Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Having filled herself, Argon and her saddlebags with glow berries Zeph plopped down next to Cedar, who had been rummaging through his mother’s saddle bag to see if anything had been damaged.

“How’s it look?” Asked Zeph as she looked over the small stack of soggy books and bags laying out in front of Cedar.

“All the paper stuff is pretty damaged, but all the metal coins seem to be fine.”

“What are those things, anyway? I’ve seen them a few times in images Argon’s shared with me, but I just don’t get the context at all.”

“Mother told me on the mainland I’d need them to ‘buy’ things. She explained that they are proof of work, and only those who work can get things.”

“Oh, so they're like some kind of identification. So then each coin must indicate that you do a certain job? But there’s a lot of them with the same pictures on them…”

“No, that was what the paper stuff was… The coins are just so you can get things like food.”

“Why would you need proof of work to get food? Every pony needs to eat regardless of if they're working or not.”

“That’s what I said too, but mother said that isn’t how society works.”

“What are you going to do? Not give a pony food? That doesn’t seem like a valid option. Oh, I know! In earth pony society, you must need them to earn junk food! Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of pegasi do the same thing. They’ll only make junk food for ponies who do grueling things.”

“What’s junk food?”

“You know, food made out of junk that you shouldn’t be eating, but ponies love anyway. Like things made out of mostly sugar.”

“I don’t know what sugar is…”

“Super sweet stuff you get from sugar cane.”

“Don’t know what a sugar cane is, either.”

“Huh, wow, guess there’s probably quite a lot of stuff you don’t know, having grown up on an isolated island with just your parents. Anyway, sugar’s like if you take the sweetness out of fruit and get rid of everything else.”

“That sounds strange. I guess mother wanted me to try some though. Most of her saddle bags are just coins.”

“Weird. I mean, a few times I could understand, but every pony knows junk food is called junk for a reason.”

“Maybe coins are used to get something else too?”

“But what else is there?” Zeph felt a tap followed by mental images of ponies handing over coins for vegetables, fruits, bags, glowy things, jewelry, furniture and more. “You make it look like earth ponies require these things for everything.” Argon nodded. “Proof of work for vegetables—really?” Argon nodded. “How does that make any sense? What do ponies who don’t work eat?” Argon made his usual indicator of something being too complex to explain. “Guess we should make sure the coins stay safe if we need them to eat vegetables…” Argon nodded. “So, Cedar, what are you going to do now that we’re on the mainland? Like, do you have any plans?”

“Mother always said I should try and find a nice pony to spend my days with. You seem pretty nice, so I’ll just stick along with you two for as long as you’ll let me.” Cedar gave Zeph a pleading smile.

Zeph raised an eyebrow at the goofy earth pony, wondering if he realized what his mother had actually meant. “Yeah, that’s fine for now. I’m hoping once the fog clears Argon will be able to recognize where we’re at, otherwise I guess we’ll just keep following the compass since we know it points to something some pony had to calibrate it to, so it’s got to be a little important, maybe.”

Hearing a splash, Zeph looked over at the water to see a rock jump up and splash back down.

“Whatever they are, they sure don’t seem to care about us at all. Which is good, since I think we should try and get some sleep here. Why don’t you and Argon get some sleep first and I’ll stay on watch?”

“Much appreciated. I’m quite used to going to sleep right at sundown and after all that swimming I’m more than a might bit tired.”

Zeph watched as Cedar put things back into his mother’s saddlebag, then laid down and seemingly fell asleep instantly, then looked over to her right where she saw Argon staring off into the distance.

“You okay?” Argon looked at her with a weary smile, then looked back out into the distant darkness. The fog had cleared a little, allowing Zeph to make out the light from the brightest star. “You worried about Cozy?” Argon nodded. “I’m sure she’s fine. Cozy is a pretty strange pony. She spends most of her time wandering around dangerous places, usually alone. I asked her why once and she told me because she enjoyed the atmosphere, and other ponies were distracting. So, maybe she just needed a break from us?” Argon nodded as he stared off as if to say, “I’m sure you're right.”

A while later, Zeph nudged Argon to get some sleep, which prompted the bunny to cuddle up next to her and quickly drift off.

Zeph moved her head side to side slowly, watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary, which was practically everything. Strange clicking noises, odd crackling, bizarre whistling from the left, and out right unnerving shadows in the distant fog to her right. Zeph wasn’t a pony prone to giving into feeling scared easily, but she’d be hard pressed not to admit to being more than a little freaked out.

When Argon awoke, he insisted she get some sleep, but Zeph protested, saying it would be better for her just to stay awake in case something happened, but Argon stared her down until she relented and forced herself to lie down and close her eyes. Moments after closing her eyes she was whisked away into an oddly calming dream of her talking with Argon underneath a star filled sky. Waking up to the sound of Cedar getting up, Zeph looked towards Argon, who was wide awake and leaning up against her. For a few moments, she tried to remember what she had talked about with him in her dreams, but the only thing she seemed to be able to recall was the pleasant feelings. Which made her smile and filled her with a sense of excitement to continue on.

With the sky turning bright, the fog mostly gone, and a renewed sense of calm, Zeph was ready for another day of adventure.

After filling up on glow berries once more, the trio made their way away from the entrance of the cave and up a nearby hill were all they could see was dense foggy coastline to the left, an eerie dense forest straight ahead, and sheer cliffs with jagged mountains in the distance to the right.

Pulling out her compass, Zeph looked out over the forest in the direction it pointed. “I know what I said last night, but I don’t know. Should we follow the compass, or should we follow the coastline? Every island has part of the city on the coast. I know they call it the ‘mainland’, but it’s still just an island, right?”

“That’s not how mother explained it to me. The mainland is a vast land that only has coast on one side, and is otherwise wrapped in a forest known as the Everglow.”

“Okay, but on the other side of the forest would just be another coast, right?”

“Mother said the Everglow was the end of the world. She said if you wander too far in you’ll find yourself lost in the Everfog and if you survive while pushing through, you’ll come back out the forest to the mainland.”

“Everfog? That sounds like something you should have mentioned yesterday.”

“We weren’t in a forest, so I didn’t really figure it was relevant. But now that you mention it. The Everfog, as mother described it at least, is a fog so dense you can’t see your own hooves that never lets up and that is filled with shadows that stalk you.”

“Okay, well, last night I saw—a lot of shadows in the direction that still has dense fog. So let’s assume that’s the Everfog and not go any further that way. Which means we have no good coast to follow, unless we want to go over a jagged mountain range… So, guess we’re still following the compass.”