A Brand New Show

It was a normal day, or at least as normal as it got for a pony like Mona Squiggles. Despite calling herself an artist, she’d been unable to draw for the past week and a half. Not for a lack of trying, mind you. She’d had plenty of ideas, those were easy to come by, after all. But even ideas that were well drawn didn’t pay that well.

Currently, Mona sat at a computer screen, something that seemed to take up more and more of her waking hours as the years went by. She let out a short grunt of annoyance, despite receiving what seemed like countless emails and messages on various forums; it seemed like none of them actually contained anything related to her artistic efforts. Flicking her hand to the left, Mona deftly activated the search hotkey and typed in the lone word “commission”. No returns.

Letting her face fall into her hands, she simply sat there for a few moments. It was times like this that shook doubt into the otherwise headsure mare. Though it seemed fate wouldn’t let her stew in a self deprecating mess for long, as a short ping came across her screen. Flicking her eyes up to the screen, she scanned across the new email.

“Collaboration Inquiry: A Business Proposal” Mona read outloud, with confusion growing with each word she said. “Who on earth titles emails that way?” she asked the empty room. With peaked curiosity, she opened up the message and began to read.

“Hello there MaybeDoll, we are a Canterlot based potion shop. And we noticed that you are an up and coming streamer on the site LiveChat.re, and as such we’d love to forward a mutually beneficial deal to help forward both of our platforms. Please respond if you are interested.”

As she read through the email, her inquisitive mood began to drop. LiveChat.re. One of the best mistakes she’d ever made was starting up an account on that dumb site. Sure it gave her lots of attention, and with that attention a way of earning a living, but it wasn’t something she was proud of. Part of that was why she was so secretive; if her friends, or worse her sister, found out about how she made a living, she’d never hear the end of it.

And so despite the potential such a deal would have, the fact that they’d likely want to meet face to face, or at the very least need to know her address, completely shot that idea down instantly. But, given that they seemed to be a moderately sized place to be sending out formal “inquiries” she decided that they at the very least deserved some kind of response.

Making sure it was sent from her MaybeDoll account, something she swore to do after almost emailing her sister with the wrong account, she quickly typed out a sincere reply as to why she wouldn’t be taking them up on their deal. After hammering her keys away on the keyboard for a few minutes, she pressed the final enter key with a resounding thump. And watched as the program slowly processed her message.

Leaning back in her chair, she once again sat in silence. Having been so directly reminded of her shows, her mind went down a very different path than before. Without any conscious thought on her part, her hand started drifting down her body. Slipping under her panties with well practised ease. Tracing her fingers around her folds, she could almost feel the blood begin to rush down to her crotch.

Ping

Before she could even think of getting into it, a loud noise broke her out of her impromptu masturbation session. Letting out a small moan of annoyance, she looked up to see what her computer would dare interrupt her with.

“Re: Re: Collaboration Inquiry: A Business Proposal”

Now that got her attention. A reply so soon? Wiping her hand on her shirt on instinct, she reached for the mouse to see what the actual contents of the message were.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Mona Squiggles, I do believe our deals to be very in both of our favours…”

The email did have more. She assumed. But her heart wouldn’t stop racing. Someone knew her name. Knew her name. She’d taken every precaution under the sun and yet they knew her name. With shaking hands she reached for her chest in an attempt to try and steady herself. She took a deep breath. In, and out. In, and out again.

Focusing back on the elephant in the room, she scanned through the email as quickly as she could. “Deal… profit… quality product…” She muttered as her eyes darted across the screen rapidly. Until one part in particular caught her eye
“If you would like to discuss this more in person, feel free to drop by my store at any time. I’ll be sure to see you around.
Signed Berry Brew”

Right at the bottom of the email, a name. One she hadn’t seen in years, and one she couldn’t really ignore. “Well, I guess I better go and get dressed then..” Mona spoke to herself, and stood up from her chair.

Taking a small moment to straighten her shirt out, Mona stood just before the wooden door leading into the store that seemed smaller than she remembered. She’d struggled between wanting to look formal, and not wanting to appear over-dressed. Settling in the end for a simplistic knee length skirt and shirt-sweater combo.

After a short breath to compose herself, she stood up straight and pushed open the door with a single hand. A soft bell rang above the door, signalling her entry to everyone inside. Though luckily for her, there was just a lone mare behind the counter. One that was already looking up at her.

“I was wondering when you’d show up, it’s been a long while hasn’t it?” The purple mare said, an ever-present smirk across one side of her face.

Mona continued her walk towards the counter, “It’d be a lot less long if you stopped scaring me like you did, meanie.” She pouted in an overly dramatic way

The mare behind the counter leaned back and gripped her hand against her chest. “Little old me? Scaring the Mona. Perish the thought, darling” She exclaimed, her voice taking on a much posher accent.

A chuckle escaped Mona at her silly antics, “So, outside of frightening me half to death. Was there any real purpose behind your business proposal?”

“Actually there was, believe it or not. I was browsing through LiveChat, you know why, and was just shocked at how vanilla it is.” Berry rolled her eyes, saying the word with disgust “Then! I saw a cute little plot I recognised, and the rest is history”

A moment of pause filled the room as Mona processed that. “So what you’re saying, is you want me to help you get more kinky stuff to masturbate to.” She said, a layer of doubt covering her words

Berry leaned behind the counter for a moment, before standing back up with an old fashioned briefcase. “Yes, but that’s a bi-product. I think there’s a solid niche market in potion-assisted sex, and one that you can help me tap into. All you’d need to do is drink a few on stream and tell them where you got them.”

She placed the suitcase on top of the counter, before deftly swiveling it around so that the handle faced Mona.

Mona gripped the leather handle, before pausing for a moment. “There’s not any in here that’ll give me a dick again, right?” She asked pointedly

Berry chuckled nervously before replying, “You won’t grow one if you don’t want to?”
Mona sighed, “Alright, so aside from that one. What potions are actually in here?” She asked, before reaching to unbuckle the clasps. Something she didn’t get far in before the mare in front of her placed her hand on top of the case.

“Save finding that out till the show, you’re hosting one tonight correct?” Berry asked, the smirk returning to her face.

Mona looked up with a frown on her face, She planned it out this far? Just stumbled upon it my ass She thought to herself, but grasped the handle anyway. “Alright, I’ll do it. But only ‘cause we’re friends.”

She picked up the case and started walking towards the door. Although she’d never admit it to her face, the random potion “experiments” was something she’d sorely missed from her time with Berry. Something she’d now be able to catch up on in spades.