Wordsmith noticed the puddles too, and hopped about to avoid them... which made him look a little silly, but he'd rather not slip

"Well, there is that.  Kinda always wanted to have one of my stories printed serial-like.  You know, a chapter a month... or a chapter a week if I'm feeling productive." he said to Pansy, "Something to help while I write a full-on novel and go through the apparently requisite mountain of rejection letters"

"What do you think you'd do if you couldn't get a job writing?"  She would offer him a job at her gardening shop, but it was never busy enough to merit having two ponies working.  But she was trying to think of ideas for him.

Town Hall was, despite its usual state of business, actually quite empty.  It was already near closing hours to begin with and things were getting wrapped up even sooner due to Princess Luna's event that evening.  Pansy and Wordsmith were only able to catch a bored-looking secretary closing up her desk when they arrived and she certainly didn't look interested in helping out.

"Services are closed up for th'night.  Come back in th'morning.  If y'got an emergency, go talk t'Blue Shield." the make-up laced pony drolled as she sauntered right on out the front door, not giving the other two the time of day.  So much for that effort...

Meanwhile, down the hall, Quick Buck wasn't having much better luck.  By the time he got to the treasury office, he'd find it closed up for the night already.  But before he could despair too much, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Quick?  What're you doing here?  I thought Rook usually handled things with us."  it was Red Tape, one of the administrative ponies from upstairs.  She'd been the one to help the brothers get their property and business running in the first place.

"Well I do like to ba--" Wordsmith blinked at the secretary pony closing up and walking past him and Pansy, "... okay then."

He coughed, giving Pansy a smile, "Well.  I bake as a hobby, well, bake and cook and such."

"Oh, sorry, Wordsmith.  We didn't make it.  You shouldn't have any problem in the morning though, and you said you at least had a place for tonight."  Pansy shrugged as she turned back around to leave.  There wasn't much point in staying if they weren't going to get the help Wordsmith needed.  "Well, there's actually several bakeries in town.  Mr. and Mrs. Cake run Sugarcube Corner, and Strawberry Toast owns the Gilded Oats Bakery.  Though, come to think of it, I haven't seen Strawberry Toast in a while."  A worried expression crossed her face, but quickly vanished.  "She's probably just busy."

Wordsmith nodded, those were certainly good thoughts.  He saw Pansy's face, and frowned softly

"Hey" he whispered gently, "You wanna check out the bakery then?  See if we can find your friend?"

She led him to Town Hall, this is the least he could do for her, especially since it seemed like her friend was involved.

"Oh, no, I couldn't.  I mean, I don't even really know her all that well.  And there's no time to do it, what with the Moon-Raising tonight.  Maybe she'll be there."  Pansy cheered up a little at that thought.  "Maybe I'll look for her tomorrow if I don't see her there."

Wordsmith chuckled, "I dunno, 'not knowing them' very well doesn't seem to matter here.  Considering I just arrived myself and two ponies who didn't know me very well helped me" he smiled

"Tell you what.  If you don't, I'll help you look for her tomorrow.  Least I could do." Wordsmith smiled, holding open the door for her with a small burst of magic, and gave a flourish with his hoof, "Ladies first~"

-> To Town Center ->

"Well, thank you, sir."  Pansy smiled as she trotted past him out the door, and back to the Town Square.  Now there was nothing for her to do but wait for the sun to set.

-->To Town Square

Quick rang the bell again. "Hello? Anypony?" He then spotted the 'CLOSED' hanging innocuously on the edge of the desk. "Oh." Well, that would explain it.

He frowned. He couldn't help but feel slightly miffed that he went through all that trouble for nothing. He didn't like failure. Muttering to himself he started to leave, but was stopped by the voice of a mare coming down the hall. Turning to face the pony, he saw that it was Red Tape, a good acquaintance of he and his brother.

"Oh, evening Red."

"Yeah I know it's a little strange for me to be doing this kind of work." Although exceptionally business savvy, Quick was never very good at managing finances. He had, ah... loose pockets so to say and was prone to temptations. "But Rook -the lucky stallion- got himself a date for tonight and I felt that he had enough to worry about without having to mind the store as well. So I'm doing him a favor in the meantime while he gets himself ready."

He sighed and glared at the sign on the desk as if it had personally insulted him. "But it looks like I'll need to come back tomorrow anyhow."

He suddenly perked up as an idea formed in his head. "Saaay~, you wouldn't mind doing a favor for me, would you? I just need to make this deposit here and I'll be on my way."

