“So… Will you two accept my terms?” Mayor Mare rested her forelegs on her desk while the two party planners thought about her proposal, Anon looked like he had already made up his mind judging by determined expression on his face. Anon had nothing to lose and everything to gain from this job so he was ready to work his hardest to impress Pinkie Pie and get paid in the process… it’s a win-win situation for them.
“Well?” Mayor Mare arched an eyebrow at Pinkie’s frozen expression which betrayed no emotion which is quite a contrast from the turmoil raging inside of the mare’s mind, Pinkie really didn’t want to accept the offer and would rather go cold pony on cupcakes then have to stay and work around Anon for what sounds like a few weeks at least. Pinkie chanced a look at Anon’s face and felt a spike of irritation from the determined expression on his face, she could almost hear what he was thinking “With this I can completely overshadow Pinkie Pie and become the new premium party planner hahah!” well not on Pinkie’s watch you aren’t then slowly an idea came to Pinkie’s equally pink brain, she could accept the proposal and do so much better than Anon that everypony will see the truth about him. A smile finally grew across Pinkie’s muzzle almost at the exact same time as Anon’s and in an excited tone both loudly proclaimed.
“Deal!” Mayor Mare jumped slightly at the overzealous acceptance but smiled nonetheless at there enthusiasm then slid forward a contract detailing their side of the job and their inevitable payment upon completion. The two wasted no time in signing though it took Anon a bit longer due to the quills being so small but afterwards the two were dismissed along with a comment from Mayor Mare about notifying her if any problems arise or if they have any questions. Outside the Town Hall the two beings had just left the building and turned to look at each other for a brief moment and stayed like that for a minute, Anon’s nerves started back up now that the excitement of the offer was over and was struggling to keep himself under control so he settled on just looking into her adorable baby blue eyes. Pinkie Pie on the other hand was going through some doubts on her decision to try and showup Anon as she’s known to not have the best patience when it comes to things that she feels strongly about. The staredown lasted for a moment longer until the sound of grunting and struggling was heard nearby which caused the two of them to look around them in confusion until they noticed some of the other ponies nearby staring at something down the road behind Anon, turning around Anon saw a tired and bedraggled Spike pushing a large wooden crate that was half the size of Anon down the road while grumbling something not so nice under his breath. Concerned and a little bit amused Anon hurried over to the poor dragon and stopped him from pushing any further.
“Spike… please explain why you are pushing a griffin sized crate… alone?” Spike just continued to breath heavily and raised a shaking claw up in the one moment gesture before struggling to say.
“I’ll … huff… tell… puff… you… later” The small dragon seemed ready to pass out from exertion and in a moment of pity Anon turned to Pinkie and nodded goodbye before picking Spike up and setting him on top of the crate then reaching down and slowly raising the crate and started his way to Twilight’s home the library, Anon had built up a fair bit of muscle since coming to Equestria due to all the random monster attacks and evil villains so he at least gained something from it that didn’t involve friendship. After a good bit of walking Spike had finally recovered enough to have a full conversation with Anon though he was still covered in sweat and dust much to his displeasure.
“Thanks for the assist dude, I owe you one” Anon laughed at his thanks and replied jokingly.
“That makes ten you owe me, remember the time when you accidentally burned Rares favorite measuring tape and I had to distract her while you replaced it?” Spike was rendered breathless again by his laughing but was quick to respond this time.
“How about the time you got yourself stuck to Applejack’s tail with glue huh? Come to think of it… how did that happen?” Anon would have face palmed hard at the memory if he wouldn’t have dropped the box and Spike along with it so instead went with an amused sigh
“Jax had need some help scrapbooking some photos from the most recent reunion with her family and since i’m the only being she knows with hands she invited me over to help and while we were gluing them in some of the photos had glitter on them and a lot had spilled onto her tail, I told her and she just said to brush it off for her and where it went to do so… I couldn’t let go… you don’t know how many misunderstandings happened that day” Spike was rolling around on top of the crate laughing his tail off at the memory which made it a bit harder for Anon to walk straight but he didn’t mind it all that much. The walk to Twilight’s library didn’t take long for Anon to reach but he was still just as winded from carrying such a huge crate to far and talking the whole time as well, with a bit of difficulty Anon was able to set down the crate without crushing any of his fingers outside next to the front entrance to Golden Oaks where Twilight spend a good 60% of her time reading or experimenting and the other 40% hanging out with her friends which included all the random adventures they have. Anon was still a bit sore from the walk but still went to knock on the door anyway to get Twilight’s attention which didn’t take long as the sound of her voice came from inside.
“Coming!” The door opened to reveal a slightly ragged looking Twilight Sparkle, her mane was sticking up in a few places and her eyes had bags under them which slightly concerned both Anon and Spike considering what happened the last time she look like this.
“Oh there you are with my package Spike! And hello to you too Anon, please bring it around back” and with that Twilight stepped outside and closed the door behind her then without any further prompting walked past the two bipeds and walked around to the back of her home leaving Anon and Spike just staring after her. Anon and Spike glanced at each other before Spike shrugged then climbed off the crate and went to follow leaving Anon to pick the crate back up and trail behind slowly.
“Dang Twi, what did you order… a bunch of rocks?” Anon placed down the crate once he reached the back of the building and looked up to see what looks like a large circle with many different elaborate symbols inside and around it, just looking at it gave Anon that prickly feeling he got when he came in contact with magic… like pop rocks against his skin. Without a word Twilight lit up her horn and covered the top of the crate in her magic then popped it right off exposing its contents to the three.
