Persona: The Harmony Arcana
Chapter 34: Chapter 33: Gust
Previous Chapter Next ChapterTuesday - July 2nd
Daytime
The second day of the Caravan's stay in Ponyville started much like the first, a big loud musical number which served as an introduction for a few opening acts, followed by Gust Strong-Wind introducing the first of many more performances and "workshops" as he was calling them. Wayfarer would have been there with Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadence, but those three had left early that morning to deal with the changeling called Chitin. Yesterday the three had decided to allow Chitin to mill about the fair on a few conditions, namely that they would be escorted by a royal guard. Further, Chitin would not be allowed to use his shapeshifting magic and would remain undisguised for the duration of their time in Ponyville. Court Drama had debated that demand, as Chitin was supposed to help with a few performances that required their shapeshifting abilities, but Shining wouldn't budge on that one. Lastly, Chitin would have to submit themselves to Shining's interrogation. Even if the Caravan had asked all the pertinent questions themselves, Shining was determined to hear it all for himself. One last thing they did before granting Chitin amnesty was that they had to demonstrate just how Chitin was being fed. Shining and Twilight seemed unwilling to explain the process, their blushes saying a lot more than their silence, but Cadence just started laughing uproariously before elaborating that Chitin was essentially the Caravan's "Cuddle Bug." There was apparently a list of volunteers that offered their beds every night to Chitin, where they would take on the volunteer's biggest fantasy and provide... comfort. That was just about all Wayfarer was comfortable hearing.
So instead of the Sparkle family, Wayfarer was instead hanging out with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Fluttershy had seen a delightful stained glass maker yesterday and commissioned her to create butterfly shaped window ornaments for herself and all her friends. The gryphon in charge had said she'd only be able to make two ornaments for her while in Ponyville, but promised the other four before the end of the month. The first one The gryphon completed was Rainbow Dash's, thus why Fluttershy was dragging Dash along with her.
"Come on Rainbow," Fluttershy said, leading a disgruntled Dash by the wing. "The little ornaments that Gwendalin showed me were just so adorable, I know you'll love this!"
"Flutters," Dash groaned. "You do know I don't go out for things that are 'adorable,' right?"
"It's adorable the way you think that matters," Wayfarer said, earning an annoyed scowl from Rainbow. "Just let Fluttershy have this, I bet it'll look nice regardless."
They approached the booth with all the stained glass, the Gryphon was speaking with another customer at the moment, which gave Wayfarer time to admire her craftsmanship. Most of it looked like they belonged hanging in the halls of Canterlot, just on a much smaller scale. The gryphon immediately recognized Fluttershy and presented Rainbow's butterfly to her. Fluttershy and Wayfarer oohed at the design, Rainbow rolled her eyes before giving it a look and going wide eyed. Wayfarer only knew a few butterfly species off the top of his head, and the ornament looked like a swallow tail of sorts, only its wings were far more jagged and flamelike. The actual pieces of glass making up the butterfly were beautiful swirls of analogous colours focussed around the 6 colours that made up Rainbow's mane. There really was only one word for it, as Rainbow demonstrated.
"Cooooool," she whispered.
"Glad you like it," the gryphon said with a smirk. "Had to forge a lot of new glass last night for this beauty, but I'd dare say she was worth it."
The gryphon handed Rainbow the ornament, which Rainbow took gently into her hooves as if afraid the mere act of touching it would shatter its beauty. She stared at it for a while as Fluttershy made small talk with the gryphon, eventually Rainbow took it by the loop of string and pulled it over her head, letting it hang from her neck. She winced as some of the points jabbed into her coat, but she smiled through the pain and looked up at Wayfarer.
"Ho-how does it look?" She asked.
"I don't think it's meant to be a necklace Dash," Wayfarer laughed. "But it does look pretty awesome."
