Seeking Hearth and Home

by TessiFlameheart

Chapter Five - Key to the Hovel

The train ground to a halt at Ponyville Station with a hideous screech of steel on iron. Within a few short moments of the train coming to a full stop, the doors opened and ponies began to file out. Only seven got off the train, most ponies who had been on board were there for the next stop in Canterlot. So were the several dozen ponies waiting to board the train.

Lyra and Amber quickly moved off the boarding ramp to let the waiting ponies climb aboard. As she trotted away from the ramp Amber looked up at the buildings nearby, drinking in the scenery. 'This is quaint even for ponies.' Amber mused as she took in the thatched roofs, waddle and daub buildings, hoof made glass panes, and the cobbled streets. The longer she looked however the more she could see that wasn't quite medieval in it's design.

A good number of buildings had a radio or TV antennae skillfully hidden by a chimney or within the fold of an eve. The old Victorian looking iron streetlamps were retrofitted with electric lights. The town hall featured modern styled architecture, as did many smaller buildings which Amber assumed were shops or other public buildings. The town was only primitive in appearance.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the town's medieval village aesthetic had been completely destroyed. Some newer buildings featured crystal construction. It was easy to tell why. In the distance a large crystalline tree held aloft a towering keep, like a middle finger to tasteful architecture everywhere. Amber assumed this was Princess Twilight's home, and therefore concluded that the princess had employed color blind simpletons for architects.

“So this is Ponyville. Aside from that eyesore of a keep, it's not half bad.” Amber commented.

Lyra nodded, “Yeah. It feels like home, I honestly don't know what I was thinking. Deciding to see about moving I mean.” To herself she added, 'That is so true about the keep... Twilight should paint it to look normal or something. Or maybe they could have Rarity or Pinkie decorate it better.'

The minty mare's eyes suddenly widened. Her tail stood up in alarm, and a sharp gasp caused Amber to look over in worry. “What?”

“You are new in town! And you aren't intending to just pass through. We need to hide!” Lyra looked around frantically for a hiding place before grabbing Amber in her magic and galloping behind a group of trashcans on the edge of the platform.

Amber yelped in surprise, “What? Is there a mafia or something?”

“No! I mean... It's usually not a bad thing but you are a... well you know. Pinkie Pie throws a party for everypony who moves in.” Lyra explained.

Amber giggled, “I am kinda trained for infiltration you know. I'll be fine, it's just a welcome party right? Besides I doubt she will notice me.”

Lyra winced, “Famous last words.”

“I don't follow.” Amber informed with a frown.

“Shhhh!” Lyra hushed, “These aren't just your normal parties, and Pinkie is the mare who organized a town wide snowball war. Not a fight, a real war! With factions, and objectives, and tactical stuff. She's also the Element of Laughter so-”

“Hey Lyra! Why are we hiding?” a high-pitched voice asked.

“Eep!” Lyra yelped.

Amber looked over, perplexed to find a complexly pink frizzy maned mare crouching behind the cans with them. “Apparently were hiding from someone named Pinkie Pie.”

“That's me! Oh! That means I won! Weee!” Pinkie grinned incredibly wide, the sheer wave of undiluted happy that accompanied it hitting Amber like a slap to the face.

“So what are we gonna play next? Oh I know! Let's do a scavenger hunt! I know have a list here somewhere,” Pinkie reached one hoof into her mane and started to rummage around before stopping dead, “Hold on... I don't remember starting to play hide and go seek. Oh my gosh are you knew?”

Lyra nodded a shaky grin on her face, “Yeah she's moving into town. I promised I would help her get a place to stay and well you know how the mayor likes to close the real estate office for lunch-”

Pinkie gasped for a full three seconds, giving Amber a look of shock and surprise, “You don't have a place to live? That's awful!”

“Yeah I know.” Amber said quickly as she realized how the pink mare's personality worked, “I herd you like to plan parties for everyone, but well I don't exactly live here yet. So you know-”

“I know.” Pinkie interrupted with a nod. “You find a house, and I'll plan a housewarming party! After all you can't have a house warming parties without houses! Or a house that's already warm because then it would have to be come a house Hot-ing party, and that could make your house way, way to hot! Like Super-duper mega hot! So just let me know once you have a cold house and then I'll have a party to warm it up.” Pinkie finished her rant with another of those far to wide, far to happy grins.

“Umm... ok...” Amber smiled quickly before looking over to Lyra, “Soooo.”

