It Takes All Kinds [private]

For the first time in a while, Sugary well and truly looked at Kimi and chuckled lightheartedly. "Yes, ma!" The comment was a bit ironic, but he really did take her word for what it was and ate some more while thinking about her question.

"Hmmm... Yes, and no... There are nefarious sorts alright, but those tend to be few and far in between. Like our old friends from Manehatten, for example... But there's other kinds of work to do for sure, if you happen to be asking what I think you're asking. Hunting for the occasional wild beast or dangerous creatures for example; Solid work to be sure. Then there's bodyguarding, bounty hunting -though fairly hard to come by-, and in my case I also would do courier services. Among other things, but that's the gist of it."

Kimi only shifted a glance at him when he exclaimed 'Yes, ma' and then promptly resorted to shaking her head and returning to gazing out the window. Her ears twitched and perked up some as she listened to him, but then lowered down by the end of it. "That doesn't sound exactly promising." well she figured she could just think of other thing's she can do with her abilities to acquire money in this world. Now like there are many 'earth ponies' with the same abilities as she. Though she could just dabble in trying to find the work, no matter how far and few there are in this world. Well in due time she'll have to deal with it, she does need to figure out how to get the things she would need to try and get back home after all and if that requires money to get then so be it. With nothing else really for her to do, her mind just hopped topics rather quickly. "So that is how you survive in this world? Being a delivery stallion?"

It only took a moment; Just that one gaze to make Sugary be further reminded of his family. As it were, he thought for a moment he had upset Kimi again when she shook her head. But he would first focus on the topic of jobs. He stopped eating for now and looked to her even if she wasn't staring back. "I'm willing to do various jobs, but having a ship to make trips for making deliveries at competitive prices has its perks. As honest as honest work can get, really... So all the more reason to do you-know-what... But I have done deliveries on my own legs too. This bag of mine can hold a fair bit by itself, so it's good for those hard to reach places... By the way, sorry. You sounded like my mother and sister earlier... Looked like them too with that shake."

His answer was a fair answer, a reasonable one that she couldn't fault him for. There are times where one must do, what one must in order to live. She recalled years ago when she first became a shinobi the kind's of mission's she had to do in order to 'gain experience'. Really they were quite the joke, chasing after cats, cleaning after the elderly, house sitting. As unexpected as shinobi jobs could get, she's done 'em. Though a little tiny voice inside her would admit that she didn't really mind it, it did help her for the time that she needed it.

She nodded her head to what Sugary said and then looked at him when he apologized. Arching a brow and tilting her head as she was a little confused, though quickly figured out what it was he was apologizing for. So he has a family... Someone that he can lean back and rely on if thing's ever gotten too difficult in a sense. "No need to apologize." she stated. "You should worry more about eating than having to talk to me. Go on, munch away. I'm not going anywhere." she finished her cup again and then stared at the empty glass. It really wasn't doing anything for her, she was really just drinking it out of habit. The pill's in her body were still working in full. She would estimate there was less than 24 hours left of the effect on her body.

Sugary smiled lightly, seemingly content in knowing Kimi wasn't as upset as he thought she was. He really didn't want to make either of their days sour so long as he could avoid it. And so he ate in peace...

Eventually, the food would be consumed... He was satisfied... He stared at Kimi... He thought... He spoke... "... I think I'll go back to the room and meditate. Practice a bit of magic while I'm at it... Care to join me?" He then waved over at the nearest waiter to get the food, and waited on her reply before doing what he intended as he wiped his hands and mouth.

Kimi looked to the window while Sugary ate. After he was done and stated his offer, Kimi shifted a glance at him. "No, that's quite alright. You go and do what you need to do." she declined his offer. While she didn't mind meditating and she herself normally had to do it in order to access her senjutsu, sage technique, right now that was the last thing she wanted to do. Just sit there and do nothing except mind exercises, it really wasn't any different to what she was doing now.

"I'll just sit here watching the scenery." she looked back out the window, the scenery was quite nice, even though it did remind her of places back home that weren't as pleasant. She was definetly homesick. She wondered just how much time there was left before they would arrive at Ponyville, it would be nice to have a change of setting.

"Very well... I'll leave the door unlocked, of course." Sugary nodded to Kimi, acknowledging her own request, and left the dining car... with a mild bit of haste as the elderly mare from earlier was watching him like a hawk from accross the room.

