"Hey, what happened last night?" I asked. Fluttershy looked at me in confusion, then looked around, then at where she was laying. Suddenly, something appeared to click in her head, and she jumped off me, turned as red as blood, and screamed all at the same time. She ran out of the room, looking like she was about to burst into tears. I shook my head, then sat up and looked out the window. It was still early enough that I wouldn't be late for my new job at the library, and I had a little time to try and sort things out with Fluttershy. I climbed off the bed, and went looking for her. As I searched, I tried to remember what had happened. I got glimpses of the party, then of Fluttershy and me stumbling home, with... I focused on the last bit. I then remembered that Rarity and Applejack had walked us home. As I pondered that last revelation, I turned the corner and almost ran into Fluttershy. She was slightly more normal colored now, and looked less terrified, but she was still pretty shaken up.
"I... I think... Everything is ok... Blaze." She stammered, staring at her hooves.
"How do you... Actually, I don't want to know." I said, blushing. Then I remembered the other thing I had to tell her.
"I remember Rarity and Applejack walking us home last night, we could ask them what happened." I said, with a small smile of confidence. She slowly and cautiously looked up, as if something bad would happen if she weren't careful.
"Hey, I know we were pretty drunk, but I swear to you, I would never do anything like that to you while I had breath in my body. I can tell you now, you're safe." I said, looking warmly but seriously into her eyes. She slowly nodded, looking away again.
"Look, I should be headed to the library, don't want to be late for work. But if you'd like, once I'm done I can stop by Sweet Apple Acres and ask Applejack what happened. And while I'm gone, you can find Rarity and ask her. Sound good?" I asked. She looked back at me and nodded, her face slowly returning to a normal color. Then she seemed to remember something.
"Oh, and, um, I have a... Thing... Later, so I won't be home until late afternoon. Will you be ok?" She asked quietly. I looked at her with curiosity, wondering what this 'thing' was. I decided to drop it though.
"Ya, I'm sure I'll be fine. See you later then!" I said, as I walked past her and towards the door.
"Bye, Blaze." She said, still sounding scared and shocked, but less so then before. I opened the door and stepped through, waving to Fluttershy as I closed it behind me. I began my long walk into town, which seemed to get longer as my alcohol-induced headache began to grow. I was kinda... Cold with Fluttershy back there, wasn't I? I mean, I guess I was just as worried that something had happened, I'm just better at hiding it. I hope she even lets me stay with her after this... I thought as I walked. A little while later, I found myself I front of the library. Shaking off the thoughts of last night, I pushed open the door and walked inside. It was even worse than when we had last been through, despite the fact that it had only been a day. It was as if ponies were determined to make my first day as difficult as possible. I sighed, walked over to the first pile, and sat down next to it. I then changed my mind, stood up, and grabbed the pile. I carried it with me to the selves, where I began to work back and forth, putting books back on the shelves when I found their proper homes. Half an hour later, the first pile was done, leaving only a dozen or so left. The small smile of satisfaction melted off my face, and I decided it was going to be a long shift.
"I'm finally done! I can't believe it! And in only... Five hours!" I said, looking around at the room that I was standing in. There were no more piles of books; everything was back on the shelves it belonged on. I was tired, hungry, and nearing exasperation, but I wasn't about to let the books win. I grinned and prepared to leave, when the Belle above the door rang, and I heard the door swing open. I spun around, ready to tackle somepony foolish enough to bring more books in, but was surprised to see the mayor. She looked around the room in awe, clearly pleased with the improvements.
"This place looks amazing, Blazing Star! Just like when Princess Twilight lived here. Thank you so much for accepting this job. Oh! And that reminds me, I have something for you." She said, peering back into one of her bags. I heard an 'ah hah!' and she turned back with a small mouthful of coins. She grabbed them with her hoof and counted them, before handing me the five silver coins and seven copper ones. I looked at them in disbelief, before looking up at her with a grin. The thought then crossed my mind that I had nowhere to put them, and I mentally made a note to go buy some bags when I was done.
"I hadn't expected to get paid so soon, thank you!" I said, offering my free hoof for a hoof-shake. She shook it with a warm smile.
"I remembered you saying yesterday that you were a little tight on money, and so I decided I could manage part of your paycheck early." She said. I nodded in thanks, and she made her way out of the library. I looked around one more time. There weren't any obvious problems or books left out, so I figured it would be safe to leave. I headed out the door, holding tightly onto my newfound money. I walked up to the first pony I saw to ask for directions, when I saw that he looked familiar. I hadn't seen him without his coat, but as best I could tell, the stallion that stood in front of me looked exactly like Doctor Whooves.
