The next morning. As Twilight walked down to the main floor she was greeted by the always cheery Coral.
“Hiya! How’d you sleep, miss Twilight?” The pink filly asked, chipper as a bird in spring.
“I’m… fine.” Twilight was, on the contrary, not fine at all. She had gotten a minimal amount of sleep last night and it was pretty obvious, making her a big fat liar.
Coral hopped quickly somewhere and came back with a tray of cookies. She offered Twilight one with a wide smile on her face. “Take one. It’ll wake you up right.”
Twilight sighed. Saying no to that sort of face was impossible. Also, she was hungry and hadn’t gotten to breakfast yet. “... Okay.” She took one of the cookies in her hoof and looked at it. It looked like an ordinary chocolate chip cookie. What was notable was that it was still warm, almost freshly baked.
Shrugging she took a bite and, for reasons she could not explain, felt a surge of energy jolt all over her body. Instantly she felt wide awake and refreshed. “How-”
“You like ‘em?” Coral asked, excited. “They’re big bro’s special recipe. Always wakes you up in the morning!”
“I… Yes. Yes I do.” Twilight admitted and took another bite. She could easily tell there was a lot of sugar in it, as well as the chocolate, but nothing that indicated it should have this kind of effect on her. “Where is your big brother anyway?”
Coral shrugged. “I’unno. Big bro said something about taking care of real estate and something about a mayor. I wasn’t listening that hard.”
Twilight just groaned a bit, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle with her hoof. “When did he leave?”
“I’unno. Couple of minutes ago?” Coral said and witnessed Twilight running straight out the front door… before she quickly ran back in seconds later, smiling gingerly
“Umm, mind if I take some cookies for the way?”
Meanwhile at the Ponyville Town Hall, Mayor Mare was shuffling through paperwork. It was like any other day. One bill after next. Document after document that needed to be attended to. In a way it was just like kindergarten, only with paperwork in place of a mound of whining foals.
Still, if a job is to be done it is to be done well!
“U-umm, Mayor Mare?” Came the voice of her accountant from the intercom recently installed into her office. Mayor Mare pressed a button on her desk and responded.
“Yes, what is it, Golden Week?”
“Th-there’s somepony to s-see you.”
How odd. The poor stallion sounded almost frightened… Must be the nerves.
“Do they have an appointment?”
“...” For a moment there was silence. “Y-yes.”
“Then by all means, send them in.”
“A-alright, Mayor Mare.”
Mayor Mare sighted. She swore, this job was giving her too many new gray hairs. The new help didn’t help too much.
Not to sound mean, Golden Week was an honest and earnest worker but that stallion was just way too tense. He needed to learn to relax a bit and stop trying so hard.
The door to the office got knocked a few times.
“Yes, come on in!” Mayor Mare called out as the door slowly creaked open. One of the first things the mayor heard was a bone chilling voice.
“Hello there...” The moment Mayor Mare looked at the one on the other side of the door she was assaulted by an unblinking stare that sent shivers all across her body. “Sorry to barge in like this, but I have some… business to attend to.”
That phrase made Mayor mare feel threatened. “I-err, yes. W-what might that be?” She asked shakily while trying to get as far from this pony as possible.
The stallion just stared at her with those wide round eyes and that disturbing smile. “I’m here to discuss a document I mailed a few weeks ago. Surely you have it?”
Again Mayor Mare felt a threat within those words and hurriedly began looking over the numerous papers splayed on her desk. “Umm, yes! It’s s-somewhere here...”
The stallion just cocked his head to the side and took some slow steps towards the desk. Mayor Mare in response got a whole lot more threatened and tried to get even further away but was stopped by the wall.
Suddenly the stallion slammed his hoof onto the desk, causing a lot of the papers to actually jump, as well as Mayor Mare to shriek. A few seconds passed in silence. Then the stallion chuckled darkly, causing Mayor Mare to flinch and wish she could sink into the wall.
“Why… here it is.” He said and raised his hoof. Under it was now a singled out document. Then he backed away.
Mayor Mare stepped back onto her desk and picked up the document with shaky hooves. The sender was written in neat cursive as ’Grimdark Smiles’. “O-oh, yes it is, hehe...” Mayor Mare laughed nervously. That name was a little too fitting. She was afraid that if she spoke out of turn he’d attack her!
“Now, this document should prove that I bought a house at the edge of town. However, before I can properly move in I’ll need the deed for the property from… you, miss Mayor.” He said bone chillingly.
Mayor Mare gulped. “W-well, that’ll take time to set up. Lot’s of p-paperwork.” She said, trying to keep up a forced nervous smile.
