Welcome to Hollow Shades

by Gilimmar

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 966

If a town's been gone for a thousand years, you'd think they'd notice. Apparently not.

Dear Journal,
I've been asked by a friend to cure his bee's hatred for anything that exists. I'm not sure how he got them to become so…angry, but I'd rather not have a swarm of psychotic bees flying around, so I agreed. One ingredient I need for the cure comes from north of Fillydelphia, so I got a ticket and packed my bags.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-04 02:23:56 UTC

Reappear, Town of the Night

To Quick Elixir, there really wasn't a place in existence better than Vanhoover. Every day, you could expect the most beautiful sight of a mountain chain in the distance, shrouded in mystery against the cool morning air just outside your door. To any other pony, it was a beautiful painting, but to Elixir, it was morning. Of course, it would be a lot better if you didn't have to answer your door to a 'code knock' from your neighbor.

Despite his protests, his neighbor had insisted on making a code knock just in case a changeling ever tried to take his place, although Elixir doubted he would ever notice or care. It was a few moments before it stopped, at which point Elixir shrugged off his sheets and cantered slowly through his house. Walking down the stairs, he squinted through the darkness as he looked for the window curtains. Stumbling slightly, he found the main curtains and drew them back, wincing slightly at the glare of the light.

Giving a large yawn, he put on his apron and propped open the door as a yellow-orange pony with a black mane trotted in, pulling along an aviary that seemed like it would be more suitable for tiny ponies than bees.

"It's nice to see you again, Elixir!" he said, moving his miniature bee complex to the side of the shop.

"We just saw each other yesterday," replied the apothecary, noting that the bees almost seemed to be glaring at him from their miniature apartment windows.

"Did we really?" asked Comb Keeper, leaning towards the display shelf and eyeing the concoctions warily.

"Yes, we did."

"Prove it!" exclaimed the apiarist, whipping around and pressing his snout to Elixir's.

"Oh, cut it out," grumbled the apothecary, shoving the avid apiarist away and trotting into the back room.

"But-"

"Just tell me what you want already, Keeper."

"Well...I sort of need a favor..." he replied sheepishly. "See, I was trying to see if I could make a bee that produced spiced honey..."

And so, for the next ten minutes, Comb Keeper told a confusing story involving pepper, gunpowder and how he managed to turn honey to hot sauce.

"..and I'm not kidding, they tore through my suit!" he exclaimed.

"Alright, alright," Elixir grumbled, "What do you need to fix your bees?"

...and what he needed was a star flower, which resides in a forest far north of Fillydelphia. Sadly, I'll have to take a cab ride and a ten-mile hike to get there, and that's just to get to the forest. Finding what's inside is an entirely different story. I suppose this trip won't be a total waste, since I'll be able to go through Canterlot on my way back- if I have time, that is. I wanted to have a trot through the city, maybe talk with the locals, but my train arrived late, so I nearly missed the one going to Fillydelphia.

...

The conductor just said it's about nine more minutes to Fillydelphia, so I'll end the entry here.

Q.E.

Dear Journal,

Since I haven't written in you for about two days (Not my fault, by the way), I'll start out with yesterday morning. When I woke up, it was as if the townsponies had just suffered through a mass delusion. They were all talking about a long night and old mare tales. More specifically, they were talking about one in particular- the Mare in the Moon. Since I woke up at about noon, I had no idea what they were going on about, but one colt told me that night had lasted to nine o' clock in the morning. Usually, I would have called him delirious, but since that was the public opinion, I held my tongue and got to the forest the star fruits are supposed to be in.

The trot was relatively easy (if not boring), but during that time, I couldn't help but think about how the entire town seemed to think that the princess was nearly defeated by a villain from a foal's book. Of course, none of them saw it, but the 'evidence' was there, like the sun's lateness and how it seemed to shine brighter today, which takes some diligent observing to notice, since it seemed to me like it was just another day.

Anyways, this forest is pretty dull. I don't see much of anything in the way of vegetation except for grass and trees, and the wildlife is nearly nonexistent. Even the birds seem to be...not here, but my guide book says that this forest is supposed to be full of all kinds of animals. Actually, now that I think about it, I should look up the star fruit.

Nothing. The book says absolutely nothing about the star fruit's history- just it's uses, the things that it's harmful to and a bit of ancient lore. I seriously hope the scholars in Canterlot don't just do this all day- 'Used for soothing anger, found in that forest place north of that one town. Looks good.' From the look of this entry, the only thing anypony knows about it is that it exists and can be used as a sedative for insects or small animals. No wonder Comb Keeper didn't want to find it himself.

Wait, there's somepony in the distance! Maybe they can -

...are those bat wings?

Dear Diary,

I'm really not sure what happened last night. I was stargazing with grandfather when the stars flickered, as if they were almost put out by something. He saw it too, but I think it was just one of the unicorn's experiments; he's been doing quite a lot of those recently.

I wonder what he was d

"Excuse me, miss?"