Starlight Chronicles

by WanderingPhysicist

Co-op Campaign

Main Characters: Silver Spoon, Ruby Pinch
Cameos: Golden Grapes, Berry Punch, Carrot Top, Roseluck, Applejack, Inkie, Flitter, Starlight, Rumble, Raindrops
Original Start Date: July 4, 2013 (AMERICA!)

---

Diamond and Silver sit at a cafe having lunch together. Diamond has her tablet out, going over her business accounts. Silver lets out a bored sigh.

‘Something wrong?’ Diamond asks, not looking up.

‘I’m bored,’ the other mare mopes.

‘How can you be bored? You have more money than you know what to do with. Even more now that I’m brilliantly investing it for you. You’re back in Ponyville. Everypony is happy to see you. We get to hang out all the time. Life is perfect.’

‘I have nothing to do all day.’ She leans back and sips her tea. ‘I would love to find a job, but I haven’t seen anything that fits my skills.’ She sips her tea again. ‘My mother would love to have me at her law firm. I really don’t want to go back to her. I told her I wanted to make it on my own when I moved out. No more handouts. I even rejected her offers to send me money when I was in Trottingham... I cried myself to sleep several nights because it was so hard not taking her up on her offers.’

‘You can always work with me. I wouldn’t mind your assistance with some clients.’

Silver shakes her head. ‘You are the financial wizard. I was more of the managerial type. Too bad nothing around here needs managing...’

The friends sigh and sip their drinks. A pink unicorn with a magenta mane trots to the table.

‘Excuse me,’ the unicorn interrupts. ‘Did you say you were looking for a managerial position?’

The diners look at the new arrival.

‘Ruby Pinch, right?’ Silver asks.

‘Yep!’ the new mare nods. ‘You were always good at remembering things, Silver. And yes, I am offering you a job.’

‘What sort of job?’

‘Well, uh,’ Ruby rubs the back of her head. ‘See, the growers in the area have a sort of co-op. We run it, but we’re not really good at anything other than running our own farms. If you are willing to look over our work, that would be great.’

‘I’m... not the farming type,’ Silver replies.

Ruby waves her hooves. ‘No, no! You wouldn’t be doing the farming. You would be managing our fields and crops, negotiating with the weather patrol and our distributors, managing our contracts and that sort of thing. Things we’re not good at.’

‘I guess I can give it a look... See if there is anything I can do before I give a definite answer...’

‘Great!’ the unicorn cheers. She levitates the other mare out of her seat. ‘We’ll go see mom, and she’ll get everypony together, and you’ll have us running at peak efficiency in no time!’

‘Wait! I didn’t agree to anything yet!’

Silver struggles to free herself as Ruby carries her away. Diamond calmly sips her coffee and returns to work.

Silver sits in an office. She studies the ponies before her. Golden Grapes, Berry Punch, Carrot Top, Roseluck and Applejack sit or stand behind a desk. Ruby Pinch stands behind her friend.

‘So, do you understand our situation?’ Golden Grapes asks.

‘I believe I have an idea,’ Silver replies. ‘You need someone to coordinate the needs of all your farms to maximize your output. You are also looking for financial management and somepony to handle your relationships with the distributors.’

‘That’s ‘bout the size of it,’ Applejack replies. ‘We’re all good at managin’ our own farms, but we haven’ had much luck gettin’ beyond the basic cooperation phase o’ the organization. Shoot. Big Macintosh still does all mah farm’s finances.’

‘Lily does all of that for us,’ Roseluck adds. ‘We could really use the help with the weather teams so we get the best growing conditions for our flower fields.’

After each farmer talks about their woes, Silver takes a deep breath. She looks back at Ruby. ‘So what is your role in all of this?’

The unicorn blushes in embarrassment. ‘Um, I sorta tried doing the job you’re up for. I’m not really that good at it. I work on my mom’s farm as a horticulturalist, but we all take turns trying to get things in order.’

‘Would you be able to translate everything they are saying into a language I understand?’

Ruby thinks then nods.

Silver smiles, turns to the farmers and whistles loudly. ‘I have heard your proposals, and I don’t think I can do what you are asking me to do.’

The farmers start grumbling and arguing. Silver calmly raises a hoof to silence them.

‘What I can do is make a team that will be able to help us until I can handle it all on my own. If you can make a list of duties I would be required to perform, I will make a list of conditions and take them to my moth-, er, lawyer and have a fair contract drawn up that should benefit us both.’

The farmers look at each other and nod.

‘I think we can work with that,’ Golden Grapes agrees.

‘Excellent. My first condition: I would like to hire Ruby as my personal assistant to help me better understand the business.’ She looks around. ‘Is this going to be my office or do you have a dedicated space?’

‘We’ll have to find a place in town,’ Roseluck replies. ‘I’ll start asking around right away!’

The mare gallops away before Silver can react.

Silver rolls her eyes. ‘I was going to say that I wanted to get started on the weather team issue right away, and she might have been able to help...’ She turns to Ruby. ‘Can you start collecting data on what I need to get started?’

The unicorn nods and starts talking with the farmers. Silver lets out a content sigh and gets out her mobile to write some texts.

After a couple days, Silver Spoon is getting into the groove of her new job. With Ruby’s help, she is slowly learning what it takes to manage the co-op. She is also beginning to assemble a staff to help her optimize the co-op’s potential. She is currently meeting with a potential staff member.

‘You want to give me a job?’ Inkie asks. ‘But I already do work for each of the farmers.’

‘Yes, you do individual jobs on commission, mostly in Spring and Summer,’ Silver replies. ‘I would like to give you a full-time position with the whole organization. Unfortunately, the pay would be much lower than for your individual commissions, but it would be a steady paycheque and we will allow you to take commissions on the side.’