Rather than think, he would do exactly as intended and cleared his mind slowly after entering their room and sat on his mattress. From outside, mild colors might be seen from under the door as he used his magic slowly and fluidly. Should one peek in, they'd be me with the sight of a very focused Unicorn, seemingly more aware in only the magic than anything else...

Kimi nodded her head to what Sugary said and she kept her same position. She would stay there for a short while longer as the waiter came and picked up what was left behind on the table. Her mind wandered to thoughts of home while she gazed out the window. It didn't last long as she had gotten out the booth and then headed off to use the bathroom. All that water she had been drinking had certainly did well to go through her systems.

After finishing in the bathroom and thoroughly washing her hands, she would walk back to the dining car. She did stop for a moment just outside of their cabin and stared at the door, she felt the energy swirling inside there was no way she couldn't sense that. She wondered if she should enter or not, she had pondered on it for a full minute before she just shook her head and went back to the dining car. However, when she had returned the booth she normally sat at was taken by a family. She could have sat someplace else, but she kinda liked that booth, so she decided against sitting anywhere else and decided in the meantime she should just walk the train again. It would be nice to stretch her leg's some instead of just sitting in the same position for hours.

Time would pass and that's how Kimi spent it, walking throughout the train, the parts of the train she was allowed to be at, at least. Eventually she found a nice spot that was against the railing that was in between Car 7 and Car 8. She leaned against the railing and enjoyed the breeze that hit her much better here than inside the dining car. Even feeling the sunlight bask upon her felt so much better than feeling it through the window. This place is filled with so much natural energy. And she would be in this location up until they would finally arrive at their next stop.

At some point, several of the attendants would be passing by each and every car, ringing small bells that made a pleasant but noticeable sound all throughout while they made an announcement. "All passenger! Repeat, all passengers! We'll be making our half-point stop in Ponyville very soon! To those that have to unboard in this location, please remember that you have two hours after complete stop and promting to leave the train, or leave and return. Please make sure you have account of all your belongings..."

By the time the train had come to a slow and a stop, many of the passengers would make effort to look at Ponyville for various reasons: admire the simplistic nature of the town, look for relatives, and just plain look at a certain tree-structure that stood out from a distance.

As for Sugary, he'd eventually come out of the room he was in, looking for Kimi to see if she would join him as intended, and seeming much more relaxed than before...

Kimi had taken notice of the bells that were being run by the Train attendants informing everyone that they were arriving at the halfway point. Kimi kept to where she was and only listened to what was being said inside the cars. Her ears twitched quite quickly as she listened. She then looked over the railing to see that Ponyville was indeed coming close. The tracks would come right through the middle of town at an angle as the tracks themselves would continuing south on the continent.

From what Kimi could see on one side of the train she was able to notice large and numerous amounts of farmland, and some houses as well. This place held it's own quaint charm, the homes being made mostly of wood and hay. It was quite appealing to the eyes really, the colors were so bright that they would swallow you, but calming all together. When she turned around to look over the railing that was behind her, she was able to see more of the town itself. More of the houses neatly placed creating three large roads throughout ponyville. Though they all seemed to have converged at the end where the large Crystal Tree castle was located. It was really hard to miss as it was the only thing that stuck out and didn't blend in with the rest of the town.

the only other thing that had stuck out was the tower erected in the center of town. The town itself had such life to it as one can see many ponies out and about on their daily chore. Children running about and playing, Kimi had even taken notice of a small trio that donned a deep red cloak and were running about.

This did look quite interesting to Kimi and she was more than glad to just get off the train and stretch her legs for a while. She took note of the thing's that stuck out as they were the easiest to remember. Kimi glanced up just a moment and she had spotted a grey mare with a brown messenger bag filled with something flying over head, she had blonde hair and donned a blue hat. Kimi only blinked at this and then shrugged as she figured it would be best to locate Sugary.

When she found Sugary she walked up to him. "So where to first?"

For the most part, Sugary was quite at ease with being at Ponyville again after some time, but when the gray and blond Pegasi passed by overhead, he seemed perhaps unusually wary to her, but not the particular trio of younglings, so Kimi might think that his first response was an odd one. "Well, I can tell you one thing... Best to keep your distance from that mailmare when she's on the job, so not here would be a good start. Nice gal, clumsy flier... But a bit more seriously, we could go to the local park. As great a place as any for stretching, but you can't go wrong with such an open filed... Unless you'd rather start off with just a walk through town? Who knows? Maybe you'll see something else you like?" Sugary knew the budget was severely limited, but even he could not completely rule out getting a few extra things if needed.

