[FFML] [fanfic][MLP:FiM] The Alicorn Foal, Chapter 7

[Mythril Moth]

Usual disclaimers apply. C&C welcome.

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Chapter 7: Meanwhile, In Nippony...

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Twilight,

We're having a wonderful time in Nippony. Princess Celestia arranged the 
most amazing vacation for us! Please pass along our thanks...

=================================

//Welcome to Narata International Mareport,// an accented voice greeted over 
the public address system. //We hope you enjoy your stay in Nippony.//

Lavender Rose and Sable Star, saddlebags stuffed to the seams, cantered 
through the crowded mareport, gawking at everything around them. "Wow, this 
is...incredible," Lavender said.

"It's packed," Sable grunted. "I've never seen so many ponies in one place."

Lavender pawed the floor nervously. "Do you...do you think it was a good 
idea? I mean, just leaving Velvet with--"

"We needed this," Sable said. "YOU needed this." He smiled. "Besides, 
Twilight Sparkle is the most organized, responsible pony I know, and the 
Princesses themselves are helping look after our little miracle."

"I know, but that just makes me feel more--"

"I know," Sable said, nuzzling her. "But trust me, nopony thinks you're a 
bad mother for needing some time away. A lot of new mothers take a vacation 
when their foals are a couple of months old. It's only natural."

"I guess..."

They waited in line to get their passports stamped; the tiny Nipponyese mare 
at the passport counter greeted them with a polite, practiced smile and 
guided them through the process in clipped, efficient Equestrian. Once they 
were done, they moved on to the exchange counter, where they handed over 
their bits and received sealed plastic trays of small, shiny steel balls. 
"This is money here?" Lavender asked dubiously.


"Aa, hai," the exchange counter worker--a tiny Nipponyese mare virtually 
identical to the one at the passport counter--said, nodding and bowing. 
"Ponychinko ball in Nippony is same as bit coin in Equestria." She gestured 
with a hoof at a whiteboard on the wall. "Here is exchange rate. Please 
study and thank you."

"Thank you," Sable replied. They took a moment to memorize the exchange 
rate, but decided it was far too troublesome to count the strange Nipponyese 
currency standing around in the mareport, so they took it on faith that they 
hadn't been cheated, stowed the ball trays in their saddlebags, and moved 
on.

The Narata Mareport was located in the bustling capitol city of Edoe; on the 
flight, the Equestrian couple had learned that Nippony was originally 
founded and ruled by deer, until the Sats-Uma Rebellion, where unicorns 
overthrew the Emperor and established equine rule. Despite this, they had 
retained many of the original names and traditions of the Edoe regime as a 
show of respect for their fallen foes.

Of course, to two tourists from Equestria, all that really mattered was that 
there were lots of sights to see and lots of shops to spend their bits--er, 
balls--in.

"So...what do we do now?" Lavender asked.

Sable considered this. "I'm honestly not sure," he replied. "I guess we find 
a place to--"

He trailed off; a large cardboard sign with their names written on it was 
floating over the heads of the herd of travellers.

The couple blinked, then looked at one another questioningly. Shrugging, 
they pushed their way through the milling crowd, headed for the beckoning 
sign.

They encountered a balding Nipponyese unicorn stallion who was considerably 
smaller than Sable Star. He wore glasses with thick, square black plastic 
frames and sported a black suit jacket and necktie; his cutie mark was a 
Nipponyese symbol they couldn't identify. As they approached, he adjusted 
his glasses. "You are...Lavender Rose-san and Sable Star-san?" he asked.

"Yes," Sable replied.

The Nipponyese unicorn bowed. "My name is Umadakara. I am pleased to meet 
you. If it pleases you, I have been hired by Celestia-himesama to be your 
guide here in our country."

The Equestrian ponies blinked in unison. "Princess Celestia hired us a 
guide?" Lavender asked.

"Aa, hai," Umadakara said, bowing again. "You are most honored guests. 
Celestia-himesama wants you to have all comforts and courtesy our country 
has to offer during your stay." He turned and gestured for them to follow. 
"Dozo--aa, this way," he said.

With a shared shrug, the couple followed Umadakara through the main exit.

=================================

They rode the magic-driven unirail across town; Umadakara led them into the 
biggest hotel they had ever seen.

Well, the only hotel they had ever seen, actually.

"Welcome to Grand Kirin Hotel," Umadakara said. "You have 
Celestia-himesama's private royal suite for the duration of your stay."

"Wow," Lavender breathed. "This is..."

"I can't believe Princess Celestia went to all this trouble for us..." Sable 
said, eyes wide.

"Little trouble, little trouble," Umadakara deferred. "Celestia-himesama 
only visits Nippony once a year, on the Winter Solstice. It is summer now, 
so she is far too busy..."

