“OOOW!”
She lifts up her hoof, wincing in pain. She glares at the cause of her pain, an oversized rock on the road. She kicks the rock out of frustration, but only made the pain worse.
“Owww! Owowowowow!” Jewels screamed, “Dumb rock! How do you curse my hoof with your rigid, rough, dirty, rockiness!” She shakes her hoof angrily at the poor rock and stomps off onto the road, ignoring the flabbergasted ponies staring at her. How could they not stare? Royal Jewels must look like a crazy pony, rather than a regal one. Her dark blue mane, which was once stylized into beautiful, perfect curls, has many loose strains and ends. Dirt, mud, sweat, and apple bits are sprinkled all over her mane, and light gray fur. A large smudge of mud partially covers her cutie mark, a bag with a couple of jewels pouring out. Her stone cold emerald eyes tell the world around her not to mess with this unicorn. She was still very steamed about how her job at the local apple farm went. Firing her after just a few hours of work, the nerve! How could they fire such a civilized, hardworking pony such as herself! So what if she didn’t want to buck the hard, rough trees, or want to use her magic to harvest the unpolished apples. They were way too dirty for her to levitate with magic! Still steamed, she trots along through the uncivilized village known as “Ponyville”
Jewels peers through the buildings for any sign of an open job as she strolls through the small town. She is desperate for just about anything at this point, except more farm work. However, there are very little job openings in this town, like many of the other towns she has visited. To make the situation worse, the jobs she has taken she has failed miserably at in one way or another. Tired from her search, as well as her last job, she sits down on a bench nearby. Her tummy rumbles and she sighs. She doesn’t have any bits to spare for food, and if she had been smarter, she would have waited till after dinner to get fired from the barbaric farm. She puts a hoof on her small, thin stomach, trying to calm it down. She can feel her ribs very well as she rubs her tummy and chest, which isn’t good for a pony. She wonders when her next chance for food shall be.
Jewels is lost in her thoughts when suddenly, she is blindsided by something. She flails and hits her attacker, fighting back with all her might! Once she is freed from it’s clutches, she stares at her attacker, which happens to be an old newspaper. Jewels gives the newspaper a glare that could give an old pony a heart attack. She magically levitates the old worn paper, and crumbles it up. She is about to toss it when something catches her eye. The unicorn quickly unfolds the paper to look it closer.
“Wanted ponies willing to lend their bodies for science, Lots of food experiments, pays in large amounts of bits and jewels, See Twilight Sparkle, Head Treebrary librarian”
She rereads the ad a few times, not believing what her eyes see. A job where you eat and get paid!? It’s the perfect job! Sure she might gain a little extra weight from the job, but she could use it on her very frail figure. She wonders about what experiments might be conducted, but her angry stomach growls loudly, silencing those thoughts quickly. She needs some food before her tummy tries to eat herself. She slides off the bench and dusts herself off, even though it is a rather pointless gesture in her current condition. She quickly trots into town, eager to find this Twilight Sparkle.
She quietly knocks on the door of a giant tree in the middle of town. The rustic library is a combination of a building and a tree. She found it interesting, considering it’s the only one that she has ever seen. She becomes lost in thought, admiring the tree, when a small, purple and green dragon opens the door.
“Why hello!” The baby dragon said, “Can I help you?”
“Why yes,” Jewels tells him, “I’m looking for a pony named Twilight Sparkle, do you know of her and her whereabouts?”
“Know of her? Of course I know of her, I’m Twilight’s number one assistant Spike!” The dragon boastfully tells Jewels, pointing to himself. “She couldn’t manage to get along without me! Why, some ponies have ev-“
Jewels just rolls her eyes and ignores the dragon’s ramblings. Her nose twitches as she picks up traces of a heavenly scent. It smells like fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls, glazed with a creamy rich icing on top. The very thought of it makes her mouth water. Caught up in her fantasy of yummy food, she fails to notice a purple unicorn approaching her and the baby dragon.
“Spike! What are you doing? Who’s at the door?” The unicorn asked Spike.
“Huh!? Oh! Sorry Twilight, I was just telling her about how you needed me all the ti-er-how wonderful you are and that I love you!” Spike gives Twilight a very big fake grin to make his story more convincing.
Twilight just rolls her eyes and looks at Jewels.
“I’m so sorry about that, He just gets excited meeting new ponies. Is there something I can help you with?” Twilight asks Jewels as the gray unicorn recomposes herself, trying to look more lady like for the purple mare.
