I was coexisting with an individual in a land faraway from Equestria! A hall of silvery radiance was the stage assembled just for the two of us. We were peacefully talking under the thousands shades of gold from the majestic sun. The bright skies above us were of faint graphite with subtle tones of celeste blue!
We were in a warm discussion, enjoying the moment while admiring our glimmering eyes. My speeches were of hopes and ideals, nurtured from my continuous learning of Friendship from my day to day experiences. On the other hand, the words that he or she used, the monologues he professed, and the lessons she shared, although equal in the core from my beliefs, were different in the way in how to achieve it.
Eventually, our peaceful talking became a discussion, our heated discussion became an argument, and the fiery argument became a fiendish strife of damnation to our ideals.
I stepped forward - to stand my ground - and protect what I always tried to defend: My dreams! My utopian realm brightens by my act, and the plane of existence of my listener is engulfed in shadows! Suddenly…
The world of the living welcomes me once again!
Nothing of it was real! My eyes saw the tangible roof of greyish tones, its fan giving me a pleasant sensation of artificial air. I tried to remember what I dreamed in that surreal product of my imagination, but the more effort I put into it, the more I was forgetting its events! Now, trying to remember the fantasy lived in my mind was like trying to grasp the intangible softness of the breeze. You could feel it for a moment, but the feeling disappears as fast as a new wind arrives.
I had a memory of it a few moments ago, and suddenly… it banished… without leaving a sweet aroma to indulge myself upon it.
Dreams like this in Equestria tended to be of a prophetic nature. Princess Twilight wrote me during one of our previous book texting sessions that not even the Princess of the Night was able to understand at its fullest all the dreams she had visited during her royal duties as the Guardian of the Dreams.
She herself admitted that nopony could fully grasp with complete understanding the fantasies of the dreamers, for each dreamer possess a different notion of what is the meaning of consciousness. Every mind is its own world, its own universe, and its own reality. Fascinating, capable of transcending time and existence, dreams were something that could become a reality in a partial way if we work hard enough for them.
Isn’t that right, my stubborn, new friend?
But it wasn’t the time to ask someone who wasn’t even there. I better hurry if I want to arrive on time!
…….
…….
“Where are we going, again?”
“To Sugarcube Corner. Where else? You said I could choose any place of my liking for ‘saving’ you from Flash, as you claimed yesterday!”
“You saved Twilight, not me! And I was thinking something more like an actual meal! That place doesn’t have a proper menu of solid food!”
“Don’t worry, Nitpick! The Cakes also have a special menu with healthy food! Contrary to common knowledge, they serve excellent meals like sandwiches and baguettes!”
“Are they quick? We will be late for today’s labors at our work stations if we keep walking at this pace!”
“Don’t worry! Our school partners will find a way to manage without us! Besides, we have a special mission of my own to do!”
“What an incredible way to enjoy the rest of the day after school! Working tirelessly on those places and wasting our youth!”
“Our schoolmates will be doing the heavy work on our behalf, so I don’t see the reason why you should be complaining! Today is an excellent day to make some good, out of the box, progress!”
“I don’t think we aren’t doing much help besides cleaning! This is beyond our field of expertise, and to some extent, maturity! How in the world we will help homeless children? I could understand helping the elderly or sick to give them a moment of fun! But kids, seriously? I barely could keep up with my younger sister when she was around!”
I don’t think I could help that much either. After all… The word ‘Orphan’ doesn’t exist in Equestria… my world of Equestria. How could someone abandon its own child was beyond my darkest thoughts! It must be horrible for the colt or mare, I mean, kids! Alien, even! I was evil once… but I don’t think I was that evil before…
No! I will find a way! We always do!
“Anyway, this isn’t the shortest route to go to Sugarcube Corner!” Nitpick said straightforward.
“I know. It’s a detour of mine. I wanted to walk for a bit before having some food in my belly. It’s a fresh afternoon, don’t you think so?”
