[Baltimare] WhiteTail Woodworks [Open]

[OakSplitter269]

As the sun rose over the brim of the trees of Whitetail Woods, a lone figure could be seen entering the dense trees. He walked for a good ten minutes until he came to a certain tree. His lifted his front hooves onto the trees, studying the feel of the bark and the build of the tree, emerald green eyes studying the branches and the knots. Considering the tree once more, he nodded to himself before turning and lining himself up. Lifting his back legs, the pony gave a firm kick out with hind-legs. The whole tree creaked as the trunk was forced upwards by the power of the kick out with hind-legs, it's roots snapping from the strain as the tree fell to the ground.

*THUMP*

Oak Splitter smiled to himself as he looked at his latest prize, adjusting the blue bandanna round his neck, before looking around at the other trees nearby. Nodding once more he got to work.

30 minutes later...

Oak Splitter exited the woods, hauling his bundle behind him, tied around his waist was a long length of rope which was in turn tied around a bundle of five trees. As Oak Splitter pulled he was thankful that he had decided to build his new house so close to the entrance to the forest. It was then that he saw he was close. A nice simple log cabin, looking as nice as the day it had been finished. Next to that was a larger building made with the more modern materials that you would find in Baltimare, the city he was close to. above the door hung the sign.

[colour=#800000]WhiteTail Woodworks: Quality Lumber and Hoof-crafted Furniture.[/colour]

This was his workshop, where he made his living. Just over to the left he saw the wood mill, still standing there like it had the first day his father had brought him here when he still lived in the city, the water wheel turning leisurely in the flow of the Quickrun River as it flowed into Baltimare before entering the SeaSaddle Bay.

Grunting, Oak Splitter dragged the trees around to the back of the workshop, where he opened a large garage door, revealing a storage area for other felled trees. There were a few other trees laying in the room, and tools were lined along the wall, with a small bin for storingcut off branches and roots The air was dry so as to prevent rot, and the floor covered in saw dust which Oak Splitter left hoof prints in as he dragged the logs inside. Untying them from the rope and himself, He decided to keep the door open, and work in natural light, and the crossed into his workshop.

The large room was in fact part workshop, part showroom. Along the far left wall many different tools were hung up including saws, hammers, chisels and wood shavers. There were also a few electric tools, including a power drill, a lathe and table saw. over the rest of the showroom were examples of the many different wood pieces that Oak Splitter had made and was ready to sell. Tables, chairs, wardrobes and dressers were what mainly took up the showroom. There were also several wood carvings of animals and and scenes, including a large carving of a pony in full guard armor that Oak had been inspired to carve after a trip to Canterlot. Nearer to the fron of the store stood a counter with a large book lying on it. This was Oak Splitter's ledger that he used to document all sales and orders for new items. Trotting forward, Oak Splitter flipped the sign on the front of the door from 'Closed' to 'Open', before returning to the counter and looking over his ledger. Seeing that his orders for the week had been fulfilled, Oak decided that he would begin work on a new project while waiting for customers. He needn't worry about being so far out of town; being the one of the few Carpenters ponies in Equestria, as well as coming from a long line of carpenters, Oak Splitter had recievd orders from many different places in the three years he had run his business. It also helped that his sister, Poppy Seed, was often able to drum up local customers thanks to her job in the marketplace.

Walking over to his workbench, Oak Splitter brought out a sketchbook and an assortment of pencils, before sitting in his a chair he had carved for himself. He looked at the blank paper, waiting for inspiration to strike him.

[GingerbreadSpy]

No sooner had Oak Splitter sat down before the door was kicked open with enough force that a door of lesser quality might have cracked a little. A honey-coloured Earth pony ran inside and slammed the door shut behind her, panting in several short breaths. She didn't appear to notice Oak Splitter or if she did, she wasn't paying him much attention. Instead, she was looking at the door intensely, as if expecting something or someone to come barging through any minute. She stayed like that for several seconds before giving a sigh of relief, then she turned away from the door, a triumphant smirk on her face.

