Pony Tales - Clover - Day 28

"Well, how's she doing so far?" Came a voice from within a pile of old-looking bits of tack laying in a pile in the tack room.

"Well, she's certainly not struggling. That's for sure. Eden's pushing her to her limits and she's still standing. It would seem Victoria's assessment was spot on. No lingering effects from her accident at the least." Aria responded as she sat at Sophie's desk, going over an inventory form she'd been asked to look over. The recent purchase order for hay was not exactly a small one, nor was the purchase order for new tack.

Aria let out a soft sigh, "Why Sophie insists on rotating to new designs for half the ponies in the barn every year, I will not know."

Hayley lifted her head from the pile of tack, brushing strands of hair from her face, "Maybe because some ponies like to switch up their style a bit. Not all of us fall in love with the first tack set we acquire."

"Hey! I changed my tack up several times!"

"Having it repaired and polished doesn't count, Mistress."

Aria grumbled as she signed several of the forms and tucked them away in Sophie's desk. She folded her hands across the desk and leaned forwards, letting her eyes linger on her tack hanging on the wall beside Hayley and her pile of old tack she was digging through.

"You know. I really miss her."

Hayley tilted her head at the comment until she followed Aria's gaze to Twilight's tack hanging on the wall beside her. Her gaze softened again as she looked towards the closed door of the tack room for a moment, "You know...she could make an appearance. Even in private." Hayley offered ever-so-softly.

"Nonsense. Twilight hung her hooves up for the betterment of others. To go back would simply pull at the strings of responsibility I have enraptured myself in."

"You're not the only one capable of running the bar--"

Aria's glare stopped the woman's words flat and Hayley was quick to change the subject, not interested in pushing the envelope any further than she already had. She'd get through to Aria someday. Just not today it would seem.

"So. Clover then. I haven't seen you as interested in a pony in a fair amount of time. Why so much interest?"

Aria leaned back in the chair and smiled, "Ah. Right. You never did read our initial emails. I think my interests lie in her personality. She so does remind me of myself when I came to Tall Tails. She's full of drive, and energy, and passion. Even in our emails she somehow captured that image of herself as a pony. It was rather refreshing than the regular fare we receive. Her interests do not lay in the sexual side of ponyplay. It's refreshing. Plus, have you seen that pony move? She's got talent for sure. Perhaps talent that will take a lot of refining. But I think that maybe..."

"...Maybe she'll dethrone the previous champions a little?" Hayley teased, flicking one of the many ribbons decorating Twilight's tack on the wall.

"Dream on. Nobody is toppling that crown any time soon."

"I hope they do."

Aria narrowed her eyes.

"Because then Twilight will have to retake her crown."

Aria scoffed and tossed her pen at Hayley who giggled and picked it up before she walked over and slid onto the desk, sitting on the edge of it, "Well. Either way. We'll keep an eye on her. You've really built up her schedule for the next few days. You're sure you want to push her that hard, that fast? Even some of our senior ponies couldn't handle a schedule like that."

"I want to see what she is capable of. How hard she is willing to push, even at her limits."

"You'll break her if you're not careful Mistress Aria."

"She's a pony, she's meant to be broken."

"You know that's not what I meant." Hayley turned her gaze rather intensely on Aria.

"I will make sure she is well tended to and if she gets too close to the breaking point, we will ease her schedule off. Fair?"

Hayley nodded in acceptance of the woman's reasoning and tossed the pen up in the air, catching it deftly, "I won't lie, I'm looking forward to seeing a new pony grow here. We haven't had a newbie since almost last year."

"A question, my dear Hayley."

Hayley tilted her head, "Hm?"

"Why exactly, is your backside parked upon Miss Sophie's desk both without her permission, or mine?"

Hayley blushed brightly, "I...uhm, I guess I was just comfortable."

"Too comfortable. Do we need to address that?"

Hayley hurriedly climbed to her feet, "No Mistress Aria. I'll be more thoughtful in the future. My apologies."

Aria grinned a little bit, "Yes you will be. Make that mistake again and you won't sit for a week."

Hayley winced visibly and sighed, "Understood."

Aria climbed to her feet and motioned for Hayley to follow, "Come, I've been told Firefly is running a derby demonstration today. She's quite enthusiastic about it catching on. Heel, Cloudstep."

