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>>130913The door opens, with a "ding ding ding" from a bell. On the shelves are all sorts of oddities, like a small taxidermied monkey and a fortune teller's ball.
Behind the dark wood counter and the cash register, is a peach colored unircorn with a blue mane. She lights up at the sight of Iron
>>130915"Hello there," Iron calls out to the familiar unicorn as he daintily trots over "I am back from the tiger's jaws."
Amber looks up at the building with an expression of awe and wonder. Wow…
She'll walk up until she can see the bottom floor and what's on it.
>>130917"Golden Rays isn't here. She went out on a personal frolic" she says to Iron
>>130917The bottom most section has stone or marble walls, with a set of concrete steps leading up to revolving door entrances lined with with brass, and doors that swing open to either side. There are many windows there, but no shops on the outside. The building is recessed inside the block, and though part of the steps go out to the sidewalk, there is a parking lot over one side, and to the side, a series of fountains, and a chrome steel statue of a sailing ship
>>130918"Oh," Iron stops in his tracks, looking midly shocked in his mid-walking freeze "well... I suppose you can help me with some matters regarding potion making process?"
>>130919"The potion making process? What about it?"
>>130920"Particularly how to get most of the ingredients a potion maker needs in order to start a business...?" Iron answers tentatively with a strained, nervous smile on his face.
>>130921She looks up at him, locking eyes, lifting one lip and an eyebrow
"You want help in import-export?"
>>130922Iron nods softly, confirming her suspicions.
>>130923Her expression becomes more serious
"Very well. What is it specifically you want. Don't worry, you can speak freely here. There is no one to listen. No one, anyways, who would dare cross me."
>>130925Nodding and relaxing his posture, Iron finishes trotting over to the mare with a little exhale. "I wish to help start up a potion business and she needs some items that cannot be obtained easily due to lack of trade agreements, harvested only in the deep jungle and more of the... spooky chemical thingies."
>>130924I understand...>>130926"Mhmm. You don't have to tell me what you want it for, just what you want. I special in matching things to buyers that aren't exactly easy to get"
>>130927"Well..." Iron thinks, trying to remember the things he remembers Cauldron asking about "there is New Mareland's darkwood bark, aluminum powder, kelp and tiger fur. Those are the specific materials I know she wants."
"Tiger fur... Guh! You know where to get that. New Mareland Ironwood is a bit rarer and there's that export ban, but nevermind that. Aluminum powder can be obtained by scraping down the side of a bicycle, and kelp, well... that's out in the water, and some of the hippogriffs eat it"
>>130929Iron snorts amusedly at Germane's first answer before nodding along to the rest. "What is a 'bye-see-cle?'" Iron asks curiously.
>>130930“You’re kidding, right?” She answers, with a skeptical look
>>130931"...no," Iron answers reluctantly, rubbing his foreleg softly before looking confused at the unicorn mare he's speaking "b-but I do want the items I have said in bulk. Do you think manually obtaining each and every thing will suffice?"
>>130932She tilts her head, and raises an eyebrow
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘manually’... But if I can’t obtain an item for you, at least, items that are not one of a kind, then I am not sure you will find anypony in this city who can.”
>>130933"Oh," Iron replies, becoming ever slightly more flustered at his own understanding of the discussion "so you think you can get the items I have said in bulk for me, then?"
>>130934“Perhaps. Kelp is relatively easy to acquire. Aluminum, well it’s a bit harder, considering the metal rationing. Tiger fur... I’ll let you be the judge of how difficult that is. New Mareland Ironwood bark... now that’s a bit trickier.”
>>130935Iron can't help but raise his eyebrows, smiling softly. "Really? That is great!" he proclaims with an excited little hop "If I can do anything to make it easier to get the harder ingredients, you only need to ask."
>>130936“I don’t know if you can, but there is indeed a hang up. You remember that tiger, right? That tiger was sold a week ago, yet it’s still in my store. Customs has gone mad. They’ve always been a pain, but that’s been my job. Then they lit Manehattan on fire, and it seems to have spread here. Literally. An entire pier was set on fire, a ship crew murdered, then a big raid on the old poorhouse. Now customs has a continuous presence on every pier. They even keep political police around, to discourage bribes. It used to be simple to smuggle animals out. Hide them in a warehouse, then wait for a time when customs was not there. They never checked ships going out, only in. Now, they even keep guards by the warehouses. It’s harder to smuggle at the main docks.”
