1 month after exile

Rainbow soared across the sky, her shadow dancing across the ground in the fading light. Over the past few weeks, she had run a few other packages to other nearby towns and outposts by Burkesh. After completing each of these jobs in a few days, grown accustomed to flying around the small town and had familiarized herself with its creatures and other quirks. Her new boss had also seen to get her a more challenging run. I.E., one that was further away from Burkesh.

The package was to this one high-end guy who was paying a lot of money for it. He lived in someplace called Troton and had described it as a 'city'. This set off a few curiosity bells in her head. One for the name, and the second for the descriptor. Most of the places she had run packages to had names that sounded pretty odd to her and Steven had always described them as 'towns' or 'settlements'; never 'cities'. So, her curiosity peaked and her clothes freshly washed in the nearby river, she was on her way to Troton.

As she got close, she soon realized why he had called it a city. The place was massive; easily three times the size of Ponyville, which was already a pretty big town. It was built onto a large raft-like structure that was marooned with large spikes and chains along the mouth of a small bay. The rest of the bay was dotted with small buoy homes and boats, while a few larger houses were built up along the shoreline. A series of stone palisades lined the opening to the sea, lined with large ballista and catapults.

However, the real marvel was the city itself. As stated, it was built onto a large wooden platform, made from crisscrossed planks, beams, and all ringed by a sturdy if rusted looking iron band. The buildings were made of the same colored wood that the platform was, and look oddly Equestrian in style. The streets were slightly lower down on the water platform that the homes, which were connected to each other by stairways. As she got closer, she was able to make out a series of shops around various squares, large intersections, and plazas. The whole place seemed like very Equestrian, very traditionally earth pony, or Terran, in particular; like a wooden Canterlot. This analogy was helped along by the fact that most of the ponies appeared to be Terrans, only occasionally marred by the typical Caragors, Demigryphs, and Tao Tei.

Well, enough sight-seeing. Let's find the office. Upon doing so, she discovered the pony (as it was actually a pony; she had been working on that), was, in fact, the mayor. He would be expecting the package at his place tonight. Apparently, news of her had spread, and he said if it wasn't there by then, he would cut the promised pay by half. She smiled at the recognition, then left to go find the mayors place.

It was fairly obvious to spot; a much larger and more impressive looking structure at larger intersections. Landing outside, she was able to fully take it in, even better then she could from the air. It was a building able to rival the Ponyville town hall in size, if not is condition. Despite its size and nature, the wood was still damp with apparent rot, and sections of the walls were boarded up with contrasting shades of wood or sheets of scrap metal. Still, this was the place, and so she pushed open the door.

Inside was a surprisingly cozy-looking lobby. Generally, offices in the few larger towns and cities she had visited back in Equestria, were very rigid, impersonal, and had a less-than-friendly vibe to them. She expected a similar situation here, both due to the size of the town and the state of the building. But she was pleasantly surprised by the interior. A well lit wooden room, comfy-ish looking chairs, a few bookshelves filled with unfamiliar books Twilight would kill for, and even a chandelier of polished metal. The receptionist, a dull orange Terran with a braided green mane, said, "Well hello, there...." she paused at the sight of her wings, her eyes going wide and Rainbow could swear she heard her utter what sounded like a prayer under her breath.

"Uh, yo! You ok?", Rainbow said, hovering in front of her as she waved a hoof across the front of her face. That snapped her out of it. She shook her head and re-adopted her smile, despite its obvious strained nature.

"Sorry. Anyway, you must be the courier Mayor Fine Point was waiting for."

Choosing to ignore her initial reaction, chalking it up to her never seeing anything as awesome as her before, she said, "That'd be me, yeah. Got it right here." As she said this she pulled out the package: An old scroll in a leather case, carved with the image of a pair of rearing terrans.

The receptionist reached out for it, saying, "I'll just take it up to Mr. Fine poi-" But cut herself off as Rainbow jerked it away.

"Sorry. But, I gotta deliver it to him myself. Company policy."

The mare looked like she wanted to say something in reply, but her expression faded as she sighed. She then looked up somewhat dejectedly, pointing up the stairs. "Last door at the end of the hall. Can't miss it; got 'Mayor' written on it, bright red, whole nine yards."

Rainbow thanked her, tossed a rolled up barter script on the desk, saying, "Here. Have a good one," before dashing up the stairs. True to her word, she found a bright red door at the end of the hall. She assumed it said, mayor, as while she had been learning to read a bit of Demosian, it still hadn't caught on. Either way, she knocked, followed a few minutes later by a few hoof steps beating on the wood floor.

The door opened, reveal the Mayor himself. He wore a somewhat clean looking red jacket, a white undershirt with a small pocket on it, and a small, olden pony style hat. He was somewhat on the chubby side, yet still only for other Terrans around her; he looked like the average Equestrian, actually. His cutie mark was a sharpened bone pen, the end marked with black ink, over a small piece of parchment. He had a thin, wispy mustache and a wide, beaming smile.

"Well, hello there miss. I assume you're the courier who has the package I sent for." His voice sounded nice enough, yet seemed to hold an underlying mistrust to it.

"Uh, yeah. I got it right in my bag."

"Splendid," he said, his smiling never wavering. "Come in, and we'll get down to business."

She whistled as she walked into the mayor's office. It was massive, putting Stevens's desk back in Burkesh to shame. The center of the room was dominated by a large wooden desk, stacked high with parchment and a few curios. A bookshelf took up one wall, loaded up nearly fully with scrolls, leather-bound books, and even a few clay tablets. The far wall commanded a view of on side of the city and the surrounding bay and mountainous coast ringing it.

Fine point stood, smiling out at the town. "My package. You have it, yes?" As she pulled it out and handed it to him, he took it and examined it. "Ah, yes. This is it. You know, there are three such scrolls, each detailing the history of my fair city. From the early days, before the Great Schism with our kinds Reformist people, to the Exodus, all the way up until the Scorching of the Sun Daemon. This scroll has seen much history and is as old as our dear city. Our venerable Troton." He let loose a sigh, then a light chuckle. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I ramble some times. Now, you need me to mark something, yes?"

Rainbow handed him a recognition sheet, showing that the package had arrived at its location and been received by its intended recipient. As she left, she gave some thought to what he had said. None of the events sounded familiar but obviously took place a long time ago. Oh well. Ancient history. Well, on to the next one.

Next Chapter: 25~Notable runs (PT. 2) Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 60 Minutes