“It looks fantastic, Dreamer! I think you really are getting better at painting cities,” Tinsel Quill applauded her companion happily while clapping her tiny glass hooves together.
Turquoise Dreamer blushed and hummed her thanks while painting the scenery of Manehatten. Since she was an Earth Pony, she didn’t have magic or wings to hold her paintbrush, hence she couldn’t talk while painting. As an artist, she enjoyed trying new ways of creating beautiful things, but especially enjoyed drawing and painting, because those were things that had a tip, unlike pastels which were one solid stick and didn’t taste good at all in her mouth. Because the shape of the brush handle made it easiest for her to move with her lips and tongue, she tended to paint most often. In Manehatten, far from her small town of Ponyville, she decided to practice painting cities, and to get inspiration for another book. As an author, she found the best inspiration came from really being in a place, and not just hearing about it.
“Oh, don’t worry about painting the ponies walking down the street--too much traffic!” Tinsel suggested as she fluffed the whipped cream on her head for emphasis, “Like, seriously, just make it up when you get back to the hotel and paint them in there, okay? If you try painting them while they are moving, you’ll just make blurs.”
Dreamer nodded in agreement. As she painted, she hummed a song to herself. Although she preferred the serenity of nature to the hustle-bustle of the city, she found a type of beauty in both, and in this moment as she studied the skyscrapers she found a love for the asymmetrical symmetry of the city.
“Oh, Dreamer, you forgot the water tower on the third building from the left,” Tinsel reminded her.
Dreamer stopped humming, noticed her mistake and quickly began painting a water tower, flipping her teal and light blue tail once to indicate she was thankful for the tip.
Meanwhile, walking towards them on the sidewalk was a most unique pair: a black Pegasus mare with blue and light yellow striped wings, a blue mane and tail with light yellow edges and teal eyes, beside of all things, a dark red Nocturnus stallion with a scruffy, gold and black mane, tail and wings, with dark green eyes. Both were squinting in the afternoon sunlight and it was clear that they weren’t quite used to being awake at this time of day. Of course, they turned many heads as they walked, and some ponies even trotted away from them in fear. After all, Nocturnii (Bat Ponies) were rumored to be cannibals...but that was just a rumor, right?
“So your friend lives around here?” The stallion, Thunder Roar, asked his companion.
“Yes, Neon Butterfly lives pretty close!” The mare, Midnight Echo, replied.
Thunder Roar nodded quietly, lifting a webbed wing to shield his eyes from the bright sunshine as he walked.
“Oh, look, a street artist!” Echo pointed out to Roar with a feathery wing of her own, “and… what is that thing with her?”
Roar spotted the artist in question: a turquoise Earth Pony with a paintbrush and calligraphy pen as a cutie mark, with a teal mane and tail which had a light blue stripe down the middle. She was seated at an easel, with brushes and other supplies filling her saddle bag as she worked on a painting. Seated beside her, a tiny glass pony filled with some kind of purple smoothie was pointing out mistakes to her, encouraging her happily. Neither Roar nor Echo ever saw a moving, glass, mug-sized pony before… and neither had seen many street artists.
“Okay, Roar, I REALLY need to figure out what that glass pony thing is!” Echo declared in a whisper before trotting forward to introduce herself to the artist.
Thunder Roar simply shrugged. In truth, he too was very curious as to… what exactly that glass pony was.
“Good starshine!” Echo greeted the pony with a Nocturnii phrase and continued with a wave of her wing, “Tell me, what is this glass pony thing with you?”
“My name is Tinsel Quill,” The tiny pony declared as she fluffed her whipped cream topping with a wave of her hoof sassily, “And I am not a ‘thing,’ I am a Bubble Butt Pony. We assist Big Ponies like my companion, Turquoise Dreamer, who is this amazing artist right here.”
With that introduction the Earth Pony smiled and put down her brush in the easel ledge and replied, “Oh, I’m not THAT amazing… I’ve still got a lot to learn.”
“Ah, I see--by the way, my name is Midnight Echo! Nice to meet you!” Echo chortled as she stretched a wing to Dreamer.