“We need to be at five with the others, remember that!”
“The two of us won’t go for today, Nitpick!”
“Why?”
“The special mission I told you moments ago? We’ll do some visits to some places and ask them for financial support!”
“Excuse me, what?”
“We’re the committee representatives! It’s our duty to do the speaking and negotiations, Partner!”
“Ask Rarity for that kind of stuff instead of me! She is the social one, remember?”
Suddenly, a noisy growl came from his stomach. I couldn’t help but release a laugh at that. His face was so serious but his cheeks couldn’t hide his embarrassment!
“Perhaps we should discuss during our meal so we can reach a mutual understanding, and un-grumpify yourself while at it!”
“Uhu…”
The Cakes welcomed us in their small café, giving us their best smiles while serving us. I asked for a Veggie Panini with a can of my favorite organic berry juice while he asked for a meat based Panini with some apple juice. Seriously, not since Applejack I have met someone who drinks mostly apple juice in his meals.
I explained to him my idea with the best detail I could offer, with some backup in the form of an electronic document that I sent him during our talk. We needed funds for the future activities we would do for the institutions, and the income that CHS could give us wasn’t enough to make something great for the three of them! So, the answer was simple: Get some sponsors!
There was an important detail written in small letters in the rules of the competition: We may not do something out of the ordinary to fulfill our responsibilities, which in this case would be Pony-up. BUT! We can obtain funds from third parties interested in advertising their names for a good cause! We could solve the problems of money for our activities still in discussion and give a good name to those who agree to help us to the public! Is a win-win situation for everyone!
“And that’s the idea, what do you think?”
“Rejected.” He instantly said.
“WHAT!?” I slammed the table. “WHY!?”
“Because if words spread of this, people like Blueblood would swarm the place with money and overwhelm CHS! That’s why Sugarcoat and I were scolding him the whole weekend from brining unnecessary problems to those places! His maids on the first day, for example!”
“You knew about this tiny detail all this time and you didn’t say a word to me about it?”
“You never asked my opinion on the matter.” He crossed his arms and closed his eyes with seriousness.
This guy…!
“But at this rate we are gonna lose before we even begin! Our school funds aren’t enough to hold an event this big! We only have six thousand dollars to work with and getting sponsors would give us an edge! ”
“And if we spread the word, the rich guys like him won’t raise a single finger on the matter and will hire people to do the work that is supposed to be done by us! With our hands, you know!”
“We must take the risk! Principal Celestia has faith in us, so we must do something about it! I know we can give a good show if the school unites its might once more!”
“I don’t want to give a good show anymore! I just want to be done with this the old-fashioned way!”
“Remember that we have a friendship at stake with our little, personal competition! A very valuable one!”
“Now that you mention that…” He gave me the odd eye while drinking his juice. “I was meaning to speak about something related to her with you!”
“Flash is not a stalker! Yesterday when I ‘saved’ both of you was only an exaggeration of your imagination! He is a nice guy and only wants Twilight’s acceptance!”
“He is an obsessive and creepy Brad, Shimmer! Don’t let your past feelings for him blind you of that! He was looking at Twilight like a desperate dog! How couldn’t you see that in his face?”
“As I said before, you are exaggerating! He is just trying to make a friendship with Twilight, that’s all! Besides, I don’t have past feelings for him, Bittersweet! I never cared about him!”
“…?”
I sighed deeply with regret. “Please forget what I said... I didn’t mean that…”
“I understand…” He closed his eyes with reflection. He didn’t say a word for a short time that seemed like an eternity to me. “But I still believe he is a danger to her! I told Lightbulb and Bon Bon to work with her from now on when she isn’t with us! If they see anything strange, they’ll tell me right away! Understand?”
“I still believe you are taking things too far but I understand! And speaking of them, did you text them that we aren’t going to join them for today?”
