//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 (Going To Town) // Story: Moving Day // by Timothy48 //------------------------------// Chapter 24 “Sure is a nice day today,” commented Allen as he and Penny walked towards town. Flowering apple trees lined the dirt road, their sweet fragrance tickling the pair's noses as a gentle breeze played through the leaves. Allen had always loved spring, the renewal of nature as it woke from its winter slumber always cheered him up, and the warm rays of the sun were a blessed change from the cold clouds of winter. Penny hummed in agreement, a content smile on her face as she trotted along beside Allen, her saddlebags, bulging with papers, draped over her back. Glancing around at the tree-lined road, Allen asked, “So, what am I going to need to do when we get to the bank?” “Not much really,” replied Penny, her gaze fixed forward as they walked and talked, “I’ve got everything that they’ll need in terms of your identification, and residency proof. His Grace gave them to me last night before we came. When we are finished, remind me and I’ll give them to you,” she explained, “All you’ll need to do is sign a few papers and that should be it.” “Alright, and what happens after that?” asked Allen. Penny shrugged. “After that, I suppose it is up to you. I know I need to go to the town hall and speak with the mayor about some things, such as finding a house to buy and getting the company’s branch office set up. Perhaps you could wander around? See what all the town has to offer and meet some other ponies? I can’t imagine you’ve had many opportunities to look around since you got here.” Allen nodded in reply. “Yeah, I’ve been pretty isolated since I got here about what, one, two months ago? Jeez, has it already been that long?” Opening a flap on her saddlebags, Penny pulled out a sheaf of papers and looked through them in search of something, after a minute, she found it and said, “According to this, you arrived on March thirtieth, a Monday. Today is May the eighth a Friday, so if my numbers are right, you’ve been here for thirty-nine days, so a little over a month.” Allen came to a halt so suddenly, that Penny continued on for a few lengths before she realized that Allen wasn’t beside her. Stopping, she turned around and saw him staring off into the distance, an unreadable expression on his face. Concerned, she carefully approached him and gently asked, “Allen, are you alright?” When she didn’t get a response, she gently nudged his leg and asked again, “Allen, what’s wrong?” Blinking, he looked down at her and replied quietly, “Nearly a month and a half. I’ve been stuck here for almost a month and a half,” he shook his head. “Nobody knows what happened to me or the farm. They have no idea if I’m alive or dead.” Seeing him in distress, Penny quickly reared up and placed her hooves around him in a hug. Surprised at first by the sudden contact, Allen quickly returned the hug. No words were spoken for a time as Penny did her best to comfort Allen. Finally, after a bit, Allen withdrew front the hug and wiping a couple of tears away, said with a chuckle, “You guys sure are a huggy bunch.” Giving a soft smile in return, Penny replied playfully, “It’s just part of our culture, so you’d better get used to it.” Nodding as he finished drying his eyes, though if anyone ever called him out on it, he’d just say it was his allergies kicking in, he sniffed and started walking again. Penny once again fell in alongside, as the two of them continued onwards in companionable silence. However, that silence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of hooves slamming against wood nearby. Cocking his head to one side, Allen asked, “What’s that noise?” Swiveling an ear to hear the sound better, Penny replied, “Sounds like somepony is bucking trees over there.” “Bucking trees?” asked Allen, hoping that that was what she had really said and that he hadn’t misheard her. Penny nodded and explained as she swept a hoof around at the surrounding apple trees. “Yep, that’s how a lot of earth ponies harvest produce from their fruit trees, along with removing dead and dying tree branches. A powerful buck from an experienced worker is usually enough to dislodge either ripened fruit or dead and decaying branches from the trees without hurting them.” “Huh, does magic have anything to do with it? I can’t imagine that a singular kick would be enough to shake everything down in one go. Usually, back home it takes a special piece of equipment to vibrate the fruit loose for collection,” replied Allen as he stared out into the dense orchard, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever was working out there. Unfortunately, it seemed that they were too far away for him to see, so after a moment he gave up and returned his attention to Penny. Penny smiled and said, “Yep, earth ponies channel a lot of their magic through their hooves, hence why they make excellent farmers, miners, craftsponies, and generally anything that requires a lot of hoofwork. Pegasi and unicorns can do that stuff too, but not as well as an earth pony can.” Allen hummed in reply as Penny and him resumed walking, the sound of hooves hitting wood fading the further they traveled, leaving the two in the relative peace and quiet of a scenic country road. As they walked along, Allen thought back over the past month and a half and what a wild ride it had been so far. Getting sucked into another world certainly livens up one’s life. He thought to himself as the pair of them passed by the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. Nopony appeared to be out front, but Allen figured that his neighbors were probably puttering around somewhere on their farm doing chores. As the farm entrance fell further behind them, he thought back to his first day in Equestria. How he remembered that this was the spot where the Royal Guard had tried to ambush him and Reuben to take them into custody. He shook his head at the memory of it and its aftermath, how he’d been scared out of his mind. To this day he still couldn’t figure out how he’d managed to stay in the saddle, let alone keep control of his panicking horse. It hadn’t occurred to him until after Lyra and Twilight had offered to look after his farm, while he was recovering in the hospital, that Reuben might not be too keen on being around Equestrian ponies. However, from what Twilight and Lyra had said, that didn’t appear to be the case. In fact, Allen had been surprised to learn that Reuben hadn’t been scared of the unicorns at all, merely curious and somewhat cautious. He would have thought that his horse, having had a bad experience with the ponies, would have been more skittish around them. However, that had not happened, and though he’d been a bit nervous when they first used magic around him. He quickly got used to it after a few calming words and some time to adjust to random objects floating through the air by themselves. This was some welcome news for Allen, as he knew that with his limited fuel supplies, he would need to carefully ration it, and thus, his transportation options became restricted. As such, he had found himself with three viable long term options for getting around. These had been walking, riding a bike, or using Reuben to get around, either by riding or having him pull a wagon. Of the three options, walking was the least appealing choice to him. Sure, it was the easiest to use, after all, he had a pair of perfectly usable legs attached to him, so why not use them? The problem with that option was mainly the fact that his farm was located several miles outside of town. This meant that anytime he needed to go into town he could kiss at least a couple of hours of his day goodbye. Then there was the problem of carrying capacity. A person can only carry so much, after all, even