Kimi took notice of his...odd response when he took notice of the mailmare in the sky. Kimi had only casually glanced up as a sort of a 'what's he reacting' to response. She looked back to him when he began to inform her of the rather dangerously clumsy mailmare, which brought up the question in her mind as to why she's the mail pony in the first place? Though she didn't say it, Kimi only nodded her head to Sugary. She glanced about as she was given the option to choose on where to go first. While the offer to the local park was rather a juicy offer, there was something she wanted to go to more. While it may seem a little bit cliche she looked at him. "Where are the local business's located?" her cheeks tinted red just slightly as she looked at him with an attempted serious gaze. she normally wasn't the type to enjoy going shopping, but there was something she wanted to get that she herself didn't have, rather the one she had she left it at home.

Sugary briefly pondered if he was looking at a blush on Kimi's face, she was ill, or if he was just seeing things. He actually had to pull back a wee bit and blink a few times because she looked at him a bit too seriously all of a sudden. "Er... Well, there are several stores around the town, but many of them can be easily found closer to the main plaza near the Mayor's building. We can go there right now if you want but... you feeling okay?"

Kimi looked away quickly and crossed her arms. "Yes, I'm fine, just lead the way." she stated as she held her stance on not looking at him at the moment. She personally felt quite embarrassed about wanting to go shopping being the first thing to do when they arrived in a new town. Normally she would prefer scouting the village, knowing the sights and remembering it's layout just incase, but what had been bugging her the most was the need to comb her hair. While she did a fairly good job at finger combing it, it still didn't feel right and over time that just really, really bugged her. She currently just had her mane tied back into a ponytail, so it was a cheap method of hiding the problems she wanted to cover, it probably also didn't help that she was standing outside the train when it was moving so it added some frizz to it. But she had finger comb the frizz away and hid it in a ponytail until she would be able to get a proper comb to fix it. Plus to get out any knots that might have formed last sine she showered.

Sugary briefly scratched his head in thought, genuinely puzzled as to Kimi's sudden change in mood. But since she did seem alright, and she didn't seem upset in particular, he just shrugged and conceeded. "Will do... Oh, and have a good look at the flowers that grow here. I'm sure they'll be much nicer than anything a swamp or a concrete city can provide." He smiled at her lightly, hoping that he hit a stroke of wisdom in directly pointing out the flora in an effort to ease her spirits while he began to make his way to the main plaza.

Since he didn't quite know what she wanted, he simply walked towards his intended destination, waiting on her to possibly see something that interested her fro the signs or windows that showed what some of the stores sold.

Kimi still refused to state her reason why she wanted to head to the area where the stores were, stubborn is as stubborn does. She would follow Sugary when he would start walking and would take heed in his words about paying attention to the flora of the place. Though, to her surprised, she recognized a lot of the flowers that were around. Though she may have spotted a few here and there that she never seen. Then again when she thought back to the plants in her world, she only shivered at the thought of the monstrous flora that were back home. Though that aside, flora's always nice to look at. "Very well." was her only respond to what he said about the flora.

Though her eyes wandered around to more than just the flora, she looked to each of the citizen's that walked about the place. Young to the old, but the interesting thing was the sensation she felt, the atmosphere of the place. It was quite pleasant, a complete 180 from manehattan. It was...nice just being here. Her gaze soon also shifted over to the massive crystal tree castle. It was certainly peculiar for such a thing to be in a location amongst this town. She wondered how it just sprung up in this place, what was the cause for it.

It seemed Sugary made a good call in pointing out the sight of flowers as he noticed her eyes shifting towards them once in a while, and she seemed to ease up more on her posture from what he could tell, if only slightly.

While he could not completely forget what still needed doing, he too felt some peace of mind traveling on familiar territory. The soil was warm and rich, the air was as fresh as could be, and the smell of a certain couple of confectionary stores briefly had him float in mid-air a couple feet with a bit of magic before snapping back to reality, getting both hooves on the ground and getting focused. "Ah... I really miss the sweets they make here... So flavorful~..." He looked to Kimi directly, and then gazed up to where she was looking. "Yep. There it is. One large magical tree castle. Don't see too many of those even with all the traveling... So... You still wanna check out the stores, or does the castle hold your interest more now?"

