[Does anything need to be established? I guess since Chineigh is your creation, you'll be in charge of the NPC's but other than that, I can't think of anything.]
(Got it, i will begin then!) It was early spring in the second year of the rule of Empress Jade hoof. The Chineigh city of singlehorse (really stretching it there lol) was alive with the early morning bustle of market goers. Frozen heart, a windigo in the guise of a unicorn stallion, was one of these patrons. This particular morning he was buying herbs for the herbalist he was studying under.
*In a clearing outside of Singlehorse there was a bright flash of light and then suddenly a grey mare unicorn appeared wearing a black sleeveless cheongsam. Her main, a darker gray than her coat, was cut short in a bob hair cut and her tail was in a tight braid.* "Right here's hoping I landed in the right place at the right time. Now to find a windigo I've never seen before, but who saw me around now. I hope it was around now. I hate time travel...."
"Frozen!" called an older looking earth pony mare, "Did you find the ingredients I sent you for?" The earth pony, named Lotus, was Frozen's alchemy instructor, and a surrogate mother of sorts. She had a light brown coat and wore her dark gray mane in an up-do. Her cutie mark was a mortar and pestle. "Coming Sifu!" Frozen exclaimed as he jogged out into the market square to meet her, nearly dropping his bags in the process! "Always so clumsy," she said, with a giggle, and patted the stallion's head with her hoof. "Come, there is an excellent noodle shop nearby, and I could certainly go for some dumplings." Frozen smiled. Even though his body didn't require the nutrition, he loved the dumplings and steamed vegetables Sifu insisted they eat on their weekly visit to the Singlehorse marketplace. Without a word of protest, he eagerly followed her.
As Megan entered the city he first priority was food. She hadn't hadn't eaten since she left the nameless town that Starlight Glimmer had ruled. That and the food she received from the towns people after the found her was mostly snack food. She wanted something proper. After she ate then she'd look for Frozen Heart. Although, she had no idea what she was supposed to do once she met him.
The sounds of clanking dishes and the light roar of lunch rush chatter filled the noodle shop. Frozen was hungrily devouring his dumplings, using his magic to operate the large metal chopsticks. "Xie Xie, Sifu!" the ecstatic stallion said after barely swallowing a mouthful of noodles and dumplings. Lotus merely giggled, too proud of her student's rapid advancement in his studies to chastise his lapse in manners.
Reaching a noodle shop she sat at the counter. She had some Chineigh coins that she had traded for Venusian silk before her run in with Starlight. At the time she had regretted the trade since the coins were only of value to collectors, and surprisingly very few ponies collected coins. Hopefully she had enough to pay for at least one bowl of noodles.
A rather young looking mare approached Megan. She had a Lilac coat and wore her white mane in an odango. "Is there anything I can get you?" She asked.
"Depends on what you want," the mare said, "Several bowls of noodles! I presume you wanted to be thrifty?"
"Thrifty is good. I will take as many bowls as I can afford." It was all the local currency she had, but she was hungry. She should have had Kimitsu feed her before she left. "I'm an adventure by trade, but a trader by necessity. Where might I be able to trade my good? I have some rare plants and fabric from afar."
"Well," the mare said, "It just so happens that one of our local alchemists, Lotus, is dining here at the moment. You might have luck selling herbs to her," she offered.
Lotus? Was that the alchemist full name? In Horsehead bay the tea shop was run by a Lotus family, White Lotus, Lotus Petel, and Lotus Blossom. White Lotus was wise old earth pony with a white mane and grey coat, who claimed to be hundreds of years old. Lotus Petal often corrected her father remind him of his true age, she was an attractive Unicorn with a white coat and a pink mane. Then there was little Lotus Blossom, daughter of Lotus Petal who would rather sell noodles than brew tea, she was Pegasus with a light pink coat and a grey main. While Lotus Blossom took after her father, no one knew why Lotus petal was a unicorn as both her father and late mother were earth ponies. Now she wanted tea, White Lotus was very skilled at tea making, she had tried it before setting out on her first adventure. Her thoughts were side track enough. "Which pony is she?"
She pointed her hoof at Lotus, who was sitting across the room next to the entrance. "There she is, with her apprentice, Frozen Heart," she said, "He's handsome, isn't he? Lotus told me once that he came from very far away."
Megan rolled her eyes. "Does he happen to be your boyfriend?" She could never understand why organic always bragged about their relationships. Thanks to the horrors of time travel she had been stuck in an organic body couple years, but she still didn't understand them human or pony. (In real time Megs has only been human less than a year, he got turned human last june.)
The mare flushed, "Oh, no no no! Just an observation, nothing more! Anyway, if you want to sell herbs, Lotus is your best bet!"
"The Blush makes me wonder if it's more than just an observation, does he know you like him?" So she wasn't bragging? Did she want her to appreciate him too? That wasn't happeniing, her body may be female but her mind still identified as male. Not that male or female meant much for her generation of Cybertronian, in her natural form she was capable of budding solo. The younger generations of Cybertronians needed both a male and a female in order to bud and only the females reproduced. No one really understood why when their race became smaller it started to mimic organics. Hmmm, could there be another reason for the blushing? "I'm sorry I come from a remote village where we're a bit more open with our feelings."
"Ah, well.." she stammered at the mare's forwardness, "So maybe I think he's alittle handsome, he certainly doesn't notice me!"
"Make him notice you. Go up to him, ask him out. Love is a battlefield you'll never win the war if you just sit on the sidelines." Not that she remotely understood anything about love between organic, but that was the sort of stuff the elder of the Nǚjié zú tribe, that she stayed with, would spout. She spent six months with the tribe while she tried to find the artifact that was responsible for Zhòuquánxiāng. Ultimately it couldn't be used to restore her or Grimlock. Sometimes she half wondered if Grimlock wanted to be a bot again, and if he had only hired her in the first place hope she become stuck as well. [Ten completely worthless points if you know what anime I'm referring to.]
