I was standing outside for a little while before something else grabbed my attention. That something else came in the form of seeing Rainbow Dash flying overhead. I decide to follow her and try to get her attention, but it seems she was in a real big hurry because I lost track of her after a minute of running. Come to think of it, I must have startled some of the ponies by running without looking where I was going; I’m surprised I didn’t run into anybody.

With nothing else to do, and the sun starting to set, I start making my way back to my tree. Closest thing I’ve got to a home; its where I woke up after all. It takes me a while to find my tree because I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, and the darkness setting in definitely didn’t help the case. After about a half hour of wandering, I finally find my tree a little ways away from town, and plop down against the bark of the tree. Man, what a day. It was really nice of Pinkie to introduce me to her friends. Fluttershy was nice, if a bit skittish at first. Meeting Rainbow Dash could have gone better, but it definitely could have gone a lot worse. Can’t say much about Applejack, only spoke with her for a few minutes; same with Rarity…. Meeting Twilight was… interesting to say the least. She’s smart, I’ll readily admit that.

With those closing thoughts, I pass out against the tree, sleep finally gripping me wholly and completely; despite the mild chill.

I woke up on my side, with my legs curled up to my chest to try and keep warm. Needless to say, it doesn’t help much. Getting to my feet with a stretch, I contemplate what I should do today. I hop from toe to toe, swing my arms around, and shake my head around trying to warm up a bit.

“I wonder what Pinkie Pie is up to…” I think aloud. A smile forms on my face. Only one way to find out! With that I start towards… Man I need to find out the name of this town if I’m gonna stay around here. Names aside, I make my way into town.

Crossing the threshold into the town square, my stomach lets out a rumble; some ponies who heard looked at me with a look I couldn’t quite place. I ignore them for now and focus on my stomach. Foooooood… wait a minute. Slinging my bag into my hands, I reach into it and look around for a mango. Sadly, only disappointment is what I find. I don’t wanna go all the way back to the tree for a mango or two… I decide to stave off my hunger with some water until I get some food. Pulling out my water canteen, I unscrew the cap and drink about 1/4th of it before I screw the cap back on.

During my mindless wandering, I come across the fountain where I met Pinkie. If I remember correctly, then the bakery that lied to me is around here. after a minute of looking around, I spot the bakery and make a beeline for it.

Entering the bakery, my nose is assaulted by a kaleidoscope of wonderful smells. Taking a big whiff, I can smell all sorts of breakfast pastries; muffins, guava, cinnamon rolls, waffles, pancakes, and those are just the ones I can discern! The smell makes my stomach growl even more. I guess the water idea didn’t work out as well as I had hoped…

I spot a yellow lanky stallion at the counter and make my way over to him. He eyes me warily, but still manages to wear a smile on his face; albeit a bit uneasy.

“Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner um...Sir?” he questions with a tilt of his head, to which I nod in confirmation. “How can I help you.” he questions with practiced easy.

I look at the sign above the stand and read over the menu with a bit of difficulty as I’m still not used to their form of english. Looking over it though, the numbers are easily discernible, which makes me realize that I don’t have any money to my name. Looking back at the stallion, I adopt a bit of a sheepish smile on my face while scratching behind my head. “Listen. I don’t exactly have any money...like, at all. And I’m really hungry… so um…”

He starts to get an annoyed look on his face and opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off before he gets the chance to get a word out. “So I was wondering if there was anything I could do for a bit of food? You know, wash some dishes, make a few deliveries, organize some stuff, I don’t know….something?”

He loses the annoyed look, and adopts a more thoughtful one as he puts a hoof to his chin and looks at the ceiling in thought. “Well… to be honest, there isn’t much that needs done around here that we can’t do…” he trails off.

I hang my head, sigh, and turn around to walk out of the building when a voice catches my attention. “Tots!” Pinkies voice calls out from behind the counter. My head swivels towards where I heard her voice originate from. Sure enough, there she is, standing in the kitchen doorway with a somewhat dirty apron on.

“Pinkie? You work here?” I ask, the shock clear in my voice.

She waves a hoof nonchalantly. “Pft, yeah I work here. I thought it was obvious when I told you this place was a bakery. But that’s not important; what brings you here?” she asks as she steps past the counter.

“I came in here cause I was hungry, but forgot I didn’t have any money…” I trail off with a frown on my face.

She brings a hoof to her face in thought. “Wait outside, I’ll be right back.” she instructs. “And don’t run off like you did yesterday at Twilight’s!” she adds as an afterthought.

Doing as I’m told, I exit the bakery and plop down on the ground next to the door. It takes about 10 minutes for Pinkie to come out, and when she does she has three boxes of what I can only assume to be baked goods on her back. “Alright Tots” she says. “Here’s what you gotta do.” she motions to the boxes on her back. “You take these boxes, and deliver them to wherever it says on each box. When you get to each place, you ask them to sign the paper on the box, and take the papers back here when you’re done. Got it?”

“I’m a bit confused to be honest. Why am I doing this?” I question as I take the boxes off her back.

“It took a bit of convincing, but I got you a job. Every morning except on weekends you come here, pick up your deliveries, come back with the signed papers, and you get paid. Simple right?” she explains with an exhausted smile.

“Yeah, it’s simple, sure… but then I still don’t have any food…” I say a bit downtrodden.

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head with an exasperated smile. “Just use your pay to buy some food! This way you get food, and have some money in your pocket.”

