Canterlot had a proper place for everything, which included merchants who didn't have a proper store of their own. Unlike little towns like Ponyville, just setting up a stand on the side of the road or in some plaza would not do. There was an actual bazaar for that, and Trash faced the guardian of it, a large unicorn.

"First time here? I don't recognize you," noted the male.

"Yeah," easily agreed Trash. "Me and Angel are both new here."

The guard looked up at the great rabbit creature. "I heard of those... Anyway, first day you get a discount, lucky you. Fifteen bits. Twenty after today. That's per day. Whatever you make selling, that's yours."

Trash stiffened. That was a good chunk of his remaining cash. But if he couldn't sell what he had made... "Alright." He produced his bag of coins and pulled out most of them, surrendering them to the guard. "Auntie either hates me or she trusts me."

Angel inclined her head softly. "Auntie?"

"Boss Horse," he rephrased, starting past the guard. "She barely gave me enough to get started. Today we turn this around, get a lot of coins."

"Good hunting." She nodded once firmly. "Show how. This not... Not Angel hunt."

He looked left and right, picking a booth that had no creature already in it and claiming it as his own. He tapped the counter. "First step, get off your backpack and start arranging things all pretty-like. Make them draw ponies over."

"Pretty..." She swung the backpack around and set it down, then began to fish out what they'd be selling that day. She placed the crown in the center at first and started arranging the dolls around it, facing away from the crown in all other directions.

Once she had them all out, she frowned a little, then picked up the crown. She nudged the figures instead until the largest doll was the one being looked at adoringly with smiles, then set the crown on its head, even if it was comically oversized for the doll.

Trash burst into easy laughter. "I love it. It's like the princess of tsukis is being crowned right before our eyes. Do tsukis have princesses?"

Angel had no idea and admitted as such with a shaking of her head and a lifting of her shoulders. She thrust a hand into the backpack, pulling out the remnants, little rings and chains and things she spread over the table, making it shine with assorted bits of jewelry. "Is good?"

"Is good." He pointed down. "Now come back here. We have to be in the booth while we work."

She did not go around the stand, instead half-stepping, half-hopping over the counter to land beside Angel and turn about. "Now what?"

"Now we wait." He sat down on his haunches, getting comfortable. "They'll open soon and ponies will start coming in, looking for interesting things to buy. Trade these for coins." He waved a hoof over their collection. "Our job will be to be nice, but convincing. Watch me."

A bell sounded, like someone ringing a standing bell with a mallet in a series of strong impacts. The atmosphere changed, both with a rush of fresh air, but expectation. The ponies began to filter in, bringing conversation with them. Snooty Canterlotians were discussing what they were already in the middle of, interrupted when they saw something interesting.

Trash faced outwards, sitting down, smiling in his lazy way. Angel kept glancing at him and towards the ponies. Some of them wandered past, glancing at their dolls, or her, but most of them were giving little more attention than that.

One of the dolls floated up as a filly reared into view, her hooves coming down on the counter. "It's cu--" She dropped the doll, spotting the real creature it was based on. Her eyes widened like saucers. "Wow! How much for the big one?!" She pointed at Angel, waving her hoof desperately.

Her father(?) stepped in just behind her. "It's impolite to point at creatures."

"But that's a doll and I want it!" She thumped the counter with a hoof, glaring back at her guardian. "How much?!"

Angel reacted faster, leaning forward. "Trade coin? Trade many coin."

Trash laughed softly, if a bit nervously. "She's new at selling things." Not that he had all that much more experience. "She's also not for sale, since she's alive, not a doll."

"You bought a cat for me before, that was alive. How much?"

Angel spread her paws wide. "Many coin! Give Trash." She pointed at him directly.

The father coughed softly into a hoof. "Why don't we get one of the dolls instead? They look a lot easier to take care of."

The filly squinted at the great living doll that was Angel before lowering her eyes to the collection of tsuki dolls. Her eyes gravitated towards the crown and the largest doll that wore it. "Is that the bunny princess?"

"Yes," blurted Trash before Angel could correct the child. He gently nudged Angel as he leaned towards the child. "They're called tsuki. That's a tsuki princess."

"Soo key princess," she said each part seperately, not as one word. "Oooo... Is she a princess?" She pointed a hoof at Angel.

Angel snorted softly, shaking her head. "No princess."

The father seemed relieved. "Let's get the princess. That's more appropriate for a high class filly like you, hmm?"

"Yes!" She agreed with a grin. "I'll take it!" Her magic grabbed the doll and its crown without seeming to have any worry for the price of either. She trotted away as if all business had been handled.

That left the father figure to sigh softly. "I suppose we're taking that. How much?"

"Many--"

Trash slipped in front of Angel, cutting off her enthusiastic cry. "Two hundred bits."

And the father just paid. He didn't argue the price or try to haggle. Two hundred-bit coins were set on the counter, and off he went, chasing after the wandered filly.

Trash's horn glowed as he slid the coins back off the counter towards himself. "I... thought he'd try to haggle a bit... I was aiming high."

"Haggle?" She inclined her head at the strange word. "Got coin. Not many coin. Why happy?"

