It’s a brand new day. The sun hit my eyes as it usually did, the shower fogged up the mirrors, and breakfast was good. I had my caution stripe athletic outfit on and had just left the front door when I was stopped by the earth pony from the post office. “Good morning, Yang” he greeted in that british accent of his.

“Good morning, umm. . .” I really wish I knew his name.

“Doctor. You can just call me The Doctor.”

“Doctor.”

“Yes, just like that. I have a letter for you.” He produced a letter from a saddlebag and held it out for me.

“Thanks.” I took the letter and opened it right there as The Doctor walked off. The writing looked kind of familiar.

Dear Yang Xiao Long,

This is you just over a month from now. The good news is that the Carne Den is a raging success, and I’m almost done decorating the bedroom. My bedroom. Yours too. Well, it’s mine, but it will be yours. You get the idea.

On the back of this letter are a set of dates for when the interviews will take place. Do whatever you want or have to on the other days.

Sincerely, Yang Xiao Long

Well, that was a rather brief letter. And that definitely looked like my Equestrian writing, if a little bit better than it is now. Before I continued, I went back inside and got the spare calendar. With Rarity’s unneeded permission, I took it up to my room, set it and the letter down on the desk, and began recording the dates. I had no idea who was going to apply, but I felt a bit of a thrill in my chest at not knowing that. I guess knowing a little bit of the future was kind of helpful. And according to the letter, the first interview was just under a week away.

With the dates recorded, I figured it was time to leave. As I went out through the window, I thought about whether to go to the construction site first or visit Twilight. If I went to the construction site, I might be there all day and not get to Twilight. If I went to Twilight’s, I wouldn’t be at the construction site until later on and might not help it progress as far as it could today.

By the time I’d reached the center of town, I’d come to the decision to visit Twilight first. The construction site could wait for me, and as Rarity had suggested, getting the word out about the Carne Den was important.

For a Monday morning, there certainly were a lot of ponies in line to see Twilight, all of them wearing official looking clothes. It felt like most of them were kind of frustrated at something, a feeling that was strengthened when a small group of ponies walked out of the court and gave me a collective stink eye.

Was I just the nearest target or had I somehow offended them? I really hoped I was just the nearest target, but the way the other ponies in line similarly looked at me when they noticed I was there, I began to doubt that. What could I have possibly done?

Spike did not miss the glares directed my way, and he singled me out to send me in before the rest of the line. I didn’t want to go before them, since they were here before me, but their continued glares and the occasional motion of the head convinced me to go on.

Twilight didn’t look exhausted when I entered the throne room, but she seemed to get a bit of energy when she saw me. “Yang! You would not believe the ponies who just petitioned before you.”

“I actually moved her ahead in the line, Twilight” Spike admitted. “Considering what the last petitioners said, and what the rest of the line looks like, I figured it would be appropriate to move her forward.”

“It has something to do with me, doesn’t it?” I asked. “Just give it to me straight.”

“If that’s how you want it” Twilight started. “Those were crop collectors and bill writers from Detrot. They were quite vocal about the bills you passed, and they don’t like them.”

“I guess nobody likes a rogue element sweeping in and immediately pulling power away from them.”

“No, they don’t. Anyways, while I was listening to the previous group, I came up with an idea.”

Both Spike and I turned our attention to the alicorn. “What is it?”

“Those doors are good at muffling lots of sounds, but anything loud enough can be heard through them. I’ll cast a small spell to make them think we’ve escalated to a shouting match ending in me defenestrating you, Yang.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what defenestrating is” I admitted.

“Throwing you out through the window.”

“Oh.”

“That’s step one. Step two is that we let the next group in, and since it seems likely that they will be here to complain about the bills, you can simply wait on a chandelier, and at my cue, jump down behind them and spook them.”

That did sound kind of fun. “I’m sorry, but I must refuse that idea. Besides, that’s not why I’m here. I was wondering if you could help me get an ad into the papers for the Carne Den and that we’re hiring for all positions.”

“I can write it out over lunch and bring it to you for you to look over.”

“Thanks. Should I defenestrate myself or just walk out?”

“I’ll help you.” Twilight picked me up in her magic and tossed me out one of the windows with a lot of force. As I flew out, I saw her magic picking up all the pieces of glass and neatly stacking them somewhere close by. She’d probably fix it later.

