Card woke up and started up his daily morning routine. He got himself out of bed, fixed himself some cereal, made himself some klava, and then went out to take a short walk while he enjoyed his drink. However, upon exiting his house Card noticed an ominous fog of black smoke was coming down from the mountains, and covering up the sky. When he saw this, he took a sip of his drink, smacked his lips a few times, and then tore off straight-
“Fuck that, I’m on vacation.”
Back into his house? What are you doing?
“Huh? What was that? Oh hey N, how’s it going?” Card said as he turned around, looking in all directions. He seemed to be talking to himself.
“Oh come on man, don’t be like that. I’m the only one here. Well okay, Ike’s here but I mean, come on, it’s Ike. He can’t exactly tell anyone.”
How can you even hear me? You’re not that far along yet.
“You know how flimsy the walls are here, Jackie could probably catch a whisper and she’s the most orderly pony I know. Now then, how’s Maria?”
She’s fine, now tell me why you’re not going after that smoke!
“Because I’m on vacation. Besides, if I’m right, then it’s out of my jurisdiction anyways.”
What do you mean?
“Look, what kind of smoke is that?”
You know I can’t tell you that.
“Look N, just do it to confirm, just this once. Please? For me?”
Hhhhhhhhhhhnn fine. It’s Dragon smoke.
“Yeah that’s what I thought. That makes this a diplomatic matter, which puts it firmly outside my jurisdiction. Besides, if it was anything serious the old fogy would’ve sent Silver or Shade by now.”
Yeah, but still. Twilight and her friends are going up there, don’t you want to protect them?
“Twinkly’s a big girl, and so are her friends. Look if you want to pester me, then at least make yourself useful. Help me decide how much of a raise to give her. The two weeks have passed and she’s done some fabulous work!”
Really? Like what?
“Like the fact that her control over her magic is so fine, probably from all the delicate illusions she uses, that she can keep track of, and fill out, TEN pieces of paper at once. It’s amazing to watch, she doesn’t even use pens.”
What do you mean?
“She just takes ten little ink balls and rolls them around the paper, using her magic to lift them up every so often.”
Isn’t that horribly inconvenient though?
“Yeah, but she still does all ten sheets faster than I could do one! When I asked her about it, she said that it was something she used to do to improve her control, and she just got so used to it, and it looked so impressive, that she just uses it now as her standard form of writing.”
She seems pretty on the ball. You’re paying her 20 bits a day, 5 days a week right now right?
“Yeah, I was thinking of raising it to 25. What do you think?”
Nah, with how good you say she’s done you should show her more appreciation. Make it 27.
“Yeah, I can work with that.”
Sweet. How’s Trixie doing anyways?
“Actually a lot better than I thought.”
Really? How?
“Well she’s getting on fantastically with Twinkly. When they start talking about magic, It gets so incomprehensible that I just ignore them.”
It can’t be that bad.
“Let me put it this way. It’s the type of talk that Tron would have whenever he gets excited.”
Oh god!
“Yeah, you understand now don’t you.”
Yeesh. But they get along then? Even without you making her read those silly books of yours.
“They are not silly! But yeah, they’re practically best friends by now. I’m almost jealous. Anyways, enough of this conversation, where’s Aoc? I like her, she’s quirky.”
She’s off enjoying the spring break. That’s why we can’t just drop this conversation, we have no one to do the transition.
“Glad to see you value my company so much. Anyway, next time you see her tell her I said hi. I’ve got to go get ready for Pie’s first appointment.”
That’s today?!
“No, it’s tomorrow. But I’ve got a lot to prepare for it, so if you don’t mind...”
Okay, fine. I’ll have to be there for the session, you understand?
“I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.”
Great! In that case, see you tomorrow.
“I’d say see ya, but considering how far away from here we’ll be, I shouldn’t.
Right. Bye.
“Bye,” And with that Card went all the way back into his house, and fell asleep. Lazy bastard.
“I heard that!”