Random Encounter: A Jester's Cargos (OPEN, UNDATED)

It rode over the cobblestone pavement ploddingly;
A cart of masks and mirth;
And bearing it ever troddingly was a Stallion of unusual girth;
He dragged along his merry wares, a hum always on lip;
A jolly fool of kingly rule, the hitch upon his hip.

The singer, a rotund stallion adorned in a jester's garb, dragged along his cart. Piled high in the cart were noisemakers, fireworks, all manner of celebratory goods; masks, pinatas, funny hats and furry cats. The cart itself was quite unlike one you'd find anywhere else. Painted lovely hues and in floral patterns, a hefty organ grinder played a silly song as he pulled it along.

He came to a corner and found a nice settled spot, setting his cart down and unhitching himself. The surrounding area had scant a soul, narry a neighbor- and perhaps punctual in his purveyance, his propensity for practical jokes prevented him from putting down as part of a proper party.

So there he sat, alone on the corner, his fly-wheels and organ grinders ringing along, perhaps alluring the childish soul to his modest clown cart.

Zuberi trotted gingerly down the cobble street, skipping over boards and other piles of trash as he went about his merry way. It had not been an entirely out of the ordinary day in the city of Manehattan; but what exactly was the measure of an ordinary day? An normal day to one could be an out of control, action packed, or life changing day to another. Zuberi didn't have much to compare it to, as he had only been in the city a few days by then. Still, random exploration and surviving off whatever he could was, once again, his ordinary day.

Then, as he was skipping over objects in the street, memorizing the direction it went so he could record it onto a map later, he heard something. Music? He stopped, and looked up into the street. Amongst the ponies milling about in the rubble, he spotted something with a color scheme which clashed against the entire landscape of what was once called Equestria. Zubi tilted his head curiously, then noticed the clown-costumed pony stop at the corner. Curious, he decided to get a closer look.

He trotted up to the corner and examined the assortment of objects in the wagon. Interesting. Was this clown pony selling this stuff? If he was, it would be too bad for him, as nothing really caught Zubi's eye. He turned to the clown himself, and smiled a bit.

"Hello," he greeted, not entirely catching onto the creepiness of the whole scene.

The clown's attention bolted upwards, as he had snoozed off in the absence of customers. He instinctively rubbed his eyes, smearing the thick makeup. Not noticing his ruined appearance, he began addressing Zuberi. "Welcome, welcome welcome! Looking for something to brighten up a dreary Manehattan day? I got all sorts of things, things that I need to sell, selling things! LOTS AND LOTS OF THINGS!"

He caught his breath, gesturing madly to the assembled managerie of goods on his cart. He began to inflate a slender balloon, and before Zuberi's eyes he folded it into a diesel engine. Or maybe it was a clock? Really, it was a shitty balloon animal, though he seemed undeterred. "Care for a BALLOON TURTLE?!"

Zuberi recoiled a bit, then started to giggle. What a quirky clown this was. He kind of liked him. "Sure, why not?" he said, taking the balloon animal and looking it over. It was the ugliest turtle he had ever seen, but if the clown said it was a turtle then he couldn't quite argue. Like a small child telling you they drew a turtle when the paper really only has some squiggling lines on it.

"What kind of trinkets are you selling here? Anything that might interest a zebra like me?" he wondered, looking back to the objects in the cart, still unable to pick anything out that particularly caught his eye.

"Ohoho! But of course- we have everything under the sun here- like this elixer, gauranteed to turn you into a bat-pony! OR THIS-!" He grabs a frying pan from the cart, scattering assorted candies that had been resting in it. "This FRYING PAN! I bought this from a trader, and I can assure you that it works. Just stick it over a fire, and PRESTO! You can COOK things with it!"

He articulated his speech with wild gestures, flinging rubbish all over the street without pause. He abruptly settled down, as if narrowing his focus. "On second thought, this isn't a frying pan... it's a wok... hmmmm.... I KNOW!"

He dives into the cart, seemingly losing his entire rotund body into it's carriage. He surfaces from the junk, producing an animal mask from the deep. "This one! This is a, well, a thing.... the thing ponies wear, that goes on their face? I can't seem to remember the word... Anywho, its an animal-thing, and I got it from an EXOTIC ZEBRA SALESMAN WHO SOLD IT TO ME! See, its got little... lines and dots and things, all over it, and its JUST THE BEST POSSIBLE THING! DON'T YOU AGREE?!"

The mask was a ritual mask of unknown origin. It had a menacing feature to it, though the colors seemed lively enough. Its marking were in green and blue, though the mask was a bleached white. The grain of the wood was visible, if one looked closely enough...

Zuberi giggled at the clown's antics. He was literally the first funny clown he had ever seen... Had nothing to do with him also being the only clown Zubi had ever seen. He watched and listened as item after item was brought out and showcased before him, shaking his head or giggling as he was presented various miscellaneous items. But then as he pulled the mask out, Zuberi's eye was caught. It looked like some sort of ancient zebra ritual mask. He stepped forward, and examined it curiously as the clown tried to describe it.

"That's a zebra ritual mask." He stepped a bit closer to examine its features. "I don't know enough to tell you from which tribe, but I know for sure its zebra made from the zebra lands."