I looked in the direction I was going and saw the train station up ahead. What luck this was, getting a free flight to work. As I flew, I got myself to a stance where I would land on the ground feet first.

Of course, the landing stance is one thing. I wasn’t really prepared for the actual impact and wound up stumbling a bit at high speed. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself and recover just before I hit a tree. “That was close!”

“Good morning, Yang” Brew said. “Your landing could use some work.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess I just don’t get the chance to fly like that very often.” I could use the Ember Celica to fly, but I wasn’t keen on firing them for that purpose, regardless of the unlimited ammo. I guess I should learn how to do that just in case I had to fly with them later. “So, where is everyone?”

“Not here yet. Silver Pipe, Yellow Wire, and Straight Nail should be arriving on the ten o'clock train. The local crews probably got notified of that and are going to help offload their supplies first. If they had to stop construction to help, that would make the construction lose momentum.”

That made sense. “So, what now? Neither of us really know how to put all this together.”

“I guess we can just stand around and talk.”

That sounded like a good idea. “So, how do you like Ponyville so far?”

“Well, I’m not too keen on the dirt roads here, but the ponies at the few places I’ve been to were quite friendly to me. Except for one pink mare who confused me more than anything. Still, as nice as it is here, I’ll be happy to be back in Canterlot once I’m done here. How about you?”

“Well, I like it. Where I’m from, there was stuff happening all the time, day and night. I actually like how quiet it is at night here. And the ponies here really are friendly. I mean, they accepted me here, and I’m the only one of my species on this planet. I don’t think I’ve been on this planet for even two whole months yet and I’m one of the locals as far as anyone’s concerned here.”

“Is that how it would work in your world?”

“Probably not. Let’s say you get sent there. There’s no telling what might happen. You might be seen as a threat, you might be seen as a pet. You might get captured by government agents or mistakenly hunted and killed.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“We don’t have a lot of experience with other sapient species. Sometimes, it seems like we barely get along with ourselves. I think ponies are more positive than humans. I mean, one of them, her name is Rarity, without having even known me for fifteen minutes, offered to let me live with her. Sure, she had a motive on the side, but it benefited me more than her.”

“Do you think you’ll be living with her for the whole time you’re here?”

“Nah. I think I’ll be out of the boutique before autumn.” Sooner than that, according to the letter I got earlier. “I’ve been there long enough though that it will always have a place in my heart. Next to the right ventricle, I think.” We continued standing around talking about stuff for a while before the four foreponies showed up, along with Yellow Wire, Straight Nail, and Silver Pipe. Behind them were two large crates, each big enough to hold a motorcycle. I felt excited at that idea, even though I knew there wouldn’t be such a thing in there.

Wait, why was I getting excited at the idea of a motorcycle?

“Hello, Yang” Silver Pipe said as he walked up to me. “Before we left to come here, I got something for you in the mail. I’m not sure which of these crates it’s in though, but it’s got your name written all over it. Yellow Wire, could you give Yang a crowbar?”

“Sure thing” Yellow Wire said before doing exactly as she had been asked to do.

“Like I said, it’s got your name written all over it. It should be easy to see.”

“Thanks.” As tempted as I was to just swing the crowbar and break the crates open, I knew that that wasn’t a good idea. Especially if there was a motorcycle in there. Or a bunch of loose things that would have to be picked up. It had to be done properly.

I opened the crate on the right first. Inside was just a bunch of neatly organized pipe pieces and some big rolls of wire. Nothing of interest to me, really. I opened the other crate and saw more pipe, more wire, and a collection of tools. Among the tools was a cardboard box with my name written on every side. Whatever it was, it was light. I actually felt a bit disappointed at the small box.

“That’s it” Silver Pipe confirmed. “Go ahead and open it up. We’ll be fine without you for a while.”

I sat down at the base of a tree and began carefully tearing the box open. Whoever had glued this shut did a really good job of it. Still, I got through it and to the contents: two white bands of spent shells for the Ember Celica.

. . .

. . .

. . .

What in the world was I supposed to do with these? Was there an instruction manual or something for this? I may not have known very much about firearms back on Earth, but I knew that spent shells were generally worthless, or at least worth less.

A glimpse into the box revealed a small white piece of paper. I pulled it out and read it.

