Letters From Ponyville

by FearlessXIII

Chapter One: Welcome To Ponyville

Chapter One: Welcome To Ponyville

The town was buzzing.

Then again, Ponyville was always buzzing about something. Reason had only been here two days and already figured that out.

Today’s hot topic was the Summer Sun Celebration. Every year, Princess Celestia graced a different town with her presence. Then, she used her immense power to raise the sun, signifying the longest day of the year.

Even though it wasn’t for another week, everypony was already talking about it:

“Can you imagine? The Princess herself, coming to quaint, little Ponyville!”

“I hear she’s absolutely radiant to look at!”

“This is going to be the best Summer Sun Celebration ever!”

“Do you think she’ll do that thing she did at last year’s celebration in Fillydelphia?”

“Gosh, I sure hope so!”

“Oh, did you hear about…”

‘Blah blah blah. Why was it such a big deal, anyway?’, Reason thought to himself.

In her last letter, Rhyme had expressed that perhaps her brother was just “missing something”. After all, neither Rhyme nor Reason was a true Ponyville native. If there was some inherent charm to this quaint burg, Reason sure wasn’t seeing it.

The spirit of celebration somehow made the whole thing worse. Everywhere he looked, Reason could see ponies scampering to decorate this, or trim up that, or tidy up such-and-such.

Therein lay the downside to the double-edged sword of his favorite place in town, where he was currently residing. The view of Ponyville from above was something to behold, but the constant noise from other ponies sort of dampened the entire experience.

Reason had managed to procure a choice apartment at the edge of town for a reasonable price. The place consisted of four separate apartments in one complex (that’s what the landlord called it; for a practical pony like Reason, it was still just a giant house. In fact, it was almost like one of those bed and breakfast places his family used to frequent while on vacation) with only one other tenant, an old spinster situated on the bottom floor and across the hall from his own apartment. Reason generally kept his own council (save from his sister), so solitude was a huge plus in his recent accommodation.

But that wasn’t the best part; in cleaning some junk from the attic above his own dwelling, he unwittingly discovered a patio door leading right onto the roof (whether this was an oversight in construction, an incomplete addition to the apartment, or just one of the landlord’s many quirks, Reason didn’t know). Reason had slept out there on his first night, and couldn’t wait to show his sister the view from the roof: the hustle and bustle of ponies in the daylight, the unwavering rush of midday, the visage of sleepy ponies walking home after dark.

And the stars! Sweet Celestia, the stars!

If there was one good thing about Ponyville, and Reason suspected that there might only be one single thing, it was the view. His sister had at LEAST been right about that.

The steel-hued earth pony was stretched out on his back. It was early morning, by the sound of the chatter below. It seemed like every dawn a different group of ponies was situated at the café across the street, yet all any of them ever wanted to do was gossip. Just like a couple days ago, when he moved in.

How did that go, exactly…?

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Two Days Ago…

“…and that concludes the grand tour. Like I said, it’s thirty three bits a month with an extra ten per roommate.” As the elder earth pony finished, he sized-up the new potential renter.

Reason was absolutely floored. The apartment was astonishing! It was spacious, well-furnished, and he could effortlessly situate another bed in the room across from his own. Easily a step-up from those disgusting Manehatten slums.

“Mr. Nails…”

The wrinkled, chocolate-colored landlord waved a hoof and cut Reason off. “Call me Rusty. Never much went for formalities, and I don’t plan on startin’ now.”

Reason cleared his throat, and then tried again, “Right then. Rusty, is there any way I could come back later today with my decision? I mean, I’d hate to bother you again, but there are a few other places I wanted to check out.”

Reason’s request might have come off sounding rude to most ponies. As a point of fact, his sister had often reprimanded him for being too blunt when it came to sensitive issues.

If there was any sign that Rusty Nails was offended by the request, he wasn’t showing it. “Nah, that’s fine. See that café across the street? My house is the blue-trimmed one right next to it. Just gimme a holler when you’re ready to move in. Oh! But don’t make it too late; the missus gets somewhat snarky when visitors show up real late.”

In truth, Reason had already decided on this particular apartment. It was only as a point of courtesy to his sister that he was looking at the other two places. After all, ‘vigilance today saves misery tomorrow’, or whatever axiom she actually said back then. His sister sure loved her catchphrases.

With a parting word, Reason turned away and started down the street. He’d gotten off the train relatively early heading straight for this venue, so it had to be pretty close to noon. Reason was in fairly high spirits, and why shouldn’t he be? This town had housing, nice ponies, and apparently some job openings.

