The Assistant

"Good morning, Ms. Mayor." Yet another pony greeted as he entered the building, passing casually by the mare of subject's office as he did so and giving her a short wave.

There was a light kick in his step, likely fueled by the prospect of his ability to head home earlier on this day–alongside his next work shift –and the prominently well-used time of sleep he had gotten.

Opposite of him, Mayor Mare exchanged his greeting with one of her own, barely repressing a yawn as she did so, but not taking her eyes away from the stacks of paperwork before her for even a millisecond.

"Good morning..." She managed to utter in between sheets, busying herself with the more recent of financial records from the Town Hall's spendings last week, and now.

She had been here for well over a few hours now, and only now were the other employees beginning to arrive. Of course, what else would she expect in that regard?

Their long aforementioned work hours had always been set to begin after hers, even before she had become a public official. So, to see them come in one by one, hours after she had, each seeming content and cheerful with the arrival of the weekend, was a normal event.

That is to say, it was not like she did not feel envy towards them for this fact, so much as she was simply able to accustom herself to it well.

She needed to be professional about this, after all, and making a motion for a lesser amount of hours to be assigned to her would not only seem opposite of this, but it would be completely counter-productive as well; especially considering the fact that she always managed to stay well after hours working either way.

"If I'm going to be stressed," she bemusedly thought to herself, "I may as well get paid for it."

A soft, almost inaudible laugh escaped her as this thought came to her, offering a momentary solace from her sleepless lack of energy... Though, still, it was only momentary.

Glancing away from her work, she partially pursed her lips as she caught sight of the empty, though obviously well-used, mug that sat on the very corner of her table; the inscription of '#1 Mayor' always managed to bring forth another laugh from her, as she had so aptly told the employees who had gifted this to her some time ago.

"...More coffee. I definitely need more coffee."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"More carrots. I definitely need more carrots." This was the thought to go through Cherilee's mind as she strolled through the market, her saddlebags practically filled to their brims with groceries of all sorts, save for a few empty spaces.

It was still comparatively early in the morning when she had decided to roll herself out of her bed and start her day of relaxation with a nice breakfast, serving herself a small plate of daffodil pancakes, slightly burnt on one side, just as she liked them.

It was as she had done this, however, that she had taken notice of her growing lack of produce, alongside others foods and spices that she was running short on. And so, here she was, walking down the stall-filled, though fairly empty, morning road that made up the Ponyville marketplace.

Though she appreciated the silence and peace as she casually bought from–and chatted with–her usual vendors, a small part of her, used to the 'controlled chaos' that often made up her classes from work, could not help but to wish for the more crowded road that often came along in the later hours of the day.

I need a vacation, she would think to herself whenever these sorts of 'longings' would come up, scolding herself for being such a workaholic. Of course, at least she could say that she wasn't the only one in Ponyville who shared this trait; and to do so with a good friend as well.

Her train of thought was brought to an end by a short laugh as she approached her last stop, walking up to the stall that a certain orange-maned mare stood behind; she was greeted with a smile, which was promptly returned.

"Good morning, CarrotTop."

"Good morning, Cherilee." They exchanged. "What can I do for you today?" The cerise school teacher gleamed at her friendliness, momentarily looking over her–as her aptly named self implied–large variety of carrots from afar.

"Oh, just a dozen carrots or so. Enough to get me by for a while." The mare carrot merchant nodded happily at the request, making her way over to her products and carefully picking out twelve carrots from a neatly stacked pile.

Cherilee waited patiently as she watched the mare, occasionally glancing to the Ponyville clock tower as she shifted the groceries on her back into a better position, though with some difficulty.

"Oh, and that'll be about three bits." CarrotTop chimed as she gathered up the last of the carrots, putting them atop a small weigher she had in the back and pricing them appropriately so.

"Of course." Cherilee returned, craning her neck as she reached for one of her saddlebags, where she had buried her bits.

However, as she did so, she found there to be a slight issue.

As her grocery shopping, and the constant shifting of her bags, had proven, her bits, and the like, had been quite... Overcome by the large amount of objects she held. So much so that, as she grabbed hold of her saddlebags and attempted seek out her bits, all she could be greeted by were more groceries.

She could barely even move the bags closer to her as a result, further preventing her from obtaining what she needed.

An involuntary huff of frustration escaped her as she continued to root through her bag, alongside a short and whispered "what I wouldn't give for unicorn magic".

Before she could struggle any further though, she felt a light tap on her shoulder; an unfamiliar sort of tap, not quite alien, but not very familiar to that normally given by a hoof.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, would you like some help?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fresh air.

That was the first thing that the man had noticed when he had exited the train, taking his first few steps through Ponyville.

No longer could he hear the drowning noise of a large crowd of ponies and people during rush hour, and no longer could he detect thickness in the air he breathed; nothing more than fresh, clean, and light air.

It was almost unnatural to him, but most definitely not unwelcome.

He had only been provided with a few short minutes of this small town as his surroundings, and already, it was more than enough to put a light smile on his face.

Ponies, despite not even knowing him, greeted him a good morning as he glanced towards a collection of documents he held, returned with similar forthcoming and cheer on every occasion.

Near the back of these documents, he could easily see the deed to his more recently obtained home, listing his address and information in clear and precise letterings placed upon a crisp white sheet.

His smile involuntarily grew at this as well, as he looked up from his papers and momentarily scanned his surroundings.

Before he could make his way over to his new home, he would need to make his way over to the post office to deliver his letters. Priorities, after all.

The issue, however, was that he was unsure as to where it was.

Even now, he found himself to be walking down some random path through the town, simply searching for any sort of assisting sign or hint of direction that may appear in his path.

