Amethyst Star walked down a dirt road that was built in the sands of the desert and led straight to the so called City of Opportunity. She was close enough that she could actually see it now, though mostly just the walls made of yellow sandstone, and it was an impressive sight. If the walls were any indication it covered a huge area in this arable part of the desert. The green river she had been following widened by quite a bit and flowed past one end of the city’s walls. Up ahead she could see a large amount of buildings built on both sides of it when it reached the city. Latch was certainly right that this was a much more hospitable part of the desert, plenty of green bushes and plants along with tall palm trees stood everywhere and the land had a healthy dark quality to it.
She was hardly interested in the land, however. It was the city itself that called to her. The sandstone walls were made from huge interconnected blocks, each one taller and wider than Amethyst Star, and they stood thirty feet high with a jagged square parapet topping them off. It didn’t seem like there were any sorts of towers or guards up on them, they were probably built more for appearances than for actual defense. Or to keep wind and sand out when the weather was bad around here. In the middle of the huge wall that blocked off the city on this side there was a single opening that Amethyst Star was walking towards, the dirt road she was on went right to it. A series of palm trees was planted that flanked the road as it got closer to the gateway into the city while the road itself steadily got wider and wider. Enough that four or five carriages could go side by side and right through the entrance at the same time.
At this point she had seem a number of cities and towns out here and had heard of quite a few more. But this city put all the rest to shame. It screamed of a real civilization to her, like it could be the center of a kingdom or country all of its own. The City of Opportunity already looked like the kind of place a Princess would live in… although considering a Princess lived in Ponyville maybe that was a moot point.
“I can’t wait to see inside,” Amethyst Star said as she walked down the road, getting closer to the part where the welcoming palm trees started.
She could already see some of the tallest buildings that stood in the city and if they were any indication there were all kinds of different architectural styles in the city. One of the taller buildings looked like the kind of office you would see in Manehattan while another was a classy tower closer to Canterlot design. Saying you could find anything and everything here may well have been true. Speaking of that…
There was a large archway over the entrance to the city with the words “ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING” chiseled into it.
“Well they’re clearly pretty proud of their city,” Amethyst Star pondered as she read the archway. It was just barely visible to her from this distance but the words were large enough to make out. Another thing she could tell was she was pretty certain there weren’t any guards or any sort of gate or checkpoint at all at the city’s entrance. It looked like anyone could just walk in. Well that was fine for her. It’s not like that was abnormal or anything, especially when it came to Equestria, but having walls like this and a clear reputation to uphold made her think they’d be a little more invested in who and how many came into the city.
Still that just made things a lot easier for her right now. Amethyst Star was smiling gratefully by the time she made it to the entrance, excited to just be able to go in and see what kind of adventure this city had in store for her. The unicorn from Ponyville passed under the arch and took a few steps inside, standing in the middle of the dirt road and just looking around so she could take in everything.
The road first opened up into a large circular area that had multiple paths branching off it in every direction. If you kept going straight it looked like the road went right into some kind of central bazaar. An absolute maze of shops, stalls, and tents covered the ground in front of her with vendors selling all sorts of things. Some were selling food, others jewelry, and most of all she saw a ton of places selling clothes. But it wasn’t just that it was the variety in buildings she saw too. So many around the bazaar were clay buildings with lime and plaster finishes, painted in all kinds of colors, but she could see more contemporary buildings further down the road, not to mention the huge buildings she could also see. The other branches of the read each went somewhere that looked completely different and probably had their own unique things to offer in this city. One of them went in the direction of the river while the one exactly opposite that trailed off into a bunch of stone, castle-like, buildings.
“Well I’ve had enough of things like markets and ponies trying to sell me stuff. I can find that in Ponyville,” Amethyst Star frowned and tried to think of where she should go. Giving up on that, since there were too many choices, she spun around in a circle with her eyes closed for a moment and chose to go down whichever path she ended up facing.
Opening up her eyes she saw the tall office building rising into the sky directly in front of her.
“Works for me,” she shrugged and began walking down the dirt road that went in the same general direction as the office building. “That thing sticks out like a sore hoof here even with everything else in the city.”
As she walked it occurred to her that there was something else special about this city compared to all others she had seen in the west and even most in Equestria too. The creatures. It wasn’t just ponies living here, Amethyst Star saw minotaurs, griffons, goats, donkeys, and many more. She even caught sight of thin creatures that looked like ponies but had skin the appearance and consistency of tree bark. Even walking around Twilight’s school wouldn’t have shown her so many different creatures. And they were all going about their own business, either shopping, selling, or working in some other way.
