24: A Meeting in Canterlot
Twilight
The alarm clock on Twilight's desk rang and rattled loudly jumping Twilight out of her slumber. She climbed out of bed and groggily hit the snooze mechanism on her alarm clock while her schedule came to the front of her mind. Today, she and Connor would be travelling together for the meeting with Sportsen that was happening after lunch.
Yesterday afternoon, Connor approached Twilight asking for her help. During his conversation with Sportsen, he found out that the meeting was going to be held in Canterlot and he remembered a couple of things during the discussion. The first problem Connor had was he did not know the area of Canterlot, the layout of the city, or where exactly the building he and Sportsen were supposedly meeting in. the second problem he asked Twilight's help for was for the actual business part of the meeting. He confessed to Twilight that he had no understanding of her world's business and contracting laws and he wanted her help to make sure that Sportsen did not try to deceive him during the meeting.
Twilight had accepted to help Connor. He genuinely looked concerned when he asked her and she would not deny help to a friend; even a tough friend. In fact, she was so eager to help him Twilight spent the rest of that day studying and refreshing on her Equestrian business and trade laws as well as inviting Connor to sleep in her tree house so that they could leave extra early in the morning.
Twilight gave a small yawn and began her morning routine. She took a quick bath, brushed her teeth, combed her mane and tail, and collected her saddle bags filled with extra commerce books to brush up on bargaining techniques. In exactly thirty five minutes, she was ready with everything and made her way down stairs for some breakfast.
Laying on a couch downstairs was Connor still fast asleep. His head rested on a pillow he borrowed from the storage closest with one of Twilight's spare blankets wrapped around him in a tight cocoon of warmth. Twilight walked up beside him as quietly as possible and started nudging him with her hoof. After two pokes, he sucked in a sharp breath as he was roused from his sleep. He sighed into his pillow and readjusted his position before cracking his eyes open to see Twilight's smiling face.
“Good morning!” she said in a cheerful but quiet voice so as to not disturb Connor too much as he slowly woke up, “It’s time to get up and get ready for your meeting today.”
“Ookaay.” Connor raised his head to look around the room through his bleary eyes. He looked for a clock to see what time it was but couldn't see anything in the dark room. His head turned to the window on the other side of the room and he squinted to see the outside world. But the window was nearly pitch black.
“Hnnnmmm, nuahh, what time is it?” Connor sighed as he stretched his body on the couch.
Twilight glanced up in the dark to look at the clock hanging on the wall, “It's 4:52 right now.”
Connor stopped in his stretching to stare into space for a long second before his body went slack and flopped back down on the couch with a groan.
“Twiliiiight, why did you wake me up at five in the morning, before the sun has even risen yet, to get ready for a meeting that isn't happening until after lunch?”
She gave a sheepish smile, “Well I just wanted to make sure that we have plenty of time before the meeting to talk about some basic laws in Equestrian commerce. That way, we don't walk into the meeting without knowing something about business.”
Connor dropped his head back on the couch again, “You got me up at o-dark-thirty in the morning for a meeting that is, like, eight hours from now. And without even breakfast yet. Yeah; like I’m doing that.”
He tried to roll back over to sleep in while Twilight gave a dignified huff, “Connor, this is very important if you want my help. We have to go over the basics of bit transaction before we can move onto the concepts of investments for the future!” she added a sense of urgency to her voice as she tried to convince Connor to get up.
“Twilight, I know how flicking money works. Talk to me after we've had breakfast.” Connor muffled his growl through his pillow.
Twilight rolled her eyes and decided to head for the kitchen to start on breakfast. Perhaps she could lure Connor out of his sleep with the smell of food. It always seemed to work with spike so Twilight theorized it would work with Connor too. She entered the kitchen and looked around at the available breakfast items that would most likely draw Connor out the fastest. She settled on making some pancakes with a side of fried eggs done over easy, and some milk for a drink.
In a few minutes the kitchen was a flurry of pans, ingredients, mixers, and plates. Twilight flipped a couple of fresh pancakes onto one of the plates and sidled two eggs cooked to exact specification next to the pancakes. She pulled out some syrup and drizzled it over the food before setting the aside to make some food for herself. Three-quarters of the way through making her own breakfast, the door banged open and Twilight glanced over to see a zombified Connor walk in and grab the plate of food and set it down at the table to eat.
She smirked to herself. “Works every time.”
