//------------------------------// // Welcome to Ponyville // Story: Kindness is the Cure // by MegaTJ //------------------------------// Welcome to Ponyville! “Look Rime! There it is!” Daylight cheered to excite the Kitsune. They were at the top of a high hill overlooking the small town. By now the sun had been out for a few hours and Day was no longer suffering from morning fatigue. Rime stood on his hind legs on top of Day’s head to get a better look. “Yep, it sure is there!” exclaimed the kitsune. Day stopped his excitement and dropped down into his alter ego, something Rime calls a “self-defense mode”. “Let’s go”, he sighed. He walked down the small path that ran down the hill. “Can’t you at least be happy for a while? We found it! Smile, laugh, do something!” Rime cried. “You know why I can’t do that, Rime”, Day reasoned, “At least not when somepony could be around.” “Oh, right…” Rime sighed, “I’m sorry, Daylight…” “Cheer up, Rime. It’s not your fault”, Day said, “We both know there has to be a cure out there somewhere. And because there is, I won’t always be like this.” “I know…” “If you don’t cheer up, I’ll eat your cake”, Day teased. Rime panicked. “I’m happy! See? Hahahaha!” he laughed nervously. Day chuckled to himself, “That’s better.” “So, do you think we’ll make any friends while we stay here?” Rime sat on his master’s head, wagging his tails. “You might. You know I don’t have luck with that sort of thing.” Day thought back to how closed up he always was around everypony but Rime. There was a time when he used to have friends, but that was long before his…well, disorder. Rime rolled over on his back. A small, mischievous smile spread under his nose. “Hey, Day?” “Yeah?” “Have you ever kissed a mare before?” The pale yellow pony blushed. “H-how did you even get on that subject?!” Then he thought about the kitsune’s natural mischievous behavior. “Oh, wait, never mind.” “Answer the question!” Rime commanded immaturely. “For your information: I haven’t”, Day answered. He was a terrible liar anyways, so it didn’t matter whether he was honest or not. Rime would have known regardless of his answer. Rime knew better than to push Day’s buttons too much. His temper was a force to be reckoned with, even though Rime had never seen it that much. But since Day wasn’t there yet, he decided to go further. “Then I’m going to help you get a kiss while we stay in Ponyville. The first mare you ogle at, I’m gonna get you to kiss her!” “I guess I’ll just wear a blindfold then”, Day countered. Rime was dancing on his nerves, and he fought to control his anger. “Suuuuuure”, Rime said, elongating the word. He decided to offer a wager. “And if I can’t, I won’t eat a single cake for an entire week!” “That would be something to see”, Day snickered, “Okay, you’re on!” “But you can’t just outright refuse it”, Rime added, “If you get in the moment, you have to take it!” “Deal, and you can’t shape shift into a mistletoe”, Day replied, setting his own rule. “There goes Plan A”, Rime growled sarcastically. Day half smiled, but quickly dropped it. They were now just walking over the entrance bridge to Ponyville. “Oh, look. We’re here.” “Good! Now go find a job so I can have some sweets!” Day rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. Do you see any help wanted signs anywhere?” “I see a bulletin board over by that building.” Rime extended his paw out far enough so that Day could see where he was pointing. “Good eye, Rime.” Day walked the short distance to the town hall, ignoring all of the ponies that passed him. Five paces away from the board, Rime jumped down and ran the rest of the way to it. He eyed each notice carefully. “W-wo- want-ed”, he read clumsily, “New pl-ow. Will pay.” He moved on to the next one, unknowing that Day was just inches behind him. “He-lp want-ed. Help wanted! Day, this is it!” “Okay, now read the rest of it”, Day coaxed. Rime turned back to the poster. “Th-itreen? Bits an hower?” The kitsune shook his head in frustration. “Day! This is too hard!” “I’ll read the rest, but first I’ll point out your mistakes”, Day replied. He pointed to the word “thirteen”. “In this word, the ‘r’ sound comes before the ‘t’, so it’s ‘thirteen’ and not ‘thitreen’.” Rime nodded, “Oh. That sounds better.” Day pointed to his next error. “This word has a silent ‘h’. It doesn’t make the ‘huh’ sound. So you have to pronounce it like ‘our’. Get it?” “Silent ‘h’. Got it.” Rime crossed his paws and reflected his mishaps. When he had it down, he went on. “Okay, now what’s the whole thing say?” “It says ‘Help wanted: Thirteen bits an hour. Must be able to care for animals.’” “Thirteen bits? That seems like a lot of money for one hour…” Rime pondered to himself. “It must be a tough job”, Day assumed. “You want to do this?” “Yeah! We’ll be able to get lots of cakes easy with that kind of pay!” Rime shouted. “And afford a decent hotel. Let’s find this place. It’ll probably be a veterinarian clinic or something”, Day said. Rime hopped on Day’s back. “I’ll keep a look out for you.” Daylight walked in a random direction, hoping he would stumble upon the correct building. The flyer didn’t have any directions, or even an address, so they were pretty much blind. Both of them searched the signs for anything that could point out their destination. A while later, they happened across Ponyville’s exact center. Rime’s whiskers twitched as he saw what stood not even three yards away from them. Day was too absorbed in walking to notice it. “Hey look Day! A map!” Day looked around and settled his gaze on it. “Finally we’re getting somewhere!” The pony searched the map key for what they were looking for. “Let’s see, library, apple farm, town hall, prank shop…I don’t see any vets.” “Maybe we should just get the notice and show it to somepony. They could probably tell us”, Rime suggested. “We have no choice”, Day sighed. Oh, Celestia he wasn’t going to like it. It was bad enough he already had to face an employer. He walked back to the notice board, where a blue