"Uh, Sir? Could you perhaps tell me where I find go to find a store that sells saddlebags? I'm fairly new here, and have not yet learned the town." I said with a smile. He appeared to be mildly started when he saw me, but quickly recovered.
"Of course! If you follow this street, then take a left, then a right, you'll end up within viewing distance of '_ saddlebags'. It's got a big sign, you can't miss it." He said with a laugh. I grinned before responding.
"Ok, thanks. Oh! And do you, by chance, happen to have, like, a twin brother named Whooves who lives in Canterlot as a doctor?" I asked. He clearly looked worried, and he nervously started backing away.
"I uh... I have no idea who that is, sorry. Now if you'll excuse me, I uh... I gotta go." He said before running off. I shook my head in confusion, wondering what that sudden change in mood was all about. I turned and followed his directions, until I came upon a medium sized glass front store that had a large sign hanging above it labeled '- saddlebags'. The front displays showed a few fancy bags on mannequins that were no doubt far beyond my price range. I pushed open the door and walked in. I headed over to a rack of simple bags in more natural colors. I stood at the rack for a little while, trying to find the cheapest ones, when a mare walked over.
"Can I help you, sir?" She asked. I was quiet for a few moments, before I spoke up.
"Ya, I just moved into town and don't have a ton of money, so I was hoping to find a relatively cheap pair of bags for now, at least until I can afford something nicer." I said, looking over at her. She smiled and nodded, then pointed to a pair of brown cloth backs with simple silver colored buckles.
"If I may make a suggestion, I think you'll find these to be quite satisfactory, and easy on your budget. They're strong, but still light, and have a medium capacity." She said happily. I picked them up off the hooks that they were resting on and inspected them. They were a light brown, with two darker straps running from one back to the other in a partial loop. I checked the price, and saw that they were 32 bits. I thought back to when Fluttershy was paying for the pizza in Canterlot. She paid for a seven bit bill with seven if the copper coins, so logically the next step would be that the silver were ten. I had five silver and seven copper, so I did indeed have enough money. I smiled and looked over at her.
"I'll take them!" I said.
"Excellent, that'll be 32 bits, please." She said with a smile, holding out her hoof. I dropped three silver and two copper into her hoof, before looking up with concern.
"Is that the right amount? I'm afraid I'm new to the currency system." I said apologetically. She nodded, tucking the coins away into her own, small bag.
"Have a nice day!" She said before walking back behind the counter that I had failed to notice on entry. I put the bags on, and smiled. Wow, I actually just did something on my own! It's odd being treated as an adult, despite being only sixteen. I guess it's probably just because I look older. I tossed my remaining coins into the bag on my left and walked out of the store. It was nearing one in the afternoon, and my stomach suddenly growled in hunger, and brought to my mind the fact that it had been since yesterday that I last ate, since I was in such a rush that morning. I looked around, trying to see if there were any nearby places to eat. I saw mostly shops, and so I decided to head further along the street I was on street, which I hoped was further into town. I began to hear sounds of ponies talking, and I turned and walked in that direction. After a little while, I came upon a small market, where a hoof-full of ponies had set up stands and were selling various things. I spotted Applejack on the other side, and began to work my way over. Her stand was running low on apples, and I guessed she had been doing fairly well.
"Selling a lot of apples?" I asked, walking up to her stand. She grinned in response, and laughed.
"Best day for apple sales of the year so far! I'm gonna have to go get more apples myself, if Big Mac don't show up with more soon. But what can I do for ya? Need a help gettin' rid of a headache?" She said with a wink, then she laughed again. I grinned, remembering the night before.
"Actually, I do have a question for you. You and Rarity walked us home last night, didn't you?" I asked, my smile slowly faded. She nodded, a more serious look on her face.
"So, uh... Do you have any idea what happened once we got home? Fluttershy and I woke up in... Well we'll just say a less than ideal position, both of us on her bed, and I'm trying to make sure nothing... Happened." I said, blushing and looking away. She shook her head, and my heart sank.
"Sorry partner, all I did was see y'all to the door. Rarity went inside with y'all, so I guess asking her would be better." She said, looking at me apologetically. I brightened up a bit then.
"Well Fluttershy was going to ask Rarity, and honestly she's the one who needs reassuring, so that's fine. Thanks for your help!" I said, smiling again. She shook her head slowly and laughed again.
"No problem, glad I could help. Wouldn't want anything to happen to Fluttershy, after all." She said with a smile. I pretended to be offended by her last comment, and made an insulted face.
"What about me? Aren't I worth worrying about?" I asked. She grinned back at me, and I knew she didn't believe my anger.
"Not really, ya look like you're pretty good at helping yourself, and ya ain't quite as fragile as Fluttershy." She said. I glowered for a few more seconds, then I smiled again.
