The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

Shaking his head at the sudden disappearance of the demon lord Octavian, the Living Tower, the Quarter Prince, the defining soul of the Ravine of Whispers, Bright Machine Speaker looked to the heavens in confusion… and saw that the sun was no longer green with emerald fire. Of course, the city’s geomancy!

With essence sight Speaker instantly confirmed his theory: While still horribly muddled, then there was enough natural elemental essence flowing through the city again the demonic geomancy had been disrupted to the point that it couldn’t allow for Octavian to be there. But how? Speaker hadn’t had time to build anything…

Turning his confusion and curiosity aside, Speaker turned to Red and Sullen Hoof. They were both stabilized, but still in very bad shape. Plus there was the blind and deaf Shimmer, and deaf Sunrise… oh this was such a mess… literally – since Speaker was still standing in the ruble and ruins of the house that Red had originally been smashed into.

“Hey, did you like my trick?” Cash shouted from out in the street.

Speaker peeked out into the street… and saw a sea of bouncing puppeteer demons – with Cash at the forefront. After doing a double take, Speaker finally simply asked, in bewilderment: “What…”

Beaming with pride, Cash explained that he found a large number of Marrotes and used his charms on them: “They’re completely under my control. I figured that since they weren’t really bound to our incompetent unicorn sorceress here, then I might as well take the reins…”

“Ok… makes sense, but how did you restore the geomancy of the city? You don’t know anything about geomancy!?” Speaker wondered.

Cash casually craned his head back at the tangle of demons behind him: “I just told them to do it – they didn’t need instructions… “

Shaking his head in disbelief, Speaker face-hoofed at the brilliance of Cash’s actions: “Why didn’t I think of that? That kind of plan is so…”

“Not you?” Cash mused: “You prefer to do most of the work yourself. I thought more along the lines of brainwashing the demons so they would protect me, then I figured I could make them do stuff”

Cash ordered the demons to continue restoring and repairing the city and report back when done – with the added orders of not to harm or interact with the ponies of the city while doing so - then he helped Speaker get Red and Sullen Hoof out of the building ruins.

The four solars turned to look for Sunrise and Shimmer, with Speaker’s news of their condition worrying all of them greatly. Shimmer would have been pretty much completely incapable of defending herself, being unable to neither see or hear approaching demons – and Sunrise… well… without being able to hear what she said herself then how could she speak words of smiting?

They found Shimmer and Sunrise where Speaker had left them – surrounded by smoking husks of bloodhound demons. Shimmer was in her usual pony form again, with Sunrise sitting next to her, gently stroking her mane in a calming manner, as Shimmer wept. Around them the hopping puppeteers were already starting to pick apart the ruined house so it could be rebuilt, their hundred-yard long legs of string wound around roof fixtures and other buildings, making for complicated rope and pulley systems as they flung bits of broken timber and bundles of new thatch around like it was a game to them – one certainly wasn't in doubt why they were called hopping puppeteers with such a show… but there was one in the circle who couldn't appreciate the on-goings…

“So… she can’t see or hear us? Damn…” Cash said, as they approached. Sunrise looked up, appearing tired enough not to question the actions of the demons around her but also elated that the battle had been won.

Shimmer turned around and sniffed the air, quickly honing in on Speaker’s scent, leaving her to sob on his shoulder. It was then Cash floated up a stick and began to poke Shimmer, which seemed to calm her down somehow… also his caste mark was glowing.
“Cash, what are you doing?” Red groaned, resisting the urge to pick at her wounds.

Watching as Shimmer seemed to slide down Speaker and settle on the ground – smiling for some reason – Cash chuckled: “I just used the stick to ‘write’ on her that even if the effect is permanent all Speaker as to do is remove the bad eyes and ears and regrow new ones – but to be perfectly honest, I don’t think this will be permanent”

“What makes you think that?” Sullen Hoof said very quietly, his breathing labored.

Cash explained that he faintly seemed to recall having ‘used’ Octavian’s oil in the first era – namely because his oil had the power to temporarily disable senses, but most importantly also wipe memories if applied properly: “Mind you, I can’t remember how long the effect is… or why I used it back then, but does this ring any bells Speaker?”