These empty shells could be anything you want. Just put the same thing in each of them and watch them become a new band of shells before your very eyes.

Was today a day of short letters for me or something? Still, I needed a place to put these shells, and the Ember Celica weren’t an option right now. I put them back in their box, and just as I stood up, I noticed some picnic tables off to the side. When were those put there?

“Hey, Brew?” I asked as I walked towards the tables. “When were those put there?”

“Just this morning” he said. “It happened behind your back. They’re there so there’s a place for everyone to eat their lunch.”

“Are we the only ones that didn’t bring our own lunches?”

“No. Apparently, the families of these construction workers usually bring them lunch. However, that’s not how it’s going to be today.”

“Catering?”

“Catering. What’s a good place around here that caters?”

“Well, there’s Sugarcube Corner, but they’re more dessert than actual food. Hayburgers is out of the question, since I’d probably get really sick if I ate anything from there. You might try the Olive Branch Cafe. As long as there’s no grass, I can eat just about anything from there.”

“But are they good?”

“They are. Like I said, as long as there’s no grass, it’s fine with me. Grass based things can also make me sick, or if it’s involved anywhere in the cooking process.”

“Dare I ask how you know that?”

“It happened the day after I had some Chineighse food. I got really sick. Fortunately, if it really is an allergy, it’s only triggered when I actually eat the stuff.”

“No grass. Anything else you can’t eat?”

“I don’t eat flowers, though that’s more of a choice as far as I know.” I’d certainly never had any before.

“Alright. I’ll go ahead and talk to them about catering here. There’s easily enough room in the budget for it.” Brew left the site to go find the cafe.

I set the box of spent shells on the nearest table and walked over to the foreponies. I still find it weird how these four ponies are identical. “So, is there anything I can do to help?”

One of them answered. I doubt knowing their names would help me any. “Not really. We’d actually prefer it if you stayed out of our crew’s way. Even if you did help build a barn for Sweet Apple Acres, we don’t know the extent of your skills or how well you’ll mesh with the crew.”

Such honesty. “Alright. I’ll run a lap or two around Ponyville and I should be back here in time for lunch.”

“That sounds good.”

Without any further exchanged words, I set off on my run. The weather was good today. I wasn’t sure if the weather pegasi did that or if it was simply them not doing anything, but I didn’t really care either. It could be 110 degrees and I’d feel just fine.

I stopped back at the construction site after my second lap. During my first lap, I met a mare who was trotting the same route I took. She’d seen me running around Ponyville and decided to do the same thing to get in shape. As far as I was able to tell, she wasn’t in bad shape, but I’m no expert on equine fitness standards, so I didn’t really know. When I came across her on my second lap, she was sitting at the fence for Sweet Apple Acres, sweaty and tired. I could only hope she wasn’t going to push herself too hard.

“There you are, Yang” a forepony said. They needed name tags or something. “We’re just about ready for lunch. Care to join us?”

“Sure.” Lunch did sound good, even if it was going to basically be salad today. Eh, I could get a pork chop later. “Can I get a brief tour of what’s been done so far?”

“Of course. Andersmith, show her what we’ve done so far.”

“Of course” a tan unicorn stallion with blue in his mane, tail, and feathers said. I walked over to him and he began the brief tour. “Silver Pipe and Yellow Wire have already gotten the pipes and wires connected to the grid and sticking up where they’re going to come into the building. We’ve got two exterior walls fully framed and we have the layout of the rest of the ground walls done as well. The bar counter is being carved as well, though the tree had to be hauled away so it could be worked on. It should be done, back, and installed in a few days.”

“That’s excellent” I said. “How much do you think you’ll have done by the time you leave today?”

“I’d say, oh, all the framing for the lower level walls.”

Speedy, these ponies are. “That sounds good. Thanks, Andersmith.”

“No problem.”

With the tour done, we left the building in progress and went over to the tables. Just as we arrived, I saw Brew coming towards us, followed by a few ponies pulling boxy wagons. It looked like our lunch was here.

The ponies with the wagons connected them in a curved line and went to the convex side of it. They fiddled with something and the tops of the wagons unfolded, revealing a display with some ingredients spread out on each one, a pair of tongs with each ingredient as well. It was a big serving line.

“Lunch is ready, everypony” Brew said. “It’s a self-serve today, so come grab whatever you want.”

