[BALTIMARE] When Trouble Comes Trottin', Trottin' By (Open)

[TwoBits]

Clear skies, a plump bag of red-hot cinnamon candies, and a day off from school--what more could a foal ask for?

Tripp Hardy popped another hard candy into her mouth and crunched heartily away, the tiny Earth pony filly strutting with a confident familiarity out of the docks and to the town proper. With nothing better planned that morning, she had begged and doe-eyed her way into being allowed to accompany her dad as far as the station where he clocked in before heading to the cargo loading zone, where she had been treated to the candies and a breakfast doughnut and even got to exchange a few good, rough-tongued greeting quips with some of the other sailor ponies (at the cost of a cautionary "Don't tell your mother, now" from a nonetheless amused and possibly proud-looking father.) And now, with Dad busy working, the filly was free to go where she pleased, and seize the day as she wanted...provided she didn't get into trouble for it later, of course.

Honestly, though, now that she'd had a bit of time to herself she was starting to realize just how boring it really was to not have any ideas on what to do. All her usual cohorts had already declared their reasons yesterday on why they couldn't come along today--Chrome Spark and Hazy Bolt had opted to spend the day getting in more practice at Flight Camp, Sugar Song was grounded and had to stay at home studying, and Cloud Line's parents were dragging him to Canterlot for a day of shopping or theater or some sort of fancy Canterlot unicorn stuff, whatever Canterlot ponies did. She didn't know. In any case, it did make for a significantly reduced idea pool to draw from, leaving Tripp to rely on her own imagination for what to do with herself.

After a minute of ponderous thinking and automatic candy chewing, Tripp decided there was nothing to lose from pony-watching on the Boardtrot. Tourists and out-of-towners did make for some pretty interesting eavesdropping, after all, and after last week's fiasco it sure seemed a better option than facing the owner of that comic book store again...guh, that had been a pain. Mind made up, Tripp plopped the bag of candy into her saddlebag and set off, scanning the morning crowd for anything that promised to be even somewhat amusing.

"Alllllright, Baltimare. Whaddya got for me today?"