//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Real Estate // Story: Well, this is new... // by CommunistTaco //------------------------------// I had no idea what I was even doing anymore. The last few days had been such a blur and I wasn't sure how much longer I could take all this craziness. I'd like to see you try being ripped from your dimension, change species, find out that you have no way back, and then try to adjust while being chased around by angry mobs. It's hard I tell ya! So anyway, four days had passed since I did my speech and things were beginning to quiet down. I resigned myself to doing farm labor in exchange for food and shelter, and tried to not cause anymore trouble. So far I had been pretty successful mostly due to the fact that I had only returned to the town once since I was 'acquitted of murder'. Outside of farm work, I had been talking with Twilight every day on all manners of things. She was extremely eager to learn more about the history and technology of my world. I in turn would ask small questions about hers. I had learned some basic facts about Equestria such as its government system which was a semi-constitutional diarchy from what Twilight had described. While Equestria had nobility and a parliament to run most government functions and elections for all manners of offices, the princesses had final say on any and all matters. The term "benevolent dictator" came to mind but even that seemed too harsh for the kind, wise, and friendly sisters I had met. I explained to Twilight the government of my adoptive home The United States of America. The concept of a republic was not new to her world, just not anywhere near as common as mine. She explained that nearly every nation on the planet had some form of monarchical society. I learned of several nations outside Equestria and their heads of state. Due to the existence of dozens of sapient beings on Terra, most nations were formed by a specific species. Equestria was by far the largest and most populous of the world's nations and held the greatest power and political influence. Other than my talks with Twilight, everything was quiet. I spent most evenings simply relaxing on the couch in the farmhouse talking with Apple family. They were all very down-to-earth ponies as you could probably guess. They cared deeply about family, honesty, hard work, and hospitality. Reminded me of my parents before their passing. Life was simple, life was good. It was the morning of my eighth day in Equestria and I was sipping some coffee while reading the local newspaper. The front page said something attaining to tensions growing between the equestrians and the griffons over a new tariff. I paid little mind to the over exaggerated politics and flipped the sports section. Apparently, in Equestria, they have a sport called hoofball which was remarkably similar to American football. I never was into football or any sports for that matter, so hoofball probably didn't have any appeal either. 'Lets see... Cloudsdale: 10, Manehatten: 14 [Final]. Ugh, why am I even reading this... ' I was interrupted by a loud banging on the door. Applejack and Big Mac were out in the fields and Applebloom was at school so I stood up to go answer the door. The banging continued annoying me to no extent. "I'm coming, I'm coming! Sheesh!" I yanked open the door to see who it was that was knocking and found myself face to face with two royal guards. My expression went from annoyance, to nervousness, and then finally rested on confusion. One of the guards cleared his throat and addressed me. "Vladimer Koerzahkove?" he asked butchering my name. "Yes?" I replied giving him a baffled look. "We have a package for you from Princess Celestia," he replied gesturing to his partner who gave me a medium sized bag of something heavy and a large envelope addressed to me and fitted with a royal seal of some kind. "Uh, thanks. Is that all?" I asked. "Yes, have a good day sir," the stallion guard replied before turning and marching off in the direction of town, his fellow guard in tow. I closed the door and returned to the kitchen lugging the bag up onto the table. I loosened the string that was sealing the top and looked inside. Coins... tons upon tons of coins were in the bag all having a picture of the royal seal carved on the front. On the back was the denomination of "one bit" as well as a motto printed in what I assumed was Latin; Solis, Luna, Semper in harmonia.. I assumed they were the local currency and turned my attention to the envelope to confirm my hunch. Inside was a few documents and a strange looking card made out of what appeared to be crystal which I tossed aside momentarily and a letter. Dear Vladimir, I hope I find you in good health since we last met. I assume you have begun to settle down after those 'eventful' first days. In the bag I have sent with this letter is one-thousand bits. Bits are the primary currency of Equestria and can be used nearly everywhere in the world. Consider this a gift from a friend to get you on your hooves. It should cover your living expenses for a few months while you acclimate. Enclosed in this envelope, I have included a few documents that you will need sooner or later. The first is a birth certificate. I know you were not born in Equestria, but under the circumstances I believe that you will need some form of birth documentation. You did not mention your date