Hunt for the Mirror Shards

        It was a completely normal morning in Ponyville. Ponies wandered the streets, some pulling wooden carts and others setting up market stands. A few fillies and colts ran about about them, enjoying themselves in the early morning sun. It was that time of week again. The day that ponies excitedly waited for...

"Hey Sharp Shooter!"

A tall light brown pegasus mare with a light blonde curly mane and tail sighed as she lowered her glass of milk and looked into it. Her cutie mark was a skinny light red bow with an silver arrow notched on it. "Morning."

"Sharp Shooter, do you know what day it is?"

"Sunday?"

"No,"

"Somepony's birthday? Will Pinkie Pie be throwing another party?"

"Nope!"

"Hum-"

"That is so overused that it isn't funny anymore."

"Okay?" She looked up.

A pale blue Pegasus mare stared back at her. Her brown mane and tail were straight for the most part, but the ends were very curly. The mare's cutie mark was a single large blue droplet of ink on white paper.

"I'll tell you what day it is," she said as she put a piece of toast on her plate. She beamed at Sharp Shooter.

Sharp Shooter sighed. "Ink Droplet, this better be good." She sat up.

"Market day!" Ink Droplet grabbed her plate between her teeth.

        Sharp Shooter's head hit the table and knocked over her milk. "You've got to be kidding me. You're hyped for a market?"

        Ink laid her plate on the table and sat down next to her. "Sharp?" She waited a moment. "Sharp, are you alright?"

She didn't respond. Only her heavy breathing and strange mumbling told her that she was still alive.

"Okay than." Ink lifted her toast with one hoof and bit into it.

        Sunlight warmed Ink Droplet's body as her wings carried her into the skies above Ponyville. There were very few clouds today. She loved mornings like this. It was interesting to see what ponies were up to in the morning. Dozens of wooden huts and cement buildings littered the area around a large blue tree on one side. The rest of it was grassland on the other. As Ink looked over the tree, she saw a large purple castle in its branches. She smiled at it before turning away and spotting a gray and white building.

Twilight Sparkle's going to be a great princess, she thought to herself. I wonder what she's up to right now. She looked down below her, where wooden stands were lined up in the town square. For a moment, she watched as a blue unicorn stallion lifted a wooden box and set it down on his table. Then a yellow earth pony mare trotted over and began to talk to him. Moments later, she placed some bits on the table and he gave her a small sack. I hope there will be some stuff left when I'm done working later. It would be really disappointing to be excited for nothing. Ink went into a glide and let the wind push her away from the scene while she gave the market one last gaze.

      "Ink Droplet?"

      She swerved around. "Hello?"

      In front of her was a two story brick house with black curtains in the top floor's window. An orange earth pony stallion was peering out. His spiky red mane flailed in the wind as his gold eyes, framed by a pair of black glasses, looked to the skies above. She was just coming into his field of view.

     Ink flew down to his window and laid her front hooves out on the cement ledge. "Good morning, Oddity! The market's today!"

    The stallion, Oddity, smiled. He was a good friend of Ink's. They often hung out together, although he always insisted on wearing a brown cloak over him wherever they went. He was strange like that. Ink figured that he wore a cloak because he was cold, but he would never give her a straight answer.

     "Today's the market?" He looked out the window to her right and saw the stalls. "Are you heading there now?"

     Ink sighed. She looked over the town once more. "I'm going to have to say no. My boss wants me over at the HQ."

      He lowered his head. His ears flattened. "Oh. I was hoping that you would want to go right now. I don't have much to do at the moment."

     Ink didn't like to see her friend saddened by that. She put her hoof on his shoulder. "It's alright. If I get through my work fast enough, we can go out by at least noon."

      He looked up at her face and smiled again. "That sounds great." He looked behind him. "I just remembered that I actually have to clean my house a bit, so by the time you come over again it should be pretty as these teeth!" He opened his mouth. Two sets of yellow teeth shone back at Ink.

     Ink recoiled from them. "Uh, it doesn't look like you've brushed them yet."

     Oddity laughed. "I'll get on that too." He rolled his eyes. "Must've been all those old sugar cubes I found last night. I couldn't let them rot away in my kitchen cabinet."

     She pulled away from the window. "Well, I'll be going. See you later!" She took off into the air.

     He waved. "Bye!"

     Oddity shut his window. He wished Ink didn't have to run off all the time. Where she worked, she was required to sit for hours on end writing and editing stories for Ponyville's local newspaper, Something Daily or whatever. Occasionally her boss, Graphite Quill, would let her out on an assignment, but nowadays it was rare to see her outside before noon.

     When she wasn't working though, it was hilarious to see Ink obsessing over random things. Oddity recalled a time once where she said she worshipped some stupid old fossil over Celestia. Another time, she had dragged Sharp Shooter and him into the town square to watch some Iron Will guy. Now that she was obsessing over the weekly market, he wanted to know what she would go for next. She seemed to change every few weeks or so. Maybe that was why she was hired for the newspaper? Even when they were younger he knew of her doing this.

     Oddity turned around. A bed covered with a dark red blanket laid a few feet away from him. An empty yellow bowl and a green notebook sat on top of it.

    "Well, time to clean everything again," he sighed.

    He approached the bed and took the bowl between his teeth. Then he headed towards a wooden staircase leading down into darkness.