“Bon Bon will be in charge of my duty, and I asked the rest of the team to help her out! I hope you chose a responsible candidate while you are away with me!”
“Of course I did! I chose Pinkie Pie to be in charge!”
“I better take the coming bus before something bad happens!”
“Wait!” I stopped him before he could leave. “You will come with me and help me get sponsors for the school! I still haven’t forgiven you on the matter of your absence on her party!”
“I don’t trust her lack of maturity with any serious project! And why are you angry about me for not having gone to her party? I am not her friend, just acquaintances!”
“She invited you personally! That it’s something!”
“Not for me.”
“At least have faith in her on this! It’s the least you can do for her!”
“Fine! Just don’t blame me if something goes wrong! You know that this-”
“Wait, wait!” I raised my hand and rubbed my forehead. “We have done this dance too many times for my liking since our first date! We engage in a conversation, then one of us don’t agree with the point of the other, and we argue until we get annoyed of our presences. And we repeat this silly cycle the next time we find something else to vent ourselves with!”
He thought for a moment what I say and simply nodded his head with reluctant agreement.
“Look, the school tests were harder this time, homework was stressful and abundant, not to mention that we have gone to the institutions all these days to keep a steady progress! Instead of fighting for today, why don’t we finish our food in peace and try to be civilized on the matter?”
He sighed somewhat tired. “That sounds good.”
“Well, let’s talk about something else! Any good books that have you read, recently?” I took a bite of my Panini and I released a small gasping of joy from the intoxicating flavor of the tomato melting inside my mouth. “Oh, this is good…” I mumbled. “Something that is worth chatting about?”
“Mmm...” He scratched his head while looking at the ceiling. “The Black Rose of Malice, if memory serves me right, was the last book I read recently! Ever since I got back my 3SD, I haven’t read many books… no-one to talk about this stuff on school.”
“Isn’t that book about the pleasures of life in the most spiritual way?”
“That’s possible one interpretation. Mine is that sometimes people chose the path normally rejected by society to achieve happiness! A perversion, if I must say, of the normal and civilized human being! Become a rejected by one’s own will!”
“That’s so silly! Being part of society and interacting with people is where a person grows the most! Happiness is sharing! Sharing is caring! That’s what Pinkie always says!”
“And what about if its society the true source of a person choosing an alternative path for happiness? There are nasty social groups out there that makes the people believe that they are aren’t worth a damn around other people!”
“Well, they just need to find better social groups! Nothing will happen if they stay imprisoned in their own worlds! To fight solitude, you must search your ideal multitude!”
“Multitude, solitude, it doesn’t matter! There are multitudes that make you feel lonelier in this world, also, solitude gives plenty of comfort to those who loves their silent whisper! It’s dark embrace!”
“But a loner can never be a triumphant being! You need help from people to discover your true potential!”
“I agree on that when that’s the case but if within the interests of a loner, being by themselves makes them happy, then that is a kind of victory in my books! Don’t you think so?”
I released a small smile and gave him piece of my mind. Once again, he gave me an answer in return and our little cycle started again. This was… comforting, to say the least. One idea leaded to another. One insinuation leaded to an interaction. How beautiful it is to express oneself with someone who enjoys it as well, especially when there was no compromises, no strings attached. Not any kinds of forced pact to make us keep going.
But as I looked at the hour, I noticed that we have lost too much time by now. It was time to leave this comfort and work on our duty of today. Our first stop was at the local supermarkets. The manager of each place gave us a small welcoming and a little interest in being part of our program. As always, the first try isn’t that fruitful so we kept searching for other stores, other services, other institutions who would be interested in helping us in a noble cause.
Because of the limited time, we only visited eight different places today and we didn’t get a single, concrete answer. It didn’t matter! Those who don’t search long enough won’t find the treasure in the end of the journey!
