Tales of Another Ponyville

by Paradise Oasis

Building Bridges

"That little over fried fajita! I'm gonna show her who de best party planner in Ponyville is!" I hear her yelling angrily, as she glues parts of her pinata together. "Ain't nobody gonna steal Fiesta Flair's thunder!"

I watch her putting all of the finishing touches and final flourishes on the party favors; all very festive, bright and colorful. Fiesta always put her heart and soul into her party planning, and usually makes her friends very happy. But this recent mess with Razaroo has left her a bit angry, to say the least.

"Dearest, you've been at work on the stuff for Scootaloo's party for over five hours now." I tell her, putting a worried hoof on her shoulder. "Don't you think you should take a break for a little while?"

"No! I can't let that that little cucracha show me up." She snorted, not even looking away from her work. "Sorry Frisco, but dis gotta be de biggest fiesta Ponyville has ever seen!"

With a sigh, I shake my head and trot away. I wish she weren't so competitive, but then again that's the spark I saw in her that I fell in love with. I'm a more passive pony myself, and I always admired Fiesta's ability to go after what she wants with gusto. Me, I'm always a more passive pony, I suppose. Good old Frisco, he never loses his temper or gets mad.

Trotting my way across town, I head towards the new bridge we are putting together that spans the river in green green meadows. The old one collapsed in that nasty snow storm we had last year, and it was decided a new one should be constructed in it's place.

"Sparkleworks... Sparklesnap... how's the construction coming?" I call out to the two mares, craning my neck to looks down to where they both stood on the bridge's support beams. "You two get those bolts on the support braces tightened yet?"

"We're workin' on it, Frisco!" Sparkleworks calls back, winking at me as she tightens another bolt with her hoof wrench. "I'd say another hour or so, and this baby will be all ready for ponies to trot across!"

"It would go faster, if you'd get your flank down here and help us." Sparklesnap grumbled, looking up at me in annoyance. "Why do you get to design these bridges, but you don't have to help work on them?"

"Ohh, lay off of Frisco, sister! This is our job, not his." Sparkleworks retorted, adjusting her yellow construction hat with a pink flower design on it. "He's just a boy, you can't expect him to be able to do careful jobs that call for precision work."

With another sigh, I shake my head as the two siblings start bickering again. Sparkleworks is right though, it's not working buildings and bridges that is my special talent as Ponyville's architect. No, my job is to design the structures of this town, to design and plan the construction and repairs needed with diagrams and charts. Ever since I was a colt, I could look at any structure, and identify the weak spots in them. I could pinpoint where repairs were needed, where support beams needed replaced, and where walls needed strengthened.

I could also design a strong and sturdy structure on my own, but did not have the construction skills to build such places on my own. So, I have to leave the actual building of my work to ponies who are skilled at such things, such as the two mares below me. But right now, they are too busy arguing to actually get any work done on the new bridge I've designed for the town. So maybe it's time I speak up, and say something to get these ponies back to the task at hoof.

"Girls, please! Several ponies what to go for a picnic at Applejack's cottage across the river tomorrow, so this bridge needs to be finished by this evening!" I exclaim, looking between the two of them. "Sparklesnap, the reason I don't help the two of you is, I could never keep up with two such amazing construction mares. I'd only slow the two of you down!"

"He is right, sister, we are pretty awesome." Sparkleworks giggled. "Why don't we just hold off on the bickering, and get this job done first?"

"Okay... fine." The other sister grumbles reluctantly, as the two return to work.

Pony friendships, I find, are a lot like the bridges I build. They need to be carefully spanned and constructed between two ponies, meticulously maintained, and kept in good working condition lest they fall apart. I'm sometimes able to plan out a good repair job between two friends, as I am with repairing structures, but with Fiesta and Razaroo that doesn't seem to be the case.

And that's such a sad thing, too. They used to be such great friends, back when I was dating Razz.They would plan birthday parties together, and each bring their own special little touch to the festivities. But them this silly party rivalry started between them, and they've been at each others throats ever since. The two haven't really talked to each other as friends ever since I started dating Fiesta, and it turned even more sour when we got married.

I just can't help but wonder... did something I don't know about come between the two?

"Yay, we're done!" Spakleworks called up in excitement. "The last of the bolts are tightened!"

"Yes! All of our hard work has payed off!" Sparklesnap agreed, flashing me a rare smile, an unusual thing for that normally glum mare. "All of our hard work has finally payed off!"

But it was just at that moment, that a familiar green menace with a candy-swirled cutie mark came trotting up to the bridge.

"Oh wow, you guys finished the bridge!" The green mare giggled, looking over my finished pride and joy. "That's really super cool! Here, let me test it out for you!"

No, no, no, NO! Not the green terror! Not the walking disaster in pony form, who demolishes and destroys my construction simply by walking on them or over them! I have night-mares where she is a giant pony monster, stepping on and smashing my beautiful works of construction art! Please, fate! Get her off my bridge, before the whole thing comes crashing down around us!

"Minty, get off the Bridge!" Sparkleworks screams, waving her hooves frantically. "I found a screw I missed, and the bridge's gonna-"

But it's too late. She's already halfway across, when the bridge starts top creak and groan under her four hundred pound pony weight. Rivets pop and metal buckles under, and the whole bridge starts to crumble under us like cardboard. The four of us are able to jump clear, but my beautiful masterpiece goes tumbling into the river.

CLANG! BOOM! CRASH!

"All of our hard work!"

"Damn it Minty!"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I can't do anything right! WHAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

And as I stare at the two angry mares, and the blubbering green monster crying tears all over her mane and coat, I wonder why I sometimes even bother to try...

Comments

[Richforce]

Nice work, btw you seem to lost a few chapters on Fanfiction.net in tales of dream castle.

[Paradise Oasis]

6704888

W-why did you want her to be a stallion?!

[Vanilla Mocha]

Poor Minty... She's just clumsy!

[BioniclesaurKing4t2]

Getting a bit extreme on the Minty shaming, aren't we? At this point, why don't you just make her wear a sign with an updating list of every "disaster" she's ever caused?

<program>"dudejustchill" status="off"
|- activity="run"
<program>"dudejustchill" status="on"

(deep breath, let it out slowly) This is one of the few recurring aspects I don't really like about this story so far, to the point I sometimes have to look away from the words I'm reading. What I get from Minty is that she's always just trying to help, but is unfortunate enough that it never works out how she intends; this, however, never stops her from trying to help again the next time, for better or for worse. Be it from foolishness or from caring, this is what convinced me to make her a main character in my upcoming G3 story, wherein I choose to give attention to those "for better" cases. (Sorry if I sound a bit…intense. I just had to say this.)

[Paradise Oasis]

6705099

I would agree, except; 1.) Minty always makes it out of these things physically unscathed, 2.) Nobody ever actually blames her or yells at her for her oopsies, 3.) and it's never her intent to do these things. She's just a well-meaning klutz

[HB_DS2013]

Minty as the green menace made me think of Dee Dee wrecking Dexter's lab.