of birth or age during our last meeting so I simply put your legal birthday as the day you arrived in Equestria and your age as twenty (I hope I'm close on that one). You can go correct these discrepancies at the town hall at your earliest convenience. The second document is your Equestrian citizenship which I had approved the day after we met in the library. Normally it takes years to obtain an Equestrian citizenship, but I made an exception on your behalf since until now you were effectively stateless. You are now a legal citizen of Equestria and are expected to follow its laws and guidelines. You also gain the right to vote for any elections of mayor, council member, etc... The third and final document that I have enclosed is a house deed. I have purchased you a house in town square of Ponyville that has a shop on the bottom floor. If you wish, you can by all means start up a business or simply rent the space out to a prospective entrepreneur. Just be sure to consult the mayor before you open up any shop. The top floor is strictly residential and is fitted with all the necessities. You may want to use some of your money to buy furniture or decorations, your call. The house has 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms and well as a kitchen/dining room and a living room. I hope you find it up to your standards. All I ask in return for this house is that you continue to provide us with insight into your world. The information you provide could be a great boon to our nation and the world. I will arrange monthly meetings with my sister and I to this end. The small card I have enclosed is your ID. It has your picture (taken after your speech a few days ago) and your basic information. If you wish to enter any bars, night clubs, government buildings, or purchase train tickets you will need this card. I wish you luck in starting your new life in Equestria. I will hopefully find time in the next week to visit your new home if I am not busy with royal duties. Your friend, ~Princess Celestia PS: Although your speech was quite successful it went directly against my wishes not to reveal your past so quickly. I would not recommend acting with such hastiness in the future as it may lead to unforeseen consequences. I blinked. 'Wow Celestia did all this for me? I... I didn't think I was worth her time. She called herself a friend. I'm friends with a princess? Well, next time I see her I'll have to give my gratitude.' I read over the letter again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. It was too good to be true for me. I had the biggest ear-to-ear grin on by the time I had re-read the letter. I now had a house, money, and citizenship of a country I had only been in for eight days. Things were starting to turn around for me. Just as I was about to retie the bag closed and organize the documents, Applejack burst in through the front door and made a beeline for me. "There ya are sugarcube! Ah've been lookin all over for y'all and... What's that ya got there?" "Celestia decided to give me some money and a house along with some personal documents. I'll probably head into town in a few minutes to check out my new home." I stated still smiling softly. Applejack looked a little downtrodden for a moment but quickly brightened up and softly punched my shoulder with a hoof. "Well that's great sugarcube. Ah know yer time here was just temporary, but we all think of ya as a close friend. It's a shame that you'll be leaving." "Thanks Applejack. I think of you and your family as my close friends as well. And I can't thank you enough for your hospitality." I replied. "Nonsense, we were just helpin' out a friend. Now why don't ya go see yer new house. And don't forget to visit!" Applejack said. I slung the bag of bits on my back and took the envelope with the documents in my mouth and made my way for the door to head to town. After waving goodbye to Applejack and Big Mac who had come back to find his sister, I walked along the path out of Sweet Apple Acres towards the quaint town of Ponyville. Things seemed to be starting to go well for me... as crazy as that may sound. I reached Ponyville town square after a ten minute stroll and pulled out the house deed. 8777 Market St. was the address labeled on the document. After a few minutes of wandering I found the correct street and began reading the addresses. '8771, 8773, 8775... Ah 8777!' I had arrived at 8777 which seemed to be in a newly developed area. Most of the shops were sporting GRAND OPENING or were still being set up. The shop that I apparently now owned was in a prime spot on the corner of Market St. and Everfree Ave. If I were to set up a business here then it would in a perfect spot for attracting customers. "Perks of having a princess buy you real estate," I mused. It was then that I realized that I had no key. I looked at the house deed and found it was issued by a 'Trottingham Reality LLC'. I then saw that the company had been nice enough to list the address of their Ponyville offices which were conveniently just down the street. I walked two blocks south of my address and found the real estate agency. I walked in expecting to be in and out in about ten minutes or so. Oh was I wrong... 