore the problem; that was obviously about Wargs as described by their acronym, before asking her for help? Maybe it was the fact that villagers were trying to be self sufficient with their problems? She could understand that but outside help is nothing to sneeze at especially considering a particular building she saw in the corner of her eye that looked wrecked.
They made their way to see the newest resident of Hippolytus; so that they'd all start out on the same page with Dolly in seeing what new things the village had to offer.
At this point in time everyone in the group wanted to get Dolly alone to have a chat with her and they all had their reasons.
Marehute who was leading them to Simari's shop wanted to ask for help but she really didn't want Dolly to involve herself as she could get hurt. Twilight wanted to corner Dolly on how she caused an explosion, much less survived it and what did it have to do with the party items she obviously got from Pinkie Pie. Zecora wanted to corner her about her still unexplained special gift, she was wary of those who were given special lifts. The distraught and sullen Trixie wanted to know what happened to her and what did it have to do with her mother. Derpy was the least troubling pony that wanted a discussion with Dolly; she just wanted to have stronger bonds with her friend.
As they walked up to a building it had the sign above it that said, "Simari's books and riddles, riddles are always free." It caused every pony there to get curious about the oval shaped sign and it had Twilights interest in spades.
"Free riddles? What's that all about?" Twilight saw their tour guide smile quite a bit and she tapped the bottom of her beak.
"I think it's better for you to find out for yourself." With that Marehute opened the door to the shop and they walked inside, a bell sound was heard and something shuffled behind the counter that was very distant from the entrance.
"The more of them you take the more of them you leave behind, what are they?" A female voice spoke up with a raspy feminine chill.
"Is it steps?" Derpy said answering the voice behind the counter.
"CORRECT, come on in! What has a mouth and never speaks? What has a head but never weeps? What has a bed but never sleeps? Bonus points if you know where one happens to babble." What popped up from behind the counter was not a hippogriff, griffin or a pony. It was a strange large cat like creature with a smiling face; its body was like that of a lion and its face was like that of a smaller kind of cat being framed by an odd looking Egyptian headdress with straight black hair sticking out from under it.
This was obviously Simari and her tail flicked about lazily as she set her chin in her paws staring at her new guests and wondered if they'd get this one. Zecora move forward as she knew the answer, but she was curious as to what this creature was.
"I know the answer that you do seek, a river is of which you do speak. Where they babble is at brooks, do you read a lot of books?" Zecora looked around the store, the shelves were lined with all kinds of books, Twilight was already acting like a foal in a candy store the only thing keeping her rooted was the stranger creature she was looking curiously at right now.
"CORRECT and yes I do! Consider this a fact zebra, I like you. What goes up and down but never moves?" Before anyone could answer Marehute sighed and interrupted the gleeful riddle firing cat thing.
"Simari, stop it with the riddles already" Marehute saw the hurt look on Simari's face and she gave another sigh "fine, the answer is stairs, happy now?"
"CORRECT! I am most assuredly in the signs of positive emotions friend thanks for playing." Simari looked to Twilight who wandered up and examined her face.
"What are you?" Twilight was ever curious as was the friendly and accepting Trixie, but the magician would never let anyone know that.
"To get that, you are going to have to answer one of my riddles. I also want to hear your names too by the way. What four letter sport begins with a T?" Simari was grinning up a storm; her species loved making people answer riddles.
"But no sport begins with the letter T and is four letters short, unless it was something someone just made up." Twilight said not quite understand the riddle.
"Actually there is and Derpy knows all too well but I'm taking this one Ms Sparkle, the answer is Golf." Dolly said with a flat if slightly amused face and a giggle erupted from Simari. She seemed kind of excited about sharing her riddles with others as she clapped her paws several times.
"CORRECT! My name is Simari Rodtle and I'm a sphinx. We're a race of riddle slingers like no other, we always seek knowledge, can use magic and we just happen to make good library owners. Now there are only two of you who haven't answered a riddle and I still want you to be involved in the fun, plus my riddles are always free. What is fragile and breaks as soon as you speak of it?" Simari was addressing Trixie this time with a coy smile on her face and Twilight felt kind of bummed that she was going last like all those times when she was a young filly, but she kept her tongue. Trixie gave it a small amount of thought; with all the talking and boasting she did it was rather easy to figure out.
"The answer is 'silence'." Trixie felt proud of herself for knowing this one, but then she realized it was a rather simple if glaringly obvious riddle. Twilight however didn't get it until Trixie answered it; she was always stumped easily on riddles or enigmas that you can't study with science.
