Post by Sky Blue on Mar 17, 2015 0:14:44 GMT -5
With Eris having mostly moved to the boarding school in Canterlot, it wasn't often that she got to come back to Ponyville to do her duties as Chancellor /in/ the town. Sure, she had all the paperwork and such that she needed brought to the school, but the little griffon tried to get back to the 'ville as often as possible. So, on this rainy weekend day, The Honourable Eris von Hugel, Chancellor of Ponyville and Heir of the Hugel Barony is... sitting in an office, at a desk surrounded by stacks of paper. Across the room, a fire blazes in a large fireplace to keep the room warm. So, what's she doing? Absolutely nothing, of course. Eris leans back in the big old chair and stares up at the ceiling. Ugh, why'd she come back without Shutterbug? Paperwork sucks.
Thud thud thud. Three knocks sound upon the door. Well, not so much knocks, as troll-like thuds. A fourth knock sounds and a sky blue hoof crashes through the solid oak door. "Whoops."
Eris snaps upright in her chair at the first knock, and starts to say "Come I-" but suddenly there's a hoof through her door. .,. She's... not paying for that. The griffon hops out of her seat and walks over towards the door. "Um, y-you okay? You can, uh, come in. Don't worry 'bout the door, I guess."
There's a bit of jerking about, then the hoof finally comes free and the door is pushed open to reveal THE CLEANING FILLY. "Ah'm fine, thanks!" Sky Blue replies cheerfully, trotting into the office and closing the door behind her. "Ah was wonderin' if ah could talk t'y'all about a business thingy ah want t'do, as it requires gettin' some sort of permission from a chancellor-" She pauses, then looks down at Eris. And then squees. "Y'all're a cute li'l griffon!" she exclaims, being from ear-to-ear.
Eris watches the filly enter the office, the door swinging open and brushing aside splinters of wood. Sigh. She's going to have to contract Mr. Luck to fix it. Again. "Well, I'm th' only Chancellor around, my name's-" she starts to say with a smile, but she's cut off again as Sky is fawning over her. "T-thank you, Miss, um, what /is/ your name? I'm Eris." She points at the plaque that has her giant list of titles.
"Ah'm Sky Blue!" the excitable filly exclaims, before trotting over to the plaque and peering closely at it. "Ah run the S&S Meadery in town. Ah know Marble ain't chancellor no more, but ah didn't know we got a real cute li'l griffon t'take his place!"
"Miss Blue? Um, nice to meet you, welcome to Town Hall!" Eris tries to properly greet her. The griffon motions at a chair across the desk, "Go ahead, have a sit-down!" then goes to sit in her own chair. "Um, yeah, I'm still not quite sure how I won the 'lection, but, er... thanks for callin' me cute, I guess," she says, smoothing down her crest and smiling a bit awkwardly, "How can I help you?"
After trying and failing to read the plaque, the excitable filly trots over to the chair and sits down upon it with all the grace of a quadriplegic hippo. "Well, ah opened a mine before, outside Ponyville, and then Marble closed it down 'cause he was bein' mean," Sky Blue explains, gesturing with a hoof. "And then he closed down the one ah built under Ponyville 'cause of some sort of safety thing about the town collapsin'. And want t'get open a new mawne on the outskirts of town, where there'll be the least damage t'the envawronment, with 10% of the proceeds goin' t'Ponyville's town funds, 10% goin' t'the hospital, 20% goin' t'orphan-based charities, and another 20% goin' t'other charitable causes in Ponyville and Canterlot. And ah need yer approval t'do start."
Eris listens, looking a bit skeptical. "Well, I guess I've got some questions. What're you mining /for/? /ow are you mining? And where, precicely, will you be mining? There's a lot of outskirts of Ponyville," she ends with a little giggle. "I don' mind signin' off on it - but I wanna make sure you're doin' it safe and doin' it right. Don't want'cha to get shut down again!"
Sky Blue beams brightly as ever. "Ah'm as safe as they come!" she innocently lies, before adding, "Whichever bit of Ponyville all'a'y'all and some envawronment folks decide is least destructive t'do so. It's just me and a pick-axe, as far as other mawners go. And ah'm gonna mawne fer gems! Back before the mawne under Ponyville closed, ah found a big load of gems! Ah ended up givin' most of 'em away, but ah managed t'get a huge load of 'em!"