Smiles chuckled darkly. “Oh, lucky for you I have time to wait.” The mayor gulped again, begging that this stallion just left already. “However, there is another matter I need to discuss with you.”
“And… w-what is that?” Mayor Mare asked, now having to force her composure from shattering.
“It is about applying my younger sister to Ponyville elementary school.” He said calmly but a bit shakily. This made the mayor even more nervous. “I don’t suppose you could do that as soon as possible?”
“Yes!” Mayor Mare exclaimed a bit too quickly. “I-I just need a name for th-the application.”
“Coral.” Smiles said. “Now, if that is all underway, I think we are done here.” With that he turned to leave, but not before looking back for a brief moment. “I’ll be seeing you at a later time. Have a nice day, miss Mayor.” He said darkly and closed the door behind him.
Mayor Mare nearly collapsed,coated in nervous sweat.
Meanwhile, outside.
Smiles walked out of the town hall and let out a huge sigh. “Whew, glad that’s over with… Now what was I going to do next?” He scratched his head a bit before hearing a familiar voice call out to him.
“Smiles!” He heard Twilight yell as she ran up to him and stopped to catch her breath. “Finally… caught up with you.”
“Oh, hello miss Twilight.” Smiles greeted her politely. “What are you doing here?
Twilight held up a hoof to signal that she needed a moment to stabilize her breath. After a few seconds of calm breaths, she answered. ”Well, you were gone in the morning and I wondered where you went to.” She might have bended the truth a little, but it should be fine.
Smiles gasped a little, placing a hoof over his smiling mouth. “Oh, that’s my bad I suppose. I really should have left a note behind. Apologies.”
Twilight tried to look him dead in the eye… it was still a daunting task, but she was adapting. Slowly. “So… what were you doing in the town hall?” Twilight asked, acting ignorant. Badly.
Smiles did not seem to notice though. “Well, I-” His sentence got cut off by a growling stomach.
“...” Twilight blushed in embarrassment and laughed nervously “Hah, I might have not eaten much.”
Smiles just looked at her and sniffed the air. “Oh, I see. Coral gave you some cookies?” His question was answered by a nod, Twilight wondering how he could tell. “That explains it. They give you energy but are not that filling. In fact, I think they make you more hungry.”
The tall stallion tapped his chin with his hoof, thinking. His smile seemed to grow a bit wider, terrifying as it was. “How about we go and get something to eat? My treat.”
Twilight gave him a questioning look. “Is that okay?”
“Yes. I mean, it’ll give us a chance to get more acquainted. I am going to be in your hair for a while, after all.” Smiles explained.
Twilight flashed a smile. “Sounds good.” The two got walking, but Twilight added something before she could forget about it. “By the way, what were you doing in the Town Hall?”
Smiles chuckled. “Oh, right. I was just taking care of some issues with our new home here. Paperwork and all that, though the Mayor was nice enough to take care of it for me. Then I enrolled Coral to the local school.”
“Well, I hope Coral has a good time. Two of my friends little sisters also go there.” Twilight said.
Smiles chuckled again, this time more lightly. “I hope so too.”
“How did it go with the mayor? She wasn’t… umm...” Twilight thought of how to phrase this. “... distressed, at all, was she?”
Smiles tilted his head and looked at her. “Why’d she be distressed, miss Twilight?” He asked, sounding slightly confused.
“N-no reason.” Twilight muttered.
Smiles seemed to not think about it too much. “Well, the Mayor was nice. But I must say I was really nervous.”
‘YOU were the nervous one?’ Twilight exclaimed internally with a disbelieving look at the stallion, but did her best not to bring it up.
For some reason she had a bad feeling about this.
“Golden Week, I need you to mail a letter to the EPF Headquarters that instructs them to keep a keen eye out for one Grimdark Smiles. A picture is included in the envelope.” Mayor Mare spoke to the intercom before muttering to herself. “There is no way I will allow a...a ruffian like that to walk freely in Ponyville.”
“That’s… nice?” Twilight remarked, unsure of how to properly respond. The feeling of dread still lingered.
Smiles merely sighed. “I hope I did not make a bad impression. That’d be sad.” Twilight just responded with an uncertain laugh.
The two were nearly by the local diner, only a few steps away from it’s premises. Twilight stepped on a small rock and fumbled forward a bit.
Smiles instinctively reached his hoof out to support her. “Miss Twi-” His words were cut short as something collided with him extremely hard and extremely fast, crashing and driving his form across the ground, leaving behind a line of dirt.
When Twilight turned to look almost all of Smile’s upper half had sunk into the ground, his rear legs flailing in the air slowly. Twilight groaned and slapped her hoof into her face, but not because of Smile’s predicament.
“What’d you think you’re trying to do to Twilight, buster!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the half submerged stallion.