When they arrived closer to the shopping area where a majority of the stores were collected, Kimi was able to clearly smell the scent of sweets in the air. It was pretty hard to miss really. Her nose twitched to the smell, but her eyes were still tied too much to the castle that she had missed seeing Sugary float in mid-air. When he made his remark to her, she turned her gaze towards him and shook her head. "The castle can wait." she stated as she looked at the area they were in now. Her eyes scanning about to the stores that she could see and tried to find something that was remotely related towards selling products that could take care of one's mane. Something like a general store, a hair salon, anything of that sort really, Combs should be pretty common to find, right?

From where they were Kimi was able to spot several stores within her vision. She looked around trying to spot the store that would resemble something that may possibly contain what it is she needed to acquire. She spotted something, it had appeared to be a general store from the sign that clearly stated "General". Kimi would point towards the store and look at Sugary. "Let's go to that one there."

Sugary's ear flickered lightly as Kimi told him about the store, and he soon recognized it as one he had visited before in previous trips. "That one? Okay..." He led Kimi over to the store and into it after passing by a bit of a busy crowd in the center of the town.

Once inside, they would be greeted by a pony stallion with a slicked back brown mane, brownish yellow coat, and wearing a blue jacket and white pants with a nametag that read 'Quills & Sofas'. Perhaps it would mean nothing to Kimi, but Sugary was a bit surprised to see this particular stallion behind the counter of the general store.

"Hello there! And welcome to Quills an-...!? D'oh! I messed that up! Sorry, welcome to Ponyville General store! How may I help you?" Greeted the stallion in a somewhat awkward but cheery manner.

Sugary actually had to double check the contents of the store to make sure he was in the right place before he reciprocated the greeting. "Um... Hello. Excuse me, but did something happen to the last owner?"

"Oh? That? Don't worry, it was a bet we made. Old Tag Price said he could run my store bette than I could, so I told him to go for it while I took over his store for a day! Loser has to give half their earnings to the winner! No way I'm losing to him, my pride as a salespony is at stake...! So, would you like to buy some quil-... Dang it... Can I be of service?"

Sugary blinked in mild disbelief, but mostly due to the fact that merchants from the same town were so willing to do such a thing and he got to witness the battle of pride and curtomer service from one end. It gave him a mild sense of nostalgia of days long past. "Well, I'm good for now, but... Lotus, what did you need?"

Kimi would walk in beside Sugary and she would gaze into the store. It was a fairly simple layout, several lanes of different products. It had your basic general needs from packages food to to notebooks. Nothing to extravagant and nothing to complex, it was nice and simple. Though she halted going any further into the store when Sugary had stopped to interact with another pony. Kimi shifted her glance over to this pony who had greeted them and then messed up his line and apologized immediately for it and gave the, what seemed to be, proper greeting of this store.

Kimi had already identified that the attire held a nametag to something called Quill's & Sofa, she didn't think much more of it than someone was terribly trying to pull a fast one on them. Kimi however kept silent as she listened between Sugary and this attendant. Quite the odd bet that they put each other in. "A comb." she answered.

She glanced at Sugary a moment and then to the pony that seemed eager to assist them. Though with the way that this pony sounded, she highly doubted that he knew where the comb was, if the store even had combs and the last thing she wanted to do was waste time. "I would like a comb, if this store has any for sale, that is."

"Buy one! Right now!"

Quills seemed to look briefly blank-minded as he could not immediately recall where the combs were, so he felt a bit under pressure as Kimi glanced his way and giving off an impatient vibe.

Sugary, for the most part, was just browsing, but eventually he felt an unusual and unseen force. Something that felt like... rivalry among merchants. He couldn't quite tell what was the source of it, but he certainly felt a disturbance coming from somewhere as his ears and tail seemed to flick lightly in anticipation.

As it were, from the other side of the plaza in a store that looked much like most of the houses in Ponyville but with a sign bearing Quills & Sofas namesake, was an equally aged stallion with a blonde and slicked back mane and tail, a brown coat color, and wearing white pants with a red jacket with the nametag having the name Price Tag on it, was practically staring at Quills like a hawk on the hunt from the doorway with a menacing twinkle in his eyes and a light smirk.

Quills noticed this eventually, and only felt more pressure as sweat began to flow over his forehead slowly. He was beginning to panic even, but didn't quite show it just yet. His heart was beating faster and faster as he simply could not remember where the combs were... So he took a leap of blind faith, and pointed to the farthest corner in the farthest lane away from his position that he couldn't see with a lightly scrunched up nose, though his voice held all the confidence of a salesman. "At the end of lane 7B, miss." As it were, he was right by sheer luck. The gods of the coin have been merciful this time...

