Riddle's Bazaar (Open! For Business!)

[Ice Dog]

    "Sir is certainly very knowledgeable about dogs," Ice dipped his head, a small airy chuckle coming from him. "I try to be." It felt great to have someone say that. There were others that probably knew more than he, but he knew enough to help others. Riddle was kind, and it felt nice to be around her. But right now, he would try to remain on a customer - worker, instead of seeing if she could want to be friends. That might be weird, anyways.

    "Ah... then I suppose I will make do with only those brief moments I might enjoy a dog, sir. Mine is not a life made for owning pets really, sir. My domicile is not large, and my schedule is quite restrictive. It is rare I have time to take myself for a walk, you see sir." Ice would give a small dip of his head, a way of acknowledgment. "That's a shame. Worth dreaming though, huh?" He'd offer a friendly smile. "Maybe one day you'll be able to get a dog. They are worth it." Maybe if she kept up with this business, she could have a store dog. Or if she ever got married, her partner might have a dog.

    Riddle seemed finished with Phillip - who looked somewhat sad when she walked away - and went back to work. She collected the money, and he started to put the bought items into his bag. "Which is why I endeavor, sir, to have all manner of things available for all manner of ponies here in my bazaar." He nodded in agreement, looking about the shop. There sure was many things for a pony to choose from. "Thank you for doing business with me." Riddle bowed, and Ice copied her. "Have a nice day, miss." He'd call at to her as he left.

[Moony Shenanigans]

At around midday a sky blue pegasus mare could be seen wandering into the neatly arranged group of planks and barrels that made up the bazaar. Her hair was not unlike the color of seaweed, albeit a little paler. It was tied up in golden hairbands, which matched both the color of her treble clef cutie mark and her necklace. Said necklace had her cutie mark in pink on the front. Her wings were currently folded on either side of her.
    

Ocean Song idly walked around, looking at the wide assortment of bits and baubles for sale. Today was a slow day for her, and she had nothing to do. Therefore, she had resorted to wandering around the marketplace with a small pouch of bits, having decided that she would go shopping.
   

Ocean paused beside the collection of foods and bent down to sniff at the apples. Her stomach growled, much to her surprise. With her boredom, you would have expected her to notice her hunger. The pegasus mare finally decided on a cucumber sandwich, her favorite. She turned her head and picked up the sandwich with her teeth and looked around for the owner of the small shop.

[waxworks]

((Sorry Moony, I think I kinda vanished right around when you came by the Bazaar. Feel free to just jump back in if you want, otherwise I'm just opening it back up for general public.))

In the hazy, humid sun of the early Summer morning, there was a strangely cool breeze spilling through the marketplace. Of course when everything seemed overly hot even the slightest breeze felt like a welcomed reprieve. Of course to somepony who had grown up in a pressure cooker with incredible heat and vicious cold (hot desert nights were a complete myth), Ponyville's balmy Summer was absolutely delightful.

It was certainly a benefit to Riddle's marketing appeal that she was one of the few merchants in the marketplace with a bright smile on her face and no rivers of sweat pouring down her back. She swayed happily as usual. In fact both she and her Mooxican roommate had found the Ponyville heat to be quite lovely, and both of them had to stifle grins at the local ponies who complained about the heat. Of course the local farmer ponies seemed absolutely full of pride with how much heat they were under every day and Riddle would often overheard strange bragging matches about who had gotten the most sweaty during their day.

But, Riddle supposed, there was no fault in taking pride with how much work one pony could do in a day. She smiled and nodded, deciding that particular Ponyville attitude would be something useful to add to her own.

[hypno]

Ink Moon entered the bazaar with her yellow saddlebag. She looks around the shop. It probably had what she needed. She had been there before. Ink looked around for her friend Riddle.

Inside her bag there was a finished book that she had entered the writing contest earlier. It was called Robin Hoof. The book had won third place after Ink finally got it finished, edited, and got the cover done. On the cover there was a mare with a bow in her hoofs and the mare looked like she was shooting something while she was standing on a tree branch.