"CORRECT! Now which riddle should I give you? How about a tough one? Common sense, how do you spell it?" Oh Simari knew of Twilights type, if she was right this would stump the bookish looking pony who was enamored with her wide selection and it would definitely amuse her other guests to her combination book shop and library.
"That's supposed to be hard? It's C O M M O N S E N S E; I don't see what so hard about it." Twilight suddenly heard Derpy and Trixie snickering. Twilight looked to see Zecora and Dolly smiling slightly and became confused as to why Marehute burst out laughing.
"You're wrong." Simari said with an amused look on her face, she'd have to switch to another riddle before Twilight figured out the first one. She was a very charismatic creature, which added to the charm of her constant riddles.
"What, but you asked me to spell it!" Twilight didn't understand why the others were laughing or why Simari said she got it wrong, but Simari's next words confused her even more.
"Exactly and since you failed to spell 'IT' correctly, I guess it's time for a physical challenge instead as to not tax your brain so hard. Stick out your tongue and touch your forehead." Simari saw the amusement beginning to grow on everyone else's face in the shop.
"But that's physically impossible no one can touch their forehead with their own tongue! Well except maybe Pinkie and I'm not even sure how she does that. What makes you think I can? And I did spell it right." Twilight found herself the focus of another round of laughter, this time Dolly and Zecora joined in chuckling a bit.
"What, but it is impossible! Why are you laughing at me like that?" Twilight Sparkle started to think she was having a nightmare until Derpy calmed everyone down. Derpy didn't want Twilight to be sad, so she helped her by drawing attention away from her.
Carefully Derpy slowly stuck her tongue out of her mouth and she gained this wall eyed expression making her look entirely silly when she slowly placed her left hoof on her head and gave a little twirl on her hinds legs before stopping and continuing to do the physical challenge without trouble. Twilight for one didn't realize until too late that Derpy was doing exactly what Simari said to do and threw a hoof to her own face while gagging from her own stupidity thus sticking her own tongue out and finishing the physical challenge by accident.
"I… T…" Twilight said slowly through the hoof on her face and Simari chuckled slightly.
"Both of you are, CORRECT! Now let's see if I can give you a book to make up for humiliating you, look anywhere in my shop it's my treat as an apology for being rude to such a prospective customer and as a sign of good of faith that we can still be friends." As soon as she finished saying that Simari saw Twilight brighten up considerably. The purple mare started looking around distracted by the seven large shelves of books. All the books were unique; the mare was in candy land where any pony else was concerned.
Marehute decided to continue the tour and leave Twilight to Simari; she wouldn't be mean anymore to Twilight as she was just poking a little fun at the overly analytical bookish type, it was kind of strange how Simari tended to know their type whenever they pop up in her store as rare as visitors are to Hippolytus. They made their way to a building that had a garage sort of feel with one large opening leading into the building and looking inside they could see two creatures that looked something vaguely like ponies.
"Jet and Flot the Sam siblings… Marehute are you trying to overload my team before the day is out?" Dolly didn't have anything against the two it's just that they might weird a pony out with their strange appearance.
"Somebody call our names?" What was standing before them caused Trixie, Zecora and Derpy balked at the sight before them and they thought hippogriffs looked weird.
In front of them on the right was a sea green colt, with a sea blue mane and turquoise eyes the strange thing about him was that he had gills on his neck, he was covered in scales and the ends of his hooves splayed outward like slightly looking to be webbed without any definable toes. His cutie mark was of a magnifying glass on a piece of seaweed.
Next to him was a mare with a dark purple curly mane that went halfway down her neck, a dark blue coat and the hind half of her body was that of a fish's tail making her look like a seal except she actually had two normal hooves instead of flippers for her front half. Her mark was of a treasure chest with a question mark sticking out of it.
There garage like building had a lot on display, strange odds and ends as strange as the people selling them, both were smiling as Dolly introduced them.
"Flot is the pony you go to for buying something, don't call attention to the fact that she's part fish as she doesn't like that. Jet is the person you go to for information about the object at hoof for what it is and where it was found. They are treasure divers and oddity collectors. I'm not sure what you'd call Jet, but Flot is definitely a classic hippocamp by appearance. They were in fact born at around the same time and neither of them are exactly sea ponies though, as sea ponies aren't known for being able to survive very well out of the water unlike these two." Dolly explained them without an ounce of interest in her voice as she gave one glance around the sundries stand, they had nothing interesting today.
"Dolly you were always one that was hard to please, I can already tell there's nothing here that catches your fancy. We even have some old zebra stuff we recently drudged up; don't you have some kind of archeology thing going for yourself? Aren't you even the slight bit curious where this stuff came from?" Jet received his answer in a disinterested stare from Dolly and he sighed, she never took very much interest in him or their stand. Someone else most certainly did though as Zecora was poking over the zebra related stuff to make sure none of it was bad juju. Derpy was looking over a few muffin shaped trinkets in her own little world.
