I awoke to gentle rattles and the light of the setting sun on my eyes. Raising a hoof at the offending reddish light, I reached out with a tendril of magic and drew the curtains. The interior of the wagon plunged into a dull orange dimness.

Letting out a yawn, I stretched and climbed shakily to my hooves. I sighed. Strength had been returning to me for the past few days but my legs were still weak. Closing my eyes, I extended my magic and nudged the cabinet door open. I frowned as my senses felt around the hold. It was empty.

A groan escaped me. I stalked to the door and threw it open. My eyes squeezed into a squint as sunlight flooded my vision.

“Bookmark, we’re out of apples…” I called out to the azure unicorn hooked up to the wagon.

Bookmark turned his gaze over his withers at me, his green eyes quivering with mild curiosity. “Oh, you’re awake Shimmer,” he said.

“And I’m hungry.” I pouted.

Bookmark chuckled, turning back to the cobbled road in front of him. “We’re almost there. Just a couple of minutes more to the town square.”

My ears perked upright. “Will there be apples?”

Bookmark laughed out loud this time. “Yes, there will be apples, Shimmering Wind. We’re just in time for the evening market.”

“Great,” I beamed and as though to agree with me, a loud growl issued from my stomach. Suddenly, the smooth stone walled and orange tiled houses lining the street were thoroughly interesting.

Bookmark laughed even louder. That scamp. I puffed my cheeks and glared at the stallion, who was completely oblivious as I burned holes in the back of his head. Seriously, he somehow kept making me act more than a century younger than I really was.

The street opened to a circular space. A ring of multicolored tented stalls ringed the acutely misnamed town square. The evening was still early and the last rays of the sun still cast a meager glow that set the buildings of the town ablaze. Bookmark circled around the fountain in the center of the square and stopped.

I hopped off, landing a little unsteadily on the cobbled ground. Out of the corner of my eye, Bookmark shot a worried look in my direction. I ignored the look.

“I need some local currency, Bookmark,” I said.

A small bag of jingling coins wrapped in a white glow floated into my vision. I took the bag in my mouth.

“There’s fifty bits in there, Shimmer. Use them wisely,” Bookmark said, smiling. “Go get your apples. I’m going to set up the library in the meantime.”

I nodded and stuffed it in a pouch I had on my flank. “See you later,” I said, trotting in a random direction, in search for an apple stall.

Few ponies were out at the moment but I suspected that wouldn’t stay that way for long as I saw the sun sinking at an unnatural rate, turning the orange sky a deep blue. Having a leader of the country raising and lowering a celestial body still felt weird to me.

I nearly ran into someone as the changing sky distracted me. An apologetic smile appeared and died on my face when I realized the stallion I almost bumped into hadn’t even noticed. He and many others in a line were staring intently at one particular stand.

The tan and brown stallion who manned the stall was unremarkable, with a flank mark of a stylized bee on a pink heart. What the stallion sold, however, caught my eye. It was a concoction, shimmering between various shades of pink and the ponies present stared with a look of thirst in their eyes. I nudged the stallion whom I nearly crashed into.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

The stallion, gray and black colored, turned around with a look of surprise. “Why, it’s good medicine!”

“The best!” a yellow and tan mare piped up behind him.

I narrowed my eyes, darting them between the couple. There wasn’t any crazed look in their eyes. No nervous twitches of an addict. As far as I could tell, they were just thirsty.

“Okay…” I said.

Stepping slowly aside the line, I made my way as far away as possible. There were apples to be bought.

And a strange merchant to investigate.