" And then, just as she was in reach of the necklace.." RRIINNNGGG!!! PeppermintInk woke with a start, hitting her head on the ceiling of her room. "Ow! Who put a roof there!? of all the places.." she muttered darkly to herself as she rubbed the bruise on her head. She
seemed to be doing that a lot lately. She weaved her way through all of the packed boxes strewn across the room. She had just moved in the day before, and had started writing immediately. So far the only thing open were her writing materials. She yawned, stretching her entire frame until fully awake. " Alright then! Lets find the nearest cafe." She thought to herself as she took flight, carefully examining her flight path for any signs of danger. She had enough crashes to last her a life time, thank you. She soared among the clouds until finally she spotted something she recognized. The green Strawbucks sign! She dove out of the sky, and crashed into a pink pony exiting the store. Thump! The pink pony sat down hard after rolling a few yards. "HEY!" shouted the pink pony after regaining her balance. "GAASSPPP!!" the pink pony shot off like a rocket. Peppermint cursed herself. What had she been thinking, that the shop wouldn't be occupied? Ugh. And if she had been recognized. Peppermint was glad she was an anonomous author. Otherwise, ponies would swarm her, asking her question after question about her new best selling series. Peppermint muttered darkly to herself as she trotted over to the counter. "Hey, what can i get ya'?" inquired the coffee brown pony at the front counter. PeppermintInk ordered her usual, a hot cocoa with extra peppermint and a muffin. She trotted over to an empty booth and sat down to wait. Suddenly a shout came from the other booth."What do you call this garbage! Art, please. I've seen foals draw better than this! You're fired!" and with that a stubby blue stallion waddled out of the booth, grabbing his take out bag in his teeth and then leaving. Peppermint looked over and saw a cream colored mare with a chocolate brown mane, and intent, ice-blue eyes. Eyes that were tearing up. PeppermintInk wasn't a very social type. Most of her friends were fictional characters. But she couldn't stand to see what looked like such a sweet pony in tears. she slid out of her own booth and trotted over to the cream mare. As she approached, a sheet of paper fell off the table. It landed at her hooves, and as she bent down to pick it up, she saw the most amazing drawings on it. She took the paper over to the booth and sat across from the cream colored pony. " Did you do this?" she asked in awe. The mare sniffled but nodded. "That guy was stupid if he didn't like it. It's really good" "No, it isn't!" the other pony glared at Peppermint. "Well, fine. But, do you mind if I keep it?" "Wait, why?" "Because its cool." "Really?" "Really." The other pony sniffled and smiled. "Thanks, but who are you? I mean, I don't even know you." "Number 87, your'e order's ready," the pony at the counter droned. "That's mine," Peppermint apologized. "I'll be right back." She trotted up to the front counter, paid, and took her tray back to the booth. "Want some?" PeppermintInk asked, noticing the other pony eying her muffin. She split down the middle and offered her half. "No, no that's alright. I'm fine." "No, I just split in half. You are taking it and eating it," PeppermintInk shot back, with such ferocity that the other pony was more intimidated rather than hungry taking the muffin. "So what's your name," PeppermintInk asked after taking a long sip of her cocoa. "No fair! I asked first!" the other pony shot back. "Oh, crud,"PeppermintInk thought aloud. "What should I do?" "What's wrong," the other pony inquired. "What do you mean?" PeppermintInk asked suspiciously. "Well I'm guessing your name isn't 'Oh Crud', so what's up?" Humiliated by speaking aloud, PeppermintInk suddenly shot out of the Strawbucks shop and rocketed through the air, landing hard in front of her house, entering it quickly and slamming the door behind her. She shot up to her room, locked the door and sagged into the seat in front of her desk. "Well that went well," she muttered to herself, scowling around the room. Her eyes landed on her writing tools, and she set to work.