“Wait a second, It is rocks!” Anon was slightly annoyed that she sent her small young assistant to go push around a huge crate of rocks all day but before Anon could state his feelings Twilight spoke first.
“They’re not rocks, they’re waystones and I needed them to complete… this” A quick flash of her horn and all the waystones levitated out of the crate and around the circle leaving six diamond shaped rocks floating in the air unmoving in Twilight’s telekinetic grip. Twilight let go of the stones leaving them to float on their own then took a deep breath and scrunched her eyes shut in concentration, the prickling feeling Anon was feeling went from pop rocks all the way up to needles jabbing at him which would have caused him to flinch if he wasn’t distracted from the bright flare of lavender magic springing from Twilight’s horn and flying to the first waystone saturating it with her magic which clung to it like purple napalm. The mare wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead then got back into position.
“Now for the others” Five quick flashes of magic came from her horn and covered the remaining five in the impossible flame before all six flashed a quick azure blue and the fire was absorbed inside leaving behind blue arcane symbols that seemed to hum with energy, the six waystones started to spin slowly around the circle painted on the ground while slowly giving off a blue aura some of which was channeled into the circle which made it turn a similar hue of blue as the symbols on the stones. Anon was astounded by the light show happening before him and when it stopped he was stunned and slightly glad he didn’t have epilepsy because he would be in trouble with all of the flashing colors.
“Done, and with that it’s finally finish” Twilight had many droplets of sweat around her horn and seemed to sag even more from exhaustion while her horn gave off a thin line of smoke until Spike lick his fingers and reached up and put it out which snapped Anon out of his stupor.
“What is it?” Twilight slowly turned her head towards Anon and spoke in a slow tired tone.
“It’s a self reliant magic transfer node which can send you anywhere with a corresponding waystone with just a thought and with no magic drain from the user” as tired as she was Twilight seemed to puff up in pride of her creation until Anon spoke again.
“So it’s a teleporter for those with no magic” Twilight nodded wearily at Anon and responded “More or less” before suddenly tipping over and almost slamming her head against the empty crate before Anon caught her.
“So… sorry… I haven’t slept in… a while” And with that she was asleep in Anon’s arms leaving a very concerned Spike and a confused Anon to carry her inside and get her to the bed, Anon was not expecting this when he went to help Spike and was looking forward to telling both Spike and Twilight about the good news so he’ll just have to settle with Spike.
“So… guess what the Mayor wanted?” Spike perked up from his side of the couch and set down the book about gem types he was reading to listen.
“Uh… she needed something planned?” Spike said that like it’s the most obvious thing in the world which made Anon wilt a bit at how he made it sound but shook it off and kept talking.
“Not just anything, she need my help to plan the next tax summit with the other towns in the area!” Spike just stared at Anon while his voice grew an octave from excitement and waited for the rest of the news then felt confused when he stopped talking.
“That’s it?” Anon realized Spike didn’t get it and kept explaining.
“This job is as huge as the pay is and if that wasn’t enough Mayor Mare wanted to make the summit a bit more fun and wanted me to work with… you know who” Spike’s eyes widened when he saw the meaning behind Anon’s excitement and suddenly felt just as pumped as he did.
“So your telling me that not only are you getting paid what sounds like a whole bunch of bits for this job but you also get to work and stay around the mare of your dreams? You are the luckiest guy I have ever met!” Spike was floored by the opportunity that had just fallen into Anon’s lap that it until that dark place in his mind brought up probably the biggest problem with Anon’s situation which is Pinkie’s opinion of Anon. It was no secret that Pinkie hated Anon with a sugar filled ferocity that none could top and showed it openly whenever someone brought up Anon, but whenever Anon was around Pinkie seemed to hide away all of her disdain and put up a neutral face so he doesn’t see which relieves anypony in the vicinity as just like Pinkie Anon doesn’t like to hide his emotions and wears them on his sleeve except when Pinkie is around which its assumed he hides due to embarrassment of plain shyness.
“I’m gonna talk to her tomorrow to get started and hope I don’t screw it up somehow and actually get some work done” Anon continued on completely oblivious of Spike’s face slowly changing from a look of excitement to a look of worry.
“Now that I think of it I should probably go prepare for tomorrow, I gotta send some letters to my usual caterers and pre-reserve a few locations so we have a few options to choose from and that could take a while so I might head out now” Spike was brought out of his thought by Anon standing and went to walk him out while forcing a grin on his face.
“I wish you luck Anon and try to get some sleep okay?” Anon nodded to Spike on his way out the front door and went on his way back to his house while Spike watched him walk off into the distance and the moment he was out of sight Spike turned and sprinted in the opposite direction towards Carousel Boutique. As it was quite far Spike was huffing a bit when he reached the front door and knocked a bit frantically while trying to catch his breath.
“Rarity! Rari-!” Much to Spike surprise the one to open the door wasn’t Rarity but her younger sister Sweetie Belle who was looking at the young dragon with concern.
“Spike! What’s wrong?” Sweetie Belle let him inside the store/house and waited for his to catch his breath.
“Where’s Rarity we got a code Pink!” Sweetie’s face went uncharacteristically serious when Spike spoke and turned to hurry up the stairs leaving Spike standing in the entryway, after about a minute Spike heard a loud gasp then the sound of hooves hitting the floor above him. Rarity jumped down the stairs with Sweetie Belle on her back and sped past Spike and out the door while yelling to him.
“Go gather the others darling! I’ll meet you at the usual place!” With a salute Spike ran off to go get everyone.