Enter Prima Bella

The train ride from Manehattan to Ponyville was pleasant, Prima had made sure to bring books and such to keep her entertained and then slept in the small sleeper cabin she was assigned. When she had woken up, she had enough time to straighten up her disheveled appearance and then she had arrived. A few graceful steps onto the platform and she had finally reached the town that would be her new home, all she had to do was remember where the studio was that she had purchased. With a deep breath, Prima Bella trotted off of the platform.... ending up nowhere near where she had to be. She sighed and looked around, spotting the large building that screamed town hall to her, well the sign helped too...

Prima looked down as her stomach rumbled, being still early morning, she had yet to eat breakfast. Surely there had to be some cafes around with good food. She turned and spotted a stallion with messy black hair, a white coat and a cutie mark of a bowl with steaming, green... stuff.

"Excuse me, I don't suppose you could lend me a hoof, could you?" She asked, offering a friendly smile. "I'm new in town and can't seem to find my way around."

Brew galloped down the street, levitating a big net. Several butterflies flew ahead of him and were desperately trying to escape. He managed to swipe two or three and seal them in a bottle but the rest got away. He groaned and checked the batch he caught; they were sufficient for what he was making. He sighed with relief- these would do perfectly. Brew heard a voice behind him and turned, seeing a mare before him. His blue eye caught the light as he answered her question.

"Sure. Where are you wanting to go? There's a few cafés about, there's shops over there, there's houses and such up that way. What so you have in mind?"

Brew studied this mare. She reminded him faintly of Rose- a certain elegant air to her, but probably a perfectly normal pony in reality.

"Oh, my names Brew by the way. Yours?"

(Sorry it's a little short- keeping up a few things at once.)

Prima had noticed the butterflies and tilted her head. What in Equestria was he doing? She looked back to the stallion's face, her own blue eyes taking in the two different colored eyes of the stallion, how intriguing they were and very pretty as well. And having to tilt her head back to look up at him was starting to put a crick in her neck, some days, it was not a convenient thing to be as petite as Prima was.

"Well, a cafe sounds wonderful but I should really find my ballet studio. It's supposed to be close to the markets but I'm beginning to think I've taken a wrong turn," Prima pulled out a slip of paper from her saddle bag, reading the address. "It's on 24 Market Lane."

Her eyes drifted back up and she blushed in embarrassment, having forgotten to introduce herself. Oh if her step mother were here, Prima would've been scolded for the lapse in her manners.

"I am Prima Bella, and it's very nice to meet you Brew," The ballerina said.

Brew nodded. He knew Market Street, considering that was where he lived himself.

"Yeah, I know where that is. You certainly seem the ballerina type. It isn't far- just up that road." He also caught her staring at the butterflies he caught. "Oh, these things? They're just ingredients. I'm an alchemist and these little guys secrete this stuff I use for a few temperature control reagents."

Brew fiddled a bit with the jar, making sure the Butterlies were both secure and comfortable. He noticed the way Prima was looking him over and honestly was made uncomfortable. He edged away, then started walking down the street.

"Anyway, nice meeting you. I've got stuff to attend to so I'll see you around."

(Sowwy if I'm a bit late- studying and seeing frozen. Also, I don't think you are but if you're going for a little romance here Brew's already getting shipped with somepony else.)

"Oh, thank you so much. Well, I hope your alchemy goes well," Prima said, looking inn the direction he pointed out for her. She could sense his discomfort and mentally shook herself, another scolding for being rude and staring at this nice colt. "And sorry for staring, I've just never seen eyes like yours, they're quite beautiful," She said with a smile before trotting off.

(Brew's not really Prima's type, I was thinking more of a future friend. And sorry it's short, I just woke up.)

Brew tried to shut out that last comment, but he could already feel his nerves acting up. He strained out a "Thanks..." Then trotted away quickly. He knew fine that Prima meant no harm, but something that deeply ingrained as fear is hard to shake off. He didn't get the eye comment anyway- they were unusual to be sure but no more or less attractive than any others.

As Brew calmed down he remembered he had to go and feed Archie, his pet tarantula. He went back up the road and trotted along to his house. He saw Prima a little ahead and fell into step with her.

"Hi, sorry to bother you again but I need to go back to my house. I live on Market Lane y'see."

He quietly packed the jar into his saddle bag. So long as they were put into the tank in about two hours they should be fine.

(Yeah, I guess I could see them as friends. Plus, since the pony he'll eventually date has a psycho split personality I can see a thing with her seeing Brew talking to Bella and going a little mental.)

