WillfulWanderer

"....no, I don't think so." The darkly-colored pony replied, turning her head to glance about the kitchen. It looked surprisingly cozy for a bakery, but then, Pumpkin's shop was clearly not a place intended for high volume. She'd been expecting something more spacious, with more racks and sets of pans involved. Of course, this implied- "Would I be your first employee?" The question wasn't asked with alarm or eagerness- rather tossed out as a matter of curiosity. Working with only 'the boss' would make things interesting, Amethyst thought, and would quickly either turn out well or for the worse, depending. On the other hand, that meant only having one person to listen to in order to learn the job- always a boon to have no chance of conflicting instructions.

"Pumpkin it is, then." Amethyst confirmed, pausing to fold the map carefully and snag it from her own magical field, depositing it into her left saddlebag while he went about opening up his bakery- which was apparently the building right behind her. It was an odd spot of luck to her thinking, but the short pony figured she was due a little luck now and then, so she didn't think much of it. Once the door was opened, she followed the pegasus into the bakery. The unicorn considered the dining area as they passed through it towards the counter and the door into the kitchen. It was spacious, and not nearly as ostentatious as anything that one could find in Canterlot- excepting possibly Donut Joe's, which had always had a much plainer (if very pleasingly colored and arranged) nature than virtually everything else in the capital city. This was probably why she stopped to stare at the display counter- having expected a large array of pastries and donuts with the occasional apple fritter or muffin, the inversion of the muffin-centric display caught Amethyst off-guard. It wasn't until Pumpkin spoke that she stopped staring at the confections, blinking a couple of times (at least she could be assumed to, with her mane covering half her face) as she regained her focus. "Ah- oh. No, no I don't mind working counter. It's nice, I think, to do some of that work. Helps keep in mind the ponies on the other end of it." She replied as she headed through the door into the kitchen. Though her other eye remained invisible behind its sheet of darkest green mane, the visible one cast about on the way into the back room, curious what such a kitchen would look like- and how it was arranged. Even if she somehow got herself fired, she'd be working here at least a little while, and knowing your way around the workplace was just good horse sense.

"Don't we all wish it were simple as it sounds..." The filly had muttered after the explanation the pumpkin-orange stallion gave- probably not loud enough for him to hear, certainly not enough for him to hear clearly. Clearly there was something there- but what was anypony's guess. Indigo ears perked forwards at the mention of a possible job. She briefly tilted her head (to her left, disappointing any curiosity there may be about what was different on the right side of her face, that her mane covered). "...well. I'm able to speak for my own time, Mister Bright. That's quite a kind offer, and I do think I'll take it. I've cooked a bit before, but no out-and-out bakiing." With a pleased smile, the stocky filly raised a hoof to place in (on?) Pumpkin's, leaving it in the winged pony's grasp (sort of). "My name's Amethyst Pine, sir. Shorten it how you like, I'll not be offended."

The stout pony blinked a few times at that. "Well... I'd hope so, the rest of me is from Canterlot. Usually you mispace your bags when you travel, not your voice." She laughed a little, slightly nervous and not really finding her joke funny, but feeling a bit obliged to anyhow. She went silent again after a moment, and scuffed her hoof on the cobble shortly after. "Well. Ah. I'm not lost, no, but... perhaps you could help me. I.... suppose you're a local?" The visible, gray eye scanned up and down, pointedly looking longer at the pegasus pony's apron and hat- obviously just used. "I need to find a job... or an apprenticeship... or something. Something to learn to do, so I can find out if I can do that for a living." A bit uncertainly, she looked over her shoulder to the map, then her horn glowed a faint indigo- matching her coat and contrasting well with the immense mass of forest-green mane that covered one side of her face in a shaggy fall of darkness. "You, ah... wouldn't happen to know of anyone looking to hire, or where I'd best be looking, would you?"

"Ah?" The visible gray eye on the filly blinked, and she was forced to twist her neck around in a rather extreme fashion at first to get a look at him- the strange pegasus had approached her from her 'hairward' side, as it were. She blinked (or so he could presume, not being able to see the indigo pony's right eye) and then turned her whole self to face him, leaving the map to float just behind her. The way she turned was a bit odd- her hooves beat out a quiet drumroll on the cobbles as she didn't so much spin as dance in place to change facing. "Er... hi. No, I'm not lost, really." Even with that little speech, her Canterlot accent became evident. She didn't bear the thickly-posh tones of the nobility (or those upwardly-mobile middle-classers with aspiration, like her parents) but it was clear in the roundness of her vowels. Amethyst turned her head to the left to glance at her map a moment, then looked back to the stallion with a faint gleam of amusement in her gray eye. "Not in the lit'ral sense, anyways. I'm fairly sure I can't be lost if I'm not sure where I'm going, yes?" This not-a-question was accompanied with a slightly nervous smile that briefly showed a flash of grinning teeth. "I do know my way back to the hotel, though. So I probably should have just said 'no' and been done with it. Er." The silence she slipped into was distinctly awkwards. ((Not at all! There's a reason I marked this 'Open'.))