The tired-looking pony seemed quite surprised at the notion of Rook, of all stallions, having a date.  Her incredulous expression said it all, so she didn't bother making further comment.  When Quick Buck asked about a little bending of policy to help out with his plight, the mare seemed reluctant... but soon gave a gentle shrug in any case.

"I don't see the harm in it.  Glimmer Gold only just left a few moments ago anyway.  How much are you depositing?" Red Tape asked as she moved along behind the Treasurer's Desk and began sorting through a ring of keys she had on her, looking for the right one to open the filing case.

"Ahh... two thousand bits?" Quick said sheepishly. He rummaged through his saddlebags and pulled out the sizable sack of coins and places the bag down onto the desk with clinking thunk. Looking at Red tape he felt like he needed to explain the reason for the large sum of money.

"We had a buyer today who bought quite a bit of our stock. Paid upfront too. I think his name was Ace or something. Anyway, I didn't feel comfortable keeping all of these bits overnight in our store safe. I know we don't get much crime around these parts, but I think its best if I don't give trouble an invite either."

Despite Quick's hesitation, Red Tape didn't need any explanation as to where the bits came from.  She'd been the one to mention the gaming shop to Ace earlier that day, after all.  It was apparent that the casino-hopeful had taken her advice to seek out the game store for his supplies.

"Maybe I should get a kick back for the referral?  I sent Ace your way after he put in a requisition for property this morning." the tawny mare grinned, though she was obviously joking.  Ace would have found his way to the brothers one way or another anyway.  She took the bag of bits and took a quick gander to count through them, then shuffled the whole thing off into the treasury safe for the time being.

"Don't worry; it's better that you trust your money with us anyway.  Think of the wonders it'll do for your general credibility as a business.  I know the Mayor is always glad to see the town coffers getting fatter thanks to a good market." she rolled her eyes a bit as she went about handling the paperwork.  A few scrolls were filed and, with a signature from both herself and Quick Buck, filed away to be delivered in the morning.  "Alright, that'll do it.  The paperwork will get sent along to Canterlot tomorrow morning on the first delivery circuit, so they'll acknowledge the full deposit later that day in your treasury account."

"You're a lifesaver." Quick signed all the necessary forms that the mare gave him and watched as she closed the treasury safe, the money safely inside. As Red Tape finished re-tidying the Treasury desk, Quick quietly mulled over something in his mind.

He mentally shrugged -'Didn't get here by not taking risks,'- and cleared his throat.

"Hey, uh, Red. I know you were joking about the kickbacks, but if you don't mind I'd like to treat you to dinner tonight as a way to say thanks for the favor."

Red Tape led Quick outside of the room so that she could lock up the door in their wake and went about fumbling with the keys.  She was so preoccupied with it that she practically missed what he was saying... but when it did hit her ears, the mare's eyes widened and she slipped, nearly face-planting into the door itself.

"Ah... dinner?  With you?" she stammered.  Whoa girl... calm down.  Why must you always get so flustered whenever a guy looks your way, she mentally scolded herself.  "Um... s-sure.  I think that'd be nice, actually."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:32, Fri 04 May 2012.

Quick had to suppress a chuckle at Red Tape's reaction. Only a sliver of a smile betrayed his amusement. It's not often that a mare literally falls over herself when you ask her for a date.

"That's great. I know of a pretty nice restaurant nearby. With any luck, we can get an outdoor table so we can watch the Moon-Raising as well." Unlikely, but Quick was an eternal optimist. He followed Red down the hallway towards the main foyer and entrance of the building. It seemed that everypony but them had already left. (He also noted that his water trail had thankfully mostly dried by then.)

At the main doors he asked,  "Do you need some time to freshen up first before we head over to dinner? We still have some time. Or do you want to go straight there? He didn't mean it as an insult or to sound impatient, but past experience with other mares he'd dated had taught him that they took their public image very seriously and dismissing it out of hand is a major 'No no'. He actually found her disheveled look to be kinda cute, but didn't want to lay it on too thick yet.

Besides, it was only a casual date, right?
This message was last edited by the player at 10:01, Sat 05 May 2012.

Red Tape wasn't a mare who normally put too much merit into appearances.  She was comely enough on her own but her looks sometimes suffered due to how draining her job was.  By the end of the work day, even one cut a little early, she showed the strain of her duties.  Her mane was all out of sorts, her eyes were heavy and weary, and frankly she appeared as if she could really use a vacation... or at least a solid night's rest and a good cup of coffee in the morning.

