//------------------------------// // 3 - Music in you // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// I walked a little, the floor feeling odd to walk on, well, with four legs. I tried not to think about the soft clops, or how my legs moved. It just felt right. "You have started off well, the last we did this for had more accidents." Luna sounded approving. Reaching my sad little pile of clothing, the remnants of my old life, I leaned down and reached to the pockets. And fell over. "Oh bother." My voice was higher than it used to be and there was a hint of a smile in it, and how could there not be? "Luna, you said I could use magic, like hands?" I worked to just sit down on my rear and push through my things with hoof and nose. Her presence moved, shifting across the room to be beside me. "Of course. There was an ideal teacher for thee, but she has, unfortunately, had to take her leave of Canterlot. No matter, one will be found and I will send them to you." I managed to dig out my charger and the phone, the latter being dead after a few days without power. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make electricity, but the little charger, I knew, was a lot more flexible in nature than what the phone needed and if I took care of it, it would take care of my phone. I stood up with them in my mouth and Luna chuckled. "What?" I blinked as I said it, how did I talk while my mouth was so full? "We will get you saddlebags for your things. Do you have a plan on what you will do?" Her question came just before a neat little pair of bags floated over and sat over my back. I squirmed a bit but they felt comfortable. "I was good at selling things, and making things. I am sure I can find someone who can use me." Luna nodded to this and her door opened, spilling in the early rays of dawn. "Then go, find your place in Equestria." I hugged her leg again without thinking about it too much and couldn’t help but blush. I surely hadn’t been this hands… hooves, on when I was human. As I turned I felt something drape over my croup. I looked back to see my old shirt, the logo was turned down so it was just black, blending with my fur. She tucked the sleeves and neck under my saddle bags and gave my withers a little pat with that glowing darkness. The sun gained some height before I realized something, Celestia was moving that. I stopped, turning my wonder to the bright orb in the sky. Closing my eyes for a moment and just soaking in the warmth I managed to affix a smile on my snout. Best, day, ever. As I turned back, my mouth opened. "The dark is gone, the day has dawned and I have just begunnnn!" The song bubbled up and I was too astounded to stop myself. "Light of heart, free of spirit, I want to run run run!" It had me and I wouldn’t stop it, it felt so right. I danced through the street, singing, exclaiming at how good it was to simply be. Ponies would stop, sing a verse with me and return to their day. I practically bubbled with how good it felt. Panting, I snagged a post with one fore-hoof and twirled around it to stop at a sad little building. Looking at it I felt a click. "And so I will!" I nodded as the last words came from me. ~~~ It was a whirlwind. I slept in the little run down shop, using hoof and mouth to fix basic things. A week passed by, a week of discovery and excitement. "Ho there, Penny!" It was Mr Loaf, the earth pony baker from the shop next door. They were so happy to have someone move into the ramshackle building and start restoring it that they lent me a hammer, nails and even some spare wood! "Good morning, Mr. Loaf!" I set the hammer down and trotted over to where he was opening his shop. "Need some help today?" I asked it every day, of course. Bakeries did most of their work in the morning and with Mrs Loaf at home with their newborn twins, well, a young mare needing a few bits. But of course it wasn’t for bits I was working. I was paid in bread. "Always Penny. Say, could you get those ovens stoked, how goes the work?" The cream-coloured stallion trotted back out to his cart to fetch a bag of grain. I stepped into the dark store and reached first for the lights. "Oh wonderful, thank you. I had a bit of trouble with that back door, but I think I finally have the place sound enough to think about what I want to do with it." I moved through to the back of the bakery, where the two huge ovens took up most of the room. Leaning down I grabbed some firewood carefully in my mouth and started moving it to the firebox. "I… I might make some more of my little trinkets. You said the foals love them?" The big stallion set the first bag, maze, down at the door. "Oh they adore them. How do you get those cute little gems so shiny? No," he raised his forehooves to ward off my answer, "don’t tell me, you keep those secrets to yourself, make some bits from them." He retreated to the wagon again for more bags while I carefully moved an ember from the banked fireplace, on a little shovel, into the first of the big ovens. No sooner did I have the second one primed and the doors closed than the flames caught on heat started to waft from the doors. "All going!" I trotted out the front to the sales area, clearing away the floor with a broom while Mr Loaf started working on the dough