Overall, Ponyville was shaping up to be pretty sweet. Naturally, this made him nervous.

Reason shook off those thoughts. If he was to make the best of the situation, who’s to say it wouldn’t turn out for the best? All he wanted was to make things better for his dear sister.

Poor Rhyme. She took their father’s death the hardest when they were young, and even though their mother’s more recent illness and subsequent death had been nothing short of predictable, Rhyme was a wreck for weeks after she passed on, too. Reason missed them both dearly as well, but his parents’ deaths were less of a surprise to him. Growing up, he’d noticed that his parents had been quite a bit older than most foals’. This was never more apparent than at his very first Family Appreciation Day; Reason’s dad seemed to know more of the grandparents at the school than anypony else.

When Reason and his father returned home that night, Reason had asked his parents about it. His mother told him the truth, that he and Rhyme had been adopted. There weren’t any tearful recriminations or anything, though. ‘Those are for those cliché dramas that Rhyme is always reading’, Reason thought. If anything, knowing the truth only bonded Reason closer to his parents, though it would be a few years before Rhyme would learn the truth as well. Reason loved his parents, his sister, and the family orchard.

That’s why he came to Ponyville, after all!

Reason redoubled his resolve… which was promptly cut-short by his stomach’s obnoxious reminder that he hadn’t had anything substantial to eat in almost a day. Lunch first, then resolve.

The Ponyville marketplace certainly had a variety of stalls to choose from. A few were closed so that the owners could also have their lunch, but most had ponies displaying their various foods and other wares for all to see. And as if the displays weren’t enough, ponies were clamoring for the attention of customers left and right! In Manehatten, ponies only really talked to one another on the street if they were screaming at each other.

It was certainly a new experience!

Reason glanced around. An apple stall, a celery stall, one selling cherries, another selling carrots…

“Hey there!”

The steel-grey pony came to a halt. It was hard to make out anything over the din, but he was certain that somepony had called out to him.

“Yes, you! The guy with the patchy saddlebags! C’mere a second!” the female voice inquired.

Situated on his left was a green stall, this one also selling apples. The owner was an orange earth pony mare wearing a cowboy hat and an apron. Reason cantered over to the stall to see what she wanted.

Before he could get a word in though, the mare spoke up, “Well howdy! Come to try one of our Sweet Apple Acres’ home-grown, DE-LICIOUS apples? Ya’ll won’t be disappointed!”

Reason very nearly took her up on the offer. Had he done so, it may have prompted a friendly conversation with the proprietor. Perhaps they might have spoken about Ponyville, or being new in town. Then again, perhaps not. Maybe they would have discussed their respective families, and really get off on the right hoof, as it were. Or maybe Reason would simply have bought his lunch, eaten it in peace, and continued his housing-search unabated. In any case, Reason’s potential interaction with the representative from Sweet Apple Acres would surely have changed the events that followed.

Instead, the voice of a persistent mare that was NOT situated directly in front of him once again stole Reason’s attention.

“Mister! Yoo-hoo! Um, guy with the branchy, leafy cutie mark! Not the apple stall! Over here!”

Beside the apple kiosk was a similar stall, this one selling various kinds of berries and jellies. Reason abruptly turned his attention from the apple salesmare to the sandy-coated earth pony manning this nearby stall, and walked over. Somewhere behind him in a southern drawl, he was certain he heard something about “customer-thievin’, no-good so-and-so’s”.

“It’s an olive branch, by the way, Miss…?”

Reason’s comment was lost, however, and the young mare continued without hesitation, “You look kinda lost. Is this your first time at the market?”

Reason was taken aback. Sheepishly he asked, “Bu-but how could you tell? Am I really that out of place?”

The salesmare cocked her head to the left. “Well, not exactly. It’s just that, Ponyville isn’t very big. News travels fast, you know? Not to mention that there was no word about a pa-“

The filly suddenly caught herself, glancing this way and that. Then, she continued, “Um, there was no word about any welcoming festivities for… ah… new individuals here in town.”

Although his stomach was relentlessly trying to get his attention back to the matter at hoof, Reason couldn’t help but indulge his curiosity. “Festivities? Oh, you mean like a welcoming par-“

“SHHH!!!!” The filly had her hoof raised to her lips, with a grave look on her face. “If you say that word, she’ll come! I heard that this one time, she held a Welcome-to-Ponyville bash RIGHT HERE IN THE MARKET. Can you imagine? What a mess!”