~~~
After bearing witness to zombified Connor pour even more syrup over his pancakes and replace his milk for water then devour the whole meal, Twilight quickly ate her own food and made quick work of clean up. After everything was put away, Twilight exited the kitchen to find Connor already back on his couch.
She trotted up to the couch and gave Connor a stern look, “Connor, we have to hurry and leave now if we want to make it to the meeting!”
Connor pulled his head up and out of his pillow to return his own glare, “And how do you plan on getting to Canterlot right now?”
“We are going to fly there. If we set a good pace, we can arrive in the city in 37 minutes and have plenty of time to find the building we are meeting Sportsen in.”
Connor continued to glare at her, “Great, that puts us at about, oh 6:30-ish in the morning. Before the sun has even risen or any shops have opened. That gives us over seven hours to wait!” he yelled his last sentence making Twilight blink.
“Seven hours?” She looked confused wondering how this was a bad thing.
“Yeah, seven hours. What are we going to do in that time? Grind me on what two bits plus two bits equals? Or pester me on the financial benefit of having a savings account for future investment?”
Twilight paused in her pestering and reevaluated her first assumptions. After her own long moment, she gave him an embarrassed smile, “Umm, maybe?”
Connor let out a powerful sigh, “How about you show me around Canterlot instead? I've never been there so it would be nice if someone could give me the tour.”
Twilight gave a puzzled look, “What do you mean 'You've never been there'? That was the first city you were in when you first came to Equestria.”
“Oh,” he realized, “Well then, all the more reason to show me around.”
“Fine. Should we get ready to fly, then?”
“Why?” Connor asked, “Why not take the train?”
Twilight looked at him with even more confusion, “Why would we take the train? It's much slower than flying there ourselves.”
Connor sat up from the couch, “I don't know, because it would be fun?”
“Fun?” Twilight was not following Connor's thought process. The only time she had used the train was because it was the fastest way to travel before she had wings; or she was going with her friends and wanted to stick together. They were always enjoyable trips, but there was always a hint of business needed to be done when she arrived.
“Yeah,” Connor continued, “You've never taken the train just for the fun of it?”
“No, I mainly took it because I was usually travelling with a group.”
“Well in my world, riding a train is a bit of a special thing; or at least in my opinion it’s a special thing. So I thought it would be okay to take the train since we have so much time.”
Twilight thought about it and recalculated her time schedule with the inclusion of the travel time on the train. She nodded as Twilight finished her equations and looked at Connor again.
“I think we can accommodate that. The train ride will take less than two hours, still leaving us with five hours to make a quick trip around the city than spend the rest of the time preparing for the meeting!” She grinned as she finished describing her master plan to Connor.
He shook his head and stood up, “Sure, whatever. We should probably leave now or we're going to be late for the first train of the day,” he threw his eyes to the ceiling while putting an extra amount of sarcasm in his voice.
Twilight gasped, “Oh my gosh! You're right! Let's hurry and we might be able to squeeze onto the train with all the other passengers!” She rushed out the door while Connor called back to her.
“I was joking!!”
~~~
The pony express train chugged its way down the familiar tracks towards the capitol of the Equestria. The cars rocked side to side gently like a large baby's cradle as the engine pulled the many cars behind it. There were only a hoof full of ponies on the train as it snaked its way up and around the mountain to the Canterlot train station.
In one of the mostly empty cars, Twilight and Connor occupied one of the many empty seats available to them. They sat across from each other at the seats closest to the window. Connor had his eyes closed as he tried to use some of the travel time to sleep in some more while Twilight glanced up every so often to check on him as she read one of the books she was carrying.
She smiled to herself as Connor opened his eyes to stare out the window at the passing landscape between Ponyville and Canterlot. Even though this meeting was important, Connor's example of remaining calm and collected was probably best as she was more than likely overreacting. She continued to watch out of the corner of her eye before focusing on her reading again.
The train puffed clouds of steam in the air as it approached the capitol's train station. The wheels screeched loudly as it rolled to a stop at the platform and the conductor came by to open the doors. Twilight and Connor stepped out into the cool morning air before the sun rose to warm the area in its glow. Twilight grinned as she stepped off the relaxing train ride with Connor following behind. Even though train ride took about two hours longer than flying, it still left around five hours before the meeting started.
Twilight watched Connor look around the station with new-found interest as they trotted into the open.
