Nathaniel stepped out into the cooling air of dusk and paused to take in his surroundings. After a moment of quiet contemplation (and making sure Daisy Chain was nearby), he began to look for anyone that seemed to be heading away from the housing tents area and towards what he hoped would be a bar or tavern; or whatever folks in this world called a ‘place of libations’. After a few minutes of observation he spotted what seemed to be a few off-duty guards talking about the recent monster attacks and the increase of their shift overlap with obvious distaste. Of course, following cranky and armed combatants in the dark felt rather suicidal.

‘If these guards are anything like the ones from home, then a drink after a long post is probably a given,’ the man thought. ‘But with how tense everyone is I may end up on the end up on spear point if I skulk around these damn alleys at night.’

With a quiet *poof* next to his ear, Nathaniel head Discord whisper, “Fear not trepid adventurer, I shall guide you to the ballasts of booze, the mecca of malt liquor, the almighty altar of alcohol!”

Turning his head, the boy saw a miniature draconequus dancing the Melborne Shuffle above his right shoulder with a silly grin on its face. Nathan schooled his expression to hide the relief at seeing the chaotic being again, but the feeling in his chest was there all the same; much to his shame. “So, Discord rejoins the party?” Nathaniel asked, pointing to the same text floating at the top of his visual field. “No offense big buy, but maybe a disguise would keep everyone in town from freaking out; assuming your reputation is anything like what you’ve explained.”

“Naturally dear boy, I will be taking a new spin on an old classic.” With that, Discord snapped his claw and after being engulfed in a cloud of nut and bolts, they sprayed forth to reveal a small mechanical owl of obvious theatrical origins instead of his usual chaotic appearance where he perched on the man’s shoulder.

“Wow, Bubo from Clash of the Titans? Man, I loved that movie when I was a kid,” Nathaniel couldn’t help exclaim with a grin.

“Indeed. I found the form to be quite charming myself, as well as directly useful to our quest considering flight, encyclopedic knowledge, and the ability to carry messages of course,” the mechanical owl said through a small speaker in its chest. The voice was no longer Discord’s, but Nathaniel knew he’d heard it before, from somewhere familiar.

“I…recognize that voice form something. It’s on the tip of my tongue too,” Nathan said while looking over the disguised chaos lord. “It fits the look though, very sharp. I can just hear you insulting the enemy now with cultured barbs. ‘You’re a chromosome deficient menace to all living creatures and societies you cur,’” Nathaniel said whilst posing with one hand on his chest and the other held out and upward as if delivering lines from a play.

“Yes or when you defeat some villain I could say, ‘If one dances, one must pay the piper’” Discord replied, as if using a direct quote.

Then it clicked in the boy’s head. “Oh snap, that’s V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole! That’s totally badass! Roddy McDowell just has one of those voices you want to use in heated diplomacy meetings…or prior to vicious bar fights,” Nathan said while chuckling.

“Indeed. Henceforth, I shall use the name Archimedes. It’s both stylish and classic,” the owl pronounced.

Nathaniel laughed. “Sure, sure…just stop the reference train and let me off. Anyway, drinks and relaxation before bed. I’ll follow your lead…Archie,” he finished with a grin.

Archimedes gave a long-suffering sigh. “I suppose I deserve that, for one reason or another. I’ll just send the directions to your Pimp-Boy. As for you my fractured friend…” The owl looked over at Daisy Chain for a moment while he considered.

Nathan shrugged as he turned to leave. “Why not just send her to your girlfriend, the cake princess? You know, so she knows you care~,” he teased.

The owl managed to somehow ruffle his mechanical feathers and manage a look of outrage despite his metallic nature. “Wha-? Girlfriend indeed! There is no way it would ever- *ahem* That is to say, you’ve no idea what you’re talking about! At any rate, sending a fragment of myself to Celestia would probably be prudent,” Archimedes said before grumbling in a low whisper, “Pfah, girlfriend he says…” With a wave of one of his wings, the owl sent Daisy Chain off to Canterlot in a small poof of glitter.

Nathan clapped his hands with a chuckle. “Enough lollygagging pal, let’s hit the trail and knock back some suds.” Nathaniel proceeded to talk toward the arrow his Pimp-Boy suggested for reaching the tavern. After scrolling through his menu for a moment, he noticed something interesting. “So we’re heading to ‘The Bit and the Barrel’, huh? Nice. I like the sound of it.”

Archie/Discord clicked his beak. “Yes, for a mobile place of business, they have a surprising amount of positive reputation among merchants and travelers alike. It may have something to do with them keeping any brawls to nothing more than a bloody nose or two, and they try to keep their patrons out of lockup if possible.”

Nathan slowed his pace a bit. “Oh man, I’m…going to be quite the attention getter, being the only human around,” he sighed. “At least I hope they keep it to insults and away from town lynching.” The boy’s attitude seemed to drop a bit at facing a crowd of new races.

