//------------------------------//
// 36 - Pushing Papers 
// Story: Lost Muse 
// by David Silver 
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A severely dressed unicorn sat at the table, looking at Color through her razor-thin glasses. "Mister Splash, this is your first time working for the crown, is it not?"

"It is," he agreed, failing to resist adjusting his collar in his magic. "Is that a problem?"

"Certainly not. We were all first at some time." She floated out a paper from the many she had piled in front of her. "It does mean we need to enter you into the system. All employees of the crown must be registered." She set the paper down, then slid it with her magic towards Color. "Let us begin with this, since all others require it."

Drawing out a quill, Color got to work filling out the form. It asked for his name, tribe, cutie mark, and his address, where he paused... "I don't permanently live in Canterlot; just visiting. I'll be here for the duration of the, you know, project. Which address should I put down?"

"The permanent one." The financer nodded properly, perking an ear at him. "You can file a change of address form should that need to change, but temporary relocations do not require this."

He stuck out his tongue a little at the question of years of experience. "I've been making art for a long time, but not always professionally?"

She rolled a hoof. "You were experiencing your craft before you were paid bits for it. Include that time."

He nudged the paper aside, completed. Her magic flared around the paper and flipped it over, revealing more yet to be done. With a sigh and a little smile, he got to work. "How did you hear about the princess?" He raised a brow at the idea.

The financer clopped her hooves together once. "You're far from the first to be surprised. This form has not been updated in a very long time. Please complete it."

He wrote 'in school' obediently and put the paper to the side once more. "All done."

"Just the start." She drew a fresh paper from the stack. "Now we--"

"--Wait." He held up one hoof. "I thought we would be going over the pricing?"

"We will be." She placed the paper down in front of him. "As soon as you are properly registered for the purpose. There's no reason to skip steps when we may never arrive at the negotiations otherwise."

With a soft sigh, he redoubled his efforts to fill the papers, on both sides. He had imagined they would be debating the price, instead... Time passed sluggishly as he got one form done after the other, depleting about half of the stack that the financer had brought with her.

It was only at that point that she did not bring out another form. "Now then, congratulations. You have been chosen to accept an endeavor at the behest of Celestia, Princess of Equestria. Do you accept this charge?"

His ears went  up. "That's what we're here to discuss, the fee?"

She rolled a hoof. "I will take that as an affirmative." She made a note on a paper in front of her. "Do you have an outline of the fees and costs related to the project?" She smiled gently. "It's alright if you do not, I will assi--"

Her words cut off as Color Splash brought out his own smaller collection of papers and set them down gently. "Here you are."

She took hold of them and pulled them closer. "Hm..." She began reading dutifully, eyes darting left and right as she worked down each page rapidly. "Your non-negotiables seem not in need of negotiation... Your contractors are very affordable. Are they available?"

"I am suiting her, so I couldn't promise she'd be available at the same rate, but she would likely be flattered. I can give you, you know, her number, but not speak for her."

"Of course." She nodded lightly, flipping to the next page. Her eyes narrowed a little. She had arrived at the meat of the cost, the art itself. "I was given to believe that you were painting?" Color nodded. "On canvas?" He nodded again. "Just one?" He nodded a little less certainly. "Then why are you charging so much? I could have a sculptor out by the end of the day, carving out a statue from a block of stone for this amount."

He flinched at the sharp rebuke, but sat up, a little frown forming. "Princess Celestia doesn't want a statue."

"I didn't argue that she does, but this price. Why would you be worth more?"

He leaned forward a little. "She came to me because she knows I can do exactly what she wants. I will not only create the piece, but I will put the same emotions into it that caused it to be commissioned in the first place. This is what she wants."

"Oh, an emotional thing." She scribbled something busily. "That is like her. This exceeds the remainder of the quarterly art budget. That's quite inflexible when I am involved." She drew out another paper in her magic and a new number appeared on it. Still quite large, but more than half as small as the amount Color had arrived at with Libel and Day's assistance.

The temptation to accept it was powerful, but fleeting. "This isn't just art." He raised a hoof with a knowing smile. "This is a memorial."

She blinked, stunned. "What, memorial? That... changes things..." She set her offer down and began reviewing her paperwork. "I will confirm this with the princess." That was as close as she came to saying Color might be lying. "If this is a memorial... that changes things... Is the pony being memorialized also in the employ of the crown?"

"Military. Guard." He nodded softly. "Lifetime service and held in high regards by the princess."

