As thanks, the villagers inundated the party with food and supplies that they might (and many they almost assuredly wouldn't) need for their journey. They also gave a travel pass, which would render toll stops null and void. For a while, anyway.

After acquiring the impromptu wagon, travel was made much easier. Having two Filolials (difference in sizes notwithstanding) made the long roads little more than a minor inconvenience. The next morning, however... came with a surprise.

Applejack awoke early, as was her wont, only to find that one of the Filolials was missing.

Rushing back to the cart, fearing the worst, she noticed that there, with Naofumi, was what looked like a small child.

She frowned, then put two fingers to her mouth, whistling shrilly, awakening the other three.

Raphtalia was the first up at that, having the keenest hearing of them all. "OW! Applejack! What was that... for?"

She'd noticed the fourth occupant of the cart, who was then getting three curious looks. "An' weho might you be?" Aplejack queried.

The youngster said, with a blush., "Of course you wouldn't recognize me. Hold on!"

With that and a pufff of smoke, there in the girl's place was the large Filolial they'd come to know.

Naofumi was incredulous. "Filo?!"

Just after that, they made for Castle Town once more.

Along the way, Naofumi used his Leaf Shield to great effect, being able to gain more ingreduents from plants that they occasionaslly stopped near. A passer-by suggested that they might be able to make some good silver as a merchant band.

Naofumi decided to definitely consider that.

When they stopped by the Slave Merchant's tent, explaoining the situation, Beloukas was, oddly, immensely pleased by what he called. "A fine form of a Queen Filolial!" Apparently, a Slave Crest had to be implemented, much to Filo's pained chagrin.

She glared at the slave merchant balefully for the rest of the time that they were there. If looks could kill, he would be ashes. Fortunately for him, he had animals that were FAR more dangerous, so her glare didn't faze him in the slightest.

The next place they went was back to Erhard's smithy. The man cocked an eyebrow upon seeing Filo. "Anoother one? A bit of a lolicon, ain't ya?"

"Guess again." Naofumi returned with an eye roll.

Upon seeing Erhard's two-foot sub sandwich, Filo had requested some, to which the man agreed. "How much could she eat?" he asked rhetorically.

Only to be stunned when Filo transformed, returning her to her base form and effectively shredding the dress she had on. As it turns out, she could easily have eaten the whole sandwich, but she was oddly polite and only took two thirds of it.

Erhard stared in stunned silence for a long moment. Then, recovering, he said, "Oh... kay. It's a good thingIi brought an extra one."

Naofumi chuckled. "We were hoping to find some clothing that doesn't explode when she changes. I'm glad that AJ here thought to buy a few extras. Know where we could find some of that?"

"Well..."

As it turned out, the next thing they needed was Magical Thread, as the tailor Erhard directed them to said. For the purpose, they went to ask the local apothecary/fortune teller/magic shop owner. She introduced herself as Maven(1).

Apparently the next objective in the fetch quest was to find a special kind of crystal. That kind of crystal, when used in a spinning wheel, "feeds" on the mana of the one making the thread, literally making the thread with it.

Fortunately, Maven knew just where to find such a crystal.

Speaking of crystals, Filo, back in her much smaller form, was curious about the crystal ball on the witch's table. "What's this?"

"That's a magical orb. They have various different effects, each a little different from another. Most often it allows you to learn the spell sealed within. I was under the impression that all of the heroes got at least a few."

Naofumi rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation. "Of course. Except for me. And Applejack here is new."

Maven frowned as Filo continued her line of questioning with, "Well... what does this one do?"

"Oh, primarily it detects your magical affinity. Would you like to find out what that is?"

As they travelled along the road, Filo sang joyfully about her newfound affinity for Wind magic. Much to everyone else's mild amusement, more than annoyance.

Raphtalia, as it turned out, had an affinity for Shadow and Illusion magic. Considering her subspecies, this made perfect sense.

Naofumi himself had the affinity for Healing, Support and even some Nature magic.

Applejack, to no one's great surprise, had an affinity for Earth magic.

Anyway,

On the way, Maven talked to Naofumi about recent events in the town and those in the area. There were several problems that needed solving.

A distance southward there was a town that was under threat of starvation.

In another area, a greedy baron was sucking the income out of the town, taxing the people ridiculous amounts, but making sure that they had no place else they could go.

In yet another, a Dragon had attacked a village, as it had decided to take up residence in a cave near there.

The three other Heroes had gone to these locations to solve those problems. 'How much do you want to bet that they just make things worse?' Naofumi thought to himself.

Soon, they arrived at the cavern they were looking for. Enterng it, they were surprised to find a box that used to contain soemthing round-ish. Clearly someone had already come and taken whatever this treasure was.

Proceeding further, they found a large area filled with crystal formations that were almost crackling with mana. It made the hairs on the back of Applejack's neck bristle.

Sitting in front of the largest formation was a leonine/serpentine creature.

Maven whispered, "That's a Nue! They're quite dangerous. This one's on the small side, as they go, but we still should be careful."

Raphtalia was just finishing subvocalizing a spell. When next they looked, she'd faded out of existence, it seemed. She tried to sneak around the creature, hoping to stealth-kill it, but at the last moment, it turned toward her and its snake-tail spat a burst of electricity at her. She just barely avoided the attack, but unfortunately her stealth spell was... well, dispelled.

Naofumi was the first to ask, "Huh? How did it see her?"

Filo was quick to answer, "Well, it didn't see her; it heard her. They have very good hearing."