“If it works like a magical poison then it probably won’t last more than a day or two – especially for something only applied forcefully to the skin. Come on, let’s get them back to the castle and survey the damages” Speaker said hopefully.

At the castle of the city, which Cash noted was called Six-Leaves – the circle found a very distraught unicorn sorceress. Cash urged Speaker to go tend to the rest of the circle, to speed up their recovery for their eventual continued journey to the god of the grey river “Mud of the Lotus”, while Cash walked off with Trixie for what Speaker assumed would a stern talking to on the art of governance and how not to fuck up summoning demons.

By nightfall, thanks to Speaker’s healing charms and supernatural medical insights, Red and Sullen Hoof were up and about once more. Sunrise and Shimmer didn’t show any immediate signs of improvement, but based on what Cash had said earlier then Speaker didn’t want to start amputating eyes and ears just yet – mainly because the time it would take to reacquaint one-self with re-grown body parts would mean even longer downtime before the circle was fully up to snuff again.

Cash in turn expressed that he was pleased with the headway he’d made on Trixie: “I think she’ll be a far more suitable ruler now”

“We’re still just going to leave her in charge here?” Red said, sounding eager to dish out at least a bare minimum of punishment for having unwittingly summoned an army of demons into Creation – a few of which had fled into the surrounding forests at this point, while most they had been sucked back into Malfeas along with their master from what Speaker called a ‘geomantic backdraft’.

It was with an oddly tired look that Cash explained to Red, in front of the rest of the circle, that if they had to stay in Six-Leaves to fix everything – which now once again flew its own yellow and green flags, instead of Trixie’s personal banners – then they would be there for too long to complete their task for the council of entities: “And honestly, I do want to make a good impression with them – even with the threat of blackmail I gave, they can still screw us and every other Solar that comes to Nexus over royally. They hold a lot of sway with the Guild high council, and if they desire it then the wyld hunt might start to see big discounts on weapons, mercenaries and information on Solar activity… we don’t want that”

Red conceded that Six-Leaves was just too small to be important enough to shore up – and indeed, Speaker too seemed eager to get back to his clinic in Firewander and finally push through the expansion he’d planned.

By noon the following day the sound of joyous cries resounded around the Six-Leaf castle, as Shimmer’s hearing and vision return – Sunrise equally relieved that she could hear hers and the voice of others again.

The day after that, in a completely repaired castle courtyard that showed no repairs wrought of demon resin, Trixie thought long and hard of how to bid the circle farewell, right after Cash had given his final orders to the bouncing puppeteer demons under his control: They were to wrap up the reconstruction of the city as per his previous orders, then return to the demon realm post haste.

Looking at the circle, the unicorn bowed her head. It was not easy for her to admit her mistake, but if not for the actions she would undoubtedly have died… or worse: “Thank you. I can’t imagine how this place would have looked by now if not for the six of you. I can only hope to achieve your levels of wisdom and power”

Trixie continued on for a while, with Shimmer whispering to Cash: “Just how much mind-control did you have to put on her to be this… nice?”

“Hardly any – I just convinced her to own up to her own faults, not pretend to be all-powerful, and then inspired her to work on what she wasn’t’ good at. She still wants to be great and powerful, but now she won’t claim to be already” Cash noted quietly.

With the kind words from the unicorn still fresh, Shimmer conjured a cloud for the circle to fly off on – since there were no yeddim in the city for Cash to do his thing on, and the rest of the circle refused to hunt down another bear for Cash to experiment with. As they flew off they could see the many ponies still flooding in through the city gates, Cash having sent out messengers to spread the news of the demons being gone.

“You lot think that they’ll let Trixie remain in charge?” Sullen Hoof wondered out to the rest of the circle as he looked east.
Cash seemed certain that she could if she didn’t screw up again, noting that the few records he’d found of the previous ruler indicated that it was some run of the mill warlord who hadn’t been that popular either.

Several hours of cloud-powered east-bound flight later the circle approached Nexus and the end of the Yanaze river, or rather the beginning of it, as it was the merging of the grey and yellow river which formed. Flying south down the grey river for a bit, Shimmer landed and Sunrise sent a powerful essence-fueled prayer to Mud of the Lotus.