if they were in top physical shape, which Allen currently was not in, and while he could rig up something like a handcart, he didn’t relish the idea of pulling one. Finally, he really didn’t look forward to the idea of trudging several miles to town in deep snow with freezing winds tearing around him either. That brought him to his second option, riding his bike. Obviously, it was better, he could travel farther faster and with less effort, but again the idea still had problems. The first being that, like walking, he was limited in what he could carry and pull with the bike, sure it could probably carry more if he rigged up some saddlebags and a little cart to pull behind him. However, he still ran into the problem of weather making his life difficult, as riding a bike through deep snow or mud would be even worse than walking through it. In addition, if something broke, he would need to be able to replace those parts, and while a bicycle was much simpler than a car, it still had things such as rubber tires, and brake pads and lines, that might not be available here in Equestria. So if something did break, he’d have to hope the ponies could find him suitable replacement parts if they were needed. Finally, there was the issue of fitness again, he knew that his body wasn’t in the proper shape to be riding long distances on a bike at the moment. Oh sure, he’d eventually get back into shape, but in the between period he’d be paying for it in spades, which would lower his overall productivity. That left him with his third option, his horse, Reuben. Riding Reuben would be faster than walking and biking, over short distances anyways. Plus Reuben didn’t require mechanical parts that might not exist in this world to function, just hay, water, and some love. Moreover, he wouldn’t be as limited by inclement weather such as a bike would be, though again, Allen would still be exposed to the elements. However, that was true of the other two options as well, and Reuben would have an easier time moving through deep snow, while Allen would not. Finally, Reuben could carry and pull more weight than Allen ever could by himself, which would make him invaluable in helping Allen around the farm. Even though he’s not trained to drive, I’m sure somebody around here could help me get Reuben trained properly. Of course, I could probably do it myself. I mean if ancient man could do it, then so can I. Nodding to himself, Allen felt that his third option would, overall, be his best bet going forward. Though, thought Allen, I’ll need to be cautious the first few times I bring Reuben into town. Sure he gets along well with Lyra and Twilight. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be comfortable around other ponies. I can only imagine what he’d do if a pegasus just dropped out of the sky and landed right in front of him with no warning. He let loose a tired sigh, So many things to think about, it’s making my head hurt. Noticing Allen’s pained look, Penny asked, “Are you okay?” Looking down at her, Allen gave her a weak smile and replied, “Just... thinking.” “About what?” she asked, her head tilted to one side in a questioning manner. “About how I’m going to get around without using my fuel needlessly. I keep thinking I’ve got a plan all figured out, and then I find I’ve just got more problems to sort out. It’s giving me a headache,” he replied tiredly. Penny nodded in sympathetic understanding. “I can sympathize completely. During my last year in university, I took a business class where we had to do a group project about starting our own business and growing it for the first five years.” Allen groaned. “I hated doing group projects. There was always that one guy who never seemed to do anything, and would never show up to meetings or get back with you. So you just ended up doing his stuff in addition to your own, and the worst part was that he’d get the same grade as you at the end of it. I hated those people.” Penny giggled and nodded. “Oh I know, but thankfully our group didn’t have any of those kinds of ponies.” “Must have been nice,” grumbled Allen. Penny waggled her head back and forth in a ‘kind of sort of’ motion. “It was, but that was mostly because the class was so hard in the first place that the only ponies in there were the ones who had the discipline to do their assigned parts, and do them well. As it was, my group barely got by with a B+. Everypony else either got a B- or lower, at least half the class didn’t pass or dropped out by the end of it. Professor Slate was very exacting in what he wanted to see. He would not accept, ‘I don’t know’, as an answer, and would take points off if you didn’t go into extreme detail about your plans, spreadsheets, and formulas for the exercise. In fact, I remember one of the things that he wanted was a detailed list of all our theoretical inventory, how much it would cost to source everything, how much we expected to sell in our first quarter, how we planned to market our products, and what our contingency plans were if we didn’t sell it all or sold out too soon, and so on.” “Wow,” whistled Allen, “he sounds like a real taskmaster.” “He could be, but he did it because he cared. He always told us that, ‘if you can succeed here, you can succeed in the real world, because you’ll know how to handle difficult problems and the stress that comes with them,’” she replied with a nod. “I guess that’s a good point,” replied Allen with a small nod, “but it still must have been rough.” Penny giggled. “That would be an understatement. I think I spent more time working on homework for that one class in a week than I did for my other four classes combined. So yes, I would say that it was quite, ‘rough’. However, I believe that in the end, it was worth it.” “How so?” asked Allen. “Well, I got to be here,” she replied simply, “if I hadn’t taken that class, I wouldn’t have been able to finish my degree, and I wouldn’t have been selected when I applied to work for His Grace. Thus, I wouldn’t be here working with you and starting up an exciting business venture. I mean, if you told me two years ago that I would not only be working for His Grace, Prince Blueblood but also with a being from another world on a joint business venture, I would have thought you were crazy. Yet here we are.” “Well,” said Allen with a nod, “when you put it like that, then yeah I guess you could say it was worth it. Even if this whole thing goes south, you’d have one hell of a story to tell by the end of it.” “That I would,” giggled Penny, “but I’d much rather walk away a success than with just an interesting story.” “Amen to that,” agreed Allen, as he turned his attention back to the road in front of them. Even though he’d only been to town a few times, he could tell they were getting closer, because up ahead he could see a small red schoolhouse coming into view. “Looks like school’s out for recess right now,” he remarked as they walked by the schoolyard that was currently full of laughing and playing foals. A mulberry colored earth pony, who Allen assumed was their teacher, could be seen carefully watching from the doorway of the schoolhouse to make sure the foals behaved themselves. Nodding, Penny replied, “Looks that way,” turning her attention back to Allen she asked, “I don’t think I asked, but do you have any siblings?” Allen nodded. “My younger sister Laura, she and my dad weren’t home when I was... taken, so they’re still back on my Earth. Not sure how things are going for them, but I doubt it’s been easy,” he finished, a melancholy look on his face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset,” said Penny when she saw his expression change. Allen shook his head and gave her a sad smile. “It’s alright, I know you didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just a topic that's still a bit... sore right