“It’s strange,” he commented, “I sort of remember this place in bits and pieces and now that I'm back here and not viewing everything behind a red haze… it’s weird.”
“A red haze?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it basically means viewing the world while angry. It's an expression from my world. Anyways, let’s check out the city! Give me the grand tour of this place and have some fun!”
Twilight perked up at his enthusiasm, “Okay then, let’s start at the outer parts of the city!”
Near the city walls lay the outskirts of the capital of Equestria. Twilight and Connor drifted down several different streets as Twilight explained some of the history behind this section of the city. To Connor, it looked like the part of the city were the lower working class of the city lived and breathed. The ponies here looked gruff and slightly disheveled as everypony had a working job of some sort.
The living standards in this part of the city felt close to bare bones with only a few luxuries that could be scavenged from the streets. The streets were grimy and gray and looked beaten. Connor pointed out to Twilight that he saw mostly earth ponies and pegasi here in this section of the city which Twilight replied that most ponies who held many of the manual labor and hardworking jobs were earth ponies and pegasi as they were the two races most adapt at that kind of labor. The two also picked out a hand full of homeless ponies living on the streets as they passed onto the next section of the city.
As the pair exited the lowest section of the city and transition into the major heart of Canterlot, the buildings and overall quality of the surroundings improved. The paint colors were livelier and the ponies were cleaner and light hearted. The majority of Canterlot city was like this; clean streets where ponies of every kind bustled about doing their jobs, having meals, or relaxing. There were a few more commercial businesses like grocery stores and specialized product stores intermingled amongst the industrial production factories and seemed to steadily outnumber the industrial buildings the further you walked towards the castle until the only businesses you saw were commercial based.
Connor's mind compared this part of the city as like the middle class. While Twilight and Connor walked the streets heading closer to the castle, she explained how most of the population of Canterlot lived in these conditions unlike the outskirts. There was more luxury to be had here and more to be earned if one could find a good paying job while in the city.
Connor noted the subtle differences between the different sections of this 'middle class' part of the city. The ponies closer to the outskirts were filled with less quality housings compared the individual homes that ran down the streets closest to the castle. It reminded Connor of his home. He didn't live in a shabby two room apartment, but he didn't live in a huge house with excessive space to spare. It was somewhere in the happy middle and it was this happy middle that Connor felt most comfortable. He expressed his liking in this part of the city. There was a broad selection of jobs from the usual office jobs to the more active jobs like a carriage repair shop they passed a few minutes ago.
The ponies that lived in this part of the city were definitely more optimistic about themselves and showed a drive to improve their standings compared to the slightly depressed citizens of the outskirts. One interesting note that Twilight made was she and her family used to live in the upper parts of this middle class section, but stated they wouldn't visit her family right now. However, there was a feeling of smugness that seemed to hang in the air as Connor and Twilight passed others that put Connor off; and it only seemed to increase as a pony walked towards the upper crust of the city.
Soon, the two crossed the threshold of the upper middle class residential houses and into the mansion homes of the rich and prestigious. Here Twilight described the part of the city that lay just outside of the castle walls. The pearly white cobblestone roads showed off the mansions of important politicians, nobles, famous celebrities, and those ponies with enough bits to buy their way into one of the many mansions. The houses were kept in perfect condition with small lawns and gardens decorating the fronts and the occasional statue strategically placed in a part of the front yard.
Connor looked with disdain as the competition to out-show their neighbors slowly became more apparent as the front yard displays became more extravagant. Twilight went into depicting some of the individual owners of each mansion describing the history behind one noble pony's family and how they came to be, to the tales of certain political ponies bringing in enough earnings to purchase a home here in the top part of the city.
Twilight could see Connor was not enjoying himself in this part of the city so she quickly wrapped the history of a certain noble pony and moved onto the final part of the city; the castle.
Twilight and Connor walked through the front gates to the castle grounds and smiled broadly as favored memories came flooding back to her. Memories of her first time meeting the princess during her magical entrance exam into Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, becoming Princess Celestia's personal student, her brother's wedding, and her coronation were some of the biggest memories to come back to her.
They walked around the castle grounds for a little bit and Twilight even pointed out Celestia's school just outside of the castle walls when they were at a high enough vantage point. Though, Connor did notice that the guards seemed to be giving him a harder glare from their usual hardened stare.
“Well, you did knock one of their fellow guards out when you left the castle,” she reminded him in a harsh tone.
