Orchid's Flower Emporium [Dead]

[orchidbloom]

Orchid smiled, listening to the slightly awkward, but nonetheless kind introductions around her. Coins were abruptly thrust in her direction from Emerald, and before she could point out that it was much to much for what he had bought, he had turned and started walking back to the main street, where few ponies milled about, glancing in with raised eyebrows at her shop. "Good-bye!"  she said, "Thank you for your generosity!" He turned one last time, his eyes resting on her own. They were filled with curiosity; confusion, maybe. She blinked and smiled, and he continued his own way to wherever he had come from. Orchid turned to the original two left in her shop.

"Well, I suppose we could consider him an interesting fellow, but nice of him to buy something." She placed the pile of gold coins on her counter, sliding them into the little box on the floor, each one plummeting off the tabletop before hitting the box with a little clink noise. She then lifted a ceramic pot that was sizably larger than others, and only had one chip at the top. Putting this on the ground in between the three of them, who were standing or sitting in somewhat of a triangle, she started putting large pieces of anything into the pot. 


"So Carmine, Lighting..." she tried to think of a good topic to drum up conversation. "Carmine, I've been curious. The dive you did-" she didn't bring up the crash, learning that Carmine was more of a pony that took pride in her social appearance; could take care of herself, and didn't like to make mistakes. At least, that was what she assumed. "Do you do aerial stuff often? What about you Lightning? Are you much of a pony who does precarious aerial tricks?" She sometimes wished herself that she could fly like a pegasus pony, but put it off. At least she had unicorn magic! She would rather have that any day. 

[Carmine]

 As Emerald began to leave, he glanced back at Orchid Bloom; his greenish-blue eyes casting a wistful look upon her delicate features. He seemed to shake off his air of nostalgia and promptly departed, shutting the door behind him without further ado. He was a peculiar one.. and Carmine couldn't help but wonder about the type of work he did.

  "Well, I suppose we could consider him an interesting fellow, but nice of him to buy something." 

 The Stalliongrad pegasus chuckled to herself as she raised her eyebrows at the unicorn. "Well, with the way he was looking, I bet he found you to be a pretty interesting pony yourself!" She giggled to herself again, bending her head down under a table to grab a bunch of wooden splinters that had fallen to the floor with her mouth. A smile of relief creeped onto Carmine's face as she saw Orchid's pot, which was soon fed five pieces of wood. Blitz did this several times until the floor in her area was completely barren of any debris. 

 Trotting over to a dusty table standing on three cracked legs, she examined her wing. Deep resignations rose from the bowels of her heart as Carmine began to accept the fact that it would be a long time before she flew again. Heck, before she did anything even remotely active again. The feeling of shame was painfully paralyzing, and the proud mare had to clear the lump from her throat before she could push the table towards the wall. 

 Although dignity was a value treasured in Stalliongrad, Carmine's self-regard seemed to boil over into vanity. As a filly, she would go through lengthy odds to prove that whenever she would fly, she'd fly faster, harder, and longer than anypony else. Defeat was not taken easily by the feisty pegasus, and it often took the encouraging of her uncle Reignhold to accept criticism from her friends. 

 Carmine's reverie shattered as Orchid inquired the two pegasi about their aerial exploits. Trying to restrain her enthusiasm for the questions, Blitz adopted a reserved, professional stance and spoke seriously. With her legs straightened out, she cleared her throat.

"Yes, I've been flying high speed dives since I was just a filly. It's really hard work, you know. When I'm descending through the sky, I keep my wings locked out on both of my sides instead of letting them fold against my sides. I sacrifice a little bit of speed for stability, which works fine for me because I pick up a ton of speed anyway from the high altitudes I fly from. When I near the ground, all I do is tilt my wings up, which helps pitch me up out of the dive. It takes a lot of practice, and all the wind resistance makes my wings really strong. I crashed today because I didn't really see Lightning Clash until I was right there beside him... which threw me off. I couldn't stabilize in time, and that's how I ended up bursting through into your shop."

 Carmine's important tone wavered a little as she explained her flop. It was awkward trying to make it sound like her mishap was justified, especially when she was panicking when she fell. 
 

