//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Alchemist's Apprentice 
// by Feurisson 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3

The bells of the town signalized it was eight o'clock when we were leaving the few lights illuminating the city behind us. With just an hour to prepare, I hadn't had much time to think about what I would need on such a trip, so I just had packed some apples and slices of bread and some other things I thought could prove useful, such as a journal and a small knife. And of course some money, I was just hoping they would accept my coins over there, or else I would be in trouble. 

The carriage Starswirl had arranged for me was actually quite comfy, if a bit spartanic. It consisted essentially of two wooden semicircles with a door on one side and some windows on both, connected by wooden boards. To make for an even floor, some additional boards had been attached on the bottom. It was big enough to fit at least two adults, but right now I was on my own, resting on hay that been spread on the floor to make it more comfortable, and observing how my hometown slowly disappeared into darkness. The countryside was completely silent, the only sound being the steady clopping of the carter outside, and was immersed in murky gloom everywhere the moon didn't cast its rays upon.

I flipped my journal open to a free page and started writing.

Day 1, Tuesday 17th of the Month of the God of War

After hastily having packed, I'm currently heading towards St. Marelington and will most likely arrive there tomorrow midday. As this is my first time visiting another town, my head is full of questions. What will it be like there? Will it be much different from my home? And how will the inhabitants be? I'm hoping they're a friendly folk. 

I paused.

I'm both excited and apprehensive about the following day. I hope I can deliver the remedy to the local Lord and manage to stay out of trouble. If I succeed, I might make my family proud. They never got the chance to travel abroad...
But I still somehow got that nagging feeling that something will go awfully wrong... but maybe I'm just worrying too much. I should probably try to sleep a bit instead so I can start well rested tomorrow.

I closed the small notebook and hit the hay. Literally, in this case.

I was awoken with a start when a sudden blow hit the carriage. Apparently it had just crossed a rather big stone in the street. 
I wanted to go back to sleep, but the sun was already shining brightly through the only window, making any trip back into the lands of dreams impossible. 
Still sleepy, I tried opening my eyes a bit, but the sunrays were blinding me. Groggily, I stood up, surprised for a moment that I wasn't in my room at home before remembering that I was on a trip to the nearest neighbouring town to help someone there. Someone really important, but to my shame I had forgotten who exactly. I blinked, trying to finally fully wake up, and decided to take a look out of the window and see where I was at the moment. I had never seen the countryside before, and so I was really a bit curious if it was anything like I had heard.