Kimi did have this sick satisfaction being able to stare down others and just feel their nervousness swelling inside of them, though she never once did change her external expression as she merely awaited for the response of the store clerk. Kimi's ears did perk up as she felt that odd sensation, but that didn't pull her away from just staring the attendant down with her blank, slightly impatient, gaze. Though it didn't take long before the pony before her just threw his luck to the gods and finally told her where to look. When he pointed towards lane 7B she would look in that direction and then back to him as she nodded her head and gave him a slight bow. "Very well." she stated before she would calmly walk off towards lane 7B.

Proceeding down to the end of the lane as she had been told, she would soon come to find that, thankfully, the attendant was correct. The comb's were right here at the end of the lane 7B. Kimi would spend a moment looking at the few types of combs that were there, trying to decide which comb was best for her hair.

She picked up two things, rather two types of combs. One was a handle comb, and the other was a comb that also doubled as a hair accessory, ontop of that comb it had fake flowers tacked onto it rather nicely, (hair comb), though she knew most of the things upon it were fake, but it didn't bother her. She thought it would look nice so she got it.

After getting just those two items she would find Sugary again. "I found what I needed." she said as she held the items in her hands in front of her. "I'll need your assistance on the transaction with the currency."

Sugary merely saw Kimi make her way to the corner of the store casually, while Quills nearly had a heart attack and collapsed. When Sugary looked his way, Quills immediately stood up straight, earning an understanding but curious stare from the mercenary while he pretended as if nothing had happened just now.

When Sugary got to see the combs himself, he had his attention caught by the inticately decorated one. It was colorful, it was pretty, and he now was staring between it and her. "Okay then." He smiled lightly at her, and then turned to Quills. "So, I just owe the price they have on them, right? 9 Bits?"

Quills tried very hard to pretend like he wasn't looking at the price tags himself that the real owner of the store had set up before pressing the buttons on the cash register and showing the number Sugary had just spoken. "Yes, 9 Bits it is!"

And so, with a mild hint of hesitation, Sugary parted with the 9 Bits, and while Quills mildly struggled to get the cash register to stay closed, he looked to Kimi again. "So, anything else, or do we keep walking?"

Kimi would follow Sugary as they headed to pay for the combs, and she stayed quiet and paid attention to the whole interaction of the bits. Looking between Market and the struggling salespony. The interaction didn't last long, but Kimi also took careful note of the bit's that were exchanged, so see if there were any difference in size that would indicate a difference in how much they were worth. Kimi held onto the combs the entire time as this had gone down. Though when the sale was done, Kimi could help but feel a smile cross her lips.

Kimi looked at Sugary and pondered at his question. Her eyes then glanced over at Quills. After a moment of pondering, Kimi glanced back towards Sugary. "This was all I needed." which was her way of saying we can keep walking, though before they would part from the store, Kimi would look toward's Quills and she gave him a gentle smile finally. "You are..." she choose her words carefully. "an honest and kind hearted pony. Keep your muzzle up, and your heart warm and you will do great." after she said that to Quills she would look to Sugary. "We can leave now."

She hardly waited as she turned on a dime and headed out the store, undoing her ponytail and letting her hair free and began to comb her mane with the comb that had a handle.

Quills & Sofas was left stunned in the entire time it took for the duo to walk out of the store, but when they did leave, he smiled and beamed as pride filled his very being. He managed to do a sale, and got a very nice compliment from a customer, and a pretty mare no less, even if her eyes were very hard for him to look into. So, he mildly celebrated and decided to rub it in the face of his rival on the other side of the plaza by pointing his fingers upward alternately. His rival gave him a glare, but soon composed himself as one of the noble ladies from the train walked on by, so he began to make use of his own charm as a salespony. "Well, hello there, M'lady! Might I interest you in Ponyville's rustic selection of sofas and quills? We make deliveries to long distances you know!" As the mare seemed swiftly intrigued by the offer, she made her way inside. It was at this moment that Price gave Quills a smug look, rightly earned as he made his pitch like a natural despite it not being his store. Quills glared back and made the 'I got my eyes on you, pal' hand gesture by pointing to his eyes and towards Price. But what would become of their rivalry was another story...

Sugary left the store smiling after Kimi complimented Quills. He walked roughly alongside her, watching her start to comb her mane while enjoying the fresh air again. "Say, Lotus? Was there any particular reason you gave him such a warm compliment, or is that a custom of yours?" He wasn't quite going in any particular direction yet, though the park still sounded nice, and Kimi really seemed to like the idea, so he would occasionally look towards the direction of it as well while waiting for an answer.