"These are special coins." He waved one in his magic. "Each one is worth a hundred normal coins."

"Hundred... Hundred..." She frowned softly. "Hundred is many?"

"Hundred is many," gently agreed Trash as he tucked the coins away. "We already made a profit. We're doing good."

There was another word she didn't recognize, mouthing it and speaking it under her breath, "Profit..." But her thought snapped as another little pony, a male, came into view. She leaned over the counter. "Hello!"

The colt jumped in surprise, eyes snapping to the large presence that had called to him. "Oh! Hi!" He waved quickly. "You're not a pony."

"Is tsuki," she corrected with a smile, looking proud to know something a pony did not. They thought they were so smart. "Bring tsuki. You want?" She gently cupped one of the dolls and lifted it into easy view of the colt.

The colt glanced left and right with hesitation, but stepped forward despite it, peering at the little tsuki in the big tsuki's hands. "Cool." He inclined his head left and right. "What do tsuki do?"

"Tsuki jump. Jump high!" She bounced, slapping her head against the roof of the stall easily, her horns leaving fresh dents with a great thump before she came back down.

"Woah! Cool." He held out his hooves and she gently placed the doll on top of them." He began to make little hoppy motions with the doll. "Are they tough fighters?"

Angel bobbed her head. "Tough fighter. Good hunter!"

The colt got a sudden grin. "They'll be so surprised." He looked to Trash suddenly. "How much?" As if Angel would have no idea. As it turned out, he wasn't wrong.

"They're very good hunters," agreed Trash with a soft nodding. "And surprisingly sneaky thieves."

"What!" The colt's eyes widened further. "Cool! How much?" he repeated the question, bouncing in place a little.

"You don't want that one." He suddenly took the little colt's doll in his magic. "You want this one." He picked a darker colored and smaller doll and lifted it towards the colt. "This one's an expert sneak."

"Yes!" The colt hugged his fierce little ninja tsuki tight. "How much?!" he repeated, sounding desperate to know.

"Seventy five bits." The coins hit the counter almost instantly and the colt dashed off, barely leaving an impression of himself that faded away.

Angel tilted her head at the 13 coins. "More coin. Do better?"

"Less than last time, but that was our biggest one, and a crown." He slid the coins off and away. "But this one was the smallest doll... "

That wasn't to say everypony wanted what they were selling. The next few barely glanced towards them, even with Angel waving a doll at them eagerly. It just didn't seem to interest anypony for what felt like forever.

A rotund mare stopped in front of their stall. She paid Angel no mind, nor the dolls. Her eyes were on the jewelry, eyes drifting from one to the next. "There's something wrong with these... Are these forgeries?"

"They're not gems," admitted Trash. "Not forgeries, since I'm not trying to claim they are, Ma'am."

"Not gems?" Her magic plucked up a ring to turn it slowly in air. "What are they made from?"

Angel clapped her paws together with a big smile. "Trash magic!"

The ring was dropped instantly as if it were suddenly made of molten lava. "Dreadful!" With an upturned nose, she marched past.

Trash rubbed behind his head softly. "A+ on enthusiasm, blingmomma, but most ponies don't appreciate things made of trash."

"But... trash magic..." She reached for the dropped ring, turning it about in her fingers. "Very pretty. Good magic."

"I know that. You know that. They don't know that."

"Stupid ponies." She huffed softly and set the ring down where it had started. "Shinies. Trade." She spotted a stallion walking past and suddenly thrust out a hand, blocking his walk. "Have mate?"

The stallion blinked rapidly. "Excuse me?"

"Have. Mate?" she repeated, emphasizing each word of her question. When he nodded, she smiled and pulled back just to grab a shiny bracelet of glass and plastic. "Shiny. Give mate, make happy."

He turned in place to peer at the curious bit of jewelry in the rabbit's hands. His eyes fell, noticing all the dolls. "How delightful... I have a little filly too and she would adore a little something cute."

Angel perked with sudden ideas. She draped the bracelet over the doll he was fixed on, adorning it. "Better."

"That is better," admitted the stallion, raising a hoof to tap at his chin. "A doll and her first bit of jewelry... I like it." He fixed on Trash suddenly. "Did you make these?"

"With some help." He inclined his head towards Angel. "They came out really well, right?"

"Very well," murmured the stallion thoughtfully. "Why are you here?"

Angel and Trash both blinked at the question.

"I run a store where we sell things for little ponies, and I never heard of this before." He swept a hoof over the collection with a growing smile. "Most of them won't come in here. You're in the wrong place. Don't get me wrong, the ones you do find probably have more bits each, but there will be so many less of them."

Angel looked confused at the entire thing, but Trash picked up what was being said, nodding his head. "You want to sell our dolls?"

"They would be a very nice addition, I should say." He put a hoof on his chest. "Tell me more about them."

"They tsuki," quickly noted Angel, looking so proud. "Made with trash magic."

"Come again?"

Trash slumped, envisioning it all going up in smoke.

Author's Note

It seems at least a few ponies really like having a tsuki doll. I wouldn't mind one myself. Do you want a tsuki plush? With or without brushable mane?

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