"Well, time to get on this...." The small pony mused to herself, setting out from the hotel. Her mass of green mane and tail seemed almost to outdo her for size, completely obscuring one side of her face, even, as she looked up, then down the street. For all that she'd been raised in Canterlot, Amethyst Pine was a fairly frugal pony, and didn't look forwards to staying in the hotel all too long. If nothing else, she'd get tempted to abuse the existence of Room Service, and being a stocky pony was plenty- she didn't need to be a downright chubby pony. Amethyst reached her head around, straightening out her saddlebags a little bit by muzzle. Had her parents observed, they'd have frowned upon it- fortunately, while the indigo pony's ways were a bit eccentric by Canterlot standards, they weren't likely to garner many stares around here- especially with the way she was barely taller than a schoolfilly. However it was, the not-quite-a-mare was heading out, her usual boots on her rear hooves as she went in search of something she had expected to have settled ages ago in a far more permanent fashion... ...a job. Surely such a thing would be easy to find in a commerceful city like Manehattan. The real question was, could she find something that at least appealed (and preferably would grant her, at long last, her cutie mark) which she could get hired for? She had experience in a variety of things, but just how useful those bits and pieces of experience would prove, she wasn't sure. At least, despite the job history on her resume being blank, she had attained a high grade in Magic School. She was no PCSGU graduate, but then, those ponies were special for their magic- and usually had more bits than they knew what to do with. She, on the other hand, had a steadily dwindling supply. She knew her parents would send her more if she needed them, but to her that felt too much like leeching. Hence her current quest. Hopefully this would turn out fruitful. If her bits ran too thin- and they would quickly if she had to keep staying in a hotel- she might have to head to somewhere more smalltown than the Large Apple, and she didn't want to leave town without being sure she had no good opportunities here. The broad-hooved filly stopped at a corner, glancing up at the signs on the lamppost before carefully levitating out a map and unfolding it in front of her. "Let's see.... I'm on Courser Street and Haulton...."

"...so this is Manehattan..." The short pony, mostly obscured by her massively shaggy and deepest green mane and tail, was turning her head this way and that to look about with her gray eye as she disembarked from the train. Her indigo coat was actually next to invisible, mostly covered between the shaggy green and the dark canvas of her saddlebags. Her expression was not the gape-jawed wonder of a rural pony in an urban setting, though; she'd grown up in Canterlot after all. Amethyst was no stranger to immense or fancy architecture at all. Her father's career as an architect practically guaranteed that the scale of Manehattan's buildings nor their shapes would be all that foreign to her. No, what struck her first was not how grand or impressive the city's structure was, but the fact that she was finally in a place that she didn't actually know anything about. Amethyst Pine was not stunned- she was curious. Intensely curious. Manehattan was a different sort of environment from Canterlot for all that it was still a very large city with more than a few important personages about. For one thing, the fanciful freedom of Canterlot's buildings with their varied shapes, frequent gardens, and curved or triangular layouts was completely missing, replaced with a chaotic sort of orderliness, each lot a square or rectangle but the buildings often of such disparate sizes as to completely disorganize the strict lines of the streets. The sheer number of clearly-lit signs was something new as well, and it was a difference she could spot without even hitting the streets yet, only seeing the skyline of this busy city from the windows of the train station. Being a small pony, of course, had its difficulties- one of them that getting caught up in a crowd was all the more dangerous. Because of this, the filly (nearly a mare, if not for her lack of a mark upon her flank) waited for the rush from the current train to die down a bit before making her way to the door of the train station. There was, of course, one thing to do before any other- find a place to stay for the night, if not for a couple of weeks. There would be more than a little exploring for Amethyst to do, seeking opportunities to try new things and perhaps earn a few bits along the way.

