A day later…
“Twilight, how exactly did you get us into this mess?” Asking this a slightly tired and disheveled Tress slowly inhaled and then let out a long drawn out sigh. “I mean, the job was simple enough from the outset and I even thought it was cute. Now it’s just gotten ridiculous.”
“I know and I am really sorry about all this Tress. Still though, we haven’t failed the job. It just got a little out of hoof. Are you telling me you want to disappoint that little filly that gave us this job?” Twilight sighed at the thought of whether or not they should have taken the job, that cat probably would have returned home on its own.
“You call that a little out of hoof!?” Tress yelled pointing a hoof at the problem and why they were currently stuck in a bad situation.
They were both sitting on a high up ledge on a mountainside with a white cat; below the ledge was a large five headed hydra whose heads that could almost reach them. It sat there with every one of its heads staring at them and their predicament. The left most head roared then resumed staring at the two ponies and cat just out of reach.
“How did we even climb up here so fast?” Tress ran a hoof through her mane, while looking worriedly at the hydra with her ears back and a shiver going down her spine. “Can’t you do something about that thing?”
“When a pony is scared enough and or adrenaline is running through their bodies they can even outrun a full grown dragon. Whether they can even lose said dragon is the important question and a matter of stamina. In our situation...” Twilight should mention that they’d need something to distract the dragon once or twice to even fully lose one with good senses. If there was one thing every single pony in existence was good at, it was running from danger. Getting cornered like this was not as easy a situation to handle. “Yeah that’s a no. I can’t use magic to deter a hydra directly as they are immune to magic. Indirectly and I might just cause us to fall into its mouths with a rock slide, much less get crushed by boulders if we don’t immediately get crushed in its jaws.”
“So, we can do nothing at all?” Tress queried as the hydra continued to claw its legs at the wall below them trying to get high enough to get a head at them.
“From what I’ve read, a hydra will get bored of a prey it can’t capture in approximately three hours or a prey that can get far enough away that it couldn’t feasibly bother with. All we need to do is to wait until it leaves.” The entire ledge shuddered; looking over the side Twilight watched the creature slam its tail into the side of the rock wall below them.
“Yeah well, hopefully it doesn’t knock us and the cat down in the next two hours.” Despite the calm way she stated it, Tress was not okay with the situation they were in. She was a little irate that one of the first jobs they receive that had nothing to do with the mayor went this horribly south.
“I could always teleport behind it and lead it away from you while you go to Ponyville for help.” Well it was a suggestion that could work, if Twilight could get the hang of teleporting specific distances beyond twenty feet in the next few seconds.
“There is no way you are leaving me alone with this grouchy thing. All we needed to do was find the cat. After that we’d possibly take it back to the owner; I didn’t even think we’d need Fluttershy for a domesticated pet issue either.” Yesterday had been much nicer in Tress’s opinion; she wasn’t dirty, tired and or very close to death by way of giant jaw cracking her entire skeletal structure like a peanut. “We chase this cat a small distance outside of Ponyville and then wham, giant hydra out of nowhere. At least we led the thing away from Ponyville.”
“Meow...” The persnickety cat added its two cents before licking the back of its paw in a dainty manner.
“You said it sister.” Tress answered back amiably that this situation was quite stressful or at least she thought she was agreeing to that. She wasn’t Fluttershy, she didn’t speak gerbil.
“So, we have about two hours and something or so minutes before it will finally gets bored with us. Got any ideas on how to pass the time?” The way she was being glared at by both the pony and the cat, Twilight would have sworn that Tress was the owner of Opalescence. That is if Twilight didn’t already know that she wasn’t.
Yesterday had been interesting; Tress had learned that Zecora had knowledge of ideal ingredients for her shampoo’s, body washes and other products she could make and Zecora had offered her aid freely. It was brought to her attention because Fluttershy mentioned needing Tress to mix up another batch of her ‘bed of flowers’ shampoo when Zecora was being introduced to the shy mare. The following discussions had led to the possibility of completing Twilight’s long unsolved special formula.
Twilight had gotten an ad in the paper today and it did bring in a few interested ponies that they said they’d get back to later after taking care of the first pony who requested their help. That ponies name was Sweetie Belle; she was an adorable little unicorn with a nice voice. Apparently she may or may not have been directly responsible for her older sisters’ cat running away at the mention of cooking food. Opalescence ran away because Sweetie left the door open as she was getting her cooking ingredients together or that was her story at least.
Tress and Twilight both decided to take the job since it sounded simple and they weren’t willing to do anything too big or outrageous yet.
From the perspective of both ponies, they probably figured the filly unicorn that created the spaghetti monsters and Sweetie Belle were one in the same. The older sister had one very intelligent cat that knew better than to stick around when that filly cooked anything. Twilight wondered how the little filly could even horribly burn orange juice beyond recognition by just pouring it. Even Twilight wasn’t so bad that pouring a drink caused it to spontaneously combustion into a glass full of fried ash.
“We’ll wait it out.” Twilight said meekly after a moment.
Approximately some time three hours later and finally back in Ponyville.
Tress and Twilight stumbled into town looking a little worse for wear but still pleasantly alive with the cat in tow. They were surprised to receive a crowd of ponies as a warm welcome that were thanking them for luring the hydra away from Ponyville. When they had brought up the fact that they hadn’t exactly been tasked with doing what they did, the stallion from the quills and sofa decided to speak up.