We tried again the next day, and the next, and the next, but the results weren’t satisfactory either. The people in charge during the interview tried to be civilized in the matter but they weren’t as interested as the places we visited yesterday. It didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten a single bite of proper source of nourishment since morning and our bad mood was starting to emerge from our mouths in the form of water vapor.
Then, during Saturday morning…
“This isn’t working, Shimmer.”
“I KNOW!” I inhaled fresh air to vent faster. “But we need to get the money one way or another! We must keep trying!”
“Then we should change our approach! The way we are doing things is too… goody-goody!”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… Back on Crystal Prep, I had to struggle with people like Blueblood, Polomare and Dust in a daily basis, and with time, I learned something useful from them: You must hit them hard in their interests so they can comply with your ideas!”
“We have done this all this time! We told the managers of each store that we would give their brand a good advertisement image if they help us out!”
“Yes, I know! But listen!” He walked around me with a slow rhythm. I felt that his eyes only focused on my eyes’ level. “We need to give them more reasons to help us out than we give them reasons to help us!”
“Excuse me, what?”
“Sorry, perhaps I said that wrong.” He cleared his throat. “We must give them a reason to their egos to make them feel that they need to aid us! I mean, if we give them the incentive to support us while positioning their brand in a high note, they won’t have any reasons to reject our petition for aid!”
“You want us to create a necessity for them that helping us out is good for their business?” I thought that for a moment. “Yes… I see! And if we give them insurance that in no way they will lose their investment, then the probabilities to get a positive result will increase!”
“Shall we give it a try?”
“Let’s talk about what we are going to say on the way to out next local!”
We were brewing a dialogue of sorts in a short time to get what we needed. We couldn’t fail this easily. A month may seem like a long span of time for events for these but truth to be told… it wasn’t enough. Our friends were doing their part while we hadn’t achieved something meaningful, and I saw in him another thing we shared in common.
We hated the idea of ridiculing our friends’ efforts with failure.
The moment of truth was at hand… in an overkill place for the likes of us. The Town’s Hall of Ponyville was more elegant than I imagined on the inside. The old ivory floor and its sophisticated old wood from the furniture gave me the feeling that we were dealing with something big. No matter if it is from a small town, a Town’s Hall that is worthy of praise always gives you the vibe of behaving with respect to the place and its workers.
“Mayor Mare is ready to give you a public audition! Please follow me, young ones!” The Mayor’s secretary said.
We followed her with a bit of fright, even if our faces said otherwise. As soon as the modest woman opened the door for us to get inside… well, we let our bodies took the nearest seats.
“Uhhh! It’s so marvelous to see young people giving me a visit to this majestic Hall of Ponyville! As you know, I’m Mayor Mare! In what can I help you with, youngsters?”
“Uh…”
“Well…”
This was harder than expected.
I cleared my throat and calmed myself down. “We’ll be brief so we don’t take away too much of your time! We come from CHS and we are doing an event for some organizations in the city!”
“Oh! The Thanksgiving event, isn’t?” The Mayor took a sip from her coffee mug. “I knew Celestia wouldn’t disappoint the town this year either! So, what do you need from me, little youngsters?”
“We need funds to sustain the expenses of our planning festivities! The money we have at our disposal isn’t vast enough to do something good, so we came to you to ask aid from the town!” Nitpick said.
“If you allow us to grab less than four thousand dollars from the town’s treasury, we can definitely make a pleasant celebration to the people of those noble institutions!”
“We are prepared to give you insurance that we won’t waste the money! If you need proof that we are genuinely part of CHS and not a scam, we will make the impossible to give you a meeting with the Principal herself so she can take custody of the funds!”
“We are even prepared to give you credit for this possible opportunity to promote your goodwill to the state!”
When we stopped giving our offer, a brief silence fell upon us. The Mayor looked at us with a serious face, and then she frowned, closed her eyes…
“OOhoooohohoho! This IS delicious!”
She laughed…
“We suck at this.” Nitpick mumbled with embarrassment.
