Those Thirty Days

  The streets were cool, the evening air ruffling my coat as I walked without paying attention to where. As I walked, I suddenly met a stallion. I attempted to move around him, but he stepped in my way once more. Suddenly two more ponies walked up behind me. I was about to state I didn't want any trouble when they started to kick, punch, and otherwise, brutalize me as my voice filled the street.

  Waking up in a cold sweat, I looked around my room, and then to my clock, groaning as I realized I had only fallen asleep for about an hour. Sure, it was better than nothing, but I really did need more. Looking around once more, I suddenly was met with the fact of how dark my room had gotten, not that it really surprised me, since it was night time and all, but it really did feel weird seeing my room in such a darkened state. Settling back down to try and sleep, I was slowly met with my prey as my eyes drifted closed from exhaustion. In the final moments of wakefulness, I was vaguely aware of the pony at my window who looked in at me, though I was far too tired to cared.

  "I'm not going to quit!" I shouted to myself. "I have too much at stake, I've worked hard and I deserve to take this to the end." I said, smacking my head with a hoof. "Come on, work, I need to do this. I'm so close, just a few more and I'll be done, then I can rest and take it easy." I muttered to myself, looking back to the calculator, the numbers taunting me. Forty seven thousand, seven hundred fifty-two, but what was I missing? There was something not adding up, something that just didn't make sense to me about those numbers, something just out of grasp, and that frustrated me to no end as I stared at them. The variables for this were insane, and yet I had to get these numbers to my client.

  "Hey, Calculated Risk, you almost done there? We're waiting for you, and you know she doesn't like waiting." A pony said, sticking their head out of the door way. "You alright, you don't look so good."

  "I just don't get it!" I huffed, starring at the numbers and then all of my calculations. "I did all of the calculations, I punched all the numbers, dotted every 'i' crossed every 't' and then made sure I had and still these numbers aren't making sense to me. They are logical numbers, but they are illogical in the context in which they are applied."

  "You know you could just tell her that and she'd understand. You can finish tomorrow, sleep on it and get a fresh start on the whole this, do it right." He offered, but I shook my head.

  "The deadline is today, I need to get it done today, but it just feels so out of grasp." I looked over to him. "I've worked my flank off on this, but the numbers just don't make sense. The odds of this working should be higher, but they aren't." The stallion at the door looked back inside as a pony talked to him from inside.

  "Yes, ma'am." He replied. "Eh, no, ma'am." Risk perked his ears up, trying to catch whatever they were saying, but he wasn't within range of the conversation. "Of course, ma'am, I'll tell him right away." The pony turned back to me with a regretful look in his eyes. "She says if you can't present her with some solid numbers in an hour, you will be removed from this project and you will not be paid. Just so you are aware." I groaned in frustration.

  "Great more pressure." I hissed as I set about typing on the calculator, checking my paper every so often, this time a new number became the result, much to my surprise. Forty-eight thousand, one hundred seventy-two, yet another useless number. I tapped my chin, looking at the ceiling, desperately searching for ideas. I took my glass of water and drank a bit of it down, looking back at my numbers, going through the calculations once more. THERE! There it was, the all destroying error that had nearly cost me the job. Typing as quickly as possible, so as to not waylay the impending cut off point, that was closing in faster than ever.

  The meeting was a success, I had made it in time, and the firm was pleased with my calculations, and even more appreciative that I hadn't done a sloppy job of it, something they understood because of the delay that had occurred. I now walked down the street, a slightly richer pony for my efforts. My tenacity had beaten the obstacle, I had won, and now I reaped my rewards as I sat down at my favorite dinner, ordering my favorite dish.

  The flavors were always good, but the fact they were fixed with the taste of victory made it all the better to me and a large smile graced my features. I took a sip of my drink letting it permeate my mouth. I took up the newspaper from the table, looking over the different articles of interest between mouthfuls of delight. After finishing my food, I ordered a dessert, feeling I more than deserved it for my valiant efforts, and more scrumptious victory that had been granted to me. I looked over the article as waited, something about a writer having won some award or another for some great act or another.

  My dessert arrived, and I ate it with a great calm, savoring every delicious bite, something, though I didn't know at the time, would not happen for a long time after. I looked back to my newspaper, having come to the advertisement section, where everything from scrap to houses were sold in the near by area. A golden sword of an exclusive model for ten hundred thousand bits, a carriage that could be rented for the day for one hundred seventy-nine thousand bits, a custom apartment for forty-eight thousand, five hundred thirty-six bits, among other items of little interest. I set the newspaper down, enjoying the last bits of my meal, remaining seated a good time afterward, enjoying the day as it moved lazily on by, things were good, and they'd stay that way for a good long while, or at least I thought that at the moment.