At first the circle was uncertain of what to expect: A martially inclined river god that counciled the eastern god of war on matters such as the battles that river pirates fight with their victims? Suddenly a water elemental in the form of a geyser with a watery pony face rose from the water, introducing itself as a representative of Mud of the Lotus’ court, adding that Water Strider had already notified its mistress of their plan and that measures had been taken to restore proper flow: “If you would allow me to transport you, then I would take your artificer to a set of black and red jade runes set into the river bottom about one and a half thousand miles south of here. They require an activation procedure we are not familiar with, but are critical to what you wish to achieve”

The direct and even blunt nature of the water elemental surprised everyone, but Speaker – eager to get all of this over with - said nothing. Like Water Strider, the elemental had a power that allowed it to move itself and others around on the river at supernatural speeds, meaning that Speaker found himself floating just above the silty and murky river bed in the blink of an eye. Elemental immunity charm on, he swam after the elemental as it guided him to a huge slab of black and red jade covered in runic etchings – it was at least twenty by thirty yards, with it being impossible gauge how thick it was. Up on the surface, where Speaker could talk amidst the mild background noise of nearby birds squawking, Speaker instructed the elemental to clear any sediments and silt away from the rune platform. The elemental disappeared underwater, while Speaker made his way to shore and bucked a tree.

The thick tree Speaker had struck, easily two meters in diameter, groaned for a moment then fell over as if having been cut in an instant – making for an awful lot of noise, but leaving behind a very clean cut. Speaker then used his essence to quickly fashion a very simple boat out of a section of the trunk, which he maneuvered out into the river over the jade device.

The song that was meant to activate the jade doohickey was difficult for Speaker to sing. First of all he couldn’t really remember it, but secondly then it was meant to be sung by mares… luckily Speaker knew more than enough about eastern jungle herbs to spot a patch of Tongue-Twister lilies growing on the bank. The parasitic flowers were growing off the side of a very tall tree, but Speaker cared little for their aesthetic value, instead utilizing them as he had once done with his buddies in the seventh legion when pulling pranks on uppity junior officers: The purple petals of the lilly, when ground into a paste and diluted in water – and then imbibed – would make one’s voice sound like a little filly.

It also tasted like rancid piss.

All the while spitting profucely and trying to rinse the foul taste out of his mouth with essence-purified river water, Speaker tried again to recall the ancient song he was meant to sing. The tune came to him first, but the lyrics eluded him.

Sitting in his little makeshift boat, in the middle of the river, humming the tune, Speaker looked around with essence sight. The subtle ripples that his humming was made was having an effect. Humming the tune louder, Speaker saw how the waters around him began moving faster: The few plants along the banks that floated on the surface of the water but had roots anchoring them began to drag and struggle to stay put.

The elemental appeared moments later, saying that the rune had gone active. Speaker sighed in relief and asked to be taken back to his friends.

After the elemental had stopped laughing at Speaker’s filly voice it complied, saying that it looked forward to seeing the river a bit more active.

“It’s not a permanent measure – The rune will only work for a month or so, then it should deactivate, but I can teach you the song that you need to get a mare or filly in a boat above the run to sing. Only use it here during the spring thaw and oncoming rainy season” Speaker explained, the elemental evidently having a hard time not giggling while the filly-voiced Solar spoke.

Upon returning to the circle, Speaker made an effort of not saying anything. He knew that the lilly-juice would wear off in a day or two – but then again, the mix he’d taken had been made with fresh petals in a very concentrated doze, instead of dried leaves with a dilution so thin that you couldn’t taste it. This… might be a problem, but Speaker got little time to think of that, as Shimmer quickly whisked the circle back to Nexus, sans Cash who’d apparently already been dropped off there to go and fetch Nah.

Apparently Cash didn’t want to get another yeddim to fly around him – and had thusly purchased another yeddim to fly up and fetch Nah on, with the intention to sell the new one. Speaker found this quite silly, but Shimmer was quick to point out that her and Speaker had a clinic to properly upgrade. Nodding in agreement, the two made their way to Firewander.

At first Speaker found it a bit worrying that he could sense the exact same ambient levels of wyld energy around the clinic via essence sight since he had last been there – despite having previously drained the local levels using his wyld shaping technique. For it to recover so quickly… that wasn’t good – but why didn’t that mean a larger overall ambient buildup?

