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Even though you'd spent this morning pampering him, he wasn't just seeing you as some apple dispensary. He didn't view you as a nuisance that occasionally brushed his hair. He viewed you as an actual... companion.
You felt it cruel to leave him tied up and on the ground, so you walked over and ripped apart Taylor's silk cuffs with ease. The bug seemed slightly miffed-- until you gathered the remaining silk into a large ball for him to play with and gently placed it in front of Taylor's head. There were no more angry chitters from him after that.
Aster, in the meantime, allowed you to help him... without issue.
Once he was freed, too, the pony seemed to calm down properly. He no longer threw fits when you accidentally brushed his hair the wrong way, nor did he whine when he had been apple-less for more than ten minutes. Instead, Aster generally let you do what you wanted with him... before getting up when he felt he was done, and going off to graze or run on his own for some time.
You let things play out naturally for as long as you could after that. By about noontime, Aster seemed to be far less rebellious and far more understanding than he was before: less likely to act out against you, but still no more optimistic.
When you gathered the rest of the party to head off someplace for lunch, Aster followed without complaint. He still looked rather disagreeable... but his behavior indicated much less of the sort than before.
Slowly, but surely, you were getting somewhere with him.
>(+1 added to Command rolls.)
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The nightly meeting at the Floating Dollar was hours away by now, so you figured it would be a good idea to burn some time doing something fun. You'd never seen Sacramento's industrial sector before, and the strange news article from a few days ago had given you more than enough incentive. If you could see that golden creature even one more time... well, that would help convince you of your sanity at the barest minimum.
As you entered the industrial sector, you felt yourself... amused. You tried not to chuckle a little. What Sacramento called an "industrial sector" amounted to little more than a smattering of mills, wayward factories the size of houses here or there, and... many, <span class="mu-i">many</span> fields.
The fields stretched for miles. You weren't certain they ended before the state line did. Every single one seemed to have some different crop upon it, with most of the fields in great health for the season, and yet... there didn't seem to be any people around the place.
Neofauna, sure. There were plenty of them scurrying about here and there, sometimes nibbling at a plant or two before deciding something else was more interesting... but people seemed to be mostly absent.
Your party didn't seem to mind the absence of other people. All they seemed to need was you, after all. Aster led the charge to keep walking down the trail that all of you had taken to get here, but you soon began to stumble and lag behind.