“Hello I’m Mr. Davenport the owner of Quills and Sofas. Aren’t you the Trouble Takers from the ad? Then what were you doing if not leading the hydra away as a job?” Well the answer the stallion received wasn’t quite what any pony was expecting.
“We were tasked with finding Opal here for a filly named Sweetie Belle. We kind of ran into the hydra and we led it away from Ponyville while trying to make sure this fur ball here stayed safe.” Right now Tress felt rather irritable, Twilight better treat her to some personal time after this. She had herded the cat towards Twilight; it was slippery speedy little devil even if Twilight could have feasibly incapacitated it with magic. Opal was sitting on Tress’s back and moved forward to lick her cheek before sitting down again. “I wish I could throttle this cat right now.”
“We managed to do the job Tress, let’s just leave it at that.” It wasn’t easy, but Sweetie Belle had better pay them for the trouble. Twilight didn’t think the filly would have the bits to pay extra for what they just went through.
“Actually we’re all willing to chip in to pay you fifty bits for luring the hydra away; it was heading straight for Ponyville and it has been a while since we’ve had a nasty five headed one like that come anywhere near here looking for a free meal. We know there are a few three headed ones near Froggy Bottom Bog.” Davenport was just glad the town wasn’t assaulted. Monster attacks didn’t happen often, but they did happen. Sometimes the timber wolves would attack Sweet Apple Acres and the occasional dragon lights their homes on fire, probably for some sick sense of amusement.
“After what we’ve been through, I’d welcome that. But all of you would have to vouch that we actually did that and you would have to pay us by acknowledging we did a job. You don’t actually have to pay us at all if you don’t want to.” The looks on all the ponies’ faces said this was not negotiable; Tress sighed in relief as at least they were getting paid for the hydra and she didn’t just spend the last three hours sitting on hot stones being stared at by a big nasty five headed monstrosity with sharp teeth for ten bits. “Other than that, where can we find Sweetie Belle so we can give her older sister her cat back?”
“Oh that’s easy; her older sister lives and works over at the Carousel Boutique. Now how about we hire these two girls to accept fifty bits for saving a lot of lives eh?” A lot of the ponies agreed to it. They may not have been the bravest or brightest ponies, but they sure were friendly once they stopped being wary of strangers. Twenty five ponies who ran marketplace shops gave them two bits each and the transaction was finalized, then Davenport led them towards the boutique while telling them he had some good deals on sofas and love seats if they needed them.
The idea of a love seat caused Twilights cheeks to burn; she didn’t have any special pony in her life. At least they had a good furniture store to think of now. They were quickly dropped off at the dress shop and it looked to be a bit, resplendent. Yeah, that was the word for it.
Twilight looked to Tress who still had the cat resting comfortably on her back and purring.
“You know we can just walk away and keep her if you want.” Twilight said in an amused tone.
“Not on your life! Or even mine for that matter!” Glaring harshly, an angry Tress was in Twilight’s face with a slight green glow in her blue eyes.
“Okay, calm down Tress. I’ll comb and brush your mane and tail later. Would that cheer you up?” Those were the magic words as Twilight saw the magical effect of Tress suddenly brightening up.
“I’d need to take a bath first though, being covered in several types of mud and getting all scraped up by the rapid rock climbing really does not do well for my appearance. My mane is a bit tangled, you’ll take care of that anyway I’m sure, but yes I would like that very much." Tress didn’t know why she was suddenly so eager now; she was just grouchy about the horrible turnout of the last commission. Then Twilight had to flip a switch in her that made it all worthwhile. She was feeling quite thirsty thinking about it now, maybe she could get some tea or maybe find some fruit juice as her throat was a parched.
Twilight noticed the sign on the door that says it was open. Well she was going to knock, but if it was business hours she may as well walk in. She walked in on a strange sight; the currently busy mare didn’t turn around at the sound of a bell jingling from the door opening.
“Be with you in a minute, welcome to Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique and magnifique. My name is Rarity and I’ll assist you in a moment.” The white coated mare with the royal purple mane and tail looked nice, her tail was a single loose curl and her mane was softly curled and coiffed uniquely. Her cutie mark was three beautiful gems; she probably had something to do with finding or using gems and jewels in some manner.
“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Twilight said aside to Tress, from what she saw so far Rarity was trying too hard on her beauty. Fake eyelashes, at least the application of makeup was correct but didn’t look like she really needed it in the first place, her mane was unique that was to be sure but Twilight wasn’t all too attracted to it strangely enough. She liked the color, but it seemed to be too meticulously styled.
“Only if I’m seeing it too, let’s get paid and drop off the cat so we can just go home. I really don’t want to know.” Really, Tress did not want to know why Rarity was doing something so strange to her little sister who happened to be their client. Sweetie Bell had proved she could compensate for their business earlier and it was time to get paid and just leave.
“Now what can I help... you…?” Rarity stood there staring blankly at the two dirt riddled, scraped up, sweaty mares and her still rather clean cat.
Twilight simply levitated the cat from Tress’s back and gently let her to the floor. Opalescence ran off to go find her food dish. Twilight seriously didn’t want to ask the question that was percolating in her mind, it was better to stick to business and leave without thinking about it too hard. “That’ll be ten bits.”