setting [Marelia] Smothered in Hugs (open)

[flutterscotch]

Starlite Mint woke with a jolt, instantly sitting up in the sock-and-other-stuff-infested nest that passed as her bed. Several escaped the clutches of the suddenly-disturbed disheveled blankets and escaped to the comic-book strewn floor. One Fair Isle hock-sock in shades of pink clung to the pale green mare's forelock for a moment before a hoof yanked it down in a crackle of static and placed it to huddle with the rest of the pile on the mattress.

She listened a moment to sounds on the street below her window to see if she could hear the telltale muffled sound to the bustling activity that indicated that it had snowed in the night. To her delight, there was nary an echo from outside. Quite a blanket of snow indeed from the sound of it! All the preceding week it had been warm, rainy and muddy. Not really the ideal snowfort building weather, and it had her in a funk. Even the task of matching her socks had left her with a lack of enthusiasm that resulted in them being scattered all over her room and integrated with most of her bedclothes. But that was all about to change with the promises of a fresh coat of powder!

"Today is going to be awesome, I can feel it in the air!" She announced out loud, prompting her mother to inquire if she was ready for breakfast.

Jumping out of bed, she realized she had not quite had enough caffeine to enjoy the physical enthusiasm that she usually employed, but still fluffed out her mane, threw on a subtly patterned grey and white scarf and some warm coordinating wool socks ("just like little hugs for your hooves!" she thought while pulling them on), before skittering down the wooden stairs into the part of the kitchen of the coffeeshop that her parents owned that was employees only. Skidding, or at least trying to given her thick wool socks, to a halt at the counter, she saddled up to the plate of pancakes and wolfed them down with great relish, and rather poor table manners. Chasing it down with a quadruple shot CocaMochaMintaChino (a concoction of coconut, mint, chocolate and coffee that her father made especially for her when she snow was particularly good).

"Thanks, Mom, breakfast was amazing, and Pop, thanks for the wonderful weather report!" She shouted, as she tossed her dishes in the sink with a clatter. Wiping the counter off while waving to customers who were greeting her, and then grabbing her magenta galoshes, which really highlighted her mint candy cutie mark, and a set of goggles she was ready. On her way out the door Minty smooched her mother on the cheek as she held the door for her excitable daughter

Minty stepped out onto the sparkling daylight...and was immediately pelted by dozens of snowballs from all corners of the street. From the benches and bushes to the balconies and steep-pointed roofs of chalets across the street, ponies, pegasus and unicorns were reloading for another round.

"It...is...ON!" She bellowed in mock-rage towards her firing squad, her cry muffled at the end by the blanket of snow that had just come cascading down her very own roof to bury her. She emerged from the snow like a wrathful beast hatching from an egg and peered at the blue pegasus atop her parents house chortling with glee. Shaking the crystal flakes from her coat, she prepared to scoop the mini avalanche that had fallen on her into a makeshift fort until she could regroup enough to retaliate. In her frantic scooping her hooves hit a hard square item. A second pass revealed her name on it, written in neat cursive.

"​WAIT! WAIT! TRUCE! TIME OUT!" she shouted, pulling the package from the snow. "I've got ..A PACKAGE!!" Well, in the tiny isolated village of Marelia, the occasion of one of your pals getting any kind of mail that was larger than a letter was a rare one indeed, so her once-tormenters gathered around to watch her open the box excitedly. Voices murmured around her as she unveiled the contents to reveal the most intricately patterned knitted socks she had ever seen, with green ponies with pink hair and exact replicas of her cutie mark worked in to the motifs of cuckoo clocks and snowflakes. Metallic thread had been woven into them, so they sparkled like actual snowflakes.

"What is it?"

"Aw, Minty, howcome you got a package, it ain't your birthday or nothin'!"

"OOOOH! it's SOCKS!"

A little tag was attached with a poem that read:

Hugs for your hooves, or matters of heart

Your childish ways must soon depart

.

A silly young filly, now a true mare,

Of childhood eternal, truly beware.

Now don these sweet hoof-hugs

And your heart will soon know

The wonders of true love.

And they'll help you to grow.

"Ooooh! These are BEAUTIFUL! I wonder who sent them! Maybe I have a secret admirer with all this love-talk!" Minty beamed, as she carefully pulled them over the socks she was already wearing and put her boots back on. "And how funny. I was just thinking to myself about how socks are just like hugs for your hooves! But all this growin' stuff seems silly. I LIKE having fun!"

((OOC, in a nutshell, some misguided unknown pony has sent Minty a pair of magic socks that make ponies think they are in love with her, because they think she's childish and needs to get a boyfriend and grow up. Also, look at the tags to see how well this is going to go.))