The Kings of Clopton

The trio awoke that day to the sound of a tapping against the door. Ulfric, usually the first one up, couldn't be bothered with small tasks such as rising from his bed today, and prompted to let the tapping continue at the door until one of his friends got up to get it. Shock, grumpy from being awoken so early, stomped over to the door with a mean look on his face. Upon opening the door, his anger almost doubled. Not only had they been awoken up early by some inconsiderate jackass, they had been woken up by Ulfric's thought-to-be love, Octavia. Shock almost slammed the door on her face, which would've surely sent her stumbling backwards (Fus-Ro-DAH!), but was stopped when she put her hoof into the door frame.

"Could I speak to Ulfric, please? I'd like to apologize for my horrid actions yesterday, and hopefully make amends with him." Again, Shock was tempted to slam the door just to break her hoof, but something was holding him back, so reluctantly, he let her inside, not speaking a word to her.

"Ulfric, you've got a visitor. Somepony I'm SURE you'll love to see again." Shock, still being angered at the rude wake up, was hoping Ulfric would at least yell at her.

"Ul...Ulfric?" Octavia timidly said, most definitely afraid of the giant's reaction to her being there. If he was hurt as much as his friends said he was, Octavia had no doubt he would consider hitting her, in some fashion.

"Octavia. Lovely to see you in our humble abode, what brings you here?" Octavia almost fell backwards at this, as Ulfric slowly rose from the bed. When he finally looked at her, she saw nothing. The deep, sea green eyes she had thought to be in love with were now lifeless, as if somepony had drained the color from him.

"I... I... Ulfric, I'll be blunt. I can't let this go on any further without formally apologizing, I will admit, recently I have been desperate to get somepony who would love me... and for the smallest amount of time I thought it was you, but I didn't realize the pony I had been looking for was right in front of me all along.. Vinyl." At this, Ulfric showed some emotion, some of it showing his hurt, while some of it showed he was happy that she knew what she did was wrong. But in the end, he still ended at his lifeless, drained eyes.

"Octavia. You hurt me, and for that, I don't think I'll ever be able to fully forgive you. I may have come from Clopton, but my parents raised me better as a foal to know what hurts others. One day, maybe we'll be friends, but right now, I don't want to see you for a long time. I'd be very happy if you left now, so I can continue with our day, we'll be very busy." Octavia looked hurt by this, but she was understanding. She had broken Ulfric's faith in mares, and it would be a long time before he could let something that major slide. Without another word, Octavia left the residence, with small tears draining from her eyes. When the hotel owner asked what was wrong, she merely told him something had gotten into her eyes, and left the building before he could question her anymore.

"Well. That went pleasantly, at least, no screaming, no yelling, I'm glad you didn't let it come to that Ulfric." Traz said this, looking a lot more calm then how he had been yesterday. He was almost prompted to yell again at Octavia, but seeing the look on her face when she approached Ulfric changed his mind completely.

"I'm not in the mood to yell at her, Traz. I've already gotten over this, but I would be lying if I said it didn't change the way I look at love and romance." At this, both of Ulfric's friends were visibly saddened, but were happy that Ulfric wouldn't be dwelling on this anymore. With nothing else to do, the trio checked out of the hotel, and heading to the town hall. Normally, you'd have to set up a appointment with a mayor of an establishment, but since Ponyville was so small they were spared that small inconvenience. Upon arriving, they met the secretary, who didn't pay them much mind, and sent them into the building. Upon reaching the mayor's office, she was doing some small time paperwork it seemed. They walked up to the desk, Traz announcing their presence.

"Miss Mayor? We've come to inquire about a house that we would like built. Do you know where we could talk to a builder of some sorts?" At this, the Mayor jumped back in her chair, smashing into the wall behind her, and looked up shocked at the trio in front of her.

"Could you at least knock first?!" Mayor Mare was gripping her heart like it would explode, and Traz immediately saddened at this, but Shock had other plans.

"Well, you see Mayor, the door was kinda opened, I didn't know you were supposed to knock on opened doors." At this, Traz facehoofed enough to leave a mark, and Ulfric was kind enough to facehoof the back of Shock's head, effectively shutting him up.

"Ah... yes, well I guess that was my fault then. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Mayor Mare, and I would like to formally welcome you to Ponyville."

"Thank you Mayor Mare, we're glad Ponyville would have us. But yes, we're looking for a house to be built if that's quite alright with you, we'll be needed a form of residence." Ulfric said, calm and stoic. Ulfric always had a way of haggling, and when it came to money agreements he always went into business pony mode.

