Chillaxin' and Relaxin'

A rather casual day in the Ponyville Town Square. A lot of ponies were out today. Most of them wanted to enjoy what was left of the Summer heat before Autumn came rolling in. Some of the ponies were playing sports like basketball, ponies were relaxing at their picnics, and cute couples were sharing their love.

Spell Tome was sitting on a bench with a notebook scribbling stuff down. She mostly eyed the other ponies, observing them for ideas on new stories. Especially the couples. Spell loved romance. It probably helped that she found a wonderful marefriend, Bithia. She had a little picture of her attached to her notebook. Whenever she saw it, she sighed happily and wrote even more.

A tough, young, uneducated mare was her inspiration? Literature is weird...

Mango Azalea liked the sound her hooves made when she trotted. Especially when the ground was a little hard from lack of rain; summers in Ponyville weren't too wet. She didn't mind. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the afternoon sun's warmth envelop her. Quickly remembering that if she walked around with her eyes closed again she would probably repeat last week's disaster of colliding with a market stall owned by an extremely unforgiving stallion that yelled at her so loudly she was brought to tears, Mango opened her eyes again.
The orange mare kept the beat of her hoofbeats in the back of her mind while she watched Ponyville's residents. Clip, clop, clip, clop. A yellow pony with a green mane exited from Sugarcube Corner with a box of pastries balanced on her back. Clip, clop. Two fillies that Mango assumed were sisters chased each other around the town square, giggling and shrieking. While one was looking back at her sibling, she almost crashed into Mango. Luckily, it was one of those rare moments where Mango was paying attention, and she managed to dodge the young filly. "Careful," she called softly, smiling. Clip, clop, clip, clop, clip, clop.
Mango wasn't sure what she was actually hoping to accomplish on her excursion. She mostly just wanted to get out of the flower shop, because business was a bit slow that day and she closed fairly early on Sundays anyway. Mango hoped something exciting would happen that she might get to witness. Maybe Pinkie Pie would welcome a new citizen, and she could get an opportunity to meet someone new.
Meeting someone new! That sounded like fun. Mango looked around for someone she hadn't talked to before, someone that looked like they might be friendly. Two stood out to her; a cobalt pegasus with a short, lilac mane and tail who was purchasing something from a market stall, and a bright yellow mare with a long mane that curled in lovely shades of electric green and deep purple, who was writing quickly in a notebook. But which one to approach? She thought about this for a while. The yellow unicorn looked like she didn't want to be disturbed, but Mango really wanted to see what she was writing.
A quick round of eenie meenie miney moe made the decision for her. She clip clopped her way over to the bench with the yellow mare on it. She cleared her throat.
"Hello! I'm Mango Azalea! I just decided to come over here to--I mean, actually eenie meenie miney moe decided for me, but that doesn't really matter--Oh, no, I didn't mean to say that I only came here because I had to, I meant..." Mango, shut up and get to the point, she told herself sternly. "...Anyway, I just wanted to say hello! What's your name? What are you writing?"
Mango said this all very quickly, and after she had finished a very intense blush rose to her cheeks in embarrassment. She wouldn't be surprised if the poor mare decided to get up and run away from her in fright.

Spell Tome looked at the strange mare who put so many words into seemingly one sentence. She was surprised how fast that mare could talk, and how enthusiastic she seemed to know what she was doing. Oh well, socializing couldn't hurt. At least in most pony's eyes.

Spell Tome hated talking to other ponies. Even ones as seemingly friendly as this one. Spell shifted away from her and spoke softly to her, feeling almost terrified of talking to her.

"Oh.. uh, um.. Hi... Mango.... I'm... Spell Tome..."

Spell instantly felt bad for scooting away and moved back towards her. She was still scared of socialization, but would at least try and make friendly contact. She pushed her notebook a bit further back and gave a soft smile to the mare.