Shimmer seemed more focused – and riled up – by the fact that someone had written “Anathema” on the clinic storefront in what looked like dried blood. She quickly concluded, by smell, that it was pigs blood. Speaker sighed in relief. It was then that the two heard a rustling inside the clinic.

There had never been a lock on the front door, only a wooden latch that any pony could open. Of course, there hadn’t been anything of value to steal inside ever since the last break-in, since most of the furniture was extruded from the same stone that the floor and walls were made of.

Speaker was about to casually go inside and check, but Speaker held him back and said that she would go first – it could be immaculate assassins lying in wait.

“Then there’s not very subtle assassins” Speaker said quietly, peeking inside.

Shimmer bobbed her head from side to side: “Some immaculates also think that their bright blue banners can’t be looked at by demons and heretics. That just means that they’re likely zealots we can’t reason with, as opposed to skilled killers who know to keep quiet… oh, and cute voice”

Speaker sighed, explaining that the effect should hopefully wear off in a few days… or weeks… hopefully – then marched inside the clinic with Shimmer.

It turned out to be a family of three squatter ponies that had taken up residence in the clinic. They weren’t really sick, but weren’t exactly shining examples of good health either. They were surprised that the landlords showed up – and made a quick scramble for the door, but Shimmer was quick to block their way. Speaker wasn’t sure if it was a territorial thing for Lunars, but he certainly saw no reason to punish the ponies for seeking refuge in his clinic.

“Listen, we’re actually looking to hire some ponies here to help out – yes I have a funny voice, that’ll wear off” Speaker said to the family.

The mother of the bunch, holding what looked to be a fairly baby foal in her hooves, with a young filly hiding behind her, looked wearily at Speaker: “Wha… What kind of work?”

“Nurses, that would be for you and your oldest daughter there – we’ll need a few more of course, and some orderlies – but I’m sure that it won’t be difficult to find unemployed ponies around here” Speaker explained.

The mare and her daughter thanked Speaker profusely, the filly saying “Thank you doctor Filly-voice”

By the end of the day word had spread that Speaker had returned and reopened the clinic – and that he was hiring. By recruiting from the patients that came in, Speaker found himself solving three problems at once, pleasing himself and Shimmer to no end: He made sure that the ponies he hired were in good health, that they genuinely liked him – which lessened the chance that they were immaculate spies, and in quite a few cases it meant that they could quit their far more dangerous jobs… jobs that in many cases had landed them in the clinic to begin with.

With a staff of two dozen nurses and half a dozen orderlies, certain logicistal challenges reared their ugly heads – but talking with the rest of the circle that evening back in the town house, Cash reassured Speaker that everything would be taken care of: “I’ll get you some nice cheap uniforms, no sense in giving your employees something that’s too valuable to begin with – and Sully, can you find them a reliable cook who won’t poison their patients?”

“What about that Grey Collection Agency? I remember we talked a while back that they might come at you again when we start showing that you can afford to pay staff” Red noted, adding that she wasn’t much for fighting urban guerrilla warfare – she had other more interesting fights to get into back at the fighting rings in Bastion district.

Cash made a dismissive gesture: “I wouldn’t worry – once I start selling off the stuff I brought back from the Denzik I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse. With ponies like that you don’t win with hoofy-cuffs, but with economic warfare”

By noon the next day a cream-coated delivery pony with a stutter – which Speaker fixed up in no time – delivered four dozen off-white uniforms.

“Well, now we’ll have some spares – should be handy, especially until we find a laundry service to handle any dirty ones” Shimmer noted.

Assembling his staff in front of the clinic, Speaker told his employees in no uncertain terms what his plans were and more importantly what he and Shimmer was: “My name is Bright Machine Speaker, to you I will simply be Doctor while you work for me. As you all undoubtedly know, then I am a pony blessed with healing powers, among other things. The immaculates have decried me as anathema for that reason – but I can assure you that the source of my powers is as benign as the light of day, for I am exalted by the might of Celestia, the Unconquered Sun. My head nurse, Last Shimmer, is similarly blessed by the argent mare Luna, while my business partner and financial manager Cash Charmer whom I’m sure you’ll all meet at some point is equally blessed like me, by the same source. If you have any problem with that you should say so now, and do know that one of my powers is the ability to detect lies quite well, which I mostly use to tell if my patients are honest about the cause of their injuries”

There was some murmuring among the ponies. One of them, a young colt hired on as orderly, raised a hoof saying that he had a question: “So, uhm… you’re not evil?”