“Oh yeah!” Connor laughed, “I forgot about that; my bad!”
It was Twilight turn to roll her eyes at him and the moved on to finish the tour around the castle grounds so they could take a break for lunch then head for the meeting.
~~~
Twilight and Connor moved back down to the middle section of the city where they sat down in some outside seating for a restaurant that Twilight picked out. Twilight checked the time and it read 11:18. She reassured herself that they still have plenty of time to eat, do a quick flash card session for review and make it to the meeting with half an hour to spare.
The food they ordered arrived and both started to dig in on their respective foods. After a few bites Connor struck up a conversation.
“That was really good tour of the city; Thanks Twilight.”
“You’re welcome, Connor. It was nice to properly show you around the city without hurting other ponies,” she jabbed at him.
“Oh come on, that was different from now. I wasn't just dropped into another world and told I couldn't go back for an indefinite amount of time,” he shot back and smirked.
She chuckled in response, “Alright, that is true. So how do you like the city?”
“It’s not bad,” Connor said with a raise of his brow as he took another bite of his food, “It's nice to see even in your little idealistic world, everything about it is not perfect.”
Twilight lowered her gaze, “I know, but we try to do everything we can to make it as peaceful as possible and give everypony the best opportunity we can.”
“But that's just it,” Connor pointed at Twilight who looked up at him in mild surprise, “If everything was perfect, then nothing would seem special or fun. There would be no point in trying to improve something or trying to add something to their life.” Twilight looked at Connor as she thought his words over in her head.
“Plus,” he continued, “It would be incredibly boring living in a perfect world. I think you have to have some downs in your life to go along with the ups. How else would you be able to tell if you are doing good without some kind of reference point?”
Twilight gave him one of her knowing grins and finished her food. “Now then, I need to give you a quick session of Equestrian business and commerce law before the meeting starts.”
Connor let a deep, pained moan, “Twiliiight, the main reason I asked you to come along with me is so that you could stop Sportsen from trying to pull some underhanded trick during the meeting. I don't know what sets me off with him, but something just tells me that I don't like him,” he glanced to the side as if looking for eavesdropping ears.
“Relax Connor,” Twilight waved a hoof at him unabashed, “It will be a quick and painless flash card reading and then we can find the building we are meeting Sportsen in.”
Connor groaned again but decided to indulge in Twilight's obsession to get him to learn about Equestrian law.
It turns out, many of the laws Twilight explained and quizzed him on were similar to the laws that Connor knew of from his world; or the few laws that he bothered to learn from his world. He nodded along mostly to Twilight's ramblings as she lost herself in explaining the finer details of law and legislation. Occasionally, Connor perked up on a piece of info here and there that peaked his interest before being drowned out again from Twilight.
He almost lost track of time if Twilight didn't freak when she realized it was a quarter past noon and rushed to pay for the food and practically drag Connor to another part of the city in her magic.
~~~
The pair ran through the main streets dodging the pony traffic searching for the Sportsen enterprise headquarters building. Twilight had let Connor go from her magic and was running behind her as they moved to the upper part of the middle class section of the city. In this part of the capitol, most of the buildings were businesses and shops. All of the buildings had a modern design to them near the base of the building.
The buildings were made with a square base for easier construction and space efficiency of the many shops and company buildings along the streets. However, the further you went up, the more the square buildings were morphed to have a cylindrical shape. It was more visible on the much taller buildings as the company buildings transformed into castle towers as one's eyes travelled up the length of the building. If one were to view the buildings from afar, you would think that the buildings were simply more towers to the castle. It was a strange design choice, but it made sense when trying to keep a similar architecture theme throughout the city.
They stopped in front of a particularly large building with golden revolving doors at the front as business ponies of all kinds entered and exited the building. Twilight stared in awe at the impending tower and the butterflies in her stomach began to squirm.
“Come on, let's go.” Twilight started out of her daze and shook herself mentally as Connor made his way to the door. She quickly caught up to him and the two pushed through the revolving door into the lobby. The lobby was a large room filled with formal decorations. Shiny, gold chrome and wood brown were the main colors with green plants and multicolored paintings used to accentuate the room. Modern styled chairs and coffee tables were expertly placed around the room for ponies to sit and review papers or talk with colleagues over snacks and drinks.