he had prepared the previous day. With that in the ovens and things mostly settled, he shooed me out of the shop. "Come on now, can’t have you slaving away for somepony-else’s shop." As he pushed me out of course, with giggles from me, he set a little bag down beside the front door that I grabbed. "That should tide you over." Trotting back to my little shop, I opened the front door. Working with the big ovens was always hot work and the day was shaping up to be warm. Settling inside for a break, I pulled out the latest little trinket I had been working on. The stones were trash, I had found just the right places to look, however, to get ones that could be salvaged. Wind chimes, bangles, with some polish and work I could make what others threw away into cute jewelry! I began to work the little fold of metal around it with my hoof and got out the coarse bag Mr Loaf had let me have. I felt another song about to start. I loved them, they were good and I was finding myself keeping an ear out in case other ponies were in the middle of one. Stepping out at just the right moment and being their ‘background pony’ was a good pick-me-up. "Excuse me darling, but may I have a look at what you have there?" The song I was hoping would start faded, oh drat. Looking up at the exquisite feminine voice who halted it I almost died of shock. Rarity! "Oh! Uh… I am not open yet…" The excuse tumbled out but Rarity knew two things extremely well. She knew business and she knew gems. "But, uh, here!" I fished the gem out of the holder, showing the half-polished side of the ‘ruined’ stone, then the other. "My dear, this looks ghastly but…" She turned it over in her blue magic. "You have others?" I opened the little drawer beside us, fishing out some of the gems I was hoping I might be able to make back some bits on as well as a few little trinkets. Rarity’s eyes narrowed and she examined each one. "I’ll take this. Can you get me another… oh ten ought to do. Just like this blue opal cluster?" My attempt at a stammer, particularly when the not-too-light bag of bits floated from her saddle bag, settling where the gems were. "I am sure you can, you send a note to Carousal Boutique when you have them. You of course speak to the proprietor." I dumbly nodded and eventually got my voice to work. "Yes Miss Rarity, ma’am!" I got the words out at last and she shook her head. "Oh no no no. This won’t do. Bring them instead, I am sure you have enough there for a little train ride. We simply must do something with that mane." With that, she gave a nod and that little 'hrumph' exclamation I remembered so well, turning and leaving. I was still standing there, the drawer open, bag of bits starting to spill loose inside, when Mrs Loaf poked her head in. "Did I just see one of the," she put a lot of emphasis on ‘the’, "most exclusive fashion designers in all Equestria just leave and… pick your jaw up dear…" She trotted in and waved a hoof in front of my snout that finally broke the spell. "She just paid me… I need to work!" I rushed around in a circle three times, trying to work out where the damaged gems were before realizing they are in my saddle pack. Lifting them out I sighed. "And not a single one the right color." A slight sigh emerged, but all this meant was that I might get a song today after all. It always seemed like big events that kicked them off. "She wants me to polish more stones up, she needs… I need to get going sorry!" I simply rushed out, not even realizing that I left Mrs Loaf with not only all those bits but to close my shop. Of course she did it for me, that is what ponies did. By the time I was trotting home it was nearly mid afternoon, my packs were heavy with badly prepared stones, but not a single one of them was cloudy or had a crack. My snout was a little sore, sticking it into piles of sharp gems was not wise, but I had to do it. "Penny!" A deep voice called. Mr Loaf. "Penny Farthing! You had some letters!" "Be with you in a moment sir," I hadn’t gotten out of the habit of using such an honorific, it always paid dividends to treat somepony… I stopped in my musing and giggled, I was even starting to think with ‘pony’, "just need to drop this load off in the shop!" When I reached Mr Loaf, he had a bit of a blush still about him. He only had eyes for his wife and foals, but having a young mare call him sir always put a blush about him. Mrs Loaf had seen it too and given me a talk. I talked back and she was satisfied. "Oh, that one has a royal seal!" I picked up the midnight-sealed letter and with a flick had it open. Penny, we are to understand you are settled. This is just as we hoped. A tutor has been arranged, they will contact you to organize where and when you can be trained. It is our sincere hope that you will enjoy and grow into the shadow of your horn. As for that… other issue, we will seek you tonight in your dreams. - Luna “Oh, I am finally going to learn to use my horn!” My exclamation got a happy nod from Mr Loaf. “I… you know I grew up a fair way from here. I never had anyone around to teach me.” The happiness bubbled up inside. "This is going to be great, I wonder who it is?" The other letter, hopefully from my new tutor, had no wax seal but was neatly folded. I wondered who it would be from.