Hoofprints and Impressions
Manehattan leaves its hoof print on everypony who ventures into it.
How a city manages to leave it's hoof print without killing anyone is a good question. An even better question is how a city has hooves to begin with. Ahh, never mind, its not something important to argue.
The interesting things becomes how this city impacts ponies. Some change, they become much more "upper class", or more common, much much more uptight. Others become cruel and focused solely on self gain; thievery and underhanded tactics weren't uncommon.
However, its hard to say that the city itself hasn't been impacted by the special ponies that come through, or in fact even by the common ponies that live there everyday. They are the ones who set the flavor of the town, through architecture or through the ideas that flowed through the town. It truly was a cosmopolitan town.
Coco Pommel readied herself for the day, brushing her mane and putting in her signature flower in her hair. She could barely wait to get the day started, and indeed the day itself had barely started. Glancing out the window, Celestia appeared to be taking her time raising the sun today. Maybe she finally got tired of waking up early every morning. Glancing at the clock hanging above the door however, indicated that it was Coco herself who had gotten up way to early this morning.
There's no harm to arriving early I suppose, thought Coco to herself, might as well get a head start! It'll be a miracle if I can finish all those costumes in time for the show.
Packing her saddlebags with some special bolts of cloth that might help her in her job, she wiggled into those saddlebags and stared out her door. The sunrise was magnificent, as if to welcome Coco to her new job and a new day, a new life even. Coco never realized how beautiful it was; the streaks of orange that climbed into the sky, turning the sky from its dark purple into the normal light blue.
Coco walked her way up the street to where the taxis waited. She paused for a moment when she rounded the corner, surprised to find that there were even this early in the morning quite a few people waiting there for the taxis. At least it wasn't nearly as bad as later on in the day, so she got in line.
Just as she was the next in line, a light blue pony came up to her, sweating a little from the quick trot that she took to get up here. Her deep violet hair held up by a yellow headband. Quite fashionable, Coco thought to herself.
"Look, I'm sorry, but I'm in a rush to meet an appointment, can I take this taxi?" panted the pony.
"Sure, I'm not in that much of rush," Coco kindly stated, moving aside to let the other pony take the cart. The ponies behind her collectively groaned.
"Hey if you have all this time, why don't you let us ponies who have places to be go ahead of you?!"
Suddenly Coco found herself in the back of the line, just because she was kind enough to give her cab to someone in dire need of it. She frowned a little, but remembering what Rarity had done for her, she wasn't about to let this one incident ruin her day.
Eventually she finally made her way into the theater. Maybe the cab incident was just an isolated case. As she enters the theater though, thoughts of the cab incident are buried.
"You must be the Rarity's friend, Coco right? She's told me that you'd be our costume designer for the next play. I hope you have ideas because we need to get these costumes soon!" With that Coco found herself under a ton of cloth. *Well, time to get to work*...
Coco found herself falling into a new routine day after day. Wake up, be excited for work, get to work, make costumes and put extra care into making them very well, come home exhausted, sleep, and repeat.
Coco put extra work in when she could, she wanted to show the world what she could do with these costumes. Unfortunately, this meant that she lost quite a bit of work when she was told to redesign some of the costumes because of changes made to the play.
Its nothing to be mad about, just have to put in some more work to make up all that lost time. Coco sighed and continued working. Maybe this is just as bad as Suri. Seems like everypony in this town only cared about themselves. Coco had to get ready for her showcase soon. Tomorrow would be when she would show some of the costume designs. Coco prepared herself for a long night of work.
Coco woke up rather suddenly, having some nightmare about the costumes she couldn't finish in time for the—wait, that wasn't a dream was it? She glanced around, finding herself still at the workbench, a small scrap of cloth still stuck partly into the sewing machine. Well, clearly this was the end of her fashion career, she had only completed a few dresses, no way she was going to finish in time for the presentation.
As Coco got up from the table, she felt a cold air blow over her back, the blanket resting on her back now displaced by the movement. Blanket? When did I get a blanket? Coco was confused, and scanning the room she noticed two things, hanging on the rack was definitely a few more costumes than she remembered making, and more importantly there was another pony present in the room. The light blue earth pony seemed to be dozing off at another sewing station. The deep purple hair held in place by a yellow hair band seemed strangely familiar. Her cutie mark appeared to be a mirror, also looked vaguely familiar.
Just as Coco was about to rouse the purple maned mare, she woke up, and seeing Coco up smiled briefly.
"Who are you?" inquired Coco.
"I'm Silver Reflection, I don't know if you remember me, but I was the one that you gave your cab to the other day."
"So... why are you here?"
"Oh, that appointment that I had, was to try to find someone to hire me. I heard that the costume designer job was taken here, but that you might need some help. I came down here yesterday to find you had dozed off while at work, so I tried to finish what I could based on the designs you had drawn that you had sitting around."
"Thank you so much!"
"Think of it as my way of thanking you for that cab, I don't know many ponies who would give up something as little as a taxi in this town."
"Just a little thing, I learned from a friend," Coco said smiling to herself.
A few days later, Coco found herself, sitting at a desk, staring at a piece of paper in front of her. The words the she intended to put down on that paper. The only words on it so far were:
Dear Rarity,
The rest of the page taunted her with emptiness. She still had no real idea how to write this letter, or what to even say in it. All she knew was that she wanted to thank Rarity for what she had done.
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, she turned to find a letter slipped under the door. The letter was addressed to herself, and she opened it, finding a only a short note inside.
*To our brilliant new costume designer*
A few tickets fell out, and Coco's eyes widened. They were tickets to a the next play, the play that she had designed the costumes for. She turned back to her desk. Maybe its time Rarity came for a visit again, perhaps she could also get a few more tickets for Rarity's friends too. Coco sat down at her desk and began writing the letter again.
Dear Rarity,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity that you have given me, and what that opportunity has given me, but I would also like to thank you for what you taught me about generosity. I have learned that these small acts do get noticed, and even in this big city where most ponies are frequently cold to each other, that making a new friend goes a long way to making sure that you aren't just fighting by yourself out there. In this big city, it doesn't have to every mare for herself.
As a way of thanks, I would like to invite you and your friends to Manehattan again for a play
Your friend,
Coco Pommel
Rarity read the letter and giggled to herself. She quickly regained her ladylike composure. Seems like I've made quite the impression on somepony. She briskly walked out the door to share the news and the success of their friend in the city.
Author's Note
Probably worse than my previous one, but at least I'm writing and practicing now. School work will make it difficult to keep up though.
Comments and Criticisms are welcome
Also I might rewrite (or extend) these stories one day if I have more time