now.” Unsure how to respond, Penny, bit her lower lip as she wracked her brain in an effort to keep the conversation going. Fortunately for her, the foals all seemed to have spotted Allen and her walking by at the same time and had come running over to the white picket fence in an effort to get a closer look at them. “Wow, it looks so weird,” said a little unicorn filly to one of her friends. “My daddy said that it can’t do magic and that it gets really sick really easily,” chimed in a pegasus colt. “Pfft, can’t do magic? That’s so lame,” commented a pink coated earth pony filly with a diamond tiara perched on her head, a nasty looking smirk on her face. Allen paused and regarded the group of gawking foals with a raised eyebrow. “Well, at least one thing is constant across the multiverse,” he grumbled. “What’s that?” asked Penny, confused. “That kids will be rude little shits,” replied Allen irritatedly, before turning and continuing on his way leaving the gaggle of foals behind. Penny, shocked at the venom in Allen’s voice, stood there for a moment, mouth agape before shaking her head and yelling, “Wait up!” and taking off after the retreating human. Meanwhile, the mulberry coated earth pony mare had quickly strode up behind the group of foals, and after clearing her throat to catch their attention, she gave them a stern look and said, “It seems as though I will need to amend today's schedule to include a brief lesson on civility, and to speak with some of your parents about your behaviors. As such, the rest of recess is canceled, everypony back inside, chop-chop!” she said as she stomped her hoof against the ground to hurry her students back inside over the sound of their disappointed groans and complaints. “Now, now,” she said, her stern look unwavering in the face of the puppy dog eyes the little foals were sending her way, “no complaining. You all should know better than to make fun of somepony because of their looks or their abilities. Though apparently, that lesson did not stick as well as I would have hoped. Therefore, we will obviously need to review it, which means that we’ll have to cut into recess time in order to fit it into our schedule. Diamond Tiara, Dinky Doo, Life Flight, I expect to see you three after class,” said Cheerilee as she fixed the three foals with a critical gaze. “What?! But why, Ms. Cheerilee?” they all whined as one, hurt looks on their faces. “Because you three were the ones to say those hurtful and insensitive things, and as such, I’m giving you three detention, starting today.” “But-” started Diamond Tiara, her cheeks puffed up in indignation at being punished. “No buts, Diamond Tiara,” cut in Ms. Cheerliee,” you three will stay for detention, and I will send you home with a note for your parents, do I make myself clear?” “Yes, Ms. Cheerilee,” they chorused, dejected looks on their faces as their heads hung low. Giving a satisfied nod, Cheerilee ushered them back inside and shut the door behind her, but not before glancing in the direction that Allen and Penny had gone. Sighing, she shook her head and thought, I’ll have to apologize to them when I see them next. Ugh, somedays I wonder if anything I actually teach these foals sticks or if it just goes in one ear and out the other. Giving her head a final shake, she turned and closed the door behind her, a determined look on her face to make sure that at least this lesson would actually stick this time. Allen meanwhile was stomping his way over the western stone bridge into Ponyville, an angry look on his face. The sudden sound of running hoofbeats on stone behind him caused him to look back over his shoulder to see Penny cantering up, a light sheen of sweat on her coat. Coming to a stop beside him, she took a moment to catch her breath and gently asked, “Allen, are you alright?” Taking a deep breath, Allen tried to will himself to relax, and after a couple of tense moments, felt some of the tension in his body flow out of it. “I’ll be fine, just kids being kids,” he said, though even he could tell that it was a lame response. Giving himself a shake, he turned to look at Penny and said, “Just reminded me of when I was young is all.” “I take it you weren’t very popular in school?” she hesitantly asked. Allen nodded, an unhappy look on his face. “Yeah, you could say that,” he said before continuing on, saying nothing more on the topic. Sensing that pushing him on the subject wouldn’t be the best idea, Penny instead elected to change the topic to something safer. “Alright,” she began, “if His Grace’s instructions are correct, then the bank should be near the market square. Which means that if this map of Ponyville is accurate,” she said as she looked over a folding map of the town that she had pulled from her bag, “then the bank should be just up ahead and to the left.” Giving a nod, Allen started forward once more, the buildings of Ponyville now surrounding Penny and him as they entered the town proper. The town itself consisted mostly of half timber-framed houses, and shops complete with golden-colored thatched roofs. Though, Allen could see a few buildings that were a lot more... colorful in appearance than the rest. Such as the giant gingerbread themed building sitting just across the square from him. “I think I just got diabetes,” deadpanned Allen as he stared at the bakery themed building. Looking up at the icing covered building, Penny said, “If I’m reading this map correctly, that building would be Sugar Cube Corner, which means the bank should be to our left near a fountain.” Tearing his eyes away from the house of diabetes, Allen looked in the direction that Penny was pointing. Sure enough, there was a statue of an earth pony mare rearing up on her two hind legs and smiling playfully, as if preparing to take off at a run and daring the onlooker to chase after her. Looking past the statue, Allen could see a large two-story building with a large sign out front that read Royal Bank of Equestria and had a stylized unicorn head in profile with a pair of olive branches framing it on either side and a small stack of gold coins below the head. “Found it,” said Allen, as he made his way along the edge of the market, his height giving him an advantage as he was able to more easily look over the various vendor’s stands, with Penny quickly falling in alongside him. As the two wound their way through the busy market square, Allen looked around. Up until now, he’d never actually come into Ponyville proper, as the hospital had been located just northwest of the railroad tracks, putting it firmly outside of town. Therefore, he’d been unable to really see what the town and its citizens had to offer, now, however, he was right in the thick of it. Everywhere he looked ponies were going about their day, shopping, chatting with friends, or just trotting from one place to another. So far nopony had really reacted to Allen’s appearance, and Allen was hoping to keep it that way. Lengthening his stride, he quickly crossed the distance between him and the front entrance of the bank. Coming to a stop out front, Allen gave the front entrance a quick look over. From the outside, it didn’t really seem all that different from the other nearby buildings, a half timber-framed building with off white stucco painted on the outside. The main difference between it and it’s neighbors seemed to be that its roof was made out of gray slate tiles instead of yellow thatch and that it had a pair of iron reinforced, solid oak, double doors, instead of the Dutch style half doors that the rest of the nearby buildings had. Walking up the short set of steps out front, Allen pushed his way through the double doors of the bank. Stepping inside, he was greeted by the sight of a rustic, yet tastefully furnished lobby. Electric lamps hung from wrought iron chandeliers that were firmly bolted