Eris nods as Sky explains. "Alright, well," she starts to say, pulling out a large book and dusting it off, "I suppose that doesn't sound too bad - entrepreneurship is a big part of the Ponyville way! I think it's great when ponies go off to try new ventures." She flips through the book, reads a few lines, then dips her talon-tips on her right forefoot in some ink - then starts to write different things with all four talons simultaneously. "So, you'll be responsible for finding and funding certified environmental and civil survey crews, an' gettin' them to find a good spot for your mine. Once you've done that, you can bring that back here, and I'll approve preliminary groundbreaking," she sets the first conditions, "And after that, once you start the mine, you'll be subject to your first safety inspections weekly for the first month, then monthly up to month 6, then bianually - all, of course, contingent upon satisfactory results," she says with a smile, "But if you're as safe as you say, there shouldn't be any issue!" She taps a talon on her beak, thinking for a moment, then... "Oh! You'll also have to pay for a business licence - the one from the Meadery doesn't cover this - and a construction permit. Yes, it's construction even if you're digging."
Sky Blue blinks. Then again. Then looks upwards. And then back at Eris. "Ah don't know half the words y'all just said," the hayseed announces, "But ah think ah get the jist of it... ah think. Ah'll just repeat what y'all said t'Red Velvet, throw some bits about, and everythin' should come back rawt as rain!"
Eris stares blankly for a moment. She has a vey bad feeling about this. The griffon winces, then holds up a piece of paper. "Here's the terms and conditions of the mine-" she stops. "You mentioned Miss Velvet? Is she your business partner? Do you have any other business partners besides her?"
"Ah don't know if she's a business partner, exactly..." Sky Blue replies, looking thoughtful. "But she helps me with all the stuff ah fawnd difficult or don't understand." She takes the terms and conditions, holds them upside-down, and then starts to read.
Eris hmms softly, then scribbles a few more things on the paper, then holds it out to Sky. "You get her to help with this - explain it to you, whatever it is you need. Once you both understand, you both sign it, then bring it back here, okay?" The griffon beams at Sky. Look it her, she's helping the community! "Then I'll sign it and you can go ahead with the stuff I said before," she explains, "... which is all on that paper, too, if you forgot."
"That sounds real great!" Sky Blue declares, grasping Eris' inky-taloned foot and shaking it vigorously, before taking the papers up and stuffing them sort-of neatly into her saddlebags. "Ah'll get t'it rawt now!" She clambers un-elegenantly up from her chair, gives Eris a crisp salute, and then gallops off... through the solid oak door, leaving a Sky Blue-shaped hole in it.
Eris shakes Sky's hoof back, her eyes rattling a bit. Then, as Sky leaves, she raises a talon, and barely gets out, "Watch out for th-" before the carpentry bill shoots up higher. The griffon slumps in her chair. Why does she feel like that plan's not going to mean much?
A few days pass before Sky Blue makes her re-appearance at Town Hall. On the plus side, she doesn't put her hoof through the door. On the down side, she knocks heavily enough to cause the door to fall inward, leaving her standing their with a hoof raised, looking mildly surprised.
Autumn Luck had done a fantastic job replacing the door with an ironbark door with a metal core. He called it the 'Sky Blue Special'. Huh. Well, Eris didn't have to pay for it anyways! Thank Cointalon for reappropriation of town budget! No one'll notice if they cut education a bit more, right? The lottery will pay for it! When the heavy door falls to the floor, she makes a mental note to upgrade the frame and hinges (the carpenter HAD warned her!), then gives a meek smile to the filly. "Miss Blue, I'm surprised t'see you back so quickly!" she was sure it would take longer to explain that paperwork to the filly. "How /are/ ya today? Come in, sit down!"
"Ah'm doin' great, thanks!" Sky Blue enthuses, trotting over the new door and plonking her rump down upon the indicated chair, digging out some paperwork, then placing it upon Eris' desk. Red Velvet's neat signature and Sky Blue's untidy scrawl are visible upon the front piece. "Red helped me get some surveyors and stuff, and they said havin' a mawne in the middle of Sweet Apples Acres won't be too good and also kawnda illegal, but they found a real nawce place on the outskirts of town, headin' towards Canterlot. Red also came up with the idea of p'rhaps havin' a visitor center of sorts, and that if things go well and ah find any caves or caverns, ah could open a safe-fer-visitors section of the mawne up fer folks t'come look 'round on tours."