"Yes, of course," Sable nodded. "Still..."

"We have an old saying in Nippony," Umadakara said. "Do not look a horse's 
gift in the mouth." At their blank expressions, he coughed. "It may lose 
something in translation." He smiled. "You get settled in now, rest. You 
must be tired from the long flight. I will come in the morning, take you on 
a tour of the city."

"Thank you very much," Lavender said.

Umadakara bowed. "It is my pleasure."

He handed over their room keys and bowed, walking off down a hall and 
disappearing around a corner. The two vacationers studied a map of the 
hotel, found their destination, and headed up to Princess Celestia's suite.

=================================

The couple had their first uninterrupted night of sleep in months on the 
extravagant bed in the royal suite. After a sumptuous Equestrian-style 
breakfast prepared by the hotel's five-star kitchen, Umadakara greeted them, 
and they left the hotel in a pony-drawn sedan for a tour of the sprawling 
metropolis of Edoe.

"It's so CUTE!" Lavender squealed. "What is it?"

She, Sable, and Umadakara were in a large, glittery, eye-searingly colorful 
store full of high-priced merchandise of every conceivable type. Presently, 
Lavender was enraptured by a plush toy of a yellow mouse-like creature with 
unnaturally long legs, a stubby tail, and lightning-bolt-shaped antlers.

"Ah, that is Shikachu, from Saddlebag Monster. It is a popular game with 
colts and fillies," Umadakara explained. "Shikachu is the series mascot, a 
deermouse."

"A deer...mouse?" Sable queried. "That's...a little weird."

"Well I think it's cute," Lavender said. "I definitely want one."

As they explored the colorful store, Lavender saw a few more things she just 
had to have, while Sable was mostly bored. By the time they escaped the 
store, Lavender had spent an entire tray of balls.

"Lunch will be my treat," Umadakara said as Lavender neatly stored her 
purchases in a saddlebag. "I know a most excellent place, you can try 
authentic Nipponyese cuisine..."

"Sounds great," Sable agreed, his own stomach rumbling. "Lead the way."

After a twenty-minute sedan trip through the heart of the city, they arrived 
in a district that looked older, more careworn--a lot like Ponyville, 
actually, except distinctly Nipponyese, with strange characters printed on 
signs, shop curtains, and hanging red paper lanterns, lots of bamboo and 
lacquered wood and ricepaper ingrained into the architecture, and Nipponyese 
voices raised in conversation and laughter from within partially-open doors.

The group stopped in front of a rather small, quaint-looking establishment, 
and Umadakara ushered the tourists inside. "The big fancy expensive places 
are not worth the money," he explained. "You want good food--REAL food--you 
come to a place like this."

At the counter, a burly stallion with thick black eyebrows and a black 
mustache stood over a large, hot griddle. He had a twisted headband tied 
around his forehead and wore a loose white tunic; a broad, sharp knife was 
clenched in his teeth. "Irrasshai," he grunted around the knife. His eyes 
then lit up with recognition. "Oi, Umadakara! Genki da na?"

"I am well, Umattori," Umadakara replied in Equestrian, subtly gesturing to 
his two guests. "I have two honored guests with me today. I have promised 
them fine, authentic Nipponyese food."

"Uoooh, you are Equestriajin, no?" Umattori asked with wide-eyed interest in 
his customers. His Equestrian was heavily accented.

"Yes, we're from Equestria," Sable replied.

"This is Umattori Umanzo," Umadakara explained. "We are old friends." To 
Umattori, he added, "This is Sable Star-san and Lavender Rose-san." He said 
something in Nipponyese which made the coarse Earth stallion chuckle.

"Well, you come to best place for Nipponyese food," Umattori said genially. 
"Tell me, what's your pleasure?"

"We don't really know anything about Nipponyese cuisine," Lavender said 
sheepishly.

"Uso..." Umattori breathed in mock surprise. "Then it is *my* honor to fix 
that." He turned and roared out a harsh-sounding order to a pony loitering 
in the back room, then started rooting through a cooler behind the counter, 
pulling out various ingredients. The lazy-looking unicorn in the back 
trotted out, giving the two foreigners a once-over before shrugging and 
serving them piping-hot tea. He then drew a large mug of frothy beer for 
Umadakara before retreating into the back.

Umattori began slicing a massive, oblong white radish into thin strips. As 
he did so, he asked, "So, what do you think of Nippony so far?"

"It's very...different from home," Sable said. "Very crowded and 
very...flashy."