“Anything and everything...” She muttered.
The dirt road shortly changed to a paved asphalt under her hooves, she wondered if that was how all of them ended up or if it was just particular to this area. The buildings as well started to get more uniform and modern the closer she got to the large building. Cement and metal structures became more common and there were narrow alleyways Amethyst Star could peak into that held all manner of clustered together stores. The ponies and other creatures in this area also seemed to be quite business-oriented, she saw many of them wearing suits and holding briefcases while there were far less people selling things out of carts and stalls on the side of the road. Most everything was being done in an official place of business.
“Hey, an aquarium! Sea Swirl would love that,” Amethyst Star said as she trotted on by the aquarium she had seen. Its big glass windows showed off tanks full of all kinds of little fish. “Wine store, Berry Punch would be in there for ages... place selling model airships… greengrocer with a bunch of strawberries… wow, there’s something all of my friends would enjoy here.”
And if that was the case there must be what she wanted to find here as well.
The paved road naturally split a few times and didn’t always go directly towards the office building but Amethyst Star did a good job of not straying too far from her path. And if she got “lost” then so what? There was probably an adventure around every corner here even if she got sidetracked and her destination was never solid to begin with. She still kept her eyes on the towering office building though, it was at least really useful as a point of reference and no matter where she was in the city she’d have been able to see it.
Amethyst Star eventually made her way to a large flight of stairs that numerous other ponies and creatures were using. Was the ground the city was built on not fully even? Maybe there were multiple levels to it. It was somewhat tiring for her to climb up the stairs but when she made it to the top it was well worth it.
The unicorn now found herself on a large and open plaza that covered a fair portion of this part of the city. It was busy with others but only had a few buildings dotting it, most of it just kept as open space or several grassy areas for ease of movement and relaxation. She could see stairs and ramps leading down from it in other directions, making her think this was the center for a lot of traffic in this portion of the city. In some of the grassy areas there were benches, maple trees, and a large one that even had a fountain, along with statues and paintings for a bit of art.
But the most important thing of all was the office building standing in the top-right corner of the plaza. It looked like its first floor and main entrance came out right here. Maybe the whole plaza had been built for the office.
“Alright, let’s go!” Amethyst Star cheerfully trotted through the plaza to the office. There were a lot of other ponies and creatures going to and from it at the same time, the doors at its bottom were perpetually kept open by the steady stream of visitors and leavers. “I wonder what that building is even supposed to be for?” When she got to the entrance she tried tilting her head back to see up to the top of the building, wondering how many stories it might be. But unless she wanted to step back and count every level of windows that would be a fruitless endeavor.
When she stepped inside she immediately noticed how futuristic and high-tech the building looked compared to things in Ponyville and Canterlot. The floor was some kind of synthetic tile and the structure was largely glass and metal. The first floor was dominated by two large pillars sitting next to each other in the center of the building’s foundation, both central pillars had a number of elevators built into them and that was where most of the people entering the building were heading to line up at or where most of the ones exiting were coming from. Straight ahead Amethyst Star also saw a door along the back wall marked “stairs” in case she didn’t want to wait for an elevator. In-between the two pillars and directly facing Amethyst Star was a large board that looked like a directory of what was in the office building.
It wasn’t all business though, to her right the ground floor was taken up by a large cafe and to her left was… an information desk? That’d be helpful.
Amethyst Star ignored the food and the rest of the lobby for now, walking over to the information desk instead. Unlike the busy elevators there was nobody else around the desk, everybody besides Amethyst Star here must already know exactly where they’re going and what they’re doing. She walked right up to the counter and stared at the single mare sitting behind it it, who hadn’t noticed her. The receptionist was a young unicorn with wavy blonde hair tied behind her head and a face full of freckles. Obviously she didn’t expect anyone to come speak to her since she was in the middle of reading a magazine and chewing bubblegum while reclining in her chair.
“Excuse me,” Amethyst Star said after a minute had gone by and the receptionist still hadn’t noticed her standing there.
The bubble she was blowing popped and the mare jumped in surprise, tossing her magazine behind her chair and sitting up straight. “I wasn’t slacking off!” She then paused as she noticed Amethyst Star staring at her with an apprehensive look on her face. “Oh, hello. How can I help you?” The mare forced a plastic smile onto her face.