"Ah... y-yes, I think being able to straighten my tail a bit would be a good idea.  I don't live very far from here.  Easy commute."  she giggled awkwardly, suddenly feeling glaringly self-conscious about her looks as she fitfully worked to flatten her frayed mane.

-->Red Tape exits to Ponyville Residential District

"Ah, convenient," Quick said as he followed her outside.

"I hope you don't mind if I tagged along with you, Red? I don't have any other errands to do this evening." Actually he had planned on stopping by the Post Office after depositing the money at the Town Hall, but if they were already closed here then it stood to reason that the Post Office was closed as well. "Besides it'll be easier than me waiting for you in the Square and having to find you again in this crowd." He nodded his head towards the steadily growing crowd of ponies they were threading through. It looked like more were slowly filtering into the Square as the sun crept towards the horizon.

To Ponyville Residential District--->

>>> From Equestrian Express Train Station >>>

Winter navigated Ponyville as best she could, doing her best to avoid the various ponies on her way. Unfortunately due to her luggage she did end up bumping into a pony or two. She did her best to apologize, bowing her head and looking remorseful... though ponies probably thought she was rude without a verbal apology. Eventually, she did make it to the Town Hall, it was hard to miss really.

Winter timidly entered the impressive looking building, she had no idea where to go and unfortunately no way to ask any pony for directions. Part of her mind panicked, maybe she should have gone to the cafe, something to eat and some tea might have given her brain a bit of a jump start. Her panic was short lived, thankfully, just jitters from being in a very unfamiliar place. She started searching the offices looking for somepony who could tell her about housing. Worst case scenario, maybe somepony could direct her to an inn or a hotel?

Red was on her way to the employee lounge to get a cup of the hideously foul 'coffee' that was always brewing down there when she quite literally bumped into the new arrival from Stalliongrad. "Oh, excuse me, I didn't see you there, what is your name? You look lost, can I help you find something?" Red asked, unaware that the young mare could not hear her.

Winter nearly toppled over as she bumped into Red! Her wings shot out in an attempt to regain her balance. It was by sheer luck that she didn't hit red again with her wings or drop her luggage.

She turned to apologize only to find Red looking at her and seemingly expecting an answer. There was a very awkward moment of silence as she stared at the other mare. She must have said something and Winter didn't look at her lips fast enough to read them. Winter looked at Red puzzled for a moment before lifting her hoof and tapping her ear in an attempt to alert the pony to her condition. She then focused her attention on Red's lips, hoping not to miss anything else she said.

Red had not managed to help raise her four siblings without being fast on the uptake. ~So, a deaf pony, this will be challenging, luckily I know some sign.~ She thought. Siting back on her rump Red Tape began to make a series of gestures with her fore hooves, gestures that unfortunately would probably be to no avail because she was 'speaking' the Trotish dialect of sign language, which would most likely not be understood by a pony from Stalliongrad. ^I am Red Tape, what is your name?^ Red signed.

Winter seemed to perk up upon Red's signing, though she had trouble understanding the unfamiliar dialect. She pulled her suitcase off her back and sat down. She believed she had gotten the gist of what Red had signed. She tapped her lips with her wing, trying to tell her that she could read lips. The pegasus then began to sign with her wings. ^I am Winter Mint, nice to meet you...^ She paused trying to figure out the pony's name before just mimicking the signs she had used for her name. ^Red... Tape.^ Though, she was using the Stalliongrad dialect so she was unsure if the other pony could understand her signing.

Red had a lot of trouble with the unfamiliar dialect but understood the sign for lipreading, which was universal across Equestria. "Hello, Mint-of-Snow, I am Red Tape, Senior Deeds and Permit's Officer for the Ponyville Mayors Office. I am guessing by your bags that you are new in town, Da?" Red said, using the one word of Russian that she knew, having Identified the dialect, even though she could not really understand it.

That was a certainly unusual way of saying her name... must be something unique to this region of Equestria. She couldn't help but grin though, she was really talking to somepony completely foreign to her! Red tape, so that was her name, she had to remember that sign. She nodded quite vigorously to confirm that she was new in town, she had no idea that ponies in this region used some Russian words! She quickly got to signing her intentions... which again probably wouldn't be understood. ^I am looking to become a resident of Ponyville. I wish to inquire on the cost of a home or cloud.^