Delighted that the illusion around her beloved python was finally cut, Ruby smiled as she could once again admire the reptile's unique scale colour, happy that it no longer looked like a balloon animal. She let the snake remain coiled around her leg, going back to shuffling the cards once more as she closed the book she had opened, no longer having need of its knowledge for now. As she shuffled her cards, she watched quietly as the two young fillies bantered with each other for a little bit, not batting an eye when Carri came to take the one bit back. She wasn't sure what Brash would have needed with Nightingale's services, especially involving the automaton that Carri excitedly piped up to add. Kids these days, Ruby thought to herself, first they are at each other's necks insulting and making petty demands of each other, next they are trying to 'ally to one another's cause'.

It was probably some sort of game when all was said and done. Ruby wasn't a kid anymore, and no longer in on what was the cool thing to be doing, not that she knew what it was to begin with. She ended up only half listening to the conversation, and was brought back when Nightingale approached Ruby, producing a bit for her and asking for a reading. Ruby smirked as she levitated the bit for herself, tapping it on the edge of the table discretely to make sure it was real before putting it in her bit purse. "That's quite the foresight that you have, thinking of things like that at your age," Ruby commented as she started to rapidly shuffle the cards, "What is it that you figured you wanted to be when you grew up?"

As Nightingale answered, Ruby placed down the three cards in front of her; the first card showing a heart with three swords stabbed through it; the second card showing a stallion sitting upon a throne, holding a circular object with what looked like a pentacle inscribed on it; and the third card showing a pegasus in flight, the image bordered by a green wreath with the four elements in each corner of the card. After the answer was given, Ruby examined the cards, humming in satisfaction as she discerned their meaning. It was apparently an easy one to read, since she looked back at Nightingale and tapped the first card.

"In the past, we have the Three of Swords, a card of pure, piercing sorrow of the mind, and this sorrow must be felt for closure and relief to come. Since it is in the past though, I have a feeling that you have already been through this, so you may not have much to worry." Of the conversation that Ruby heard, Nightingale mentioned something about the matrons at the orphanage. If she was really staying there, then this card may have been very accurate. Ruby didn't mention this conclusion she drew though, and continued reading as she pointed to the second card, "In the present, there is the King of Pentacles, or the Miser. This card represents a very reputable individual, very well respected in their craft and well-verse in the practical knowledge needed to gain that respectability. In regards to your question, it could symbolize a pony that inspires you, an idol, or possibly a meeting with some such figure. They could possibly help you towards your future..."

She tapped the final card, "... which is as favorable as can be. In the future, you have The World. This card represents fulfillment, accomplishment, success..." she trailed off and looked at Nightingale with her head canted to the side, a slight smile on her lips, "I think that is pretty self-explanatory, hmm?" Ruby picked up the cards and placed them back in the deck, "I have a feeling that you are going to go far, kid, and you have a long way to go until you get there." When she was done shuffling, she leaned back, nodding back toward Brash and asking Nightingale with a slight hint of sarcasm, "So, are you going to go play with your new friends now? You two seem to get along swimmingly."

Ruby took the bit that was offered to her for the reading, sweeping it into an open bit purse as the two younger ponies turned to walk away, the pegasus seeming to have dealt with her little cotton-wing issue. At least that was one less trouble that the pegasus was going to have. After seeing them turn to go, Ruby went to collect the three cards to reshuffle back into her deck. So strange how a simple deck of cards could turn ones day into something else, and possibly affect their life. When the deck reshuffling was done, Ruby set the cards back in their box and turned to look back at the balloon animal snake that had managed to replace her old python, gingerly picking it back up to get a closer look at it. It was so off-putting, looking at the shiny pink latex that moved around her leg as though it were alive, flicking out its little party favor tongue to smell the air. It still felt scaly though, and she could still feel the snake's muscles keep their grip on her arm. What on earth was this?

She then suddenly heard a young filly behind her calling out to the two leaving ponies, much to Ruby's surprise. Where did she come from? Wasn't there supposed to be a box right behind her? Taking a quick glance behind her, Ruby could indeed see that the box had disappeared, sending her into a renewed bout of confusion and asking herself what in the world was going on. The next thing that the new filly said was enough to make Ruby's brow furrow in confusion. How could the reading be rigged? Only Ruby had a chance to see the cards, and know what they were, and they were in her possession the entire time, except when she dropped them. That wasn't all that the young filly did either, she had made the horns on the demon child's head, and the cotton-wing issues for the pegasus. This all sounded incredibly unlikely, but this kid seemed to know what she was talking about, so there must have been some explanation.