“Uh, right. Can you tell me what this place is?” It was the simplest question Amethyst Star could think to ask.
“Not from around here? This is the administration building,” the receptionist answered.
The out of town unicorn shook her head. “No, I just walked into the city today. And administration of what?”
“Everything,” she shrugged. “Financing, development, real estate, records, legal matters, everything for the whole city. We even house a number of businesses on some levels.”
“Oh so this is like city hall or something?” It was an apt comparison for a small town pony.
“In a manner of speaking, yes, I suppose that’s accurate.”
Amethyst Star smiled. “Guess it’s good I came right here then.”
“Probably,” the receptionist agreed. “Why did you come to this city in the first place? If there’s something you’re looking for then this building is definitely the place to find where it’s at here.”
“Uhh… kind of just looking for adventure?” Amethyst Star rubbed the back of her neck as she said that, knowing it just sounded kind of silly.
“Adventure?”
“Adventure.”
“Well we do say you can find anything here but I’m not sure if it’ll be the kind of adventure you want? We don’t fight any wars or have trouble with monsters or anything like that,” she told her.
Amethyst Star frowned, she was kind of hoping that there was something like that here. “Well is there a way for me to see a lot of the city and do all kinds of things here? I don’t mean touristy stuff either, I mean, anything that involves quests or awesome jobs or something like that? If there is adventure I’d like something that gives me the opportunity to find it.”
The receptionist thought for a second, tapping her chin with her hoof. “There’s an internship agency in this building that sets people up with jobs. I’m sure they can find something for you to do that would satisfy your wants. What they do is that whenever some other business, or really anybody who needs the help, has a job that needs to be done, they know to send their requests to the internship. The internship agency will then send whoever’s fitting or whoever they have around to fulfill the job. They literally get requests for anything you can think of, it sounds like the perfect thing for you to try if you want to go on some random quests or hope to suddenly get whisked onto an adventure. Er, needs to be said though that most of the job requests are gonna be for very normal and mundane things though.”
Amethyst Star mulled it over. On one hoof it sounded like her best bet unless she wanted to randomly stumble about the city. On the other if most of the jobs were just normal stuff then what was the point of that? It might still be nice to prove that she can do all sorts of things though. And this city was big and it’s not like she was on a timetable or anything, if she spent a few days at the internship what would be the harm? There was nothing keeping her from staying in the city for as long as she wanted.
“You know what? That sounds like a good idea to me,” Amethyst Star said. “So where is this internship? Are they just gonna hire me without a problem?”
“It’s not like they really hire anybody,” the receptionist explained. “They just have associates that they call on whenever a job comes in. So they’re always looking for anyone who wants to sign up, a lot of people get more permanent jobs and stop working with them.”
Amethyst Star clapped her hooves together “Even better! So where can I find them?”
The mare behind the desk smiled. “Sixth floor, Suite 620. You can take the elevators up to the sixth floor and there will be placards and other directions when you get off. Looks like it’s a bit of a long wait though.”
“Fine by me,” Amethyst Star dismissively waved her hoof. “Walking through a desert was tough. Standing around waiting for the elevator will be easy. Thanks for your help!”
However, she forgot she didn’t have any patience. All she could do was grumble in annoyance as it took well over an hour before she was able to get into an elevator and take it up to the sixth floor. It was only when the doors were just closing did she remember the existence of the stairs. She really hoped those stairs were employee or emergency only or something. Otherwise she’d be pretty mad. At least the elevator itself was fast, she was stuck on it with about a dozen others but her stop was one of the first, all she had to do was squeeze past a couple ponies and walk out onto the sixth floor.
“Ooh, nice carpet.”
She admired the blue diamond pattern of the carpet, it felt far more comfortable beneath her hooves than anything else she had walked over recently. Amethyst Star walked from the sideroom where the elevators were situated into the nearby hallway, there were only two directions to go so she looked for the sign that would show her if 620 was to her right or left. Just like the receptionist had said there was a board facing the elevator room tacked on the wall. An arrow on it pointing left showed “610-690” under it while an arrow pointing to the right showed “600-680”. Looks like she was heading right.