There was a stamp on the bottom left corner that stated that this was the third place winner in Canterlot's book contest. Ink Moon was very proud of her work but didn't take it out of her saddle bag yet. Instead she looked around the shop for items she would need once she returned home.

She found the Ink, Quills, and paper. After all she was going to start brainstorming for her new book. Yes she did get third place in the competition and that would drum up some business for her. But if she was going to have new fans of her books she would have to write quickly for new content to come to her fans. Ink's writer friends told her all about what it was like to have readers. -Always get new content for them. If you got one book done then start a new one.- One of her friends had said.

[waxworks]

Riddle's prodigious ears wibbled gently in the slight breeze, picking up the slight sound of hoofsteps entering into the Bazaar. The little basil-colored pony had learned that a good merchant should always give a new customer a few moments on their own to peruse things before appearing. It made one seem far too eager and desperate. But then again, leaving a customer for too long could cause agitation and a pony that was less likely to purchase something. Figuring out this timing was the skill she was currently developing, but all of that was neatly pushed aside as she spotted a familiar unicorn.

"Ah! Hello my friend," Riddle's voice was rich and warm, like chestnuts baked in hot sand, "Ink Moon, it has been some time since we have seen one another. Ah, but wait, I have something for you."

Without another word the little unicorn dashed away with a strange speed that usually was exhibited by a maitre d', that strange sort of formal racing without breaking into a full-on gallop. In a blink she was in her tent, and when she emerged there was a small velvet sack neatly bound with cord being dragged along in the air behind her, swathed in her magical aura.

"Business first," cooed the merchant, pressing the small, jingling bag towards Ink Moon, "the proceeds from selling several of your books here."

She smiled proudly, "I will soon need additional copies of Starlights, we have just the one copy remaining."

Riddle leaned forward with a slightly prying smile as she said this, "I trust mam's writing his been ..."

She paused for just a moment in panic as the right non-Saddle Arabian word escaped her grasp. Forthcoming? No. Prolific? No. Satisfactory? No no no.

"Engaging?"

With a little too much emphasis she found the right word, and quickly covered with a wide, humble smile.

[hypno]

Ink Moon looked around the shop. Then she saw Riddle. "Hello!" She said cheerily to her friend as riddle came over. It had been a while since she saw Riddle. Ever since she left for Canterlot for a book fair.

Then Riddle left in a hurry to the back saying something about having something for Ink. Ink was very curious on what it was as Riddle returned with a beautiful velvet sack. Ink Moon didn't ask about it because it was rude to ask others about that kind of thing.

Instead she went right to business. Riddle then asked for a copy of Starlight. "Actually I have two copies of starlight in my bag." Ink Moon said as she used her horn to open her saddle bag and levitated the books out. "I figured that it would be better if you have two copies then one. It would probably be easier. If you want it anyway."

She then listened to Riddle as she spoke. Engaging? It had been a bit more than that with the book fair. "Yes I suppose it has." Ink Moon said. "Oh! And I have one other book that you might like. Maybe you have heard of it? It's called Robin Hoof." Yes, she finished writing and editing Robin Hoof only a week ago but no pony had to know that.

Then Ink levitated another book out of her saddle bag. On the cover there was a green and brown colored mare with a bow in her hoofs and looking like she was shooting something while she was standing on a tree branch. In the corner there was a bronze colored stamp/sticker that stated this was the third place winner in the Canterlot Writing Contest.

"I think this might sell a bit." Ink Moon said. "And this is the first copy. No other library, book store, or normal shop has this book." Ink wanted to let Riddle be the first one to get it. If she wanted it though.

[waxworks]

The Ponyville Marketplace was just waking up from its nightly nap into a morning filled with brisk air and fluffy snow. Awnings were iced, carts were filled with fluff, and the ice cream selling ponies faced stiff competition from every single frosted over berry-bush as far as the eye could see. Of course, among those berry bushes was an industrious little unicorn, quickly harvesting what she could before it thawed out.

Freshly picked, stomped, and ornamentally stacked berry shavings were quite the rage these days, in a cute little paper cone and lightly enchanted so that they actually gave the taster a warming sensation rather than a chill. It was a strange spell, but Riddle, as always, found a use for it.

