Moving Forward

Berry waited in the hall outside the meeting room, adjusting her velvet beret to the most perfect degree. She had already knocked the door twice, and her agitation grew, waiting for a reply that took much longer than usual.

She heard the scuffle of parchment inside the room, followed by a partially muted voice. “Had to take care of my mess,” the mare said. “Come in.”

Berry branched her hoof out and pressed the door lever down. Once inside, she turned to see the meeting rooms long rectangular table, accompanied by all but two tucked-in chairs by the sides of it. The chair on the nearest end of the table was unoccupied, whilst a red furred mare sat on the one opposite, with a couple of paper notes strewn beside her. Both mares were far from each other, much too far for a practical interview.

Berry pointed at the untucked chair. “Err, do y’ expect me to sit there?”

The mare sat with her two hooves pressed together on the table. “No, of course not,” she replied. “We had a meeting not long before you arrived. Some ponies don't know courtesy.”

Berry understood, walking to a chair within reasonable talking distance of the other mare. After all, she’d worked with donkeys before, and they all acted the same way. “Hmph. Bane o' the world, them. Bad business is made from badder etiquette.”

The red-furred mare very slightly winced as she smiled. “If only etiquette were the worst of our problems.”

Not fully understanding the meaning, Berry chuckled it off. “Not sure I’d say the same.”

“Mhmm.... Care to introduce yourself?”

“The name's Berrytail, your highness,” she said, twirling a foreleg from underneath her purple jacket, bowing as she did so. “I'm the merchant t’ fix up your problem.”

“You can call me Embers from now on, I'm barely a highness,” the mare said. Berry took her seat close by. “My sister's the one in charge here, and she's mayor, not queen. Now, I wanted to have this meeting so we could clear up any confusion. You know the job well?”

“Right on. Your colony needs food, I'm meant to supply it. Gold thirty-kay in payment for my services.” The part that really got her in the letter was 'Thirty thousand bits' that could keep most ponies fed for the best part of twelve years.

“Food and water, mind. And you're reminded to do it in the most economically efficient way as possible, although,” she said, giving one of the papers a poke, “I've heard that the concept is already quite familiar with you. Remember that any payments you make in our name will tax your total profit.”

“Yeah, of course,” Berry said, imagining what thirty thousand bits would look like in bars. “Don't fret nor fear. I've got plenty of my own money to spend on any problems, I've even brought my company of servants. We’ll make sure this job’s done well.”

“Company of servants...?” While Embers paused, Berry glanced an air of surprise from her. “Were you told the risks?” she continued.

“One hundred and ten percent crystal-clear,” Berry said. They were definitely on the letter, but the meeting-pressure drained her of thought.  “Wouldn't mind a little refresher, though. For clarity's sake?”

Embers looked down at her papers. “Monsters from the Everfree have been rife since...” Berry chimed out, remembering what it said on the letter. Something along the lines of ’Torches and walls to keep them at bay', and she knew what to do. Her mind hovered back to mare-made silver mines until Embers had finished, “...whatever time it is. Other than that, remember that the land around us in owned by the Canterlot Queendom, and that there's another group, seemingly not hostile, but not ponies either, that appear to be operating close by the other side of the river. Got it?”

They were all monsters at the end of the day; Berry couldn’t care less. “Check-check-check. One hundred and twenty percent. You can expect results soon Miss Windstrike, I can tell y'that for a fact.”

Embers smiled. “Great. You have a plan set up all ready, I bet. I wish you the best of luck.”

“And you too, Miss Embers. It's really kinda... therapeutic-like, to think I'm helping out an entire colony and, to further extent, the whole country. This silver's gonna make us all richer, and I know it. It's great to serve not only as a saviour to your colony, but as a guardian of our country just as important as the fightin’ ones.”

Embers chuckled. “Keep that up, and it'll sound like you don't mind doing it for free. Stay safe, Berry. Alicorns bless.”

Berry got up, bowed, and left the room to find her colleagues standing around the door, listening in shamelessly. The bulky stallion, Fanhorn, was first to speak. “What did they say, Berry? We in?”

“Oh, we're in alright,” Berry replied, smiling devilishly as she stood apart from them. “Those bits are as good as ours. Cha-ching, Fanny. We'll be sailing in money before the end of the month... You and Nest, I want the both of you to get the chests.” She pointed at the others. “Sweet, Juniper 'nd Shale, you can go find any tent suppliers across the colony and hire 'em. I'll be at the pub when you get back. We'll meet there and get this troupe on the tread.”

~~

The only bar in the colony was a ramshackle house that would've been out of a slum from any normal city. They had no mugs, so Berry was given a few bottles and milk jugs instead. She served the drinks around an empty table. Shortly after, Fanhorn and Nest arrived, whom she let talk amongst themselves. They were followed by the other three. When everyone was around the table, Berry focused on the first two. “Where’d you put ‘em?”

“Just outside. I have the keys,” Fanhorn stated.

The chests were way too big to be stolen easy, so Berry had no doubt they were safe. “Great! And the rest of you?” she said, turning to the others.

“I found a couple of ponies,” Juniper replied. “Near the… well, near the tents. I’ll show you the way. Their prices were both the same, fifteen bits per one-pony tent.”