90 Minutes Later: I finally emerged out of realtor office in a huff. The assholes in that place made me sign paper after paper for over an hour before finally giving me my key. It was like the DMV all over again... I turned around and gave the receptionist an angry glare through the window before proceeding back to my new home. I turned the key in the lock on the front door and proceeded inside the empty shop section of my house. I decided not to worry too much about setting up a business just yet and proceeded through a door at the back of the room and into the stairwell. I climbed the wooden stairs to the top where I was greeted by my new home. I emerged into the living room which contained only a splintering desk and a beaten-up couch. An unlit fireplace sat against the wall across from the couch. I decided that I would go furniture shopping tomorrow try and get this place looking a little more lively. 'I should also have this place repainted. The walls are... lime green, not exactly my color...' The kitchen was a basic affair with several cupboards and drawers. A large french-door refrigerator and a four burner stove-top and oven were the only real appliances I could find, all magically powered of course. The knife drawer was empty which added another item to things I needed to buy. A sink and dish rack rounded out the room. It was as good of a kitchen as I could ever hope for considering I wasn't a 5-star chef by any means. The bedrooms were equally plain, also adorning the gaudy lime paint. Each bedroom only had a simple queen-sized bed and a nightstand with table lamp. The master bedroom also came with a small dresser/mirror combination that looked as if it had seen better days. Even though this house was new, all the furniture seemed pretty hand-me-down. I assumed it must of been hard to acquire anything on such short notice so Celestia must of had whoever furnished this place scrounge up whatever they could find. Not that I was complaining, it was all stuff I could replace if need be and better it be used than non-existent. The master bathroom was a lot larger than I was expecting. A full size bathtub sat in the corner and a generously-sized shower was also present. I was a bit taller than a lot of the ponies I had seen but I wasn't a giant. It was hard to tell how tall exactly I was considering everything in town was scaled down to pony dimensions. If I had to guess, I'd put my height on all fours at somewhere around four feet while the average adult pony seemed to be around three and a half. Even with my bigger size I could easily fit three of me in the shower alone. I also found out that I could directly access the upstairs by going through a door around the back that had a stairwell down to ground level. It made sense considering it would be possible for the pony who owned the store to rent out the upstairs and not get ponies constantly going in and out of his/her store to get to their residence. I set out back down the street towards the town square which was where most of the farmers and food vendors sold their various products. I bought a little of everything I could find to make sure I was well stocked. I then went into various stores to find essentials like the kitchen knives, various toiletries, and an alarm clock so I could wake up when I wanted. In all I spent 48 bits, not even 5% of my 1000, so I was confident that the sack of bits would last me for long enough until I had a stable source of income. It certainly helped that Celestia had bought the house outright so I wasn't saddled with mortgage payments every month. Speaking of business, I began to brainstorm about which business I could really run. I guess I could run a construction/repair company. I had taken the time to learn what businesses were present in Ponyville during my talks with Twilight. While food and other wares were plentiful, the hamlet lacked several specialized jobs and often had to contract them from other cities. When I had inquired on if Ponyville had a local construction or engineering firm she replied to the negative. The closest Ponyville had to a construction company was the local hardware store. Most ponies in town had to hire a contract company to travel here to do any large scale construction projects. Running my own company was something I had always dreamed of. It would be suitable to my talents and I could work on projects to benefit all of Equestria on the side with my knowledge of human engineering. I would probably need to hire a receptionist to set up appointments and a labor force for large projects but the rest I could do myself, for now. I got back to my new residence and put away the food. Just as I was about to sit down and relax on the couch a knock on the door came. I couldn't possibly imagine who that could be so I stood up and trotted over to the door. I opened it to find Pinkie Pie standing there with the creepiest smile on her face. "Hi Vlady! I heard you got a new house so I bought you a housewarming gift!" she exclaimed handing me a small plant. "Um... Thanks?" I said looking at the mare with confusion. "Oh no problem! Gotta go! See ya later Vlady!" she replied before bolting off down the street. "What the hell is the deal with that mare?" I muttered after closing the door. I placed the fern-looking plant on the kitchen table and then went back to relaxing. It was still a mystery to me how Pinkie not only managed to know my new address but bring me a gift nearly 2 hours after moving in. I dismissed it as her being the crazy ass pony that she was and drifted off to sleep to get some much needed rest...