Hibiscus rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey there, Tricarius..." he said. "Some unicorn at the last tribe meeting told me to give this to you. If it's not too much trouble, of course." He looked down. Even though he was older than the pony, this guy still seemed to look down upon him. He pulled the letter out of his bag and handed it to the pony.
Tricarius took the letter gingerly from Hibiscus, and slowly opened it. A small smile crept onto his face and a tear rolled down his cheek, "Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me. Hibiscus, you have redeemed yourself to me, this, this is the best thing I have gotten in a long time." Tricarius hugged the letter close as he slowly closed the door, "Oh Snow, my beautiful daughter, the head representative to the unicorns, we have good times ahead, I know it." he said to himself. He held the letter out again to read it again, but a white, multi-leaved flower fell out. This was no ordinary flower, it was a special flower that only he and his close family members knew how to grow, and on the flower a note was attached, I still haven't forgotten my roots, Love, Your Daughter Snow. Tricarius' heart was filled with a joy and ease that it hadn't felt in years, "Maybe I should take a walk." he said.
"ugh which path should i go"."The unicorn or the Earth ponies". "i think i'll go down the Earth pony path because if i run into Hibiscus i guess we could talk about the many things that were said".
Snow left the garden pushing a cart full of different foods, around her neck hung one of her family flowers. She snuck the food into the stockpile and did a quick check, "Ok, if you ration it properly, we should have enough to survive until the next shipment, but only just." She used her magic to divide up the food into several piles, one for each day, before heading out. She decided that she would go see her father dispite the risk, and left the castle after a quick conversation with the guards.
Ashes walked in ponyville nearily for an hour. He tought they were an happy people, with tons of food, and always smiling. He was wrong. The Earth Ponies were hungry too, they were sad-looking, and he didn't heard any laughs. He turned in a small street, made shure he was alone, and turned in ashes. The soft breeze brang him to the Pegasi side: There again, no one was smiling. He molded his ashes to make some realist wings, and, when he was shure hew could float just high enough to give the illusion he was walking on clouds, he went directly to the center of the cloud-make town. All of the pegasi were sad, and hungry. Ashes looked up in the sky, and saw a swirl of cold clouds, announcing the arriving of snowstorm. Better return to the castle, before somepony sees him fly without flapping his wings. After a check around, he turned in ashes and went to the castle, fighting against the wind becoming more and more violent.
Hibiscus wandered around his fields, once again picking up anything he thought looked edible. He sighed with frustration. Tricarius had closed the door before he couod find out what the letter said, and his curiosity was tearing him apart. 'What was in that?' He thought. 'The way he looked at it, it was as if the letter was worth MORE than those five barrels...' As he rummaged through his crops, he noticed that there was a flower with a bright blue color. "Whoa now, whats this?" He said quietly to himself. Bending over, he examined the flower closely. It was the exact blue had his wife, Merrigold's mane once was. He shed a tear as memories of her returned to him like bees to a daffodil. He wiped his face off and gingerly picked the flower out of the ground. He walked back to his house and grabbed a pot with dirt. He planted the flower and placed it on the table nedt to his hay bed. Right next to the painting of his wife and his daughter.
Snow walked up the other to her father's house, time seemed to almost slow down as she got to the door, brought up her hoof to knock, and then she knocked on the door twice. The door opened and Tricarius saw his daughter for the first time in ten years. "Hi Dad." Snow said with a smile. Tears came to his eyes and a huge smile came to his face, he didn't speak, he just embraced his daughter before letting her in.
"well seeing how i went as far as i think i should i think i should head back" Cal then Flys back to his house "Well it seemed to do nothing man i hope theirs no meeting today."Cal then decides to visit Ice *knock knock knock* "hey Ice you there it's Cal"
"oh nothing just checking in on you seeing if you made it home so what did you and the Earth pony talk about." "ugh my eyes are still bloodshot"
Finally arrived at the Unicorn's castle, he went to the labs, to get informed on the synthetic food's progress. "Hey there, Care to share me the last updates?", he asked to a scientist. "Oh, we're working on the taste. The food is now summoned by magic, and contains all the real food's nutriments. If the taste could be better then wet paper or carbonized apples." "Yeah, it would be great. Maybe it's because of the energy unleashed by the summoner's horns?" "And why would that cause the horrible taste?" "Humm.. don't know. Guessing." "Couls you guess somewhere else? We're here to stop our people from starving! If you want to play and have fun, get out of this lab. We're serious here, not making all of our people's surviving a joke!" "Don't get mad! I'm trying to help just like you are doing! And it was my idea to create magicall food!" "Just because it's your idea means you care about us. Can you realize our working conditions? Starving and attempt to create food? Hungryness and food leads to lost of focus, and no spell." "I know, i ain't the last born unicorn. Everypony knows how to cast a spell. And maybe it's because you can't focus that the food tastes disgusting." The scientist eyes opened in surprise. "I was so hungry i didn't even asked myself why i coulkdn't focus. That's it. You're a genius. Let's find some food to create some more, my friend, and save our people from-" "No, No, No. I won't risk that our leader disapprouves and hates me if she comes back and discovers what we done. Test the food, and we'll have our leader to taste it after. If she gives her word, we'll do it. If she doesn't, we'll continue the searches til she finds what she wants. Continue the tests." Without letting the scientist reply, Ashes exited the lab, and went to his room. He wanted to write a letter.