The front desk covered a good portion of the back wall with several polished metallic doors flanked on either side of the desk with ponies coming and going from behind the double sliding doors. The front desk was staffed with four ponies either helping direct ponies to appropriate destinations or had their heads bowed over paper work.
Connor approached the front desk and a unicorn mare wearing another business suit glanced and gave a warm smile.
“Good afternoon sir, how may I help you?”
“Hello, I have an appointment with Mr. Sportsen today that is to happen sometime after lunch.” Connor watched as the mare glanced down while Twilight looked at the clock hanging over the front desk. The clock read 12:32 and Twilight's mind screamed tardiness.
While Twilight had a miniature panic attack in her mind the mare behind the desk looked up from her papers and smiled again, “It looks like you are early as I have you written down for one o'clock!”
Twilight stopped her panic attack and Connor visibly loosened a bit of the tension in his body.
He smiled back, “Perfect! Do you know where the meeting is being held?”
“Yes. Just beside us are some elevators. Your meeting is on the twenty-first floor. Once you reach that floor, head to your left and look for room 21-385. There will be some chairs to wait in outside until you are called in.”
“Thank you.” Connor turned with his eyebrows raised in surprise while Twilight followed behind. She heard him mutter, “Really? They have elevators?” to himself as the both of them approached the polished chrome doors beside the front desk. Twilight stood shoulder to shoulder with Connor and stared at the double doors before them with confusion. She had never seen these kind of things before and had no idea how they work. She saw a pair of buttons beside the door with an arrow pointing up and down on each button.
She watched Connor push the button with the 'up' arrow on it and the doors gave a soft bing as they opened. She stared in amazement as they entered the empty carpeted box and the doors slid close behind them. A single light overhead lit the tiny room with soft music playing in the background. Along the side of the door was a panel filled with buttons. Connor stepped forward to look over the wall of buttons. He wrinkled his brow before lifting one brow high in amazement. The buttons read from 'L' to '25' going up, but below read from 'B1' to 'B11'. Unbeknownst to them, there was a law regulating how tall building could be in Canterlot when they started making taller and taller buildings in the city. Buildings were not allowed to be higher than the castle walls when within a certain distance to the castle walls. Twilight did not know about this law as it was a fairly recent law made in the past few years and she was more focused on her magic studies at the time then learning about business and architectural laws.
Connor punched the button with '21' on it and the sensation of going up took hold. As they waited for the box to reach the desired floor, Twilight noticed Connor was starting to bounce on his hooves a little. His eyes seem to stare off into space and he ruffled his wing feathers more than usual. Connor looked nervous to Twilight.
“Hey Connor, are you okay?” she asked with concern.
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” he said a little too quickly.
“Are you sure? You look really nervous.”
“What? I’m not nervous, not at all,” he lied as he began shifting his weight among his hooves.
“Connor, I can tell you are nervous right now. Just relax and everything will be okay,” she told Connor as much as she told herself.
Connor let out a breath and tried to relax, “Okay. This is just something I’ve never done before. Well, not something this big,” he corrected himself when he saw Twilight give him another coy look.
They both chuckled together as they waited for the doors to open again. After a minute of silence, the doors pinged open again and the floor opened up again. The hallway split off into three directions with doors lined down them and the chatter of ponies could be heard everywhere. But Twilight and Connor turned down the left hall searching for room 21-385.
When they finally found it, they sat down on some chairs just outside the door and waited. Time passed by slowly for them as they waited for the meeting. A couple of ponies would pass by once in a while, but nothing else interesting happened. The clock struck 1:06 and Twilight huffed at the tardiness.
“Ah, Connor!” Twilight and Connor looked up to see Sportsen briskly approaching them with a grin painted on his mouth.
They stood up to greet him as he shook hooves with Connor again, “Sorry I am late, but I had other work come up that needed to get done.”
“It’s no problem, Mr. Sportsen. We didn't wait too long.” Connor and Sportsen released hooves and he gave questioning look.
“We?” Sportsen asked.
“Yes, I brought princess Twilight to help me out with this meeting.”
Sportsen glanced behind Connor to see Twilight smiling kindly behind him. He returned the smile and addressed Connor again.
“That’s very good of you to bring the princess for help, but I can assure you that I am more than capable of helping you along with writing the contracts.”
Sportsen put on his charming smile, but Connor resisted his charm and gently smiled back. “I didn't mean to say that you were incapable, sir. But Twilight can act as a neutral party to make sure both sides don't use any kind of underhanded tactics to make an unfair deal.”
