Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Hearing Amber’s voice call out to her, Flare opened her eyes and sprang awake. Looking around, it was still dark, but there was a strange whitish glow in the distance.

“What do you think?” asked Amber.

“What am I looking at?”

“I don’t really know. It’s a whole lot of light, but it’s not natural. This isn’t near the Everglow, so I’m guessing earth ponies have magic now?”

“Which means?”

“Not sure yet. Just wanted you to be awake, aware, and in costume as we pulled in. We should hit land about first light.”

“Understood.”

Flare made her way over to the storage area and donned the outfit Inkwell had apparently made for her to be able to pass for a young earth pony. After struggling to get the bulky outfit on for quite some time, she made her way back over to Amber.

“How do I look?”

“Like a scrawny little earth pony. Just remember not to act too mature. Stay near me and act shy, and I think we should be fine.”

“As heavy as this outfit is, I don’t think I’m going to be carrying much with me.”

“We shouldn’t need much. I still have quite a few coins from when I was here last. So we should be able to buy whatever we need as we make our way through. Can I see the waystone again?”

Flare pulled the waystone out of her pocket, thought of finding Zeph, and held it out for Amber to see.

Amber sighed heavily. “She’s even further inland now than she was. I’m amazed inland even goes that far back. I’d swear that crazy pony is in the Everglow on the opposite side of the mainland.”

“Which means?”

“It’s going to be — a long walk. Unless she starts moving back towards us, we’ll be on the road for days. Especially since, unlike the ocean, we can’t travel in a straight-ish line towards her. Our first objective is going to be to make our way into town and acquire a map. After that, we’ll plot a route and make things up as we go.”

“Can I take my skates?”

“I guess? I don’t really remember earth ponies skating, but I also wasn’t paying that much attention to young earth ponies when I was here. I’m sure they have skates; they’re pretty simple technology, and something young pegasi love a lot, so yeah. Just don’t get heartbroken if they get lost, or we have to leave them somewhere.”

“I won’t. I brought my backup pair.”

Feeling nervous, Flare paced around the boat until Amber needed her help to pull it ashore and hide it.

Not too long after the pair started making their way towards where the light had been coming from when it was dark, they came across a large flat black roadway.

Flare walked up on the road and smiled. “This is perfect for skating!”

“Seems wasteful to have such a large concrete… ? Kind of the wrong color, not quite the right texture, but it certainly looks poured… anyway, roadway out here. I also can’t figure out these wooden poles with cables hanging from them. I’d swear I hear a humming sound coming from them, too.”

As Flare skated slowly beside Amber, they started hearing a rumbling noise coming from behind them. Looking back, Flare could see a large metal and glass box with a big flat wagon attached to the back coming towards them at incredible speeds. Getting off the roadway, the pair watched as the contraption neared.

As it got closer, the whole device slowed down until it came to a stop and an earth pony riding inside of it pushed up his dark-colored glasses and looked at them with a big smile. “Need a ride, ma’am?”

“We’re going into town.” Replied Amber with a notable amount of hesitance in her voice.

“You’re in luck. That’s the only place this road goes. My name’s Ed by the way, and you are?”

“Amber, and this is my daughter, Flare.”

Flare waved awkwardly to the massive pony, who motioned for them to get in. Once the pair was on the platform, Flare braced herself, not really sure what to expect. At first, it started moving slowly, but soon she was watching the landscape go by faster than even when she skated downhill at full speed.

“So what’s a pair of lovely ladies like yourselves doing walking around all the way out here?”

“My daughter and I are traveling around seeing the sights.”

“Ain’t much to see around here, especially walking-wise. If you’re new to the area, I’d suggest going out of town the opposite way down the six. Lot of interesting tourist things over there. There’s the Emerald City Wharf, Daisy Bloom’s garden park, and a whole lot of good hiking a little further out. Of course, I’m probably just rambling on about things you already know since all that stuff’s in the map app.”

“We are looking for a map. Where can we find it?”

“That’s a question… Usually, it’s on the home screen, unless you deleted it by accident. What model of mobile you using, TriStar or RG?”

“Neither?”

“Oh — I see, you’re one of those what you call em Libre ponies. In that case, I can’t really help you. I’m a TriStar guy myself. Libre sounds cool. I like the concept, but just don’t have time. I want something that just works. Plus, I’m a big fan of Starshine. I think she’s the most brilliant pony of our era.” Ed laughed awkwardly.

As massive buildings started coming into view, Flare couldn’t help but stare in awe as she suddenly found herself in what looked like the image she had briefly seen with Zeph and Argon. Soon after the road merged with several others, Flare found herself mesmerized as she watched other ponies zooming by on three-wheeled metal carts.