Amethyst nodded to herself as Dagger spoke, taking in what he said with all the attentiveness of an eager student, despite not actually looking at him- her focus still on the departures board. Ponyville and Hoofington sounded like very different places from one another- and neither sounded quite like Canterlot. It seemed like it would be a hard decision- until the gray-pelted stallion brought up Manehatten. "Between Ponyville and Hoofington...." the filly murmured to herself, seeking out the markers for Manehatten on the board. It sounded like the right destination. As a big city, like Canterlot, it could help her decide if she wanted to keep to larger cities or look for a place that was more rural. And, if it was that close to both Hoofington and Ponyville, then she could go to one or the other from there quite easily. "Well, thank you Mr. Dagger." Amethyst spake as the two gray-coated stallions spoke to each other- and only then did she notice that her previous conversational partner was looking at someone on the other side of her. She had to turn almost entirely to get a glance at Gearly, thanks to her manestyle covering her right eye. "Ah... oh. Excuse me. I'll leave you two to talk, then. You've been very helpful, Mr. Dagger, I daresay I'd probably have simply chosen at random if you hadn't come along. Do be well." That said, the small filly backed out from between the two taller ponies, and headed over to the ticket booth. Digging in her bag a moment for her bits, she put a small mouthful down on the counter. "One for the next train to Manehattan please."

"Oh, ah. My name's Amethyst Pine, sorry I hadn't said yet." The small pony responded, ducking her head a little to the stallion of rank. Then she looked back to the schedule board, gray eye keen for departure times. "At any rate.... "I wouldn't want to go to Trottingham at all." She opined thoughtfully. "Getting away from all the fancy do's is part of why I'm heading out of Canterlot to be honest. So that's right out." Her jaw worked briefly as she took another few moments to cogitate. "I don't think I'd want to head for Itaily or Germaney right away- a change of scenery is good, losing myself in a completely foreign place would probably be too much at once..... which also means I probably shouldn't head to Stalliongrad first. The weather sounds nice, though, it's usually too warm for me." She glanced across the board a couple of times, then looked to Dagger, her expression inquisitive. "So... can you think of anything to recommend Hoofington or Ponyville especially? I'm looking for opportunities to try new things, you see.... I've kind of exhausted my chances at finding my special skill here in Canterlot, at least as far as high society or craftworks goes...."

The short filly jumped when Steel spoke up, her indigo coat standing on end momentarily thanks to her previous absorption in the schedule board. "Guh!" She managed in her startlement, briefly prancing in place. A less phelgmatic pony might have jumped or scrambled instead- but she had at least a bit of stability on her side. Still, Amethyst was a bit leery as she tilted her head to look at the sound with her visible eye- the gray one. The mass of shaggy mane still covered her other eye, which would have made her look particularly lopsided if seen head-on. Perhaps fortunately, Steel Dagger was on her left, putting him in a position to actually see her face. "Oh, uh. Hello." A brief bout of nervous shifting ensued, the stout filly's unmarked saddlebags almost slipping to one side for a moment and prompting her to sidle over- grazing the side of the cog-flanked colt also peering at the board with the tough canvas of the bag. She didn't seem to notice, though, looking up at the gray stallion who'd spoken to her. "Well... I don't really need to know about everywhere right this moment.... I'll probably forget by the time I get to a lot of places.... aheh..." Her laugh was sheepish and faint, though her voice- a soft contralto- carried irrespective of its currently low volume. "But it's always better to know beforehand, right? Um.... what can you tell me about the nearest stops to here, Mr......?" And here she trailed off, not having the stallion's name to use.

Morning it was, and a fine one at that, for all that it was still late winter. Canterlot, as ever, was merely iced with snow in the manner one might attractively decorate a gingerbread house- if said gingerbread house were actually a spired palace-city on a mountainside. So not very much like it, but at least in a manner reminiscent of a light touch with a spatula and vanilla icing. Far from the usual slog of snow in the less-upper-crust parts of Equestria. However it might be, it was as fine a morning as the local aristocrats could ask for, and it was just as well for the ponies out and about in the cool but still pleasant weather. One in particular stood out at this time of morning, for several reasons. To begin with, she clearly lacked the fashion sense of the others about, leaving her mane and tail not unkempt but clearly unstyled, two large shaggy masses of deep green as one might find in the forests on the nearby mountains. Between these and the saddlebags, there was little to see of the stout pony, her size inclining one to think her a typical filly, when in fact she was nearly a mare. That, of course, was the crux of her problem- Amethyst Pine was nearly a mare and still- still!- she bore no mark upon her flank, having somehow missed any chance to find her calling in life. Oh, any number of things this could be attributed to- her family being merely upper-middle-class in a place like Canterlot left her shy a lot of the opportunities a more typical resident of the royal city could find growing up. It could also be placed on her complete inability to be political, which closed still more doors for her. Some blame, likely, lay upon her much greater love for books than for social gatherings, even a simple dinner party often requiring every jot of her patience to get through without screaming, nevermind successfully socializing while there. But! That was not the point. Amethyst had no cutie mark, and was not finding her calling here- particularly not with the way high society tended to work. So, she made what seemed to her the most logical choice: to go and look somewhere else. Oh, there had been a row. Her father was thoroughly certain that she was wrong- hadn't he worked so hard to climb the social and economic ladder? Hadn't he brought his wife and their new foal here to start becoming someone? But still, he loved his daughter, though he disagreed, and so it went. Her mother had been more understanding, perhaps, but not understood any better. Still, that helped to ease things, and so here she was. The shaggy-maned pony trotted up to the Canterlot train station and looked up at the board. Yes, she was going without a plan, but then, her plans always seemed to fall apart before reaching step two anyways. "....so where do I go from here....?" Amethyst asked herself, perusing the options. Stalliongrad, Appleloosa, Hoofington.... she could even get to Germaney or Itaily if she wanted. Still.... she would probably want to start looking nearer, just to avoid going back and forth so much, right? Was there even a stop in Garden Gait?

