Supplies
“You’re sure about this one?” Minuette asked as she twirled in place in the back of Mulberry Mountain’s Wilderness Emporium. “I mean, it’s a little snug.”
I swallowed hard as I sat in a hard plastic chair while the salespony eyed Minuette with the faintest of smiles.
I had always been on the short side for a Canterlot unicorn. I was stocky, with not the best figure. My barrel and chest were a little thicker than I’d like. There were a few other things, but from what I’ve read, most mares felt the same about their bodies.
Minuette, on the other hand, in some ways reminded me a lot of… my… my best friend… during grad school. Not a perfect figure—her shoulders were crazy broad—but curves in all the right places. She had a long, tapered horn and a face made for smiling. She wasn’t some knockout like Princess Cadance or Princess Luna, but she had the whole mare-next-door thing down pat.
And right now, that mare-next-door was wrapped in a midnight-blue bodysuit made for high-altitude climbing or airship work. And when I mean wrapped, I mean wrapped. The suit was practically skintight! It showed off… well, everything.
I swallowed again. Minuette and I had been on and off—despite her claims—friends for years now. And yet, I’d never seen her like this.
I frankly wasn’t sure what I thought about it.
In the end, I decided to tell her the truth when she stopped twirling to look at me, biting her lip in concern.
“You look… um… pretty cute.” I whispered the last two words.
Minuette beamed at me, then looked to the salespony with a confident nod. “Definitely this one.”
I blew out a long breath that I only barely kept Minuette from noticing as she hopped off the platform near our other purchases.
She’d also gotten herself a new parka, a few sweaters, and some absurd fuzzy slippers that looked like small ducks. They even quacked if you stepped the right way.
It hadn’t escaped my notice she had gotten a second pair in a different size. But I would throw myself off the Blossom before I wore anything like that.
Besides a new ensemble for Minuette, I decided to humor her by buying more supplies that were more oriented around her current obsession. While I did place an order for some food to be delivered to our airship in the morning, I also picked up some light digging supplies—shovels, small picks, and the like. I’d even sprung for metal detector bracelets, one for each of us. The charms on them probably wouldn’t last more than a few weeks, but it would let us cast and channel a spell of metal detection while we wore them. Useful, since neither of us knew that spell.
If there was some truth to all of this, I wanted to be prepared. If not, I could always swing back into Canter Basin and return them.
It also helped that Minuette looked positively ecstatic when I’d thrown them in the cart.
We stayed until about ten minutes after closing, something Minuette thanked the three salesponies helping us for at least five times. By the time we finally walked out of the store—Minuette now properly attired against the cold—all three had been blushing from Minuette’s attention.
I checked the clock set into the steeple of what had probably once been the town hall for the town.
“We should be able to take all of this back to Blossom,” I said, hefting my half of our purchases in my magic, “and still have time for our little meetup.”
“Good thing, too,” she replied, pointing up to the sky.
Above our heads, a wave of clouds had descended upon the city, reflecting some of the light back down—and through the snowflakes already falling lazily from the sky.
“Oh come on!” I cried in annoyance. “Snow? Really?”
Minuette responded by sticking out her tongue and catching a single snowflake. She lapped it up and grinned at me.
“Snow is a pain to navigate through!” I snapped as I trudged toward the towering Skydock a little over half a mile away.
“You’re not navigating,” she corrected me, practically prancing beside me. “You’re just walking.”
“I meant for flying! I don’t want to have to deal with this in the morning.”
“And it’ll probably be over in the morning. It’s only, what, early September?”
I glared at her. I regretted calling her cute. Okay, no I didn’t, but still!
She just smiled right back at me, leaving me muttering under my breath.
At a little after nine, the town of Canter Basin looked like it had mostly turned in for the night. The cobblestone roads—probably built to make it easier to deal with rain and snow—were empty. I liked it, even if the stupid snow was coming down. The silence of the entire place was a wonderful change from the mad bustle of Vanhoover, or worse, Canterlot, which always had some fancy party, Wonderbolts show, monster attack, or coronation making all sorts of racket.
Racket that I often heard even through the walls of the libraries I had spent so much time in. Once those wonderful homes of books had protected me from all the things that bothered me, all the things I couldn’t escape from in the real world.
