Intro (A Relaxing Morning With Formal)
It was the heat of the sun’s rays that caused the pale-coated pegasus mare to turn in her sleep. She wanted to wake up, but felt as if some sort of mysterious force was keeping her eyelids shut and her mind in a submissive state. It was when she rolled onto her side that she began to realize something was well and truly amiss. Rolling back to her original position only confirmed the mare's fears - there was no other pony with her.
No longer falling victim to her own morning drowsiness Formal's eyes shot open as she began to survey her bedroom. Looking around, everything seemed to be in place except for the lack of her coltfriend, David Hoof. The question of where he was didn't last very long as the salty aroma of hay bacon began to attack her senses, accompanied by a large crash from the kitchen down the hall. It had only been a couple of weeks since the couple had moved to Ponyville and it seemed that every morning David would get up a solid hour before Formal just to make her breakfast. Most mares would be proud or feel catered for to be treated as such, however for Formal it just made her feel guilty. Ever since the start of their relationship she felt as if David spent too much time caring for her, and she had been yet to truly repay the favour. Still that hay bacon did smell good, and it provided enough motivation for the young mare to physically get out of bed and make her way to the kitchen.
“Hey there Sleepy-Head, nice bed-mane." David's greeting sounded very enthusiastic as per usual, however he normally kept comments about Formal’s green and gold mane to himself.
“How bad is it?” Formals response was much more sluggish, she really wasn’t in the mood to care about her appearance, but if it was noticeable... “Ahh buck it, I don’t care, you're the one who has to put up with it.” Formal muttered whilst moving to the Stallions side to give him a peck on the cheek.
“Pshhh let me fix it for you.” David pulled himself away from his breakfast making to put a hoof to Formal's mane and began to ruffle it. “Well I wouldn’t call it better, but at least its passable.” David started to giggle to himself as he returned to making the pair’s meal. “If you want to clean yourself up a bit more, the food won't be ready for another couple of minutes.”
“You spoil me ya know” Formal said with a sigh as she made her way out of the kitchen and towards the bathroom with the intention of making herself presentable. “One of these days I’m going to have to force you to stop it, I don’t want to feel like I’m back in Canterlot” The mare shuddered as she began to remember her past.
“Then stop being so lovable” David called out with a hint of sarcasm, however Formal merely ignored him as she had more pressing issues on her mind. Starting with how in Tartarus did she not notice how terrible her mane had gotten? 'Ughh this is gunna take a solid five minutes' referring to the now golfball sized knot in her mane, which was more than likely caused by David’s previous interference. The process was slow and rather painful, at one stage she was even contemplating the use of scissors, however after the use of grit and determination she was able to return her mane to its normal state. “Hey Food is on the table!” came a shout from outside the room at the exact moment Formal had finished cleaning herself up. 'heh good timing'
Returning to the kitchen, the meal was well and truly on the table with a rather famished looking brown pegasus looking eager to dig in. “You can start without me ya know” Formal replied dryly. Most mornings she wouldn’t be this cold and a part of her was starting to worry that David may pick up on that.
“Geez somepony got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning” ‘Well crap turns out he is starting to notice’ Formal silently started to curse at herself.
“Nah, just grumpy” Came an honest reply from the mare “Some food should help my mood” and with that she began to attack her meal along with David. It didn’t take long for the pair to finish their meal, they did always seem to be fast eaters. “Ughh that’s better” Formal commented whilst patting her bloated stomach in an effort to prove a point.
“Mmhmmm, glad you are feeling better” David looked pleased as well, as if brightening Formal's day was all he needed to go on. He was about to say something more when his words were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Huh, I wonder who could be visiting us at this hour in the morning?”
“Never you mind master chef, I'll get it, besides its most likely Gail” She said, already moving towards the door. Gail was David's cousin and an older ponyville resident, since the pair moved in she had frequented their house in an attempt to help the couple settle in. Formal was grateful for her help as well as thus far she had yet to really meet many other ponies in the small town. This is why Formal was surprised when it wasn’t Gail at the door, rather a disheveled looking mail pony. She was a pegasus as well, grey coat, blond hair and... ‘no don’t look at her eyes it's impolite to stare at abnormalities.’ she thought, averting her own eyes. Formal tried her best to be polite but she kept finding herself accidental sneaking glances at the mares crooked eyes.