Dreamer nodded and awkwardly shook Echo’s wing with her hoof and replied, “Nice to meet you too--who is your friend?”
While she spoke, she noted that Echo’s cutie mark was sound waves bouncing off a wall and the stallion’s was sound waves breaking a wall. Huh, they matched; how interesting.
“Oh, this is Thunder Roar,” Midnight Echo answered with a blush as she turned to the Nocturnus beside her and proclaimed, “He is my fiance’... my dashing, strong, handsome fiance’.”
Thunder Roar simply nodded and responded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My fiancee’ and I don’t see many street artists… or Bubble Butt Ponies.” As he spoke he offered a soft smile to his bold lover.
Turquoise Dreamer smiled at them both, stopping the urge to say what an adorable couple they made, or ask the Bat Pony a million questions about being a Bat Pony, and gave Tinsel Quill a certain sideways look. Tinsel Quill knew what that meant and nodded.
Turning back to the ponies, Dreamer responded with, “Well, to be honest, I’m usually at home, so I don’t see many street artists either,” After a short laugh she added, “Anyway, I came here not only for painting practice but also for inspiration; I’m going to write a new book soon.”
As she spoke, Tinsel quill calmly walked over to Dreamer's saddle bag, fetching a tiny pad of paper and pencil to take notes on the situation.
“Oh, you are writing a book? Cool!” Midnight Echo exclaimed, “What kind of book is it?”
“Well, this one is going to be a series of short stories, and one of them takes place in Manehatten, so I came here to see what it was really like,” Dreamer explained with a wave of her hoof while she adjusted her beige newspony hat with her other hoof.
“Oh, I get it,” Midnight echo replied as she waved her wings around to emphasize her words, “It sounds like a lot of fun, writing short stories like that.”
“It is,” Dreamer admitted with a smile, gesturing with her hooves as she spoke, “Writing really is most enjoyable, but it takes lots of research and discipline--same as art.”
Thunder Roar nodded and lifted one golden wing to shade his eyes from the sun while he wrapped the other around Echo’s shoulders lovingly. Echo, for her part, leaned towards Roar as she spoke, barely even thinking about what she was doing while she continued, “Yeah, I guess everything is like that, really.”
“Excuse me,” An annoyed unicorn butted in, “But could you please take your little conversation someplace else? You’re blocking half the sidewalk!”
“Yeah yeah, we will!” Echo brushed the unicorn off with a wave of her wing.
The unicorn huffed and stormed away.
“I guess we should move though,” Tinsel Quill, who was holding her miniscule pencil with her tiny unicorn magic, admitted, “We are kinda blocking part of the sidewalk.”
Turquoise Dreamer sighed as her ears drooped, “Yeah, I guess we should pack it up--I’ve gotten the buildings down well enough anywho.”
With that she began to pack up her things carefully. While she did that, Thunder Roar looked around for a moment, ensuring everything was safe, and then offered to help her. Dreamer didn’t want to bother him, but after he insisted on helping, she gladly accepted. Indeed, he was quite a gentlecolt. However, Dreamer was really impressed when Thunder Roar carried her easel case by the handle with his wing. If a Pegasus was carrying something, he would probably hold it in his forelegs while flying. She wondered if all Bat Ponies--no wait, the term was Nocturnii-- had a habit of using their wings like legs or not. Since everypony was hungry--especially Dreamer, who was painting for so long that she missed lunch--they decided to head into a nearby diner for a bite to eat.
“So, where do you live?” Echo asked once they were seated.
“I live in Ponyville,” Dreamer answered with a proud puff of her chest and a grin, “It’s a small town near Canterlot.”
“Ponyville… isn’t that where Rainbow Dash, the pony who did the Sonic Rainboom, lives?” Echo questioned curiously.
“Oh yes! She lives on a cloud above the town,” Dreamer answered with a nod of her head.
“She’s really competitive, but she’s a nice friend, even if she does tend to boast a lot,” Tinsel Quill added from her seat on top of Dreamer’s hat.
“Competitive?” Echo began with a prideful look in her eye, “I know some competitive ponies… so far only one or two have manage to beat me in a competition though.”