"So you are saying..." Ruby began, holding the balloon-snake out, "that you managed to create a false reading, somehow, and give these ponies all their strange defects? Are you by any chance also responsible for turning my snake into this... thing? How?" She harrumphed to herself, wondering how she could have missed such a thing, or be fooled by a filly, but worse still, since her tarot card reading was not accurate, it meant that if Brash and Carri asked for either their money back or for a second reading, then she would have to comply, since technically, Ruby did not fulfill her end of the bargain. Hopefully it wouldn't come to any of that, and the two would just walk away, but for now, she wanted to hear this new pony explain herself.

"The future in general," Ruby began, trying hard not to sigh at the generic question, "is always in fluctuation, and will continue to change as long as ponies are able to make their own choices. Perhaps you are more interested in how your endeavors in your immediate future are going to pan out? It would take a great deal of time and an impossible amount of effort to determine how the future in its entirety will be, but for specific things, it is much easier." The python on Ruby's leg moved further up her leg as she continued to passively shuffle her cards, most likely looking for some sort of attention in the meantime. Ruby gave a quick glance to the python to maybe see if she needed to give it a more comfortable perch, but immediately froze when she saw it.

This was not a snake that she was looking at, at least, not in the traditional sense. What she was looking at was some sort of inflatable abomination, a bright pink balloon snake. As she stared at the thing on her shoulder in outright, wide-eyed surprise and horror, the snake flitted its tongue out, and a long kazoo sound could be heard. Of course its tongue was a party favor, what else could she expect. Hesitating a little bit, she gingerly set her other hoof under the balloon snake, picking it up and setting it down in her now empty saddlebag. Where did Pharasma go? In her mind, she tried to run through the different things that could have possibly happened, but it was clear that she was a little shaken up by the fact that there was a balloon animal that felt an awful lot like a snake on her leg.

"That's... what..." she muttered out loud, having been distracted long enough for Brash's ears to have taken on a new illusion. She turned her attention back to the filly in question, starting to get ready to voice her apologies for having to stop what she was doing so that she could try to figure out what happened to her pet, but immediately recoiled with a little yelp as she saw the horns that had sprouted where the filly's ears had been. In her surprise, the grip on her cards slipped, and a good quarter of the deck slipped to the ground in front of a crate, a few of them landing face up, including The Empress, The Fool, and Death, as well as several different suits. "Kid, what the hell is wrong with your ears!?" She exclaimed as she scrambled backwards, nearly bumping into the crate. As low as confronting a demon child was on her list of things to do that day, she still had priorities, and she scrambled to pick up the cards that were dropped, having been on the ground long enough for any pony paying attention to study them.

Three solid knocks on the bedroom door woke the magenta mare up with a start. In her half sleeping grogginess, she sat up and raised a hoof to her eye to rub the rheum out of it, groaning a little as her mind pulled together a few questions from its sluggish consciousness. Did I wake up in my bed? Did I wake up in my bed? and What time is it? She **** open her right eye, brushing the low hanging bangs to the side to make out the blurry brown blob of wood in front of her. With another defeated groan, she set her head back down on her desk, having answered the first two questions she thought of. There was no bed to have woken up in, it was another night where she fell asleep at her desk, amidst the pages of a book that, for the time being, is serving as a rather uncomfortable pillow. Her mind cranked itself awake slowly as the knocking on the door continued, and her name was called through the door, "Ruby? Are you still in here?"

"Ugghh... yeah," came her half-assed response. She looked down at the book, slouching in her chair as she tried to figure out what she fell asleep doing. The book was open to a page on Doppelgangers once more, just as it was the day before, and her tarot card deck sat next to it, the cards knocked lightly over into a long fan across her desk. Her horn glowed as she picked up the cards, rifling through them and counting to make sure that the deck was still whole. 0, The Fool. I, The Magician. II, High Priestess... The voice from behind the door came once more, "Can I come in?" Ruby collapsed the deck into a neat pile and placed it back in its box, turning in her chair to face the door as she answered, "Yeah."

The door opened and in walked an older mare, her mane tied back in a bun, taking a quick look around the room before asking, "Were you reading in the dark again, Ruby?" to which she quickly answered, "I wasn't." The older mare looked at her, expecting more to the answer, and sighed as she realized that today was going to be a difficult day, "Were you sleeping then?" The answer came flatly, "Yeah." "Do you know what time it is?" "No." The older mare gave an exasperated sigh as she said, "Ruby, I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions with you today, so please, work with me here..." she trailed off as she looked at Ruby, then back around the room, asking nervously, "Wh-Where's your snake?" Ruby looked around the room as well, glancing quickly under the desk and in her drawers, "Iunno. She might be hunting for food again-- oh, here she is." Ruby opened a drawer, peering in at the python that coiled itself up in one of the many empty drawers that it liked to make itself home in. The python shifted as the drawer opened, flitting its tongue towards the intruder before resting its head back on its coils.