"For such a small town," he thought to himself bemusedly, "I'm certainly having trouble finding my way around."

The thought was actually fairly amusing to him; how he was so easily able to navigate the larger cities of places such as Las Pegasus and Manehatten, yet, the moment he was introduced to a setting such as this, he was more lost and out-of-place than a rock in a jewel convention.

Shaking his head at the thought, whilst providing a light-hearted chuckle, he made his way down another well-used path, this time surrounded by a large collection of stalls, some occupied, with other ponies standing in front of and behind them, and others empty.

He surmised this to be the Ponyville marketplace, having seen a few just like it in previous times, though often on a much larger scale.

Taking in his humble surroundings yet again, he took note of the few ponies he could see, some of them giving him kind waves of welcome, happily returned as he caught sight of them.

Among these many combinations of merchant and costumer ponies, he spotted a more unique sight, drawing most of his attention as he came close.

A seemingly normal stall, wooden bearings and all, along the path before him, stationed and managed by an earth mare with orange fur, and a seemingly darker orange mane; even more appropriately, he quickly took notice of the products she sold, comprised of carrots of several sizes and healthy coloration.

Before this stall stood another mare, a pair of saddlebags over her deep, reddish-pink back, while her lighter and dual toned–though still pink–mane hinted towards her odd positioning as she searched through one of these bags.

Sensing the trouble she was having, and taking notice of the fact that it was not too far out of his current way anyhow, the man moved himself closer along to the side of the path where the stall stood; his papers were neatly placed and held in the grip of his arm, leaving his other free and without issue as he reached out for the clearly struggling mare, giving her a light tap on her back.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, would you like some help?"

The mare seemed to pause at his question for a moment, freezing as she continued to hold her head buried in her saddlebag, before shortly after recovering and responding.

"Oh, if you don't mind, yes, I would like some help." Still not removing her head from her bag as she continued her search, she slightly shifted herself so that the strap of her bags would be more presented towards him. "Could you please hold onto this for me? It'll only be a second."

Though he was aware the mare could not yet see him, he gave her a polite nod as he reached for the strap, lifting it, and by extension, the bags, lightening the mare's load as she was now more easily able to look through her belongings.

This change obvious to her, unlike her obliviousness of who had caused it, the mare found her sought out bits within seconds, letting out a mental cheer of triumph as she removed the small sack of bits from her larger bag in the hold of her maw; it was only now that the man was able to take note of her features, including her bright green eyes.

She placed the bit pouch upon the stall's counter as she then pulled out three of the golden coins of currency, offering a smile to the adjacent mare who stood behind the stall, alongside her inventory.

The mare just as cheerfully took the bits from the customer, moving them somewhere out of view before she then placed a collection of carrots onto the counter in return.

"Thank you, come again soon." The orange mare told her, as she closed her bit pouch once again and gave her a nod of her head; her money held in between her forehooves, and the bushel of carrots in the grip of her maw, she turned herself to give her own thanks to the 'pony' that had assisted her.

"Thnff y-" Before she could finish her muffled message, she once again froze as she took notice of the fact that, beyond her saddle bags, which were currently held out to her, she did not greet the face of a stallion. Rather, she found herself needing to crane her neck upwards, towards the smiling face of the human man.

He couldn't help but to chortle at her reaction, likely not having expected one such as himself to have been the one to help her; that is to say, this did not surprise him very much, considering the already apparent lack of other humans that lived here.

"Everything quite alright?" He asked.

The mare continued silent for another moment or two, her eyes widening shortly before she shook her head in realization of her state, giving the man a muffled answer, which came out as gibberish.

The man laughed this time. "Pardon?"

A light tinge of red came upon the face of the mare in slight embarrassment as she quickly thought through her next action, moving the carrots in her mouth's grip towards the outstretched saddlebags offered to her by the man, placing them snugly inside–this was followed shortly after by her bit bag–before pulling back and attempting to speak once again.

"I-I said, 'Sorry about that'." The man nodded at the much clearer answer of the mare, watching as she grabbed hold of her saddlebags from him, slinging them over her back with a slight grunt, before then explaining on.

"I... Was a little surprised to see you, is all. There aren't really any other humans that live around here." The man gave a mental underline to one of his previous thoughts, now proven even more so by this mare's statement.

"It's no issue whatsoever, Ma'am. Though, truth be told, I'm not particularly sure of which direction I'm going at the moment." A chuckle escaped the man as the mare rose a questioning brow at his words.

"Oh?" She asked, tilting her head ever so slightly to her left.

"Yes, you see, I'm looking for the post office." He lifted his held collection of letters and documents up slightly higher for her to see. "I have some things to deliver."

The mare gave a slow, understanding nod at this, her eyes once again widening as an idea came to mind.

"Oh! If you like, I can show you the way. A good deed draws another good deed, after all." She offered, giving her saddlebags a light bounce as emphasis to her point, following shortly after with a smile.

The man nodded at this, happily accepting her offer. "If it's not too much trouble."

"Great!" Without another word, the mare took her place next to the man, gesturing for him to follow with a bob of her head, before shortly after taking the lead in front of him; he, of course, trailed shortly after.

"My name is Cherilee, by the way. No need to call me 'Ma'am'." She introduced, looking back to him over her shoulder as she did so. "What's yours?"

The man's smile did not fade as he happily returned the introduction, a slight bow to him, of which he had involuntarily picked up in his acting of politics, as he did so. "It is very nice to meet you, Cherilee. My name is William. Will, if you prefer."

"Well, its very nice to meet you, Will."

"The feeling is very much mutual, Cherilee."