Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows

19

Twilight slowly yawned and stretched out, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes for the early morning. She had just spent the first night in Ponyville with a small slumber party, with Zecora as a guest. Zecora had quite a few stories to tell and was entertaining to listen to, the rhyming anecdotes she had about things like a hydra or chimera would never be forgotten. Twilight’s stories were as entertaining, such as the fudge brownie beasts that bled cherry syrup she had to fight when she was younger. Twilight had to stab quite a few of those to death with a fork and she wasn’t very remorseful about eating them either.

She rolled out of bed and flopped to the floor on her face, the slight pain was worth the fact that she was now definitely more awake then she previously had been seconds ago.

Today Twilight was going to send Smart and Barb to the library, Barb still needed schooling. Twilight would make the defensive enchantments for the library at a later date. Smart may be able use enchantments and she may even be made of them, but she couldn’t make, upgrade, alter or refine enchantments herself. She was going to leave some money with them so Barb could have something to eat for lunch.

Zecora and Tress would be going through Ponyville to explore and do some window shopping, Twilight thought they really needed furniture for their home. It was sparse with the kitchen stuff, the few beds and little else; it explains why it was cheaper than normal. They also needed various other supplies for their home as well, such as food, though Twilight actually cooking anything was completely right out. They’d later head on over to Fluttershy’s, mostly so Zecora could be introduced to their somewhat chronically shy friend, if she wasn’t there they’d find her somewhere nearby at least. Zecora was glad to finally be enjoying a bit more acknowledgement then she had been receiving as something to be afraid of, with Tress leading her around ponies would be less likely inclined to be afraid of her.

Twilight would personally be reporting to the mayor since she had asked that Twilight come back after she was done with her commission to take on this problem. It wasn’t anything big, well at least not something her family back in Canterlot was used to seeing anyway. Her family didn’t just have a problems food and there were things that happened back when Shining lived with them that were quite pear shaped in nature.

As Twilight slowly dragged her body to the bathtub to clean off and prepare for the day, she got into the tub and noted the water was relatively cold.

“Barb, did you use up all the hot water!” Twilight must have woken up after everyone else or else the water wouldn’t have been like this. Tress was a good early riser, Twilight figured that earth ponies tended to do that anyway and Barb had been learning that she got more hot water the earlier she got out of bed.

“Sorry mom! Though you can’t entirely blame me, Zecora needed a bath too.” It was Barbs response from downstairs and she really did sound apologetic.

“That’s okay; she’s a guest after all.” Twilight answered back in a defeated tone, she at least heard a little cold water wasn’t bad for you as long as it didn’t give you a cold or got you sick. “Smart, please remember to get at least ten or so bits for Barb’s lunch on your way out if I don’t see you two before I leave.”

“You got it boss lady.” Smart shouted gleefully, probably from a windowsill downstairs absorbing some early morning sun.

Why oh why did Twilight think up that kind of annoying personality for Smarty Pants? Especially when she was little and then applied it to a really complicated string of enchantments to make that personality she created to become slightly more real. Oh right, she was friendless up until she turned fourteen. She should probably be more cynical about life.

After getting out the bathroom, she found Zecora and Tress had already vacated the premises. Barb refused to leave without a hug and it really warmed Twilight’s heart that her daughter wanted to stick around for her. After a quick heartfelt hug and then handing the bits to her daughter while explicitly telling her to not use it on ice cream, Twilight finally left the house into the bright morning in Ponyville.

It was a bright and sunny town, once Celestia’s sun rose over the horizon. Ponies were going to and fro, male and female, young and old. The town was much busier then she had seen yesterday and to think that Zecora had that kind of presence to scare so many ponies, it was a bit mind boggling that ponies here didn’t believe in safety in numbers.

She passed by the café they ate at yesterday and greeted the waiter pleasantly and he nodded to her and gave her a slight wave before he continued to set up the outdoor portion of the café. Morning in Ponyville shimmered spectacularly as shops were being set up and she could see the shining community working together to get started up in the morning. They weren’t very particularly organized, but they were doing pretty good working things out on their own.

The largest population here was mostly earth ponies, but it was a mixture of pegasus and unicorn in almost equal parts as well. The only place you could probably see more earth ponies then this was the bustling streets of Manehatten.

Twilight took her time traveling through town to take in the sights as she made her way to the city hall, where the mayor’s office was. Entering the office, Twilight was witness to mayor finishing up a talk with a familiar if older grey and blonde pegasus who was leaning back in a chair and eating a muffin with what possibly appeared to be a smug expression. Soon the mare got up and walked to the door.

“Thank you for your time Miss Hooves and the strawberry muffin.” The mayor was exasperated at how smart the mare was despite appearances, it was so hard sometimes to remember that she was one of the smartest ponies in Ponyville. At least Ditzy Do was at least more like she appeared to be and was a completely weird possibly addled pegasus at that.

“Don’t mention it mayor. Hey Twilight, I’m going to introduce myself to you at the surprise party this week. Don’t miss meeting me for the first time there or would it be for the third time, but first time I actually introduce myself. Since it’s a younger me it would technically be my first time meeting you, hmm...” With that the confusing pegasus left the room with a thought provoking look on her face. She left behind an equally confused Twilight behind with the mayor.

Twilight wondered who that pegasus was. She knew she’s seen her at her fourteenth birthday when she delivered Shining Armor’s notes and that book of barrier magic, but they’ve barely even said anything to each other.