It was a few days before PeppermintInk dared to even show her face outside of her house. She was finally driven out by the rumbling of her own stomach. Her pantry was completely bare. "I must be the dumbest pony in Equestria she muttered darkly, after scouring the boxes for any sign of food."After last time, you'd think i'd remember. Being stuck in a sewer hole for three days should have taught you." She had been caught up in a rally protest against Secret Delights, the anonymous author sweeping across Equestria, not appearing at the local bookshop. Panicked, she tried to flee, and fell down into a sewer drain. She had been stuck in there for days, until, looking for an exit, she was found by road workers. It took her weeks to get the smell out of her coat. She glared intently about the small kitchen, as though trying to magic food onto the shelves. "Dang, I wish I was a unicorn!" The main character in her book series was a unicorn, and she spent several days researching unicorn magic, abilities, and limitations. She scowled at her wings. She finally worked up enough courage to open ... the back door. She slunk out into the alley way, keeping her head low and her eyes searching. She was humiliated that she had caused a scene in a public place, and was trying to avoid causing one again. She found herself out of alleyway to sneak along, and stood facing the road. "Come on, you can do this," she tryed in a vain effort to encourage movement. she stood frozen, on the brink of her quiet, darker world, and the active, live world of everyone else. She scowled at the road, and finding no answer, turned to go back to her house. Her stomach grumbled loudly, complaining that her mind was begining to be a problem to the rest of her. She sat down and contemplated the risks, costs and benefits of different scenarios. One was to return home, and starve to death, being to afraid to face her fears. That wouldn't do. Another possibility would be to call the moving ponies, and move on to the next town. After the last angry message from the manager, she knew that was out of the question. She had narrowed it down to two options. One would be to go out, and hope no one noticed her, and get food. The other would be to dig a tunnel, leading from her house out into the woods bordering the town. "There must be something edible in there," she thought. "Well, that is my only possible solution. Now where did I put my shovel?" She dug through several boxes once more, and once more did not find her quarry. She cursed herself for not coming to a new town prepared for humiliation. After all, it did seem to follow her everywhere she went. During the time period she lived in Manehattan, she nearly wrecked a fashion show. Later, in a settler town far on the outskirts, she destroyed the main square. She banged her head against the wall. "Fine. Clearly the universe wants me to step out that door. Well, universe. Let me just go and humiliate myself, AGAIN. Ugh!" She screeched, and thrust herself onto her bed. Her stomach rumbled. "Fine, I'm going."She went up to the front door, took a deep breath, and opened it. She cautiously peered around outside, and, seeing nopony, she put a hoof out her door. "SURPRISE!!" shouted a pink pony, flipping down from the roof. "Gah!" PeppermintInk shouted, startled. "What the blazes?!" "Well, when we ran into one another a few days ago, I realized that we hadn't met yet, and that you must be new to Ponyville, and that you probably didn't have any friends yet, you know, because your new, so I thought 'Pinkie, you just have to throw her a suprise party. But Pinkie, we don't have enough supplies yet. Well then Pinkie, we had better go get the supplies so that we can throw her the best welcoming party EVER! Welll, except for Twilight's; but really, who could complete with that.' so, i set to work. Everypony came, but you wouldn't come out of your house, so everypony left. Well, except for me of course, but seriously ...." the pink pony droned on endlessly, speaking a mile a minute. When she finally had a chance to talk, Peppermint was distracted by the delicious aroma of..PIE! Her stomach grumbled, louder than ever. The other pony noticed, and lunged toward a table piled with treats and snacks. PeppermintInk salivated at he sight of those tasty morsels of goodness. "Take anything you want," the pink pony exclaimed, cartwheeling around. "By the way, what's your name?" Peppermint froze, once again caught in the same trap as happened days before. "HEY! Here comes MochaQuill! Over here, Mochi!" the pink pony called to a passing mare. PeppermintInk froze up with terror. It was the same pony form the cafe. "Hey Pinkie! Who's the party for... oh," the other pony stopped short with the recognition of PeppermintInk. "Well look who it is, old Oh Crud herself." The other mare glared at Peppermint. "Um, hey look, I'm sorry about earlier. I was just embarrassed to have spoken that aloud. I'm sorry," Peppermint apologized. "Hey, i know how it feels. I'm pretty shy myself. That scene, at the cafe. Mortifying." The pink pony suddenly appeared between the two of them. "Hey! Wait a second! You two already know each other?! Well, my work here is done. Bye!" and with that, the pink pony was off. "Well, thats Pinkie for you. But, back to my early question. Who are you?" PeppermintInk panicked. "What do I tell her? I don't use my real name for my books,but if the truth were to come out...," she resolved herself to tell the truth. "My name is PeppermintInk." "Well, that name is certainly better than 'Oh Crud'. I'm MochaQuill, as you probably heard from PinkiePie. " "I bet half the town heard." "Probably. So... I brought a gift for the new pony in town. Didn't know it would be you." "Yeah, well, ok." MochaQuill handed PeppermintInk a package, beautifully wrapped up, and complete with a small bow. "Oh, wow, I don't know what to say!" "Hang on, you haven't even opened it yet!" MochaQuill replied. Suddenly Peppermint remembered the perfect gift for MochaQuill. "Hang on right here. I've got something too." and with that she raced into her house and grabbed a small bag. She raced back outside. "Okay, here you go!" She shouted out of excitement. She didn't know if the feeling was mutual, but she was beginning to feel as though MochaQuill was her friend. "Let's open them together. On the count of three. One...Two...Three!" and with that, both ponies tore into their gifts. MochaQuill was the first one to get her gift open. She pulled out and held up a white hat. "Oh, Wow! This is amazing! Thanks." PeppermintInk wrestled the bow and ribbon off the box and tore into the wrapper. She pulled out a long, red and white striped scarf. "Awesome! Wait, how did you know that this would match me? You didn't even know who the new pony was!" "Well, lets just say I had a hunch. Plus, I hadn't seen you before. It made sense." They both put on their new accessory, each one elated. "Well, I guess that we're friends now." MochaQuill said. Startled by her bluntness, PeppermintInk stuttered as she tried to form her answer."Well, um< I don't know about that. I mean, I've never really had a friend before." "As I noticed while you were cramming muffin in my mouth a few days back." "Yeah, sorry about that." "It's cool." The two ponies sat together talking, until PeppermintInk's stomach gave a noise to rival an earthquake. "Let's go get you some food."
