//------------------------------//
// Ch. 08 - Building 
// Story: A New Home 
// by Shads 
//------------------------------//

"Wow..."

Being a port town, it was no surprise that Windshore's southern border consisted entirely of water. The town stretched across the coast, but it mainly attempted to extend further inland. The only real difficulty with that was the large forest to the east. Much like its Everfree brother, it was largely untamed, though it lacked the more 'unique' creatures. Still, most ponies tended to leave the forest to its own devices instead of trying to decrease its size, fearing that some of its denizens may try to exact revenge on the town for destroying their homes.

That, of course, meant that the only directions for expansions were the open fields to the north and west.

And Celestia were they beautiful.

Mane had never really explored the edges of the town, instead tending to stick to the inner parts where his job and old home were. He found himself regretting that he never had a reason to be out here before.

"It's nice, huh?" Blue asked.

"Better than nice." Mane chimed in, still recovering from the sight of the expansive grassy flatlands. "This is exactly what I wanted." He looked over to the mayor standing off to the side. "Remind me how this works again?"

"Normally, we would have all of this land divided up into plots to sell. But as you can see," he swept a hoof in the direction of the fields, "there's no immediate need to do such a thing. Windshore will naturally expand into these fields eventually, but our current rate of growth dictates that it won't be for a long, long time." He turned back to Mane. "As such, you'll be allowed to suggest your own boundaries. The price of the land will be determined by the amount of square hooves it encompasses."

Mane looked helplessly over to Blue who walked over to the two. "The initial house design is looking to come out at around 750 square hooves." Blue told the mayor who nodded. "Since it's likely he's going to want an outside area, not to mention an area to expand upon, we'll have to make the boundaries a bit further from the house. My thoughts were that we should pick here, here, here, and here for the corners..."





With the sun on the horizon and the moon slowly rising to take its place, Mane, Blue, and Cherry sat in their dining room enjoying a freshly-made dinner. Mane, feeling ecstatic about the day's activities, decided to go all out to show his appreciation.  The feast laid out before them consisted of all different kinds of meals that Mane had come to learn over the years. The vast amount of food would likely serve as leftovers for the next week.

"Mmm," Cherry moaned, "you've really outdone yourself this time."

Blue nodded before swallowing. "Was it really wise to spend so much on all this, though?" He peered around the table at all of the food in front of them. "Not that we don't appreciate it, but this is honestly too much. You should really be saving the rest of your money for furniture."

"I've already picked out a bed. I think the rest of it can wait a bit longer." Mane bent over the table to move more food onto his plate. "Besides, I wanted to do this. You've both done so much for me, and pretty soon I'll be moving out. With me trying to furnish the place and nearly living across town, I don't know the next time I'll be able to visit you two for dinner." Mane paused, looking down at his plate in contemplation.

Blue paused eating and looked over to his wife, remembering something from earlier that day. "Quill was saying earlier how much he hated how we drifted apart. Maybe we could do a weekly get-together on the weekends."

Cherry gasped. "That would be great! Though, I'm not sure how he'd feel about spending even more time away from his family." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Maybe they could come, too. I can't remember the last time I talked with Sunny. Oooh, I wonder how cute their foals are..."

Mane perked up. "That sounds nice." Truthfully, while he had met many of the townsponies from his job, his only real friends were Blue, Cherry, and Muffin. Quill had seemed like a nice enough stallion and it couldn't hurt to be on the good side of somepony with his authority. 

"Well, I'll be sure to swing by his office sometime this week and tell him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Blue leaned back and rubbed his stomach. "I think that's enough for me." Cherry mirrored his actions.

Mane rose from his seat. "I'll be sure to get everything cleaned up and stored for later--"

"Ah ah," Cherry interrupted, "I'm helping."

"You don't have to--"

"Nope," she persisted, "you've done enough tonight. We'll help with the clean up, right honey?" She turned back to her resting husband.

His face twitched for a moment, likely for being 'voluntold' into work. He nodded before getting up from his seat. "I've got the dishes."

"That's my husband." She gave him a quick nuzzle as he passed her, giving him a small smile on his face.