Eris wonders why on /earth/ she would even -consider- Sweet Apple Acres, but she shakes her head. "Well," she starts, picking up and leaving through the papers - the signed plan, the survey report, application for a business license and license for a construction permit - "Okay, well, you jus' gotta pay fer th' license an' th' permit, and you'll be good to go! The former is 50 bits a year, the latter is 15 bits - which is only needed for the construction of the mine entrance and any other above-ground facilities," she explains. "I... trust you've worked out a deal with the owner of the land? Or that you now /are/ the owner of it?"
"Ah had a talk t'Red, and she sorted things out, so ah now own the land," Sky Blue says, smiling brightly. "Ah thought ah just needed t'buy the land fer the entrance, but then Red said ah need t'get it fer how far the mawne extends and stuff, so ah've got all that sorted out. As far as bits go..." She rummages around in her saddlebag, looking thoughtful, then withdraws three bits upon Eris' desk. "Does that cover it?"
Eris stares at the three bits. Well, looks like the education budget is getting raided again. They didn't need doors on the schoolhouse, did they? "Er, y-yes, that'll be fine, Miz Blue. We have a, uh, there's the, um, Royal... Entrepreneurship... grantfundscholarship that'll cover the rest, of course. Because you... you /totally/ qualify," Eris says, shadily, looking outside the office's nowpermanently-open-door to make sure no one heard that. Whew. She pulls out a construction permit and a business license, fills them out, and hands them to Sky. "Post these on th' entrance to th' mine, and remember your first safety inspection will be a week from groundbreaking," she explains. "Sound good, Miss Blue?"
"That sounds real good, Miss Chancellor Griffon!" Sky Blue enthuses, gazing proudly at the notices upside-down, before tucking them away and saying, "But what's this grantfund thing gonna cover, if ah've already given y'all the fifty bits and fifteen bits?"
65 bits? That was three... "U-uhm, y'know, administrative fees and all that. Y'know how it is. Bureaucracy," she says with a little forced giggle. The griffon stands and tries to usher the destructive filly towards the door with a wing. "Thank you so much, Miss Blue, you've been... er.... delightful! And I hope everything goes well with your mine!" she talks quickly, "I look forward to seeing the results of your first safety inspection! Good luck with the prospecting and mining and all that!"
"Thanks!" Sky Blue says, giving Eris a BIG hug, before happily trotting over the fallen door. "Ah'll have t'invite y'all when things have set up! Y'all sure are one heck of an awesome chancellor!" The filly ends up being so distracted, looking back at Eris, that she walks straight across the hallway outside and through a second story window. After a few moments, there's a soft thud.
Eris hugs back, smiling. "Ah, heh, t-thanks! Glad to hear it!" Relieved, she watches the mining-filly walk out... then winces as she hears the crash and thud - but she's sure the filly is fine. Still, she walks out to the Sky Blue shaped hole in the wall and checks.
Sky Blue is already halfway towards the fountain by this point, pronking along and humming happily to herself, seemingly unbothered by her two-story fall through an expensive glass window. Somewhere, Mayor Mare is crying into a big bucket of ice cream.
Roughly a week later, there comes a tentative knock to the door to Eris office, followed by it being pushed open slightly and a head poking throgh the gap, belonging to a timid-looking brown unicorn. "Miss Eris?"
Eris looks up at the unicorn peeking in through the now steel-framed, double-reinforced doorway. The 'Sky Stopper!' "Yes?" she asks the unicorn, "How may I help you?"
"Ah, hello, my name is, uh, Strange Cakes," the unicorn announces as he steps through the door, levitating a clipboard alongside him and shutting the door after him. "I'm a psychiatrist from Canterlot Psychiatric Hospital, and I'm here to speak to you about a citizen here from Ponyville, a Miss, uh..." He checks his clipboard. "A Miss Sky Blue?"
"Yes, come in, come in! Canterlot Psychiatric- about who? Miss..." Eris trails off, and her expression falls when Sky's name is mentioned. "I- I'm not sure I can help you. I'm just the Chancellor..." she looks a bit nervous. "I'm not a doctor or anything. And, really, I don't have any legal authority! That's the Mayor! Whatever Miss Blue's done, I- I doubt I can help."
