Haze decided to set off home. She stood up, stretching, and started back out the park. She wasn't 100% sure what she wanted to do with her free day yet- She didn't have much to do- So she decided to just have a lil' stroll...
Kleft stood about his new surroundings, looking absolutely clueless. Kleft's stomach gnawed at him and he took a look around for the nearest restaurant or market. Damn mare left him without his sandwich too. He set off, a new course finally set. Ponyville's market wasn't too hard to find, seeing as it was the largest and noisiest section of town. Kleft remembered the directions from his last trip to Ponyville anyways. Not even caring what he found, he walked up to the first stand he saw and bought whatever they had. The nice mare at the table pushed a delicious ear of corn forward and Kleft grabbed it in his mouth, finding a table to seat himself at. He felt slightly dirty, eating the food of the mainlanders, but he always did in foreign places. Finding himself seated, Kleft opened wide to begin eating when a certain suited pony caught his eye. He lowered the corn and stared at her elegant dress and important stature. Huh... finding a pony with the power to affect a nation doesn't seem to have- His thought cut short as he got a better look at the white mare's face. Kleft dropped his corn, jaw slacked open, ogling at her. No way. ABSOLUTELY no way that's... But here she was, broad as daylight. Snow, the damn mare who had always found her way where he needed her least.
Snow looked eagarily at the daisy sandwich and hay fries set before, not caring that a pony of her stature should never eat such 'peasant' food, but leaving a few years in Ponyville tends to do that to a pony, and also she didn't care as long as it tasted good, when she noticed somepony setting down their food to stare at her. Sighing, she set down the fry she was just about to munch on and looked up, ready for the newest stallion to randomly fall for her, or try to seduce her to get at her money, then she noticed it was Kleft staring wide-eyed at her, "Well, you just going to keep staring or come eat with a friend?" She said to him, "And also, if your jaw was any lower right now, it'ld be touching your head somehow!" She added with a chuckle.
Before he knew it, Kleft found he had teleported straight over to the table to land seated in front of her. He put a hoof to his mouth and readjusted his face, trying to snap out of his state of disbelief. "You- That- I-" He stuttered. Kleft cleared his throat and pulled a calm memory from his fye, attaching it to the situation. "I see you are well, then?" The calmer Kleft observes. "After all that had happened, and yet we still manage to meet up here again." He chuckles, levitating his corn to finally start eating.
Snow laugh slightly at Kleft's antics, "Nice to see you two Kleft." She said with a smile, "And yes, I am doing quite well! I'm actually going to be introducing a foreign investment measure to- Eh, forget it, don't want to bore you with my business talk" Snow picked up a fry and ate it before putting an elbow on the table and resting her head on her hoof, "So what brings you here Kleft? I know how much you love that island of yours, so that means you're here on business, probably assigned for something? And who else to be assigned to hear besides me and the Elements of Harmony, and I'm willing to bet that isn't the reason why. So, what did I do this time, hm?"
A flash of teleportation caught Quickstar's eye, and he was able to overhear enough of the conversation between the two ponies at a nearby restaurant to pique his curiosity. Well, well, he thought. Seems that something interesting might already be happening. I'll have to keep an eye on them.
Moonshine walked slowly through the town square. She was new to Ponyville and she hasn't met anyne yet. Still scared of her surroundings, Moonshine sat on a bench and shivered.
Haze came back out the park, finding herself in the town square. She was getting a lil' hungry, and decided it was time to buy a cupcake. :33 She started across the square, headed for a cake shop.
Moonshine looked up at the sky, and then to her wings. She had never flown before in her whole life, and she didn't know how to fly. Getting up from where she stood, she took a couple steps back, and then started running and jumping up, hoping her wings would finally take her off of the ground. However, she did not look where she was going and ran right into somepony headed for a cake shop, knocking both of them down. Moonshine got up and helped the other pony to her feet saying, " Oh my gosh! i'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you, honest!" she said softly.
