*Many Years Ago*
The purple pony sat and cried as she stared into the reflection of herself bouncing back towards her from the mirror. This is what she had been reduced to. There was nothing else left for her to do. She certainly could go outside. It might’ve cleared her head and she would no longer be stir-crazy. While she did have a broken forehoof, there certainly was nothing holding her back.
But…….there was. They were out there. They were waiting, watching, looking for the opportune moment to strike; to laugh at her, to call her names and make her feel weak.
She was weak. She was the mare of glass bones after all. She was only as strong as the reflection she saw in the mirror. Heck, she wasn’t even stronger than the mirror itself.
Physically, nothing was keeping her from going outside and playing. Mentally, it was a completely different situation. Self-doubt, self-loathing, fear and isolation began to play nasty tricks on her. In fact, these emotions and many more had already begun to play the moment she broke her forehoof two weeks ago. Ever since then, she basically did nothing except read and cry, and never once did she leave her room.
It was then that Shining Armor decided he had had enough!
He entered her room, robust and filled with the ever-growing intent of getting his sister, Twilight Sparkle, to leave the cage that was her own sanctuary.
“Ok Twillly,” Shinning Armor spoke with powerful convection that should’ve belonged to a mother. In fact, it was his and her said mother who promoted him to speak with Twilight Sparkle. “No More sitting in this room,” he commanded angrily. “We’ve let it gone on long enough.”
Twilight only stared into the mirror. Her face distorted itself from time to time as uncontrollable whimpers left her body, causing tears to well into her eyes and cascade down her face. She thought that the lower lip only made her look fragile. She thought she was ugly. That’s what the kids across the street called her. They’ve called her even worst.
“I’m not going out there again,” Twilight told her brother. She then extended the forehoof that was in the cast to his general direction and looked him square in the eyes. “This was the last time,” she stated. “I told you that I was never going to get hurt again.”
“You can’t do anything about that,” Shinning Armor retorted. “You might fall between your bed and this mirror, if that’s what the spirits have planned for you, then that’s what’s going to happen. You can’t hide from life. You can’t expect to avoid injury from just sitting in a room.” Shinning Armor stopped himself and lowered his face to one of his hooves, realizing that he was only getting angrier and louder the longer he spoke. Controlling himself, he brought his head back up and tried a different tactic. “Besides, isn’t it time you went back outside? Huh? I understand a few day but two weeks?!? C’mon Twillly, you’re friends need you and are waiting for you.”
Twillight scoffed. She chuckled bitterly in a sarcastic response. “Friends?” she huffed out. “I don’t have any friends.”
This astounded Shinning. “What do you mean?” he asked curiously. Surely everypony at least has one friend. What did she mean by the expression ‘I have no friends.’
And then she told him.
“The fillies at school call me ‘the mare of glass bones,’ because I break like glass; both physically and emotionally,” Twilight responded.
Shinning leaned down towards her and placed a hoof over her shoulder. “You make this decision now,” Shining informed her. “To be afraid, it’s going to haunt you the rest of your life. For as long as you live, you will always be afraid.”
Twilight shot him a look as if to say ‘do I really care?’ and then she lowered her head and began to sob some more.
He stored her reaction as a piece of information into the back of his head for later use. At the moment, he was in the midst of planning something. It was an ingenious plan really. It basically was a way of getting Twilight back outside by ‘dangling the carrot in front of her,’ as it were. All he had to do was inform her.
There was a brief moment of silence as Shinning Armor paused to step back and observe what had just been said to him. Then, he spoke. “I got you a present.”
“Why?” Twilight asked bitterly through tears.
“Forget why,” Shinning retorted in a strong manner. “Do you want it or not?”
Although almost completely transparent, if one were to focus hard enough, or at least be as close to Twilight Sparkle relationship-wise like Shining Armor, one would’ve noticed Twilight slightly nodding her head.
“Well go get it then,” Shinning Armor commanded her.
“Where is it?” She asked.
And that’s when Shinning Armor laid down the bomb shell with a smile. “Across the street,” he told her.
Twilight snapped her head towards her brother, shocked and amazed by what she had just heard. “ARE YOU CRAZY?!?” she screamed. “Some Pony’s liable to steal it!”
Shinning Armor smiled, realizing that his plan was about to work. “Then you better go get it before someone else does.”
It wasn’t easy going down the stairs, but she did eventually do it. Shinning Armor aided her down the steps, so that part wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be.
The hard part was going across the street.
It wasn’t physically demanding, but it was psychological torture. For the past two weeks, she was safe. She was in the comfort of her isolation and the indoors had provided her with safety from the cruel comments of the other fillies. But now, she was about to break that barrier. With the first step leading out of her doorway, she would be re-entering that world of chaos and bitter hatred and mockery.
