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With nothing else demanding your immediate attention, your mind wanders to the festival once more. You have successfully obtained an invitation for the Starfalls Clan, but wonder if there isn’t more you can do to make them feel welcome.
 
As your companions retrieve their equipment, your gaze falls on Moonflower’s cap. You realize that while the festival may be extended a few hours later into the night, most of it will still take place in daylight, to which bat ponies’ eyes are sensitive.
 
You begin to consider the possibility of providing everyone with some protection, such as a pair of sunglasses.
 
Moonflower: “Oooh! Good idea!”
 
Apple Basket: “Right, but where are we gonna find thirty-or-so pairs o’ sunglasses?”
 
Curious to find an answer to that question yourself, you decide to leave the house, and take a stroll through the bustling town.
 
Your first stop is the trading post. With an inventory rotating daily, it seems like a good place to try your luck.
 
Shopkeeper: “Sunglasses? I don’t have any in stock right now, but I can place an order for you if you want!
 
For thirty of them at five bits each, plus ten bits for a delivery by tomorrow morning, that would cost a total of one hundred and sixty bits. Pretty cheap for something from the sun! Or are they for the sun? Why would the sun need glasses?”
 
Seeing as you’re not carrying that much money to begin with, you tell the shopkeeper that you’ll think about it.
 
Then, you decide to visit the local glassmaker, where you remember seeing some lenses for sale before.
 
Flacon: “Ahhh! What an exciting project you have there! I could make them for you, but tinted glass requires materials I do not have at the moment.
 
If you can bring me three hooffuls of silver, quartz, or any kind of iron before nine o’clock, then it will be my pleasure to make these sunglasses for you.”
 
You thank Flacon, and tell him that you’ll keep that in mind should you find any of the materials he needs.
 
At the mention of metals, you decide to stop by the local blacksmith next.
 
Roseforge: “Iron or silver to make sunglasses for the bat ponies? Noble, but I don’t have any silver, and the only iron I’ve got on hoof’s already been made into alloy steel.
 
If you bring me some ore, though, I can purify it for you. I’ll even show you where to dig, and lend you the mining tools for it.”
 
You tell Roseforge that you’ll consider her offer. Then, the weaver from the next stall over joins in the conversation.
 
Weaver: “I couldn’t help but overhear. While I do not have any sunglasses to offer, I do have a few dozen parasols in stock. Should all else fail, feel free to borrow them!”
 
You nod, and thank the weaver, feeling better for the contingency plan.
 
As you take a moment to think over your options, the sun begins its descent over the horizon. The shadows of distant hills grow longer against the amber light, and the eastern skies slowly dim beyond orange clouds.
 
Moonflower: “Gettin’ sunglasses for a whole clan is harder than I thought! But for now, the sun’s gonna set soon, so we should start makin’ our way back to Starfalls Town for the ritual.”
 
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