Snow sat across from her father in his small living room, a happiness filled the air around Tricarius. "Snow, I can't believe that you have done so much. And I can tell you haven't forgotten what I taught you 'bout growin either." he said pointing at the flower around Snow's neck. "Yea, I managed to convert one of the less seen gardens at the castle into a small little growing field." Snow said. Tricarius sighed, "If only if your mother could see what you have become, your the link, the missing peice of the puzzle, but also, most importantly, your my daughter." Snow smiled and was filled with the soft glow of happiness. She took a sip of the tea that she had, "Did you get my letter?" she asked. "Yes, Hibiscus is a good fellow dispite his being a drunk. I kept the flower you sent, I have it in a vase by the old family painting." Snow nodded, "Mind if I go look at it one more time." she asked quietly. Tricarius nodded and Snow got from her seat and walked into the back hallway. She nudged open the last door into a small, dark room kept every so slightly lit by a few candles. Snow fully entered the room, and turned towards the painting. It was done when Snow was just a filly, and right before she had to be moved to the unicorn castle. Tricarius, who looked so much younger and happier and full of energy sat with an arm around her mother, who was an elegant unicorn that had a light blue coat and soft green eyes with a blond mane. In between the two, sat Snow herself. She had the biggest smile on her face, while the present Snow sighed, " Too bad it couldn't have stayed that way." and she walked out of the room gently closing the door behind her. When she got back, the old grandfather clock rung. "I'm sorry Dad but I have to go." Snow said. Tricarius' old happiness deflated softly and slowly, "Oh, ok Snowy. I'm, I'm really glad you came by." he said sorrowfully. Snow gulped down her sadness and have her father a bear hug, "I'm sorry that I can't come more often, I will try to send more letters." "Ok." Tricarius responded softly. The embrace lasted a couple of minutes before Snow finally broke off, and then with a flash, teleported back to the castle, leaving her father alone once more. "Oh sorrowful night, so lonely and dark, why must you take the happiness away." Tricarius started singing softly, it was an old earth song of mourning and loss.
Hibiscus woke to a loud pounding on his door. "H..wazza..." the pounding got louder and more fierce. "Imma..ge...I'M UP, I'M UP!" Hibiscus yelled. He grumbled and got out of his hay bed to answer the door. "What could you possibly want at this hour..." he said as he opened to door. In front of it stood four unicorms, each with their hooves outstretched. "We're to raise the sun this morning." The presumed leader of the group told him. "We better have a hearty breakfast, or we may not be able to do it." He contined. One in the back whispered a comment to the nearest pony to him, and they began to snicker. Hibiscus threw them a nasty look. "If you must..." he sighed. He walked back into his home, and they simply followed him in. He opened a store room and pulled out a few of the worst looking crops he had and handed them over. The leader unicorn sniffed one, dropped it to the floor, and smashed it. "I said food, not this garbage." He said. The unicorn shoved Hibiscus aside and helped himself to the stores. "Wh- No- Hold on!" Hibiscus stuttered. The unicorn magically picked up nearly seven tithes and walked out of the house. "We're done here." He said to Hibiscus. "When you look at the sun today, be sure to think of us." And with that they were gone. Normally, Hibiscus would be angry at this, but for some reason he wasn't. He just stood there, staring at the spot they had just stood. He lay down on the floor of that spot and began to sob his eyes out. 'Am I really that useless?' He thought. 'Has my age made me totally senile that I can't even fight off a few unicorns.' After that, he could no longer think, as he had to focus on getting air into his lungs. He would only be more useless if he gave himself a heart attack. Tears poured from his eyes as he sat there, waiting for the world to collapse around him.