Strange Cakes raises an eyebrow, levitates the clipboard up to his eyes, then back down again. "Forgive me, but aren't you the Chancellor of Ponyville, who gave your legal stamp of approval for the construction of the Pollyapple Mine and associated projects?"
"I, uh... I don't /have/ a 'legal' stamp. I got this down at the market," Eris says. "See, the charter says, um, 'a Chancellor to oversee the Character and Moral Leanings of the town'. I don't /have/ any legal authority. Miss Blue said she wanted my sign off, so I gave it to her." ...and misappropriated funds, and so on and so forth. "But, er, that is my stamp, yes. Why?"
"Well, I was contacted by a health and safety consultant you mandated to inspect the safety standards at Pollyapple Mine, after he met with Miss Blue," the psychiatrist replies, stepping forward and taking a seat in front of the tiny griffon's desk. "I came to the speak with Miss Blue, following the consultant's query over her mental health, and it is my professional opinion that, while she may mean well, Miss Blue is a danger to herself and those around her, so I've brought these papers to have her committed while we run some further tests." He levitates a small stack of forms over onto Eris' desk.
Eris blink blink. "O-ok," Eris says quietly, "That's too bad. Huh. I thought she was nice - maybe a little.... I dunno, but not a danger." She then looks at the papers. "Why... um, why are you giving these to me? I'm not her relative or anything." She motions at the beak.
"Because you are Chancellor of Ponyville, and, as a representative of the Mayoral office, have the authority for sign them," Strange Cakes replies, before glancing outside. "I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a hurry, chancellor; I have to be at Ponyville Hospital shortly. If you just sign them, I'll get everything taken care of."
Eris winces and runs a forefoot over her feathers. "I /just/ told you I don't have any legal authority!" does anyone listen to her? "But, okay, fine - just don't come looking for me if you get in trouble!" She dips her talontips in ink and proceeds to sign off the forms. "Well... I wish Miss Blue well, and I hope she gets better soon." She holds the forms out to him, "Here ya go. Be nice to 'er. Please."
Strange Cakes smiles widely. He briefly blows the signature, to help dry it out, then starts gathering up his papers. "You have done Equestria and Miss Blue a great service, chancellor. I assure you that she will recieve the appropriate treatment." With that, he gets up, bows his head politely, and then starts heading out of the office.
Eris tilts her head. Why is it a great service to Equestria? Huh. Pony doctors are so /weird. "Well, thank you, Dr. Cakes, for trying to help her. Have a good afternoon!" she says politely to the unicorn, and gives him a little wave.
Thud thud thud. Three knocks sound upon the door. Well, not so much knocks, as troll-like thuds. A fourth knock sounds and a sky blue hoof crashes through the solid oak door. "Whoops."
Eris snaps upright in her chair at the first knock, and starts to say "Come I-" but suddenly there's a hoof through her door. .,. She's... not paying for that. The griffon hops out of her seat and walks over towards the door. "Um, y-you okay? You can, uh, come in. Don't worry 'bout the door, I guess."
There's a bit of jerking about, then the hoof finally comes free and the door is pushed open to reveal THE CLEANING FILLY. "Ah'm fine, thanks!" Sky Blue replies cheerfully, trotting into the office and closing the door behind her. "Ah was wonderin' if ah could talk t'y'all about a business thingy ah want t'do, as it requires gettin' some sort of permission from a chancellor-" She pauses, then looks down at Eris. And then squees. "Y'all're a cute li'l griffon!" she exclaims, being from ear-to-ear.
Eris watches the filly enter the office, the door swinging open and brushing aside splinters of wood. Sigh. She's going to have to contract Mr. Luck to fix it. Again. "Well, I'm th' only Chancellor around, my name's-" she starts to say with a smile, but she's cut off again as Sky is fawning over her. "T-thank you, Miss, um, what /is/ your name? I'm Eris." She points at the plaque that has her giant list of titles.
"Ah'm Sky Blue!" the excitable filly exclaims, before trotting over to the plaque and peering closely at it. "Ah run the S&S Meadery in town. Ah know Marble ain't chancellor no more, but ah didn't know we got a real cute li'l griffon t'take his place!"