"Ahh, yes, a house. Let me call my chief architect. Snazzy Summary! I need you for a few moments!" At this, a white pony with a dark red and black mane walked in, going up to the desk carrying himself with a small stride.

"Yes, Miss Mare?"

"These three here are looking to have a house built in Ponyville, and I'd like you to help them in creating said home, whenever you have the time."

"Certainly Miss Mare, I'll get on it immediately, would you three please follow me so we can fill out the appropriate forms and then discuss what kind of house you'll want built?" The trio followed Snazzy to his office, albeit, Shock with a less refined stride, he already didn't like this pony, to much business talk for him to really care about. They all took a seat in his office, and signed the appropriate forms, eventually, Snazzy cleared his throat, and began to speak.

"Phew, thank Celestia, I hate being in that office. She always makes us act so businesspony with everypony. Anyway, I'm Snazzy, it's nice to meet you three, may I get your names." Shock noticeably picked up at this, happy that Snazzy wasn't just a boring old business pony.

"Hey, I'm Traz, this is Ulfric, and that's Shock."

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you. Now that you've signed the correct paperwork, what kinda house are ya all looking for? I hate to brag, but I can have basically anything you'd like constructed, as long as you have the bits to pay of course." The trio assembled to talk for a small moment at this, and returned a few minutes later.

"We'd like a two story house with 3 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen if it's at all possible." Ulfric said, readying himself for the cost. After a few minutes of calculations, Snazzy returned with how much it was going to cost.

"All in all, that's going to run you about 10,000 bits in total. You can pay all of it here and now, or you can pay it gradually over time with monthly bills ranging at 1,000 to 1,500 bits." Ulfric looked visibly calmed at this, the houses here were much cheaper then they were at Clopton.

"Alright, and how long is this house going to take before it's ready?" Shock asked, eager to find out when their new home would be completed. At this, Snazzy noticeably grimaced, and said with a heavy sigh,

"Unfortunately, most of my best workers are currently off duty traveling or something of the sorts, so with the current workers I have it will probably take about two weeks."

"Ughh, are you serious? Where are we going to stay then? I am NOT going back to that crappy ass motel." Shock was a bit open with his thoughts, so Ulfric took the liberty of silencing them with another hoof-to-the-head solution. Snazzy thought deeply. These stallions weren't that bad, and it had been a while since he really made any friends, besides Pinkie Pie of course, who knew everypony in Ponyville. Knowing he would probably regret it later, he said with yet another heavy sigh,

"You all can stay at my place, if you like, I've got ample room for all of you. Although you'll have to pay for your own food and any expenses it costs me." Traz, at this, glomped Snazzy in a tight hug, uttering many thanks.

"Erm... could you please get him off of me?" Ulfric, snickering, ripped Traz off of Snazzy, and they all calmed down.

"I'd like to say thanks, I'm sure housing us for two weeks can't be your exact cup of tea, but we'll try to be as kind as possible while we're residing in your residence." Ulfric said, happy they wouldn't be staying in a hotel for the next two weeks.

"Don't mention it Ulfric, we gotta help each other out sometimes right? Plus I'm sure you'll all be interesting enough. I get off work today at seven, so why don't you all tour the town until I'm done? I'll get the plans together for your house as soon as possible, and send workers within the next day or two."

"Sounds good Snazzy, again, thanks for the place to crash." Ulfric, after finishing that sentence, left with his two friends out into Ponyville, ready for their next challenge of the day. Getting jobs. Hopefully they would all find something that would pay the bills, but they hadn't been the best at acquiring jobs beforehand...

"Hey guys, do we all know exactly what we're gonna be doing for jobs? I'm thinking of checking over at Sweet Apple Acres to see if they need another farmhand." Ulfric asked, hopeful they had something in mind.

"Well, I was going to go back to Sugarcube corner and ask Pinkie if she needed another baker. It's been a while since I was able to work with pastries!" Traz said, excited at his new job opportunity.

"Well.... as for me, I think I'm gonna try DJing at some of the local clubs tonight. I'm more than capable of handling the songs we know by myself, and I think I might be able to gain some popularity. And some mares. Hehe." Shock rubbed his hooves together vigorously, happy at the opportunity of becoming popular.

"Alright then, we all meet back at the Town Hall at around 6:45, got it? Good luck to everypony!" And with that, they all dashed off in separate directions, racing, eager to work at what they did best.