 

[Lightning Clash]

Lightning watched as Emerald said his goodbye as he gave Orchid a hoof full of coins for the ingredients he was holding. He seemed slightly shy and awkward but in the end he was very kind and generous. He left the store but before he was out of sight he turned and faced Orchid. He seemed confused? Lightning wasn't quite sure but before he could think of something else he was gone. Orchid turned back to the two pegasi and said "Well, I suppose we could consider him an interesting fellow, but nice of him to buy something". He was nice and Lightning was sure he'd meet the unicorn again. Carmine than said some comment about Emerald but Lightning didn't hear her right. Lightning was slowing down with the cleaning of the store. He had a lot on his mind and there was already so many distractions.

A few moments of silence pass as the only sound that was heard was the sound of coins dropping. Orchid than starts to talk, trying to start a conversation. She asks about Carmine's dive she was doing before the crash. Also asked if she does much aerial stuff. She had asked Lightning as well. Carmine then went on about how she been diving since she was just a filly. Explaining in detail all the little things she does to increase speed, stability, reduce air resistance, stuff like that. She was being very professional as she explained it. She then got to the part how the whole air drama began, since he was in the way. Lightning felt like he caused all of this and had an awkward grin on his face as she continued. It looked like Carmine was done explaining so Lightning continued.

"Well I do like flying at high speeds, mostly in straight lines not dives. Yet I don't do many aerial tricks commonly" he told the two ponies. "How about you Orchid? Since your a unicorn, do you use magic in other ways besides levitation?" Lightning asked. He was always curious when it came to magic. He hadn't seen much of it before and he wanted to say something to keep everypony talking.

[orchidbloom]

Orchid laughed at Carmine's comment about Emerald. She busied herself with collecting all intact flowers, turning her head to not show any pink coloring on her cheeks. Taking the bunch of flowers that were levitating over her head, she listened to what the two ponies had to say about her question. She proceeded to tug a table with all four legs still together over closer to them. She silently labeled this table the 'Intact Table', where she placed everything unharmed. Some pots that could be easily mended ended up floating over, as well as woven baskets that did not have that much ability to break. 

Turning back to the pegasi, not wanting to be rude, she listened to the descriptive story of diving and aerial things that Carmine had been doing since she was young. To be honest, it didn't surprise her that she was this technical and knowledgable in the art. Lightning also added his two cents of what he was up to in the air. "That sounds- complicated, to be honest. If I had wings, I'd probably crash into nearly everything near me." she said, laughing a little to herself. She imagined herself flapping around like an uncoordinated bird, running into ponies and buildings and anything crash-able into. "My sister is a pegasus pony; she's studying at a school in Cloudsdale. She's one of the most dare-devil-divers I've seen." she remarked. She then pondered Lightning's question.


"Well, magic is fickle." she started, setting down anything that was enveloped in her green, sparkly magic. She took a stance not unlike Carmine's, making her look stupid and only slightly dignified. "It's even hard to learn to use it for levitating things, unless you learn when you're a filly. My mother taught me very young to do basic unicorn magic; lifting things, focussing on keeping things steady in the air. After that though, You can study more advanced things; picking up larger things, such as ponies. But one of my favorite things I can do with magic is this-" Orchid closed her eyes and focused on the spot 10 feet in front of her. She flared up green magic around her horn, before disappearing in a pop of green light. Not even two seconds later, she appeared where she had envisioned herself, but was lying on her back. She stumbled around to stand, and shook her mane around. "I'm still studying that one." she said, smiling at her valid attempt. "There's other things too, but none that I've spent much time on."

[Carmine]

 Carmine tuned her perky ears to the words of Orchid as she surveyed the room. With a satisfied huff, she nodded to herself before sitting down, leaning forward on her two hooves. The shop was looking almost brand new, albeit a bit dusty here and there. Looking up towards the pony-sized sunroof in the ceiling, the blood-maned pegasus whispered a sigh of relief. 'So lucky there was no glass to shatter when I fell through that roof,' she chewed over in her head. 

