As soon as the alarm clock went off, I jumped out of bed. I was filled with excitement and ready for the day.

I opened the door to my bedroom, and there was my alarm clock, ringing on the floor like it owned the hallway. Like I said before, I didn’t want anything in my bedroom except the bed and the closet. And my alarm clock was not one of the two. So, its proper place was outside of the door so it could still wake me up.

I picked the clock up, turned it off and took it into the bathroom where it would wait until the evening to be used again. I took a soapy shower and went down to make myself a small bowl of rice for breakfast.

My eagerness caused me to finish with my shower sooner than I usually was, and not long after I was out the door and on the way to work. With a smile, I walked along the street, passing by houses and ponies. Some ponies (alright a lot of ponies) stared at me, but I couldn’t blame them. Being the only kirin around since… well... ever, made me stand out in the herd. They just had to get used to me and I was sure after a month they would know me.

After some minutes of walking, I reached my destination. “TEXTILE MILL MAREN” was written in large letters at the entrance. This was the only such factory I had read about so far. As a kirin, who was not used to such huge buildings, I was stunned. And they said this was only a small factory!

I went through the main entrance and looked around. The application had happened only with letters, so this was my first time being in the building. Inside, the building looked even more impressive, since the reception was as big as all of my rooms combined. Everything was clean and bright with barely any furniture. Some seats, a table, a potted plant and the reception desk where a brown mare with a short black mane was gaving me a strange look.

“Can I help you?”

Her voice snapped me out of my daze.

“Yes, sorry. I am the new worker. Spring Frost. Your boss, Pink Cotton, told me I should come here.”

“Ah yes. Please take a seat, Miss Cotton will come soon”, she said and pointed at one of the many seats in the room.
I did so and waited quietly as the mare left the room. Being alone in such a big room was kind of awkward. Especially when you were already on the eager side.

After what felt like an eternity the mare, accompanied by a second mare, returned. The new mare had a pink long mane, tied into a braid. Her fur was light blue, and she wore a fancy purple dress.

“Mister Frost, we’ve corresponded through letters. I am Pink Cotton”, the pink maned mare said as she offered me a hoof. In meantime her companion went back behind the desk.

“Yes indeed. Nice to meet you miss Pink Cotton”, I replied and bumped her hoof with my own. Kirin use to bow to higher ranked (which was mostly just Rain Shine) but luckily I had read up on how to greet ponies before I came here.

Pink Cotton lead me through a door with lead directly to the heart of the facility. Dozens of machines and ponies worked there, creating a sort of organized chaos. I couldn’t tell where the wool was going in and the textile came out, but everything operated like clockwork. My mouth must have hit the floor from the sight. Fortunately, my future boss did not notice as she was too busy explaining about the facility.

“As mentioned into the letters, mister Frost, Textile Mill Maren produces fabric for Equestria. Of course we are not the only textile mill, but we are one of them. We take the cotton and wool mostly from local farms and a smaller part who are further away.

Our facility is separated in three parts. The main part you can see here. Here we produce all kind of fabric rolls in many colours and maybe add a basic decoration. Some rolls will be sold right away, and some come to our second part to become basic fabric items like bed sheets, curtains or protection sheets for farm fields.

But remember that this is not a fashion design with means we only do basic products and not fully clothings. We do sometimes get special requests like a unique fabric, special design or even clothing parts. Things we cannot produce on your standard machine. Such requests we produce in the third part of the factory.

If I understood correctly, you would like to work in the third part. Is that right, mister Frost?”

For the second time today, I was ripped from the trance that the sight of all this fabric had brought on.

“Oh yes, miss Cotton. In Hono, the place where we kirins live, I was a tailor and seamster. We are only a small village, so we didn’t have such huge machines like you have here. Instead, I only got special requests like how the fabric should look or for what it will be used. But I do also have a little experience in making clothing and other similar things”, I explained.

Miss Cotton gave a nod. “I understand. Then please follow me.”

She led me between the machines through the facility. I noticed again how ponies gave me a stare when they thought I wouldn’t notice. But in the end, how often did it happen that a kirin walked though this building.

Me and miss Cotton came to a double door which she swung open. Tt led to another part of the facility. This one was way smaller and had less machines. But they were all different and not connected to each other. It seemed to be more of a small workshop than an area meant for mass production.

“This is the third part of the factory. The creative part if you will. I think it is for the best if I first put you in a familiar environment. Here you can get familiar with our production and machines”, miss Cotton explained and trotted to a dark grey stallion with a short, black, curly mane. He also had wings, indicating that he was one of these pegasus ponies.

“Mister Wind here will instruct you until you are able to work on your own”, she finished.

“Nice to meet you. I am Spring Frost”, I introduced myself and lifted my front leg.

He took my hoof and gave me a polite smile. “Creative Wind. But Creative is fine.”

“Very well you two, with that part done, I will be off to my own work”, miss Cotton, turned around and went to the same door we came through not even a minute ago.

Busy mare, I thought to myself but quickly turned my attention back to Creative.

“Alright let’s get this started. Have you ever worked on a machine like this?”, he asked and pointed at an apparatus three times larger than me. It was made out of wood and some metallic parts while many strings were taut parallel to each other and going along a wheel. A weaving machine!

“Oh yes, I have”, I replied. “I have a weaving machine too and used it very often. Mine is way smaller. I would say that this one is twice as tall as mine, and more modern than the one I have. So, I don’t know how similar they are to each other.”