As excited as I was for lunch, I let the ponies who were actually building the Carne Den go first. All I’ve done today was talk to Twilight, run a couple laps, and get a tour of the progress. They’ve been moving stuff and putting things together under the sun. I was able to see the sweat on some of the ponies shining in the light while I hadn’t broke a sweat at all during my run.

Even though I was the last to go up to the line, there was still plenty of every ingredient left. There was even enough for everyone to have seconds if they wanted. The plates were kind of bowl-like, which made my pasta and salad more containable. There were grass and flower options, but I passed over them. Hooray for things that were optional.

Once I had my pasta and salad, I snagged two forks and sat down. Everyone left the spot where my shells were alone, so I took that spot for myself. Before I started on my pasta and salad, I used my forks to toss and mix them together into a pasta salad. Once it was mixed to my content, I started eating it.

While I ate, I noticed that I was a bit calmer this time than the times I’ve had meat. The only conclusions I could come to for why that was so was because either the meat increased aggression somehow, or it was more of a thrill, eating meat in this land of herbivores. It was probably the latter. And it might have had something to do with a whole month and a half of not having the stuff available. Still, variety is good. I also joined in on the conversations a bit, but mostly kept to myself.

My one serving was enough for me, so I took my plate over to the pony that was responsible for the used dishes and gave them to her. When I got back to my spot, I opened the box and pulled the shells out again, trying to figure out just how to make new rounds out of these.

“Hey, what are those?” the unicorn stallion on my left asked me. It turned out to be Andersmith. How did I not notice that?

“Shells for my gauntlets.” I turned one of the Ember Celica to its gauntlet form and opened it, putting one band in place before taking it back out and turning it back to its bracelet form. “The only thing is that these are empty, so they’re not very useful. There was a piece of paper with them that said I could make new rounds with them by putting stuff in them, but I’m not sure how.”

Andersmith thought for a bit, looked at the shells, and left the table. A moment later, he came back, a bunch of nails in his magic. “What if you put these in there?”

I snagged the nails from his magic. “You’re sure this is okay?”

“We always have way more nails than we need, so using twenty of them here isn’t an issue. Heck, we get 100 of them at a time for one bit, so it’s not like we’re losing much on this.”

“If you say so.” I set the shells up and began setting a nail in each one, pointed end up. The nails were about three inches long and noticeably stuck out from each shell. I had no idea how they would fit, but I didn’t think about it much as I continued onward. After I got the last nail in the last shell, they began to glow a dark gray and rich blue. I wasn’t able to see the shells for a second with how much glow there was, but once it was gone, I saw that the shells were neither white nor spent anymore. Now they were blue and dark gray, the latter color making four nail shapes on the sides of each shell.

“Are they nail shells now?”

“I think so.” I expanded and opened both of my gauntlets, put the shells in, and closed them. I left the table and went over to the nearby trees, quickly finding one with a bare spot on it. I stood about 15 feet or so from the tree and threw a few punches at it, each punch also firing a shot. The recoil on each shot was fairly low. Each shot was also quieter than the other rounds I’ve used as well.

In the bare spot was a group of nails, each sticking out a little bit. I put my fist up against the bare spot, away from the grouping, and pressed. To my partial surprise, the gauntlet fired a shot. The nail that came out was in the wood, the head slightly embedded in it.

I think I just found my nail gun. Nail guns, I guess. I do have two of them. When I opened the Ember Celica to remove the shells, I saw that, like the others, they looked like they’d never been fired. I guess I had an endless supply of nails now. I pulled one out with a bit of effort and saw that it was the same as the kind that had been put in.

I returned to my spot next to Andersmith as I returned the gauntlets to their bracelet forms and put the nail on the table. “I have an endless supply of these nails now. I can even put them in place in under a second.”

“That’s really cool” Andersmith said. “Hey, that means you could help us speed up construction a bit. Instead of us having to put the nail in place and hammer it in, all we need is for you to put your gauntlet in place and shoot it in.”

“Does that mean I’ll be able to help when you get back to work?”

“Depends on what the foreponies think of this development. I can talk to them for you, if you’d like.”

“That would be nice. Thanks.”

“No problem.” Andersmith polished off his lunch and went to the foreponies. After a bit, he came back. “They said you could start helping after lunch. They also said that you were to only help on demand, not at your discretion.”