She already saw and heard fillies laughing and playing and……surprisingly, ignoring her. Crossing the street, she realized that the laughter was off to the distance and didn’t concern her one bit. She watched the street for traffic, and she finally reached the other side. It was a psychological burden, to leave her home after so many weeks inside it, but she finally reached the other side of the street, and sat down on the park bench. She was grateful to her brother for helping her leave her home.
She was also grateful to him because of the gift that was waiting for her on the park bench she sat down at.
The gift was very square and flimsy and covered in red and green wrapping paper. Twilight Sparkle chuckled to herself at this sight. She realized that her brother cared enough to wrap it, but was lazy enough not to find any other wrapping paper except the one they used on Hearth's Warming Eve. Eagerly, she ripped away the wrapping paper to discover a box. In the box, was something that shocked Twilight Sparkle to a prevailing state of stillness.
To a normal onlooker’s eye, it was just a comic book. To Twilight Sparkle, it was the world.
It was the newest issue of “Daring Do and Friends,” comic book which was published by “Dark Horse,” comics at the time. It was a very hard issue to collect because in this issue, the ‘Limited Edition’ issue (as clearly marked by the firm black bold letters which read ‘Limited Edition’), Daring Do supposedly comes out as a filly-fooler. It was a surprising and ballsy move on Dark Horse’s part to release a comic detailing so much. In fact, they received so much backlash because of it that they had to create two separate versions. In one version, the un-limited edition version, the character Daring Do falls in love with is a Colt. In the Limited Edition version, everything remained the same. But it was hard to get a copy of the Limited Edition version. So much so, that Twilight thought she would never see the day to where she could acquire a copy of her own.
Until now.
Twilight basically sat in the park bench, looking down at the comic, with eyes wide due to enjoyment and happiness. Small tears began to form. She was so overwhelmed by the gift that she didn’t even notice her own brother walking over and sitting down beside her.
She was brought to his attention when he patted her on the back.
“I bought a whole bunch of different types of comic books,” Shinning Armor informed her. “And you will get one every day, on one condition.”
“Which is?” Twilight Sparkle asked in a sniffle due to the tears of happiness.
“You have to come out here and get them yourself,” Shinning informed her as he dried her tears with the end of his hoof. “You’ve got to quit being afraid of the world. And I promise you, if you face your fear and come out here every day, you’ll get your book, I promise.”
He then noticed which comic book she held on to at the moment, and smiled as he leaned into her ear and began to whisper. “You know,” he stated, “I hear that this story you’re holding on to has a surprise twist ending.”
If only he knew. If only, he really knew.
*present day*
The two stared into the reflective glass holding on to the painting. Actually, it wasn’t a painting; it was more of a picture. In fact, it was just a sketch, but a very expensive, very rare sketch at that. No pony really knew of its particular value, except for those who had an unfathomable love for comics and books.
Much like Twilight Sparkle, who was one of the two ponies staring into the glass.
“This is from Fritz Colt’s own library,” Twilight educated her customer. “This was before the first issue of the comic book hit the stands in the Celestial Calendar year 1968.”
The customer, who was a colt with peach fur and a gray mane, looked at her, somewhat impressed by how much she knew about so little.
Twilight returned the look with a smile, and then proceeded with her sales pitch. “It’s a classic depiction of Good vs. Evil,” Twilight described the painting. “Notice the square jaw on the hero and slightly disproportionate size of the villain’s head to his body. This is common in most comic books. But the biggest thing to notice about this piece is the realistic depiction of its characters.”
The customer was somewhat confused by that comment.
“You see,” Twilight Sparkle began, never once taking her eyes away from the sketch, awed by what laid in her store. “When the characters reach the magazines, they are exaggerated…..this always happens. But this……..this is vintage. It truly is…..a Limited Edition,” Twilight Sparkle said the last words as a pun, because the phrase “Limited Edition,” happened to be the name of her gallery.
The customer looked at Twilight Sparkle, and then looked back at the sketching. He hummed to himself and placed a forehoof to his chin and rubbed it in deep thought. After a couple of seconds of silence, the customer finally came to his conclusion. “Wrap it up!” he stated with glee.
Twilight Sparkle smiled. A small chuckle left her body. “You’ve made a considerably wise decision,” she informed her customer. Then she started to walk towards her desk, looking for the paper to wrap up the drawing in.
She walked with a limp to her right fore-hoof. She had recently broken this appendage merely walking around her office. It was very easy for her bones to break due to her disease, but she managed to get through life somewhat fine. She had the aid of a crutches wrapped around her front fore-hoofs to aid her walking. The customer at first gave off the impression that maybe he shouldn’t have told her to wrap it up and instead should’ve just grabbed the painting, handed her the check, and walked away. Twilight acknowledged this look and only smiled, stating that she was fine.
As Twilight Sparkle walked towards her desk, the customer continued looking at the painting, and smiled.
“Well, my kid’s gonna go berserk,” he informed her.
The sound of screeching brakes played itself inside Twilight’s mind. She could not believe what she just heard. Rationally, she thought that the customer was implying something far less arrogant, but Twilight wasn’t sure. She snapped her head back and looked towards the customer who continually stared at the glass. Twilight was shocked.