Hayley blushed visibly and obediently fell into step back and to the right of Aria as they headed out of the barn to go watch the demonstration.

--------------------------

Back out in the whip circle field, Clover was pulling her head out of her water bucket, her whole face soaked. She'd decided once she was done drinking to just dunk her head in the water to cool off a little bit. She stood up, tossing her head a bit and shaking out a bit of the water. Eden stood to the side, chuckling as she took a sip from a bottle of water, "No Aria to catch a face full of water this time. Guess you're safe from the post today." Eden teased, referring to Clover's very first day when she'd done that and tossed a face full of water right into Aria.

Clover snorted in response.

Eden narrowed her eyes, "Excuse me?"

Clover tilted her head.

"I'll give you a chance. Has anyone told you that snorting is rude?"

Clover stomped twice and blinked.

"Well. It is. A snort is generally an emotion of frustration and often rudeness. Some trainers accept it as playful sass but when it comes to me, not so much. IN the future, every time you snort at me, you'll spend an hour tied to that post there until you remember your manners." Eden motioned over her shoulder to the lonely post that Clover had been tied to as punishment before.

"Am I understood, Clover?"

Clover stomped once quickly.

"Good. Find a different noise to be playful with. I know you're still figuring things out, so you get the benefit of the doubt. But that will only last so long."

Eden stretched a little, "Alright then. We WERE supposed to move into command basics after this. But after seeing you clear that steeple I think I want to run you through the basic steeple course a few times. You want to give some more jumps a try?"

Clover stole a glance at the pole she'd jumped earlier. It had been a uniquely enjoyable experience and she had to remember that approving nod that Aria had given her. It made her smile. She stomped once confidently and turned to face Eden.

"Such confidence. You're going to be so sore at the end of the day today. But luckily for you, if you do REALLY good, maybe I'll try and convince Victoria to come massage down some achy feet and muscles. But you have to promise to give me your best. Maybe." She winked and pushed off the fence, carefully tossing her empty bottle into a nearby bin and walking towards the whip circle exit.

"Heel, Clover."

Clover knew that command at least. She stretched and trotted over, falling into line behind Eden who led the way around the left side of the barn and towards the back where they kept their steeple fields. There were four different fields, each with different intentional elevations and field shapes for setting up challenging and unique courses. The far left one though that they were headed towards was generally kept the same. It was known as the 'newbie' field because it was just a basic series of jumps set up in a long oval. All of them were at the same height and the ground in this field was meticulously kept so as not to risk any pony busting a hoof during their first learning experience.

Eden hummed as she walked, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at Clover obediently following along. Although the blonde-haired pony had never been to these fields before, so she was looking all around and taking in the area. Eden snapped her fingers, "Plenty of time to take in the sights later Clover. Focus."

Clover turned her gaze quickly to Eden and nodded, following her and not looking around anymore.

~I didn't realize there was so much in behind the barn too. How many other fields have I not seen at this point?~

Eden walked into the field with Clover in stow, bringing her to a white line that had been painted onto the grass. She turned to regard Clover and smiled, "Now. All of the jumps are numbered, but being a circle it's pretty obvious which order you jump them. The basics of steeple are pretty simple. You run, you jump each standard in sequence and then you cross the finish line. Pretty simple. So we're going to run you through a couple of times, I'll give you some jump pointers and once you've got a bit of confidence we can time you because this is about speed as much as it is skill."

Eden tugged out her whip, "Only two commands here. Go and stop. Get to the line pony and let's get you moving then, shall we?"

Clover listened intently to all over Eden's words, even looking to the many jumps set up in sequence.

~It seems easy, but some of those jumps are doubled up which doesn't look easy to clear. But c'mon Clover. You can do this. This is why you're here after all.~

Clover walked up to the white starting line and drew in a deep breath. It might not have been so bad if there wasn't a small group of ponies lining up along the back fence to watch. Clover's cheeks slowly got darker and she shuffled nervously. Never once had she had an audience. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up, a bit of nervousness bubbling up in her stomach.

Eden smiled a bit, "Don't worry about the crowd Clover. Just focus on the run. They're just curious about how the newbie will do. Now, deep breath."

CRACK! Came the whip.