Ruby closed the drawer halfway and turned to look at her foster mother, arching her brow as she let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good," began the older mare, "anyways, it is nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. You've been sleeping all day, it's time to wake up. C'mon." Ruby flinched as the dim lights were flicked on, standing up on wobbly legs as the foster mother asked, "What are you going to do for the rest of the day? Clean your room I hope?" Ruby looked at her foster mother with a withering stare before setting her saddlebag on the chair, closing the book on the desk and putting it in the bag, along with a few other tomes and her deck of tarot cards, "I have to return these books before the library closes first, and then I'm meeting some friends to see a movie." Not one, but three blatant lies in one sentence: the books weren't due for another week, she had no friends to see a movie with, and there wasn't even anything interesting playing in the theater today and thus never planned on going. Her foster mother, oblivious to this, frowned and conceded, "Well, alright, but be back before eleven tonight. You're getting into your bad habits again."

===================

A half an hour later, Ruby sat in her usual place in the market square: on top of a cushion next to an isolated table with an umbrella sheltering it from the sun. Her saddlebag sat empty beside her, the python curled up inside it as it continued to bask while Ruby stayed out of the sun. Her books sat piled up on the table, supporting one that was propped open upright for easy reading as she shuffled her tarot cards. It was a beautiful afternoon, and there was still a few hours in the day left before it would start getting dark. Some of her regulars were no doubt annoyed that she was not where she usually was, or even around for the time they were looking for her, but really, what was the point of being a mystic if you were going to be in the same place at the same time every time? She needed to mix it up a little every so often, and today was one of the few days that this table was free. It was so much better than a dank alleyway.

There were, nonetheless, a few interested ponies who had approached her for readings, and she charged her usual fee of one bit each. From starstruck lovers, to ponies whose hearts pined for greater things, she would see many different kinds approach her, and many more consider it. It was only one bit after all, only half of an apple, mere pocket change. What was the worst that could happen? Right now though, she waited, reading her book on divination out of the corner of her eye as she shuffled, waiting for a customer to talk with, and possibly perform a reading for.

Rolling her eyes at Hawkson as he continued to curse her out, Ruby stood up and wandered back towards the tree that had her books under it. Now she would have to relocate, which was absolutely fantastic, and it wasn't even because of the fact that the place was now a tad messy, what with the broken tree branch and the scattered leaves, no, it was because of the two ponies who had invaded the general area with their shenanigans. Taking care to pass by as slowly as possible when she walked past Dais, giving Hawkson an amused and cheeky smirk in the process as she said, "Aww, someone's just a tad sore about their little embarassing fall, aren't they? What do you think, Pharasma?" The snake flicked its tongue at the pair disinterestedly, clearly having no opinion about the situation other than maybe how good the two of them smelled, but nevertheless, Ruby giggled and said, "Oh is that right? Well maybe we should..." she trailed off a little, her tone dropping into silence as she stared off to the side for a few seconds. A funny feeling came over her all of a sudden, sort of like the feeling of the aftermath of eating something that her stomach didn't agree with. She felt uncomfortable where she was, she had to move right now. Right now.

She just kept walking, one hoof in front of the other as she kept staring off to the side, looking as though she was off in her own little world as the python once more began to hiss lowly. A few seconds later after leaving the spot that she had deemed too unbearable to even consider standing in, a large boulder hit the ground with a thud, embedding itself into the dirt and showering the nearby ponies with speckles of soil. Slowly turning to look at the place that she had decided to abdicate at the last second, Ruby swallowed slowly as she paled, her heart beating at what felt like a million miles a minute, only picking up pace as she came to terms with what just about happened. Her silence continued to persist as the pegasus that had been carrying the boulder landed upon it, retrieving and reading a note while she muttered to herself. "Oh..." Ruby began, beginning to tremble as shock started to set in, "that was... oh dear, that almost..." That was almost murder is what that was. Wham-splat, almost turned into a fine red paste under a heavy rock, a quick death. Would it have been painful? Would I have felt each and every bone in my body splinter and break as my soft organs were crushed?

Things were just going wrong.

Ruby gave Dais a mock disbelieving look, a sarcastic half-lidded stare as he came to the conclusion that the pony in the tree was terrified of snakes. As much as it was stating the obvious, she could at least say that they were all on the same page now, for what good that would do right now. Looking back up at the tree just in time to see the stallion climb up to the higher branches in the tree, Ruby shook her head slowly, unsure what to think in this situation. Not only was he knocking even more leaves out of the tree, but now he was in even more danger of falling. The branches up higher were certainly not as sturdy as the ones that he was on previously, and she could hear the gunshot cracks of his weight causing them to buckle.