“I help ponies free of charge. Please tell me how that is evil” Speaker retorted.

Another asked how Speaker could afford to pay them, considering that he wasn’t charging for his services in the clinic. Speaker was about to say that Cash handled that, but Shimmer spoke first: “The clinic allows Speaker to help those truly in need which makes him happy, while rich ponies discreetly approach us for house-calls… which we charge quite handsomely for, allowing us to pay you and keep you happy”

The clinic staff all nodded, all of them apparently seeing the logic of such a business model right off the bat. Speaker whispered: “That’s not true, I told Cash I wouldn’t do concierge medicine”

“I never said you accepted those requests for housecalls – and trust me, you have gotten offers, I’ve just never relayed them to you” Shimmer said, someone whispering her reply without really moving her mouth.

Frowning, Speaker said that he’d like to at least know what the house-call requests were in the future for before having them turned down. Shimmer nodded.

“Ok, now, do you all promise to work diligently and honestly – and to accept my tutelage so I can ensure that all of you at least know the basics of healthcare for this job?” Speaker asked his employees, his lie-detector charm on.

All of the ponies said yes - and about eight of them read as lying to Speaker. Sighing, Speaker directed Shimmer to distribute the uniforms inside the clinic, while he told the eight ponies who had read as lying to remain outside…

“You lot – you weren’t honest there. I told you I can sense lies” Speaker tried to say sternly. The filly voice didn’t help.

Sighing, Speaker sternly asked: “Were you planning on just trying to rip me off by doing nothing, or simply stealing whatever you could get your hooves on and then running off in the night? If so, just leave and don’t show your faces again”
Four of the ponies stepped back and quickly ran off.

Of the four remaining, a few more questions revealed that one of the others was a GCA spy – he was sent away just as quickly, although not before the pony had reiterated the GCA’s old threat to Speaker: “You just said you got money to spend – you’ll have to pay up now!”

Of the three remaining ponies, two quickly spoke to their defence, saying that they weren’t all that keen on working for anathema, to which Speaked asked why in heavens they wanted to work for him to begin with. They said that it was for the money, which Speaker accepted and said that he had nothing against their personal convictions as long as they would agree to him teaching them to be proper nurses and orderlies, but the third one… a mare with an unkempt mane and muddied unshorn fetlocks, remained silent.

As the two other ponies walked into the clinic, leaving the last liar to stand before Speaker all alone, Shimmer came out to tell Speaker that all the others were ready for their first lesson. Seeing that Speaker wasn’t done with his interrogation, Shimmer strode up to the Solar: “Trouble?”

“She’s not saying anything…” Speaker said, sighing.

The mare, who looked fairly non-descript with her light-brown mane and coat, remained silent as Speaker once more tried to ask exactly what part of his previously stated job-requirements she didn’t agree to – and without Cash’s charms to allow him to directly compel the pony to speak, it seemed as if they at an impasse.

Sniffing around the mare, Shimmer scrunched her nose and gave a derisive snort: “She’s an immaciulate spy. She might have taken a dive in the river and rolled in mud to disguise herself, but I can still smell the incense and scented oils from their temple on her”

Her cover blown, the mare quickly took a step back, seemingly unsure whether Speaker and Shimmer would give chase. Speaker simply shook his head: “You just run along and tell you masters that if they leave us alone, then we’ll leave them alone”

As the mare ran off, Shimmer frowned: “We should have interrogated her further, with Cash. We need to know if they’re planning something”

“They wouldn’t tell a spy that. But tell me, what made you suspicious enough to sniff her out? You didn’t do that to any of the others” Speaker wondered.

