Chapters Chapter 1
Ponyville. Yet another new start in a new town.
Things had been this way for quite some time now, after growing up as a young, scraggly colt in a run-down orphanage on the south side of the large, busy city known as Phillydelphia. Realizing from the start that most ponies don't like outliers with barely any vibrant colors in their manes, I slowly sunk into a depressive rut, my psyche being damaged constantly by others bullying me for having ugly skin, or an uncool hairstyle and colour, to the cooler mares and colts bringing me into their circles of friends only so that they could laugh at me behind my back, and ultimately destroy any self-confidence I had managed to build up by telling me I was a fool to think I could really be one of their friends.
Around the age of ten, I had realized not only were red streaks starting to take hold in my mane, but I was devoid of the bane of mostly everypony's existence - a cutie mark. Growing up being called insulting names like "Dirt" and "Mudball" sort of became a normal thing for me after a while, but the constant ridicule and derogatory comments, whilst going through a low-income school without a cutie mark was humiliating to say the least.
After I had passed the age of 18, and still had no cutie mark, my mind started to enter a state of extreme paranoia. Even if everypony was silent at the time, I could still hear their voices, in mocking tones, laughing at me. After several violent encounters with bullies, I was quickly expelled from the school. Even the principal of the school could not stand the shame of having a student without a cutie mark. After being rejected from several schools after that, I quickly began to give up on life, as I spent 3 years living on streets, moving around between several cities and towns in search of somepony who would accept a twenty-one year old, dark colored pony with no cutie mark. This brings me to the latest location in my search, a town called Ponyville.
Chapter 2 - Enter Ponyville
Chapter 2
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?
Chapter 3 - The Mare Who Caught His Eye
Chapter 3
The interior was just as well designed and ornate as the outside was. Most of the building was taken up by a large circular ballroom, as well as several other rooms off to the sides, most likely housing stairs leading up to sets of overlooking balconies, which protruded from the walls of the ballroom area. As I looked around, I noticed the mayor mare walk up to a large cork board, full of notes and pins. She then explained that this was the job offer board and that the jobs here were available to anypony who had the time.
I obviously had quite a lot of time, so I grabbed a few notes from the board at random, and put them into the fold of my wing. She then asked my next question for me. "Are you here alone, or have you made arrangements for a place to live in?" "Umm..." I mumbled in reply doing my best to cover my lack of a cutie mark, as well as trying to think of what to say next. After a few moments of awkward silence, she started to talk.
Taken aback by the offer, I struggled to speak for a moment. She waited patiently. After taking a breath, I accepted her offer, which then moved the conversation to facts about different areas of ponyville, including distance to grocery shops, income rates and specific stores, most of which I zoned out for. She then told me there was a small cottage, on the outskirts of the town, not too far from the bridge I used to enter when I first approached the town. I accepted this offer, namely because it meant I was further away from the main street, where it was nice and quiet. "Since you are new here in Ponyville" She exclaimed, "I shall give you your first weeks rent for free, but then each week after that, it will cost you five bits. I agreed, realising she was not only extremely kind, but she was being extremely generous.
Do you have any questions? she asked, obviously attempting to close the conversation. I only had one, which was about getting directions to this new house. I did not notice any sort of real estate flags out the front of any of the houses, so I was not sure what was leased, and what was owned. She agreed, and she patted at the floor for a moment with her hoof, and looked around, obviously trying to think of something. She asked me to then stay put for a second while she quickly did something outside, and in a rush mentioned something sounding similar to the word bon-bon. Slightly confused, I patiently waited for the mayor pony's return, and soon enough, I saw her gray mane protrude from the door, followed by the mayor herself.
The mayor then said "Scarlet, This is Bon Bon. She is going to guide you to your new house, and show you around Ponyville. Most of her sentence was unheard by me, because the mare she had just introduced had completely captured my attention. She had a beautiful pale cream coat, and the most enthralling blue eyes, which I found myself lost in for a moment. She sported a voluminous navy blue mane with a centralised pink stripe. Staring down towards her rump and tail, I noticed her cutie mark consisted of three pieces of wrapped up candy, obviously pertaining to the fact her name was relative to her cutie mark, like most other ponies I had met. Her tail had been styled the same as her mane; starting straight at the roots, and protuberating from the tips of her hair were large curls.
"Scarlet?" I suddenly heard as the Mayor tried to grab my attention back. "Did you happen have any questions about this arrangement?" I hesitated on my response, trying my best to remember what she had said before i got distracted. I tried my best to answer with "Umm... You said that Bon Bon here was going to show me the way to my new house?" There was an awkward silence for a moment, but then Mayor replied "Oh good, you were indeed listening. It just looked like before you had zoned out a bit. Oh well, silly me. Though, just in case you missed it, I told you that Bon Bon had agreed to also show you around the town."
It was at that moment I was able to hear the voice of the one which I had been fixated to for the past few minutes. She said to me "Shall we go now, Scarlet? There are some things on today that I would like to show you, and there are ponies that I would also like you to meet." I agreed quickly, and as we were leaving, the mayor spoke again.
"If there is anything you need, anything at all, do not hesitate to come and find me. I'll usually be around this building, so it should not be too hard to track me down." "Thanks for all of your help, Miss Mayor. I honestly appreciate it" I replied back to her and gave her a quick smile. As I proceeded to follow Bon Bon out of the building, I heard the mayor's voice trail after us. "Have fun" she said, as Bon Bon and I walked out into the busy street, heading in what was the exact opposite direction I took when I had entered the town earlier that day.
Chapter 4 - The Home He Would Call His Own
Chapter 4
The walk to my new boarding consisted of mostly silence and awkward looks, and we only really stopped two times, the first of which she was showing me Sugarcube Corner, which was apparently some sort of sweets shop, and the latter being where we helped out a colt, whose cart had turned over, obviously due to the fact that the roads became extremely scabrous the further one traveled from the town square. As we approached the river and the bridge that led across it, Bon Bon promptly pointed to one of the side streets. "We've arrived" she exclaimed as we trotted towards it. "Your house is on this street"