As the sun finally cleared the horizon (apparently some Princesses don't see the need to rush the morning along), Riddle's bovine roommate stretched out of the tent in the back of the bazaar, gave her roomie a cheerful headbutt of 'good morning/gotta go' and took off galloping down the cobblestones for her daily laps around the town.

Riddle Bits sighed and smiled, gently sipping from a cup of cocoa kept alight with a small swath of her magic. The Winter had seemed longer than usual and it even seemed as though she'd been away longer than usual, even though it had just been another long Winter's night like any other. But that didn't matter, because it was morning now, and Riddle's Bazaar was once again open for business!

[Deleted]

Cloud drop was one of the many ponies who was not a great fan of the winter, although he could deal with it. Likely it was something along the lines of 'being raised inside of a village plagued by continual snow and snowstorms high in the mountains'. That probably helped the little pegasus tolerate the kind of weather. Nonetheless, he preferred keeping his cloud in the sunlight and keeping himself as warm as possible. Alas, Alchemy materials did not float about in the sky, randomly passing by him, so he had to use his selection of creative potions which let him control his cloud as if it were of his own hooves to make way to a marketplace. Today, he was in ponyville marketplace, hoping he could find something or somepony who knew their alchemy and alchemical reagents, there always seemed to be an inventive mind hanging around somewhere in ponyville.

His cloud flew a small way above a bazaar of sorts, filled with all kinds of items, oddities, trinkets, potions and so on. Even some snacks and food were around there. The magiccal potions instantaneously piqued his interests. Normally, somepony on a cloud would simply glide down to the front of the bazaar and then head in. However Cloud Drop did not adhere to the norm. The pegasus must have been.. lazy or Crazy. Or both. Both was actually quite possible. He attempted to descend his cloud closer to the shelves where the potions were, but his cloud was larger than the space set aside to look at the shelves. with a heavy sigh he grabbed another potion and poured it within his cloud, the strange thing glowing a soft blue before raising somewhat higher.

He decided use another few potions, strategically pouring them on the proper location of the cloud to move it just infront of Riddle's bazaar, floating just at the height of two ponies. He then jumped out. One would expect a pegasus to simply flap their wings once and land peacefully. Cloud Drop, did instinctively attempt that, however, only his left wing flapped, his right wing barely stretched out, and as a result, he was sent spiraling to the ground, landing on the full right side of his body on the ground, Just a few steps infront of the bazaar.

"Ow." were the words that elegantly left the currently less than genius pegasus' mouth.

[waxworks]

The little basil-colored unicorn looked around curiously as her bazaar suddenly seemed to get foggy for a moment. Fog was very odd on such a chilly day, but then again this was Ponyville so not that odd. A moment later, and it was suddenly exceedingly overcast in just the vicinity of the bazaar so again, fairly typical for Ponyville. She wondered for a moment if she could purchase something from Cloudsdale to perpetually bathe her bazaar in that sort of dusky glow that made everything always look perfect and shiny, but was immediately distracted by a loud thud in the marketplace.

"Ah," she squeaked in surprise as a pegasus dropped out of the low cloud and met the ground in a manner that couldn't have been good for neither pegasus nor ground. Quickly galloping around a few barrels she made her way to the pile of pony deposited in front of the bazaar.

"Oh my, is sir alright?" She swayed with concern as she spoke, her voice richly sprinkled with a slightly Saddle Arabian tone that made her worry sound rather inviting. Riddle quietly kicked herself because combining those two sentiments gave her a distinctly predatory vibe, which is generally not good for a shopkeeper.

Leaning down gently she attempted to lever the pegasus up onto his hooves like a furry spatula. "That was quite a fall, sir, have you injured yourself? Ah! But your poor wing, you have injured it in the fall, if sir will wait I may have some first aid supplies in my tent..."

[Deleted]

Cloud drop stood up with some effort, although he was not hurt. "nono, i'm fine. Don't worry about it. My right wing has been somewhat... Off, for a much, much longer duration. It's chronic." he simply said, dusting himself off with his wings. he grabbed a small flask which had a bit of a potion at the bottom, shaking it around before holding it to his personal cloud and opening it up. The personal cloud vanished, as if being drained into the flask, the fluid inside of it curiously changing colour. Cloud drop corked the flask once more. He was short, and young seeming, and smiled to riddler.