"Only when it involves ancient mail or long lost deliveries Jet, I'm going to see if the blacksmith is up yet." Dolly had an idea that she was going to need more then Pinkie's magical armaments and had a few bits to spare on a weapon for herself.
"You should really try finding a local girl who likes frogs Jet instead of trying to impress someone you have no chance with in any number of alternate universes." Flot said to her brother in a rather calm manner causing him to get teary eyed as she patted him softly on the head in a soothing manner with one of her two hooves.
Marehute looked on as Derpy and Zecora were taking intrigue in the shop, then she turned to Trixie who looked at her with a raised brow and a suspicious look in her eyes.
"Got anything that'll keep me busy? Don't think I haven't noticed what you are doing." Trixie noticed she was trying to get Dolly alone and called Marehute on it. Trixie might have a slight case of amnesia but she wasn't stupid. Something was going on with the golden hippogriff and while she was entertained with the many wondrous things of Hippolytus, it was just like any other place around to her. The village just had its own special charm and she wanted to know why the golden feathered hybrid was trying to get Dolly alone. For once Trixie actually felt protective of some pony; specifically an injured mare, which is something she really hasn't felt in a long time.
"Look it's just something I want to ask of her alone. We could really use her input on this before she continues on with whatever it is you guys are doing, but until then please relax and enjoy what meager offerings our village has, maybe I can show you the great vegetable farming land nearby. Hippolytus specializes in salsa making and peppers, we sell jars of salsa across Equestria through mail order, but lately we haven't been able to get the mail anywhere because of a small problem. " Marehute was a peaceful being; she didn't have a vicious bone in her body unless it involved one of her three hatchlings getting hurt out there wandering the world. They were about all she had left other then the Chipotle Inn and the friendly village goers who supported her. She was tapping her talons together nervously.
"And that would be?" The nosey and persnickety Trixie asked having not heard of them yet but she was about to.
"Wargs, they are ghastly beasts that seem like a cross of a warthog and wolf only three times meaner by a cube exponential. In the ancient history of the lands of Equestria some species of green creature went extinct trying to tame them, they are definitely not friendly and lately they've been attacking our village. I don't know why though." Marehute kept her tone soft, as if that made all the sense in the world as to what she wanted from Dolly.
"And this concerns me the wonderful and enchanting Trixie, why?" Trixie was finally able to get haughty for the first time in what felt like a long time, but it didn't sound quite as haughty when she said it.
"Huh, when did Dolly start outsourcing? Anyway, you should be concerned if you're a true friend of hers as this is mailing related business and the mailing office here was hit hard. Don't you know what Dolly does to someone who messes with the mail and she's within range to do something about it? I actually want to try and talk her out of whatever it is she's already planning, because I'm worried she might hurt herself." Marehute had a disbelieving look on her face as she read Trixie's own that said she didn't care as much about the mail like Dolly did, but there was a curious raised brow about the true friend line and stopping Dolly from hurting herself .
Marehute really needed to talk Dolly out of whatever crazy course of action that was to soon follow, because undoubtedly Dolly already knew the mail has stopped coming through here and knowing her…
()
"Can you make me what I want?" Dolly was standing with the blacksmith as he looked at her through his narrowed eyes.
"You're going to get involved aren't you?" The Blacksmith was an average gruff griffin with green and red alternating feathers, he knew of Dolly and seen her handle some rather bizarre situations, but even then at those times she was at the top of her game when she got into those fights.
"Since when have I not done something in the name of mail delivery? These Wargs are obviously a part of what is disrupting the mailing system throughout pony society and thus someone has earned my ire. THEN YES, besides I'm a paying customer and you are obligated to make what I want right?" Dolly said with a sickly looking smile crossing her face.
"Excuse me while I think that injuring yourself even more isn't going to help anyone and since I know you, I'm throwing in some armored hoof bracers for free. I'm not going to let you have what you ordered otherwise unless you take them for you own good." The griffin stood on his hind legs crossing his talons and stared down at Dolly who reach up with a hoof and slowly pulled him down to her eye level where she put both her hooves on his beak and slammed his chin into the ground before lifting his face back to her eye level.
"THAT… is rather acceptable, thank you. Also if you think just because I have a broken leg, can't use my left eye and have slight still healing puncture wound in my left flank at the moment that I can't rip you in half, you are sorely mistaken. Don't treat me like an invalid I know my limits as to when I can or can't fight, get it." The way Dolly's grey eye looked into the blacksmiths, it caused him to wince and nod pathetically.