“No worries”, Creative calmed me, “they work just like the old ones with the difference being that the modern versions do a lot more of the work for you. This means you could work faster and focus more on the important stuff.

Now for today we are doing a fabric with a given colour pattern. This is a common commission we get. In other words, a perfect task for you to get into. Place yourself in front of the weaving machine and I'll show you how it works.”

Even though the first sight of this huge weaving machine had terrified me, it was actually fairly simple to use. You didn’t have to braid the strings anymore and the straining was also fully automatic. You could do it manually, which Creative suggested I do when there were difficult parts, but most of the time I was just standing there, watching the machine do its job and change the strings.

And even though I used to call myself very skilled and fast with a weaving machine, I had, to my disliking, to admit that this full auto product was way faster than anything I could do.

That didn’t mean I disliked working with it. Since the special order requested a special coloured pattern, I had to change the strings a lot. In short, the machine only automated the repeating parts. Braid, push, repeat. But I on the other hoof had to be there for the creative part. In this case, change the colours so that, in the end, the sheet comes out the way the customer requested.

“… so, all in all a kirin is not too different from a pony. We just look a bit different and have another culture.”

While working I also chatted a bit with Creative, who stayed close by, watching me working on the weaving machine in case I needed more instruction. I wanted to tell him what I am exactly, along with some other stuff about kirin. The nirik part I skipped consciously. I didn’t want to scare him like I might have done to my neighbour.

“Interesting. I cannot say that I ever met a kirin before. Even less heard about your kind”, Creative admitted.

“Well, to be fair, our village was very isolated from the rest of Equestria and was only discovered recently thanks to two ponies named Fluttershy and Applejack. They got send to us to solve a friendship problem”, I told him.

Suddenly there was a loud, honk like sound echoing going through the whole factory. Loud enough that I looked around in confusion.

“Ah, that is the lunch bell. Finish the current line you are working on and then we can go eat.”

I did as I was told and Creative showed me how to remove the power stone from the machine to shut it down. from what he has told me, most of the facility runs on pony power via treadmills or something he calls a "hamster wheel". But some rare machines work with power stones.

Creative lead me to the cafeteria. It was a big room for all workers. It was filled with long tables and benches which were filled with many ponies. The room had small decorations like potted plants, paintings and some large windows. There was also a stand with simple food like fruits or bread topped or filled. (In Hono bread was very rarely made so I didn’t know the name of such products.)

Miss Cotton had written me in the letters that the cafeteria provided simple food free for taking. But it wasn’t much and if I wanted to have a more filling meal, then I should bring my own food, like many ponies did.

“If you want you can eat here. Some ponies, me included, also tend to go home to eat lunch. But it is up to you. You can also take something from the stand but be sure that others also get their share before taking too much”, Creative explained.

In Hono I was used to eating at home since I also worked in the same place where I lived. Here in Maren, I didn’t really have such an option. It would be quiet a while for me to fall so far behind in my work that would have to rush through lunch, so I could be back in time for the afternoon shift. But I didn’t complain about it. Here I could dine together with my other coworkers and have the chance to introduce myself and make new friends. So far, I only knew Creative but here were a hundred more ponies I could meet.

“Thank you, I think I will stay here and talk with some kir- I mean ponies”, I said to Creative.

“Alright, see you after lunch then”, he meant and gave me a small goodbye wave.

I trotted over to the stand and took myself one of these breads which had a filling of egg and cucumber. After a quick peek around the room, I spotted an earth pony mare with plenty of room to sit. She had orange fur, a long tail and a short mane that was done up in a ponytail. The mane and tail were purple with a red stripe in it.

“I am sorry, but do you mind if I join you?”, I approached her.

She must have been deep in thought because she winced at the sound of my voic and looked up at me.

“Uuuum… sure!”

She gave me a shy smile and avoided eye contact as I took my seat vis-à-vis of her. After an awkward moment of silence, I decided to try and make the first move.

“My name is Spring Frost. I am the new worker here.”

“Oh, that explains why I have never seen you here…”, the mare half whispered, more to herself than me. “I am Quick Rush. Welcome in the team, I guess.”

She again gave a shy smile and dared to take a look at me.

“Thank you”, I said and used my magic to float the bread to my muzzle. I gave a short sniff before I took a bite from it. The taste of egg and cucumber filled my mouth, along with the not so familiar taste of bread. It was way different than what I had before, but it wasn’t bad at all. I actually can imagine getting very used to the taste.

When I broke my thoughts from the food, I realised that Quick was ogling me.

“I am sorry. It's just that I am completely new to pony culture and I have never had such food before”, I apologised.

“What? You mean a sandwich?”, Quick asked confused. “They are very common in Equestria.”

This was a short pause when Quick seemed to hesitate. But in the end her curiosity won. “Can I ask you… what exactly are you?”

I quickly swallowed my bite of these sandwich.

“I am a kirin. A creature that lives in Hono, a small hidden village in Kirin Grove. Our existence hasn’t been known since a long time, until two ponies, called Fluttershy and Applejack, came to us to solve a friendship problem… ”

Author's Note

Thank you all for reading. From now on the story will have a weekly update. Maybe not always on the same day but there will be always a new chapter coming.

Like always, feel free to give review and comments with help to improve the story.