"Alright Hawk-Eye, I hear you. Just... Give me some time. Compound bows are a pain to replace."
"Yeah well, make it snappy. We can't all sit around on our lazy flanks all day and assign posts." Hawk-Eye snapped.
"Yeah, well how about you... No wait, every guard in the town just wonder around aimlessly for the next month, without pay or armor or any means of fighting. In fact, why don't you just wonder into the forest while blindfolded."
"Alright jeez... Sorry." Hawk-Eye sulked and left. The pony who was working the desk sighed and made a few notes.
"Guess Hawk-Eye needs another bow..." The pony sighed again and rolled his eyes.
Ivy casually walked in the room, unnoticed by the desk worker. "Hey..."
"I just told you Hawk-Eye..!" The pony looked up and paused. "Oh... Sorry Ivy, Hawk-Eye kinda sounds like you."
"So I've been told..." Ivy chuckled. "You know, if he wasn't such a good spotter her would have been fired a while ago. The pegasus is useless with a bow and somehow snapped a shield in half."
"Yeah... That was a strange week. So how have you been Ivy? Staying out of trouble I hope."
Ivy giggled and sighed. "Well... You know me..."
"So that's a no then." The pony laughed weakly. "Oh Ivy what will we do with you..."
"Yeah.." Ivy giggled evilly. "So what's the budget looking like this week?"
"Well, I think it might be a worthwhile investment to get some steelbark bows. The compound ones are too brittle." The pony said. "Oh, we also got another grant from Fort city, so we can invest in better armor."
"Music to my ears." Ivy happily said. "I might try and pull a few strings with my Dad and we might see some changes in our bows because of it..." Ivy innocently said.
"Thanks Ivy. saves me the trouble of having to convince him." The pony sat back and sighed in relief. "Speaking of your father, have you seen him much today?"
"Not really, after I got back from my route in the forest I came here." Ivy rubbed her forehead. "I think he is with the mayor today."
"Hm, I checked with the mayor an hour ago. He hadn't seen him." The pony leaned back and yawned.
"Hard day?" Ivy inquired.
"Yeah, pushing papers can be taxing." The pony chuckled.
"Oh you poor thing, we need to get you working on patrol right away." Ivy teased. "Maybe a nice encounter with a shade will help relax those stressed out muscles."
"Yeah... No." The pony replied. "Its more of an overworked brain."
The pair fell silent for a few minutes, the pony working the desk sorted out and filled in some forms while Ivy relaxed. "Its a bit stuffy in here." Ivy remarked. "Mind if I open a window?" Ivy moved towards a window.
"No! Wait..!" The pony shouted, however Ivy had already opened the window, a large gust of wind swept through the room blowing the forms all over the room. "Never mind..."
"Opps." Ivy said apologetically. "Let me help you..."
"Its alright, I can handle this." The pony firmly said as he started to pick up and sort the papers that had been blown about. Ivy rolled her eyes and went about help the pony pick up the paper. "No Ivy, its alright I got..." Ivy picked a few pieces of paper and glanced over them.
"Lets see.." Ivy interrupted. "Armor stock, balance for the week, patrol schedule, to do list..." The to do list was snatched out of Ivy's grasp with force.
"That... That's personal!" The pony snapped. "Look Ivy, I can handle this." The pony insisted.
"Jeez... Okay." Ivy sulked. "I won't touch anything." Ivy sighed and sat down.
"Sorry Ivy, I didn't mean to snap like that. Its just... That was a personal piece of paper..." The pony apologized and sighed.
"No its alright, I shouldn't have been going through your stuff." Ivy apologized. The pony fished reassembling the papers and sat down happily.
"See, its no trouble at all. I should thank you really, I need to sort personal and work out."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea. Speaking of which, what was so important on that list?" Ivy inquired.
"Oh... Nothing, it was just something that I wrote a while ago. Its just something personal." The pony hastily replied.
"Oh, alright then." Ivy sighed.
"Its nothing personal, I just would rather keep it to myself." The pony sighed and clicked his neck. "Might head home. I finished my shift an hour ago, just stayed to put in some extra hours."
"Alright then, I guess I will see you tomorrow." Ivy said sounding disappointing. Ivy left waved goodbye and left the room leaving the pony alone.
"Phew, that was a little too close for comfort." The pony remarked before glancing over the list he had written. "I wonder what Ivy would have said had she read this." The pony looked over the list, several basic goals such as get a job and make friends were written down. Towards the bottom of the list it had goals such as own a house, achieve high rank in guards. Finally, at the bottom of the list it read find a soul mate, next to the goal the name Ivy was neatly written in a heart. "Someday Ivy... Someday..."
"How about today!" Ivy exclaimed quickly as she rushed back in.
"Woah... Ivy!" The pony exclaimed as he fell off his chair. "W-What!?"
"Well, in the brief moment I held that list I was able to scan enough of it to notice the heart at the bottom." Ivy smugly said. "I figured that you would most likely talk about it after I left, so I left and hid around the corner."
"But..."
"I knew that you would never ask me yourself, so I did you the favor." Ivy giggled. "In fact, I knew that would have kept something like that around here, I opened the window with the intent to locate said paper."
"Wait... You planned this?" The pony stuttered.
"Right down to this conversation, heck I even had enough time to plan on what I would do if you didn't take it so well."
"Wait... So you planned this? Was this a plan..."
"Yup!" Ivy interrupted. "So... I take it..."
"Ivy." The pony interrupted. "You just... Can't do something like that. I mean... You can, you didn't technically do anything wrong except intentionally causing a mess when you opened a window. I'm confused..."
"Its alright..." Ivy gently moved over the pony and patted him on the back. "I know this can be a lot to take in, just try and see it my way."
"And what way is that?"
"Your cover was blown when I caught you staring at my flank a few weeks ago." Ivy giggled. "Yep.. You were not subtle at all..."
The pony blushed and chuckled nervously. "W-Well... Its nice... I will give you that. Very... Ample."
"Well I can see we have a true gentlecolt among us." Ivy joked. "So I take you will meet me at the dinner in an hour and treat me and my flank to dinner?"
"Yeah... I will see you there..." The pony stuttered as he sat back down and rubbed his forehead. "I just need to... Think about what happened..."
"See you then..." Ivy teased as she left the room.
"Yeah..." The pony shook his head. "What just happened..."