Scarlet Sunrise

Chapter 2
Enter Ponyville

I had already begun to feel the eyes upon me as I crossed a neat, well maintained bridge that let into the main populous of the area. Making quick glances to my sides, I noticed that my feelings were correct - most of the ponies of the town were stopping what they were doing and staring at me with their hateful eyes. As I continued to walk down what seemed like the main street, adorned with fresh grocery stands and sugar treat shops, with a road that had been fashioned entirely out of cobblestone, I spotted a rather large and official looking building straight ahead of me.

As I approached it, I noticed what seemed to be an authority figure, most probably a mayor or something of that likeness. The mare was talking to three other ponies, one who had orange hair and a cutie mark in the shape of some carrots, another with a styled blue mane whose mark resembled gemstones, and a pink maned Pegasus, who seemed to be slowly trying to back out of the conversation and slip away without the other three noticing.

I knew it was rude to interrupt conversation, even if it seemed like just friendly banter, so I backed away to a cobblestone curb within earshot, and waited there for their conversation to end. After what seemed like hours, the subject of their conversation had varied from the new season fashions to dinner platters. I noticed that the pink-maned pony was also growing tired of their conversation, only contributing when asked, and trying to avert the other converser's eyes so that she could slip away.

After a few more minutes, it seemed that she had found her opportunity, ducking her head and backing up until she was out of their line of sight. At this point, she was only a few steps directly in front of me, and after she had made sure they did not notice her escape, she turned around and ran as fast as she possibly could. Unfortunately, her path out of the crowd was not as clear as her quick glance had led her to think, as she barreled straight into my legs, knocking us both straight to the ground.

Slightly annoyed, I stumbled back to my feet. I was about to tell her, in a particularly unpleasant tone to watch where she was going, but instead she ended up making the first noise, effectively blocking out my insult. She let out a yelp, and by the look on her face, I could not tell whether or not she was surprised or scared of me. She ran past and disappeared into the crowd. Puzzled at her reaction, I used this opportunity to move slightly closer to the mayor-like figure, and her two remaining friends. I then managed to discern that their conversation was drawing to a close, because I overheard something about the blue-maned one losing her friend "Fluttershy", of whom I then assumed was the pegasus who had just snuck out of their conversation and ran into me.

Curious for more names, I kept listening, and surely enough, the one with the carrot cutie mark had the name of Carrot Top. "Go figure", I thought to myself, quietly chuckling. The blue maned unicorn was named Rarity, and then finally, my suspicions were confirmed - the third pony was the mayor, whose name was just Mayor, apparently. I gave another quick chuckle at that point. As they exchanged their farewells, and finally broke off their conversation, I approached the mayor pony, and proceeded to tell her the story of with I had repeated a thousand times beforehand, to a thousand different mares, ponies and stallions.

"Hello" I said, trying my best to contort my face into a smile. "My name is Scarlet Tangent, and I have traveled here from a city a great distance away, to ask if you perhaps were in need of either a Pegasus pony, or just some sort of manual labor worker?
"Why, hello there, Scarlet. You don't mind if I call you Scarlet, do you?" she asked, inquisitively.
"No, Scarlet is just fine." I hastily replied, hoping to get some good news out of her quickly. I really wanted to find some place to stay the night, and rest my hooves because I had been walking for most of the day.
""Well, Scarlet, if you'd like to come inside to the Ponyville town hall with me, I can show you the job board, and maybe we'll find out if anypony around here is currently looking for help" she said as she pointed towards the formal structure I had noticed earlier.
"Lead the way" I replied wearily as she then started to make her way up the stairs of the structure, and I followed her inside shortly after.