"You're probably right. Anyway, can I buy an apple or two? I haven't eaten in a while and I don't really want to spend my entire paycheck today." I said with a laugh. She nodded, then motioned to the different varieties she had on display. I grabbed three different apples, a green one, a red one, and one that was halfway in-between. I was able to tell her I was done, when I noticed a small pile of mini apple pies. I must have started drooling, or at least was otherwise obvious in my desire, because she chuckled and grabbed one off the pile, holding it out to me.
"And one of these, I take it?" She asked with a smile. I nodded slowly, reaching out to grab it. I tossed the other three apples in my bag and inhaled the smells of the pie, with only a passing thought to how I used to only moderately enjoy apple pie, and it now smelled like the best thing in the world. The sound of Applejack's voice finally broke through to me though.
"That'll be three bits total." She said, and I grabbed the money out of my bag. I gave her the coins and walked off with my newfound treasure, impressed by the affects of hunger on tastes. I sat down next to a building a little ways away, and began to rapidly devour the pie. In what felt like an instant, it was gone, leaving me with only sticky hooves and a slightly more happy stomach. I stood up and brushed the crumbs off, then looked around. I didn't have anything else to do, so I decided to go exploring the town. I began munching on the greenest of the apples as I walked, as I was still hungry. I hadn't gotten very far, however, before I heard several young voices yell something out.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TOW-" Followed by a large crashing sound.
"Or not..." I heard the follow up statement, and chuckled to myself as I walked around the corner and saw a large pile of wooden crates, haphazardly settled on the ground, a few of them broken. I shook my head and looked over at the instigators of the commotion, three young fillies. There was a white unicorn with a light purple and pink mane, an orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail, and a yellow earth-pony with a bright pink mane and a slightly lighter pink bow. Suddenly I recognized the last filly.
"Hey, you're Applebloom, right?" I asked as I walked over. She turned and looked at me, confused for a moment, then she realized who I was.
"Oh, ya! And you're that pony who fell-" She started, but I cut her off.
"Please, I'd like to keep that from spreading for as long as possible. But I'd like to thank you for your help; I probably wouldn't have made it without you." I said with a smile. She nodded solemnly, looking over at her friends, who were in turn watching the two of us.
"Oh, and my name's Blazing Star, by the way. Since I couldn't tell you before." I said with a laugh.
"Nice to officially meet ya, Blazing Star. You clearly already know my name, so I'll skip that. This is Scootaloo, and the filly on the end is Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo saluted quickly, and Sweetie Belle waved.
"Pleasure to meet you two. Now if I may ask, what in Equestria were you three doing?" I asked, looking from the fillies to the boxes, then back again. They looked at each other, then slowly Scootaloo spoke up.
"Well... We were trying to get our cutie marks in tower building, but it turns out we're not very good at it. It took all three of us to lift the boxes, and we had to stagger them like steps to get them high enough, so they fell over. So ya..." She said, looking sadly at the boxes. I grimaced and nodded understandingly.
"Sorry about that. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Be careful that they don't fall on you though." I said, starting to turn away.
"Wait a second..." I heard Scootaloo say, and I turned back around.
"You don't have your cutie mark either. So, you could help us, and maybe we'll get our cutie marks in tower building!" She said excitedly, bouncing in excitement at the idea. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at each other, then they too began bouncing excitedly. I almost responded and said no, but then I paused and thought about it. Well, if I'm helping, they're less likely to get hurt, which is good. And I don't really have anything else to do today...
"Sure, why not." I said, sliding my back off where they wouldn't be under hoof.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TOWER BUILDERS! YAY!" They cheered, high hoofing each other. I laughed and shook my head slowly, walking over to the group.
"So, where do we start?" I asked, looking over at the pile.
"Well, first we should probably clean up the old ones so that we've got space to work." Sweetie Belle said, walking over. The rest of us followed her, and soon we had organized all the intact boxes and gotten rid of the broken ones.
"Now, how about we do a few layers that are two by two, so that the ones further up will be more stable." I suggested, looking over at the others. They nodded, and we each began pushing a box over to the spot where we were building. We pushed them together, then took a step back.
"Looks good so far, but that was the easy layer." Applebloom said. We all nodded in agreement, then we went back and grabbed more boxes. We pushed them over to the edge, then one at a time, lifted them up and put them into place. We got them up without a hitch, and looked at our work again.
"Still looks pretty solid, so let's do one more layer of four boxes." I said, and they nodded in agreement. We pushed our four over, then stood looking at the task in front of us. The two rows we had were now taller then I was, so it wouldn't be as easy.