Berry shouted, “Fifteen bits? They're robbing these poor foals...” she locked a hoof beside her chin, “but I guess there's nowhere else. Still, that's a ridiculous price for me.”

“I don’t think they do very well at shifting their stock. Just look at the tents outside. They stitch them from all sorts, not the browns and beiges they sell here.”

Berry listened intently, a first. “Tell the wretches they can carry the tents themselves for us at that price, we're going to need at least ten of them as it is, enough for us and a few spares. I'll pay them when they've done their job.”

Shale popped in warily. “They might not like that... and we really don't need that many tents. Where are we going, anyway?” she asked.

“The river,” Berry said, smiling behind her hoof at the mere thought of her own plan. “It's so simple. Pegasopolis needs food and water, and there's a river right next to ‘em. We make a farming camp, wall it up, use the seeds we got from Canterlot, and in a month we'll have a harvest to show 'em. Easy-peasy for us, and they don't have to spend any bits! Ah, the efficient use of arable land...” she said, brushing her fringe away with her free hoof, “hallmark of civilisation....”

“But that isn't our land, is it?” Juniper asked.

“Correct,” Shale said. “In fact, I'm pretty sure all the forests surrounding the wall of the colony are owned by the unicorn Queendom. Are you sure you thought about this, boss?”

Berry raised her head, waving her foreleg hoof in front of her, hoof limp. “Pff, horn heads, shmorn heads. At least I made an effort to study before we came out.” Thinking herself acting coolly, she swivelled around and looked at a table behind her, occupied by a couple grim-faced miners that had been grunting to each other quietly since she arrived.

“Hey, miner-stallion? You with the red cap.”

The other patrons of the pub had barely rose a word higher than her group. The stallion  she called for turned his head, in short, out of sequence movements while his friends watched concernedly from behind. He made no effort to speak.

Berry cleared her throat. “Yeah, you seen any unicorns patrolling the forests since you got here?”

Once turned, it was clear to her that the dark around the miner's face was mine-dirt; if it weren't for the colony being founded for it's silver, anypony could have mistaken him for a coal miner.

He winced, and uttered, “I mine, I ain't gone out there for weeks.” As soon as he responded, his head shot back and bent low to sip from his jar.

Berry paused. “Well, yeah, so have you heard anything about the unicorns patrolling around? Y’know, keeping guard n’ such.”

He gave her a sidelong glance, keeping close to his drink. “Well it's unicorn-territ'ry, so I guess.” He shot back, and one of his friends murmured something under their breath that she couldn’t catch.

Berry, frustrated, noticed that Nest and Juniper candidly rose eyebrows out of the corner of her sight. Berry raised her voice, punching emphasis at the miner across the pub like a pushy advert.

“Well, yeah, but have you heard, anytime where, specific’ly, there was an instance where-”

The owner dropped a copper dish on her counter, the sound rattling through the pub. It caught Berry’s attention, her and everyone else’s.

“Look 'ere!” she growled. “We don't know anything ‘bout no horn-heads snoopin' the forest. Y'll stop badgering m'customers before I throw y'owt on yer face!”

The pub was silent. Berry placed personal restraint on herself from ranting back, and breathed slowly. Breathe it away, Berry, breathe it all away. Soon after, the miner got back to drinking, and the owner picked up her dish, saying something along the lines of “Prissy citybrew mare...”

Once she felt she could talk without full-on belting at somepony, Berry turned back to her group. Nest looked down, a hoof over her face.

“Seee?” Berry whispered. “No 'horn-head's in the forest. They're too caught up in everything else after the truce. We're in the clear. All we need to do is wall and brazier up to scare away the monsters. We can chop a few trees for all that, I brought a couple saws in the tool chest.” She raised her voice back to normal, “We’ll feed ourselves in the meantime with food herein Pegas each day. Before y'know, we'll have a colony for the colony, plus we'll be thirty-K richer.”

“How we splittin’ this up?” Fanhorn asked. “Don't think y’ ran us through that bit.”

Fanhorn was dear to her heart with his mind always drowned in bits. A branch off the tree. “Assuming it all goes to plan, I can give a share to all of you, that's like... three thousand bits per? I'll take whatever's left.”

“That's what... one and half year's wages?” Fanhorn asked rhetorically. “Sounds like pay fo’ me.”

She could hear that most of the others mumbled in agreement to her plan. The only one who didn't was Sweet, who stayed silent behind the rest of them like she always did.

Berry went silent, admiring the preparation into her plan, this hallmark of her own brilliance. She loved choosing the ones, even greedy ones, that had no proper education or a will to speak; they tended to cost the least.

She smiled over the table, forgetting the barkeep and regaining her voice. “Puuurfect. Take me to the camp-suppliers and I'll pay them. After that, I'll lead the way to the river which really isn't far from here at all, couple miles tops.”

She took a short sip from her jug and licked her lips. “We'll set up in no time. Take it from me; I've done it before.” She waited until the others had finished their drinks. “Everypony ready?”

The others nodded, placing their assortment of containers to one side and getting up from their stools. A couple looked up at her wholeheartedly, while the rest had a glint of silver in their eyes. She could work with both; she’d done it before.

“So concludes the first meeting, of the soon-ish to be a lot richer ponies.”