Hangfire woke with a start, the sun was up and she stretched a bit before slipping out of the bed. Chryse and Cornflower mumbled in their sleep as she went down to fix a cup of coffee.
She sat at the big kitchen table, a cup of hot coffee in her hoof as she stared at the pile of parchment in front of her, sighing to herself as she tried to make heads or tails of the numbers written everywhere, wishing she’d paid more attention in class.
Sipping the hot brew slowly, letting it warm her insides, her eyes slipped to the calender on the wall. She squinted a bit at the date and almost dropped her coffee cup!
Oh pits, Hearth’s Warming Eve was tomorrow and she hadn’t bought a single thing!
Finishing her coffee quickly, almost scalding her tongue, she jumped in for a quick shower, getting wrapped up for the weather, grabbing her bag of bits and headed out to find something for her friends. Hangfire closed the door quietly behind her as she left the house, still loving the scarf she was wearing, Rarity made wonderful things. That’s it! Rarity will have something, and I got enough to pay for it!
A grin on her face, she trotted down to the Carousel Boutique, wondering what the heck she was going to get, but figured she’d come up with something.
The Boutique was open for business, it appeared it was also quite brisk as she walked in, the light grey mare looked in a tizzy as she tried to help all the customers. Hangfire politely held back and went over to the glass case containing jewelry, searching for a couple things she knew Chryse and Cornflower would love. There they were!
Her eyes had settled on two pairs of earrings, most times ponies never wore anything like that, but these were somehow better. They weren’t something that you punched a hole in your ear to wear, but were made with a band, that fit tight and unobtrusively to the outside, making it look like it was pierced.
One set, was a pair of rubies set in gold bands, the other, a pair of deep blue sapphires set in silver. They would be perfect for the two mares! Her head tilted as she looked at the prices, realizing they weren’t that high at all, how in the hay did Rarity stay open?
She grabbed up the two sets and waited while Rarity dealt with what was left of the customers, all the last minute shopping was brisk for retailers on the day before Heath’s Warming Eve. She looked around the boutique, seeing all the new stuff that was out since the last time she had been there, and still wondering, how in the world can she do all this?
Her reverie was broken by a cultured voice next to her, suddenly enveloped in a hug!
“Hangfire! Darling how are you! I haven’t seen you in a couple weeks!”
She recoved quickly, hugging the pretty mare back, setting her choices on the counter, “I’ve been fine Mi..er.. Rarity, just working hard. I didn’t realize it was almost Hearth’s Warming and came to find gifts.”
The perfectly done mane flipped to the side as Rarity looked at the ear bands, “Oh those are truly wonderful! For Chryse and Cornflower I assume?”
Hangfire nodded, “Oh yes, they’re going to love them.”
The talk went for a bit, small chit-chat, Rarity asking about her friends. It gave her a warm feeling inside knowing it wasn’t just idle chatter, but Rarity truly did care about people.
As she was wrapping the ear bands, she placed a hoof on the counter, “And you tell that dear Hazy of yours, that the flowers he sent were marvelous! They were so beautiful and I still have them here!” She pointed to a large vase, filled with roses and carnations. “He has such good taste, do tell him to drop by so I may thank him in person would you?”
“I will, but he’s a bit shy, so it might take a bit.” She thought of the gregarious Rarity thanking the big stallion, he’d blush down to his hooves. A smile split her face at the thought, “I’ll see about getting him in here, I know you’re busy.”
That comment was waved off with the usual air, “Never too busy for friends!” She passed the packages back to Hangfire and gave her another hug, “You just take care of yourself now you hear?”
“Putting the wrapped packages in her bag, she nodded, “I will, and thank you again!”
There was a skip in her step as she trotted down the street, the day was a bit cloudy, but it was a lot warmer then it had been. It just made her all the more happy. Stopping on a street corner, she hooked into the local Quills and Sofa’s, Celestia knows why they chose that name. She rolled her eyes a bit, thinking someone had a bit too much cider that day when they opened the store, but they did sell great quills, and Blue loved to draw.
She picked up a wonderful set, along with colored inks for a next to nothing price, thank goodness for sales! She had them wrapped in gaily colored paper for him. Waving to the proprietor, she trotted back out, heading to the library, she needed to see if they had any books that Hazy would like.
