Sadly Sings Destiny

Sadly Sings Destiny
Part 6: By the Gates of Moria
By: Jace Arveduin

The next morning Emerald Dawn woke up from the best sleep she’d had in days. She had taken her sleeping bag, but it was hardly as comfortable as her bed. The breakfast dishes were just starting to dry on the rack when she heard a knock on the door. She went to the door and opened it, to find Jesse standing at the threshold.

“Good morning, Jesse! You’re up early.”

“Yeah, woke up and figured it was too late to go back to sleep, so I figured I'd drop by.”

“Come on in, are you hungry? I just finished breakfast but I can find something.”

“I’m fine, I ate before I came over,” Jesse replied as they walked into her living room, which was about the size of his and had books lining the walls. “Any fiction stories, or are they all of a more scholarly genre?”

“Most of them are research books, but this shelf over here has some fiction, mainly romance, but there are a few other types,” Emerald said as she went to the smallest bookshelf in the room, which just happened to be in a corner.

Jesse followed her, looking at the titles. They say never judge a book by it’s cover, but between the title and the synopsis, you can generally weed out those you wouldn’t find as enjoyable. After he’d looked through the the titles and a synopsis or two, he looked back at her.

“You seem to be lacking books in the epic adventure department. Does Equestria have them at all, or are you just not fond of them?”

“I think there might be a few, but Equestrian writers don’t usually write about it. I don’t even think our small library has a book like the one you are thinking of.”

“Oh my poor dear little pony, I shall have to fix this post-haste. Do you have time to come by my house for awhile?”

“Um... Yes, I do have some free time today.” She responded after she thought about it for a moment.

“Well let’s go, I’ve got... lots of books you will either love or hate.” Jesse lead the way to his house, not saying anything so he wouldn’t spoil the surprise.

When they arrived, Jesse unlocked his door and went to his bedroom, motioning for Emerald to follow. She did and was met with a sight that made her smile, because the walls of the room were almost entirely covered in shelves, and most of them were full of books. There was also a full size bed with black sheets, a few maps on the wall, and a computer desk.

“Almost all of these books are from a genre we call ‘fantasy.’ They are generally about a group of friends going on adventures or quests. Monsters are usually slain by the hundreds, awesome weapons are found, neat trinkets are acquired through various means, and the good guys usually win at the end of the day.”

“Your species has a thing for killing, doesn’t it?”

“Eh, you could say that. You could also say that most of them are idiots. Here, let’s see how you like ‘Lord of the Rings.’ It’s light on the details when it comes to killing things and heavy on environmental details. The author, J. R. R. Tolkien basically created the genre of high fantasy.”

Emerald started reading The Lord of the Rings, occasionally stopping to ask Jesse to ask what certain things looked like. He usually told her, but sometimes he’d pull something up on his computer or show her on the map of Middle-Earth he had on his wall. She got to the point where they released Bill and looked up.

“Why would they release that poor pony out into the wild with all of those wolves! You know, come to think of it, he never spoke either. Why wouldn’t he?”

“Because he has a chance to outrun the wolves and make it home, but he has little chance in Moria. In fact, he’s better off this way, though I won’t spoil it for you. As for why he hasn’t spoken, it’s because ponies in our world can’t speak. Well, at least not any languages that we know of.”

“So how big was this ‘Moria’ place anyway?”

“It’s utterly massive. There’s a chasm there that you could probably drop your biggest city in, though you might have to flatten it.”

“How deep is it?”

“That’s the question,” He replied with a chuckle, “No one really knows, but it basically goes to the center of the world.”

“I can’t picture how far that is,” She said with a confused expression.

“No one can, except maybe Tolkien, but he’s been dead for years. Any other questions?”

“Ahhh, that’s sad. Well, do you have any books that doesn’t involve violence?”

“Let’s see... nope. There are books in my world without violence, and I may have a few around here that I can’t remember at the moment.”