"Military..." She made a few more notes and seemed to be connecting things with swishes of her pen. "Yes, if this comes out of that... The military can afford to contribute to art venerating one of their numbers." She made a smart and deep dot with a poke of her quill. "I will have to return, Mister Color Splash. I was not prepared to finalize a transaction involving the military budget. Let me confirm with the princess, get the proper paperwork, and return in one week's time. I trust that is acceptable?"

"Of course... But I will have to increase the amount, just a little, for the time I wait. I can't start any other projects while waiting for this one, since it will demand my immediate and complete attention."

"It's good to hear you're putting the princess first." She rose to her hooves, her various papers neatly stacking themselves and tucking themselves away in her magic. "She deserves it."

"She really does," easily agreed Color. "Thank you for coming."

"I will return." She started for the door, all the things tucked away in her pockets as if they had never been there. "I'll want to see this when you're done, if she'll allow me. So many bits, for one canvas." She departed with a shaking head, unable to comprehend how a painting could be worth so much to have made.

He followed her to close the gate properly after she was gone. With a soft sigh, he sank against the gate.

"How'd it go?" Day sat up from where he had become one with the lawn, emerging from the grass with a happy smile. "You don't look stressed out."

"Don't I?" Color smirked a bit at that. "I just barely pulled that through, I think... I just hope Celestia doesn't deny it's a memorial, even if the pony  being drawn is still alive right this second."

Day tilted his head. "Woah... Do ponies do that; make memorials for living ponies?"

"Sure." Color nodded properly. "Just called a living memorial, since the thing you're remembering is still there. Oof, I should have used that phrase..." He tapped at his chin with a hoof worriedly.

Day threw a hoof around Color's shoulders. "Don't even worry about it. Nothing to do but wait for the good news." He bonked his head against Color's. "Was that all you had to do today?"

"Huh? Well I guess so. I can't start something while waiting for that..." He tip-tapped his forehooves. "I mentioned I'd charge for that."

"Smart." Day sat down, then pointed off. "Hey, you ever look up at Canterlot and go 'Woah, that's pretty'?"

"Sure? What about it?"

Day pointed again. "Wanna go to the edge and look out over Equestria? I hear it's a sweet view, and you have some time."

Color felt a smile coming on. "I... would actually like that very much. If it isn't cloudy, I can imagine the view is breathtaking."

Just like that, the two of them went to see the natural splendor that could be seen from the edge of a mountain-based city.

By the time they came home, Color had a new sketch of the landscape he had seen. His home town was larger than it had any right to be in it, but he figured, as the artist, he had the right to make his town as big as he felt like, and nopony was going to deny him his rights.

Day smiled as he walked alongside Color. "I feel better. Seeing the old town really lifted my spirits."

Color twitched an ear. "You were sad?" He hadn't noticed any sadness in Day. He didn't even really know Day could be sad... "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Not noticing." He bumped sidelong into his friend. "Good friends should notice when their friends are sad."

"Nah."

"That is a popular answer out of you. Going to explain it?"

"Sure." Day nodded slowly. "If I don't say it, you may not know it. It's not fair to expect friends should be mind readers." He sat down and put his hooves on his head. "But if you do get that power, you'll tell me, right? I'd want to know if you start listening to my thoughts. I'll have to work extra hard to think of interesting things and not bore anypony to death."

Color snorted at the idea. "We're probably just as well without having that power." He glanced at the castle. "I bet they have a spell for it in there somewhere, but I don't really want it. Like you said, if you want to know how a pony feels, you ask. And if they don't want you to know, they can not answer, and that's just how it works."

"Yep." He bumped Color lightly. "So, gonna ask?"

"Huh? Oh! So what had you sad? I'm glad you're feeling better in any event."

"Just thinking about home and all the ponies I used to chill with." He put an arm over Color. "At least I have one with me."

Color smiled awkwardly. "That reminds me... uh... we're both kinda chasing mares... if we decide we want to be with them more permanently... what then?"

Day tilted his head. "If you and Libel get serious, that wouldn't change much."

Color blinked. "How?"

"I'd do what I always do, and keep pretending to not notice when you two do married pony stuff."

Color began to blush deeply. "What?!"

"It's perfectly natural." He waved it away. "If me and Bottom hitch up, then she'll either invite me to live with her, and that'll put me close enough. Or! We keep doing it as we have been."

Color frowned at that. "That seems unlikely. She won't be happy having a husband that doesn't live with her. That isn't how ponies generally work. You have to be with her." He gestured out into the city as they passed through the gates towards Libel's house. "But you are right, you'd still be pretty close if you  moved in with her. We'd see each other, just not every day anymore."

"Promise." Day moved around in front of Color. "Even if we're buried in foals, we'll make time to be two bros."

"Promise." He offered a hoof and it was met with a loud clop.