"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Chapter 5
Gold Coin sat in his chair, it was early the next morning and the sun had just barely risen from beyond the horizon before he began working. He diligently looked over several loan requests from various ponies in the area, it's hard to believe one pony is capable of maintaining such a stable economy with nothing but the help of one other pony. He gazed over at the table clock on his desk, it was 8:00am now.
"Jeez, I've been here for two hours already." He groaned to himself, setting the loan request forms down.
"You over work yourself, you know."
Gold Coins white ears twitched as he looked up from his desk, seeing a white pony in beautiful gold, glimmering armor walk up to him from the open double doors in the front of the treasury.
"Sorry, I'll leave that to you, Golden Sky." Gold Coin said while he sat back in his chair. "What's up with you? You rarely come down here anymore."
"I'm on my way to guard duty, but I have another 10 or so minutes, so I thought I'd stop by and say hello." Golden Sky's blue eyes were fixed to Gold Coins, he was a very intimidating pony, even when he didn't mean to be.
"Well, I'm doing great today. Like you heard, I've been here for two hours already. Just waiting for my assistant, is all." He brushed his own white hoof through his gold mane, then yawned about halfway through it. "You want to meet him?"
"I don't very much care for other ponies, you know that." Golden Sky looks over at Mixed Numbers desk, then back at Gold Coin.
"Wouldn't hurt to try." Gold Coin quipped back, his fore hooves crossed over his chest.
"Wouldn't hurt to try what?" Mixed Number stepped into the scene, ready for his days work. He trotted up to his desk and placed a manila folder down onto the wooden table top. "Who's this?"
"Oh, speak of the devil. Hey, Mixed, this is my brother Golden Sky." Gold Coin smiled, waving his assistant over to say hi.
"Oh, well, it's nice to meet you." He walked over to the guard pony, who just rolls his eyes at the new accountant and walks to one of the benches lining the wall near the double door entrance. "Well, it's nice to meet you, too."
"Sorry, he's not very social..." Gold Coin spoke with an apologetic tone in his voice and a small frown on his face. "He's been through some tough times lately."
"Right, well... I should get to work, anyway." Mixed Number nods and walks back to his desk, with Golden Sky sitting on a bench not 2 feet away.
"So, Golden sky, have you seen Starry Knight in a while?" Gold Coin pipes up from behind his desk in an effort to break the silence.
"I was drinking with her the other night, other than that, I haven't seen her." He replies. He reaches up with his hooves and takes off his golden helmet, revealing a pale yellow mane in a rather longish pony tail. A small picture slips out of his helmet and floats gently down to the ground. In an effort to get on Golden Sky's good side Mixed Number picks up the photograph with his blue, glowing magic. Golden Sky notices and quickly snatches the photograph out of the air and slides it back in his helmet.
"Yeesh, sorry..." Mixed Number groans with a surprised expression on his face from the sudden snatch. Golden Sky sighs and stays silent for a few moments before hopping up off the bench.
"Look, I should get going." He mutters. Gold Coin nods and waves as Golden Sky heads off to his post for the day.
"Hmph... What's his problem?" Mixed Number whispers to himself before waving it off as nothing and returning to work. "I'm sure he's fine once you get to know him..."