//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Greeting 
// Story: The Elements of Randomness 
// by Razor Blade the Unicron 
//------------------------------//

"Amy, I want more of jat tasty rice!" said Twirly, bouncing up and down on Amethyst's back, which felt like a light tap.
"When we go to the celebration," chastised Amethyst. "Besides, we have more to check."
"Fiiiine. Where are we going next?"
"To the Weather Office. I just want to make sure that somepony is clearing the clouds at the right time."
"Boooooring!"
Amethyst chose to ignore that last comment and continued walking through the busier-than-usual streets of Ponyville. A sparkle of light caught her attention, and she turned to look at it, which ended up causing her to bump into somepony. She was a gray-blue Earth pony with a lighter-colored mane and light-brown hooves, and Amethyst noticed that she had caused her to drop a bag, which appeared to be filled with rocks).
"Oh, sorry!" said Amethyst. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Oh yeah?" asked the Earth pony angrily. "Well, be more careful next time, you-" She cut off abruptly and put a hoof to her forehead. She took a few deep breaths, before bringing her hoof down; she still maintained a slight scowl. "Sorry," she said roughly. "Anger issues."
"Uh, no, it's fine..." Using her magic, she picked up the bag that the Earth pony had dropped and gave it to her. "Here, you dropped this."
"Thanks." She grabbed the bag and held it tightly.
"By the way, what do you have in there? It looks like-"
"A bag of rocks," snapped the Earth pony, sounding rather touchy about it. "And no, I did not just randomly grab these from somewhere to make a bit or two, these rocks are fresh from my family's farm."
"Oh, you work on a rock farm? That's really interesting!"
The Earth pony looked at Amethyst in surprise for a brief moment, before reverting back to her scowl (which seemed to be more of her version of a smile). "You actually know what a rock farm is?"
"Of course! You grow rocks and minerals by turning them, and over time they get larger!"
"That's right. I'm surprised, most ponies don't know what a rock farm is."
Amethyst shrugged. "I read a lot."
The Earth pony nodded. "Anyways, I've got to get my stand set up. It was nice to talk with you. By the way, what's your name?"
"Amethyst Star, but some ponies call me Sparkler."
"Nice to meet you Sparkler. I'm Limestone."
"Nice to meet you, too."
Limestone continued walking towards wherever her stand was going to be. She still seemed to be pretty grumpy, but Amethyst could tell that she wasn't scowling as much as she had been earlier.
"Did I miss something?" asked Twirly. "I took a quick nap."
Amethyst rolled her eyes, and continued walking until she reached the Weather Office. It was a small building similar to most other ones in Ponyville, with the noticeable difference being a cloud above the door. She walked inside to see Flitter at the front desk drinking a cup of hot chocolate.
"Good morning, Flitter," said Amethyst, walking up to the lilac pegasus with her ever-present pink bow in her pale-blue mane.
"Hey, Amy!" said Flitter, slightly slurring her words per usual, placing down her mug. "You here to check on the weather? It's no problem, I'm the one doing it later."
"Dash too busy trying to get into the Wonderbolts, again?" asked Amethyst dully.
Flitter sighed. "Yep. We could get everything done so much quicker if she wasn't..." She paused, and then smiled. "Well, except for the paperwork."
Amethyst giggled a bit at that. "So, you're all set?"
"Yep! I'm going to start in about half an hour. Maybe if I have enough caffeine, I'll go as fast as Dash!"
Amethyst laughed, and then headed out the door. "Bye, Flitter! See you at the celebration!" she called.
"As long as I haven't gone into a sugar crash!" called back Flitter.
Amethyst laughed once more as she headed back out into the sunlight. She had only made it a few metres from the Weather Office when she heard someone call her name.
"Oh, Amethyst!" came a far-too-familiar voice. "You haven't come to check on my decorations yet!"
Amethyst sighed, and turned around to face a smiling unicorn. "I've been checking on other things, Rarity."
"But you must come and see what I have done!" said Rarity. "After all, you have such an eye for detail!"
Amethyst didn't exactly dislike Rarity, but neither did she like the prissy unicorn. As a clothing designer and maker, Rarity needed to have an eye for detail. That, and her use of gems she could find (it was her special talent, after all). One time, Amethyst came over to get a dress for Twirly just so she could have something nice, Rarity had continually insisted on adding gems to the outfit. She had even offered to add them for free. But Amethyst knew that the gems would be far too heavy for a breezie to constantly be dealing with, and denied the use of gems.
Turns out that Rarity really didn't like that.
And once Rarity found out about Amethyst's talent, she would just bring her gem after gem and ask her to appraise them. At first Amethyst had been willing to help her out, but Rarity was constantly trying to bring her whole boxes filled with gems to appraise, which was extremely annoying. Not to mention that she would constantly bring up Amethyst's eye for detail.
"I'll check on the decorations after I make sure everything has arrived for the Wonderbolt's show," said Amethyst, trying her best not to glare at Rarity.
"Well, alright then!" said Rarity with a smile. "But if it turns out the decorations are wrong and I don't have enough time to change them, it certainly won't be my fault!" She turned and walked away. "Ta-ta!"
Amethyst glared at Rarity's retreating figure, and finally stopped using her magic to hold Twirly's mouth shut. It was odd how no one ever seemed to notice her do that from time to time.
"Come on, I really wasn't going to say anything this time!" said Twirly.
"You were trying to yell at her the whole time!" said Amethyst. "Now let's go check on the Wonderbolts. We'd better hurry so Rarity doesn't try anything, though..."
And Amethyst hurried off towards the open field where the Wonderbolts were practicing.