“No! Oh no, Young one! Don’t misunderstand my out-of-place laugh!” She cleared her tears of joy from her face. “You were so much better than me during my first day as a representative of this kind of events during my college days!”
“Really?” I asked.
“YES! I’m so glad that Celestia keeps doing her best in raising excellent students! Always the unorthodox junior, that one! Luna was more… is more stiff in her methods. But those two…” She sighed with a nostalgic silhouette. Her pupils expanding to the memories of the past, cherished moments. “I can’t help you with the funds, I’m afraid! Ponyville is making its annual maintenance routine this month and we are currently helping the suburbs with its sewer system pipelines that are affecting the northern section of our beloved town.”
I couldn’t help but give away a face of defeat.
“Why the long faces, you two? Not all is lost! There is an alternative!”
“Which is?”
“Train under my wing for three days! I assure you that under my tutelage, you will learn how to persuade in an efficient way to the people you wish to get sponsorship from! You have talent! But you lack the appropriate body language and key words to succeed! The attitude was there, but your speech was weak in content! You need to be more colorful and exciting with your proposals!”
“Are you serious?” Nitpick said with renewed hope. “You will help us out?”
“Only if you don’t disappoint me on the first day! Which is today, if you are interested!”
“WE ARE INTERESTED!” We said in a single voice.
“Then let’s get started! I won’t lie, you two! You’ll be the paperboys in my meetings while you learn, so don’t despair!”
“Yes, madam!”
She really didn’t lie when we would be the paperboys of her work. Various representatives from the water treatment plant came to her office. We were serving them beverages and bestowing notebooks, pens and from time to time, official documents to their hands.
All of them were given proposals to solve a problem that I wasn’t aware of! It seems that the sewer system from the northern part of the town was overlooked in its maintenance schedule this past few years and repairing that section was nearly impossible by now. They gave her suggestions of upgrading to a more complete and sophisticated sewer system to make things easier for them and the people in the long run.
Mayor Mare soon spoke her mind.
“I appreciate your concerns about improving the way our little town is living right now! But the truth is that even if we were to get the funds needed to implement a satisfactory outcome from all of this, I must ask of you: Why?”
We didn’t understand what she was trying to say. The next thing should be maintaining the status quo and keep giving an improvement in the public service.
“Most of you must have thought keeping the improving was good enough. Am I correct? Young ones, what do you think of all of this?”
If she expects another answer…maybe…
“I say that by improving a section of the town with sophisticated equipment, it would benefit the population’s lifestyle in the long run!” I said. “But I also believe that giving a proper maintenance to a functional, existing system would be beneficial to us instead of buying an expensive luxury! We must look out for people’s feeling on the matter! If this project takes too long, the health issues will be an even major problem than the benefits!”
“Excellent! Nitpick, do you agree with her?”
“Mayor! They are kids and this is a serious matter! They don’t know a thing about what they are saying!”
“Let him speak! Nitpick?”
“Well… For me, maintenance is not really a cost issue, and not even the important point of this problem!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If I may speak more bluntly, all of you are trying to do more with funds we don’t even have! As far as I understood, I think that all of you are trying to convince us of something that the town doesn´t need at all!”
“Why are you saying that, young one?” The mayor said with expectative.
“Because I am a public client and user of one of the services you are trying to fix in this meeting! I live alone while my parents give me a monthly income to pay the water service, the electrical service and so on and on! And you know what? I expect my money’s worth from those services, and unless you are making a quick and good job on those plans of upgrading your system, I rather you do a normal maintenance routine than making something big that will take months to do! And more important, this upgrading is completely unnecessary at our current point!”
“Kid, upgrading our water services will give the town a better flow of fresh water for more population to live here!” Said one representative. “You just don’t know how this works!”
“Pfff! Please don’t kid my intelligence, sir!” He said defiant.
“Nitpick, stop!” I grabbed his shirt.