"Ok, so how about Sweetie Belle and Blaze go up on top of the tower, and pull the boxes up, while Applebloom and I lift them from underneath?" Scootaloo asked, looking around at the other three of us. I looked over at Sweetie Belle, who nodded. She clambered up on top of the boxes, using the ones we hadn't yet placed as steps. I followed her up, then turned and prepared to grab the box that Applebloom and Scootaloo were hoisting up. They were definitely struggling, and I grabbed it as soon as I could reach. They then pushed it a little further, until they couldn't reach, then it was all resting in my hooves for a little while. I dragged it up most of the way, until Sweetie Belle could finally reach, and together we pulled it the rest of the way and placed it. We looked over the edge, and motioned for the next one. The process varied little for the next three boxes; the last one just involved lifting it up twice. We were three rows and about ten feet up when Sweetie Belle and I looked at each other and realized that we were soon going to have a problem. It wasn't such a long jump down for me, but for Sweetie Belle it would be a little more difficult. I looked over at her, then down at the ground again.
"Hey, guys, can you move a box over for Sweetie Belle to jump down onto? That way she can help you move boxes up, and I can stack them the rest of the way." I said, motioning behind me. They nodded and pushed a box over, onto which Sweetie Belle jumped.
"Now, if you three can get a box up onto that one, then up as high as you can reach, I should be able to grab it." I said, pointing at the box Sweetie Belle was standing on. After a bit of a struggle, they got it up, and I was able to grab it. I was barely able to pull the box up on my own though, and dragging it up the side of the tower was difficult because of all the edges. Finally, I got it in place at the top of the tower, in the middle. Breathing heavily, I looked over at the three fillies, who were waiting anxiously below. I grinned at them and waved, as if I was towering high above.
"I got it, but I'm not sure how many times I can do that." I said wearily. They looked at each other in concern, then Applebloom got an idea.
"I know! Why don't ya just use magic ta lift 'em instead? I'm sure that'll be much easier." She said happily. I nodded in agreement.
"I'll use magic, but you girls are still going to have to bring them as close as possible, I'm not very good at magic. Also, as soon as you feel the box lift off, I want you to get out from under it, encase I drop it." They nodded and ran over to get another box. A minute or so later, they were holding it up, within physical reach.
"Please hurry Blaze; I'm not sure I can hold this much longer!" Scootaloo said, her voice wavering. I concentrated on the box, and soon it was surrounded by shimmering orange. I began to slowly move it up, and I saw the three fillies run out from under it and stand back to watch. When they let go, it was as if somepony had made the box twice much work to lift, because suddenly I felt like I could actually feel the energy draining out of my body. Upon realizing this, I rushed the box upwards, determined to get at least one of them with magic. Once it was high enough, I moved it over the previous one, and was about to start lowering it when I noticed it was getting scorched and starting to smoke. I promptly dropped it the rest of the way, releasing my magical hold on the box. I pushed the box, which was hot to the touch, into place, aligning it straight on top of the previous one. I looked down at the three fillies again.
"Well, it worked, but I appear to have almost set the box on fire from all the force I was channeling to it. I swear, that felt like almost as much work as picking the box up directly. But I can probably manage that one or two more times, if I move quickly." They quickly got the next box into place, and I wasted no time with inching it around. I grabbed it with my magic and pulled it up as hard as I could, sending it shooting up. I then brought it over and slightly aligned it on the stack, lowering it just far enough that I wouldn't crush the previous two when I let go. It crashed down the last two feet, landing at a diagonal to the others. I straightened it, then we repeated the process again. By then end of the forth box, I was feeling pretty tired, and decided to call it there. I jumped carefully down, and we all stood back to look at our nearly two story tower.
"Well? See anything?" Scootaloo asked, looking at her flank, which appeared to persist in its cutie mark-less state. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were facing the same problem, as was I, but I expected as much.
"Nope. Darn..." Applebloom said sadly.
"Oh well. At least it was fun! Right?" I asked with a smile. They nodded, smiling a little.
"I'm sure you'll find it eventually, you just have to be patient." I said, as I walked over and put my bags back on.
"Ya, ya, ya, but that's boring! I know! Let's go see if Applejack needs our help! Maybe we can get our cutie marks in apple selling!" Scootaloo said excitedly. I laughed and shook my head, walking off into town.
"But I already tried that, before I met you guys, and didn't get anything..." Applebloom said, gradually getting quieter. I looked around, trying to see if there was a clock nearby. I didn't see anything, but I guessed it couldn't be much later then three in the afternoon. I wonder how late Fluttershy will be out, she didn't really say... I thought, wondering what I should do next. As I wandered further, I could swear I saw a blue, and then a yellow streak above me near the clouds, but when I looked up, I didn't see anything.