“Well, I guess that’s fine, there may be some ponies that would like to read this, but it’s just too violent for me.” The mare shuddered slightly at the thought.

“Hey Emerald, you happen to be able to make copies of things?” He asked, out of the blue.

“I think so, I haven’t tried. Why do you want to know?” She wondered why his antics surprised her, after being around him for several days, she thought she'd be used to it by now.

“Well, I saw a library in town, and as a librarian, I was thinking that you could add these books to a special corner. I did tell you I was a librarian, right?”

She tilted her head slightly. “You are a librarian? I’m having trouble seeing that...”

Jesse chuckled. “Most people do, though I run a tight ship in my library and everything stays in order.”

“Well, I’m not sure, what do you want me to try it on first?”

Jesse looked around his room, and picked up an ink pen from his desk. “How about this?”

She nodded and concentrated on the pen, which floated out of his grasp. A few minutes later a flash of light and a popping noise heralded the arrival of a second pen.

“That looks like a result, how are you feeling?” Jesse asked her.

“It wasn’t that bad, though I doubt I could do too many more today.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll enlist help if it's needed.”

She looked at a few more of the books he had, and studied the map on the walls for the next hour or so. When she looked like she had finished, he spoke up.

“Can you bake, and have you ever had a Mississippi Mud Cake?”

“Well, I can bake some, but what’s a Mississippi Mud Cake?”

“You’ll see,” He replied with a grin, for some reason that made her uneasy.

The next half-hour burned by as they made the bottom layer of the cake, which was basically brownies, and mixed the icing together. The icing was a recipe he had gotten from his mom, and was absolutely delicious. They waited until the bottom was done and put it all together. The cake now had the bottom layer of cake, a middle layer of caramel, a personal twist of his, and the home-made icing to top it off. Jesse took the bowl they used and held the two mixer prongs out to her.

“Here, try out the icing,” He was already scooping what was left in the bowl with a large spoon, which had ‘U.S.’ on the handle. She gave it a tentative lick, and then her eyes shot open. She preceded to greedily lick both of them clean until they were gone, all the while Jesse was chuckling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re jittery, you look like you’ve got a gallon of adrenaline in your system, and it’s absolutely hilarious.”

“I am not!” She yelled.

“Then why have suddenly started to bounce? Your tail is also twitching.”

“It is...” She looked down, then at her tail, “Okay, it is, but that doesn’t mean you can laugh at me!”

“Oh come on, you look completely ridiculous, you have to laugh at yourself sometimes!”

“Forget it! And what all was in that thing?!”

“You fixed it with me, did you not look at what you were making?”

“No!” She barked, as started slowly moving to the side from the vibrations in her legs.

“You have a low sugar tolerance, don’t you?”

“Yes!”

“Ah, well that icing has a little more than a pound of powdered sugar in it.” Her eyes shot open even further at this.

“Then why isn’t it affecting you?”

“Because I’ve been eating it for years.”

“How are you still alive? Too much of this could kill a pony!”

“Extremely high sugar tolerance, and I think you’re overreacting a little bit,” He said with a smirk.

“I’m not overreacting!”

“If you say so. Okay, just go lay down on the couch and wait for it to go through your system.”

An hour or so later Emerald had finally managed to calm down enough so that she could actually walk without hopping, they decided to go visit Steel Crescent. Before they left, Jesse put some of the cake in two small containers. Walking towards Steel's, with the occasional bounce from Emerald, they arrived at the forge in good time. Steel was working when they arrived, and they waited until he finished the candlestick he was making before greeting him.

“Evenin Steel,” Jesse told him.

“Good afternoon Steel,” Emerald

“Hello, how have you been so far?” Steel replied as he set his tools down.

“Not much, just showing Emerald my books and letting her taste some of the best cake ever.”

“Well... The icing tasted good... It’s just too much sugar for me.”