into the dark oaken beams of the bank's vaulted lobby ceiling. Glancing up, he could see a large mural had been painted on the ceiling, and it seemed to depict the history of the town from its founding to today. Pulling his gaze away from above, Allen could see that the floor was constructed from the same dark oak that the rest of the building's frame had been built with. The electric lights from above, reflecting off its highly polished surface made it look like there were golden orbs of light floating just beneath the surface, tantalizing out of reach. Tearing his gaze away from the floor, Allen slowly strode forward towards an open teller's window, taking in the rest of the lobby as he did so. The lobby was split into three sections, and had a very welcoming feeling to it oddly enough as if the designer had wanted you to stay and enjoy yourself while you were here. The section to Allen’s left was separated by a low wall from the rest of the lobby and had a large fireplace that was surrounded by comfortable looking armchairs and couches, with a large rug tying the whole area together. Looking to his right, Allen could see that this section of the lobby seemed to be reserved for staff members to assist customers, as he could see several desks and chairs scattered around behind another low wall with a small swinging gate separating it from the main lobby. The final section was, of course, the central lobby area that he and Penny were currently standing in. It consisted of an open area that was empty of furniture save for several standing tables for ponies to fill out last-minute transaction slips for the bank tellers to process. Though, oddly enough, there seemed to be at least one table that was high enough for Allen to comfortably stand at without having to awkwardly hunch over, same with several of the teller windows, which seemed to indicate that there were people around who were of similar height to Allen. Though, looking back, I shouldn’t be surprised considering that every door I’ve walked through has been tall enough for me to go through without having to duck first. Thought Allen to himself as he came to a stop in front of an open teller’s window. A smiling unicorn mare greeted him from behind the polished brass bars of her window with a cheerful greeting, “Good afternoon! Welcome to the Royal Bank of Equestria, how may I help you?” “I uh, need to open an account,” replied Allen as he shuffled aside to allow Penny easier access to the teller’s window. The teller turned her attention from Allen to Penny and asked, “I take it you are with him?” Penny nodded as she reared up on her hind hooves and slid several papers through the gap between the counter and brass dividing bars. Grabbing the papers in her aura, the unicorn teller carefully looked them over. “Hmm, alright, let me go get the branch manager, she’s usually the one to take care of new business accounts.” Penny simply nodded and let herself fall back to all fours. Allen meanwhile contented himself with looking over the beautifully built teller's cage. He remembered seeing old photos from the early part of the twentieth century showing the inside of old banks and what they had looked like, and this teller’s cage could have been ripped right from one of those photos. The dark oak wood was polished to a high gloss and had nary a hint of dust anywhere, and was richly detailed with elaborate carvings, and scrollwork of everything from ponies playing and dancing, to blooming flowers and various animals. The marble counter and brass work were likewise well polished and the brass, in particular, seemed to shine like gold, giving one the impression that this was a well to do bank that you could have confidence in keeping your wealth safe. Which was probably the point in the first place. Looking down at Penny, Allen remarked, “This place sure is fancy looking.” “Hmm? What do you mean?” she asked, a curious look on her face. Waving an encompassing arm at the bank's interior, Allen replied, “I mean, look at this place, it looks like something I would have seen in an old photograph from the turn of the last century in my world. I’ve never seen a bank with this fancy of an interior before. The only real difference is that the floor is made of wood rather than marble.” “Well, that is because marble becomes very slippery when wet, and the designer felt that an oak wood floor would give the bank a more warm and welcoming look. As we at the Royal Bank of Equestria do our best to meet the expectations of our customers of being a welcoming and safe place to bank,” replied a friendly voice from the other side of the teller window. Turning to look, Allen was greeted by the sight of a smiling, dark cyan coated unicorn mare. “Hello, my name is Balance Sheet and I am the branch manager. I was told that you were planning on opening a business account with us.” “That is correct,” replied Penny as she reared up again so as to see who she was speaking with, “we need a business account for Mr. Ross’s farm to be set up, along with a personal account for him. In addition, I will also need to have a local account set up for myself, and have funds transferred from my Canterlot account to this one.” Balance Sheet nodded a pleasant smile on her face. Readjusting her silver-framed spectacles, as she jotted down several notes on the paperwork Penny had given the teller earlier. “How wonderful, well I believe that we can take care of that without issue right now. If you’ll just wait a moment, I’ll be right out.” Penny returned the manager’s smile with one of her own and gave a nod of thanks before she let herself fall back to all fours. A few moments later and Balance Sheet returned, this time on the lobby side of the teller window. She motioned for them to follow her as she passed by on her way to the office side of the lobby. Holding open the dividing gate with her emerald-colored aura, she said, “My desk is just over there, please make yourself comfortable.” Navigating between the low desks and assortment of chairs and large cushions, Allen and Penny were soon seated in front of Balance Sheet’s desk. Thankfully for Allen, it appeared that she had gotten someone to find him something to sit on that wouldn’t be too small for him. In this case, it was a large, semi-rigid cushion with armrests and a backrest, that let him sit low to the floor, with minimal leg crossing, so that he wouldn’t be towering over the ponies, while at the same time keeping him from being in too awkward a sitting position. Seating herself behind her desk on her own cushion, Balance Sheet placed the papers she had been given in front of her and turning her sea-green eyes from the papers to Allen and Penny said, “I must say, it is quite nice to be able to meet you in person, Mr. Ross.” “It is?” he asked, a confused expression on his face. Balance Sheet giggled and explained, “Oh don’t act so surprised Mr. Ross, Ponyville is a small town, and news tends to travel fairly quickly around here. It also doesn’t hurt that Mayor Mare made an announcement a couple of weeks ago regarding your appearance here, and what we could expect to change going forward. She even had a small broadsheet printed and distributed amongst the townsfolk about you. Just general stuff about you and your world as we currently know it, nothing personal I can assure you.” “I... see,” replied Allen hesitantly, unsure of how to respond. Seeing his discomfort, Balance gave Allen a comforting smile. “I can see you aren’t quite sure what to make of my little revelation, but as I said, most ponies in town already are aware of your presence, how you were brought here against your will by Discord, along with some basic information about you, such as your name, what species you are, and that you aren’t here to cause trouble. At least that is what Mayor Mare claims. I