"Get on it then, I'm going to need this at the soonest convenience and will pay you extra accordingly for your swift speed and how well your craft is, this is for more than just dealing with the local beast problem and I bet it will get a lot of use." Dolly stayed for a few moments to get some measurements for her forward hooves for her bracers from the blacksmith.
After he was done with the measurements she tossed her mane; that was recently cleaned of blood, to cover the bandages around the left side of her face thankful that Luwi didn't have to do anything to it except clean out the blood when he was patching her up and trotted away from the Blacksmith.
This situation was much bigger then Dolly previously thought. Powerful anti flight magic, a summoned creature that was known as a Kobold and what she now suspected was an outside force controlling the Wargs to attack this small village she had connections with. The mailing office in this village looked evacuated and almost completely ruined with claw marks littering its tattered ruins of what was once a mail office. It wasn't a coincidence that the mailing office looked to be the first building that was destroyed; Dolly had some scouting to do.
()
As Marehute and Trixie sat talking in the Chipotle inns foyer, Twilight walked in and looked between the two as Trixie was on the verge of ending the conversation anyway. It didn't seem like they were fighting and Marehute seemed just worried.
"And I call dibs on talking with her first! If you have a problem with that take it up after I'm done finding out what happened to me. Though it does trouble me that you think she would be so quick to get herself hurt again, I'm sure she'll wait till she's properly healed." Trixie said not noticing Twilight with a floating book moving up behind her.
"Who is it that you want to talk to Trixie?" At the sound of Twilights voice Trixie jumped and fell on her face causing her hat to flop down into it before she shoved it back into position with a hoof and stood up glaring at Twilight.
"Can you not sneak up on me please, honestly Twilight you are so annoying and… why are you smiling at me!" Trixie got her answer as Twilight brought the book up to her face. Twilight after witnessing Trixie's breakdown actually didn't care if Trixie was combative anymore, she was determined to help the mare and be her friend. Thus she found an interesting book that might be up Trixie's alley.
"Because I was wondering if you wanted to read this book with me." Twilight wanted to actually get to know Trixie. Thus far she knew Trixie's favorite color, food and plenty of other stuff she really didn't need to know about when she got into a verbal war with the magician. Upon looking at the title and author of the book instead of getting combative and putting Twilight down or getting angry with her, Trixie just burst into tears and ran away . This startled Twilight into action and she went after her to find out why she reacted so poorly to a book about magic with an author named Magnolia Magnifico.
Marehute didn't know why Trixie did that, but she knew that at least the mare cared about Dolly in some fashion to believe she wouldn't hurt herself. It was only the fact that the hippogriff knew better as Dolly doesn't stop when someone stops the mail, she'd do things from beyond the grave if she had to or even defy death itself to fix things.
A few minutes later Derpy trotted in and looked expectantly to Marehute with a smile and her eyes going into their outward wall setting.
"Can I get the recipe for those muffins I had this morning, they were sweet and spicy at the same time like cinnamon rolls. Also have you seen Dolly or do you know something about her that you could tell me? Or do you want to talk about yourself I'm always good with listening to any pony's problems." Derpy's cute smile was affecting Marehute quite a bit; as it was ridiculously infectious and she couldn't help but smile at the Pegasus for she was so adorable. Marehute wondered if she worked with Dolly considering she carried a mail bag, though she didn't seem like the rough and tumble type Dolly was. Thus they started talking a little about themselves, about muffins and some dreams they have.
()
Rarity felt like the world had gone from fabulous to drab despite the fact that her shop was doing better business than ever, everything just seemed so slow. She couldn't put a hoof on it, she was sure it had to do with Twilight being away from Ponyville on some kind of adventure with that ruffian Dolly. She didn't know how a mare could stand to have their mane so short and not styled, not to mention it was curious to whether or not she dyed her tail or mane differing colors or not.
Maybe it was the adventures she got dragged into. Sure there was a lot of dirt, grime and other things to complain about, but that was the entire point though and it was always exciting to deal with strange and new things. Rarity just didn't feel like she was seeing any of her other friends and wanted to do something other than make dresses all day.
The chaos marked crusaders and their newest member were of some interest but she didn't think she had it in her to pal around with the little fillies with how her temper could burn out of control, plus they were stressful to be around making her wonder if she ever wanted to have a foal herself. There was Dixie; who has been keeping them under control somehow, but the dear didn't really care much about dresses and quite frankly Rarity was jealous of Dixie's wide range of expertise. Dixie could do cooking, sewing, foal rearing, not delivering the junk mail while keeping her job, has expert knowledge of karate and was even knowledgeable in the ways of construction when it suited her after that nasty incident with Ditzy Doo looking for her camping gear. It was strange that the talented mare didn't have a colt in her life yet with all the stuff she was good at.