“I see you’ve met her before. She’s a bit of a quirky one but she’s this town’s favorite mail delivery mare, I think it’s all the free muffins really. Don’t worry about her too much.” The mayor really didn’t find it odd that the pegasus just said proclaimed something as happening in the future. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to the weird stuff that sometimes happened around Ponyville including the time traveling muffin loving mare. It certainly added character to the mayor's town to have a mare that can deliver a muffin to anywhere at any time, even the cake flavored muffin to Celestia’s breakfast table without being caught by her guard. “Other than that your pegasus friend came by earlier, it looks like she’s already taken with her job and I just gave her a small task to deal with the problem of animals ruining Ponyville’s crops. She really made an impression on me when she came in with a cardinal with a bandaged wing. So what do you have to report on our stranger?”

Twilight went into explanation of Zecora and into how a lot of the towns’ ponies being afraid of a single zebra sounded quite silly. They had a nice lunch and left a five bit tip, using up thirty three bits of what the mayor gave her. She even explained they had a really nice sleep over because Zecora wanted a place to stay in Ponyville for a while and she offered to let the zebra be a guest in her new home.

“My you certainly went above the call of duty on this and did everything I requested.” The mayor placed ten bits on her desk and pushed them to Twilight. “I believe you deserve payment.”

“What, but I thought…” Twilight slowly stopped at seeing a smile on the mayors’ face.

“That was so you could take this Zecora out to lunch. The money I gave you was for that meal and I even said you could keep the change. I think you deserve payment for a job well done and I just decided to add five more bits to the payment as a bonus.” The mayor thought Twilight was being too modest, she’s immediately noticed a change about Ponyville the next day after Twilight met the zebra known as Zecora. The ponies of the town were less wary and scared as they moved about the streets now, despite Zecora still being in town. “Besides that café is a really good restaurant, especially their hay fries.”

“I… thank you mayor.” Twilight was a little surprised at how nice the mayor of the town was.

“Oh don’t thank me yet, I still have to know what you can’t do before I think of sending any more things your way. Oh and don’t forget my mane coloring appointment is in a few days.” The mayor knew she had an amused smile on her face, but she couldn’t help it. Twilight was young and endearing.

“I’m not going to forget the appointment mayor, but what do you need to exactly know that we can’t do? Even if we can’t do something, we’re still going to try and find some pony that can to help us do it. I don’t even mind if a job is exceedingly dangerous.” Because frankly, fighting food monsters at her parents or getting sucked into a comic book where Twilight faced down what became her best friend without having to resort to fighting were just the tips of the iceberg. If they had to deal with that cockatrice without Fluttershy, they would have found a way somehow. Likely by blocking the creatures petrifying gaze with a piece of cloth and then they would have released it safely away from Canterlot.

“Just tell me some of the things you aren’t good at. I understand that you’ll still try for a solution to any problem even if you yourself or your close friends can’t solve it.” The mayor was intrigued to hear what Twilight didn’t have going for her.

“Well, I’m not good at dancing or so I’ve been told, I really think it’s more of an opinion anyway. I’m not good at cooking and even my parents wouldn’t let me near the kitchen and sometimes they’ve had the same kind of results I’ve had.” Twilight seeing the mayor raised a hoof at her, she stopped.

“Let me guess, do you create food monsters? It seems a bit of a rare thing among unicorns to be sure, but we have a little unicorn in town that’s so horrible at cooking she created an entire race of spaghetti monsters. That they were capable of reproduction is no less a scary thought, none of the ponies in this town know where the rest went after we took down quite a number of them. They were not really all too threatening, just highly annoying.” The mayor remembered a little pony named Sweetie Belle’s attempts at making spaghetti and hay balls; it was a horrifically messy affair even if no pony was truly hurt. “Now continue on with a few more things you aren’t good at.”

“And here I thought that kind of thing only happened to my family. I’m not good at handling surprises or threats very well unless I’m expecting them somewhat. I also have a slight aversion to violence and prefer to solve all my problems if not diplomatically then as peacefully as possible without hurting any pony.” Twilight’s life might not have been entirely quiet, but she made sure she stayed out of the way of ponies that truly disliked her.

“Okay that’s about all I needed to hear. Now what kind of ad were you thinking of putting into the newspaper?” The mayor wondered if Twilight forgot about that.

“Huh? Oh right, you said you’d get us a slot in the newspaper for completing your request… I really don’t want to impose that stipulation upon you mayor. You really don’t have to worry about it.” The look Twilight saw on her face meant otherwise.

“I’m a mare of my word I’ll have you know, now tell me what kind of things you want other ponies to know about your business? How else will you pick up customers? It needs to be something with a bit of oomph to it. Maybe I can even set up a bulletin board that you or any pony can take requests here at city hall, you can do that instead of having them just come to you personally. Would it help?” The mayor really was trying to help Twilight out and she hoped the purple pony could see that. She was a good judge of character and Twilight was a good pony. Having the Ponyville community take or place jobs on a bulletin board sounds like a good idea, it was a wonder the mayor or any before her didn’t think of this earlier.

“Well…” Twilight trailed off looking out a nearby window at the sky and the streets of Ponyville.

Comments

[Death2205]

Cliff hanger

[Imperium Bedlam]

3907154
Thankyou captain obvious.

[Jiopaba]

This seems sensible to me. When a Hero moves into town, you need to make sure there's a Side Quests Board up to keep them busy in between bouts of saving the world.

[King of Kings]

the time traveling muffin loving mare.