Inkie thinks. ‘I would just be doing the same research I do for them now? Only I would be paid year-round?’

‘I would also require your services as a science advisor for drawing up weather plans and the like.’

The older mare thinks some more. ‘It would be nice to work more. It gets pretty boring during the off-season... which will be starting soon.’

Silver slides a contract forward. ‘Excellent.’ She wipes her brow. ‘I want my first big project to be revamping the rain patterns over the farms to get the water flowing more efficiently.’

‘Hmm. That would be good for the growing rates of certain plants. What do you have so far?’

Silver looks past her guest. ‘Ruby,’ she calls. ‘Inkie is willing to help us.’

Ruby trots into the office, levitating a number of plans behind her.

A few days later, Silver and Ruby meet with Flitter in Silver’s office. The pegasus frowns as she looks at the plans.

‘We can do this easily, but our weather plans are given out by the head offices in Cloudsdale,’ Flitter huffs. ‘I’ll make a case for you, but it might be tough.’

‘Maybe I can make the pitch for the group,’ Silver offers.

‘That’s all well and good, but the offices are in Cloudsdale and you’re an earth pony.’

Drat.’ The earth pony sits back in her chair and thinks. A crafty smirk creeps across her face. ‘I think I might know a solution to our little conundrum.’
…

A bright blue flash appears in the middle of a Cloudsdale plaza. Starlight looks at his handiwork as Silver and Ruby get their bearings. Flitter floats above them.

‘This way,’ the pegasus directs.

The other mares follow Flitter towards a building.

‘Ah! Nopony’s going to marvel at my awesome magic skillz?’ Starlight whines.

‘You can take five,’ Silver calls back. ‘We’ll call you when we need a ride home.’

The stallion harrumphs and trots after the mares. Flitter leads the others through the weather factory to the weather patrol offices. Starlight breaks from the group to watch the weather being made. Flitter stops outside the office for the Ponyville Division.

‘Just gonna warn ya,’ the pegasus says. ‘The boss is a real tough one. You might not like what you see.’

Flitter knocks on the door.

‘Enter,’ a stallion replies.

‘Wait here,’ Silver tells Ruby.

Flitter leads her guest inside. Silver immediately stops and glares at the stallion behind the desk. Rumble looks up from his paperwork and smirks.

‘Well, didn’t expect to see you here,’ the stallion snorts. ‘What do you want, Silver?’

Silver takes a deep breath and puts on an air of confidence. ‘I have come as a representative of the Ponyville Farmer’s Co-op. We are requesting a change in the weather patterns over the farms in order to increase crop yields and quality. I have already talked the plan over with the captain of the weather patrol for the area, and she agrees that these changes are easy to perform.’ She sets a folder on Rumble’s desk. ‘I humbly request that you look over our plans. Thank you for considering our proposal, and I hope we can do business together.’

Rumble leans back and crosses his forelegs. His smirk grows. ‘Denied.’

‘You didn’t even look at our proposal.’

‘Why should I? You didn’t even hear my side of the story.’

‘You were forcing yourself on Scootaloo in the middle of prom. She was on a date with Diamond, and you were supposed to be with me.’

‘You never thought she was the one going after me?’

‘NEVER! She wouldn’t do something like that! You broke my heart when I caught you!’

‘You broke my jaw. I think we’re even.’

‘Obviously not, if your head is too far up your plot to even look at my proposal.’

Rumble glances at the folder. ‘You want this done? How about a counteroffer?’ He looks at Flitter. ‘Miss Flitter, please leave us.’

‘But...’

‘Leave!’

The pegasus frowns at her supervisor and exits the room.

‘You want me to approve this for you? Fine. But first you have to do something for me. Right here.’ He points under his desk.

‘Excuse me!’

‘You heard me. We end our last date the way it should have, and you get your little weather plan. Sounds like a good deal. In fact, that should be the deal every time you want something from this office.’

‘You’re disgusting.’

Silver turns to leave, but Rumble flies in front of her. He forces her back.

Oh, no. You’re not getting off that easy,’ the stallion growls. ‘All the crap I went though because of you. You are going to make it up to me. Right here. Right now. Just pretend I am your annoying, pink friend and do what you’re good for.’

‘Diamond is not...’

Rumble slaps Silver, knocking off her glasses. She picks up her glasses and glares at the stallion, a welt forming on her face.

Rumble raises his hoof again. ‘I said...’

‘I heard what you said.’

The stallion freezes. He turns around. A pale gold pegasus mare is glaring at him.

‘M-m-miss Raindrops?! What a ple-’

‘Can it, Rumble!’ Raindrops snaps. ‘I have gotten enough complaints about you harassing mares already. Now, I find you trying to force yourself on a friend and client. You are so out of here I doubt you will be able to find employment in this city ever again!’

‘Sorry, Miss...’

‘Get out! Now!’

The stallion screams and bolts from the office.

Raindrops takes a deep breath to calm herself. She smiles at Silver. ‘Sorry about that. I am Raindrops, head of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. How may I help you?’

Silver returns the smile and gets her proposal from the desk.

Back at Silver’s office. The young mare is celebrating with her clients. She has a bandage on her cheek.

‘Here’s to a successful negotiation!’ Silver toasts.

‘And many more to come!’ Berry Punch joins.

The ponies raise their glasses and drink some of Golden Grapes’ finest wine.

Author's Note:

Story Timeline: Silver Spoon starts managing the Ponyville Farmer’s Co-op. She hires Ruby Pinch and Inkie as her advisors.

Comments

[Djerid]

good chapter... a bit chaotic, which is to say a lot of events happened in a small-ish word area.

[WanderingPhysicist]

3060241

Wait until we get the Tea with The Doctor tribute in about a month.