Three solid knocks on the bedroom door woke the magenta mare up with a start. In her half sleeping grogginess, she sat up and raised a hoof to her eye to rub the rheum out of it, groaning a little as her mind pulled together a few questions from its sluggish consciousness.
Did I wake up in my bed? Did I wake up in my bed? and
What time is it? She
**** open her right eye, brushing the low hanging bangs to the side to make out the blurry brown blob of wood in front of her. With another defeated groan, she set her head back down on her desk, having answered the first two questions she thought of. There was no bed to have woken up in, it was another night where she fell asleep at her desk, amidst the pages of a book that, for the time being, is serving as a rather uncomfortable pillow. Her mind cranked itself awake slowly as the knocking on the door continued, and her name was called through the door, "Ruby? Are you still in here?"
"Ugghh... yeah," came her half-assed response. She looked down at the book, slouching in her chair as she tried to figure out what she fell asleep doing. The book was open to a page on Doppelgangers once more, just as it was the day before, and her tarot card deck sat next to it, the cards knocked lightly over into a long fan across her desk. Her horn glowed as she picked up the cards, rifling through them and counting to make sure that the deck was still whole.
0, The Fool. I, The Magician. II, High Priestess... The voice from behind the door came once more, "Can I come in?" Ruby collapsed the deck into a neat pile and placed it back in its box, turning in her chair to face the door as she answered, "Yeah."
The door opened and in walked an older mare, her mane tied back in a bun, taking a quick look around the room before asking, "Were you reading in the dark again, Ruby?" to which she quickly answered, "I wasn't." The older mare looked at her, expecting more to the answer, and sighed as she realized that today was going to be a difficult day, "Were you sleeping then?" The answer came flatly, "Yeah." "Do you know what time it is?" "No." The older mare gave an exasperated sigh as she said, "Ruby, I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions with you today, so please, work with me here..." she trailed off as she looked at Ruby, then back around the room, asking nervously, "Wh-Where's your snake?" Ruby looked around the room as well, glancing quickly under the desk and in her drawers, "Iunno. She might be hunting for food again-- oh, here she is." Ruby opened a drawer, peering in at the python that coiled itself up in one of the many empty drawers that it liked to make itself home in. The python shifted as the drawer opened, flitting its tongue towards the intruder before resting its head back on its coils.
Ruby closed the drawer halfway and turned to look at her foster mother, arching her brow as she let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good," began the older mare, "anyways, it is nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. You've been sleeping all day, it's time to wake up. C'mon." Ruby flinched as the dim lights were flicked on, standing up on wobbly legs as the foster mother asked, "What are you going to do for the rest of the day? Clean your room I hope?" Ruby looked at her foster mother with a withering stare before setting her saddlebag on the chair, closing the book on the desk and putting it in the bag, along with a few other tomes and her deck of tarot cards, "I have to return these books before the library closes first, and then I'm meeting some friends to see a movie." Not one, but three blatant lies in one sentence: the books weren't due for another week, she had no friends to see a movie with, and there wasn't even anything interesting playing in the theater today and thus never planned on going. Her foster mother, oblivious to this, frowned and conceded, "Well, alright, but be back before eleven tonight. You're getting into your bad habits again."
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A half an hour later, Ruby sat in her usual place in the market square: on top of a cushion next to an isolated table with an umbrella sheltering it from the sun. Her saddlebag sat empty beside her, the python curled up inside it as it continued to bask while Ruby stayed out of the sun. Her books sat piled up on the table, supporting one that was propped open upright for easy reading as she shuffled her tarot cards. It was a beautiful afternoon, and there was still a few hours in the day left before it would start getting dark. Some of her regulars were no doubt annoyed that she was not where she usually was, or even around for the time they were looking for her, but really, what was the point of being a mystic if you were going to be in the same place at the same time every time? She needed to mix it up a little every so often, and today was one of the few days that this table was free. It was so much better than a dank alleyway.
There were, nonetheless, a few interested ponies who had approached her for readings, and she charged her usual fee of one bit each. From starstruck lovers, to ponies whose hearts pined for greater things, she would see many different kinds approach her, and many more consider it. It was only one bit after all, only half of an apple, mere pocket change. What was the worst that could happen? Right now though, she waited, reading her book on divination out of the corner of her eye as she shuffled, waiting for a customer to talk with, and possibly perform a reading for.