[Manehattan] Ramen, Rhinitis, and Racketeers (ATTN: Steelagle and Starswirlthebearded. Others PM to join)

[Pretzelparty]

 

The hustle and bustle of the big city. Manehattan... one of the great landmarks and biggest cities with the most character and life in this strange continent. Rin had seen and read a lot about this city, although mostly through the lens of those pulp novels that occasionally got shipped to her home back in the far east. The second the wandering Ryuma entered this place she could tell it was going to be quite an experience. Since she'd left her land she'd taken only a few things in addition to the tools of her true trade, those things being a cart she'd made quite an investment in. Since she couldn't go around working as a mercenary in a peaceful land like this she decided to open up a small side business so she could make ends meet; as a Ramen vendor!

 

The traveler had tasted some of the official "eastern cuisine" available in Manehattan, and found it... well okay. She couldn't really say it was bad but it clearly had changed quite a bit to become something that worked better for the ponies here. So She decided why not use her family's old ramen recipe in order to make some bits until she could move along to the next stop on her journey: Canterlot... although knowing her own terrible sense of direction she may wind up somehow in Unyasi instead. Throughout her first day, Rin had been feeling rather sluggish and weak but figured she'd sleep through it.

 

It turned out that fate had other plans for the young Ryuma... as that following day she found she felt even worse and didn't look to good either. Her snout was tinged pink as well as underneath her eyes. Her nose was itching and twitching as if it was eager to show off for ponies by doing a jig on her face. Back in her homeland they had a thing for this sort of occurence: a face mask! These masks were usually to prevent infection of other ponies or Ryuma back home and it was considered incredibly impolite to forego them, only problem for Rin right now was that as soon as she got them out she sneezed a flash of blue fire that turned them to ash on the floor. When she took her temperature though...she didn't have a fever, what did this mean? Well she wasn't contagious so that was good. If she just managed to keep herself from messing up and seeming ill she may actually have some more customers!

 

Some of the citizen's of this land did a double take when she passed them on the street. Sniffling Dragonponies were clearly a rarity in this town, or maybe it was the fast she get making small flashes of blue fire with each cough and sneeze as she pulled her cart around...

 

Finally the cool colored Ryuma managed to find a nice place by the park where she could set up her little cart. The little wooden cart stuck out like a sore digit on a dragon among the hayburger and veggie sausage sellers on other blocks adjacent. It had a clean look to it as any sanitary vendors cart should. She set up four stools on the side closest to street and left enough room on the other side for her to get behind the curtain there. She brought out the bowls and set them up on the side... got out the utensils and checked to make sure all the ingredient's were ready in the cooker. "Yep!" She coughed a moment (making sure to shut the lid before she did) and looked through the various drawers until she found the hanging lantern she was going to use to signal she was open for business. The mare strolled over to the front and set up the lantern, with a bit of her breath magic the lantern was lit.

 

The traveler was wearing a simple looking but rather cheap and worn Kimono with patchwork done on random places over it. While it was long enough to obscure her cutie mark from view it was still a bit of an annoying garment as she neglected to cut holes for her wings to come out of it, so it looked a bit awkward to see the bumps on the sides of her body looking rather out of place and offfputting.

 

"May the dragon's grant me good fortune on this da--Haa..." An itch in the mare's snout caught her off guard and just as she was preparing to hope for good fortune, "Hah-CHOOOO! " the resulting sneeze set out a larger burst of blue fire from her mouth and nostrils. The Ryuma blinked and hurried went over, inhaling the flames in again, but the damage was done and the front curtain singed...

 

"Yare yare dawa..." Muttered the easterner as she rubbed her hoof to her scaled snout, "This doesn't seem like a good omen..." 

 

 

[SteelEagle]

 

Pathfinder didnt find herself in the biog city all that often, if only because she was worried about the oodles and oodles of debt collection work that went on there. Plus there were far fewer ancient ruins and hidden tombs to forgotten cultures. Most of that stuff had been found by the ever expanding, all encompassing urbanization that defined modern Equestrian supercities. Only a few thigs could really be considered missing in a big city and with few mysteries left to unmystify and fewer adventures to tickle her fancy, Pathfinder found the big cities not to her liking as much. No, she preferred the wildness of the world where tombs and ruins and caves and hidden lairs were out in abudance, and long-lost history and artifacts were just waiting to be discovered.