With a hoof Shimmer stroked one of her purple mane’s dreadlocks: “Her mane. Even the poorest ponies here know to keep up a bare minimum of appearances. The only ones who allow themselves to be caked in mud are either addicts or mad-ponies who can’t take care of themselves anymore. The ones who have nothing but themselves still take pride in their own appearance”

“Very well” Speaker said, instructing Shimmer to get find replacements for the ponies that had failed the final job examination. It didn’t take many minutes for Shimmer to rustle up a hoof-ful of other wretches, although this time Speaker made sure to use his lie-detector charm sooner rather than later.

Finally fully staffed, Speaker used his educational charm on newly recruited staff to teach them the fundamentals of medicine and healthcare. Things like how to stitch up a shallow wound, administer creams and ointments, brew medicinal herbal teas. Once the initial lesson was over Speaker dismissed most of the staff, ordering them to go home and meditate on what they had been shown – explaining that the true impact of the lesson wouldn’t kick in until week later.

The few nurses who remained were the ones who, either from trial and error, or from their own families, had learned the basics of healthcare – and with them Speaker re-opened the clinic.

Over the next week the clinic began seeing a steady flow of costumers. Since last time the clinic was open word had evidently spread beyond Firewander, since now poor ponies from across Nexus began appearing.

When the rest of the staff returned, many of them truly surprised of the revelations they had experienced from Speaker’s lesson finally kicking in, Speaker finally changed the clinic’s sign to “Sun and Moon Hospital”, opening up for the upper floors and furnishing them with beds, chairs, small tables and even magic glow-stone lamps.

As part of the upgrade to hospital Cash also revealed part of what he’d been doing. He had bought up most of the buildings around the hospital – setting up a series of small businesses in one to help service the hospital, such as a laundry service, as well as a kitchen to feed the hospital staff and patients where Sullen Hoof found an acquaintance in the form of a skilled chef who seemed relieved to be making good food for ponies who genuinely hadn’t tried such things before.

With full staff, Speaker was able to re-prioritize his use of medical charms, since he no longer needed to use essence to speed up treatment due to having recovery rooms in his hospital. This allowed him to treat far more ponies every day.

It was a week later when the Grey Collection Agency showed up again.

Five ponies this time, a lead mare in a nicely embroidered grey jacket, flanked by four burly stallions with thick muscular legs and strong backs, clad in mercenary-grade lamellar armor, with thick iron horseshoes that clunked loudly against the stone cobble outside and stone floor inside the clinic.

Just after the white-coated mare that was helming the front desk stammered out a call for Speaker that there were ponies to see him, Speaker emerged to the sight of a somewhat familiar looking mare in a nice grey coat, along with her four bodyguards who were menacing the other ponies waiting in the lobby for diagnosis and treatment.

Sighing, Speaker walked past the mare with the grey jacket and stepped up to one of the bodyguards who were glowering at the sickly ponies sitting on the benches: “If you touch them, I will amputate whatever limb you do so with”

The mare was about to raise her voice and likely say something about Speaker having no right to intimidate her bodyguards, but as she drew breath to speak Speaker cleared his throat and pointed to a sign on the wall. It was a sign that Cash had put there, which had already entirely eliminated all the panhandlers, unsolicited petty merchants and scam artists that wanted to sell useless things to or con the hospital. Speaker had at first not entirely agreed with the wording of the sign, but after adding the fine print, he found that it worked remarkably well.

The sign read: “Any and all unsolicited attempts at selling the hospital or its working staff anything will result in unnecessary and un-anesthetized dental surgery” The fine print read: “For legitimate business offers sent inquiries to Cash Charmer” followed by the address of Cash’s office down the street.

The grey-jacketed mare cautiously ran her tongue over her teeth. As she motioned for her goons to leave, Speaker sighed in relief and returned to business as usual.

Over the next few days word spread further of the hospital, and its recovery wards were soon at full capacity. At the same it also became clear that the Grey Collection Agency wasn’t about to let up, as began to shake down Speaker’s employees when they returned to their homes. Only the homeless ponies that Speaker had employed and now also housed in a, all things conserved very nice, barracks-like tenement adjacent to the hospital that he’d had Cash set up, were able to dodge the shakedown.

This ended up with Speaker having to build two more apartment buildings, which took a few days, allowing him to house all of his employees and their extended families. Cash oversaw the management, via more sworn in goons.

Everything seemed good until a few days later when a unicorn monk and several dozen ponies with anti-anathema banners, torches and chants showed up...