>>130937Iron pouts lightly, blinking softly. "...sounds like it is going to be rough to ask for what I potentially want later," he says with a hum "but I assume you have some sort of alternative for the smaller stuff, right?"
>>130938She waves a hoof, as if she could physically wave away Iron’s concerns
“It’s a matter of loading and unloading goods at a point away from the main docks. They may still intercept the incoming ships, sure, and find the smuggled goods, but they may not, and they may just walk right past anything that isn’t weapons, since I’m pretty sure that is all they care about. And of course, any ship leaving the harbor will not be intercepted and searched.”
>>130939"Oh," Iron answers with a sheepish grin and a stroke of his foreleg "so you think you can handle my requests for ingredients in the long run?"
>>130940“The situation is... volatile, but I am not without a plan b”
>>130941"What would you want in return?" Iron proceeds to ask with a small tilt of the head, expecting the twist.
>>130942“Getting the tiger out would be a good start” she says
>>130943"Hm..." Iron ponders softly "how could I help?"
>>130944“Well, securing the means of transport is the issue right now. All ships coming into the harbor are searched, sometimes they are even intercepted at sea. While ships leaving the harbor are not searched, the warehouses are guarded. So it’s a matter of using smaller boats to meet up with the larger ships. The first thought would be rowboats, but those are not large enough to leave the harbor, and would be kind of suspicious if they went further. Fishing trawlers can go further, but are suspicious next to freighters, and may end up searched anyways. So the plan is to avoid the harbor all together. The community of North Point has fishing trawlers that have gone unused since the War cut off export of cod to Griffonia. They are less likely to be searched, and can go far enough to pick up crates with floats attached to them, dropped off outside the harbor. And
that is my business model. Until they change things again, anyways.”
>>130945"How does that involve me?" Iron asks with a tilt of the head "Do I drop the tiger at the designated position?"
>>130946"Maybe it's not a fair assumption that it does. First, a question for you. What
can you do?"
>>130947"Buck stuff and carry... much," Iron replies, at first puffing his chest proudly before pouting softly "that rhyme did not go too well."
>>130948"Well, either way, there is another hang up in North Point. Some of the trawlers have been bought up by a fishing company that is known, by us at least, to be a front for the Ginovicci crime family out of Bronc and Manehattan. Rumor has it one of their leaders even bought a house in North Point. This has never been an issue before, given how unimportant North Point was to us, or even to them... But by Tartarus, what a difference difference these last few weeks have made. If they don't appreciate how valuable the shipping of North Point is, they will soon."
>>130949"I see," Iron replies with a little nod "so basically I should beat these folk up before they bolster their defences?"
>>130950"Well, I don't know if I would use such strong language as 'beat,' but if somepony were to remind them who is in charge of Baltimare... well, it would go a long way"
>>130951"I see," Iron replies with a nod "but would they really be intimidated about having some of their goons being reminded of the ruler of Baltimare?"
>>130952"Then remind the head." She answers succinctly
>>130953"Got it," Iron answers with a nod "consider it done."
With a determined, proud strut, he starts to go to the door before his ears straighten sharply as he stops. "Uh... how do I get to North Point?"
>>130955"Thanks," he promptly replies before continuing his confident strut "should I go back here to report directly, by the way?"
>>130956"You may. I am not the only one interested in killing this problem in the cradle, but I think we would prefer a bit of... deniability, in case this goes badly"
>>130957"Got it," Iron replies before going out with Sands in tow.
Having gotten outside, he turns to his companion mare. "So, any opinions on the ensuing 'discussion' I am about to provoke?"
>>130958"Do you know who the Ginovicci are?" She asks him
>>130959"No," Iron replies with a shake of the head as he starts the trek towards North Point "what can you tell me?"
>>130960"They are a splinter of a much larger syndicate in Wingbardy, and are no small players in Manehattan. Not at all. This is a very power family known to have many hitgriffs and carry out many killings. I don't think they will cow easily."
>>130961"Do they have some sort of duel to demand respect or do they understand with enough knocked out griffins?"
>>130962"Respect is a big deal for them, and they have something like a sense of honor. But I doubt they'd accept a duel. Well, maybe. But they are the type to shoot you as you walk down the street."
>>130963"Do you have any advice on how to properly spook them?"