Archimedes chuckled in his cultured voice, “Fear not young Nathaniel, I’ve not brought you all this way to let you succumb to drunken knife wounds or the hangman’s noose. The people of Equus may be wary of the strange and different but they are rarely outright hostile.” The pair looked around at the townsfolk still out during sundown and as advertised, their looks were more curiosity than loathing.

Within a few minutes, the two stood before the doors of ‘The Bit and the Barrel’, said doors being classic saloon doors straight out of a Spaghetti Western. Nathaniel took a deep breath and started to step forward when he was halted by a metallic wing.

“Hold on friend,” the owl said. “First, let’s change your ensemble a bit. As dashing as I might find your terrycloth robe and kitten-tastic backpack, we might want something a bit more…”

“Manly?” The man offered.

“Down to Earth, was what I was going to say,” the owl continued with a sideways glance. Archimedes looks around for a moment and then pointed to a nearby alley with a wing. “Let’s relocate over there a spell and see if we can bring out your more glamorous side.”

Gulping loudly, Nathaniel moved to the alleyway. “I’m not sure I like the use of that word, in reference to me or anything I might wear.” Soon the two were standing in the long shadows of dusk, the ‘alley’ surprisingly clear of debris and litter.

Archimedes clicked his beak. “As mister Covey has said, ’Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.’ Surely, you can trust your old friend in a little fashion adjustment?”

Nathan scoffed, “Yeah, ‘old friend’ but let’s not forget who it was that picked these…accoutrements originally.” He gripped the lapel of his baby blue bathrobe and pulled it away from his body to punctuate the statement.

The mechanical owl slowly blinked at Nathan, as if looking at a particularly slow dullard. “It was funny then, it’s not going to be as funny now if you get beaten up in the tavern for looking like a dropout from Clown College. Seriously, you of all people know the importance of comedic-” but was cut off when his head was covered by an old banana peel with a wet slap, dropped from a second story window above.

“Timing,” the boy added through his stifled laughing. “Yeah, I suppose I do.” Nathan stopped and glanced upward in confusion. “Wait, how the heck do these things have two stories!? I thought they were mobile and-“he stopped himself as the owl flicked the offending garbage off his head with a murderous glare to the window above.

“Magic,” they both said in unison, Nathaniel’s voice loaded with grim resignation.

“I ain’t gotta explain shit,” the man groaned as an afterthought. “I thought I’d have gotten use to this nonsense by now but you do keep the horror nice and fresh.”

Archimedes posed as if addressing a proud nation, one wing raised in triumph while turning his head to the side and upwards. “I do it for posterity of course. I did promise you would see some amazing things on this journey, did I not?” The owl resumed his normal stance and looked over at his ‘hero’. “Don’t let something so trivial blow your mind, or when we get to the really amazing stuff you’ll be reduced to a vegetative state.”

Nathaniel sighed and filled it with as much despair as possible, “Such misfortune…” The boy then half-smiled and looked over at the feathered golem. “Alright, fine. Enough worrying about my sanity, you’d just tell me it’s overrated anyhow. Let’s make with the threads Archie.”

The owl flew a few feet away from Nathaniel and looked at the boy. “Try not to move too much, if you could.” With that, he waved his wings in some kind of alien pattern and in a cloud of magic; Nathan found his wardrobe had been altered a bit.

His baby blue terrycloth robe was now a deep black and had morphed a bit to become a long woolen duster. It was still soft cloth, but the outside was now a heavy-knit shell and the lining seemed to be some kind of black satin. Shiny black buttons marched up the left side of his new coat and the right side showed matching button holes. The frill on the back lay across his neck to his upper arms and made his already impressive build into a chiseled mass, complete with squared shoulders. The technicolor kid’s cat-pack he had before was now a black pleather knapsack one might find on a Pony Express carrier. It hung on his right hip complete with a big brass buckle with the strap slung across the opposite shoulder under his duster; making it almost completely hidden by the new coat. Seeing it on the upper edge of his vision, Nathaniel reached up to feel the brim of a newly acquired hat and pulled it off to see it was of Old West make. The black felt hat seemed to have been treated with something to make it waterproof and the thin black ribbon around it was in fine condition.

Nathaniel whistled. “Wow man, I look like a badass that walked off the set of Tombstone. I like it!” He replaced the hat and made some adjustments to the new clothes while turning left and right to get a better look at himself.

The metal automaton flew up to perch on the boy’s shoulder once more. “See what I said about trust? I figured you could use something a bit more stylish to wow the locals, as it were.”

Nathaniel grinned at the bird. “You keep this up and I just might start to like you D.” Nathan adjusted his hat and walked towards the saloon doors. In a passable John Wayne accent he said, “Well then partner, let’s saddle up to the bar and get us a drink.”

With that, he stepped into the tavern eager to take a good look around.

Author's Note

Updates
Allies: Reuinted with Discord (major). Discord (minor) sent to Canterlot.
Armor: Black Wool Duster, Black Felt Hat
Gear: Black Mail Satchel

I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.
- Johnny Cash

'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.
- ZZ Top

Yeah, it's a short chapter, but what can I say? I think of this as both a primer to get the pump moving again and let folks know that this tale is still alive.
New Year, New Chapter!