Rarity sat back and stretched. She wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead. She realized her back was aching slightly, a decent sign she had spent too long hunched over. She picked up the cane on the table in front of her and examined it.
The client had been very specific in how they wanted the cane weighted. Rarity couldn’t understand for the life of her why one would want a simple hook cane, the kind that looked like candy canes, to have such a distracting weight built into the hook, but in the end it wasn’t her job to ask those kinds of questions. As it stood a plain wooden hook was attached to the cane, one without a weight.
She remembered wielding the prototype of this cane against Shifter over a week ago now, and supposed she could see combat applications for such a design. Why Fancy Pants, of all ponies, would want a cane made for combat escaped her though.
She put the cane back down and covered it in fabric for later. It wasn’t quite done yet. The wood still needed to be finished, she had yet to receive the finished head, and she was still debating on whether or not she should leave a signature. And if so, how?
She smirked as some of Sly’s memories flitted through her mind. Very few people in Sly's life knew just how many skills the raccoon had picked up in his long life of costumes, deception, and thievery. Often times in order for disguises to work one needed to be at least passably skilled at one trade or another, and Sly had picked up quite a few trades. He would never be called a master in anything but thievery, of course, but he could hold his own fairly well in most physical labor trades. Carpentry, demolition, metalshop, mechanic… and even woodworking.
Rarity had of course known some of what Sly knew, but she also had known a few tricks the thief hadn’t and vice versa. It was also interesting to compare the different ways the two worlds went about their trades.
For instance, Pony’s couldn’t claim a masters certificate in a chosen trade unless they could perform the trade with their magic blocked. This was equally to ensure fairness and to build familiarity with said trade. Magic removed a degree of closeness from the whole thing, leading to often subpar results.
Of course, there were exceptions, such as Ponies like Twilight Sparkle, who dedicated themselves to magic itself, rather than how it could be applied to a specific trade.
Inversely, the people of Sly’s world were considered masters when they devised their own ways to doing their trades. Smiths making their own tools and even new ones for personal touches, cooks cooking based on feeling rather than recipe, and carpenters working so efficiently that they make every movement lead into the next.
It was enough to have Rarity’s inner muse doing cartwheels while singing “Joy To The World” at the top of her lungs. Ideas simply kept coming, and even her ever useful notebook was beginning to get cramped. She may need to invest in multiple notebooks for different subjects soon.
Hearing a thud from upstairs, Rarity sighed and turned to go see was her sister was doing. She loved her sister, but it was often a bad idea to not poke her head in on her once in a while.
---
“Really, Twilight, you’ve been a huge help. I don’t think I could ask for more, even knowing it would probably be easy for you.”
Twilight gently set the large pile of lumber down next to the framework of what looked like a house at first and turned to the pony speaking to her. She smiled. “Really, Cheerilee, I don’t mind. It’s actually nice to use my powers openly like this. It’s like scratching an itch I never could quite reach.”
Cheerilee, as it happened, was one of Twilight’s acquaintances from her childhood, though only because their mothers went to the same book club. While they hadn’t ever quite been friends, it was never because of bad feelings on either Pony’s part. They had both just been too engrossed in their own types of books. They often helped each other find specific books.
As such, when Cheerilee asked if Twilight could help her finish her dream schoolhouse, Twilight had been only too happy to help, after the initial surprise of discovering Cheerilee now lived in Ponyville.
“Still, I feel like I should be repaying you somehow. You pretty well cut the construction time in half on your own!” Cheerilee exclaimed.
Twilight shrugged. “Then just take it as a favor you owe me. You know I’m not real picky about this kind of thing.”
Cheerilee sighed, but nodded. It wouldn’t be the first time Twilight had come to her rescue in their somewhat shared pasts. Her taxes alone would have been murder if Twilight hadn’t been there to help, nevermind the sleepless nights the both of them had spent helping Cheerilee study for her exams when she was studying to become a teacher. Twilight could probably qualify as a teacher herself with all the material she had probably memorized alongside her.
Twilight suddenly stopped, a memory from shortly after she moved to Ponyville playing across her mind. “Actually, there is something you could do for me,” she said, before explaining.
Cheerilee, once she understood what was being asked of her, agreed all to easily to the favor. It was hardly a problem at all, considering just what she was having Twilight help her build.
---
Fluttershy had to admit that having the peak Pegasus body had it’s good points. For one, her chores around the house had never been easier. Feeding the animals, cleaning the chicken coop, making sure no one was sick... this normally took up most of her day. As such, it had been somewhat startling to finish said chores and realize it wasn’t even noon yet.
After having an early lunch, Fluttershy settled in to do what she normally did when she finished her chores early; relax and let the day drift by. However, after five minutes of fidgeting on her couch, she realized the downside to her upgraded body. She had too much energy to simply relax.
She decided to explore her house a bit and see if she could find anything to do. It didn’t take long to realize there was a layer of white fur everywhere. It seemed it was time to clean up Angel’s loose fur again.
This task did it’s job of keeping her busy, but once again she found herself finishing the job far quicker than expected. Only an hour had gone by. Once again Fluttershy found herself exploring the house in search of something to do.
So perhaps there were more downsides than she thought to being a Hero Soul. Fluttershy eventually decided to wander into town. If nothing else, she would probably see one of her friends and they would have an idea of what to do.
At least it was a beautiful day today, if slightly chilly. Fall was beginning to set in.
---
Pinkie Pie was in a slight dilemma.
Birthday party, or pre-Hearths Warming party? Both? Something completely different?
Sometimes being the premier party planner of Ponyville was hard…
---
Applejack grumbled as she finished unloading the harvest for the day. Work had gone somewhat poorly, the trees being stubborn due to the temperature beginning to shift. They weren’t quite as willing to give up their apples.
Of course, any good apple farmer knew the tricks to getting a stubborn tree to let go of it’s fruit. If a good solid buck didn’t do it, then it was time to apply good ‘ole Earth Pony ingenuity to the mix. Usually this involved using what little magic an Earth Pony could manipulate and coaxing it into the tree. This usually made the tree relax and drop apples, but for some reason the orchard trees were being downright rude today.
Applejack had resorted to just slingshotting herself around the trees like a rubber band and grabbing apples. It worked, but the trees weren’t happy about it.
As she had done this, she had found herself marveling at how different nature was between Equestria and the Grand Line. Granted, nature in the Grand Line was, to put it politely, bucking weird to begin with, but it was never almost sentient, much like nature was in this world. Trees could move, if very slightly, and could very easily sass at their caretakers on a bad day.
The strange thing was… the Apple family had been caring for the orchard trees since before Ponyville had been founded. They were as attached to the trees and land around them as a Pony could get, and not just because of their obsession with Apples. There wasn’t a tree in the entire orchard that didn’t adore the family in some way, even going so far as to share life energy with the elderly Granny Smith to prolong her life and ease her burdens.
So why were the trees being so ornery today?
---
Deep within a vault locked with the strongest magics ponies could conceive of, five gems glittered happily in their resting places. A sixth gem, however, did not glitter. It in fact looked quite dull.
Then, unnoticed by anyone… a small crack formed in the ruby surface of the Element of Loyalty.
---
“I’m the fastest Pegasus now!”
“Rainbow Crash can’t even keep up with FlutterCry!”
“I don’t need a slow pony like you holding me down anymore!”
“I don’t need a pony like you…”
“I don’t need you.”