My eyes widen in realization and I smile widely and hug her. “You’re a genius Pinkie!” I laugh and get to my feet and spin her around a bit before putting her down with a bit of a blush on her face, and run off into town.

Having looked at the first box I found that the first box needs to be delivered to the town hall. Thinking to myself, I try to figure out where the town hall even is. Admitting to myself that I’ll never find it myself, I opt to ask for directions. That being said, who do I ask.... Playing a little mental game of eenie meenie miney moe, I end up approaching a brown stallion with an hour glass on his flank. huh… come to think of it, I’m pretty sure every pony I’ve met has had some sort of mark on their rear. Probably some sort of fashion; one that I can’t get in on sadly.

He notices me approaching and tenses up slightly, his eyes opening up a bit. I smile a bit and give a wave while holding the trio of boxes in my right hand. “Hi there, do you know where the town hall is?” I ask.

He looks at me cautiously, and seems to be staring into my soul, judging me. After a moment, I wave my hand infront of his face, snapping my fingers a few times. This breaks him from his thought as he shakes his head and goes back to the stoic face he had before he noticed me, and points to the top of a giant building.

I turn to thank him but he’s gone the second I look back from the building that’s a little ways away...weird. I’ll thank him next time I see him then. I take off to the town hall, my stomach yelling at me to hurry up. I know tummy, I’m hungry too.

Walking into the building known as the town hall, I head towards what appears to be the front desk. At least I assume it is, it’s a desk, its at the front, and there’s a pony behind it nose deep in some paperwork. Said pony is a soft dullish pink with a blonde mane and tail; her mark is a stack of papers.

I approach the pony, placing the box on the desk. “Haiya, I’m Tots! S’nice to meetcha! Anyways, I have a delivery here from Sugar Cube Corner.” service with a smile and all that jazz.

However, her reaction is something I was not expecting. She looks at me, and her expression morphs into one of apprehension. She quickly grabs a pen and signs the slip of paper on the box, ripping it off when she’s done, and rushing away with the box.

I stare at the chair the pony once sat in, wondering what happened. was it something I said?

Twilight’s POV: First Person

I’m laying in bed, looking through a bestiary. So far, I can’t find anything about Tots, and its extremely infuriating! The only thing I’ve been able to find that’s even remotely similar to him is monkeys! But even then it’s a bit of a stretch. And he’s clearly not a diamond dog...ugh, why did he run off last night?! This would have been so much easier if I had just questioned him before asking him to step outside.

Hearing a knock at the door, I get up with a groan. Maybe a temporary distraction is what I need. Wonder who it even is?

Making my way downstairs, I open the door and I’m startled to see Tots standing at the door. But it’s more than just his uncanny height that catches me off guard, (going to take a while to get used to that), but he seems to be a bit out of it. He’s looking down at the ground with a box in his hands, and a look on his face that I can’t quite place. He almost looks...sad? It’s hard to say.

After a few seconds, he is still standing there looking down. I clear my throat in an attempt to gain his attention, and it works.

“Oh, hello Twilight. Sorry, I was just kinda lost in thought. I’ve got a delivery here from Sugar Cube Corner. You can just sign for it and i’ll be out of your hair.” he says as he offers the box.

“I thought Pinkie made the deliveries. When did you start working at Sugar Cube Corner?” I ask as I sign the slip of paper and rip it off the box, handing it back to him in my magic.

He offers a bit of a smile, and takes the slip of paper and pockets it. “Pinkie helped me get a job there this morning. I offered to wash some dishes or clean up or something for some breakfast, but Mr.Cake said no. Pinkie talked things out, and here I am.” he explains as he rocks back and forth on his heels.

“That would explain it… oh! Tots, would you mind coming inside for a moment? I kind of wanted to ask you some questions if that’s alright with you.”

He turns and looks around. “Sorry Twilight, but I still haven’t eaten anything… gotta get these papers back so I can get me some food. Maybe next time!” he says as he starts to walk off.

No! I can’t let him get away. Think Twilight….Think! Wait… he said he hasn’t eaten yet. That’s it! I extend a hoof out as I call out to him. “Tots, wait! What if I gave you some food. Then would you come inside and answer a few questions?”

He stops and scratches behind his head. After a moment of silence, he turns and smiles. “Alright Twilight, sure! But on one more condition.”

I tilt my head a bit and fold my ear. “And what would that be?”

“You have to answer a few of my own questions!” he says while pointing at me.

Letting out a breath of relief, I nod and wave him in. answers and food. A small price to pay.

Author's Note

Again, I really apologize for taking so long to get a chapter out, and I'm even more sorry for it being such a short one too. see, this chapter took longer than it should have because halfway through writing it, my laptop crashed and ceased to function entirely (it was a really old one but it still worked and did what I wanted it to). I lost all my progress and had to rewrite this entire chapter, so its a bit different from how I had originally envisioned it. I'm still not on my own PC yet, but hopefully I will be soon once I get the parts to finish my rig. in the meantime though, I have been using somebody else's laptop, and suffice it to say, it will have to do for now. so between writing my own stuff, and proofing for like, 4 different authors (some not as often as others), along with real life (which has been very difficult as of late), I haven't been able to just sit down and WRITE for a while. hopefully I can actually commit to my goal of at least 1 chapter a month.

Cheers for reading and have a nice day!~