Mango was right. She might not be book smart, but she was good at picking up social clues, and she noticed the slight shift as the mare slid away from her. Mango should have known better than to approach an obviously busy pony and introduce herself so abruptly!
Well, as mom always said, your hindsight's 20/20, Mango mentally sighed. Maybe she still had a chance at befriending Spell Tome. If she talked slowly.
"Well, hello, Spell Tome! I gotta admit, I feel pretty sorry for bothering you, but I was just a little curious about what you were writing!" She paused. "I mean, you don't have to show me if you don't want to. Sorry if I'm being so pushy! I'm just very pleased to meet you." Mango smiled at her again. If all else failed, she could still smile, right?
In the back of her head, a little voice disapprovingly told Mango to say something more interesting. She told it to shut up, even though her self-doubt was murmuring that this was a stupid idea and she probably looked really stupid and the mare probably thought she was incredibly stupid and SHUT UP SHUT UP!

Spell Tome hid her face in her mane. She felt like that she made poor Mango feel bad for how she reacted to her attention. And her trying to apologize didn't help. She seemed like such a nice pony, but Spell was so scared of interaction that she almost felt mute. She tried to speak to her, but she stopped herself.

"Don't say anything Spell. she might just try to hurt you later. Like everypony else. Keep your notebook and thoughts away from her..."

Spell held her notebook away from Mango. It's not that she didn't like her, or mangoes, they're yummy. She just wasn't trustworthy of many ponies. She looked at her and spoke in a very low and soft voice.

"Sorry... it's, kind of private... Please don't be mad."

Mango tried to feel understanding about the fact that the shy mare seemed so reluctant to interact, but mostly she just felt guilty. Stuffing a pillow in the face of the little voice in the back of her head, which could no longer be called 'little' as it was now screaming, Mango swallowed and tried to steer the conversation in a new direction.
"That's okay. Hey, sorry for being so talky. I'm a bit excitable. Especially today, since I just restocked my dahlias." Mango stopped, and then giggled. "That probably made no sense, right? I own the flower shop in Ponyville. Business was slow today, so I decided to just close up early and go for a walk. I guess it's the same for you, right? It's such a lovely day today. Shame that summer's about to end." It was times like this where Mango missed the sunny home of her youth, where summer never ended. Winter was almost a new concept to her when she first arrived in Ponyville.

Spell Tome looked at Mango again, who was getting very friendly with her. Maybe it was just cover so she could hurt her feelings even more. But that hasn't happened much in Ponyville yet. Everypony was so trusting and considerate. Mango was showing that off now. She took a deep breath, and spoke a little higher.

"Yes... It is quite a lovely day, but I'll miss the summer heat and the occasional breeze, giving some sort of temperature relief.... And, I apologize for not speaking much earlier.... I sort of, have a big distrust for a lot of ponies. You see, I... Actually, maybe I shouldn't share my life story. You're a florist? Must be amazing to be around the beautiful flowers every day."

Mango felt a little surge of joy that the unicorn had started to open up a bit. Maybe the conversation wasn't lost after all.
"It really is beautiful! You could imagine how I got this cutie mark," She laughed softly and turned her flank a bit. "I love everything about flowers, the smell, the color, the shape, the way they grow, you have no idea." Mango smiled and took a deep breath, imagining that she was back in the meadow in Whitetail Woods, where she usually went to gather a majority of her flowers. The sun dappled her coat as she used her magic to pick a patch of forget-me-nots and place them in her basket. She would look up over the rolling hills of swaying, ungroomed grass dappled with flowers every color of the rainbow. This was Mango's home. It always would be.
She snapped back out of her daydream in an instant. "Anyway. What do you do?" Taking a glance at Spell's notebook and quill cutiemark, she took a guess. "Writing, I suppose? I never could get the hang of that," Mango giggled and shook her head.

Spell Tome looked at Mango's flank to identify her Cutie Mark. It did look really nice. The Cutie Mark was pretty too. Spell wasn't the fondest to admit it, but she really liked mares. A lot more than stallions. She was afraid how ponies would treat her. Mares are usually supposed to like stallions. But nothing about them was that attractive to her. She blushed very red and tried to hide her face again, embarrassed by her "temptations."

"Yeah, I've always enjoyed writing and magic. That's what I thought my special talent would be. But writing is still a great talent. You could shape an entire generation with just one paper and quill. Say... Do you want to take a walk or something?"

"Wow, that sounds really inspirational," Mango laughed, a bit of nervousness shaking in the back of her throat. Her interactions with smart ponies usually ended up in an embarrassing mess. And this mare definitely was a smart pony. Just don't do anything stupid, she reminded herself.