As Dais asked for the snake to show that it was actually harmless, Ruby looked at the python, contemplating whether this was a good idea or not, or if the snake would even like the idea of being moved around a lot. It was worth a try though, she supposed, and began lifting the heavy snake off of her shoulders. Pharasma did not seem so willing to move, shifting herself about to try to stay on Ruby, but eventually, Ruby ended up with a good bulk of the python's body ready to hand over to Dais. Just as she was about to place the snake on his back, the snake did something that Ruby did not quite expect: it let out a low, rolling warning hiss. The airy sound immediately caused Ruby to pull the python back, looking at it out of confusion and saying, "What's the matter, girl? You haven't hissed like that for a long time. Are you..."

She paused once more, scrunching up her face as she thought about it before shrugging and putting the python back on her back, where it proceeded to wrap itself securely around her, not willing to leave again, "I never thought snakes could become possessive of a pony to the point where they don't want to be held by anypony else, but... well, I guess it makes sense, since I haven't really tried forcing her to go to somepony else before, like, ever." She felt the python squeeze on her a little bit, but only enough to be noticeable. It wasn't like it was uncomfortable, for all she knew, she was getting the non-lethal version of a python's signature hug.

So that was that plan out the window then, and as Ruby looked back up to the top of the tree as she heard the loud snap that signified that the branch was not about to have anymore of Hawkson's weight, Ruby commented, "Well, he's only put himself in a worse situation, but he could look on the brightside: the fall doesn't hurt, it's hitting everything on the way down that does," she giggled to herself, as this has now turned into a spectacle that was perhaps a little amusing, "tell you what, since Pharasma is not having any of your plan, how about I cut out the middle pony and just go stand over there while he climbs down?" She gestured to another tree a few yards away before calling back up, "Should give you enough time to get away, after all, the average land speed of a chicken is much greater than that of a snake~." Giving another chuckle, she walked to where she gestured, sitting down and petting her snake as she watched what she thought would be chaos as the stallion in the tree dealt with his situation.

Ruby was starting to drift off as she leaned back against the tree, feeling the warmth of the sun on her coat, and the scaly mass that was the python as it shifted in place to expose as much of itself as it could to the sun, while at the same time keeping itself hugged close to the body warmth that Ruby gave off. Cold-blooded animals were scary-looking and threatening, sure, but they can be the most willing to be cuddly pets, especially when they can thrive off of something so simple as body heat, and only being fed once a month. In her opinion, Pharasma was the best kind of pet that Ruby could ask for, even if it earned her a few weird looks, and some of the more squeamish ponies recoiled in fear. It was so nice under this tree after all, what would she care about weird looks if she suddenly decided she wanted to take a quick nap? It wasn't like she was doing much on this little break, and a nap would help her remember things in the long run.

Her eyes would have started to drift closed too, if it weren't for the stallion that was approaching and nearly tripped over her. The gruff voice telling her that he almost didn't see her there was about to be countered with and you should watch where you are walking, but she was interrupted by the loudest yell she had yet to hear from a stallion standing right next to her, even louder than that earlier fellow who shouted at her about liking the author of the book she was reading. Not even long before she was about to cover her ears, the most astounding sight came with the noise, one that even she was not accustomed to. She watched this grown stallion leap backwards and clamber up the tree she was leaning on, like a cat, and clung to the first branch he came to that could support his weight. Ruby stood up and looked up into the tree after him, the expression on her face still in utter disbelief as the leaves that were shook off the branch by Hawkson's sudden ascent flittered to the ground, and she asked but one question, pure curiosity and bewilderment in her tone, "How in Celestia's name did you get up there so fast?"

Then came the second stallion in this three-pony stage comedy, the blue unicorn from earlier with the questions of books, back in an instant as though it was his calling to be where fear and danger were in this town, asking a series of questions, some not even related at all to the situation at hoof. After blinking a little at Dais' question, and the entire situation in general, Ruby simply said, "I'm not sure... I think he saw my snake and somehow, uh, somehow he tree'd himself." She looked back up at the pony that had cornered himself like a cat before calling up, "You aren't an ophidiophobe, are you? Pharasma isn't a rattlesnake or a viper; she is a ball python and perfectly harmless!" As she said that, the snake in question took the time to drape a bit of itself around her neck, no doubt a terrifying and nerve wracking thing for anypony who didn't know a thing about snakes.