A Carnival for you and me.

by Rubycast

Day two

Day two:

Mayor Mare frowned as she looked at the town budget for repairs. In just a month they had used up all the budget for the next two years, and even though the town was repaired, they had no money for other important expenses; such as paying the weather team.

She looked at the small bag of bits on her desk and sighed. “It doesn’t seem like taxes on businesses helped much.” She said to herself. She looked to her other side and saw a stack of papers piled upon each other, but those weren’t papers that needed to be signed by the Mayor, but rather options on how to raise money. The paper on the top was covered with dark red X’s. The ink ran down the paper, covering more of the faded words.

She narrowed her eyes at the stack. “You’re worthless.” She growled. “Mayors of different generations wrote you. They took their time when they wrote you, as if they were writing a letter to the Princess herself, yet--” She stomped her hoofs on her desk, jarring the objects on it “--You can’t help me! WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS!” She threw the stack from her desk. Each paper glided down to the floor, each marked with the red Xs. “Everything written on you is outdated!” She stomped on the papers. “Everything about you is worthless! From the faded words to the dates you were written!”

She almost spat when she remembered the earliest date on one paper was ten years ago! Ten! What had the other mayors done during those ten years?! Why couldn’t they share their secret to the mayors that would come to be in the future? And why had Ponyville changed so much in just ten years!

“Why did the other mayors have more luck than me!” She yelled as she stomped the papers harder. “Why didn’t their town get destroyed by parasprites, or cranky Usra Minors, or a blue unicorn with a big ego?! Why did it have to happen to me? Why! Why! Why! Why-”

“Mayor!”

Mayor Mare halted in her wild stomping to look at the source of the voice. A grey mare with a silver mane stood at the doorway. Her blue eyes were wide as could be, but soon turned into a glare. She shook her head slowly before trotting over to the mayor. She used her magic to levitate the mayor from the papers and placed her in her seat.

She gathered up the damaged paper into a neat stack, then levitated them over to her face before shaking her head and threw all of them in the trash. She turned her attention to the mayor’s desk. She placed each object in its rightful place--after making sure it wasn’t damaged--then turned to Mayor. She levitated a handkerchief from her vest’s pocket and used it to clean Mayor’s hooves.

Once everything was clean and prefect as it was everyday, she spoke. “What were you doing?”

Mayor Mare--who had been silenced by shock over what she had done and getting caught--tried to look down shamefully, but the mare’s magic caught her head and forced her to look into her eyes. “I-I-” she closed her eyes. “I-I don’t know what to do, Silver Bell! I just don‘t know!” She put her hooves to her eyes and sobbed loudly.

Silver Bell used her magic to shut the door before anypony else could hear the mayor’s cries, then sighed. “Mayor, please tell me what brought this up.” She levitated another handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to Mayor, who gladly took it.

Mayor took in small breathes as she tried to calm herself down. She removed her glasses then dabbed her eyes with the handkerchief. Once she was sure she would be able to talk without crying, she took in a deep breath and looked at the mare. “I received the town budget for this month from the accountant an hour ago. He seemed uneasy as he did so and kept looking at the door every second. I wasn’t sure why, until I looked at the paper.” She grabbed Silver’s shoulders and shook her. “We’re broke for the next two years!”
Silver quickly used her magic to grabbed Mayor’s hooves then--after giving her head a moment to stop spinning--removed them from her shoulders and dropped them. “Mayor,” she said in a calm tone, “you don’t have to worry about that. Mayor opened her mouth to protest, but was silenced when Silver raised her right hoof. “Because I already have a solution to the problem, and she should be here any moment-” She was cut off by a knock at the door. She smiled at Mayor. “Prefect timing.”

Instead of using her magic, like she had done many times earlier, she trotted over to the door and opened it. “Welcome, Ms. Cat.” She said before moving away.

Mayor’s breath caught in her throat as she watch Carnival Cat walk in. Never before had she seen a pony’s coat look almost...dead. It was like the pony was deadly sick and could die any second, yet she walked with ease like any healthy pony.

Carnival Cat stopped when she reach the mayor’s desk. She grinned at Mayor, making her slightly cringe before correcting herself. Mayor quickly put her glasses on then placed her front hooves on her desk, trying to look professional as much as she could. She cleared her throat before speaking. “Welcome to Ponyville. Are you in the need of a house?”

Cat chuckled lightly. “Uh, no.” She said. “I’m actually here to propose a business deal.”

Mayor’s eyes lit up as bright as they could. Silver Bell--who stood in the background--rolled her eyes. She could practically see the bits in the Mayor’s eyes. Mayor smiled as wide as she could. “Oh? What kind of business?”