trust her judgment isn’t in error?” she finished, a questioning look in her eyes. Allen quickly shook his head. “Nope, her judgment is just fine, I’d rather not go borrowing any more trouble than what I’ve already got, thank you very much.” “Wonderful, chaos makers are always bad for business,” she replied happily, “so I’m glad to hear you’d rather avoid that sort of mess. Now, on to business,” she said, as she pulled out a quill and pot of ink from her desk drawer along with a small sheaf of forms. Floating a pair of clipboards with a pair of forms on each to Allen and Penny respectively, she continued, “We’ll go ahead and start with setting up your personal bank accounts and then finish up with your business account, Mr. Ross. Now, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me as we go along, alright?” Looking down at the first page, Allen quickly skimmed over its contents and could see that it was just asking for general background information about him, such as his date of birth, age, sex, personal identification numbers, address, what kind of accounts he wanted to open, and so on. Looking over at Penny, he asked, “Should I fill this out, or were you going to do that?” Penny, her own paperwork in hoof, replied, “Just fill out what you can and I’ll take care of whatever is left over.” Giving a nod of understanding, Allen set to work. After several quiet minutes, he’d filled out what he could and had passed it to Penny for her to finish. Taking his clipboard with a quiet, ‘thank you,’ Penny continued filling out her paperwork. This left Allen with little to do in the meantime, so he elected to look out the nearby window and watch the locals go about their day while he waited for Penny to finish up. Finally, with a final flourish of her quill, Penny slid both clipboards back to Balance Sheet for her to review. “Finished?” she asked as she took the clipboards in her magical grasp while at the same time tucking a bit of her forest green mane back into her mane bun, her golden colored highlights shimmering under the electric lights as she moved, making Allen almost think she had real gold woven into her mane for a moment. However, he quickly dismissed the idea, figuring it was just a trick of the light, and that her stylist was just really good at their job. So instead he asked, “Alright, now what?” Glancing over their paperwork, Balance hummed quietly to herself as she double-checked to make sure everything was in order. “Looks like everything here is correct, so I’ll just go ahead and have one of my associates get your vaults set up, and then we can begin the process of opening your business vault.” “How long will that take?” asked Allen as he watched Balance give his and Penny’s paperwork to a pegasus clerk who slipped the folders under her wing and quickly trotted away. “It shouldn’t take very long at all,” replied Balance as she pulled a few more sheafs of paper out of her desk drawer. Laying them in front of Allen she continued, “Since you are opening a personal account at the same time as your business account, we’ll be able to use most of the information you’ve already given us to open this new one. However, the government requires that we fill out a few additional forms for tax purposes. Moreover, business accounts have different fees attached to them than personal accounts do, as such, we need to be able to properly bill said account, hence this additional paperwork.” Allen blinked. “Wait, what ‘fees’? You’re charging me to keep my money?” Now it was Balance Sheet’s turn to blink in confusion. “Of course, how else would we be able to stay in business if we didn’t charge you for vault space? Do they do things differently in your world then?” “Uh, well, my credit union never charged me any fees for my savings account, so I just kind of assumed that would be the same across other banks as well,” replied Allen. Balance shook her head in response. “I’m afraid that is not the case Mr. Ross. Perhaps this ‘credit union’ could afford to not charge you a monthly fee, but we unfortunately do. In fact,” she continued as she pulled out a sheet of paper and passed it to Allen, “here is a list of our services and how much they cost. You can keep that for your records if you wish.” “I... see,” said Allen as he began reading down the list. “A simple savings account will run you a minimum of five bits per month starting out,” she explained, “with the fee increasing for every ten thousand bits worth of money you keep in your vault. Your business account will have a higher monthly fee, it being twenty bits per month, however, that fee won’t go up until you reach one-hundred thousand bits in your account, at which point it will increase by every fifty thousand bits.” “And how much will I be charged for every increase?” asked Allen as he read down the list of services the bank provided, along with their associated costs. Balance waggled a hoof back and forth. “It depends on the total amount of bits in your vault. The more you store, the more we will have to charge you due to the space and liability concerns of storing the bits locally in our vaults. However, if you expect to have large amounts of bits that need to be stored for long periods of time, might I suggest opening a Central Depository account? You’ll be charged a minimum fee of five hundred bits per month, and that fee won’t increase until you reach five hundred thousand bits in that account, after which it will increase per one hundred thousand bits stored. If you wish to store valuables, such as paintings, jewelry, antiques, etc. we can also store those as well for a fee based on the appraised value of the items being stored and their size.” “So why will the storage fees increase as my money increases?” asked Allen, a frown tugging at his lips. “It is primarily due to space and liability concerns. The more money and valuables we as a branch are asked to protect, the more space, security, and personnel we will need to keep it secure from theft. Thus, large accounts are going to be charged a higher fee due to having a larger amount of liability sitting in them. Does that make sense?” she explained. “I guess, but that kind of feels like you’re punishing people for saving their money,” replied Allen as he set the price list down on her desk. Balance nodded. “I can see how you would think that Mr. Ross, and to a degree you are correct. We are de-incentivizing ponies from hoarding too many bits in their accounts, as we want those bits circulating in the wider economy. Though, in truth, most ponies will never accumulate enough bits in their vaults for it to become a concern. However, in the few cases where a pony needs to save their bits up for a large purchase, such as a new home or business venture, they can make arrangements with the bank to either waive these fees or have the bits stored in a Central Depository account when their local account fees become too large to make it worthwhile to keep using as a primary storage location.” “So what is a ‘Central Depository account’ then?” “Every bank has a secure location where large amounts of bits and valuables can be stored that are more secure than a standard bank vault. The Royal Bank of Equestria’s is located under Mt. Canterhorn, and we pride ourselves on the fact that Their Highnesses government has allowed our bank to store the nation’s bit reserve there for over five hundred years. As such, it is the most heavily defended repository in the world,” replied Balance, a hint of pride coloring her expression and voice. “Okay, could you go into a bit more detail for me?” asked Allen. “In essence, it is just a larger and more secure location to store your money and assets. Bank vault space is limited at the local level, and many large businesses like to keep a large cash reserve in case they need it for a large purchase or to