Sportsen strained his smile but conceded, “Very well, perhaps it’s for the best that we have some friendly company and I don't accidentally scare you off,” he laughed as he opened the door to the meeting room.
Connor laughed lightly with him as he and Twilight entered the room. It was a simple room with a table in the center and two couches set on either side of the table. A large window let in light from the outside while it over looked the city below. Twilight and Connor took their seats on one side of the table while Sportsen sat down on the other.
Once everypony was settled in, Sportsen and Connor started the meeting. It started off casual with Sportsen and Connor talking about various topics while Twilight aimlessly listened to them. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Connor's nervousness from before had completely vanished and was replaced with determination again. She smiled to herself as she watched the two talk.
When the talk finally turned to business and discuss the dealings of Connor's game, Twilight paid more attention to what exactly they were saying. Connor asked her to save him for any kind of unknown deals that might damage the deal Connor wanted, so it was up to her to pick through the finer details and pick out any hidden traps.
She would explain things in greater detail to Connor so he could make a better educated decision or point out details that were skipped over in the discussion by Sportsen. Eventually, the discussion turned to money and how Connor would be paid for developing the game.
“...And so I propose to offer you a salary of four percent of earnings,” Sportsen offered.
“Is that with gross earnings or net earnings?” Connor asked.
“Gross earnings,” Sportsen stated.
“Well, if you say 'Paint Wars' is going to be as big as you say it will be I think we can do more than four percent. How about we look at ten percent net earnings?” Connor countered.
Sportsen laughed, “You do realize you are asking a lot by wanting ten percent of net earnings, right? That is something that I cannot do.”
“Then what is the next best thing you can offer?”
Sportsen paused before answering again, “I can go up to six percent net earnings for your monthly payments for letting my company handle your game.”
Connor shook his head, “let’s try nine percent net earnings. I do believe you have several other departments’ worth of sports that are bringing millions of bits at a time that it can cover nine percent of one sport.”
Sportsen frowned and narrowed his eyes, “I have more than just myself on the pay roll and I’m going to have to hire more employees to handle finances and logistics of your sport as well.”
“Actually,” Twilight interrupted again, “The law states that the inventor of a product can claim up to fifteen percent of earnings according to the commercial encyclopedia of patent laws from article twelve, section five paragraph-”
“Alright!” Sportsen stopped the princess again before she could fully dive into another rant. He glared between Twilight and Connor before speaking again.
“I’ll go to seven and a half percent net earnings.”
“Eight percent net earnings and we have a deal.”
The tension seemed to hold for a tight for a minute before Sportsen conceded.
“Very well, eight percent net earnings and not a bit less.” He sighed and leaned back to stretch while Connor grinned victoriously.
When Sportsen finished stretching he stood up and headed for the door. “If you give me a few minutes I will have the contracts written up and ready for you to sign.” He left the room with a soft click from the door.
Connor sighed and leaned back in the couch himself while they both waited for Sportsen to return. After ten minutes went by, Sportsen entered again and set a small stack of papers on the table.
“Here are the contracts written up describing what we just discussed and describing your recurring monthly payments of eight percent net earnings. You will receive your first payment in about a week once we have begun production and advertisement,” he spread out the papers to point out signature lines, “Just sign in these places here as well as give us an address to send your first pay check.”
“Hang on, let us read the contract first,” Connor mumbled as Twilight and him read over the papers.
When they were both satisfied, Sportsen gave him a pen to use for signing. It was a little awkward, but Connor eventually signed all the papers and Twilight helped him write down the Ponyville library's address for mailing the check. After Connor finished, Sportsen signed his name in a flourish on the provided lines followed by Twilight as the acting witness of the signing.
Once the paper work was done, Sportsen smiled again and shook hooves with both Twilight and Connor.
“Well today was a productive day! I hope everything was to your liking.”
“It was, and thank you. I look forward to working with you in the future,” Connor smiled and respectfully shook hooves with Sportsen before standing up, “Alright Twilight, let's head back.”
Twilight stood up to follow Connor, “Sure. Have a good day Mr. Sportsen!” she waved goodbye and Sportsen waved back as the door closed behind them.
Connor let out a heavy sigh and slowly made his way back to the elevator.
“Wow, that was tough,” he commented, “I never thought it would be that hard to negotiate. Thanks Twilight for all your help.”
