“Hey Minx!” Minx blew a puff of air into her purple and blue mane and looked up from mopping the floor to her boss. The boss of the nightclub was a tall and burly white-coated Pegasus with a fire red mane. On his flank were a couple of Martini glasses with olives.
“Yeah bosth?” Minx asked, putting the mop down and walked over to him, being mindful of her step as the floor was still drying.
“Seeming that all you do around here during the day is to constantly clean, I have a different job for you. I want you to deliver a crate of hard apple cider to our branch in Baltimare. They need a quick restock as their regular suppliers can’t do it until Wednesday.” He said to Minx, smiling at her. Minx saluted and went to the back to grab a crate.
“You want thith delivered to Baltimare? I can do that for you.” She called out. She flicked on a light and ruffled her wings a bit to keep herself warm in the chilly back room. Grabbing a metal trolley, Minx pushed it to the correct aisle and after taking a deep breath, heaved a crate of the requested cider off the bottom shelf and on to the trolley. Breathing out slowly, Minx slowly walked out of the room and out the door, waving to her boss as she went past him.
“I’ll be back when I can. No telling how long thith can take.” Minx said to him and went to the hot air balloon that was parked out back. She managed to lift the heavy wooden crate into the balloon by using her wings to lift herself and the crate up and over the lip of the basket.
Having set down the crate and steadied the balloon, Minx flew back out to the metal trolley and quickly sent it back to the storage room. Putting it back in its place, Minx smiled to herself and flew back out to the balloon. ‘I have to get this to Baltimare and be back to finish up cleaning.’ Minx reminded herself as she lifted off and piloted the delivery balloon to Baltimare.
Quick Study, a mare with a light amber coat and a creamy mane and tail with the both of them being braided in a dutch knot style, has just returned home from a long week of happily repairing books at Equestria’s Ministry of Archives. Her saddlebags were full to the brim with notes and note-taking materials.
Walking through the crowds, she looked up to gauge the sun’s position only to find it being blocked by a descending hot air balloon. Wondering why a hot air balloon was descending in Baltimare, Quick Study followed its descent until it disappeared behind a row of buildings. Seeing it disappeared from view, Quick immediately ran to where she thought the balloon ended up. Arriving at the location, she was very surprised at the sight of an angry mare between two downed ponies.
“Argh! I shouldn’t have thrown that crate of Cider at them! Now I have to go back and get more.” The mare sounded disappointed at the crate being broken into pieces, along with the cider bottles. Looking up from the fight, she glared at Quick and slowly walked up to her. “What did you see?” She asked through gritted teeth.
“N-nothing.” Quick immediately said, slightly scared of the black mare. She watched her blow into her purple and blue mane before seeing a nod. After a quick glance at her head, the mare smiled.
“Good. Now before she gets control of her body back, help move the unconscious colts.” She replied as she walked towards the two ponies she must have fought. “Oh yeah. Before the switch happens, my name is Devilinx.” She added as she looked back over her shoulder to Quick.
Gulping nervously, Quick followed and suddenly understood why Devilinx looked at her head. She must have been counting on her to levitate the ponies. Not wanting to incur Devilinx’s rage, Quick wordlessly lit her horn and slowly moved one pony at a time into the alley next to the nightclub. When she was finished, she looked up to see the hot air balloon from earlier.
In front of the nightclub, Devilinx shuddered as she looked at the remains of the crate and its contents.
“Uuhhh.” Minx groaned as she closed her eyes and held a hoof to her head. She shook it, trying to get rid of a confusing headache. “What- oh no.” Minx’s eyes turned to pinpricks as she looked at the remains of her delivery. “No no no no no no. I’m going to get so fired for this.” Minx panicked and went into the alleyway where she had parked her hot air balloon earlier.
When Quick had finished, she looked up to see the hot air balloon from earlier. She walked up to it and as she was about to climb inside, she heard running hoofsteps. Quick turned around and saw Devilinx running towards her.
“This isn’t what it looks like! I was only looking!” Quick protested as Devilinx slowed down to a stop and let out a gasp at the two bodies lying next to the balloon.
“Did you do that?” Minx asked, pointing to the bodies. She saw the mare shake her head quickly. “If not you, then who?” Minx asked and stepped closer to the bodies.
