The town square was lively, packed with all sorts of ponies milling about between stalls of fruit and flowers, fireworks and fantastical crafts. In the center, a stage was set up; a select group of ponies was behind the curtain, conversing. But nowhere in the town was a frown to be found, even as Pennaprose peeked out the curtain to see it.
"This brings back memories..." he said wistfully.
Images of the awards ceremony a month ago played in his head. He twitched as he remembered every sour look as he badmouthed the whole crowd, but continued smiling anyway. He ducked back in response to a tap on his shoulder. It was Mayor Mare.
"Pennaprose! Good to see you. I take it your end of the speech is finished?"
He nodded. "Yes, Marilyn. A late-nighter, but I whipped it out. I think you'll be pleased with it."
"Oh, calling me by my real name!" she admonished playfully. "A week and a half in the office and this is the third speech you've done up! I knew it was a good idea to hire you! Although I hope that housing firm you worked for doesn't mind!"
He flinched as he recalled his original cover story for coming to Equestria via meteor impact. "...Yeah, I'm sure they won't mind."
He turned away and trotted over to check to sound systems. A white-coated unicorn he knew as Vinyl was there, poking around inside one of the cases.
"Hey, Vinyl. You aren't trying to crank the speakers again, are you?"
She rolled out from underneath it, covered in dust and oil. "Nah. The correct term is 'blasting'. Cranking means I get wasted first."
"We're giving a speech, not a rock concert. And the correct term is 'getting crunk'. Knock it off," he said.
She rolled her eyes. "Fiiiiine, whatever. Hey," she said excitedly. "After this, wanna get a few drinks? I know this one place that's really—"
"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't drink. ...And you were going to say Berry's house, weren't you?"
She laughed uproariously, a giant grin plastered on her face. "Yep! Y'know, even if you haven't been living in this town that long, you've fit right in."
"That's the fifth time this week you've asked me to go out drinking, Vinyl," said Pennaprose. "I doubt I've gotten the hang of this town yet—it's just you that's easy to figure out. In fact—" he added, sniffing, "—you've been drinking already, haven't you?"
"Just a glass of wine in the morning. You're not my mom!" she retorted.
She ducked back into the box, sending a few sparks flying out. He passed her, noting a few muffled expletives mixed in with the sparks, saying nothing more.
Pennaprose gave out a big sigh, reciting key points in his head. Wish I finished this a day ago. Three hours is hardly enough time to practice.
He stooped next to a pile of crates, reading over a few flash cards Lyra had borrowed three days ago. That's another thing I need to—
"Penni! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!"
He looked up, dropping his flash cards in surprise. Before him, a purple alicorn holding several stacks of books in her magic stood before him. "Hi, Twilight. How have you been?"
"I haven't seen you around town lately! Most ponies I asked just assumed you've dropped of the face of Equestria," she said, putting the books down. "I was a little worried you weren't going to show up, but I got it from the Mayor you were working on a speech?"
"To a tee, yes," he responded. "I wrote the Mayor's half of the joint speech within a day of her giving me the prompt, but I've been struggling to key up my half. Well, I say my half, but it's really only a paragraph. Or five."
"So that's why you've been invisible for a week? Being a mole while you write a single paragraph?"
He looked away determinedly. "...Yes... but I should thank you for the flash cards. I didn't have any, and apparently Lyra asked to borrow some from you?"
"Yeah, she showed up at the castle three days ago—said something about wanting to help you organize your speech—then took off after I lent her some cards. ...How are you two doing at her house? Where is it?"
"She'd rather not say, and she'd rather not anyone know. In her own words... 'poets are as wistful as a dream's thread, heedless as nightmares, and require silence beyond the falling of a single thread hitting the ground.' ...So needless to say, our sleep schedules are often flip-flopped. I'm a night owl, reading or fiddling with writing, while she's a daytime tiger—she likes to pounce on disturbances when she works."
Twilight looked bewildered for a second, but shook her head and continued. "Anyway... about the speech. There are five representatives and five vice-representatives, one for each of the largest pony settlements in Equestria. As it so happens, I'm Ponyville's representative. As I'm not the one actually doing the speaking... come with me! You need to meet the other representatives!"
She tugged his glasses off his face with her magic, giggling. "Catch me if you can!"
He stumbled to his feet, tripping over his flashcards. Twilight had already made twenty paces by the time he got up; he snorted in frustration as he collected his cards and chased after the purple blur in his vision.
"Not fair!" he cried after her. "I can't see anything without those!"
He swirled around moving splotches of color, ducking and dodging beams as best as he could. "Twilight! Get back here!"
A sudden block of white cut him off, making him screech to a halt. He did not stop fast enough, however—he ran muzzle first into something soft and squishy and fell over.
"S-sorry," he said instinctively. "Did you see where a purple alicorn went? She stole my glasses and I—"
"Here."
The voice that answered was terse, but not without warmth. Suddenly, he felt a familiar pressure on his face and his vision cleared. Before him was an unusually tall unicorn in white lab coat that dragged like a blanket. His mane was trimmed to a fine, razor point at his temple and split cleanly down the middle with white and red while his coat was a dark forest shade of green; his facial features, unforgivingly cut to a crystalline edge. Yet no matter how severe his appearance seemed, his voice was unmistakably soft and forgiving.
"The alicorn you spoke of is Twilight Sparkle, representative of this town, correct?"
He stood up, brushing his mane back into place. "Y-yes," he said, adjusting his glasses. "Wait, how did you—"
"Undoubtedly, she has not yet noticed I observed the whole incident and swapped your glasses for a fake pair without her noticing. Heheh..."
He stared. Eventually, he noticed and stared back. "Er, sorry? Did I say something wrong?"
"No," he replied. "What is your name?"
He blinked and lifted a hoof from underneath his coat. A badge was pinned there, yet he kept his hoof covering a part of it.
_____________∆____________
|° Bassino Verifik Azion °|
|REPRESENTATIVE of |
"A representative?" he asked.
"Yes. I will be keeping it a surprise of who I am a representative of until the meeting," he said, letting the coat fall back into place. "It is unimportant that you know now anyway. For you will soon."
Bassino turned around, trotting away—as Pennaprose blinked, he was gone. Nopony around seemed to notice as they were running about, setting up the stage's final touches.
Nopony at all.