Whoopsie-dribble. Fixed!

Roleplay Type: Equestria Name: Amethyst Pine Sex: Female Age: Filly (barely still) Species: Unicorn Eye Color: Heterochromatic- left eye gray (666666), right eye crimson (DD1111). Coat Color: Indigo (330066 Mane/Tail Color & Style: Deep forest green (002200) and rather shaggy. Mane generally covers right eye, and both mane and tail are very long and full. Physique: Stout/chubby- Not actually fat, but definitely not thin. Also very much on the short side for a full-grown or nearly-full-grown pony. Has rather broad hooves as well. Cutie Mark: Blank Flank Origin: From Canterlot, currently travelling. Occupation: None/Wanderer/Whateveriscurrentlyneeded. Best joblike skills: handypony, some foalcare skills, cooking, basic herbalism, writing prose, simple drawing, some garden care and farming skill, general improvisation. Motivation: Currently, to find a place in the world outside of upper society and carpentry artisanship. Also, finally getting her Cutie Mark. Likes: Sour foods, clover, baked goods, reading, music, nature, hiking, magic, reading, writing, friendly and honest ponies, reading, food, reading, being helpful, and reading. Dislikes: Being told what to do, tasteless food, ponies who think they are better than others, crowded places, places with lots of things going on to track, ponies who won't explain things, high society, disappointing anypony, borrowing money, failing promises, uncertainty. Character Summary: Amethyst is a pony of contrasts- much like her differently-colored eyes, her attitude and mentality is different- both from those of others and from herself. Her differences from others tend to be fairly obvious- and have gotten her a lot of trouble. The daughter of the carpenter-turned-architect Ironwood and the speech tutor Silvertongue, Amy was born into a family climbing the upper ranks of the middle class. Her father attempted to make sure she was treated as an upper-class foal, but she really didn't take to it. Mostly not fond of material possessions that couldn't be read, she quickly matured... most of the way. Since then, she seems to have been stuck in the mentality of an older filly, and her attitude and nature haven't changed much since then, which means she's starting to fall behind. Her intensity, thanks to her way of feeling only one emotion at a time and feeling it with all of herself, has made it a bit difficult on her finding friends and keeping them, as has her penchant for randomness and a train of thought quicker than her own mouth. This plus her bluntness and difficulty in understanding how others see her has only contributed to her reclusive nature. She is a shy pony, though it doesn't seem much like it with her volume, intensity, and penchant for rambling once she's gotten started talking. Having discovered that neither of the trades of her parents are for her, and that she has a complete lack of affinity for the social circles her parents have started moving in, Amethyst has discovered a profound disappointment in her position in life. Unlike some fillies, though, she's taken it into her own hooves and declared to her parents that she was going 'on walkabout'. This resulted in a half-hour long discussion about what, exactly, that meant, and a rather loud fight between the strong-voiced filly and her boomingly loud father. While she's not parted on the absolute best terms, her parents actually support her quest to find herself whole-heartedly (which is why she had to turn down a number of offers from both of them to do things like hire her a travelling carriage and other such things typical of the high-class families in Canterlot) and hope only the best for her. For her own part, Amethyst Pine just wants to find a place she can belong at, having felt thoroughly unsuited to life among the classy mares (or even the posh stallions) of Canterlot and their million rules of etiquette and fancy hairdos and general attempts to outshine each other in ways she can't make head nor tail of. While she's a bit of a tomboy and totally unafraid to get physical when necessary, Amethyst can be uncannily sensitive and will always lend emotional support wherever she can. It can only be hoped that she starts learning when a pony wants help and when they don't.

Call me whatever you like, just don't call me late for dinner. And hi to you too, pony I don't know! Glad to meet another toastlover.

Thanks, Tales. I actually read all of those roleplay rules links before signing up for board membership in the first place. I may not know all about anything, but I know a little about a lot, and one of the things I know is not to dive into an RP facefirst without checking where the rocks and other swimmers are, to blend a metaphor into a chilly fresh smoothie of partially comprehensible garble. ......now I want a smoothie.