Mango had lost count of how many times she told herself that exact sentence and ended up doing something ridiculously stupid anyway.

"But yes! We should. Walk, I mean. Where do you want to go?" Mango was a bit overexcited at the fact that the mare was beginning to warm up to her. She was starting to congratulate herself on not completely failing at conversation.

Spell Tome tapped her hoof to her chin, trying to think of where they could go. Ponyville was a pretty big place. Maybe not compared to Canterlot, but it was also pretty populated. She had no idea why ponies loved it there so much. Maybe because everypony there was friendly?

"We could just trot around, or maybe stop by Sugarcube Corner if we get hungry. But I don't have any bits on me..."

Mango Azalea nodded. "Sounds like a plan. If we do get hungry, I can pay for you no worries. I learned the hard way to always keep bits on me no matter what."

Mango learned most things the hard way. That particular time involved not being able to pay for a picture frame she had knocked over and broken. She had to be held in a holding cell for a couple hours until her mom came; it wasn't exactly one of her fonder memories. She was coming to realize how many of these unfond memories she had. Maybe I should do something about that. Like, I don't know, maybe try and control myself sometimes. Mango sighed. There wasn't much she could do about her clumsy, forgetful nature.

Mango flicked her tail a bit, the subtle swish cascading behind her. At least they were about to start moving. Mango always preferred moving to standing still.

Spell Tome got up from the bench and started trotting along side Mango. Had she found a new friend? She really hope so. Friendship was the only thing keeping her from skinning ponies alive in the Everfree Forest. Well, that and Bithia.

She glimpsed over at her flank again, watching her sway her tail. She blushed a bit harder and even sweat a bit. She was so embarrassed to look. And enjoy it. She spoke quietly to her, still kind of shy about... "admiring."

"So, Mango... Tell me about yourself?"

Mango silently whined. She wasn't good at describing herself!

Well, how about instead of complaining about it, and getting all worried and upset, you just try and be confident about something for once?

"Well, I grew up in Mareami, but about four years ago I moved here to Ponyville. Umm, I have a knack for knocking things over and falling down flights of stairs--" Mango cleared her throat and attempted to steer the conversation away from her insecurities. "Umm, what else... oh, my hair, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, that changes color a lot. Last week it was a lot more green." She shook out her mane, long streaks of red and orangey hues falling around her face.

Spell Tome watched Mango as her beautiful mane draped and swung around her amazing face. She was just looking so incredible. She put those feelings away, remembering she was already in love with somepony. It was probably just lust. No real attraction. Only physical. Or so she told herself.

"Well, I was born and raised in Canterlot... I went to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I was a really good student, but ponies kept picking on me. So I ran away... I guess it wasn't all bad... It helped me get my Cutie Mark, in a way."

Spell showed her quill mark again. She was still very proud of it. But she didn't exactly like boasting about it, so she shut her mouth shortly after

A warm smile danced upon Mango's lips. She adored cutie mark stories. Whenever she met somepony new, she always tried to find out the story behind their cutie marks.

"Wait, no, tell me more about it! Your cutie mark, I mean... like, I don't know! Just tell me more. I'm interested." Mango hoped she wasn't being too pushy. She wasn't too worried, though--most ponies, although they didn't admit at the risk of sounding obnoxiously self-centered, loved talking about their cutie marks and how they got them. It was a common topic, but Mango never tired of it.

Ponyville's clock tower loomed in the distance, and Mango squinted at it, trying to find out the time. There was the fact that she had always been horrible at reading analog clocks, because it took her a while to figure out what time it was and by the time she finally came to a conclusion the time had already changed and she had to figure it all out again. That, and the clock was a long ways off and she couldn't exactly see it very well.

Spell Tome looked at Mango's cute smile. She couldn't help but smile herself. She was trying to get a grip on herself. She knew she was already with another mare. She could never cheat. But she was so tempting. Even though she didn't know it.

"Oh, well, um... It means I'm a great writer. I got it while I was living in the Everfree Forest for a few years. I wrote about things that happened to me, and used a little imaginative twist on them. It turns out it was a lot of fun, and I was pretty talented. And that's how I got my Cutie Mark."

Spell looked around for something interesting or something to do. And it would preferably take her mind off of Mango's dashing appearance.

"So, what would you like to do? There are a lot of places we could have fun around here."