Wow. These foreponies were serious. “I guess I can deal with that.”

Apparently, the way these ponies operate in the way they do construction is something like an assembly line. A section was built, taken to its place, set up, and put into place. I started out towards the end, putting nails in where I was told to put them in. Being able to secure the frames as quickly as I was with the nail rounds meant that the team I was with got frequent breaks.

Eventually, I got drifted over to the frame assembly area where I did more of the same. The assembly went faster than it had been before, once again thanks to the nail shells. It got to the point where we actually had frame sections stacking up a bit. One of the ponies from the assembly area, without much to do, started putting numbers on the frame sections and the layout of the Carne Den. Smart move.

As I worked with the construction ponies, I noticed that while they were sweating under the sun and through the work, I wasn’t. Heat tolerance is awesome, but I wish these ponies had it too. They could use it just as much as I do.

Thanks to my nail shells, we got almost the whole ground floor framed almost two hours before it was quit time for the crew. One section of the framing was left set aside and unattached so the bar counter could be easily put inside, along with other large items that might not fit very easily through the doorway.

“Let’s call it an early day, everypony” a forepony said. “Clean up, double check anything you need to, and get going.”

“Why?” one worker asked.

“With Yang’s help, we got both the lower level framing and floor setup done in record time. Tomorrow, we’ll be working on the back area. After that’s finished, we’ll build the frame sections for the upper floor. After that, we’re going to have to wait until the crane gets here. As far as I know, they should done with it in Appleoosa soon.”

“Sounds like a good plan” I said. “Since the back area’s going to be stone, I’ll stay out of it while it’s being built.”

“That’s the plan, everypony. You don’t have to go home, but please don’t stay here. The building is incomplete and lacks furniture, running water, and food.”

The ponies left the area in groups, chatting among themselves. I left by myself and walked towards Twilight’s castle, thinking about what I still needed to do. I still needed to find a good outdoor grill for the back area, along with good outdoor furniture that could stand up to the elements.

While I was mentally debating the benefits of using wood or paper for the menus, I arrived at Twilight’s castle. She wasn’t in the courtroom when I arrived, but it didn’t take long for her to teleport to the room. She appeared a distance away, only slightly surprising me, before walking over. “Hi, Yang. How’s the Carne Den coming along?”

“The lower level is framed and ready for more to go on” I said. “I think things are going to go quite well.” A random thought about my uniform crossed my mind, and I made a mental note to bring it up with Rarity. “So, how’s that ad looking?”

“Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I’ve already sent it out to numerous publications with the offers to run them for three weeks.”

“How did you get it out so quickly?”

“I used a small personal press to make multiple copies of it, then I put each copy in an envelope, along with the details of the offer, and teleported them out to the appropriate post offices.”

“At the same time?”

“No, I did it one by one. Teleportation spells can only have one starting point and one ending point, even if multiple things are being moved in the same teleport. I also had to refer to a few maps to get the addresses right. Still, it wasn’t that difficult to do.”

“How can I thank you for this?”

“Hmm. One free meal for Spike and me once the Carne Den is open?”

“Sure. But just you and Spike.”

“Do you think I’d use that free meal to order everything for everyone?”

“You? No. But the possibility of it crossed my mind.”

“Do your people always have negative outlooks on things?”

I thought for a bit. “Seems like it. At least I don’t recall hearing much positive news. Then again, negative news seems to fill air time better. So, are we done here?”

“Yes, we are. Have a good night, Yang.”

“You too.”

“Hi, Rarity” I said as I entered the boutique.

“Good evening, Yang” Rarity greeted. “Another busy day?”

“Yep. The first floor of the Carne Den is framed. And I got some new shells that really helped everything go together a lot faster.”

“Really? Do tell.”

“Nail shells. An endless supply of them. I can put nails in place really quickly and really accurately. It made the construction go much faster.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is. Oh, I have a question for you.”

“Oh?”

“Could you add some purple to my Carne Den uniform? The yellow does look nice, but as the top overseer, even if my rank is denoted by the color, having purple on there would make it even more official.”

“I see. I see. Why didn’t I think of that? Bring it down here and I’ll get the purple lines on it.”

“Thanks, Rarity.”

Author's Notes:

I aim to get the chapter after the next one out on July 4th. Goals!