Snow was reading through her reports when she heard laughter in the hallways. She left her desk to investigate the source and saw four unicorns laughing as they divided up food among themselves in the hallway. Snow's eyes narrowed with instant suspicion as she stepped out from in front of the four, "Reti, Delvaric, Frigath, Denara, where do you think you are going with that food?" she demanded. Delvaric, the obvious ringleader of the group stumbled around his words before saying, "Uh, the storeroom mam'!" he said hastily. Snow walked up closer to them, and she swore to herself that she could feel the fear in the group, "And where exactly did you get this food anyhow?" they looked at each with an Ah oh look. "You stole it from an earth pony, didn't you?!" they didn't say anything, they just shuffled their hooves, for everypony in the castle knew that any if Snow caught you stealing, you would be in some serious trouble. After seeing that they weren't responding, Snow knew their guilt. "How could you? It's for this very reason why inter-tribe relations are so terrible! I bet you used the 'raise the sun' excuse to! Your not even on that duty for another month! Now, you have five seconds to get out of my sight or your might end up losing more than just your dignity." the four ran away so fast that they left a small dust cloud where they once were. Snow bent down to get a better look at the food crate's logo to see who's it was, but she ended up deciding to return them in the next meeting. She picked up the food with her magic and locked it inside a large chest by her desk and got back to reading the reports.
Ashes heard Snow's angry voices and laughs, and went to his source. He only saw Snow, locking a chest with magic. "Hi, chief. Just wondering... Would you mind coming at the lab for a few minutes?"
"Hello?" a voice yelled from the doorway. "Excuse me, Hibiscus! Are you in there!" Hibiscus recognised the voice as Cracker, the pegasus that always chose him for the tithes. Cracker was an okay pony, and he didn't take very much food when he came, but Hibiscus was really not in the mood for any visitors. "Umm...okay...Hibiscus, I know you're home. I don't want to bring this up, but according to law you're REQUIRED to feed me. I haven't eaten in a while. C'mon Hibiscus! Please?" Hibiscus eventually gave up and went to answer the door. He opened it to a tan and red pegasus standing in the door. "You're certainly looking chipper." Hibiscus mumbled as he turned and walked back inside. "You okay man?" Cracker said as he wandered towards the food storage. "You don't look so hot. You ill or something?" Hibiscus's ears perked up at that. Ill? He hadn't been ill in years, but that could only be more the reason to get ill at a random time. "Yes..." he said weakly. "I'm very ill, I can't work at all." Cracker returned from the storage holding a few carrots and a rock. However he got a hold of THAT Hibiscus had no idea. "Ouch, that sucks." He said through a mouthful of carrots. "Well, I hope you get better soon! I have to go cause a thunderstorm downtown, so I can't stay around. Cya!" With that he flapped his wings and bolted into the sky. Hibiscus closed the door with a malicious grin. If he were ill, nopony would bother him about not working. From now on, he was violently ill.
(Come on guys! Don't let this RP die!) Snow looked towards Ashes, "Ug, let me guess, you want to try again with the synthetic food? How many times do I have to tell you, it isn't natural! I know we are desprite, but we have to get it the REAL way, not by some funky spell or experiment. Here, I will show the reason why we haven't all starved yet." Snow walked out the door and lead Ashes down a seires of hallways, many of which Ashes have never been down, until they reached a door. Snow opened the door and a large garden filled with rows and rows of budding crops and surrounded by beautiful bushes of the white flower hanging around her neck. "I grow everything in here, it's where I feel at home. I was raised on my father's farm before my mother took me here. This is the place where I keep alive what I learned there, and it's really my one remaining connection to my father." Snow said quietly, it was the first time any pony had ever seen her garden, and she didn't know how Ashes would react.
(sry been busy studying all weekend zoology is a bit of a challenging subject when u have to know parts of the heart how the blood flows and how EXACTLY birds fly... this did lead me to ask after i look at all of it how can pegasi fly if they have only one thing in common with birds which is wings) Ice trots over to the snowflake facility and starts working on snowflakes again for winter is just around the corner, so to speak.
(i understand you, PegasusNeko: 'Been studying lungs, biology and maths. Three exams today. And i haven't study yet for my huge history exam later this week...)
(I don't have final exams for another two weeks. Come at me, finals!) Hibiscus's medicine cabinet held all sorts of interesting items: cures, herbs, remedies, and more. As he went through them, he increasingly became more frustrated. He couldn't find anything that would make him look sick if taken the wrong way. Nearly every combination he could think of would kill him in minutes. Eventually, he just wandered out back and strolled past his fields. He didn't want to do it, but it was the only way. He continued looking through the grass until he came upon a familiar patch of blue-violet flowers. 'This is it...' he thought. He walked hesitantly to the very middle of the patch and stood for nearly a minute. When he was sure it was on him, he turned and ran back home, hoping he could get back before the poison joke took effect.