“Let me talk, Sunset! Look! This town has a maximum population of ten thousand inhabitants at most! And that includes future expansions in our surroundings! I know because my teacher Cheerilee made an extensive research during her trip to the Capital for her class last weekend! Also, I was reading the manuals of your systems while you were talking since you were kind enough in allowing me to read them. Our current sewer system is efficient enough to maintain a population of thirteen thousand people, and that includes expansions!”
“Well, kid! That’s because it was an estimation that our old calculation procedures gave to us ten years ago!”
“So you are saying that you sold to the state a faulty sewer system?”
Uncomfortable silence doomed us all for a moment.
“No! It’s just that our technology has improved over time and Ponyville needs to look at the future of things!”
“Which is unnecessary at our current state of things, gentlemen!” The Mayor said. “The town needs reliability in its commodities! A good sewer system! A good electrical circuit! And so on and so on! But! What If you our population doesn’t grow to the point of our maximum capacity and being constrained isn’t an issue? Then the investment in a new water system would be a waste! Those resources of upgrading could be administered at other parts of the town like fixing the streets, the electrical system service, the medical facilities, and so on and so on!”
“But!”
“Yes, you must make some estimates, develop plans, sell your proposition and in the end be accountable for the results if an ‘investment’ is to be made. But to what use is to implement something unnecessary to a town just to an increase of fifteen percent of maximum capacity when giving a proper maintenance to a sewer system that is fully operational is the better outcome!?” She gave to both of us some documents that she withdrew from her side folder, asking us to deliver them to the representatives at their hands.
As we read the documents, I was surprised to see that various tests by other companies were done several days ago. The results were that the sewer system was in top notch condition and that the northern section of the system was the only weak point in the whole town.
“Gentlemen! Please do the normal procedure and fix this issue as soon as possible! I will check out personally the progress of your work in the coming days!” She got up from her seat and showed to our guest the long and spacious door that leaded to the exit with a pleasant smile. “Have a pleasant day!”
Several minutes later, she came to us.
“Number one: before even making a movement to your target, always make research of all possibilities in your near future! Number two: be assertive! You could have the best reasons in the world but if you show fear, then you will be outsmarted easily! Number three, and this is important: Think your answers before speaking! If you aren’t one-hundred percent sure of what can you offer is possible, then consider yourself doomed to fail instantly!”
“We’ll take these teachings at heart!” I said.
“Don’t! There is much to learn yet! Go grab something to eat and come back in one hour! These three next days you will see many things! Some good… other will be kind of…umm, you’ll see!”
We thanked her with a humble reverence and went our way to eat something good. While we were walking, I noticed that my stubborn partner was following me a little behind my back. His steps were long, slow and heavy, trying to give away the impression that he was just a follower of mine instead of my collaborator.
His face was bitter… but somewhat sweet.
“Nitpick.”
“Yes?”
“You were great.”
“Thanks… you did great too. You thought for the town first instead of selfish reasons like mine.”
“In business, I think that sometimes you must be selfish to succeed… as much as I don’t like that notion.”
“Then we were like a pair of inexperienced good-bad cops.”
“Hehe… maybe.” I slowed my pace so we could walk side by side. I patted his back and gave him my best smile. “I know in my heart that they we are going to do good things in the long run! Let’s go grab some snacks at Sugarcube Corner! My treat this time!”
“I’m still worried… this isn’t a normal competition. This is really a serious business! We got lucky because this was more a political problem and the Mayor was in charge of the show… what if we screw things up on our own? What if-?”
“Nitpick, look at me!” He slowly locked his eyes at mine. “Trust in your new school! And trust in me, as I trust in you! We are going to make a great job if we put everything on the line!”
I grabbed his hand tenderly and walked together the rest of the way. As soon as we finished enjoying some desserts and sweet coffee from the Cakes, we went back to the Hall with renewed strength. The day will not die anytime soon.