"Miss Blue? Um, nice to meet you, welcome to Town Hall!" Eris tries to properly greet her. The griffon motions at a chair across the desk, "Go ahead, have a sit-down!" then goes to sit in her own chair. "Um, yeah, I'm still not quite sure how I won the 'lection, but, er... thanks for callin' me cute, I guess," she says, smoothing down her crest and smiling a bit awkwardly, "How can I help you?"
After trying and failing to read the plaque, the excitable filly trots over to the chair and sits down upon it with all the grace of a quadriplegic hippo. "Well, ah opened a mine before, outside Ponyville, and then Marble closed it down 'cause he was bein' mean," Sky Blue explains, gesturing with a hoof. "And then he closed down the one ah built under Ponyville 'cause of some sort of safety thing about the town collapsin'. And want t'get open a new mawne on the outskirts of town, where there'll be the least damage t'the envawronment, with 10% of the proceeds goin' t'Ponyville's town funds, 10% goin' t'the hospital, 20% goin' t'orphan-based charities, and another 20% goin' t'other charitable causes in Ponyville and Canterlot. And ah need yer approval t'do start."
Eris listens, looking a bit skeptical. "Well, I guess I've got some questions. What're you mining /for/? /ow are you mining? And where, precicely, will you be mining? There's a lot of outskirts of Ponyville," she ends with a little giggle. "I don' mind signin' off on it - but I wanna make sure you're doin' it safe and doin' it right. Don't want'cha to get shut down again!"
Sky Blue beams brightly as ever. "Ah'm as safe as they come!" she innocently lies, before adding, "Whichever bit of Ponyville all'a'y'all and some envawronment folks decide is least destructive t'do so. It's just me and a pick-axe, as far as other mawners go. And ah'm gonna mawne fer gems! Back before the mawne under Ponyville closed, ah found a big load of gems! Ah ended up givin' most of 'em away, but ah managed t'get a huge load of 'em!"
Eris nods as Sky explains. "Alright, well," she starts to say, pulling out a large book and dusting it off, "I suppose that doesn't sound too bad - entrepreneurship is a big part of the Ponyville way! I think it's great when ponies go off to try new ventures." She flips through the book, reads a few lines, then dips her talon-tips on her right forefoot in some ink - then starts to write different things with all four talons simultaneously. "So, you'll be responsible for finding and funding certified environmental and civil survey crews, an' gettin' them to find a good spot for your mine. Once you've done that, you can bring that back here, and I'll approve preliminary groundbreaking," she sets the first conditions, "And after that, once you start the mine, you'll be subject to your first safety inspections weekly for the first month, then monthly up to month 6, then bianually - all, of course, contingent upon satisfactory results," she says with a smile, "But if you're as safe as you say, there shouldn't be any issue!" She taps a talon on her beak, thinking for a moment, then... "Oh! You'll also have to pay for a business licence - the one from the Meadery doesn't cover this - and a construction permit. Yes, it's construction even if you're digging."
Sky Blue blinks. Then again. Then looks upwards. And then back at Eris. "Ah don't know half the words y'all just said," the hayseed announces, "But ah think ah get the jist of it... ah think. Ah'll just repeat what y'all said t'Red Velvet, throw some bits about, and everythin' should come back rawt as rain!"
Eris stares blankly for a moment. She has a vey bad feeling about this. The griffon winces, then holds up a piece of paper. "Here's the terms and conditions of the mine-" she stops. "You mentioned Miss Velvet? Is she your business partner? Do you have any other business partners besides her?"
"Ah don't know if she's a business partner, exactly..." Sky Blue replies, looking thoughtful. "But she helps me with all the stuff ah fawnd difficult or don't understand." She takes the terms and conditions, holds them upside-down, and then starts to read.
Eris hmms softly, then scribbles a few more things on the paper, then holds it out to Sky. "You get her to help with this - explain it to you, whatever it is you need. Once you both understand, you both sign it, then bring it back here, okay?" The griffon beams at Sky. Look it her, she's helping the community! "Then I'll sign it and you can go ahead with the stuff I said before," she explains, "... which is all on that paper, too, if you forgot."
"That sounds real great!" Sky Blue declares, grasping Eris' inky-taloned foot and shaking it vigorously, before taking the papers up and stuffing them sort-of neatly into her saddlebags. "Ah'll get t'it rawt now!" She clambers un-elegenantly up from her chair, gives Eris a crisp salute, and then gallops off... through the solid oak door, leaving a Sky Blue-shaped hole in it.