“How much sugar does it have?” Steel asked, his face expressing a slight amount of curiosity.

“Here, have a bite,” Jesse said has he popped the lid off one of the containers and held it to him. Steel took a tentative bite, then his eyes went wide.

“Holy... So how much sugar is in this?”

“I told you it was too sugary,” Emerald told him.

“Ah, not too much. About a pound of sugar in the cake part, and about a pound of powdered sugar in the icing. I’m not sure exactly how much is in the caramel, but I’ll assume it’s about as much as the other two.”

“That’s... Insane. How can you eat this?”

“Well, I guess sugar doesn’t affect me like it does you. So... How’d you like it?”

“Well, it tasted good, just way too rich for my old taste buds.“

“Oh well, more for me then, which suits me fine seeing as I love this stuff.”

“Anyway, I’m going to get out of your mane and go check on Frostfire, see you later Steel. Are you coming Jesse?” Emerald asked.

“I’ll have to pass, though give her a piece of this to see how she likes it,” Jesse said as he set the other box on her back. “I’ll see you both later,” and with a wave walked back towards his house.

“See you next time Jesse,” Steel called after him,“ I’ll see you next time too, Emerald.”

“Okay, bye.” Emerald walked out of the shop and Steel got back to work.

A short walk later and Emerald was underneath Frostfire’s cloudhouse. She looked around for a way up, or at least a way to signal her, but found nothing. She gave a quiet sigh before yelling.

“Hey Frostfire! Want to come down and talk for awhile?” She waited for a response, and not hearing any, tried again. “Frostfire! Are you here?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Frostfire said as she came out the front door and glided down to Emerald.

“Oh my, did you sleep well last night?” Frostfire really did look terrible; her mane and tail looked like they hadn’t seen a brush in years, and her eyes seemed dull.

“No, couldn’t get to sleep, and when I did, my dreams were... weird.”

“Is there something you want to talk about?”

“Not really...”

“Well, me and Jesse baked a cake, want a piece?”

“No.”

“Oh come on, he really wanted you to try it.” That might have been a bit of a lie, but it would probably do the job.

“Really?”

“Yeah, though I should warn you it has lots of sugar.” She took the container off of her back and set it next to Frostfire.

“Fine... But only because it’s chocolate.” She took a large bite, and had to stop herself from devouring the rest as fast as she could. “That was great!”

“How can you eat that? I only ate some of the icing and I was bouncing off the walls for over an hour!”

“You? Bouncing off the walls? I wish I could have seen that!"

"I bet you would! Jesse was practically rolling on the floor! But what's got you down lately? The cake perked you up, but you looked terrible before."

"I told you, just a bad night's sleep."

"If there's something wrong, you can tell me."

“It's nothing...”

“You can tell me.”

“No.”

“Is it anything to do with Jesse?” At this, Frostfire blushe slightly. It wouldn’t have shown on most ponies, but Frostfire’s white coat betrayed her this time.

“No...”

“You blushed.”

“Because I’m angry with him.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he’s a jerk.”

“I don’t think that’s reason, but I’ll leave you alone if that’s something you don’t want to talk about.”

“Yeah... so how’s your day been?”

“I went over to Jesse’s and looked over some of his books, then we made the cake. After I settled down we went and visited Steel for a few minutes. We didn’t stay long since he was working. Jesse went home and I came here.”

“Sounds like fun. I just woke up.”

“How did you wake up this late?”

“Like I said, I didn’t sleep well, and what little sleep I got was plagued with those weird dreams. I’m still feeling kind of tired.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“No, you probably wouldn’t understand anyway.”

“If you say so. I guess I’ll get out of your mane then.”

“Okay, see you later Emerald.”

Emerald arrived at her house, pondering what could be wrong with Frostfire. She finally decided she had no idea where to even start, so she decided to ask Steel later. A romance novel lasted till she was ready to go to bed. She normally didn’t read them, but she felt just felt like reading one today.