help get them through difficult times. As I mentioned earlier, storing large amounts of bits in your local bank branch can lead to large storage fees that, economically speaking, don’t make a lot of sense. Thus, if somepony needs to save up a large sum of bits, they can open a CD account and put their bits there until they need to withdraw them.” “Okay, so how does all this work then?” “What do you mean?” asked Balance. “I mean, what happens when I deposit money or a check with you guys, can I just withdraw the money immediately or cash the check on the spot?” asked Allen. “That depends,” replied Balance simply, “if you have the necessary funds in your individual account, then yes, a check can be cashed on the spot. However, if you do not, then you will have to wait until the money is transferred from the account of the pony that wrote you the check to yours. Though, if you need that money immediately, then the bank can give it to you from our own vault, however, there is a fee associated with doing that, and that fee will depend on the amount of money you are withdrawing at that time.” “But, why? Back home, so long as the bank had money in their drawers, they would cash a check on the spot for me with no issues,” pressed Allen, a hint of frustration in his voice at the thought of having to deal with the inconvenience of not having ready access to his money whenever he wanted. “Because our system does not work that way, Mr. Ross. Equestrian banking is based on trust that what you put in your vault stays in your vault, and that we as a banking institution, do not create money out of thin air and hope we have enough in our vault to deal with our customers' daily needs.” Seeing that he wasn’t getting it, Balance stood up from her desk and motioned for Allen and Penny to follow her. Levering himself up from his chair, Allen followed along behind. Turning to look over her shoulder, Balance said, “We do not normally do this, Mr. Ross, but I feel that you are used to a much different banking system than what we use and that the best way to clarify what I am telling you, is to simply show you the process. Please do not touch anything you see when we get behind the teller windows, alright?” “Uh, sure,” replied Allen, unsure of what was going on, but deciding to go along with Balance in the meantime. Giving a satisfied nod, Balance Sheet walked up to a nearby door and placed a small metal disk that was attached to a mane clip, and had been hidden in her mane, to a small brass circle next to the door. After a moment, a musical chime sounded and the door slowly opened. Motioning for Penny and him to enter, Allen stepped through and watched as Balance followed past them. Now that they were inside the teller’s cage, Allen could see that there were several rows of tables that were covered in papers and loose bits of money. At each table sat a pony with an open ledger in front of them, and they appeared to be in the process of counting and recording their results in their ledgers. Nodding in their direction, Balance said, “This is where it all starts and ends. When you bring bits or checks in to be deposited or cashed, they are recorded in two separate ways. The first way is when you pass them through the teller window here,” she said as she pointed to a spot on the counter underneath the cage window. Stepping closer, Allen could see a small quartz strip inlaid with what looked like metal runes of silver and gold. This quartz strip continued up the side of the teller window till it reached the bottom-most horizontal brass bar of the teller cage divider. Craning his neck so that he could see the underside of the bar, he noticed that the quartz strip continued along the underside of the bar forming a perfect circuit. “This,” explained Balance, “is the first part of the system. When money or checks are placed through here, magical runes read and count the amount coming through. That amount is recorded over here by this machine,” she said, pointing to a large mechanical typewriter with a large roll of paper affixed to the top of it and fed through a slot into the machine. “This device records the transaction on a piece of paper. It will include the name and account number of the pony who submitted the money or check, along with the amount submitted. In addition, it will record who the teller was that accepted the order and the date and time it was accepted along with whether the order was deposited, transferred or withdrawn, and so on. There will be two copies printed, one will be given to the customer for their records and the other will be kept by the branch for ours.” Stepping away from the printer, Balance motioned to the counting tables. “When the money or check is received, it, along with the printed receipt is brought here, where it is counted again and checked against the printed receipt, if it is found that there was an error, that error will be corrected before the money is moved to the vault. This is usually done before the customer leaves the bank. If there is no error, then the money is either moved to the vault that it is to be deposited in or if it is a check or money transfer order, it will be placed over here in one of these cubby boxes,” she said as she pointed to a wall of small boxes with brass number plates on them. “These boxes represent the individual accounts here at the bank, and when money is to be put in or taken out of an account, the corresponding receipt is placed in there with a color-coded tag attached to it, which will indicate what is to be done and when.” “Sounds really complex,” said Allen as he looked the cubby boxes over. Balance Sheet nodded. “It can be, especially at the bigger branches. That is why we have a master ledger that we can keep track of everything in. I can’t show it to you, as it contains sensitive financial information, but every transaction that passes through the teller window is magically recorded in it and we use that to compare with the individual teller, and counting table ledgers to make sure there were no mistakes made or fraud committed.” “Alright,” said Allen as he turned his attention back to Balance, “so let’s say I give you guys a check, what happens?” “Well, the first thing is that it is recorded by the teller, who prints out a receipt for you, then it moves to the counting tables for verification. Once there, the counters will record in their individual ledger the amount of money the check is good for and what they are to do with the check. If it is a simple transfer from one account to another, then they will mark it as so and will place it in the appropriate cubby box. At the end of the day, if the bits are being transferred from one local account to another, then the staff will simply move the bits from one vault to another and record the move as appropriate.” “What if the person who wrote the check doesn’t have an account at this bank?” asked Allen. “Then one of several things could happen. If the check writer is from another city, such as Canterlot, then we would send the Canterlot branch an inquiry via telegraph,” she pointed to another section of the teller cage where what looked like an old stock ticker machine from the early twentieth century sat. It had a roll of thin paper that was fed through the machine on one side and came out the other side with dots and dashes imprinted on it. However, it also had a couple of additional features, specifically a pair of glowing yellow gems seated in a pair of brass tubes with wire mesh doors on the left side of the machine, while on the right side sat an old fashioned, straight telegraph key for sending messages. Taking a closer look at it, Allen could see a pair of thin insulated wire lines running up the wall behind it, and terminating at a small open-faced box perched just above. Inside were two more gems, a red one on the