Then, that had changed.
“Hey, you okay?” Minuette asked beside me after licking up another snowflake.
“Huh?” I blinked at her. I’d forgotten she was even there.
“You okay?” she repeated, her eyes a little wide, probably from concern. “You looked kinda distant there for a minute.”
“Oh,” I replied, adjusting my glasses, then doing it again for good measure. “No, no… I’m fine.”
Minuette watched me for a long moment. It seemed like she was about to interrogate me further, but instead, she just smiled at me.
We continued like that for another block.
“Thank you,” she said out of nowhere.
“For what?” I asked, my ears perking up.
“This,” she gestured as if trying to encompass the world. “No matter what happens tomorrow, just two days on an airship with you has been more fun than I’ve had in a long time. Occasionally terrifying, but fun.”
I gave her a sidelong look as if she had just revealed herself to be a changeling.
“But… you’re Minuette,” I blurted out as my glasses slipped down my muzzle. “You’re… you’re easily the most fun pony I know! You’re friends with Pinkie Pie! How could you not be having fun all the time?”
My voice almost turned into an incredulous screech by the end of my declaration of disbelief. Minuette’s ears folded back in response as we continued our way through the deserted streets.
“I may be friends with Pinkie,” Minuette said slowly, staring up at the sky and letting snowflakes melt against her face. “But it doesn’t mean I am Pinkie. Anyway, I haven’t gotten a chance to see her in almost a year. Her new tour with Cheese Sandwich is taking up a lot of her time.”
My only real interaction with the pink earth pony had been at… that party. She seemed happy and pleasant enough, though way too hyper for my tastes. I could never keep up with a pony like that. Still, depending on how close Minuette had been with her… was that the reason she’d left Canterlot? The reason she’d begged to come with me?
“I’m… I’m sorry?” I offered.
“It’s okay,” Minuette said with a wistful smile, still looking up at the low faintly-glowing clouds. “Sometimes, life has a way of taking ponies in different directions. Doesn’t mean they’re not friends anymore, but it means things are different.”
I nodded silently. Those words sounded so familiar. Almost too familiar. I had heard something like them before. I had to swallow a lump in my throat, but still couldn’t find the words to respond to that.
“So, I just wanted to say thank you. This… well, I needed this. I can’t really tell you how badly.”
“Well…” I swallowed again and glanced at her, only to realize she’d fixed those huge blue eyes on me again. “Y-you’re welcome.”
She smiled again. I wondered how she did that so much, especially for somepony who’d said they’d been lacking in fun so much.
Then, for the moment, I decided I didn’t care. So I just smiled back at her.
We were both silent the rest of the way to the Blossom. But it was a comfortable, casual silence.
I didn’t often get to have silences with other ponies.
I decided I liked it.
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Do Pony slippers come in Pairs or Quads?
10755656
Pairs, because they don't necessarily want to wear them both front and back - especially as they occasionally use the front hooves for gesturing or manipulation.
Supplies are found
New revelations gained
Snow falls on the town
And knowledge attained
Cute little slice of life chapter before what I can only suspect will be a dramatic next chapter.
Also, the thought of Minnie in those slippers is both adorable and maddening, depending on how much she uses the "quack" function.
Super cute chapter!
👀
Tis cute!
Daw. Such adorable shipping.
How much do we want to bet that Moonie will at some point choose to put on the slippers Minuette got her?
”Feels like I’m wearing nothing at all! Nothing at all! Nothing at all!”
And Canterlot didn’t even schedule most of the monster attacks! So inconsiderate!
Huh. Something made libraries unwelcome for Moondancer... Nasty stuff indeed. We’ll see what that’s about in time. For now, cute unicorns doing cute things.
10757112
I understood that reference... I'm showing my age, aren't I?
I fully admit maybe I'm just jumping the gun here, if it shows up later, but I just read this chapter and I have to ask something. What happened to Tulip's Tools and High Winds fiancee? I know it's seems to be just a side thing but odd to cover it back two chapters ago then have them end up in a different seemingly random supply shop.
10878109
Tulip and High are together! But it's meant to be just a little fun quip.