"i take it you are the owner of this uh.. Stand?" he said, somewhat confused. It was so much more than just a stand, it was it's whole own store with a variety of items avaible, from conviences to oddities. It was an astounding sight for the young cloud drop. He was sure to find some interesting potions and reagants here. Although he did not consider the chances that perhaps someone might take an interest in his own concoctions aswell. For now, he continued. "i couldn't help but notice you had some potions avaible for purchase here! I just need to take a look, as a budding alchemy supertalent~" he said with much flair and confidence. He definitly didn't allow his rough landing to bother his confidence for very long, luckily.

He walked over to the potions, although he gave a look at the food aswell as he walked by. The garden definitly caught his eye. So many varied ingredients. So many wondrous things could be done with all these unique ingredients and special reagants he could never get in cloudsdale alone! It made the hard worker inside him tick and think in full overdrive, chemisty and alchemy recipes processing through his head like wildfire. He wondered what this salespony had to say about her potions? Prhaps she brewed them herself and he could share some experiences with her?

[waxworks]

"Ah, I understand," said Riddle Bits, neatly whirling about on one hoof and bowing gently from the shoulders. "Yes, I am Riddle Bits, the proprietor of this bazaar. We have a fine selection of potions available, I will leave you to peruse them at your leisure, sir."

She dropped her eyes and retreated back to the stand at the front of the bazaar. Of course she didn't intend to simply leave the pegasus to wander, but it was important, she found, to let a pony's own mind take them on a shopping spree and get a good head of conceptual steam going before she butted in with her own sales pitch. Sometimes, ponies could sell themselves on something better than any shopkeeper, regardless of whether the purchase was wise or foolish.

The little unicorn was still coming to terms with this as a budding young merchant.

She was also quietly assembling in her head a possibility of some manner of trade. After all, she'd had quite an impromptu demonstration of the pegasus' alchemical abilities, and she had been looking to improve upon the collection of potions available. Bubbly Beaker's work was fantastic, but variety was the spice of life, and spice-trading had always interested Riddle.

After giving the customer some time to properly percolate, Riddle made her way back through the bazaar towards the pegasus pony. "I hope sir is finding everything he might want in our fine collection of potions, their capability is limited only by the creativity of a clever pony with an eye for quality."

[Deleted]

Cloud Drop's head turned to the somewhat curious unicorn. He brimmed as Riddle held her sales talk, the alchemist being none the wiser. "Ah yes! the selection of potions is fascinating. Thinking on how they're all made is great fun for me. You truly have a huuuuge selection!" he beamed with a smile, looking over the potions and all their varying effects. "Root-based, Petal-based... Mental potions, physical potions. it's like a whole spellbook of things to look through! How do you acquire these? How do you get the fresh twistroot commonly used to make these prehensile limbs potion? Do you get them from your own garden you had over there?" he excitedly started on, firing a barrage of questions based on his own alchemical knowledge and potion-making expereinces. He was quickly estatic to talk more about it, and from the fact his cutie mark was a flask, it was of no surprise.

He continued looking along the potions as he mentioned them to riddle in his earlier fire of questions, his large fluffy tail trailing behind his steps. he then looked up, higher on the shelves, rubbing his chin with a hoof. "Ah. I have not been able to reach any of the potions on the higher shelves though." He raised his left wing and flapped it, and tried to raise his right, but it only slowly raised before slowly folding back down too, moving properly but hardly at the pace required for flight. He figured Riddle would be able to help, as she was a unicorn, and that telekinesis was a mighty useful tool to have.

[waxworks]

(OOC: Sorry about going quiet for so long, real life just sort of booted me down a banana-coated silly-slide)

Riddle bowed graciously to the pegasus, "I apologize sir, but I only stock the potions and do not brew them myself." She gestured towards the glowing collection of mysteriously bubbling potions with a hoof, "these are from the creative mind of an associate of the Bazaar named Beaker, you see her very creativity bottled and stored before you."