Cat turned her head towards the doorway. “Come on in. Bring the board with you.” She turned her head back to Mayor. “Please excuse the appearance of my assistant. She has been in an…accident. The doctors did all they could to save her.” She sniffed a bit.

Mayor’s smile instantly dropped. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She said. She felt her heart sink. ‘What kind of accident could cause a mare appearance to be so different that her boss had to warn ponies before she came in? Was she even that different from others?’ She thought to herself.

She didn’t wait long to have those questions answered. She instantly knew the answers the second the mare walked in.

The mare had stitches almost all over her body, but the way it was stitched wasn’t to close a wound, but to keep her together. There was stitches to connect her hooves to her legs. A large stitch was on her stomach and almost went all around her, as if to keep her top half connected to her bottom. There was even a purple piece that stood out from her grey coat. Was the piece fabric?!

There was even a large stitch across her neck. Mayor could have sworn that that was the only thing keeping the mare’s head connected, but that would mean the mare’s head had been cut off and the doctors rushed to sew it back onto her body, but that was impossible. Yet as she looked at the mare she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of accident this poor mare had been in.

Then she noticed two short green horns growing out of the mare’s forehead, and a grey horn between the mare’s pink mane.

She felt like fainting, but luckily Silver Bell was shoving a paper cup in her face. She took the cup and looked inside to see water. She quickly drunk the water, hoping it’d ease her nausea and faintness. Once she felt better, she nodded her thanks to Silver then turned her attention to the large notepad behind the mare. “What do you have?

The mare blushed. “U-um, well-”

“We would like to host a carnival here in Ponyville.” Cat cut in. “But to do that we need space, and there is only one spot capable of holding our large carnival.” She nodded to the mare, who flipped over a page of the notepad.

Mayor was shown a drawing of a large field with many trees planted all over but lined up next to each other. She could have sworn that it looked exactly like the Apple’s farm, but the trees were bare of any fruit. “What is this?” She asked.

“Why this is the northwest part of a farm. The Apple farm if I remember correctly.” Cat explained. “We think this would be a wonderful place to put our carnival. It has lots of space--” she paused “--well it will once the trees are gone. All we need is permission from the farmers, but I‘m sure a charming mayor such as yourself could help.”

The Mayor sighed sadly. ‘There’s always a catch.’ She thought to herself. She knew the Apple family would rather give up their left hind legs than their trees. It was their name sake. The only time they considered to give up their trees was when Flim and Flam beat them in a cider off, but that was because they were honest folks and the trees would still be there. If this Cat pony was to put up her carnival, then the trees would be cut down, and not even all the bits in the world could convince them to do that.

“Are you worried about the farmers?” Cat asked, as if she read Mayor’s mind. “I’m sure even those honest folks could understand business.”

“You don’t know the Apple family.” Mayor said.

“Why if we explain the profits to them, then I’m sure they’d be more than glad to give up a few trees.” Cat said. She nodded to her assistant, who flipped to the next page. The page was a graph with red bars going up. Next to the graph was a drawing of a bag full of bits.

Her assistant grabbed a wooden pointer with her teeth and pointed to the graph. “We have estimated there is one-hundred ponies in this wonderful town.” Cat explained for her assistant. “Now games and food together will be twenty bits, so for now we’ll say that we’ll earn twelve thousand that night--of course we’ll earn more. Then we’ll split the profit fifty, fifty--after I pay services of course-”

She was cut off by a loud bang. Mayor Mare jumped high into the air, while Cat slowly turned her head towards the source. Cat’s assistant was staring at her with her mouth open, but quickly closed it. She blushed. “S-sorry.” She muttered before picking the pointer with her teeth.

Cat rolled her eyes before turning back to Mayor. “Well? What do you say?”

Mayor bit her lip. She couldn’t deny that the money would be in the town’s favor, as well as hers. She could pay all the town’s workers, and if the carnival gained even more money, she could plan more events for the town folks, and maybe the princess would visit Ponyville more than Manehattan!

And all she had to do to get the money was convince the apple family to let go a few trees!

She smiled up at Cat. “I approve of the carnival” -- Cat smiled -- “but you will need to get the approval from the Apple family before I can sign a permit allowing you to set up your Carnival.”

Cat’s smile faded for a second before she forced it back. “But of course.” She nodded her to assistant. “We will take out leave. Thank you for your time.” She smiled once more before leaving. Her assistant followed behind, slowly dragging the board with her.

Author's Note:

Happy Friday the 13th everybody! It's my favorite day of the year! I'm glad I was able to finish this today! Hehehe!

Edited by Roarbox.

Comments

[MyLittleJosieph]

Oh, Hey! A new chapter! This is starting to shape up into a very interesting story. Never expected politics to get involved. And I see you got someone edit! Awesome!

[Sky_Jayne552]

Every Friday 13th, nothing good happens to me.