"Ha!" The triumph in her expression quickly faded into something approaching confusion when she looked around. Her pink-coloured eyes took in the workshop area before her gaze fell on Oak Splitter. She stared at him, having no feelings one way or another towards his presence. After a moment, she spoke.

"Right, well, the door was unlocked, and you're here, and I'm assuming this is a shop of some kind, so technically, I'm not breaking and entering. Mind if I sit?" She found a half-finished chair and sat on it, not waiting for permission. "Whitetail Woods, your common, everyday average woods. Not like the Everfree Forest, but don't get me started on that. Personally, I don't think..." She paused, then casted a suspicious glance in Oak Splitter's direction. She held up a hoof as if to silence any approaching words. "Wait." She shook her hoof in a manner suggesting she wanted to see one of his hooves. "Let me see your hoof for a second."

[OakSplitter269]

Oak Splitter looked up in as the door suddenly opened, knocking his pot of pencils to the floor. He looked on in confusion at the mare as she looked at the door intensley, before inviting herself in and sitting in one of the unfinished chairs he had been working on. She talked quickly, and Oak Splitter found himself unable to reply to her. He took the time to look her over while she talked.

Her coat was a deep yellow, with a jet black mane in a short bob and a log flowing tail. Her cutie mark was a strange one, 3 question marks, one big one with two smaller ones on either side. Oak Splitter was unsure as to what this meant her special ability was. However the determination he saw in her pink eyes made him think that getting answers might be involved. She had a very confident attitude about her, and Oak Splitter wasn't sure if even she knew what she was going to do next.

He snapped out of his observation when he heard the mare ask for his hoof. He himself then looked at it, checking if there wasn't anything on it that caught her attention. As far as he could tell it was fine, just the same old gold hooves he had always had. Either way, he decided to humor the mare, so he could stay on her good side.

"Uh... sure." he said, sticking out his hoof as he walked over to the mare, making sure not to startle her. "In the meantime, welcome to Whitetail Woodworks." He continued, figuring he might as well make idle conversation. "I'm Oak Splitter, how can I help you today?" His eyes then darted towards the door, remembering how she had eyed it as if pursued by something when she entered. He wondered if she had been followed, and who or what by. The last thing he needed was some dragon bursting in and burning his shop to the ground.

"Incidentally, did you see anyone else coming on your way here? I'm expecting somepony dropping by to pick up an order." He lied nodding his head over at the guard carving. He didn't want to seem like he was prying in case she didn't answer, so he tried to get her talking through subtler means. It had always worked on his sister when they were young, So Oak knew it was worth a try.

[GingerbreadSpy]

"Name's Honeydew," the mare said automatically, as she inspected his golden hoof. She gave a satisfied nod. "Good. Looks like you're not in league with the Starmanes. Those egotists just love to put intricate designs on their horseshoes, which may or may not be part of an ancient language prophesying the Equestrian apocalypse. Or so I've heard." She looked up from his hoof and peered at him closely. Very closely. "You certainly don't sound or look like a Freemason, either."

Honeydew flashed a grin at Oak Splitter when he asked his question. "Excellent observation... Oak Splitter, was it?" She shot a look back at the door, then back at him. "The question is not whether I saw anyone else coming on my way here. The question is... Did I manage to lose them or not? Because they were not just your average pony coming to pick up an order." She shot a look towards the pencils that had fallen earlier, then raised her brow at Oak Splitter. "I would hope a pony with a carpentry business out near the woods would know enough about customer service to attend to the final details of the customer's order and not sit around with a blank piece of paper as though, he has nothing left to do and no expectations for the near future. Otherwise, I think you're going to have a dissatisfied customer on your hooves."

She stomped the floorboards with one hoof, then shot out of the chair and began pacing. "ANYWAY, I think I lost them."

