//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The life of a travelling Entrepreneur // by Mogget //------------------------------// Celestia's sun rose above the horizon, bathing everything in a golden light, from the lush rolling hills to Canterlot itself. Its rays settled upon everything in sight giving whatever it touched a magnificent glowing aura that captivated my attention. I gave a contented sigh as I rested back on my haunches and began to relax upon the grassy fields that surrounded me. I smiled as I took in the view, I always loved watching the sunrise, I had always thought it to be one of the most magical things that I would ever see, and in my opinion it would always far outclass any magic I, or any other unicorn could hope to cast. After spending some time watching the sunrise I rose to my hooves and turned around to face my humble caravan, I had always liked my caravan, it had been my constant companion during my travels and had never been anything but helpful to me and if it were a pony I would consider it my closest friend. That is along with a one of a kind bartender named Moonshine, a stallion who I had met two or so years ago, quite early on in my travels in Manehatten who, when I showed up at his tavern immediately made me a drink on the house, at first I was rather surprised at this seemingly random act of charity but as I talked with the stallion that idea faded from my mind. I talked with Moonshine long after his other patrons had left the bar, I found out that he had only been in business about as long as me and surprisingly, that we were relatively the same age. We began exchanging stories that we had, mine about what I had seen on my short travels and him about his experiences that he had in his time as a barmen. As time dragged on I ordered more drinks while talking with Moonshine until I finally collapsed on his bar in a drink induced slumber. I awoke the next morning to an ear splitting headache only to find that he had carried me up to his spare room in his humble establishment and let me stay the night. From then on Moonshine and I had took a shine to each other if you will, and become close friends, on my travels whenever I was close to Manehatten I would stop in at his bar for some drinks, someone to talk to and somewhere to relax. I smiled to myself upon finishing recalling my memories from when I had first met Moonshine, I had really enjoyed his company and unfortunately it had been months since I had last talked to him. I allowed myself a brief sigh and lit up my horn and produced a crumpled letter from Moonshine and once again read it aloud to myself; ]Hey Man How are you doing? it's been a while since you last stopped in to talk and have a few drinks at the bar, I take it you've been busy. Anyway a few days ago I got cornered by one of those upper class snobs and as it turns out for some reason he wanted to buy my bar, he offered me an enormous amount of bits to me if I sold it to him. At first I was reluctant to sell it but, the amount of bits he offered me was enough to set me up for a lifetime, so eventually I gave in and accepted it. I was getting sick of Manehatten anyway now that I think about it ,it's too big and busy all the time so I'm moving to a smaller town, not too far from Canterlot called Ponyville, I'm planning on setting up a small bar there if I can, and I was hoping you would swing by sometime for a drink and time to catch up. -Your bud Moonshine I chuckled to myself as I finished the letter for the billionth time, I still hadn't worked out how he had managed to track me down and get it delivered to me, seeing as due to my job I'm always on the move, nor had I figured out why he had decided to move to such a small out of the way town, I had never been to Ponyville and hardly even heard of it, I wasn't even exactly sure where it was all I knew was it was a small rural town that it was somewhere near Canterlot. I had always liked the smaller towns, in my experience they were always quieter and the ponies there were always a lot nicer, unfortunately they often didn't buy as much merchandise, or have as much to sell as the wealthier ponies in the cities, so my profession rarely led me to cross paths with them. It had been a few months since I got the letter from Moonshine and I still hadn't been to check out his new bar, though it was mainly because it was such a long was off my normal area any maybe slightly due to the fact I didn't quite know exactly where Ponyville was. I lay back down on the soft grass, basking in the sun as I pondered if I should go and check out his new establishment. I could do with a break, it'd been a while since I last stopped somewhere that I wasn't trying to sell off some of my merchandise or keeping an eye out for anything valuable that I could sell on to somepony else, it would be nice to see Moonshine again and catch up on old times. And hey who knows maybe a nice trip to somewhere new would be nice. After some time deliberating I decided that visiting Moonshine and his new bar would be a nice break from my busy life. I climbed to my hooves and strode over to my caravan attached myself to its harness, Immediately I swung around and sauntered off in the general direction of where I thought Ponyville to be. The longer I walked the more my mind strayed to what this small town would be like, a picture of a small country orientated little village formed in my mind, its houses small but cosy, and its people hardy but kind, the kind of place where everypony knew everypony. Suddenly the daydream faded from my mind as I noticed another pony on the road, as I grew closer I began to make out details, it appeared to be a earth pony stallion with a crimson red coat and a straw coloured mane, but his most prominent feature was his enormous size, he was built like a buffalo. Now with my job pulling around my caravan from city to city I liked to think of myself as fairly strong, and compared to an average stallion I was quite 'buff' but compared to him I was like a little school filly. As I approached him he turned toward me and his eyes fell on me as if studying me as I was him, each of us making our own assessment of the other. Finally after an eternity of studying each other he broke the silence, "Howdy, names Mac" "Nice to meet you Mac, names Silver. So, where you heading?" I questioned. "Ah'm heading back home t' Ponyville" he answered. "Oh you're from Ponyville? Do you think you could show me where it is? You see I got a letter from a friend who opened a bar in Ponyville a while back and he invited me to come check it out... But well I'm not quite too sure where exactly Ponyville is" I sheepishly added. He raised his eyebrows as if silently asking a question "are ya by any chance friends with Moonshine?" "Yeah that's him" I exclaimed, a measure of surprise evident in my voice "you know him?" He gave a small smile slip through his otherwise stoic demeanor "Eeyup, ah head down to his bar every here and there for a drink after workin at th' farm." "It's good to hear that he's got some customers then" I chuckled. "So could you show me where his bar is by any chance?" "Eeyup" he replied, as he turned on his hoof and started to depart down the road where Ponyville undoubtedly lay.