Good God, Is That The Time? · 9:25am Jun 7th, 2015
Hello everyone,
Let me first assure you that I am, in fact, still writing The Grey Arbiter. Just very slowly. This is another point in the story where everything has to be just so, especially the dialogue. This means I'm getting out fewer than 1,000 words a day, but it should pick up once I'm out of the compositional woods, as it were. Let it be known that I now have immense respect for anyone who can write romance fiction well.
Here's some proof that I'm not leading you up the garden path.
Lots of love,
Shrike
She stared at the coffee table and asked: "Why'd this happen, Anon?"
I took in a deep breath. They say to never meet your heroes, but I think the better saying is 'never get to know your heroes'. There was another me stored in her head, an ideal me, and that's what she superimposes onto the real-life me. He was just and fair and always beat the bad guy. He could never do wrong. The kind of pony that found time to play detectives with her in-between bouts of crime fighting. I could only wish that pony was me.
That left me with two choices: either kill her image of me, or become him. One was nearly impossible, while the other was almost too painful for me to bear, and probably too painful for her as well.
"I... I made a mistake, Applebloom." I said. "A terrible mistake, and it made this happen. That pony was looking for me. He, uh, he thought he could find me if he went to you."
"Was it the ones from... from Zecora's cabin?" she said.
"No, no, it was, er, someone else." I said.
"Why was he lookin' fer ya?"
I sighed and said: "Look, Applebloom. I'm not... I'm not what you think I am. It might be hard for you to understand but... I don't always do good things. I did a bad thing, and that pony wanted to punish me for it."
"I... I don't get it. Aren't y'all a good pony?"
"Yes, yes, I am, Applebloom. But..." I was becoming increasingly desperate for a way to explain a circumstance so far beyond a filly's understanding that the distance could be measured in parsecs. "... sometimes, we get forced to do things we shouldn't do, and there's nothing we can do about it."
Her next words hurt more than any wound I've ever received or inflicted.
"But... I thought y'all could do anythin'..." she said.
I said: "I can't. I'm not perfect, Applebloom. I wish I could be everything that you think I am - strong, clever. I try very hard to be all of those things, but in the end I'm none of those things."
"Maybe you ain't so strong as bro, but yer clever, aren't ya? Yer right about so many things."
I shook my head.
"Being right isn't the same as doing right." I said.
I love your story, I think it's one of the best HiE out there, I am impresses that you mange to create a spy stories out of it. I would love to draw Anonymous an the cover art of your story.
If you are interested you can go see my DA gallery on my Fimfiction page I can promise on how much time it would take, as I have work to do for others.