left and a green one on the right, and as he watched, Allen swore he faintly saw the red one brighten and dim in time with the clicking of the telegraph machine as a message suddenly came in. “This telegraph is hooked up to a central node in Canterlot that allows us to wirelessly communicate with any bank branch in Equestria,” explained Balance as she calmly read the ticker tape that was currently printing out the one side of the machine. When it finished, she tore it off and passed it to a nearby employee who grabbed it and trotted away, presumably to carry out whatever the ticker tape’s instructions were. “This node isn’t controlled by anyone bank, but is funded by all of them and is overseen by the government. This prevents one bank from gaining an unfair market advantage over the other banks and allows for transparency between financial institutions. Now,” she continued, “if the check writer is a member from another one of our branches, then we will ask that branch if the customer has enough money in their account to cover the check.” “Wouldn’t you do that before you take the check from the customer and they leave?” asked Allen, a confused look on his face. “Ideally, yes,” replied Balance with a nod, “however, it can take several hours for the information to be exchanged, and nopony wants to wait around waiting to hear a reply. Therefore, any check that isn’t local is given a ‘pending’ status until we have determined if the money can be moved. If there are no problems, then the next step would be to send a money transfer request to that bank branch. The other branch would then acknowledge the request, remove the physical money from their customer's account, and then they would send it, along with other money orders for that day, to the Central Depository to be combined with other orders being sent to Ponyville specifically. Once the money has arrived in Ponyville, it will be counted and sorted into the various vaults by the date it was to be received. After which, the check’s status will be changed from pending to filled and the customer will be notified that the check cleared.” “So what happens if the other customer doesn’t have enough money?” “It depends. If the customer doesn’t have enough money at the time the request arrives, then their branch will contact them and inform them of the situation. If they can’t resolve the funding situation within five business days, then we will receive notification that the funds are not available and will notify our customer of the issue. In addition, we will cancel the transfer order and impose a bounced check fee on the check writer's account. Anything that happens after that is between those two individuals.” “So what if they are from another bank entirely?” “It’ll pretty much be the same process, except it might take a day or two to hear back from them, as those kinds of transactions tend to receive lower priority than ones between branches of the same bank. In addition, there may be a fee attached to the transfer which will be borne by the one who wrote the check.” “Alright, so let me see if I have this correct. If I give you a check for say, one hundred bits, and I want to deposit it. I have to wait until those one hundred physical bits arrive from someone else’s account before I can withdraw them?” Balance nodded with a happy smile. “That is correct, Mr. Ross! I know that this system might seem slow and inconvenient. But, it has worked well enough for us for hundreds of years. Plus you can be confident that if you need your money, you can get it when the time comes.” Looking around at the busy tellers and clerks, Allen let go a tired sigh and said, “Well, if this is the only game in town, then I suppose there isn’t much choice now is there?” Balance gave him a sympathetic look and replied, “I’m afraid not, Mr. Ross, technology constrains us in what we can do. Maybe in the future things will be different, but for now, this is the best that we can do. Now, are there any further questions that you had?” Allen nodded. “Yeah, what happens if I’m out of town and I run out of money? How would I get cash fast?” “An excellent question,” replied Balance, as she ushered Penny and Allen out of the teller cage, “there are several options to a traveling pony who has found themselves short on bits. The first option is that if you find yourself spending time in several locations regularly, such as say Ponyville and Canterlot. You can open a physical account in each city and have the branches maintain a set balance in each location. So as an example, let's say you live in Ponyville but commute to Canterlot for work, you can have a savings account open in the Canterlot branch where you tell them that you want them to keep a certain amount of bits available for you, just in case you need them. The branch will make sure that the vault amount does not fall below a certain level, and if it does, they will put in a request to have funds transferred from your Ponyville account to make up the difference. This way you will have ready access to your funds in both locations.” “Okay, so what happens if you travel to a city where you don’t have an account?” asked Allen as he sat back down in the cushioned chair in front of Balance Sheet’s desk. Settling herself behind her desk, Balance replied, “Then you have several options. If your bank has a local branch, you can go in and request that they give you money from the branch’s own vault. This will naturally come with a fee that is dependent on the amount of money being requested. If you agree to the fee, the branch will give you the bits after which they will send a transfer request to your local branch, who will then remove the requested amount from your account and send it to the requesting branch’s account along with the fee.” “So what happens if there isn’t a branch of your bank in that town or city?” “Then you can go to either a competitor's bank or a money lender. Both will operate the same way, you will be required to fill out a money request form and provide the necessary information to them so that they can contact your local bank branch to initiate a transfer request. Then once they have confirmed that you can afford the transfer, they will give you your requested money out of their vault and you can go. Naturally, there will be a high fee involved, as you are having to go outside of your bank, but if you’re out of money and options, then what can you do?” “How high can the fee be?” asked Allen. Balance shrugged. “I’ve seen it go as high as fifty percent of the requested amount. It really just depends on the location and who you ask. Moneylenders will charge you more than if you went to a bank, but if that is all that is available then well...” “That’s all you got,” finished Allen for her. Balance nodded, a humorless smile tugging at her lips. “Precisely, so it pays to keep an eye on your bit bag while you are elsewhere.” “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind if I leave town,” replied Allen. “Good, now,” she said as she looked over some additional paperwork, “was there anything else that you had a question on or are you ready to get your business account set up?” Allen shook his head. “No, I think that should be it for now. If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to let you know.” Smiling, Balance happily replied, “Wonderful! Now, if I can have you look this over, we can get started,” she said as she passed him a small stack of papers and they set to work. ~oOo~ Several hours later, Allen and Penny left the bank, their business concluded. Turning to Penny, Allen remarked, “Glad that’s over.” Penny giggled. “I admit, it can get pretty tedious at times, but it’s, unfortunately, necessary if you want to do business.” “Yeah,” replied Allen as he looked down at his newly minted members' identification disk. It was made