Eris shakes Sky's hoof back, her eyes rattling a bit. Then, as Sky leaves, she raises a talon, and barely gets out, "Watch out for th-" before the carpentry bill shoots up higher. The griffon slumps in her chair. Why does she feel like that plan's not going to mean much?
*****
A few days pass before Sky Blue makes her re-appearance at Town Hall. On the plus side, she doesn't put her hoof through the door. On the down side, she knocks heavily enough to cause the door to fall inward, leaving her standing their with a hoof raised, looking mildly surprised.
Autumn Luck had done a fantastic job replacing the door with an ironbark door with a metal core. He called it the 'Sky Blue Special'. Huh. Well, Eris didn't have to pay for it anyways! Thank Cointalon for reappropriation of town budget! No one'll notice if they cut education a bit more, right? The lottery will pay for it! When the heavy door falls to the floor, she makes a mental note to upgrade the frame and hinges (the carpenter HAD warned her!), then gives a meek smile to the filly. "Miss Blue, I'm surprised t'see you back so quickly!" she was sure it would take longer to explain that paperwork to the filly. "How /are/ ya today? Come in, sit down!"
"Ah'm doin' great, thanks!" Sky Blue enthuses, trotting over the new door and plonking her rump down upon the indicated chair, digging out some paperwork, then placing it upon Eris' desk. Red Velvet's neat signature and Sky Blue's untidy scrawl are visible upon the front piece. "Red helped me get some surveyors and stuff, and they said havin' a mawne in the middle of Sweet Apples Acres won't be too good and also kawnda illegal, but they found a real nawce place on the outskirts of town, headin' towards Canterlot. Red also came up with the idea of p'rhaps havin' a visitor center of sorts, and that if things go well and ah find any caves or caverns, ah could open a safe-fer-visitors section of the mawne up fer folks t'come look 'round on tours."
Eris wonders why on /earth/ she would even -consider- Sweet Apple Acres, but she shakes her head. "Well," she starts, picking up and leaving through the papers - the signed plan, the survey report, application for a business license and license for a construction permit - "Okay, well, you jus' gotta pay fer th' license an' th' permit, and you'll be good to go! The former is 50 bits a year, the latter is 15 bits - which is only needed for the construction of the mine entrance and any other above-ground facilities," she explains. "I... trust you've worked out a deal with the owner of the land? Or that you now /are/ the owner of it?"
"Ah had a talk t'Red, and she sorted things out, so ah now own the land," Sky Blue says, smiling brightly. "Ah thought ah just needed t'buy the land fer the entrance, but then Red said ah need t'get it fer how far the mawne extends and stuff, so ah've got all that sorted out. As far as bits go..." She rummages around in her saddlebag, looking thoughtful, then withdraws three bits upon Eris' desk. "Does that cover it?"
Eris stares at the three bits. Well, looks like the education budget is getting raided again. They didn't need doors on the schoolhouse, did they? "Er, y-yes, that'll be fine, Miz Blue. We have a, uh, there's the, um, Royal... Entrepreneurship... grantfundscholarship that'll cover the rest, of course. Because you... you /totally/ qualify," Eris says, shadily, looking outside the office's nowpermanently-open-door to make sure no one heard that. Whew. She pulls out a construction permit and a business license, fills them out, and hands them to Sky. "Post these on th' entrance to th' mine, and remember your first safety inspection will be a week from groundbreaking," she explains. "Sound good, Miss Blue?"
"That sounds real good, Miss Chancellor Griffon!" Sky Blue enthuses, gazing proudly at the notices upside-down, before tucking them away and saying, "But what's this grantfund thing gonna cover, if ah've already given y'all the fifty bits and fifteen bits?"
65 bits? That was three... "U-uhm, y'know, administrative fees and all that. Y'know how it is. Bureaucracy," she says with a little forced giggle. The griffon stands and tries to usher the destructive filly towards the door with a wing. "Thank you so much, Miss Blue, you've been... er.... delightful! And I hope everything goes well with your mine!" she talks quickly, "I look forward to seeing the results of your first safety inspection! Good luck with the prospecting and mining and all that!"
"Thanks!" Sky Blue says, giving Eris a BIG hug, before happily trotting over the fallen door. "Ah'll have t'invite y'all when things have set up! Y'all sure are one heck of an awesome chancellor!" The filly ends up being so distracted, looking back at Eris, that she walks straight across the hallway outside and through a second story window. After a few moments, there's a soft thud.