And it was, but much more than that.
Despite it being just a simple plain with a few trees here and there, it was still the most colourful … thing, for lack of a better word, I had ever seen in my life.
Grass covered every corner in my sight, much greener than the green in my mane. The same was true for the leaves of the trees, standing lonely apart from each other, mostly in the background, with a few standing closer to the road. Everything was clad into a wide array of reddish colours by the slowly rising morning sun.
I had never seen it before like that... It was really beautiful. And the countryside was so incredibly wide! Everything seemed to go on forever, until it met the sky far away from here. What a difference to the town, where everything was obstructed by buildings or the mountains.
The mountains! I looked to the left and could barely make them out any more... They were all almost invisible, a thick fog covering them.
I would have been content with just watching the landscape passing by slowly, when a grumbling from my stomach reminded me not to skip breakfast, no matter how amazing the view was.
I was just about to unpack my provisions when I noticed a large bag half-filled with oatmeal in the corner. Apparently the carriage driver had decided to share his food with me and after having rested in the night put the bag inside while I was still sleeping. How nice of him. I had to thank him for that later. Together with the apples and carrots I had this would make for a great breakfast.
After a while I noticed the landscape changed from simple plains to farmland. I saw earth ponies working in the fields, both young and older ones.
This probably meant we were arriving soon. Wonder what the town looked like... Would it look very different from my hometown? But I didn't have much time thinking about that again, as I soon spotted the first towers, and shortly after that, the murals of St. Marelington. 
The carriage stopped before the city gates – adorned with red and yellow stripes – where the driver had a short conversation with some guardsponies before they nodded and opened the gate.
As soon as we had let the murals behind us, I was staggered by the sheer amount of sights, sounds and smells. I saw ponies everywhere, either walking at a moderate pace at the side of the street, sometimes chatting with each other, or selling and buying various goods at the street corners and sides. Fresh pastries, vegetables, fruits or other things like festive clothes, books or household items, almost everything.
Some of the smells were really appetizing, like the ones coming from the baked goods, filled with fruits or other tasty things, others, as the ones coming from the small ditches located alongside the roads, weren't.
Aside from the different smells, the air was constantly filled with vendors praising their products and customers bargaining, street musicians playing instruments while singing stones unlike all I had ever heard before, and the general chatter of ponies.
I was just starring out of the window while we were driving by. Everything was so much more full of life than at home, everyone seemed more active and everything more colourful!
And the buildings, which I finally began to notice, seemed to be different as well. They were mostly made of wood, not stone, unlike in my hometown, and painted in a lot of different, some bright, colours. This wasn't just another town, this seemed more like a completely different world. I hoped we would at least speak the same language... And as soon as I had finished that thought, the carriage  came to a final stop and the door on the opposite side was opened.
I got out and was startled a bit. Standing before me was a tall, intimidating guard, wearing a shiny silver chest plate and a helmet made of the same metal. 
“So you’re the mercury bringin’ the medicine for our Lord and General?” 
“Y-yes, I am.”
“Good. Welcome to St. Marelington. Come with me, I’ll bring you to him.”
I was glad we could understand each other after all, but he did speak in a strange accent, slurring most of his words and talking kind of fast.
He lead me to a building with a peaked red roof, plastered in pale yellow, two stories high with a copper green clock tower on it. It had a big, two-storey projected porch in the middle with two smaller gables on each side. A single semioval window was sitting atop the huge wooden portal. 
Two other guards with spears were standing on each side of it.
“Halt! Who seeks entry?”
“The courier from Sharp Knife’s town in the frozen north. He’s here to bring the medicine for our Lord.”
One of the guard’s expression changed to horror.
“That town? Aren’t they all cursed and work for some kind of pure evil? And now you brought one of them here?”
I sighed. I know I couldn’t expect everyone not to believe that ridicolous myth, but it still hurt how some thought of us. I mean, come on! What makes us so different from then anyway? That we live far away, somewhat secluded in the mountains? Is that how the myth came to be? I don’t even think that everyone thinks Sharp Knife even existed in the first place. A lot are doubting his existence, since there are next to no writings from that period or or other evidence.
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a shout.
“By ‘elestia! Get a grip on yourself and stop being so superstitious! They’re just like us, they just talk a bit archaically! He has the remedy all of you failed to bring! Let us through or I’ll put that spear of yours where the sun doesn’t shine!”
It’s nice to hear he doesn’t think that, but... did he just call my speech archaic? Also, is “Elestia” a local godness of them? I had no idea that everything would already be so different in the next city... but then again we really don’t live close to anyone, except for the mountains. But according to what I’ve heard from others, only a handful of people live in a few isolated villages, as it’s not exactly a place with friendly life conditions. 
Anyway, at least I and my escort were allowed entrance now. The guards stepped aside and the huge, ornamented portal opened with a loud, deep creak. 
Behind it was a small room, apparently the entrance hall. It had two windows on each side, the floor was partly covered by a red carpet with a colourful, jagged pattern, and there was another pair of doors in the middle. 
The guard lead me through them and we entered another hall, a huge one. The walls were unplastered pure stone here, with paintings of various knights and kings on both sides of the room. A huge carpet with a coat of arms was hanging from the opposite wall. Yellow with a diagonal red stripe, with a crown and a hoofshoe on both sides of the stripe.
A lot of swords and shields could be seen below it, standing in a large rack.
“This is the assembly hall. Once a month or when needed, our lord, General Fair Judge, gathers all knights here and gives out announcements. If requested, they will be spread to the general population afterwards.”
My guide turned to the left, and pointed to the paintings.
“Here and on the other side you can see all our previous lords. Fair and just as our founding father Lord Rightfulness wished it to be, all rulers are knights elected by the assembly, so that the best of them all may reign this principality.”
I saw a lot of variously coloured ponies in full armour, posing in a dignified manner with a stern look in their eyes and a silver crown on their head. Some were wearing yellow-red robes as well. Some were pegasi, but most were unicorns. Again. Not a single earth-dweller in sight. I sighed, but the guard ignored it or took no notice of it and continued to lead me to another room. Mostly empty, it only had two windows on each side and again a door on the opposite side with the same red carpet going through the room. It also held the stairs to the second story. They were wooden, and creaked a bit when stepping on them. Upon reaching the upper floor, we passed yet another ornamented wooden door and finally stopped in front of a much smaller one. Coughs could be heard on the other side.
The guard knocked on it.
A low, raspy voice, barely audible between fits of coughing, asked:
“Who is it?”
“It’s knight Sensible. The courier with the remedy is here!”
“Let him in...”
Sensible (odd short names do they have here...) turned to me and asked:
“Do you have it with you?”
Slightly offended, I started to answer “Of course, it’s right here in my sad-” when I realized I had for some reason forgotten my saddlebags in the carriage. Darn, it had probably already left and I had no idea where it could be. 
The guard only gave me a severe, expecting look as an answer.
“Uh... sorry, I have left it somewhere else. I will just go and fetch it, all right?” 
I smiled nervously, but he was visibly displeased with me.
“Then go! Go! And hurry, the fate of our lands depend on the health of our lord!”