What an odd stallion, he seemed perfectly fine when they had first started talking but then... He seemed a few steps off a cliff and into a nervous breakdown. Was it something she said? She'd have to be sure and apologize if she saw him again. And then she heard hoofsteps following her, turning her head slightly, she saw Brew.

"Hm? Oh, well then I'll have some sort of guide, is your home combined with your business?" Prima asked, trying to make a little conversation.

Brew shook his head. "No, I just need to feed my pet and collect some ingredients I've got stored. My shop is in the town square."

He chose not to mention the tarantula- pretty much everypony was scared of spiders and the like, so it wasn't a good idea to bring up that he freely kept one in his home. Brew had got Archie while collecting ingredients; he came across a tarantula burrow and found it empty, aside from one egg. Maybe a bird or something got to the rest of the family, Brew didn't know. He took the egg home and kept it warm. After a few days it hatched into Archie. Admittedly Brew hadn't expected a tarantula- he was expecting a bird, but the caterpillar he had prepared as a first meal seemed satisfactory anyway.

Brew came back from his little walk down memory lane. Looking to keep the conversation going, he asked:

So how did you get into ballet? I'm sure there'd be a story to that."

"Oh, you have a pet? I've never had one before, but since I live on my own now, I'll get one of my own. What sort of pet is it?" Prima asked.

Prima's father was allergic to most any sort of pet with the exception of fish, but even then, her father would get busy and then forget to feed the fish. She was almost given a kitten but then she got busy with her ballet lessons and training. Prima didn't think she'd want a cat anyways, too much shedding and a habit of clawing furniture. Her stepbrother had gotten a dog for his family, but even then Prima didn't think she'd want a dog. What could she get? That was a question for another day as she snapped out of her own reverie.

"My stepmother started me in classes and I fell in love with it. I never performed in my recitals though until one of the fillies got sick and I had no choice. My first performance was actually how I got my cutie mark," She said with a smile.

(Oh dear.)

"I'd rather not say what he is. It's not a pet most ponies like to hear somepony else has- not a very pleasant one. Anyway, that's interesting. I got my cutie mark when I went into the manehatten alchemist's basement. I started fiddling with all the ingredients and made a pretty complex potion. I wasn't really thinking about it- just messing with stuff as foals do. Anyway, the owner comes down and catches me. He inspected it and found that it was a perfect sample, and when I heard that my cutie mark appeared."

They trotted into Market Lane. As usual the little street was rather quiet. Most ponies who lived here ran a ship since it was so close to the town square and the actual marketplace. There were families of course and just other profession ponies but the majority ran shops. Brew went up to his door and went in, waving to Prima.

"Nice talking to you! But I have to feed Archie. I'm sure your Studio's pretty obvious."

(Why 'Oh Dear' ?)

"Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't surprise me. My first ballet teacher loved snakes and had several as pets, he'd even brought a few during lessons," Prima said with a light laugh and then listened to his story of how he received his cutie mark. It was a little odd that the owner didn't turn him in, but there was always stranger, right?

Prima looked around and smiled, spotting the large building with no name but the inside looked as it should when she had written to the pony who agreed to ballerina proof it. All she would need to do is have the name put up and then she'd be open.

"Thank you for your help Brew," Prima said, returning the wave and trotting to the building's side and up the stairs, going into her apartment.

(It's for when Prima meets Brew's girlfriend, I don't know how she would act.)

"Your welcome!" Brew called back. He went back into his house and up to the bedroom. He put a rat - which he'd found in the shop basement - into Archie's tank. Brew didn't watch- he knew that tarantulas weren't exactly polite with their meals. At least the pet disposed of the remains- it would be awkward explaining all the animal skeletons otherwise. Of course, Brew wasn't a creepy sort of alchemist of course. He kept the shop as clean as possible, and Archie was a convenient pest disposal unit.

Brew went over to his desk and took out a large book. He looked through the page, flinching and shuddering at the life potion. Bad memories there to be sure. He got to the medicines bit and started listing what he'd have to buy. Spider eyes and the like mostly. He left the house while looking over his list. As he walked down the road to the market he thought a little of Prima. She certainly seemed nice- certainly more polite than that ballerina filly he'd seen about. She acted weird around little Sandy for whatever reason. Brew didn't particularly care as to why. Prima was fun to talk to certainly, and she knew the boundaries. Hopefully she'd figured out his phobia, illogical as it seemed. Brew hated the fear he felt and often looked through books for help. He's even gone to a therapist once but that wasn't nice help either.

(Not much going on. I'm not very good at driving a story along.)