“What was that?” Twilight asked somewhat paranoid.
“My son Jeb,” The customer said to Twilight. “It’s a gift for him.”
It was a pretty rational explanation, but still, one more thing needed to be asked.
“How old is Jeb?” Twilight inquired.
“Oh, he’s 7,” the customer replied.
That did it. That set off the fuse inside Twilight Sparkle. If she had been annoyed enough, she would’ve burst into flames like she did long ago with Pinkie Pie. Her deepest darkest fears had been confirmed. This customer……was an idiot.
“No!” Twilight Sparkle shouted as she walked/limped back towards the customer. “No, No, no, No!”
Then, once again, they were merely mere inches apart from each other. “You need to go, now,” Twilight stated to the colt.
The colt, in returned scoffed. In fact, he laughed. It sounded absurd. One minute, he was simply acquiring a gift for his child; the next, he was being told to leave. What was up? He asked that question. “What did I say?”
Thus began one of the greatest rants Twilight had ever uttered.
“Do you see any Mr.Smartypants dolls in here?” she told the colt. “Do you see, anywhere on my body, a slender plastic tag with my name written anywhere on it? Did you see a little filly or colt with a blank expression sitting outside in a mechanical plastic orange helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it?”
The customer stared back at her, confused.
“No?” Twilight replied. “Well, that’s what you see in a toy store and you MUST think you’re in a toy store because you’re shopping for SOME INFANT NAMED JEB!”
Twilight finally closed the distance between the two and whispered as she leaned in towards his face, very intently and bitterly. “Now, one of us…….has made a gross error and wasted the other’s valuable time. This is an art gallery my friend, AND THIS,” she exclaimed while pointing at the sketch, “Is a piece of art.” She placed her hoof back down. “Now, you will either treat it as such, or, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
“RIGHT THERE!” Apple bloom exclaimed while riding on Gilda’s back as they rode through the air. She pointed at a brick/glass building near the edge of the south side of Ponyville. “That’s Limited Edition,” she spoke into Gilda’s ear.
Very carefully, Gilda reduced her wing flaps and speed until they landed softly on the ground just a couple of feet away from the building. Training from the flight academy taught her well. She could’ve landed directly in between two trees if she wanted to, but that wasn’t what she wanted to do at the moment. At the moment, what she really wanted to do was take in the presence of the building that was before her.
It was a rather long two story brick building, with glass surrounding the ceiling. Gilda didn’t see for what purpose, but she really didn’t care. She noticed a glass window just right beside the main entrance. Covering the window in tinted green glass was the phrase “Limited Edition.” There was no way that this was a coincidence. The writing was even in the same exact font as it was on the back of the envelope she received.
“This must be the place,” Gilda said to Apple Bloom.
“I know it is,” Apple Bloom stated with a smug smile.
Gilda returned the smile with a smirk. She was becoming a bad influence on Apple Bloom. It brought a tear to her eye, it really did, that this pony thought she was super cool.
As they walked up the building, and passed a colt on the stairs exiting the building (who seemed to be cussing under his breath) Gilda was filled with anxiety. What was she going to find in this place? Will all of her questions finally come to an end? When she woke up this morning, she didn’t feel the sadness. Would the ponies in this place be able to answer why? Would this entire nightmare of freak anxiety and emotions finally come to an end?
Only one way to find out.
They opened the door, and a tiny jingle of a bell rang out, symbolizing that they had come in.
A body-less voice way off in the back of the store spoke. “We’re by appointment only.”
“I got a card from this store,” Gilda responded to the voice.
“Congratulations,” the voice sarcastically spat back. “You have a mail box. The exhibition isn’t for 2 weeks.”
“This one was under the windshield wiper of a carriage,” Gilda told the voice. “It asked if I had ever been sick.”
Now, under the body-less voice, the random clapping of hoofs along the floor was heard. This obviously meant that whoever was speaking to Gilda was also preoccupied with something else. But as soon as Gilda informed the voice that the card asked if she (i.e. Gilda) had ever been sick, the clapping stopped. It only stopped for a moment, but emotionally, it meant so much. This proved that by whatever Gilda said, it immediately caught this pony’s attention.
Suddenly, the clopping got louder and closer, until eventually, the figure came into view. Gilda automatically recognized her. It wasn’t hard to. The purple fur, the stripped and strangely cut mane, it was just too symbolic to not recognized.
“Dweeb?” Gilda asked, unsure of what she saw.
“Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked as well with her thick southern accent.
“Gilda.” Twilight stated, knowing full and well that eventually she would show up to her store, and she was glad she did.
She walked over anxiously to Gilda and spoke to her face to face in a dramatic whisper.
“Hurry, come with me,” Twilight said. “There’s so much I’ve got to ask you. I’ve been waiting a long time for you to arrive here.”