Thunder Roar slowly shook his head with a smile, as if he was saying, “And here we go again…”
Meanwhile, Echo ignored him as she continued with, “Lemme tell you: no Pegasus can echolocate like I can! Heh, even Nocturnii have trouble keeping up with me in blindfolded flying races. I’ll bet even--”
“Good afternoon!” The waitress interrupted Echo’s speech, “What would you like to drink?”
“Oh, I’ll take some water,” Dreamer answered.
“Water,” Thunder Roar agreed.
“Pfft! Awesomeness like this needs some coffee to keep the awesomeness going,” Echo replied with a wave of her wing.
Dreamer giggled at that, wondering if Midnight Echo and Rainbow Dash would get along or not. At any rate, Dreamer was certainly liking Echo--she seemed nice, and so did her Nocturnus fiance’.
“I don’t really drink anything,” Tinsel Quill explained with a wave of her hoof.
For a moment the waitress was startled, unsure of how to react to a tiny glass pony talking to her, and she silently nodded and trotted away quickly to hide her minor shock.
“Anyway, Princess Twilight Sparkle also lives in ponyville,” Dreamer began, trying to restart the conversation about somepony else.
“FOR REAL?” Echo exclaimed, “Woah… do you know… all of them? Like, Fluttershy, Rarity--all the Diurnals who saved the world a dozen times?”
“Why yes,” Dreamer responded, “They all live there, and I know them pretty well. We aren’t besties or anything but we are friends, I'd say.”
“You must be honored to live near such history-making ponies,” Roar commented with an amazed look in his emerald eyes.
“Oh yes, I really am… I really am,” Dreamer agreed humbly as her ears folded down shyly.
“So, is it true that Princess Twilight’s castle is made out of crystal?” Echo probed with a curious look in her eyes.
“Well, it certainly looked that way to me when I went inside it,” Dreamer answered, still not entirely sure how to describe such a magnificent structure.
“You...went...INSIDE her castle?” Echo whispered in shock.
“Yeah, she bought some art from me, so I got to go inside--actually, she doesn’t seem opposed to anypony visiting her, really,” Dreamer explained with a wave of her teal and blue tail.
Thus the conversation went on for quite some time, and when they were done eating, drinking and talking, they kept talking on the sidewalk. Eventually Dreamer left to her hotel and Echo and Roar were left together again.
“I must say, I liked meeting that artist,” Echo commented as she strolled down the sidewalk.
“She was pleasant,” Thunder Roar agreed with a nod while scanning the area for any potential danger. After all, he had to keep his lady safe.
“I think I need to visit Ponyville one of these days,” Echo decided, “I REALLY need to see that castle for myself, and meet Rainbow Dash--wanna come with me when I do?”
“Of course! I’ll go with you wherever you want,” Roar agreed with a kind smile.
“Oh, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, Dear,” Echo pointed out with a concerned look in her eyes. She didn’t want him to feel like he HAD to go with her.
“No, really, I like traveling with you,” Roar insisted while walking closer to her as he added, “You know I love you.”
At that, Echo beamed and nuzzled him.
“I love you too… but I don’t want you to feel obliged to come with me,” She murmured as she wrapped a blue and yellow wing around his shoulders.
Lovingly Roar nipped the back of her neck and whispered, “Don’t worry so much, okay?”
After that, the two traveled on to Neon Butterfly’s place.
Meanwhile, Turquoise Dreamer was in her hotel room, finishing her painting. Pausing for a moment, she put down her brush and asked, “Tinsel, you did take notes, right? About the ponies we met today?”
“Totally!” Tinsel declared as she fluffed the whipped cream on her head again, “We’ll really be able to write some cute romantic scenes now! You know, I really do believe that most of life is nothing but research for writing the next story.”
“And what about the rest of life?” Dreamer probed with a grin.
“Duh! The rest of life is writing the next story!” Tinsel answered as if it was the most obvious answer ever.
After that the two laughed heartily. Indeed, sometimes it seemed like life was nothing more than a fun little story written by someone far away.