Umattori laughed. "Hai hai, Edoe is a big, noisy, flashy city. I much prefer 
Okinara. That is where I am from. Smaller, quieter." He paused in his 
slicing, then snorted. "But boring. That is why I came to Edoe." He began 
pressing the sliced radish into shaped balls of sticky rice, then flattened 
them out into oblong shapes and wrapped them with dark, wet seaweed. He 
placed one of the wrapped concoctions before each guest, then busied himself 
with dicing numerous vegetables, which he scraped into a large bowl full of 
noodles. He added an array of sauces and spices to the noodles before 
dumping them out onto the griddle, where they sizzled tantalizingly. As he 
worked, the two tourists sampled the food in front of them.

"Very interesting," Sable commented. "What exactly is it?"

"Sushi," Umattori replied as he looped two small spatulas onto his 
forehooves and tended the frying noodles. "Eeeeto...vinegar rice, daikon 
radish, seaweed." He shrugged. "Simple recipe, not my best, but good 
introduction."

Over the next hour, Umattori presented the tourists and their guide with an 
increasingly impressive array of local cuisine. Although the portions were 
small, the sheer number of dishes he plied them with left them quite full by 
the time they paid their bill (Umattori had kindly given them a fifty 
percent discount) and left. Watching him cook had been an absolute delight, 
and he had been quite the conversationalist as well.

"I'm...a little drunk, so I'm going back to the hotel," Umadakara slurred 
with a hiccup as they left the diner. "The ponies pulling the sedan will 
take you anywhere you want to go; just let them know when you're ready to go 
back to the hotel." Waving a hoof, he flagged down a taxi.

Lavender and Sable opted to just let the sedan ponies haul them all around 
Edoe at a slow, steady pace, letting them take in the ambience of the city. 
They saw many interesting sights, and fortunately their surrogate guides 
spoke enough Equestrian to point out various sites of interest and answer 
their questions about the things they saw.

And they saw quite a few things indeed: ponies dressed similarly to 
Umadakara, colts in tight-looking, high-collared uniform jackets with brass 
buttons, fillies in pleated skirts with white blouses that sported naval 
collar-flaps and neckerchiefs of assorted colors, and young stallions with 
teased, feathered, dyed manes and bizarre makeup. In the more dense, urbane 
parts of the city, massive screens mounted on the sides of buildings 
depicted young, attractive mares dancing and singing.

There were vending machines EVERYWHERE.

"Drink vending machines, snack vending machines, cigarette vending machines, 
toy vending machines, CD and DVD vending machines...DIAPER vending 
machines?!" Lavender exclaimed in disbelief.

"We definitely need one of those back in Ponyville," Sable commented.

By night, they were utterly exhausted. Umadakara presented them with an 
itinerary for the next few days before they turned in for the night.

=================================

The following day, they attended a Sumo Pig wrestling match; that evening, 
they took in a Kabucki performance. The wild costumes and massive mane wigs 
the Kabucki actors wore made Lavender giggle. Sable had found the wrestling 
interesting; the Sumo Pigs were the largest creatures he could remember ever 
seeing.

The day after that, they had taken a train ride up to Fuji Apple Mountain; 
it was large and very impressive, and the apples sold by the local vendors 
were far sweeter and juicier than those they were used to back home.

The next day, they left Edoe and travelled to the city of Oatsaka. Umadakara 
had not gone with them; rather, they had met a new guide at the train 
station in Oatsaka, a dark-coated colt named Hayji. Hayji was quite friendly 
and knowledgeable, and a bit of a sports nut; during the five days they 
spent in Oatsaka, they took in six baseball games.

Hayji also taught them something Umadakara had neglected to mention: how to 
use the ponychinko parlors. By the time they left Oatsaka, they had three 
times as much money as they had entered the country with.

Their Oatsakan guide had accompanied them to the northern province of 
Hoofkaido, where they luxuriated in outdoor hot springs, and had even 
travelled with them to Okinara, a decision made in haste after they recalled 
their conversation with Umattori back in Edoe. Okinara had its own unique 
culture and flavor which seemed very different from the rest of Nippony, 
while still being distinctly Nipponyese; Lavender had bought several boxes 
of a local pastry called sata-andonkey to take back home as presents.

After three days in Okinara, they returned to Oatsaka, where they parted 
ways with Hayji after one more baseball game. The next day, they took the 
train back to Edoe; they still had a few more sights to see there, as well 
as some more souvenir-shopping to do before returning to Equestria.

"This...has been the best vacation ever," Lavender said as the two ponies 
nestled into the plush bed in Celestia's suite once more.

"Couldn't agree more," Sable said with a smile.

=================================

"...we've scheduled our return flight for the end of July, a few days later 
than we originally planned. Please continue to take good care of our little 
foal for us until we return," Twilight finished.

Pinkie snorted into her mane, eyes narrowed. "Okay, fine, but just so you 
know? I'm done with foalsitting."

Twilight backed away slightly, a sheepish look on her face. "Fair enough..."



TO BE CONTINUED...


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Mythril Moth
www.mythrilmoth.net