Realizing that her customer was unable to fly up to the higher shelves, Riddle's eyes widened and then quickly resumed an enforced nonchalant appearance. She wasn't disturbed by the mismatched wings on the pegasus, rather she was angry with herself for not noticing them earlier, when she could have prepared things for her customer without making it apparent. In the past the pegasus ponies would flap up, the unicorn ponies would telekinetically pull things down to examine them, and the earth ponies had never been shy about simply climbing on things to see what they could.

With a quick and carefully measured flourish of her magical aura, the collection of flasks sitting higher on the shelf gently wafted down towards the customer, before gently settling in amongst the now crowded lower shelves of the display.

"My highest apologies-" Riddle searched about, looking to quickly change the topic, "but sir seems quite knowledgeable about potions and their compositions, is it possible sir is also a purveyor of potions of some sort?"

The little unicorn smiled a small, very cautiously measured smile at the pegasus.

[Deleted]

Cloud Drop looked at the bottles as a child observed their candy, great glee filling him as he observed each and every bottle with care, his mind rushing to wonder how they were made. Riddle had gladly informed him she does not make them herself, which he was fine with, really. Selling is a profession in itself. She asked him, with great politeness, if he was interested in potions himself. "Ah, yes! i LOVE my potions! I was actually coming down here in the hopes of buying... Oh, right, i was looking for INGREDIENTS. not potions. although i wouldn't mind buying either, a good alchemist can always find an application for either." He said with a beaming smile, looking the potions over. He checked over some potions he thought would be relevant to his own potions. Namely any heat or cold potions he could find. "I love the selection you have here... And the magical oils also must have great alchemical potential. Aghhh, the life of a student. So many things to spend bits on, so few bits to spend!" Cloud drop said, lamenting his fate. Now that he had mentioned a magical oil himself, he turned and looking them over. he muttered to himself and 'hmm'd so much that one could practically hear the gears of his mind turning, in overdrive.

He looked at the prices and checked his shopping list of ingredients he needed. "Iiiii'm... going to have to play it safe, and simply buy myself an oil..." He grabbed a magical oil. "Can i see what herbs and plants you have? i need to get some so i can make more cloud potions. I love those things, they help me get around, thanks to the awesome power of the consistency of the clouds matching the temperature of the sky, which can be regulated by the addition of a variety of herbs, _{of which the most common are peppermint and peppers, which when combined with}" and he kept talking. and talking, and talking about his science, getting deeper in useless science terminology which nopony but other scientists, alchemist or chemists, can understand. He slowly paced over towards the plants as he talked and talked.

[waxworks]

Riddle's eyebrows popped up momentarily. She hadn't sold ingredients in the past, typically her purview held that her job was to assemble ingredients into something that could be bundled off and sold in a helpful package. She threw together a quick mental list of all possible ingredients she had. There were dried mints, ginger, some fresh sugar cane, some coffee beans, a few carefully dried zap apples, a batch of olivanders (olive-like fruit that had natural magic, good for making enchanted oil if you knew your stuff), and a collection of dried chili-peppers that Mezcal liked to use in her cooking.

The little unicorn sorted this all out in her mind while Cloud was talking, and she'd assembled a plan. It was the pegaus' comment about not having enough bits that gave Riddle just the opening she needed. As she neatly laid before him all the plants and ingredients she had available, politely commenting that each would just be a single bit (suddenly giving her an idea for a one-bit mix-and-match candy counter later), she bowed low and spoke in her warm, savory tone.

"Ah, but if sir sees more that he would wish to have but is unable to, then perhaps I might propose a bargain that would benefit sir greatly."

She swept behind the ingredients, looking them over proudly as she did so, before raising her eyes up towards Cloud, her long tails gently curling around the improvised plank and barrel table the various plants sat on.

"You have remarked on the wonderful uses of such potions as we stock sir, but I must admit our range is always limited. For example," she paused and looked upwards, then lowered her eyes back to the pegasus, "we have no such potions that could deal with clouds or weather of any sort, and sir will admit such potions are very precious things..."