Rarity just didn't know what to do, she was into appearances but there was no one to make appearances for. Well, except maybe spike who acted strange around her whenever she talked to him. Speaking of the dragon what was he doing right now? It was short notice that Twilight left him to her and Spike simply loved gems, plus she can find gems easily as to feed the growing little guy.
Upon looking in on Spike her eyes widened at the assortment of little statuettes Spike had going, they started from what looked like some poor dying creatures to somewhat decent if very blocky looking ponies. She saw he was gnawing on the gems in a specific way to give them shape, her heart became aflutter as she finally had something to do and helping Spike with whatever project he had going on was just the thing to get her creative juices flowing full force again. Rarity was an artist of cloth and stitch but who says that was the only art she did, she drew diagrams for dresses, she weaved baskets during the yearly winter wrap up and she knew how to sculpt tree limbs. She had a flair for more than just clothing and maybe she could teach Spike to have such flair as well.
"Spike do you need some help darling, I'm awfully bored and need something to do." Upon hearing her voice it caused Spike to freeze up instantly, his crush was watching him sculpt pony statues it was a good thing she hasn't noticed him trying to sculpt a statue of her yet or that the statues were to horrible to recognize as an attempt at carving a unicorn out of a solid gem with his teeth.
()
Zecora exited Jet and Flot's sundries shop with only a single trinket.
It was nice to know where they got it from and how they came across such a rare find, she was giddy to not leave this thing behind. She found a small statue that reminded her of home, before she left and began to roam. Pony folk and others strange things weren't all really so bad, at first she had felt alone and sad. Traveling was what she set out to do in the first place and see what life brings, but her home would always be in that forest ever free and filled with wild things. Never has she experience such treasure and bliss, there was so much this trip had to offer and miss.
Zecora looked at her purchase she held in her hoof, it was a real special zebra statue of that she made no goof. It is said to prevent death of those who need to live the most, for those who are friendly and never boast. Simple black and white carved wood was this thing, something about the statue just made Zecora's heart sing. She keeps it safely in her bag; she could not even feel it sag.
With that the zebra made her way back for the hotel wondering where everyone else was, she figured she might talk to a local or two in the hotel. The village wasn't large and it was quaint for its size and square shape, the zebra actually enjoyed the atmosphere as it still seemed wild with the untamed weather and surrounding nature. Zecora wanted to come back for a vacation just to sample the delicacy that was the villages many flavors of salsa.
()
Somewhere in the world some crazy ninja ponies were getting the snot bucked out of them and their demon possessed bodies, not that it mattered to Ditzy who was actively taking a larger role in the construction project with Luna's help. Who had time to wonder about a continuous chain of noodle incidents that incidentally involved the world's sleepiest mailing pony?
"Okay let's try installing some metal bars in the walls this time; I think that will work better than making the walls several feet thicker or out of solid redwood." Luna was enjoying herself, who knew playing with building blocks when she was still only two hundred years old would come back to help her in making buildings with better structural integrity. Ditzy Doo was the most amazing non goddess level pony Luna has ever met to have survived everything she put her body through.
As they were setting up the latest attempt at Ditzy proof walls, Luna moved over to Ditzy looking slightly shy about what she was about to ask. She had Ditzy's full attention and though she was weird Luna was sure there were ponies even weirder than her.
"Um Ditzy, if you wouldn't mind could we; after we're done wrecking buildings, go to a spa together with a two other mares. If you're worried about money, I'm paying, though you don't have to go if you don't want to." Fluttershy was going to the spa with her friend Rarity and gave an invite to Luna who also wanted to bring a friend of her own, and she watched as Ditzy had a thoughtful look on her face or what some ponies might barely consider thoughtful, otherwise it was a rather maniacal looking smile.
Ditzy wasn't into dolling up or being glamorous, though that wasn't entirely what spa's were all about. Luna was asking her for a relaxing afternoon and she was paying for the both of them so why not, she could probably find something at the spa that wasn't cringe worthy to her sensibilities as a pony that lived camping outdoors most of her life and was bent on being as abnormal as possible.
"Rutabaga, I'd be cabbage to!" Ditzy said with a crossed eyed somewhat cheery expression on her face while nodding her head, Luna gave her a happy hug with a quick 'thank you'.
After Luna managed to settle down they sat to watch as the construction crew ponies tried to construct reinforced walls with steel bars inside of the wood to Princess Luna's specifications.
(End Chapter)