 

But that didn't mean cities were devoid of value, however. There were still certain elements that thrived in the big city and one of those things was a healthy criminal element. In Equestria, organized crime was less of an issue for the majority of ponies and were not known for their violence or danger. Which was bad for Pathfinder since she viewed the city as a vacation and even though she was here for good cause, it was going to be far less awesome than normal. Oh well. Somepony had to find the Lost Libraries of the Lorial and their tomes of power, and Pathfinder had tracked some of them to this city. Why? Well, if it followed previous patterns, probably poached by patches of pernicious ponies poised to cause trouble. Probably a crime lord smuggling them to Kastrot. That was how she had found loads of other tomes over time.

 

So here she was in Manehattan on the trail of baddies being bad. That didn't mean she could't still be hungry and she had TWENTY ONE BITS LEFT OUT OF HER ACCOUNT RAISE THE CLOUDS PARTY TIME. She was used to having almost no bits left, and she had squandered what Snowfall had given her on adventuring tools in the Caves of the Strand. Good stuff! But as she looked around- what was tasty? So many options as she flew above. You could get lost with options but everything in the big city was so expensive that she had to limit them. And by limiting them, she guess she meant look for the ramen cart singed with fire, with a dragon mare in charge. That was good enough for Pathfinder! She landed next to the cart and sniffed.
"Ooooh, fire! Do you sell fire ramen?" She asked, hooves on cart as she looked around. "What's your name and game, hmm?"

[Pretzelparty]

 

At first Rin seemed to freeze for a few seconds. Was that Daring Do? WAS SHE REAL?! A million thoughts began to swallow the dragonpony's mind as she tried to think of all the possible answers this situation had and the questions it could potentially bring up. Before she could ask any of the questions, she had one directed at her by the adventurous looking mare. She calmed herself down a bit inside... she'd heard a lot of ponies here got into cos-playing. It'd be reasonable to assume this pegasus was one of the those enthusiasts. 

 

For a moment, Rin wondered if this mare was making fun of her when she thought she was referring to her as "Fire". But then it was clarified she was interested in a special dish back home that was very useful in gaining the attention (and money) of tourists to the fair lands of Neighpon. She had all the ingredients as she recalled... she'd bought some extra oil and had more than enough green onions. The Ryuma sniffled sharply and nodded, "H-er... Y-yes! I can definitely make that. Chotto Matte Kudasai." The pony galloped around behind the cart... turning back a moment to roll up the curtain so the coming event wouldn't do what earlier sternutation did to the cart. 

 

Heading back behind once more she began to bring out a large bowl for the mare, somehow she seemed the type who burned through carbs quite quickly. A clacking of hooves below and the heating up of the prepared noodles from the boiler compartment brought an already delicious smell into the air. Thankfully, Rin had started boiling the noodles beforehoof so that they could be served quickly. Now she brought out a large pot and began to empty a carton of cooking oil into it. The red nosed Dragonpony sniffled a moment and lightly pounded her chest before taking a deep breath. As her chest puffed out, her lungs filling with air; Pathfinder would notice a light glowing from her chest cavity before the pony pushed out an intensely heated breath of magical flames that heated up the pot of oil making the contents scalding hot. 

 

"Now w-we just add the oil to the green onions and noodles..." The Mare carefully added the oil and then set the pot back down. When that step was done she took a moment to answer the mare's question with a rather non-chalantly worded answer, "Oh! My name is Shiori Rin. I'm a ninja fleeing a corruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh..." The mare coughed and laughed awkwardly. "I-I Uh... I mean I'm just a simple Ramen seller trying ta make a livin' while I'm visiting Equestria!" The mare's pupils were bouncing back and forth, as if searching for the quickest exit from the line of questioning... which in the end she decided was the ramen, so before Pathfinder could respond she spoke up loudly, "Look out and lean back!" Before she inhaled and summoned up a small blue flame from herself... that flame landed on the broth of the dish and soon a great pillar of flames erupted from the bowl! It was like a small volcano had been left on the counter to go off!