“Er, yeah. Right. A mess.” Reason gave the mare a quizzical look as he spoke, but she scarcely noticed.

Naturally, Reason had no inclination as to whom the young berry-seller might be referring. In spite of a certain pink earth pony’s penchant for world-renowned celebrations, Reason simply did not get out very much. Thus he let the matter drop, making note that use of the word “party” would very likely draw unwanted attention to himself.

By this point, Reason’s stomach could wait no longer. With a very audible gurgle, it made its demands well-known. He turned to the salesmare, and opened his mouth to order a bag of some of the succulent berries on display.

The mare was too quick. “Oh hey, look. It’s lunchtime. I’d better close up. Man, I’m starved!”

And with that, the chatty earth pony hung up an “Out-To-Lunch” sign over her stall, and started packing away her wares.

Defeated, Reason slumped over and started to turn back toward the apple stall. The orange mare smiled broadly at his distant approach… but then a familiar salesmare’s voice perked up from beside him.

“So where do you wanna eat? Ooh! Let’s go to that one café! The hay fries there are simply TO DIE FOR! C’mon, I’ll show you where it’s at!” she said with an innocent grin.

A lamenting apple salesmare could be heard very faintly letting fly some rather colorful language, unbefitting of a young filly, but neither Reason nor the berry seller managed to catch what was said.

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“My father, mother, sister, and I all lived just outside of Manehatten in a little cottage. Dad got into a harvesting accident when I was little, and my mother passed away about five years ago, too.”
Reason paused to bite heartily into his daisy sandwich, and then continued, “So for a long time, it was just me and Rhyme. It’s tough to run a citrus orchard with just two ponies, though. We couldn’t make the payments for the house, so we had to sell most of the land. Orange farming was kinda dull, anyway.”

With an audible gulp, the berry-seller finished off her third glass of water. She had talked most of the way to the café (which was the very one across from the apartment he wanted, as luck would have it), and told him that her name was Blackberry Jam, or B.B. for short.

Now though, she was listening patiently. “I can see that. Berry farming wasn’t really my bag either, so believe me when I say I know what you mean. Anyway, then what happened?”

Reason took another chomp of his sandwich. “Well, Rhyme didn’t mind selling part of the orchard, but she drew the line at selling the house. She took a job in Manehatten at a local bakery, and I delivered newspapers. Things were looking up for a while, but we just couldn’t keep up with the house payments. A few days later, a pony from the bank came. We tried to explain to him that it was our home, that we didn’t have anywhere else to go, that our dad was buried in a clearing in the woods… But it didn’t matter. Rhyme and I packed up our stuff and moved to a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Manehatten, which was all we could afford. We lived there for nearly a year in disgusting squalor.

“One night, I was staying up late, partly because Manehatten is noisy at all hours, and partly because the city lights often kept me awake. Anyway, I overheard a couple of pegasi talking about a few job openings in a quaint little town a few miles away. The next morning, I discussed the prospect of moving away from Manehatten with Rhyme. She was more or less for it, so long as we eventually came back to buy our family home someday. I never bothered telling her that re-buying our house was pretty much just wishful thinking; I was just happy that we had a plan for once.”

Reason started to fidget. “Everything was set up perfectly. Between us, we had just enough money for a single ticket and still have some bits left over to look for a cheap place in Ponyville. I told Rhyme to take the ticket, but…”

Blackberry Jam piped up. “She was stubborn, huh?”

“Yeah, stubborn is one word for it. Rhyme said her job at the bakery paid better than my newspaper route, that she took up less room in our cramped apartment, that she was better-suited to put up with our dingy dwelling for another couple of months… And even though all of that was technically true, she still should have been the one to come here, not me. She’s been through so much already…”

The salesmare nodded, saying nothing. Reason then finished, “But Rhyme wouldn’t have it. I could never say no to my little sis, so I packed up and left the very next day.”

The filly seated across from Reason seemed pensive for a reason unbeknownst to the steel-hued earth pony. Just before the silence had started to become awkward, she spoke up.

“So you’re looking for a job then, right? That way you can wire money to your sis so you can both live together here in Ponyville, yeah?”

Reason nodded. “Yup. That’s the long and short of it.”

B.B. started playing with her mane. After a moment, she inquired, “So you’ll be in Ponyville for a while then… right? Like, you’re not just visiting and then turning around back to Manehatten?”

“Humph. I wouldn’t go back to that garbage-laden city for a million bits”, Reason snorted.

