Half-Hour Horses

by HoofAndQuill

Mayor Mare's Peaceful Morning

(The Prompt: The ponies are back in town)

Morning in Ponyville, for lack of a more original term, shimmered.

Mayor Mare trotted lightly past the receptionist in the town hall, being rewarded with a dubious look from the filly. Mayor knew that in all likelihood the girl would expect her to be a changeling or something to be so lighthearted. Unless-- No, pulling down her mane a bit with a hoof confirmed that the dye was holding. Still a stately, distinguished gray instead of some incredibly juvenile and party-pony sort of pink.

But today was one of those days where she simply couldn't worry about Ponyville. Everything was peaceful, quiet, and under control. Mayor Mare took the sheaf of papers between her teeth as she opened the door to her office, and trotted over to her desk, setting the day's work ahead of her and beginning to sift through it.

No noise complaints, which threw her for a moment before she remembered how peaceful things had been, lately. Of course there were complaints about the library currently being closed, but that sort of thing was out of her hooves at the moment. One thing she had learned, back when she was only a filly, in fact, was that ponies always complained. They didn't always do it directly to one's face, but there was always, always something that they thought could be just a bit better than it was.

So, hire a new librarian. Possibly. Mayor Mare set aside the paperwork and turned to look out of the large window in her office. Ponies trotted and cantered pleasantly about the town square, the shops were all opening, the doors and awnings all glittering and shining brightly in the pleasant morning sunshine. The birds chirped merrily in the trees and all the town's municipally held buildings were intact and functioning, save for the library.

Her smile lessened a bit as she realized that many mayors, even in large, difficult to manage cities such as Manehatten or Vanhoover, thought that such a day was worthy of note. This should, by all accounts, be a completely normal day. Everything running smoothly and quietly and correctly should be the norm.

But of course, it wasn't. Not here in Ponyville. Only recently had things begun to calm down again. Her smile returned again. That's correct, no rampaging ursas lately. No three story tall three-headed dogs escaped from Tartauros, no swarms of multicolored parasites invading and destroying everything, and no Princesses from Canterlot dropping in with increasingly less notice each time, sending the residents into a frenzy and placing altogether too much pressure on Mayor Mare to make sure that every little detail was perfectly handled.

No, today was peaceful. It was quiet. Everything was running smoothly.

Then, Mayor Mare saw something that made her fur along her spine stand on end. In the middle of her peaceful, pleasant, smoothly-running, and most importantly quiet town square, was a pony-sized tube of some unidentifiable blue metal, with wheels to roll it around with, and a lit fuse in the back end of it. Nopony else seemed to notice the device there as they went about their morning shopping and happy little lives.

No. The mare that owned that device, the loud, entirely unpeaceful and completely antithetical to things running smoothly mare that owned that device, was in Canterlot. She was in Canterlot with her rowdy, loud, disastrous friends and they were all staying there with the librarian turned princess that had been absent. The paperwork was right there on her desk, the library was closed and thus the librarian was not here in Ponyville.

The fuse sparked and sputtered as it grew shorter.

See, those ponies had to be in Canterlot. If they were back in Ponyville, then there would be rabbits eating all the gardens. There would be bears attending picnics at cafes where ponies should be. Pegasus ponies would no longer keep contained to the sky where they belonged but instead would come crashing through roofs and windows, knocking over carts in the marketplace, and causing thunder in the middle of scheduled clear days, just to scare other ponies.

Smoke rose lazily from the hole in the rear of the barrel, as the sparking tip of the fuse disappeared inside.

If they weren't in Canterlot, there may well be mile-long queues for cider. Ludicrous competitions for mercantile rights that didn't even exist as legal requirements might be called. Decorations around town would no longer be the simple, agrarian style that Mayor Mare, and of course the majority of other earth ponies, preferred. Instead there would be insistence and constant complaint letters that everything must sparkle and be covered in expensive fabrics, and be ready for any number of expensive, haughty unicorns from Canterlot to arrive at any moment.

A low rumbling sound seemed to shake under Mayor Mare's hooves, while ponies around the square began looking to and fro for what was making that noise.

Not to sound overly alarmist, but if Ponyville was again host to these particular mares, the library would not remain peacefully if unfortunately shuttered and closed. It would glow in the evening hours with questionable experiments. Dragon fire would belch from the windows with secretive correspondences.

The rumbling sound ceased, and the entire town seemed to pause, as though waiting for the other horse shoe to drop.

If that thing out there was really out there, if it was no longer in Canterlot, then Ponyville would no longer be peaceful and quiet. There would be parties. There would be random chaos and insanity in the streets. There would once again be enormous, basically unplanned town events in which Mayor Mare would be expected to make completely professional, inspiring, and entirely improvised speeches.

That simply wasn't what today was supposed to be like.

A resounding boom, followed by a completely ludicrous honk of a party horn, shook through Ponyville. Confetti streamed down all over town square, and there in the middle of all of it were five of the six ponies that were still supposed to be in Canterlot, only a few of them having even the basic decency to look a little embarrassed as the impromptu lawn party was kick-started into full swing around them.

Mayor Mare pressed her hoof to the smooth surface of her desk blotter, and slid it sideways, knocking all the pleasant and uncomplaining paperwork into the bin. Tomorrow, there would noise complaints. There would be rampaging monsters, or some kind of violent invasion. There would be parties, there would be Princesses, and everything would go to Tartauros in a handbasket.

Because, as the high-pitched, impossibly loud voice outside told everypony...

"Weeeee're baaaack!"

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

That was fun. :D