After getting the prize money, I went to get our stuff and find a good hotel. I settled with the 'Sabot De Ch'evre'. It wasn't brilliant, but it was good enough for what we needed it for. What does the name mean, you ask? I have no idea! Who the buck am I talking to? Afterwards, I went back to the Colosseum to carry Vesper to the hotel room. I couldn't remember how the forced consciousness spell was supposed to be cast, so I lay her down on the single bed and went out into the streets of Taureau Hommes, wandering around with a small sack of money around my neck.

At first I hadn't known what to look for, but I soon remembered that I needed a better repair spell. The one I had been using so far, while useful, was incredibly basic. I needed something higher tier, something more efficient, something good for incineration and-

"Heya, mister!" Exclaimed a Griffon well within my personal space. He had mostly dark blue feathers with some white on his face and wingtips and looked to be somewhere between sixteen and twenty (assuming Griffons age at the same rate as Ponies).

"Uh, hi?" I replied. What does this guy want?

"I saw ya fightin' at tha battle tourney! Youse an amazin' fighter!"

"Thanks." I extended a hoof. "Cloud Calculation." The Griffon grabbed my hoof and shook it vigorously.

"Ahm Louie!" Griffon names are weird... "Ah've never seen a Pony castin' magic like tha' before! Whatcha call them circle things?"

"Arcane Circles, they-"

"Ah've never heard of them before! Where didja learn em?"

"They come to me naturally. It's linked to-"

"Ah guess tha's why your dainty mark is one of them!"

"Yeah, but it's actually called a cutie-"

"Didja invent em?"

"No, they were first discovered by Star-"

"Howd'ya use em?"

"It's hard to explain, you have to try to-"

"They were so cool! Especially tha' big one ya finished with! Tha' other pony was knocked straight out!"

"Actually, it was the sleeping gas tha-"

"Do Ponies eat grass?"

"We could, but it's unhygienic so-"

"Wha' abou' hay?" Is this really happening right now?

"Yeah, it's a normal thing for us to-"

"Where didja grow up?"

"Heh. That's harder to answer. Further than anypon- Anyone has ever been. Probably."

"Whered'ya live, then?"

"Ponyville, Equestria."

"Where's tha'?"

"Other side of the world. Where are you from?"

"Ah'm from Talondon!"

"That's in Eagland, right?"

"Yep! Hay of a place to live!"

"You're pretty far from home."

"Yep! Ah've left mah folks an' now Ah'm exploring the world!"

"That's pretty cool. Hey, do you know if any shops around here sell spells?"

"There's a place nearby! Ah'll take ya there!"

"Thanks."

I couldn't find a new repair spell, so instead I went to get a haycon sandwich. It was surprisingly hard to enjoy food with someone breathing down the back of your neck.

"Whyd'ya Ponies eat hay instead o' bacon?" Louie asked for the third time. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* What am I doing? Slamming my head against a mental desk.

"We're herbivores," I replied, "we don't eat meat."

"Why not?"

"It's not healthy for us."

"Howd'ya know if ya haven' tried it?" I eyed the bacon sandwich in his talons. The greasy flesh of another living thing shoved between bread glistening slightly in the light of Luna's space rock was more than enough to make my stomach churn in disgust. Ugh...

"Instinct." I finished off my sandwich and stood up from the bench we were sitting on. "Well, I should go and get some sleep." ...And by that I mean check on Vesper then fight some cultists.

"Aw, already?!"

"Yeah. Big day tomorrow." ...And by that I mean probably sleeping all day then going home.

"Tha's some sad news, mister."

"Uh huh. Well, see you." I teleported back to the hotel room, making Vesper jump in surprise in the doorway to the bathroom.

"Buck!" She yelled. "Don't do that to me, ya dick!" I rolled my eyes and dived onto the double bed to relax.

"How else was I gonna get back?" I stretched out, receiving some satisfying pops from my back. "We're taking down the cult about thirty minutes."

"Why? It's the middle of the night."

"You think cultists hold meetings in daylight?" Vesper shrugged.

"It'd be enough to fool us." Her brow furrowed slightly. "The double bed's mine. Get off."

"Nope."

"Why the buck not?"

"I paid for the room, I choose the bed."

"That's not how it works!"

"Yeah it is, but fine: I won the fight, I choose the bed. How's that?" Vesper huffed and stormed into the bathroom. Now to take down the cultists.

Author's Notes:

It feels blasphemous to write as a character that doesn't like bacon.

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I decided to make this its own chapter rather than have it with what's to come.