The sand-hued mare fussed with her wheat-colored mane for another minute or so. Just as the silence was beginning to become uncomfortable, she started again, “So did you hear? Princess Celestia is gonna make an appearance at this year’s Summer Sun Celebration.”

“Oh yeah, I think Rhyme mentioned something about that.”

B.B.’s focus was trained intensely on her empty water glass. “I think it sounds like a lot of fun, don’t you?”

“Um… I guess so.”

Blackberry Jam once again started playing with her mane, ending their brief exchange with a hush. Reason was beginning to sense her incredible unease, but had no idea what to say. Their waiter’s arrival was all-too welcome.

After paying, the two returned to their table for their bags. Instead of grabbing her own and saying her goodbyes, however, Blackberry Jam sat down once again. Reason very nearly left, but then the salespony spoke at last.

“So, are you going with anyone?”

Reason sat back down across from her. “Going where?”

“To the Summer Sun Celebration. Are you, like, bringing your sister, or… you know, anypony?”

“No. Rhyme has to work. Even if she didn’t, I don’t think I’ll be able to make enough money before then to bring her down to Ponyville. It’s kind of a shame; she seemed excited.”

“Right. But there’s not, like, anypony in particular you have in mind to go with?”

Reason’s attention was starting to re-assign itself to his dream-apartment across the street. With a shake of his head, he said, “Well, I don’t know anyone in Ponyville.”

Blackberry appeared to be struggling with a certain question, perhaps one that a casual observer might be able to anticipate. A more perceptive eye would note that sweat had accumulated on the mare’s forehead, that her front hooves were shaking, and that she could not form words. An x-ray of the young filly’s stomach might confirm that butterflies were present, likely the culprits of her incredibly light headed, queasy disposition.

In short, the scene laid out on the café patio might as well have been a scripted romantic-comedy cliché written word-for-word by some hack playwright; the signs were present, palpable, and obvious to all… except to the gray stallion seated across from her.

Unfortunately, fate can be a cruel, cruel mistress: Blackberry Jam never got to ask Reason to go to the Summer Sun Celebration.

You see, he asked first.

“Hey, do you have to work that day, Miss Jam? We could go to the celebration together, if you want.”

The reaction Reason received was a joyous, enthusiastic, indisputable “yes”.

Perhaps, Reason thought to himself, a bit TOO enthusiastic.

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The day ended uneventfully. Reason acquired his new apartment, where he would clean out the attic and inevitably discover his peaceful rooftop, the place where he would sleep his very first night in Ponyville.

But not before writing back to his beloved sister.

Dear Rhyme,

Ponyville isn’t as bad as I thought. I’ve already made a new friend; her name is Blackberry Jam. She works on a berry farm (surprise, surprise) with her Mom and Dad, and sells their crop in the market. But she’s not a berry farmer herself; her cutie mark is a musical note with a blackberry as the note head. Her special talent is music. Isn’t that cool? I thought you might like that.
Anyway, I asked her to go to the Summer Sun Celebration with me, since I don’t know anypony else. She was excited. Like, REALLY excited.

I guess I’m excited too, and maybe I’m missing something… but what’s the big deal?

I mean, we’re just going as friends. It’s not like I asked her out on a date or anything. Anyway, tell Mom and Dad I said hello.

Love,

Reason

Chapter One: END

Special thanks goes out to UnparalleledGenius and Leah Thompson for making sure that I crossed my t's and dotted my i's.

Comments

[Glare]

I need to see more of this.
NOW.

[shooting star hunter]

Oblivious Reason is oblivious. I like your writing style, not too forced and you, in a most straightforward manner, avoided AJ, which I found hilarious. Will be following

[FearlessXIII]

I'm glad you like it! If you happen to notice anything I missed in editing, please let me know! Feedback is always appreciated!

[EpicGuy]

The description was captivating, and the story was not much different. Not too many details, and the letters are amusing. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next chapter, Fearless. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Bonbon_grin.png

[ThreeZeus]

Love it so far. You're writing style is just fun to read in general.

[Sringer0]

He is not a wandering unicorn vagabond living in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic Equestria (that would be silly).
Silly indeed.

[Astiam300]

Dat description...

[FearlessXIII]

Thank you all for the wonderful comments!

[statoose]

He is not a wandering unicorn vagabond living in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic Equestria (that would be silly).
Touche.

I like your writing style, and am looking forward to reading more. :D

[TheGentleTreasure]

992814 Indeed. I very much agree with the afore said statement.