Kleft frowned at Snow, giving her a hard look. "And I thought I was supposed to be the one with the knack for knowing things like that," he sighed. "It was only a suspicion, but you bringing it up yourself pretty much clarified it for me." He shifted uncomfortably and put his corn back down. "Whatever you're doing, leave Lunar Island out of it. We don't need more hell from you main-" He stops himself, unsure if the term is offensive or not. "Just do your thing somewhere else, we don't want anything to do with it."
Snow rolled her eyes very much exaggerated, "Alright fine." She said in a voice dripping in mock exasperation, "But seriously, I won't since you voiced that they had their concerns about it. Besides, nothing but tourism would be profitable with that island of your's, and Mark Co, or more specifically, I, don't like relying on a single industry." Snow then pulled the White Hope flower from her mane and took off her suit coat, setting it to the side, "Well now that we've got that out of the way, how about a small chat between friends, huh? Board meeting days are surprisingly my least busy so I have nothing better to do."
Did he say...Lunar Island? Quickstar struggled to contain his excitement. The ponies of the Lunar Island were notorious for their secretive nature, and most considered them to be only a myth. Almost nothing was known about them. He had come here looking for puzzles to solve, mysteries to unravel, and he couldn't have asked for a more fascinating mystery than this. Still, with a group as private as they are, any direct attempt to learn more about him and his people would be doomed to fail, he thought. For something like this, subtlety is required. Hmm...his companion. Let's see what I can learn about her.
Pepperdance left her restaurant, Disk staying behind to set up. She headed quickly to the market where she bought a few small containers of cayen. As she started heading back she saw a small group of ponies that seemed all out of place. One was clearly the semi-famous business-mare Snow. Another looked like the unicorn her niece had been taught by a few years back. The final one was odd. She couldn't place her hoof on it, but he seemed out of place in the market. She walked up to one of the stalls very close to them, trying to listen to their conversation. 'Damn my need to gossip...' she thought.
That was unusually fast... Kleft thought. No attempt at argument, no objections, nothing. She's telling it truthfully too... He raised the corn to his face and took another nibble, unsure of what to think. "A chat between... friends?" Kleft said questioningly. "I had no idea you considered me a friend, after all that happened and such. So tell me, dear friend, what do you do if meetings are your least busy? It sounds like a lot of time and work to me..."
Snow shrugged, "I usually set the meetings up the previous day so that way it's basically just getting in there, making my presentation, and getting out. Basically, every other day I'm busy drowning in production reports, investment expenditures, 'special investments', general consumer ratings of our goods and services, daily stock reports, daily expense vs income reports, how much the company is worth, what companies are willing to merge with us, possible locations to expand to, new Mark Co locations opening up, that kinda thing, and also making designs for new products and inventions. A usual day for me is basically wake up, eat a light breakfast, work 'til lunchtime, eat something, then back to work until until dinner time which I usually then work a few more hours and then fall asleep and repeat. It's pretty safe to say that my constant working is what keeps Equestria's economy, and by some extention, the world's economy constant and growing."
Kleft's eye twitches as he takes in the flood of information. When she's finished, he says "I just have guard duty from 0 Moonrise to 1/3 Moonrise where I stand outside and do nothing. How do you survive, holding all that on you!? Have you ever considered taking a weeklong break or perhaps getting another pony to help ease the burden? A little... yet crafty mare such as you must have some ideas. Don't you enjoy free time?"
Snow sighed, "Yes, I do very much so. But there's no pony else around able to handle even a quarter of my workload. The board is literally just a shareholder appealer. And I've taken a true day off only once, the market almost collapsed from it, but how did I love that day... And honestly, I have no clue how I'm able to handle all the stress my job has, I mean sure my dad raised me from virtually birth to take over the company, but I've increased the size of it more than 12 fold. And trust me, I have gone to some pretty drastic measures to decrease my workload, but they have never worked out..."
Kleft's left ear twitched, and he glanced around. The feeling of somepony staring... there it is again... He thought, unnerved. Shrugging it off, he returned his attention to Snow and leaned on the table, supporting his chin with his hoof. "Perhaps you're not using enough imagination. I was watching a play about Equestria's past once and I remember a certain pony saying to think outside the chimney. Sure, it was just a play, but you have to admit it's legitimate advice. Have a challenge: What outside the chimney have you made lately?"