out of brass and had a number stamped into it along with the Royal Bank of Equestria’s seal on one side, while on the other side were a complex pattern of runes and markings that glowed very faintly with what Allen assumed was some kind of magical spell. What confused him though was the hair clip that was attached to it. Showing it to Penny he asked, “Why does this have a hair clip on it?” Penny chuckled, and using a hoof pulled some of her mane aside, revealing a pair of mane clips firmly attached to the base of her mane near her left ear. “It’s so that we can clip them to our manes. The clip attachment has a spell on it that makes it so that it can’t easily fall off or be taken by someone if you don’t want them to. A lot of ponies carry things in their manes using these special mane clips. Even though you can’t really carry anything overly bulky or heavy like a large money bag with them, for something like this, they work pretty well.” “But what if you don’t have a long enough mane for it?” asked Allen curiously as he continued to turn it over and inspect it. “There are other ways. I’ve seen ponies wear them as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, clip them to their wings or wear them like a horn ring. Some just wear a vest or harness all the time and affix them there. It really just depends on the pony, but for most, wearing them in our manes works just fine.” Allen gave a nod of understanding. “I see, well for a people that don’t wear a lot of clothing with pockets, I guess that works just about as well as anything else. You say there’s a spell on it to make it harder for people to steal?” he asked as he put it away in his pocket. “Sure is. The standard charm is usually good enough for most ponies, but I know a few that go and have stronger ones put on.” “Huh, interesting,” he replied as he looked through a couple of the papers in a folder that Balance had given to him after they had finished setting up his accounts. “So if someone stole this disk from me, would they be able to take all my money out of my account?” Penny shook her head. “No, not really. Most banks and money lenders are very careful about withdrawing money out of a ponies account if the pony making the request isn’t the same as the one on their records. That’s not to say there aren’t unscrupulous ponies out there that won’t, but generally, it doesn’t happen, and if it does the bank will compensate you for the lost bits.” “So then why steal them in the first place?” “For a variety of reasons. Usually, it’s for the materials that the disk is made of, as there are several rare elements that are required to make them. Plus, rich ponies like to have theirs look fancy, and so they have them made from more precious materials than your standard identification disk. That tends to make them more of a target. Others might steal it from you and try to demand a ransom in exchange for its return, and of course, you might have a thief that thinks they can use it to rob your bank account. Whether they succeed or not is another matter, and in any case, those kinds of criminals tend to get caught pretty quickly.” “Interesting, back in my world, it's a lot easier for someone to steal your identity and make your life difficult,” replied Allen. “Well, I doubt you’ll have to worry about that here. A lot of our means of identification tend to revolve around our magical signatures, and faking that is nearly impossible. It also helps that most ponies tend to stay close to home and that means most people know each other fairly well so that if somepony did try and impersonate another, they would be found out eventually.” “Well, I guess that explains why they made me hold my hand to that weird crystal plate like that when they made this thing,” remarked Allen as he thought back to earlier. “Yep, that would be a magical signature scanner. They used that to imprint your magical signature to your account disk. It’s a new feature that they started doing a couple of years ago. From my understanding, it’s made it all but impossible for a pony to use a stolen disk that has that feature on it.” “Well, that’s good to know, hopefully, I won’t have any problems with it,” he replied. Cocking her head to one side, Penny asked, “And why would you have any trouble with it?” Allen shrugged. “I am still getting used to magic. My world doesn’t have a lot of magic in it. At least that’s what the medical ponies over at the hospital think. So I’m wondering if my magical signature will change over time. Right now I need to be careful as my thaumic pathways are still really weak.” “I don’t think you’ll have any issues. Once your magical signature develops, then it doesn’t change. Even if you’ve been in a low magical environment for a long time. So, as long as you have some magic coursing through you, your signature shouldn’t change. All that will happen is that it will just get easier to read as time goes on.” “Well that’s good to hear,” replied Allen as he and Penny stopped next to the fountain in front of the bank. Looking around, Allen asked, “Alright, so you’ve got your bank account set up, and I’ve got both of mine done, plus you’ve deposited the money that Prince Blueblood gave you for my personal account, along with that check for my business account, which should clear in the next couple of days. So, what’s next?” Turning to look at Allen, Penny replied, “Well, I’m heading to the town hall to get my living arrangements taken care of, as well as seeing about finding a place to set up my new office. In the meantime, why don’t you have a look around town? Maybe meet some new ponies or check out the shops? You did get some bits for yourself didn’t you?” Allen nodded as he pulled out his wallet, shaking it slightly causing the coins inside to jingle happily. Thankfully, the standard one-bit Equestrian coin was only slightly larger and thicker than a U.S. quarter, so he’d been able to withdraw a comfortable amount. Though he was going to look into seeing if they could give him some paper currency going forward in addition to the metal coins or perhaps find a coin bag to put them in, as his wallet could only hold about thirty coins, and that was if he really stuffed them in there. In this case, he’d only withdrawn twenty as he didn’t want to risk rupturing his wallet by overstuffing it. Carrying that around all the time isn’t going to be good for my back, Though Allen to himself, Maybe I should see if I can find my old bookbag and use that to carry that stuff around in, he mentally shrugged to himself, couldn’t hurt. Outwardly he replied, “Yeah, managed to fit about twenty in my wallet here, but I think I’m going to need to find something a bit bigger if I want to carry more coins with me.” Penny nodded in agreement at seeing the stuffed wallet. “Maybe you could go and look around while you’re in town and see if anypony is selling bit bags?” Looking around at the crowded market place, Allen slowly nodded. “Couldn’t hurt to have a quick look around while I’m here,” looking back at Penny he asked, “You gonna be able to find your way back to my place without me? I’m not planning on staying in town for much longer.” “I should be alright,” she replied, “shouldn’t take me more than a few hours, so I should be back before it gets dark out, and don’t worry about making me anything for dinner. I’ll get something to eat before I return tonight, as I don’t want you waiting for me in case things take longer than I expect,” she said with a smile. “Alright, suit yourself,” replied Allen, a small smile on his face, “see you later then.” “Take care,” she replied with a wave of her hoof before then turning and trotting off in the direction of the town hall, leaving Allen alone. Looking around, he took a deep breath and set off in search of a bigger wallet. Alright, let’s see what this town has to offer.