Lyra started to walk off, “We'll see you later Pinkie! Come on Amber this way.”

As the two mares walked down the street Amber let out a held breath, “Oh god she's creepy.”

“Creepy? Pinkie? How can you think that?” Lyra asked with a concerned look.

“How is she so happy?” Amber asked, sounding a little shaken.

Lyra frowned in confusion for a moment. 'Oh right! She can taste emotions. Ha!' Giggling Lyra explained, “That's just Pinkie. You get used to her. Trust me, her hyperactive happiness isn't the weirdest thing about her.”

The two mares quickly made their way to the center of town, secure in the knowledge that the party ambush had been avoided, for the moment. Fortunately the rest of their trip was entirely uneventful. Without much more difficulty than having to step aside to avoid a small herd of fillies playfully running down the street while screaming 'pew pew pew!' and other sci-fi sound effects, Lyra and Amber arrived at the Town Hall.

The large, tower-like building looked rather busy with at least one pony entering or exiting through the main doors every moment Amber looked at it. Through the large stained glass windows she could see plenty of ponies inside, some apparently having loud, hoof waving discussions. “Um, will we get to see whomever we need to see?”

Lyra needed, “Yep! Don't worry about the lobby. That's where anypony can petition anypony on the town council for whatever needs to be done. The offices for the important things are in the back.”

Lyra led Amber inside, through the densely packed crowd of ponies airing endless opinions, and to a small sign at the back of the room by a door. Squinting at the sign Lyra hummed then smiled, “Real Estate Office, Room 8. Right let's go!”

Amber followed Lyra as she pushed open the door and stepped into the oddly quiet hallway. A few short steps later and Room 8 came up on their left. Lyra knocked gently on the door, a polite “Come in.” greeting them as she opened the door.

A dark red pegasus stallion sat behind the room's large wooden framed desk. He had a board look about him, as if the day was passing about as quickly as ketchup pouring from a bottle. As Lyra opened the door he smiled, clearly glad for a distraction. “Lyra! Good to see you. Is something wrong with your new home?”

Lyra shook her head and trotted to a stool in front of the desk, plopping down atop it and nodding to Amber to do the same, “No it's fine. Actually I'm trying to help her get a place to live.”

The pegasus nodded and held out his hoof for Amber to shake, “I see. Nice to meet you miss, I'm Sunrise Glow, Ponyville's city subsidized housing agent.”

“I'm Amber Fire, alchemist, musician, retired adventure.” Amber replied, taking a seat.

“Impressive resume. Right, so here's how this works. Since Lyra brought you to me I guess you don't have much money?” Sunrise asked.

“No... I'm moving from Duskvale. Traveling ate up all of my money.” Amber answered.

“Duskvale... Where is that?” the stallion took a form from a drawer of his desk along with a quill, “Sorry I have to ask, city records.”

“It's a small country on Equestria's North West border. Good luck getting there though the only safe rout through the ice canyons is in Windigo territory.” Amber answered.

Sunrise winced, “Say no more. I assume you are in the process of immigrating?”

Amber nodded.

“Right. Well city subsidized housing dose count as establishing a residence, so don't worry about that. Now let me see if I have the information right. Your name is Amber Fire, you are a snow colored unicorn with a flame colored mane and tail, orange eyes... Um what is your cutiemark? Would you mind lifting your cape?”

Amber frowned, brushing the old worn black cape with her hoof, “I um, actually don't have one.”

“What? Really?” Sunrise and Lyra asked as one.

“Seriously? How at your age...” Sunrise asked.

Amber nodded and lifted the edge of her cape with her magic, twisting her flank to show the bare white fur.

Sunrise frowned, changing topics, “Sorry... Well then, this will be the first time I write blank in that column. Ahem, now you said you were an alchemist, do you intend to establish a business or will you be seeking employment?”

Amber tilted her head, “Huh... I suppose I could set up a small alchemy shop. Oh... Is this because I have to pay off the house?”

The stallion shook his head, “No. Under Celestia's Social Welfare Act of 1278, article 54 section D, all ponies who claim Equestrian citizenship are entitled to a home which meats the current minimal comfortable living standards. Additionally, all who maintain a residence in Equestria for at least 5 months a year are entitled to a living wage not to exceed the minimum amount required to provide the basic essentials for life.”

“Oh. Why ask me about a job then?” Amber asked.

“Since you are broke, you will be setting up the shop in your home right?”