Eris hugs back, smiling. "Ah, heh, t-thanks! Glad to hear it!" Relieved, she watches the mining-filly walk out... then winces as she hears the crash and thud - but she's sure the filly is fine. Still, she walks out to the Sky Blue shaped hole in the wall and checks.
Sky Blue is already halfway towards the fountain by this point, pronking along and humming happily to herself, seemingly unbothered by her two-story fall through an expensive glass window. Somewhere, Mayor Mare is crying into a big bucket of ice cream.
*****
Roughly a week later, there comes a tentative knock to the door to Eris office, followed by it being pushed open slightly and a head poking throgh the gap, belonging to a timid-looking brown unicorn. "Miss Eris?"
Eris looks up at the unicorn peeking in through the now steel-framed, double-reinforced doorway. The 'Sky Stopper!' "Yes?" she asks the unicorn, "How may I help you?"
"Ah, hello, my name is, uh, Strange Cakes," the unicorn announces as he steps through the door, levitating a clipboard alongside him and shutting the door after him. "I'm a psychiatrist from Canterlot Psychiatric Hospital, and I'm here to speak to you about a citizen here from Ponyville, a Miss, uh..." He checks his clipboard. "A Miss Sky Blue?"
"Yes, come in, come in! Canterlot Psychiatric- about who? Miss..." Eris trails off, and her expression falls when Sky's name is mentioned. "I- I'm not sure I can help you. I'm just the Chancellor..." she looks a bit nervous. "I'm not a doctor or anything. And, really, I don't have any legal authority! That's the Mayor! Whatever Miss Blue's done, I- I doubt I can help."
Strange Cakes raises an eyebrow, levitates the clipboard up to his eyes, then back down again. "Forgive me, but aren't you the Chancellor of Ponyville, who gave your legal stamp of approval for the construction of the Pollyapple Mine and associated projects?"
"I, uh... I don't /have/ a 'legal' stamp. I got this down at the market," Eris says. "See, the charter says, um, 'a Chancellor to oversee the Character and Moral Leanings of the town'. I don't /have/ any legal authority. Miss Blue said she wanted my sign off, so I gave it to her." ...and misappropriated funds, and so on and so forth. "But, er, that is my stamp, yes. Why?"
"Well, I was contacted by a health and safety consultant you mandated to inspect the safety standards at Pollyapple Mine, after he met with Miss Blue," the psychiatrist replies, stepping forward and taking a seat in front of the tiny griffon's desk. "I came to the speak with Miss Blue, following the consultant's query over her mental health, and it is my professional opinion that, while she may mean well, Miss Blue is a danger to herself and those around her, so I've brought these papers to have her committed while we run some further tests." He levitates a small stack of forms over onto Eris' desk.
Eris blink blink. "O-ok," Eris says quietly, "That's too bad. Huh. I thought she was nice - maybe a little.... I dunno, but not a danger." She then looks at the papers. "Why... um, why are you giving these to me? I'm not her relative or anything." She motions at the beak.
"Because you are Chancellor of Ponyville, and, as a representative of the Mayoral office, have the authority for sign them," Strange Cakes replies, before glancing outside. "I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a hurry, chancellor; I have to be at Ponyville Hospital shortly. If you just sign them, I'll get everything taken care of."
Eris winces and runs a forefoot over her feathers. "I /just/ told you I don't have any legal authority!" does anyone listen to her? "But, okay, fine - just don't come looking for me if you get in trouble!" She dips her talontips in ink and proceeds to sign off the forms. "Well... I wish Miss Blue well, and I hope she gets better soon." She holds the forms out to him, "Here ya go. Be nice to 'er. Please."
Strange Cakes smiles widely. He briefly blows the signature, to help dry it out, then starts gathering up his papers. "You have done Equestria and Miss Blue a great service, chancellor. I assure you that she will recieve the appropriate treatment." With that, he gets up, bows his head politely, and then starts heading out of the office.
Eris tilts her head. Why is it a great service to Equestria? Huh. Pony doctors are so /weird. "Well, thank you, Dr. Cakes, for trying to help her. Have a good afternoon!" she says politely to the unicorn, and gives him a little wave.