Chapter 2: 'Skills to fill the bills'
After all the ponies have met up in Taverly, Fluttershy had kindly offered them to sleep in her house, our story continues from the next morning.
"We appreciate you letting us stay and all Fluttershy, but I'm not quite sure you can call this quaint room a house yet" Rarity exclaims. "I would be more than happy to help you build more furniture than the three chairs and rug in here at the moment".
"Oh…" Fluttershy sighs "I'm sorry, I haven't really been able to make much money, you see I've been feeding all my animals and the only way I can make money is making potions with ingredients I find growing in the ground, I can barely make enough gold for that" she explains.
"Oh Fluttershy, why didn't you just say so dear? I'm sure if we all lend a hoof, we can have your house looking fabulous darling!" Rarity offers. All the ponies chatter until Applejack breaks the conversation. "There is one problem with that though Sugarcube, I left all my tools at the farm when I came here because I thought I wouldn't be farmin' out here" she states. "Without any tools, I can't lend a hoof in any way" she announces lowering her head down.
All the other ponies realise they also left most of their equipment that allowed them to gather any materials, Twilight being the main exception having her enchantment book and the handful of runes she had obtained from Varrock earlier. "That's what you all think, but this pony has an idea!" Dash then flies out of the house before anyone can question her. She returns some time later, carrying farming equipment and a bronze pickaxe.
"Rainbowdash, where did you get all this?!" Twilight asks, her expression surprised and confused at the same time. "Well Twi, that is my little secret for me to know, the point is I have the gear for AJ go go chopping and farming, so take this stuff and get out there AJ" Dash commands. "Dash, you do realise that bronze tool you have there is a pickaxe right? The good news is that Rarity told me before the exam that she has the natural magic ability to locate ores and gems in the ground, maybe she could use it to smash some rocks in the ground and gather some ores for Applejack's hatchet and some fighting gear for you and our friend here instead while Applejack farms us some food we can use?" Twilight suggests.
"I have to go trotting in that filth and get my pristine hooves dirty? I just cleaned these!" Rarity takes a seat, crossing her fore hooves while refusing to move. "C'mon , I'll show you my hooves in farming while the girls stay and convince that pony to do some hard work for once in her life".
AJ and the stallion exit the house, walking toward a patch to grow some potatoes. She rakes the patch, sows the seeds and covers them with her trowel, allowing them to grow. "And now we let nature do the rest" AJ says, examining the patch like it's mildly entertaining. A traveling stallion passes them, hauling a cart of orange fruit, then our stallion friend shouts "Mangoes, I remember now…something about mangoes!" . Applejack gives him a strange look, and asks "What'r you talkin' bout there Mr.? I don't even know your name yet and you're talkin' about forgetting what a mango was?".
"That's just it though, I swear mangoes were important to me somehow, I just know it! As for my name, I can't remember anything from before I appeared in, um…" He stays quiet from this point as to not reveal his unusual situation. "What I meant to say was my name's Mango" Mango states with a sheepish tone. Applejack scrunches her face in confusion before saying "Well, I guess it's not that different than being called apple…, but what was all that other gobbledygook you was talkin' 'bout?"
Mango thinks about what he should say, but then spots Twilight and Rarity walking toward them. "Alright, I'll go mine some ores, but only because Twilight told me I can find bedazzling gems with the spell too" Rarity says.
Mango heads off with Rarity to spelunk in the caves, leaving Applejack tending to the potatoes and Twilight reading her worn tome of enchanting. They reach the caves and Rarity's horn glows as she is drawn to deposits around the damp and gloomy cave.
"Oh, I think there is some metal over here!" Rarity points out. Rarity and Mango stare at each other awkwardly before she says "Well, take this and remove it from this filth for me will you?", hoofing him a shovel that was strapped to her side. They unearth an abundance of copper, tin and the occasional sapphire until their packs are filed. "Well, I can definitely start working on some fancy jewellery, oh and shoes!" Rarity goes on talking about all the aesthetic things she plans on designing.
They meet Twilight, who is still reading her book as it levitates in the air with her magic. "Ah, you two are back, Rainbowdash has been complaining about waiting around, can you make some fighting equipment for her Rarity?" she asks. Rarity blends the copper and tin together in the furnace to create bronze ingots, which she reluctantly turns into bronze daggers, some panels with straps to function as a make-shift plate body and the hatchet for Applejack. "There we go, now I can cut this beautiful sapphire to make some necklaces!" she then goes on to grab her chisel and as she gently taps the sapphire, it shatters to form a white powder. Twilight and Mango decide to leave as Rarity wines and loudly bursts into tears. They pass Applejack, who offers them some potatoes as they hand her the hatchet. Applejack now passes the time by cutting logs while the potatoes grow. Mango also tells Twilight his name, but before she can question why she never asked of it earlier….
Rainbowdash hurriedly flies toward the two and familiarises herself with the new equipment easily. "All of this just for me? It sure took a while, but thanks guys. Wait, why are there two suits here Twi?" Dash asks. "Rainbowdash, you need to take Mango here and show him how you fight. I would do so myself, but only unicorns can learn to harness magic properly and I've only read about physical combat in books" Twilight states, as she turns to leave and say "Dash, Rarity could use some cow hides to, assist, in her crafting endeavours and make you some more flexible protection".
