//------------------------------//
// 2 
// Story: Steps on a Twisting Path 
// by guldringr 
//------------------------------//

An alarm went off in a dark room, the curtains were drawn to keep the sunlight that would normally help the rooms resident to wake up out, and as such the alarm continued blaring until a dog joined in to the cacophony, and that is when Twisted woke up.

The mare stretched out slowly, finally turning off the alarm and giving a tired smile to her pet. "Shush Reggie, mommy's getting up."

Her morning routine was fairly monotonous, brushing teeth making something quick for breakfast and getting into uniform, and finally saying goodbye to a picture of her mother like she did every day.

As she walked up to the door and opened it she called. "Okay Reginald let's go."







Twisted walked along the path to the Chaos Garden and smiled at all the little creatures she saw scurrying around, before she knew it, Reginald had darted forward and by the time Twisted caught up he had already jumped on to Posey and was licking her face.

"Come on now, you get off of me." The Laughing earth pony said as she pushed the dog off. With a smile she turned towards Twisted. "How are you doing today Miss Paths?"

Twisted rolled her eyes, after almost a year of dropping off Reginald with Posey she still hadn't gotten the shy mare to call her by her first name. "I am doing fine today, thanks for asking!" After moments of somewhat awkward silence Twisted decided to say. "So…. How do you think Reginald is doing with his training?"

Posey immediately cheered up with a bright smile. "I think both of you are doing great! Won't be too much longer before you're as ready as you can be for adventuring." Noticing Twisted get a downcast expression at this, Posey asked. "Is everything doing okay?"

Twisted blinks and puts on an only slightly forced smile. "Oh, nothing, don't worry about it." She gives a last pet to Reginald. "Well I'm off, got to get to work and all that."







After dropping off Reginald with Posey Twisted made her way over to the ditzy delivery office, barely noticing that she was quite a bit late.

She soon realized it however when a rumbling voice sounded behind her. " You're late." Turning she saw the large form of Toppled Mountain standing directly behind her.

"I...I'm sorry sir! Won't happen again." Twisted babbles panicking, this was the third time in the last week she had slept in long enough to be late.
A sighing came from the stallion's throat. "Don't worry about it, I heard about your pops. Hope he gets better soon."

And with that her manager turned away, and Twisted couldn't help but feel a little ashamed.







The last delivery of the day Twisted had decided to deliver after hours, since she was meeting up with its recipient anyway. She did wonder why Surprise would be getting a letter from Canterlot and who R.Bell was, but she wasn't going to pry.

Walking into the cafe that she had agreed to meet Surprise at, she saw the energetic mare…. Going over business files? Sometimes Twisted forgot that she was the area manager of a well- respected company. Of course as soon as Twisted noticed her friend Surprise saw her as well. "Hey Twisty, over here!"

Twisted returned the smile and walked over pulling the letter out of her. "Hey Surprise, I have a letter for you."

"Oh" Surprise appeared quite surprised, but upon seeing the letter a look of joy crossed her face. Quickly taking the letter she started to open it before remembering that Twisted was still there. "I'll uh… read it later." And with that she stuck it straight into her mane.

Surprise turned back to Twisted and in a second was right in her face.
"So how are you doing? Ready for your grand adventure to start soon, it's been almost a year."

Twisted face became downcast. "Not very good, my dad was diagnosed with…... The same disease my mom had, they managed to catch it early so he has a good chance of surviving but the medical expenses are going to be pretty high. Going to be at least another few months before I can pay for it and have enough money left over."

Surprise looked at Twisted with sadness. " if you need a little help…"

Twisted was surprised and a little bit ashamed that she even considered it. "No, this is my issue and I have a plan for it, don't worry yourself for my sake."

Surprise smiled sweetly. "It would really be no trouble, me and Posey both have connections…."

Twisted blinked at this, raising an eyebrow. "Uh…. Surprise? We I have never hung out with Posey together, why would you say that?"

Surprise's eyes went completely blue for a moment  much too Twisted shock, and then after a moment Surprise suddenly got up from the table. "Sorry to go, I have a lot of managering things to do, want to meet up tomorrow?"

Before Twisted could reply Surprise was already gone, and Twisted had not seen her walk out the door.

Shaking her head Twisted decided to leave the weird mare to her oddness and it just pick up Reginald and went home, she needed a nap after today.