“Your welcome, and you actually did pretty well!” Connor smiled at Twilight's comment as he pushed the down arrow button for the elevator.
“Well, I’m ready to head back to Ponyville right now. I don't know if I’m crazy, but maybe it was just Sportsen's business attitude that was probably putting me off.”
The two entered the elevator and pushed the 'L' button for the lobby and elevator began its decent to ground floor.
“It was probably just Sportsen trying to create the best deal for his company; he was just doing his job. I’m still curious about how this 'Elevator' works and how such a useful invention hasn't become wide spread?" twilight pondered.
The doors opened again into the lobby and Twilight and Connor made a beeline for the front revolving doors.
“It’s probably open to anypony right now, but hasn't become financially available to everyone yet. It looks like only the bigger company buildings would be able to afford and maintain it if they had one installed," Connor suggested.
They pushed the doors open in the fresh air of the afternoon and walked away from the massive building back into the main streets of Canterlot.
“So, do you want to take the train back to Ponyville or do you want to fly?” Twilight asked.
“No, I’m ready to fly back. I need to burn off some of this energy I have.”
Twilight laughed again and the pair spread their wings and took off in the direction of Ponyville.
~~~
Back in the meeting room, Sportsen was staring out of the window at the city scape below. A frown creased his lips as he stared out lost in thought. This 'Connor' was an interesting pony to say the least. He held himself with dignity and comfortable confidence in himself, yet he could barely manage to manipulate a pen to sign papers. A stallion of his age should have adequate control of a pen. Another oddity was Connor's mannerisms.
Sportsen was quite adept at finding personal quirks and habits of a common pony. But Connor didn't have many of those habits. For one, his seated position was different of a normal pony. For the most part, Connor sat like a normal pony but he often preferred sitting in a different position that could be considered unusual; and he often liked using both of his forelegs when gesturing or folded his hooves in front of his body. They were small differences and one could easily over look them if you weren't looking for it, but it was part of Sportsen's job to spot the differences in a pony for business dealing advantages.
The last eyebrow raising fact was his acquaintanceship with the Princess of friendship. Very few ponies were granted the privilege of being considered close friends of a princess. To have the ability to ask Princess Twilight to come out for a simple meeting spoke volumes about his relationship with her. There was definitely some history between those two and Sportsen wanted to find out about it. But it would have to wait for a later time.
His frowned deepened as his thoughts and theories tumbled around in his mind like a leaf in the wind. He was going to have to watch this 'Connor' a little more from now on.
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A first time criticism from me but it feels like you may have gone overboard on details when you are describing things that do not seem too important to the flow of the story.
Hmm. Minor antagonist in Sportsen, huh? Considering we have pretty much moved past the Mistrust subplot, Sportsen's interest could prove promising. He really does have a keen eye.
Your layout of Canterlot is pretty good too. No avoiding the snotty unicorns though.
6475018 This was my way of putting my head cannon about how Canterlot is, out there. I see it as a bit of world building in a more realistic tone instead of the idealistic dream we see in the show. though, I probably could have spent more time on the interaction between Connor and Sportsen now that I think about it. But, I kind of want to save him for reasons I don't want to give out yet because of spoilers!
Hmmm... I wonder.
Did Connor ever pay off his debt for hitching a ride to Ponyville when he ran off?
If not, then that, plus the compounded interest for the ticket, as well as the fine for illegally stowing away on the train, plus the compounded interest penalties comes to roughly .... 18,150,604,277,751.07 bits
Ya know, tha' boy betta hope tha' game gets real populer
What.
I would take 3% gross over 8% net any day of the week. With a payment of a percentage of gross your payments are not affected by the business's taxes or expenses. With a payment of a percentage of net you can't predict what percentage of gross your earnings will be, which opens you up to getting denied a paycheck by unscrupulous accounting. That's how Hollywood studios get out of paying screenwriters and actors who make deals like these. There's insufficient reason to conclude 8% net will be more than 3% gross.
I can't believe Twilight didn't tell Connor he was making such a horrible mistake. Perhaps she's just naive? Still, this seems like something basic about negotiations Celestia would have taught her.
6475185
Everypony not everyone
6700503 I tried writing it like that the first time, but the repetition of 'Pony' felt strange. Plus, Connor still occasionally slips into using his old speech of using the word 'Everyone' or 'Everybody'.