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// Model for me 
// Story: What day is it? 
// by Xiutik 
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“I’m going to take a little walk to take some pictures,” Pipp said, standing next to the door, “Anypony wanna come?”

Sunny looked up from the mess she was cleaning and gave her friend an apologetic smile, “Sorry, Pipp, but I think teaching Izzy how to make pizza is going to take a little while.”

Izzy nodded from behind the table she was kneading the dough in, “We’ll save you a slice, or two”

The pink Pegasus nodded, and then looked at her sister. Zipp had been chopping some vegetables to add to the pizza later.

“I kinda want to see how this unfolds?” Zipp said after her sister gave her an expecting glance, “It’s almost a science experiment. I even have a hypothesis in the making.”

Pipp sighed but nodded and opened the door, trying to look not disappointed. It’s not that she didn’t want to participate in her friends’ cooking experiments, but she’d been to Maretime Bay many times and she still had very few pictures to show. She wanted to capture the beauty of the seaside, and the town, and even take some selfies for good measure.

Despite her efforts, Sunny did notice her friend was slightly upset, and came up with a suggestion.

“Why don’t you ask Hitch to come with you?” Sunny suggested, “He must be at the station.”

Pipp rose an eyebrow as her hoof lingered over the doorknob.

“Isn’t he working?”

“I mean, yeah, but he’s the sheriff. He’s supposed to walk around to keep an eye on everypony.” The orange pony explained, just as Izzy accidentally set the tip of her tail on fire. Pipp laughed at her friend’s clumsiness and, after helping extinguish the fire, she set off towards the police station to find her other friend.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes of flight for her to reach the station. She recognized the building from the tour Sunny and Hitch had given her one of the first times she was there, but she’d never gone in. She landed gracefully in front of it and casually crossed the door. The station was rather small and simple compared to the intricately built royal guard stations back in Zephyr Heights. This was a small room with some desks arranged in the center, and a caged section in the back, which she assumed was some sort of makeshift prison.  

“Uh, can I help you?” a male voice asked, startling Pipp.

She looked around and found a red pony with blond hair standing next to the door she’d come in from. She recognized him as the pilot of the giant robot that had destroyed Sunny’s house a few months ago: Sprout Cloverleaf. She never once had a conversation with him, and the only thing she knew about him, besides him being the ex-dictator, was that he used to be Hitch’s childhood best friend.

“Oh, sorry,” she replied, trying her best not to sound nervous, “I was looking for Hitch”

Sprout sighed but didn’t give Pipp any extra reasons to be afraid. 

“He’s getting lunch, shouldn’t take him long.” Sprout explained before going back to his cleaning tasks, “You can sit on his chair and wait for him, if you want… uh…”

“Pipp. Petals. Pipp Petals” the Pegasus said, while walking towards what she believed was the desk Hitch used. “You are Sprout, right?”

Sprout nodded, “A pleasure, Pipp. Also, that one is my desk. Hitch’s is the other one.”

Pipp let out a little squeal in embarrassment, and, after a quick glance over Sprout’s desk, she walked towards the other one.

In that other desk, a curious object caught her attention. It was a calendar. A calendar with pictures of Hitch, to be specific. A blush crept up Pipp’s cheeks as she passed to the next page. Hitch as a firefighter. Then Hitch as a sailor. Hitch as a doctor, followed by Hitch as a superhero. The more months she passed, the harder it became to hold back her laughter. It was Hitch dressed as a scarecrow for the month of September that did it for her. It started as a giggle, but the longer she stared at the picture in question, the stronger her laughter became. She was laughing so hard, it startled Sprout, who looked at the laughing Pegasus with curiosity to then notice what she was laughing at. A mischievous smile appeared on his face as he helped Pipp up on her hooves again.

“I see you discovered Hitch’s modeling career.” Sprout said, thankful that his cutouts were now removed of the original pictures.

“What is that?” asked her between fits of laughter.

“It’s Sheriff Hitch’s calendar, of course.”

Pipp kept looking at the other pictures, but her amusement ended when she reached December. Sprout smiled at her as he went towards the archives, and after a short rummage, he took out a few other calendars. 

“Are you interested in some past years?” he asked, waving the bunch of calendars toward her.

She was extremely tempted to yank them off Sprout’s hooves and look at the pictures, but there was something that didn’t sit right with her about laughing at his friend.

“Sorry, it would be wrong,” she said, finally, and, although disappointed, Sprout understood and put the old calendars back in their respective places in the archives.

Instead, Pipp returned to the month of January and started tracing the picture with her hoof.

Sprout kept on cleaning, as Hitch finally arrived at the station. 

“Hey, Sprout, I brought you a sandwich and a smoothie… Pipp?”

Startled, the princess took the calendar and tucked it underneath her wing, while a prominent blush stained her cheeks. Sprout did his best to hide his knowing grin and just took the paper lunchbag from his friend’s hoof.

“Hitch! You’re here” Pipp said, slowly walking away from his desk as if she’d done something illegal, “I mean, of course you’re here, this is your job… And you… Work here.”

“This is painful to watch” Sprout muttered to himself, but he kept on watching as he slurped his smoothie. 

Hitch was about to say something when Pipp’s phone vibrated from underneath her wing, making the calendar fall off.

“Is that-“