“How is everything moving? No pony seems to be pedaling?” Asked Flare, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.

“Kids have the darndest questions, don’t they? Mind if I take this one, ma’am? I always enjoy explaining autos to kids. Especially when they’re this young.”

“Be my guest.”

“Autos run on electricity stored in a big battery, which are kind of like a giant lunchbox filled with food for the auto. When you press the back pedal, the battery sends electricity to the motor, which is like the auto’s legs. The motor spins, turning the wheels and making the auto move. An electronic ‘brain’ called the controller decides how much electricity the motor needs, making the auto go faster or slower depending on how much you press the pedal. And when the battery gets empty, you just plug it in to recharge, like you would your mobile.”

Flare feeling no less confused than she started, looked over to Amber, who seemed just as lost as she was. Not wanting to seem too out of place, Flare forced herself to pretend like she understood. “That explains so much, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.”

Not long after, Flare noticed they were slowing down and in no time were stopped beside a large park area.

“This is Transfer Park. You can get to about anywhere in the city from here. Hope you two enjoy your time visiting!”

Getting out of the auto, Flare noticed several ponies with glowing things like she had found and shown Zeph. “I wonder if those glowing flat things aren’t what he was calling a mobile? I remember the one I found a while back, having a picture of a map on it before it went dark.”

“If so, how do we get one? We need a map, and if that’s what they look like now… He said there were three options: TriStar, RG, and Libre. I like the sound of the TriStar ones ‘just working’ which means we need to find a market stand or shop for them.”

Flare looked around her. Noticing a building with three stars on it, she pointed it out to Amber.

“Now, if that’s the place we need to go, that would be convenient.”

Making their way closer to the building, they could see the glowing things on display inside. Entering the building, they were met by a mare wearing a clean, well-fitted black attire.

“Welcome to TriStar. How may I assist you today?”

“We want to buy one of your… mobiles.”

“What model are you interested in?”

“How much gold does each one cost?”

“Gold?”

“Silver? I’ll need change then.”

Flare watched as Amber appeared to pull a bag out of her saddlebags and hold out a hoof-full of gold coins.

“Uhm, I’m sorry, ma’am, but we don’t accept collectible coins here.”

“Where can I exchange them for something you do accept?”

“The pawn shop on Main Street is the only place that comes to mind, but I’m sure there are others.”

“How do we get there?”

“You can just search for it in the map app.”

“Do you have instructions that don’t require a mobile, given that we don’t have one yet?

“Oh — Uhm, S-sure… let me just look it up real quick and I’ll write the route down for you.”

The mare walked over to a nearby counter, made some strange facial gestures in front of her mobile before writing something down and handing it to Amber.

“Why did you make all those weird faces at your mobile?” inquired Flare.

The mare smiled at Flare. “TriStar mobiles, unlike others, use facial gesture tracking to navigate through the device. It’s much faster and more precise. You feel a little weird at first, but once you’re used to it, it’s a great system.”

After Amber thanked the mare, the pair made their way back outside.

“I want to know things, but I feel like every time a pony explains something to me, I understand it even less than before I asked.” commented Flare softly, trying to ensure no pony besides Amber could hear her.

“I’m right there with you, but I can’t ask anything without potentially causing issues. At least since you look young, ponies seem to think it’s cute when you ask.”

As Flare followed Amber through the city, the pair did their best to mimic the other ponies around them as they followed the route. Upon reaching the Easy Come, Easy Go, Pawn Shop, they made their way in and up to a counter where Amber placed down a large amount of gold coins and asked the stallion how much he would exchange them for.

“That’s — a lot of old world gold coins… Let me check it to make sure it’s real.”

After touching each coin with a series of devices, the stallion counted out several stacks of paper in front of Amber.

“They’re all real, so store policy is twenty percent below spot value.”

“Is this enough to get a TriStar Mobile?” inquired Amber, causing the Stallion to laugh bombastically before walking over to a nearby counter to pull out a mobile and place it on the counter by the slips of paper.

“Store policy is twenty below spot, but tell you what, I’ll include the latest TriStar mobile on the house.”

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure, ma’am. All I need from you is to sign this form, stating that you understand that this exchange is nonrefundable, and you’re good to go.”

After signing the paper, Amber picked up the paper slips and put them in her bag, then picked up the mobile and led Flare back to a secluded spot before handing the device over to her.

“What do you want me to do with it?”

“You sounded like you knew what to do with it.”

“Uhm… Not really, I just found a glowing one… Argon’s the one who knew how to use it.”

“Well, that’s a problem…”