“Yeah I suppose.” Amber nodded.

“Which means you require a larger area of land. Let see...” Sunrise stood up and trotted to a filing cabinet. He opened the top drawer and began to dig through the files within until he took out a few pages and red them, “Humm... well this is a bit of a problem.”

Lyra frowned, “What?”

“Right now there aren't any residential-shop lots available.” Turning to Amber he asked, “Normally I wouldn't offer this, but you said you were an adventurer. I am sure you can come up with some extra bits, and construction crews are cheep. If you would like I can get you a small home you can convert into a shop and give you the license to modify the building so you can have a basement dug or a second story added on.”

Amber smiled, “I would love a basement actually! I'm more comfortable in a cool, dim, enclosed space.”

Sunrise bang a hoof on the cabinet as he smiled, “Excellent! Now you wont have to find a few months to stay someplace until a few more buildings get built. Right so then I'll just fill out the papers.” He crossed back over to his desk, continued to fill out the form pausing only to ask, “Across the river or on the edge of town?”

“Edge of town please.” Amber answered.

Sunrise nodded, scribbled down the last bit of the form, returned to the cabinet sifted through some folders, slipped the form into one folder, took a single brass key from inside and then held it out to Amber. Taking the key in her magic's grip Amber tucked it into her saddlebag next to her box. “Congratulations Ms Fire, you are now the proud owner of 17 Sunset Street. Lyra, can you show her the way?”

“Sure!” Lyra said with a smile.

“Right. Welcome to Ponyville Ms Amber. Oh! And if you see a pink mare with a frizzy made and tail and three balloons on her flanks-”

Amber winced, “I already met Pinkie Pie.”

“Ah. Good. Well have a great new life miss.” Sunrise smiled and gave the two a dismissive gesture.

“Come on, I'll take you home.” Lyra said excitedly.

The trip to Amber's new home was not a long one. It wasn't a strait one, the two had to take several different roads with many twists and turns. Amber admired how easily Lyra was able to navigate the way, it reminded her of how well she used to know the old Hall. If she kind of closed her eyes she could imagine her old home.

Walls of brown stone supported by arches of green biomass, carved frescoes filled with luminescent moss to light the way. Endless twisting mazes of halls and rooms, perfectly navigable from years of practice. The warm safe feeling of being away from the sky.

When she opened her eyes again Amber smiled, 'It may be open to the sky, but it dose feel safe here.'

Her thoughts were interrupted when Lyra cheerfully announced, “Here we are!”

Amber looked up. Leading away from the road a fair distance was a simple dirt path leading through a freshly mowed grass lot to a decently sized house. It had a wooden tile roof instead of the town's normal thatched design, each tile was stained a reddish brown color something akin to a mocha. It contrasted nicely to the lighter colored wooden supports which crisscrossed the walls and formed the windowsills. The front door was colored the same as the roof and had a black iron handle along with a knocker.

The building looked to be cozily sized. There would be just enough room to convert the structure into an alchemy lab and a store front. For anything else she would have to dig. 'Good thing I always liked burrowing. Oh! I should do everything like my old quarters!'

Noticing Amber's grin Lyra smiled even wider, “It feels great docent it? I remember getting my first house. Well, apartment. It was in Manehatten. When I moved to Ponyville I felt like I was completely free. No neighbors only one wall away, and all the space to myself... Then well... I got lonely. So you know if you ever feel like you need company...” Lyra trailed off blushing.

Amber nodded, “Sure, after you show me where you live and at least two dates.”

“Oh right. We agreed to go out to eat. When do you want to do that?” Lyra asked curiously.

“How about you pick me up here tomorrow night? I'll have a lot of digging to do, and I'll need to get some cash together to get some remodeling done for a shop. Is there anyplace I can sell things?”

Lyra nodded, “Yeah, just follow the street off to the left and you will find three pawn shops. Oh and there is the park I play at just past the last pawnshop, if you put a hat out ponies will give you a few bits, just dance or play or sing, begging is not illegal but well, it's kinda rude.”

Amber nodded, kicked her left hoof against the ground for a second then timidly wrapped her arms around Lyra in a quick hug, “Thanks.”

Lyra' heart sped up, she returned the hug, pulling her forelegs perhaps a bit too tightly before letting go, “No problem... See you tomorrow night?”

Amber nodded, “Yep.”

Lyra gave her a smile then happily skipped off down the street, the smile sticking with her all through the night.