Standing in front of the Golden Oaks Library, she tried to think of any books Hazy would like, he was so well read. She shook her head, thinking if ponies only knew the razor sharp mind behind his slow speech. Hangfire sighed, she hated losing games of chess to Hazy, one of these days.
Opening the door slowly, she was lost in thought, when a cheerful voice greeted her, “Hi! Can I help you?”
Shutting the door politely, Hangfire smiled, turning around to meet the violet eyes of Princess Twilight Sparkle herself! She stuttered a bit, bowing low to the ground, “I’m.. I’m sorry Princess I didn’t mean to bother.”
The bright eyes rolled as she made waving motions, “Ugh, stop that!” She pointed at her mane, “See? No crown, just a librarian.” She gave another winning smile, coming around the counter to stand by Hangfire, “Can I help you find a book?”
Hangfire stood back up, thinking quickly as to what to say. I mean, it’s not every day you meet, oh wait..she lived here, of course it was everyday you met royalty. She facehooved, I’m such a nit.
Twilight watched the umber mare facehoof, she tilted her head, it almost looked like she was talking to herself, “Are you okay?”
“J..Just flogging myself mentally your highness, sorry about that, I tend to do it alot.” She gave the princess a shaky grin while thinking to herself, great, I have just seriously messed up a first impression with royalty, I am scoring a thousand here.
“It’s Twilight please, and why are you doing that? I understand of course, I do it myself when I find I can’t properly organize things sometimes. It gets so frustrating to have...” and the princess was off, talking about lists, keeping things organized. Having to take care of royal duties as well as the library, her friends, and trying to spend time with them. It went on for quite a few minutes, Hangfire had no intention of interrupting it.
She kept the smile on her face, watching the princess walk around the room, pointing and gesturing to the books, her basement, the upper floors. Talking about the happenings in Canterlot that she had to attend, all the myriad things that make up a day.
Twilight wound down, turning around to see Hangfire setting on the floor. Twisting her hooves a bit as she waited politely for the princess to stop so maybe she could find something, but with absolutely no idea what to say about anything she had been talking about. Information overload had reached peak about 5 minutes into the one sided conversation.
Hangfire kept the nervous smile, “I..wow that sure seems like a busy time.” Great, just great, another witty comment ‘Fire, you’re doing well.
Twilight smiled back and realized what she had done and tried to make amends, “Ohmygosh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to rattle on like that. Please accept my apologies!”
Hangfire’s eyes went a bit wide, a princess apologizing? Seriously? Ponies like her really had no day to day experience with anyone from the so-called upper class, they were just working ponies. But she was warming fast to this geeky, wonderfully polite mare who obviously loved her job no matter what she said.
“It’s okay, really, I just came in to buy a book for a friend if I could?” Hangfire got a hopeful look on her face, maybe she’d get lucky and this likeable mare had something?
“Of course, we have tons of them! “She gestured around, “What kind of book? Spells? Magic for beginners? We have math and science, and oh so many!”
“Would you have any on butterflies?”
The mulberry mare looked at her for a moment, then brightened, “Yes! We do, we have a few over here!” She launched herself at a shelf, bringing over a few thick bindings of parchment, beautifully bound. “This one is for identifying the various species by Bright Wings, truly a scholar! “ She showed a few more, leaving Hangfire to look through them, before picking one with pictures and descriptions of all sorts of butterflies. Hazy is gonna love this.
“This one if you would please?” She pointed to the plate filled book, bound in material with gold leaf titles. She had more than enough to purchase it and was pleased.
Twilight nodded, “Hearth’s Warming gift I take it?” She asked, sliding the book around and wrapping it in pretty paper.
Hangfire smiled brightly, “Oh yes, Hazy’s my friend, and he loves butterflies. He’s big and tough, but such a softie.”
It struck Hangfire at that moment. It wasn’t obtrusive, nor overt, but something in the way Twilight acted changed. A slight change in voice, her stance, it was nothing Hangfire could point to and say 'That was it.’ She tried to keep the smile from fading in fear as she watched the change, thanking Twilight very much for wrapping the book.
Paying for her acquisition, she politely took her leave and walked out of the library, a worried look crossing her face as she hustled to get home.
She trotted quickly, fears in her mind that they might be in a lot more trouble than they had thought. Had she looked back, she’d have seen Twilight talking intensely with Spike in the doorway of the library, looking her way.