Naofumi thought aloud, "Good hearing, eh? Let's see if we can't make its strength its weakness. {Voice Gengar Shield!}"

Naofumi's shield took on a rounded form with what looked like long ears and short horns. He instructed, "Everyone, cover your ears! Now, Filo! Shout into this as loud as you can!"

Applejack backed up a fair distance and covered her ears.

Following orders, Filo indeed shouted. "YAAAAOOOOHHH!!!"

Blood erupted from the Nue's ears and it howled in pain. Reacting quickly, Applejack and Raphtalia attacked, dealing heavy damage to the Nue, but not killing it. Filo went with a jump kick, cracking the Nue's skull and knocking it to the ground.

Maven said, "Get away from it, you three!" then, raising her staff, she incanted, "{As source of thy power, I order thee; decipher the laws of nature and consume my target with searing flames! Fireball!!}"

Sure enough, a ball of flame issued from her staff and when it hit the Nue, it exploded, blasting the creature. After the dust settled, all that was left of the Nue was the snake tail and a couple of fangs.

Naofumi immediately claimed the tail, feeding it to his Shield, unlocking the Lightning and Night Terror shields.

Applejack fed her Weapon one of the fangs, unlocking Lightning Fists. She gave the other (the larger of the two) to Maven, as she was, after all, the one who had delivered the final blow.

Naofumi went and took a chunk of the crystal formation that the Nue was guarding, nodding to himself shortly. "We have what we came for. Let's go."

Back in Castle Town (again), they made their way back to Maven's shop. Bringing the crystal over to a spinning wheel, she placed it by the spindle. Filo was curious as to how it worked, so she volunteered to go first. As she spun, the thread came out as a pure alabaster white. After getting about six skeins in, Filo was beginning to get tired. Maven explained that that was because her magical energy was being drained to make the thread, and that a good meal would fix that right up. She managed to get in a seventh, just barely.

Applejack then came up, volunteering to go next. Her mana thread came out as an alternating orange and green. Oddly enough, each skein flip-flopped in colour shortly before taking on one or the other. She also managed to get five and a half before starting to tire.

Raphtalia went next and her thread came out a pole-silver(2). She managed four skeins of that.

When Naofumi decide to get in on the whole thing, he managed five skeins of a verdant green.

Thanking Maven and even giving her a skein of each colour to show their thanks, they left. Before they got too far, Maven said, "Oh! I almost forgot! Catch!" so saying, she threw a metallic charm that was in the shape of a curled-up dragon.

To explain, she said, "That has two purposes. For one, it will protect you from flames. Secondly, when the next wave comes, I will be able to help you fight. This is my world too; I can't just sit idly by while the world crumbles around me!"

Naofumi grinned, donning the charm. "Thank you. This will come in handy, I'm sure."

The tailor(3) was rather pleased with the results. She got to work right away, making outfits for each of them, going to it with gusto. Clearly she was proud of her skill.

At length, the job was done, and she wiped her brow with satisfaction as she passed Filo her completed outfit to try on first. It was a white dress with a blueberry coloured bow.

The tailor put her hands on her hips with pride. "I put my best effort into this, and I must say, I think I did a HELL of a job!" She proceeded to explain the finer points of the outfit. "Like all of the outfits I made, here, this will repel dirt and grime and is extra durable. You could walk through waist-high mud and when you came out it'd be just as clean as when you went in. I also applied an Iron Body rune (X4), so it'll be extra protective AND look amazing!"

Naofumi whistled with approval. "A hydrophobic material. Nice!"

"Hydrophobic?" the rest of the party queried in unison.

Naofumi facepalmed at that. "(Sigh) Basically it repels liquids and other such things that would stain it."

"Ooooohhh!"

The tailor was quite amazed when Filo gave the outfit the final test, transforming right then and there. Sure enough, the dress transformed to become a simple blue bow around Filo's lower neck/upper chest area.

Raphtalia tried hers on next. It was a silver and red outfit, with a look reminiscent of scale mail armour(4), and would likely be just as effective.

Naofumi's was a little different. It had a sort of exotic look, evoking more the image of a Ranger than anything else(5).

Finally, Applejack's was also a sort of dress in an orange and green colour(6). She wasn't exactly one for... haute couture, as Rarity would put it, but she couldn't deny the craftsmanship was excellent. 'Ah wonder if she'd like to meet up with Rarity...' she thought to herself. 'They'd probably get along as smooth as milk and cream.'

The tailor could see that Applejack wasn't as enthused about her dress as expected. "Oh! I should mention that yours is a little special. There's an extra function built in. Activate that by saying "Armour Up"."

When Applejack did so, the outfit shifted to look more like actual armour.

The tailor quickly explained, "I could tell that you're a tomboy, but one that can at least somewhat appreciate a quality product. I thought that this'd be the best way to show both sides of you."

Applejack smiled and nodded with approval. "Ah'm not much for anythin' too frou-frou, but this's purty good work!"

The woman grinned at that, but Applejack was quick to add, "Don' go gittin' yerself a swollen head 'bout it, though. Keep up the good work an' Ah'm sure yer gonna be jus' fine."

Naofumi nodded, quite inclined to agree. "Thank you. These will come in handy."

Leaving what was left of the magical thread as payment, the party left.

Author's Note

1: She doesn't have an official name, so I'm going with this.
2: Yes, apparently that's a colour.
3: Again, I don't think she's ever given a name.
4: Something to this effect.
5: Something like this. 6: Like this and something between 4 and 5 here, respectively.