Dash pulls the strapped plates over her neck and adjusts them so that they stay on, then goes on to sheath a row of the daggers into the straps."Dash, why do you need so many daggers?" Mango asks. "Dude, I can't throw the same dagger more than once before killing my target!" she explains, as she starts hurling the daggers at the cows within the pen. He laughs at her misunderstanding of the melee-intended weapon and draws his dagger to assist in collecting hides. As Dash collects the hide, he notices she also buries the bones in the ground each time and asks "Why are you doing that? I'm sure some other animal will come and knaw on those bones anyway". Dash smirks and widens her eyes "Because the more bones you bury, the more powers Zammorak allows me to use against those pony-killers in the wilderness!" she explains.
They finish fighting and return to Fluttershy's house. Rarity goes out with the hides, later returning with some basic head and hoof wear for all seven of them and a special suit for Rainbowdash that had built-in dagger holsters on one side, with a quiver for ammo and bow holster on the other. "Sweet! I can bust some skulls with this!" Dash bursts out, while she has already occupied herself within the suit. "I thought you would like that Dash, it really does suit you" Rarity praises herself. Twilight explains to Dash "We are going to have to make you some real ranged equipment if you plan on mastering that kind of fighting Dash, hurling daggers isn't the best way of fighting you know. I'm sure Fluttershy can carve out a bow and some arrows you can use instead". Applejack enters the house, carrying with her piles of logs she chopped. "I'm glad to lend my hoof for making your flying twigs Dash, all the more real fightin' tools fer me" Applejack states as she passes Fluttershy the logs. "Anyway, better get back to the 'taterrs, I can hear 'em cryin' out to me". Applejack leaves as Fluttershy gently carves the logs into thin shafts. "I'm borerrred, let's go to the fun place!" Pinkie yells, grabbing Twilight and Mango.
They appear on an abandoned snowy mountain with four rocky outbreaks. Twilight rushes toward one of the piles of rock and performs some kind of magic, her horn glowing. The rock glows in response and she turns to Pinkie and exclaims "This…this is the rune essence plane, how did we get here Pinkie?!". "The fun place? I just pulled this face and made a sound like this", Pinkie then disappears before reappearing moments later. "See, easy" she then bounces around, the magic radiating from the essence lowering the pull of gravity. "I can make my own runes with this, I could report it to the Princess and the tower.." Twilight raves on about the significance of the event taken place.
"Bring Rarity here Pinkie, if we can extract some of the essence I can work on some interesting tests that can help us with Fluttershy's money problem". Pinkie perfomrs her odd sequence of actions and returns with a confused Rarity. Questioning aside, she takes advantage of the powerful magic aura enveloping the place and swings her pick with her magic, neat chunks breaking off each time. They later return to the house, where Applejack is stomping around. "Varmints! Them nasty critters out there 're munching on our crops!" she vents.
"Fluttershy, can I borrow some of those sticks?" Rarity asks. "Um,ok" Fluttershy hands her some of the larger sticks she hadn't fully carved. Rarity then pulls out some threads and other odds and ends, before combining them into some interesting contraption. "A gift Applejack, I hope it's good enough coming from a lazy pony such as myself" she says as she passes AJ the hunting trap. "Why thanks Rarity, I'ma sure I can exterminate them pesky pests now, and sorry for what I said before". Applejack runs out toward the hills past the farm.
"Oh, but but…" Fluttershy whimpers as she lets out a small cry, then she continues fletching as she sobs. "Fluttershy, I saw those animals before, they really are pests. Besides, Applejack is out there farming food for us and your animals, you can't argue with that." Twilight assures her. "Ok, now that that's sorted, I can go investigate this altar I've heard about!" She exits the house, galloping toward Varrock with the rune essence, leaving Mango with Fluttershy and Rarity, who are busy with their own tasks.
Pinkie then jumps from out of nowhere and tells Mango they can do some cooking. Pinkie lights a fire in the garden and boils some potatoes and grills the shrimp she fished up earlier. He watches this, as Pinkie constantly talks, the words becoming a blur. She hands him the dish, which is just a potato stuffed with prawns and he bites into it with delight. He compliments her cooking and returns inside to find Fluttershy constructing small boxes for her animal companions and two empty bookshelves.
"Oh, hi there. I just finished those. Do you like them? I made them myself" she asks him, he smiles and comments that they look fantastic. Applejack returns, holding bushels of potatoes and a sample of herbal leaves. "Look at what I got by tradin' some of our potatoes! He said these are Guam leaves and they make potions we can use" she explains proudly. Fluttershy accepts the herbs and reluctantly mixes them with eyes of the animals Applejack hunted and created a nasty-looking blue liquid.
Twilight then enters the room, looking exited. "I did it! I located the alter of air and fabricated air runes with the magicly-potentialised essence we got before! I can do so many things with this many runes to experiment with". "Well, can you make this potion look more appealin'?" Applejack jests. "Actually, that's a pretty basic spell I learnt in magic kindergarten" she says as she holds a combination of air, mind and body runes and an aura emits from her horn. The potion loses its lumpy, cloudy look and turns to a fizzy, clear liquid. They all laugh, then go off and continue their roles of skilling and helping each other till the sun sets and they once again camp in Fluttershy's parlour till the next day.