Love squares

Suri turned her nose up at the smell that caught her off guard every time. The appalling shade of green that was sloppily painted on the walls made her cringe and the scraped hardwood floor made her step carefully. She gagged as she stepped onto her chair in front of a steaming pot with scraps of multi-colored fabrics hanging over it on a metal rod. A slimy gray stallion stepped up to her and wordlessly handed her an envelope. He nodded at her a trotted out of the stinking basement of the fabric dying factory. This place was the pits. It filled her nostrils with a putrid stench of sweat and boiling cabbage and all the ponies were gloomy and downtrodden. Then again, this was the only thing they'd ever known. Suri had been so close to touching the stars until- no! She took a breath and forced the hate out of her mind.

"Hey Suri, got a special assignment today?" Suri had been so close to the door. "You're special." She turned around to face Little Loo.

Little Loo was the smallest mare ever and she was only two years Suri's minor. She had a melty butter kind of colored coat and a greasy black mane tied in a bunch of braids. Little Loo was only a nickname because no one really knew her real name. She always had an air of drunkenness around her and had, according to another worker, had been working at Crimps Color Dying for longer than anyone else. All the ponies here at Crimp's always seemed glazed over and dazed but Little Loo was always out of it. The only bit of insight Suri had on her life was when she had heard her crying in the bathroom about someone named Biggy Moore. Other than that, the mare was useless.

"Howdy do Little Lo-"

"Hargh!" The mare suddenly spasmed out and starting coughing. She doubled over and retched on the wretched floor. A younger looking stallion had to come over and pull her away.

Suri sighed and double-timed it to the door. The hinges on the door creaked as she raced up the old cement stairs not caring how much the hard surface scraped her hooves. Anything to get out of the basement. Once she got to the boss's level, she skimmed her letter. She was to report to the mailroom to help with shipping fabrics. Since she was new, she didn't have a permanent post so she was floating around. As she made her way down the wallpapered hallway, she heard the floating voice of someone who made her gnash her teeth. Trenderhoof.

As she crept past the open door, his bespectacled eyes caught hers and she was rewarded with a hateful glare. She tried her best to return it, but she couldn't feel it so she slunk across the hall into the mailroom.

Trend's glare was not a new face to Suri. A few months ago, she had almost won fashion week with her plus one Coco and her stolen fabrics. But then, Rarity had to turn Coco into one of those friendship junkies who go around singing songs and making BFFs every day. She glowered at the floor at the memory of the snowy white unicorn's sweet smile and Coco's little filly bob cut. Those two mares dove in and out of her thoughts every day as they reminded her of her crushing defeat. She had hoped that all of the hate from the fashion world would blow over, but try as she might, no one would hire her. They were too scared there would be another scandal. Then, Trenderhoof had come along. He had hired her to work with him in the newspaper. He had seemed like a dream come true. He was perfectly composed and elegant and he didn't give a speck about her past life. But then, one of his coworkers had caught her brewing a "love potion" in his office. She had actually been making ribbleberry soup on his portable stove. But, she had been on thin ice with this certain coworker so she was kicked out immediately. Eventually, she gave up hope and got hired at Crimp's.

She had just wanted to be friends with Trend. She just wanted to have someone to be there for her after Coco and it had gotten thrown away. She went to her mailbox and found a single gold ticket in it. For a moment, she let herself be surprised. Then, she saw a little sticky note.

Suri, I hope you'll come to this gala.
~Coco Pommel

Suri had heard about this in the paper and even though it was from Coco, this was an opportunity to start over. With a smug grin, she pulled the ticket out of her box and went back to work.

Honestly, the only thing going through Trend's mind was that his ears hurt. With the gala in two days, all of the coworkers had been buzzing around his mansion going through every logistical detail possible. He just wanted to go to bed.

"Mr.Trenderhoof." A stout little purple stallion with a wavy beige mane approached him. He turned to face him. "Do you have the guest list?"

"Yessir Mr. Berto," Trenderhoof said as he tried to get up the stairs to his room as the ponies swarmed around him.

"We're going to go to the location of the gala to advise the setup Mr. Trend," another brown mare came up to him. "They have requested your and the guest list's presence."

Trend sighed and nodded. It looked like rest would have to wait. He followed the crusade of ponies out into the driveway of his Manehattan mansion. Just one of his many homes across Equestria. He had one in almost every major city, except Ponyville. Celestia knows that visit didn't go too well. As they drove through the heavily trafficked streets of the city, he skimmed the guest list. Many of the names were unknown, some were familiar, and a few stuck out. That little liar Suri was coming, he had seen her at Crimp's that morning when he went to pick up decorations for the gala. Rarity would be there as well. He cringed when he remembered his unfortunate influence on the poor girl and her friend *gulp* Applejack. Luckily he had gotten over that farm girl. He had a new dream mare. Coco Pommel. He almost dropped the papers when he saw her name typed up neatly as number 567 on the sheet.

His hear did a little dance when he saw that. He imagined her beautiful little face and her adorable blue bob-cut mane. He had seen her around the city before and had managed to get in a few words with her, but it wasn't until about a month ago when she came to his office that he started falling.

She had come to see if that wretched girl Suri was still there and her kindness after all of the heartache had warmed his heart. She had sunken a bit when she heard the news of her doings and her presence had made Trend go shaky all over. He was giggling a bit when his escorts took the guest list and led him to the stadium.

In just two days time, he would really get to talk to Coco Pommel. As long as there weren't any other Trenderhoof crazy mares following him around all night. THAT would be really quite unfortunate. After all, being the most interesting pony in Equestria will get you a lot of lady love.