unicorn and a bouncing pink pony stood in front of it. He stopped. Rime almost fell off Day at the sudden halt. That was one thing that just agitated him. “Hey! What gives!?” Rime yelled, “Why’d you stop?!” Day didn’t respond immediately. He took a deep breath. “Rime…just let them leave first”, Day said. The kitsune grumbled, but sat still. He hated to wait for anything. Day stood still until the unicorn said something to the pink pony. She suddenly started to cheer, and then took off in the opposite direction of Day and Rime. The unicorn ran after her with a sarcastic shake of his head. Day looked around to make sure the coast was clear before approaching the board. He snatched the paper down and gave it to Rime. The ice blue fox rolled it up and sat on top of it for safe keeping. Remembering where the library was, he turned around and walked straight. He thought that it would be the perfect place for directions. Not too crowded and almost completely silent. And nothing to make him smile. It didn’t take long before they came upon the giant tree that held the library. Day hesitated before opening the door. “Come on, Day!” Rime whined, “I’m not getting any younger here!” “Fine.” Day reached out, pushed open the door, and walked in, hoping that it was nearly empty. A gray blue Pegasus approached him. “Welcome to the Golden Oaks library, where knowledge is just a page away! I’m Dream Runner, the assistant librarian. Twilight Sparkle has stepped out for the time being, sorry for any inconveniences. ” “Um…hello…” Day said awkwardly, “I’m just here for directions.” “Okay, exactly where are you headed?” “Rime”, Day instructed. The kitsune unrolled the paper and hopped on Day’s head again. He held it outward to Dream. “We’re looking for wherever it is we can find this job”, Day explained. Dream Runner read the sign. He immediately recognized the hoofwriting, and answered, “Oh! You should look for Fluttershy. She lives in a cottage just outside the busiest part of town. I can take you there if you like.” “No, thank you”, Day quickly replied, “Just directions.” Dream Runner thought Day’s response was odd, but continued anyway. “Just walk west of here until you pass under the welcome sign. You can’t miss the cottage. It’ll be the only one around.” “Okay, thank you”, Day said. He turned and left, leaving the Pegasus confused and suspicious. “He didn’t ask what I was. That’s a first”, Rime said. He quickly placed the rolled up flier into one of the saddlebag’s pockets. “Maybe he just thought you were just a normal arctic fox”, Day presumed. “Maybe…” They both remained silent as Day walked through the street. He looked around, trying to avoid meeting anypony’s eye. That proved to be a tough task, however. It seemed as if everypony was staring right at him! It was making him nervous. “Rime, could you make us disappear?” he asked. “Sorry, Day, they already see us. It would just cause panic.” “Oh, yeah, I would guess so…” Some of the tension was soon relieved. As Day walked further from the library, the crowd continued to thin. After a while, it was just the two friends. “Happy now?” Rime jumped down and walked beside Day to relieve some of the boredom. “Yep”, Day replied plainly. He looked around. “Do you see the cottage?” Rime shook his head. “No. Did you go the wrong way?” “I don’t think so.” Day stopped and took in the surroundings. They were just outside the town. “Maybe we didn’t walk far enough.” “Want me to check?” Rime started to shift his shape. His fore legs transformed into wings and his back legs into bird legs. Patches of his fur turned into feathers. “No, we both know you can’t fly in any form”, Day said. “Oh, fine!” Rime snapped. He canceled the morph and returned to his normal self. “Killjoy”, he mumbled. Day returned to walking west. Rime followed right along closely. They both listened as the wind blew over them. A few birds chirped here and there, but other than that, nothing broke the peace. Day could feel the ease that the day radiated. Even Rime seemed to be enjoying it. The kitsune hadn’t said a word since he reverted back to his normal form. Day’s mind drifted off. Thoughts of his early past started to come back to him, something of which didn’t happen very often. Not a single, offending thought came into his mind. He was so absorbed in the peace that he didn’t hear Rime yelling at him until the kitsune jumped up and landed on his head. “Pay attention to me!” he screamed. “DAY!” “Okay, okay, what did you want to tell me, Rime”, Day asked without even a hint of agitation. “We’re almost there”, Rime replied calmly. “What?” “Mmmhmm. Look.” Rime pointed down the hill Day wasn’t aware they had climbed. He followed Rime’s paw to a hollowed tree. It was perfectly crafted. The only things added on to the actual tree were the windows and the door. It was beautiful! There was absolutely nothing to upset the scenery! Around the house was full of burrows, bird houses, nests, and so many other such things. There were nests in the trees and a small bridge ran over a stream in the yard. As he walked through the yard, none of the animals scurried away. A few squirrels even scampered up to investigate them. Rime was astonished by the attention they were getting. He was used to animals running away from him. “This is weirding me out”, he said uneasily. “Oh, come on, Rime, they’re just fluffy little creatures”, Day snickered. Rime shifted his weight. “Whatever, still creepy.” Before he knew it, Day was at the front door of the cottage. He paused. “Let’s go, Day, move it or lose it!” Rime called. The Earth Pony gulped. Shakily, he gave the door a few raps. A few seconds passed. If it wasn’t for Rime’s nagging, he would have left. Instead, he knocked again. This time he got a reply. “Coming”, called a voice softly. The seconds ticked by. With each of them, Day found himself becoming more and more nervous. He was already breathing heavily and the door hadn’t even opened yet. They waited for a few more seconds. Then, the door creaked open.