"Indeed it does!" Wayfarer and Rainbow turned to see Gust walking up to them, admiring the ornament. "Gwendalin is a wizard with her claws, and even I think that's some of her best work. You three enjoying the festival?"
"Oh, yes!" Fluttershy said, joining them. "You all are so very talented! I wish I could be creative enough to make stuff like this."
"What are you talking about Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked with bemusement. "You're already one of Ponyville's best singers, now you wanna be an artist too?"
Fluttershy started to curl into herself and blush. "I-I'm not THAT good."
"Sure you are! You just have stage fright is all. Hey," Rainbow turned to Gust and pointed at him. "You're a big shot theatre guy right? How do you get over stage fright?"
"Well," Gust said, tapping his chin. "It doesn't happen overnight. It only happens in baby steps." For some reason this made Fluttershy smile at Gust. "An important thing to remember though is that, when you are on stage , you need to focus on the reason you're there instead of on the crowd of eyes watching you. My reason for being on stage has always been to make people smile and laugh, and occasionally make people cry if I'm part of a more somber production. But you don't have to be on stage to be a performer. Heck, you don't even have to put yourself out there just because you're an artist. If you enjoy singing, dancing, drawing, writing, or whatever, it doesn't have to exist for other people's consumption. It could exist exclusively for the artist to enjoy."
"Heh, you know, I would say, 'But where's the fun in that!'" Rainbow Dash sighed, rolling her eyes. She then smiled and wrapped a hoof around Fluttershy and pulling her into a one foreleg hug. "But I can dig it if you just wanna sing to animals Fluttershy. Not everyone wants to be the in the spotlight like me."
"Exactly," Gust said, nodding. "Show offs like you, Miss Dash, and myself belong in front of an audience. with all those ponies cheering our names and worshipping the ground we walk on." He smirked knowingly at that, even as Rainbow seemed to falter in surprise. "Am I right?"
Rainbow looked terrified for a moment, and Wayfarer was now eyeing Gust with no small amount of suspicion. "Well," Rainbow said slowly. "It's like you said, we have to go on stage with a purpose."
"Of course, of course." Gust tilted his head a little, raising an eye. "But what's your purpose for being on stage Miss Dash?"
Rainbow was actually starting to look a little annoyed at this line of questioning, but she answered with confidence. "I'm an adrenaline junky I like going fast and showing everyone my stuff. It gets the blood pumping to perform death defying stunts."
Gust Strong-Wind seemed satisfied with that answer. He smiled and nodded again, before turning away. "Well, I need to get back to work then. It's been nice chatting with you all, please enjoy the rest of the Festival."
Rainbow Dash snorted in irritation, walking off with Fluttershy and Wayfarer in tow. "Nosy punk. Who does he think he is asking all those questions?"
"A talent scout, maybe?" Wayfarer suggested. "Don't let him get to you Rainbow, I've met enough theatre ponies to know that they're all eccentrics. Ooh is that a funnel cake stand over there?"
They hurried over to the confection vendor, letting their thoughts of Gust blow away. As they left the Glass cutter's stand in their wake however, Elizabeth rushed up to Gwendalin, thoroughly out of breath. The gryphon just stared at her with confusion until Elizabeth calmed herself. "Is the chariot here?" She asked desperately. "I followed the butterflies and the cards said that the chariot would be here!"
"Miss Elizabeth," Gwendalin said with exasperation. "You can't come running over here every ten minutes shouting nonsense. You'll scare away all my customers. Now, go back to your tent and tell some sweet filly that she'll meet her true love some time in the near future."
"Oh I've just done that," Elizabeth said matter-of-factly. "Though this filly will inevitably run into a myriad of misfortune when her father suddenly loses all his wealth, thus beginning a long train of tragedy that will teach her the value of honest work and lead her to the mare she is destined to be with. Although she didn't seem to like the idea of being with another mare for some reason, or the train of tragedy. Perhaps I should have called it a deluge of drama then?"
"Elizabeth, go back to sleep."
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