By now, the sun was hitting the town hard. Really hard. While that wouldn't matter much in a town of brightly colored ponies, it did matter to Octavia. Her dark gray coat and almost black mane absorbed all of the light instead of reflecting it, which meant that she was hotter than Tartarus. Her earlier drink hadn't help at all. Being an earth pony meant that she was resistant to the intoxicating effect of the alcohol, but it did nothing against the increased blood flow.

In other words, she was burning.

A lot.

"Maybe you should go back for a glass of water." Hugin said from her back.

"There is no way I am returning to that hole." Octavia snarked. "I'd rather walk back to Canterlot."
To Octavia's relief, the Town Hall was right at the center of Ponyville. Almost a contrast to the Sweeping Pony. Large, wooden and solid. It gave her a sense of class, as it reminded her of her home in Canterlot. Something told her that whichever unicorn was in charge here would be a nice unicorn. She could feel it.

"Well, this is where I leave for the moment. Don't want to spoil your meeting." Hugin said before flying away. Octavia ignored him. It really wouldn't have mattered if he stayed or not. Right now, she wanted to get this done. If she was lucky her gut feeling would be correct and this part would be over in a jiffy.

The inside hall was pretty classy for such a small town. A large, single room, with thick wooden pillars all crafted with exquisite detail. and finesse. Octavia would have marveled at the sight of the excellent woodcraft, if not for the fact that it was covered in sparkling pink hearts. Multicolored streamers and long bands of bright red and pink silk decorated the hall, all in a rather dramatic fashion. Octavia couldn't help but to feel rather smothered by the amount of color.

"Excuse me?" She called.

"Yes? Who's there?" A elegant voice asked. An beautiful mare walked out from between the bands. Her horn was of the purest white, just as her coat, while her pink mane was a work of art.

"Greetings. My name is Octavia, and I am here to inspect the decorations for the Mind-over-Matter celebration." Octavia explained, taking a look around her. "It seems to be going well."

"Oh yes. I have made my very best effort to show everypony my love for the celebration. A love that I hope everypony shares!" The mare said with a dramatic wave of her hoof.

"I'm afraid I don't understand miss -- ?"

"Fleur Dis Lee. Just call me Fleur. You see, I believe in love. Love between a husband and wife. Between two siblings. Between two friends."

"Um, okay? And what kind of … love are you trying to show here?" Octavia asked. Fleur smiled warmly.

"Why the love of knowledge, of course!" Fleur said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Just as we can express affection towards one another, we express feelings for what our minds are capable of. It's just natural."

Octavia smiled nervously. She was starting to get a little creeped out by this mare.

" -- Right. I think I shall be going now … ." She backed away a little. Fleur grabbed one of her hoofs.

"But Octavia! I'm afraid that you are not letting the emotion flourish inside of you! Even in the shortest of meetings, a connection is born as soon as they look at each other. Just like you and me now!" Fleur ranted as she gave a graceful twirl, her greater height allowing her to pull Octavia along before giving her a crushing hug.

"The love between two friends is something of incredible value and affection! Can you feel my love Octavia? Can you?"
The hearts sparkled with a small spell from Fleur. Octavia gagged a little from the mushy display of emotions. With a small struggle, she managed to free herself from the lovesick mare, emphasis on quick, and quickly left the Town hall, leaving Fleur to her romantic rants. Outside, the sun was still hitting hard, though slightly less than earlier.

"I take it everything went alright this time?" Hugin landed on her back.

"If by right you mean being smothered by a love-obsessed unicorn -- then yes. Everything went alright this time." Octavia answered.

"Great. Because we still have three more ponies to deal with." Hugin said." The next one is supposed to be at the bell tower."

"Which is right across town." Octavia sighed. She was starting to see a pattern here, designed specifically to annoy her. By now local ponies had noticed the strange mare that came from Canterlot, and were giving her odd looks every now and then. While it didn't really bothered her, being a musician and all, she'd rather have them ignore her for the moment.

"You are staying with me for this one." Octavia warned. Hugin rolled his eyes.
The bell tower was, well, a bell tower. There wasn't anything really particular about it, except for perhaps the bell itself, which seemed to be rather old in comparison to the rest of the tower. No windows nor any special design. Just a door at the base of the tower.

"The checklist said time marker. What kind of job is that?" Hugin asked.

"Probably keep track of the time and ring the bell when appropriate." Octavia knocked on the door of the tower. "The princess has always been keen on punctuality."

Light clicking noises could be heard from inside the tower, along with a light hammering. A couple of minutes passed with nopony answering the door. Octavia knocked again. The clicking stop, soon followed by hoofs descending stairs. The door opened, revealing a blue unicorn. Her two toned mane was dusty, as was her coat. A bag of screwdrivers and other tools hanged on her side. She didn't seem very pleased to have been interrupted.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Hello. My name is Octavia and I'm here to inspect the work on the time marker job." Octavia answered.

"Ah yes. I was told somepony was coming. Go on and take a look, but please do it quickly. I still need to work on it and time is of the essence." the mare said as she stepped inside, followed by Octavia. The inside was pretty simple, since the the tower was mostly hollow, except for a set of stairs that went all the way up to the the bell. Something was out of place though. A complicated mechanism was placed right under the bell. It was filled with cogs and chains, all placed in a rather complicated design, connected to the top of the bell by a sturdy looking rope.

"Thats quite a mechanism you have there." Hugin commented. As on cue, the whole thing gave a quick click, all the cogs and chains moving just an inch.

"Thats right. My own design. It'll ring the bell right on time, every time." Minuette explained. "Time that you two are cutting short, so if thats all, then I would like it if I could go back to work." And with that, she returned to working on the machine, using magic to manipulate her tools.

"Why the hurry? The celebration isn't supposed to start until three or four more hours." Hugin asked. Minuette sighed as if she had been asked the dumbest question the world.

"Fixing this will take me an hour, meanwhile the town getting ready will take two hours and forty minutes. Double checking everything will about another hour. There goes your four hours." Minuette went back to work. "I love making time for friends and chit chat, but right now, I need to focus on this. I'll be done on time, I promise. Then we can get to know each other more." she explained with a smile.

Octavia wanted to respond to her about her casual dismissal, but chose to swallow her words. She had a job to do, and wasting time on a rather pointless discussion would win her nothing.

"Well, that wasn't so bad. You're a pushover Octavia." Hugin chuckled as they walked away from the tower. Octavia rolled her eyes.

"You didn't see the other two. This mare was slightly weird. The ones I talked to were psychos." She shuddered at the memories. "I think I will never be able to look at a drink in the same way. Or hearts for that matter … ."

"Hearts?"

"You don't want to know."

Unbeknown to them, a short, brief pulse of magic passed through the sky. It was very faint. Only the most sensible of ponies would be able to sense it. But it was definitely there. Waiting. Planning.

The time was near.

Author's Note

I personally think I improved my writing as a whole with this chapter. Thoughts? Opinions?
Fleur de Liz and Minuette. Like them? Yes? No?

AuthorGenesis, I love you for helping here.