Her and her companion made their way across the busy town square, dodging unseeing pedestrians, heading to a confectioner’s shop on the squares northeast side. Her thoughts carefully kept on sweets, focusing on the taste and texture in her mind and not the names or the looks. Thinking in words or images would be like throwing back the deep hoods of her cloak shading her eyes from the light of the late morning sun. She hoped her companion was doing the same, it was a fragile hope.

“So,” Her companion began in a soft whisper. “Why are we wasting time in this town and not heading on to our objective?”

“Because it is faster.” She replied in a voice like dull chimes.”Now be quiet, let me do the talking in here.”

Opening the door to the confectionery she heard a bell sound over her head and a muffled “be right with you” from the back room. A glass display counter divided the back fourth of the room from the front. The walls of the front part of the room where filled with shelves that held a wide assortment of candies sold by the weight. On the back wall and in the counter where examples of more expensive items. Nothing looked overly expensive nor stale, but she did not know if spells of freshness were used.

“Welcome to Bonbon’s Sweets, how may I help you?” An earth-pony mare asked as she walked through the door leading to the backroom, ears perked in attention. The mare had a cream-colored coat and purple and pink mane and tail that bounced as she moved.

Pulling back the hood of her cloak to reveal a purple unicorn mare with a tri-color main of midnight blue, violet, and light purple. “Yes, I hope so,” she said in a voice devoid of chimes and with ears laid back in a manner that she hoped looked more abashed then hostile. “You see we were almost to town when we noticed we had lost the coin pouch on our way here and, I was wondering if you knew of anyone that buys gemstones in town.” she put more emphasis on the last ‘we’ then she had meant to but she had kept her voice-print out of her words.

The mare blinked then her light blue eyes flicked to her companion and then back, ears wilting slightly and then reluctantly said, “I’m not sure, I know Rarity uses a lot of gems in her work but I don’t know if she will buy from you.”

“Do you know where we might find her?” she forced her voice to sound hopeful and ears to perk up to give the impression of hopeful excitement.

“She should be at the town hall on the south-east side of the main square,” the mare said with less reluctance, her ears at an attentive rest. “If she’s not there then try at her shop, Carousel Boutique. To get there just head north till you get to the Berry Punch Saloon, take the right right in front of the saloon. It’s a ways down the road but you can't miss it, it looks like a big carousel. Hope this helps.”

“It is a start, thank you.” She said as she and her companion turned to leave the shop. Pulling her hood up she walked out into the hustle and bustle of the main square. Her companion fell in close beside her as she set her mind to thoughts of warm food, hot baths, comfy beds, and hopes that her companion was not as dense as his voice-print.

“Is it really necessary to trade our food for gold?” asked her companion, again in a soft whisper.

“None of the ration packs contain gems, and unless you want to spend days walking with no idea if we are going in the right direction we need the local coinage.” She replied in a voice of dull and cracked chimes.

“So why did the scouts not get some?” Oh by the Divines had they not briefed the fool.

“We are the scouts.” she said flatly, the chimes falling silent. “now stay quiet.”

They had come to a building set aside on a small grassy piece of land on the south-east side of the square. The building was roughly one hundred and twenty hooves round, she thought in the units of her youngest days, and three stories tall with the third story being the domed roof. The building had light blue siding and cedar shingles, it was decorated with white banners with a sunburst done in thread-of-gold.

In front of the building was a gold chariot guarded by two white pegasi stallions who looked so much alike that it screamed spellcraft. Clad in gold armor that covered them from chest to flank and wearing open-faced helmets of gold with blue bristle crests that accented their aqua eyes.

She walked up to the stallions and asked, “Is the mare known as Rarity inside?” One of the stallions nodded. “May we go in and speak with her?”

Just as the stallion nodded again the doors to the building opened, a purple scaled dragonling with a row of green spikes running down its back and a light green underbelly came out. She licked her lips as she watched the hard, well-defined muscles move and ripple under well-polished scales with every step the dragonling took, and she almost drooled over those emerald eyes,

“I hope there is no trouble out here?” asked the dragonling in a distinctly male voice.

“I was simply asking these two if it was ok to go inside,” she replied, sweeping her hood back.

“Oh my!” exclaimed a refined feminine voice, drawing her attention to a white-furred unicorn mare with a deep purple mane and tail had followed the dragonling. “What is that thing on your horn?”

“On my horn? Oh, you mean my anchor,” she said brightly.

“Your anchor, what is it for?” The mare asked.

“It allows you to maintain multiple spells without splitting your concentration.” said the drake. “Though I have not seen one made of such fine wire nor made out of anything other than gold.”

“I would love to discuss the finer points of artifacing at some later time but my companion and we have business we must see to. By the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle and this is Silver Wing,” she said cheerily, motioning for Silver Wing to pull back his hood. He complied revealing he had blue-gray fur with a silver mane and bright gold eyes.

“I’m Spike, it is nice to meet you.” said the drake, extending a foreleg with his claws in a fist.

“And it is nice to meet you as well,” Twilight said, bumping her hoof to his fist.

The white mare extended her hoof and said, “My name is Rarity, and it’s a pleasure.”

“Oh, we were actually looking for you and it is a pleasure,” she said bumping hooves with Rarity.

“Me?” Rarity asked fluttering her deep blue eyes. “Whatever for?”

“We are low on funds and were told you might buy some of the gems we found on our expedition.”

“I take it they have not been appraised yet?” Spike asked.

A growled curse edged with chimes escaped Twilight, causing Spike to tip his head.

“Normally that would be a problem, darling, but I usually hunt for my own gems and so got registered as a crown approved appraiser.” Rarity said. “If you will follow me to my shop. Bye, Spike darling, I hope to talk with you again.”

Author's Note

1: 1 hoof = 6 inches = 15.24 cm