.Quick Study cocked her head to the side and looked at Devilinx curiously. “You did. You asked me to help you move the bodies into the alley.” Quick said slowly. She looked between the bodies and the mare before her. “You don’t remember that?”
Minx shook her head, finally figuring out why that confused feeling had appeared. “No I don’t. Sorry. It must have been one of my split personalities.” Minx mumbled, walking towards the bodies. She poked them to see if they were still breathing. “I don’t think she killed them though. My name’s Minx. What’s yours?” Minx said a bit louder than before, turning towards the amber mare.
Quick had a confused look while Minx was talking. She shook her head and told Minx her name. “My name is Quick Study. I - are you alright though?” Quick questioned when she realised Minx hadn’t stopped staring at the bodies.
Minx nodded and stepped back from the colts. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Devilinx didn’t kill them, did she?” Minx asked, too afraid to step any closer than a stick-length away. She flapped her wings and stepped over towards Quick. She opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by groans and grunts of pain. ‘Please don’t tell me …” Minx thought as she turned around.
“Uh, Minx? Maybe we should go before they wake and mistake you for Devilinx.” Quick said hurriedly and backed away from the balloon.
“Right.” Minx agreed and ran after Quick Study to the sounds of stallions shouting angrily at her.
After having run a long while, both mares finally slowed. Minx looked behind to see if their pursuers had given up. Seeing that they have, she sped up a bit to speak to Quick.
“They’ve given up. I think we can slow down now!” Minx told her. Quick nodded and began to slow down. Minx looked up as shouts could be heard from above. Frustrated that they couldn’t leave well enough alone, Minx flapped her wings and took off into the air, leaving Quick Study to slow down and watch from the ground. Reaching the balloon, Minx flapped in place so that she could see eye to eye with them.
“Why do you keep chasing us!?” Devilinx questioned angrily, glaring at them.
The two colts looked at each other and snickered. “Simple. You bashed us over the head with cider. Now we want to do the same to you.” The one on the left, a dark blue colt with a purple and green mane said.
“Oh really?” Devilinx rhetorically. “Now why would that be.” She added, flapping higher till she was level with the balloon itself. Grinning, she bit into the balloon and tore a piece away, making it fly away as air shot out of it. Devilinx and Quick heard the stallions’ screams until they disappeared behind a row of houses.
“Thometimes I really hate doing deliveriesth.” Devilinx muttered. She glided down until she was next to Quick, giving her a wide smile. Quick shook her head, still looking at where the hot air balloon was last seen. Looking at Devilinx, she smiled back weakly and backed away slowly; clearly scared of her.
“When you were up there, near the balloon, you switched personalities so quickly. I thought that the ‘host’ personality had to react to something for a switch to take effect.” Quick said curiously once she had backed up to be just within ear shot range. Her eyes widened though when she saw Devilinx shudder slightly before giving a confused look.
“Why are you backing away? Did I do thomething to offend you?” Minx asked as she took a step forward. When Quick took a step back, Minx stopped and sighed. “It’th my thplit personality ithn’t it? It happened when my father died. I developed two other perthonalilties and got a cutie mark to show for it.” Minx said sadly and turned to the side to show Quick her cutie mark. “Your cutie mark ith of a book with multiple bookmarksth. That would mean you’re a what? A scholar? A bookkeeper?” Minx asked.
“It means I am efficient at helping take care of books for Equestria’s Ministry of Archives.” Quick said quickly, taking a cautionary step forward. “What do you do for a job?”
“I work at a nightclub in Cloudsdale. Is there someplace else we can talk? It’s getting kind of chilly out here.” Minx suggested, glad that Quick wasn’t scared by her.
“Yes, but I’m not sure if inviting you to my house will be good for me.” Quick said skeptically. Minx sighed and nodded, understanding why.
“I understand why. It’s fine. I’ll just fly back to Cloudsdale and warm up there. It was nice meeting you though.” Minx said, smiled and waved before taking off, flying towards Cloudsdale. ‘How am I going to explain to my boss that I lost the balloon AND the delivery? He will not like this. Not at all.’ Minx thought worryingly.
Watching Minx fly off, Quick sighed and turned around, walking down the streets towards her house. ‘She seems like a nice mare but she’s way too unstable.’