[OakSplitter269]

"Well that's good I guess." Oak Splitter said, glancing warily at the door once more, just in case. "Well in any case that carving's actually been finished for a while now. I had somepony from Canterlot order it when they came about a week ago, they should be here with some moving ponies today. It's been ready for buying for about a few months now. I'll probably give it one last coat of varnish in a bit if they don't show up soon." Knowing he would be carrying out that statement anyway, he headed to a cupboard below his tool bench and pulled out a tin of wood varnish and a brush, setting them on the bench. He then walked back to his workbench, picked up the pencils and replaced them on the table in their pot.

"At any rate, I'm starting to dream up my next project while I wait for new customers. I'm just waiting for some inspiration to strike, something besides the normal chairs and cabinets, something out of the ordinary, you know?" He looked back at the paper, frowning as he tried to let his imagination run away. Maybe he needed to undertake some travels again. He would often go travelling at least once a year, a sort of mini-vacation for himself, plus a chance to try to find new ideas and drum up new business across Equestria. However he found his thoughts constantly drawn back to this curious mare before him, and what had happened to her.

"Hey, just out of curiosity, just who were you trying to lose?" He asked glancing up. He had heard the mare mention the Starmanes, a well known urban legend in Baltimare he had heard when he was younger. He preferred not to listen to the ponies who talked about them however, preferring to ground his hooves in reality until he was presented with some hard proof. He didn't know why he was still talking to this mare, since it didn't look like she was going to be ordering anything. Though he never felt comfortable with turning away ponies, he was having an impending feeling of either doom or hunger, and he was sure that whatever this mare was doing, he wasn't sure if he was willing to get involved.

[GingerbreadSpy]

Honeydew's eyes narrowed, apparently suspicious and unconvinced about anypony arriving to pick up anything, but she decided not to push the issue since there were more important issues to push. "Inspiration is a myth. If I relied on inspiration to write, for instance, I'd be out of a job. I do know all about the out of the ordinary, though..." She tilted her head up slightly, looking thoughtful. She paced past another chair, giving it an interested look before turning towards Oak Splitter to answer his question.

"The Mares in Black, naturally. They tend to show up under... mysterious circumstances, and nopony knows much about them. I didn't expect them to show up here in Whitetail Woods, though! I was just investigating a rumor I heard about Bighoof. Hardly anything to get worked up about." She tensed up suddenly, then pounced onto a wooden table and lifted her right foreleg into the air dramatically. "OR SO I THOUGHT! Upon finding near conclusive proof of Bighoof's existence, I was surprised by a noise in the bushes! And that's when I saw a dark pony shape approaching. Knowing what I know about the Mares in Black, I ran as fast as I could and found sanctuary here!"

She hopped off the table. Her pink eyes shined, and the smirk on her face had become impossibly huge and smug. "And so, more pieces of the puzzle fall into place. You know, there's a lot of theories circulating around about Bighoof. Some say Bighoof is a figment of ponies' wild imaginations. Some say Bighoof is the result of mistaking the identity of a particularly big pony. Some say Bighoof might be a remnant from the past... But me? I think the truth goes much deeper than that. If the Mares in Black are involved, that means Celestia's involved, which means the Starmanes are most definitely involved. And now, now I've got photographs!" She rushed over to Oak Splitter, completely ignoring any sense of personal space he might have. "Don't you see?" She put her two front hooves together. "It's ALL connected! I'm so close to discovering... THE TRUTH!" One could practically see the emphasis in her words.

"Fitting that I should get such a wealth of information here in Whitetail Woods. I've long suspected that the Everfree Forest's multitude of oddities and dangers were part of a front to distract from other more dangerous and mysterious places. And so, here's Whitetail Woods, supposedly your average, everyday forest. Except that it isn't! This is the FIRST lead I've had in a while that helps support my theory. Clearly, I need to stick around here much longer and do some more investigating. But first, I might lay low in Baltimare. No telling whether the Mares in Black might be looking for me..."