The close proximity of the suite to the elevators was another bonus for her, she only had to take a few steps before the door marked “620” was right in front of her. Golden letters were screwed onto the door that read: Guru’s Internship
“Guess I’ll just let myself in,” Amethyst Star grasped the door handle and pulled it open.
What greeted her was a smaller office than she had expected after hearing of the scope of their work. The suite looked no bigger than the inside of Ponyville’s town hall and it was on the interior of the building so there wasn’t even a window. What it did have was several overflowing desks and a wall that was covered from floor to ceiling in filing cabinets. Ponies sat behind all of the desks, either doing paperwork or filing something. At the back end of the office one desk that was slightly larger than the others also had an empty metal cage sitting on it with a glowing green crystal on top of it that had wires and suction cups stuck on it going back down the bars of the cage.
“Um, hello?” Amethyst Star said to the room.
A few of the ponies working glanced up at the sound of her voice but didn’t say or do anything themselves while the rest just ignored her completely. The only real response she got was from the pony at the big desk in the back.
He looked up at her and smiled through a scraggly brown beard. “Hello! You have a job request?”
“The opposite actually. I was hoping you could hire me,” she told him.
“Oh! Well come, sit down!” He gestured for her to come sit in front of his desk, getting up for a second and pulling a small chair for her out and sitting it in front of the desk. He was a fairly heavyset earth pony with beady, sunken, eyes and a pale orange complexion. Not someone who could be called handsome. “So you’d like to work with us?”
Amethyst Star nodded as she sat. “I heard that you get requests for all kinds of jobs.”
“We do indeed. All day every day. And we’re always looking for others who might like to help us out with our work. Especially if they’re a person with a particular skill-set. You never know when a job is going to come in that only one or two creatures in the entire city can do,” he chuckled. “Is there anything you do specifically? Or are you looking to expand your horizons, or maybe just get some work experience. We’d like to know before we actually give you a job.”
What did she do? Well, anything she wanted to. Right? If Applejack could run a farm and save the world then Amethyst Star could certainly do any kind of random job asked of her in a city like this.
“I-”
Before she could finish the green crystal on the metal cage lit up brighter and a beeping sound came from it. Amethyst Star watched as a scroll poofed into existence inside the cage and the crystal went back to glowing faintly like normal.
“Excuse me one moment,” the stallion said as he opened up a little door on the cage and pulled out the scroll, unfurling and reading it. “Ah, good.” He grinned and then shouted to the ponies working at the desks behind Amethyst Star. “New job order in Sector 12! Come here, Snakewood!”
One of the ponies perked up at having his name called and walked over to his boss’s desk, gingerly taking the scroll and going back to his place of work.
“Sorry about that, you were saying?” The boss said to Amethyst Star.
“It’s no problem. Either way, what I was saying is that I can do anything,” Amethyst Star stated with confidence, watching as the boss’s eyebrows rose slightly in question. “I can and will do any job. Doesn’t matter what sort of job it is or what it entails. I’ll do it. Where it is, if it was refused by someone else, whatever. My special skill-set is being special and capable of doing anything.” She pressed her hoof to her chest when she finished.
“That’s certainly impressive!” He guffawed. He seemed happy but the laughter made Amethyst Star wondered if he really believed her. “And we could certainly use someone who’s willing to take up any job, that’s useful in our business too.” He contemplated Amethyst Star for a second, then shrugged. “Eh, alright, welcome aboard Miss-?”
“Amethyst Star,” she answered, smiling proudly.
He reached over his desk in an offer to shake hooves. “Miss Amethyst Star. I’m sure we have a job for you right now even. Would you care to get started right away?”
She eagerly took his hoof and frantically shook it up and down while her smile widened even further. “Yes, I would!”
The Red Hornet walked onto the edge of the wide and flat desert before pausing. The heat of the sand and sun didn’t seem to bother her even with the dark clothes she was wearing but the new location still brought a frown to her face. The scarlet pony raised her front left hoof and rubbed it on her vest to knock the sand off before bringing it up to her impenetrable sunglasses and lowering them slightly. She glared out at the desert with her cold blue eyes, the colors of the mare making such a stark contrast with the barren sand in front of her as she tried to see anything of note out there. The wind was blowing slightly, kicking up tiny dust devils and causing the hot air to shimmer more the further away it was.
“She went this way, didn’t she?” The Red Hornet clicked her tongue as she readjusted her sunglasses and started walking to begin her journey through the arid desert. “Tch, I hate deserts.”