“You are the one called Twilight Sparkle, correct?” Jewels said
“Yes, that’s right.” Replied Twilight
“I was here about your advertisement in the paper” Jewels told Twilight, trying to ignore her growing hunger pains. Twilight’s eyes grow wide in excitement.
“You’re here to help the petition!? The one to add two more libraries in Ponyville!?” Jewels blinks at the question, but gently shakes her head.
“No, I’m here about the one with the food testing, or whatever it was you called it” Jewels tells Twilight. The purple pony’s eyes grew even wider and an eager smile swept across her face.
“Really!? You’re here for that one!?” Jewels nods to the purple pony. Twilight squees out of delight and bounces a bit.
“Yeeeees! Finally! Oh, forgive me, please, please, come in!” The mare steps aside for the other unicorn. Jewels walks inside to discover that the Treebrary is just as rustic looking on the inside as it is on the outside. She looks in awe at the large amount of books around her. Jewels wonders just how many books there are.
“Before we continue, I have to warn of you a few things. First off the exper-“ Jewels just drones our Twilight’s voice as she smells the cinnamon buns, her cravings are getting stronger. She can imagine the cinnamon bun’s taste on her mouth, the icing melting into her mouth with every bite, the cinnamon spices dancing on her tongue in delight. When she’s done with the bun, she’ll wash it down with a nice glass of warm milk. She fantasies about her imaginary cinnamon buns before snapping back into reality by the purple unicorn.
“So! Any questions? Or do you n-“ Jewels quickly cuts off Twilight
“I’m ready! Let’s do this! When do we start!?” The purple unicorn smiles and suppresses another squee.
“We can start as soon as you sign this wavier” She floats up a quill and parchment. “I suggest th-“ Jewels uses her magic to take the quill and quickly signs the parchment, Not even bothering to glance at the wavier. Twilight rolls up the wavier and poofs it away with her magic.
“Well then let’s get started! Now first things first! We must weigh you.” The gray mare winces at the mention of her weight to be taken, a proper lady does not reveal her true weight. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Very well!” Jewels says, “Just show me where I must go”
“Right! Follow me Miss…?” Twilight realizes she hadn’t even caught her name.
“Jewels, Royal Jewels” She tells the purple pony.
“Well nice to meet you Jewels, just follow me” Jewels nods and follows Twilight, hoping that food will be presented in the near future. She’s really famished, since she has not eaten all day. Twilight leads Jewels through an old, rusty door, which leads to the basement. Jewels is surprised to see a giant laboratory under the old tree. Tables filled with odd shaped glasses, some filled with different colored liquids. Large machines with tape reels on them occupy a lot of space in the laboratory. Jewels also spies on some strange machines, she couldn’t even attempt to identify them if she wanted to. Twilight reaches the bottoms of the old creaky steps and presents an oddly large platform to her.
“Just stand right here and I’ll get your measurements and weight!”
She winces at the mention of weighing her, but her needs for money and food outweigh her personal resentment of a pony knowing her weight. She slowly gets on the metal platform, each step her hooves click against the cold metal, echoing in the large basement. Floating a clipboard to her, Twilight reads the scale. Her face grows a little pale.
“W-what? What is it?” She asks Twilight nervously, but Twilight ignores the question and scribbles stuff down on the clipboard. She glances at a clock on the wall then keeps scribbling furiously on the clipboard. With her anger rising, Jewels asks again.
“What is it!? What’s wrong!? I demand to know!” The purple unicorn looks at Jewels with an extremely worried look.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight repeated, “WHATS WRONG!? I’ll tell you what’s wrong! You’re severely underweight! The calculations I’ve made were for a pony with average weight and I’ve only got a few hours to get food, get you cleaned up and get you at the proper weight if we’re going to get this done tonight!!! If we can’t do that, then the whole schedule I made will be ruined, and I don’t have time to go make another one! This’ll never do, we’ve got to hurry if we’re going to stay on time!!!” Jewels gives Twilight a puzzled look. Proper weight? Lots of food? Tight schedule? What was this pony talking about? Jewels began to ponder on what it all meant, but not for long as Twilight developed a guilty look on her face.
“Please forgive me” Jewels blinks, wondering what she was talking about. Twilight just gave a nod. Even more confused, Jewels opened her mouth to ask what the hay she was talking about, but she is interrupted by a whack to the head. The last thing she remembers before losing consciousness is the baby dragon dragging her, carrying a large mallet on his shoulders.