He hopped with glee at Zuberi's interest. "Yes, and it only costs- drumroll please-" a drumroll appeared from seemingly nowhere as he held his breath. If one were to inspect closely, the monkey with the drums would leer at them from the pile of goods. "-just a single bit! That's it! One bit is all it'd take!"

He held out the mask to Zuberi, a grin across his face. He seemed eager to hand it over.

Zuberi was slightly taken aback. He recoiled some as the clown lurched out toward him with the artifact. He scratched his head some as he considered it. He had remembered learning some things about zebra artifacts such as this. Most of the time they were just wooden masks, but ritual masks such as this often had some sort of enchantment. Or a curse. Zuberi wished his mother and father could've been there to see the mask and tell him which, as he simply had no idea.

Still, after time he had come to stop believing in the hocus-pocus of zebra curses. What was the worst that could happen? He looked back to the clown, then back up to the clown. "Why is it so cheap?" he wondered. Something like that would be extremely expensive. He doubted that the clown got it off of the zebra trader for such a bargain.

The clowns eye twinged visibly at the hesitation. "I'm trying to- heh, its a funny story, you see, I'm trying to get to get out of town and can't take the cart with me! This mask isn't the only thing going cheap!"

He lifted the monkey from the cart, holding it at arms length to avoid its angry swipes. "This monkey, why he's only worth half a bit! In fact, do you want this monkey?" The monkey raged, clonking the clown in the head with a thrown drumstick.

The clowns head riveted back to the monkey mechanically, fixating his smiling expression on it. "The monkey... is no longer for sale." He shoved it back into the goods with a gesture, and returned to the mask. "So see, this mask is nice and all, but I got priorities. So if I can get a bit for an old antigue, you know what, it just makes me happy to see it go to someone who can use it! And not just piled with some rubbish. Whaddya say?"

Zuberi eyed the clown considerately. He thought about it for a moment, and the likelihood of the clown's story. He wondered why the clown might be trying to get out of town. Whatever story this clown had, Zubi was certain he could pick apart until he got to the bare bones. But, he didn't think it would be polite. It was just a stupid mask, after all. He could hang it on the wall in his new shack. Perhaps it would bring him luck. "Well... All right. One bit. Guess a clown's gotta eat too, you know?"

With that, he dug his muzzle into a side pocket of his saddle bags, then returned to the clown with a bit in his teeth.

The clown took the bit with trembling hoof. "A-aand here's your... mask!" He tossed the mask in Zuberi's face and flipped the cart over. The monkey screeched as it was thrown from its resting place in the cart, though the clown didn't seem to care. He sprinted full-hoof down the street, a gleeful cackle in his throat, dissappearing into the works of the Undercity.

The monkey took off after him but gave up after a few yards. He turned in the street, flipping Zuberi a perplexed expression.

The mask hit Zuberi in the face. The zebra jumped back and tripped, falling onto the cobble street. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the mask had landed in front of him and broken in half down the middle. He turned his head and watched as the clown disappeared into the ruins, and the monkey stared back in confusion. Zuberi lifted his hoof and rubbed at a mark on his head, then stood up. He gazed down at the now ruined mask, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened.

"Well that was weird..." he muttered to himself before leaning down and trying to fit the two halves of the mask back together.

The two halves fit together seamlessly, sealing together without any prompt. Any attempt to pull the mask in two again would be met with failure- the mask was not two halves, but a whole again, as if it hadn't been broken.

The mask had a distinct sheen to it, like a glow in the darkness. The monkey trodded up and began scooping up things from the wagon. A large bag of bits had been discarded to the ground. The monkey took one, chewed it a bit, and passed it over after losing interest.

Zuberi picked the mask back up and looked it over again, astonished by its actions. "Wow, guess its enchanted after all," he commented, then turned to place it in his saddle bag.But before he did, he glanced up at the monkey. Strange enough, the clown had left the entire sack of bits he had behind. It made him wonder. Was keeping the mask a good idea? Zuberi looked down at it again, and thought. He wasn't sure. The clown could've just been mentally unhealthy. Wasn't uncommon in a place like Manehattan, he had come to learn.

But the mask... He wondered what to do. Finally, he decided he would take it home and wait. If anything bad were to happen, should it be dangerous, he would simply toss it out. Hopefully. He felt he had enough of his parent's books on potion making to remedy a cure for any curse it may bring about. That, and he knew Xarith may possibly know what to do about it, if not.

Still... Maybe there were some answers in the cart. Zuberi trotted around the side up beside the monkey, and searched through the objects for anything that may serve as a clue or hint as to what the mask did or was.

(((Back from the forced weekend death march. Hopefully we can finish this before the week is up.)))

As Zuberi looked, it became clear that beyond the top layer, much of it was rubbish. Between the occasional half-eaten pie and make-up case, there was nothing of use in the cart, aside from a book labeled "Mischeivious Miscreants and other Antsy Artifacts". The book posessed a large illustration on the cover of a young pony being scared off by a spectar in the closet. A clover bookmark had been applied to one of its pages.

The monkey seemed perplexed by Zuberi's actions, and had joined him in ransacking the cart. It had stopped though, finding itself occupied with pie-eating business.