 Orchid was still talking. Looking at the pony, Carmine blinked several times. What did Orchid Bloom say? Something about Cloudsdale divers.. Blitz nodded with a smile, pretending to understand the unicorn, but in actuality she only caught the very last part. And maybe not even that. At first, Carmine felt remorseful, but immediately shed her guilt. She would just have to make do and try to make sure she paid more attention next time. No harm, no foul. 

 The white pegasus thoughtfully rubbed her chin with a hoof as Orchid Bloom then began explaining her use of magic. It was a peculiar thing, to be able to lift objects with nothing but a shining light and a horn. In her youth, Carmine often wondered how magic was stored inside the bodies of unicorns, or if they ever had to recharge and how. In Stalliongrad, the few magic-users she did see didn't do much except what Orchid just did - lift things. Carmine Blitzfire would rather fly..

 She was about to ask what else Orchid Bloom could do when the unicorn suddenly disappeared, vanishing in a veil of green light. A second later, she zapped into view about ten hooves in front of where she last stood. Except, this time the purple unicorn was lying on her back. Carmine's mouth lay open and her eyes wide, surprised at this awesome feat of magic. She hadn't seen that before. Was this common? She trotted over to Orchid, peering down at her as she rose to her hooves. 


 "Whoa, atleechna!! That was really cool! I've never seen a unicorn do that before.. my family worked the factories in Stalliongrad, so I didn't really see too much magic when I was a filly. Does it make you tired when you use it?"




 

[Lightning Clash]

Lightning listened carefully as Orchid started to explain her magic. Magic was an amazing thing in Lightning's eyes also a confusing thing. How does it work? Do you have a limit? Why only unicorns? So many questions about this strange thing must have been asked before by somepony but does somepony know the answers? Lightning started to get a headache with all the questions rampaging in his mind. Orchid explained to the two pegasi that even levitating was tough to learn unless taught young. This surprised him even more as he expected it to be naturally for unicorns.

She also added that unicorns could continue studying their magic. She gave an example that more advance could be picking up bigger objects like ponies. This example gave Lightning the false conclusion that all it was is picking up heavier things until Orchid's body glowed in a green aura. It lasted a second before she vanished in the flash of a green light. Seemingly two seconds later she had reappeared in another green flash of light about ten hooves from her original position. She had teleported! Lightning couldn't believe it.

"That is awesome!" he said aloud not on purpose. He flew over and landed near Orchid who had teleported upside. She stood back up and said she still studying that one. Lightning seemed to have a hundred questions in his head about magic but he calmed down and asked Orchid one. "How long has it taken to learn what you know with teleporting?" he asked. Carmine had also asked a good question too. he waited to see if Orchid would answer their two questions.

[orchidbloom]

Orchid smiled, flattered by the surprise and attention she had gotten out of her teleport. It was a miracle she had landed where she wanted to this time! She told that to the two pegasi, saying, "the first time I tried, I ended up on the second story of our house instead of on the first. My mother got so worried..." Orchid laughed, reminiscing. She imagined her mother calling for her when she didn't appear right in front of her. She listened to both Carmine and Lightning's responses, before thinking about them. How long had it taken her to learn? The first attempt was when she was still at home with her mother, so a little while ago. But learning it was different...

"I probably started learning it just after elementary. It took that long to get it like this! And by tired.... I suppose you couldn't do it continuously, you'd get quite exhausted but just doing it once or twice only leaves you a bit dizzy."

She smiled to herself, happy with the explanation. She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and and concentrated, to prove her point. It was always harder the second time... With another Burst of green light, Orchid disappeared. But instead of landing right back where she started, Orchid found herself with all fours wrapped around a column. She shook her head and blinked, trying to get her bearings. She wasn't in her shop, that was for sure. So then where- she gasped. She was hanging onto one of the support beams on the top of her shop. Her belly was pressed against the cold, white material, her legs holding on for dear life. She took some steady, deep breaths. It wasn't safe to try teleporting again; she was teleported-out; plus, from a point like this, it probably wasn't even safe to begin with. She spoke, but instead of calm and collected, her voice came out in a squeak. 

"If somepony wouldn't mind-" she gulped. "Getting me down, that would be marvelous."