“Umm Delivery for a Miss. Riot”
“Ye..yes that would be me” Formal said as she was handed a sheet to sign. 'Great another package from the parents' she thought to herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t like hearing from them, it just meant more guilt for abandoning their wishes to pursue her own. The mare was still at the age where she felt her parents didn’t understand her and any conversation she would have with them would feel quite awkward and strange. Begrudgingly signing the sheet, she returned it to the mail mare with a forced smile. “Thank you”
“You’re welcome” The mail mare had maintained the same stupid grin on her face during the entire of the exchange, Formal was almost jealous of the mares mood. “And here is your package Miss. Riot.” With that the other pegasi removed a parcel from her satchel that was a bit smaller than what Formal was expecting. Even more curious was that it was sent from Ponyville and not Canterlot. Handing it to Miss, it’s not an abbreviation Riot, the mail mare bid the bemused pegasus a fond farewell and continued on her route.
“Who was it?!” Came a shout from the kitchen.
“Mailmare, I got a package of some sort!”
“More stuff from your parents?!”
“Nahh came from Ponyville!”
“Well that's different” David had made trotted up to the doorstep and was now standing by Formals side, observing the package with her. “Well what are you waiting for open it up so we can see what it is.”
“Umm ok I guess” For some explainable reason the package was making Formal nervous, most likely it was because she had no idea who sent it or why. Still the package wasn’t the only thing on her mind, and as she began to carefully open the cardboard parcel she began to ask David about the mailpony's appearance. “Have you met the mailmare before? She’s... interesting”
“Hmm you mean the one with the lazy eye, yeah I think I’ve seen her around, she’s quite a nice mare” David as per usual, seemed to be thinking the best of everypony; one of the reasons why Formal loved him so much.
“Yeah she was the one who delivered this, She seemed nice enough but I found myself staring at her eye, I do hope I didn’t offend the poor dear.” By this stage Formal was struggling with a particularly difficult part of the box.
“Here let me help you with that, and I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m sure its fine, remember when we first met, and you couldn’t stop staring at my wings.” Formal did remember first meeting the brown coated and maned pegasi beside her, it was at a special school for pegasi the couple had been bunked together. Back then David was unable to fly and his wings suffered because of it. Even now they were still underdeveloped by most standards however they had greatly improved. However being a landlocked pegasi still provided David with other noticeable muscular features.
“That wasn’t the only thing I couldn’t stop staring at” Formal responded flirtatiously. By this stage David had essentially torn through the parcel and its contents spilled to the floor. “Smooth”
“Its open isn’t it, huh, I thought their would be more” Formal silently agreed, as all what appeared to be in the box was two normal size sheets of paper and a lot of bubble wrap. “Why would somepony bubble wrap paper?” David tentatively asked his mare friend however Formal was no longer listening rather attacking the bubble wrap with gusto. Popping each bubble individually and giggling whilst doing so.
“You should try this, its quite fun!” Formal said aloud, feeling like a little filly again, however David had already moved on to the letter that wasn’t addressed to him.
“Hey, looks like you are invited to some sort of party, and you must come alone, with your piece of the map, wonder what that is.... of that other piece of paper, hmm boring boring, 10,000 bit prize” It was the last piece of information that got the mares attention.
“Wait, what is that about an 10,000 bit prize?” The idea of that amount of money got Formal excited, but not excited enough to stop her from attacking the bubble wrap.
“I don’t know, sounds like a scam to me” David said concerned, particularly about the tidbit stating that Formal had to come alone. He didn't like the idea of Formal being by herself, not since the accident that left her with a still quite visible limp in her step. Sure she was a better flier than him, but on the land, well she wasn’t as agile or fast as she could be if she were uninjured.
“Here let me see that” Formal was quick to rip the letter out of David's grasp. “Lets see... nah, I like this I’m going.” Whilst Formal did agree that it was probably a scam, she was getting anxious to get out and meet other ponies, perhaps if this letter was mass sent, their would be others she could meet. Of course she wouldn't let David know of her intentions, it would be much more fun to mess with him a bit. “Just think about all that money I can make.”
“You.... you can't be serious, this is obviously some sort of time share scam” Formal could tell David was on the verge of face hoofing.
“Nahh seems totally legit, especially the part where there is no return address or even a name of the sender” Formal couldn’t help but start to grin as her colt friend fell for the trap.
“Righhhtt, well don’t blame me when you are in debt at the end of the day, remember we still don’t really have a stable job yet.” Formal couldn’t believe it, David was actually letting her go, at the same time David couldn't really believe it either. Grabbing the letter and the apparent map parchment Formal took off towards the listed meeting address, but not before giving David one last kiss.
“Love ya hun, I'll see you later today, a rich and happy mare”
“Yea Sure, just stay safe” Little did either pony realize that by making the decision to go Formal had just ensured that for the next few days, her time in ponyville would be anything but.