The dot matrix printer · 11:52pm Oct 15th, 2020
Much to Sundance's surprise, Carnation Nosegay and Paradox trotted up together to replace the departing trio. Rivals, by any and all eyewitness accounts, and yet they seemed to be pretty friendly at the moment, laughing and giggling as they were. Carnation hesitated for a second, inhaled, and then committed herself to becoming muddy. On the other hoof, Paradox didn't hesitate at all, and this made Sundance rather thoughtful. His cousin was a clean sort, fastidious, but living here in this place had changed her in much the same way it had changed him.
The two mares stomped in the mud for a time and then Carnation turned her attention to Ochre.
"Would you like to join us?" she asked.
The colt, engrossed in his work, did not respond, not right away. He flung a bit of mud, pulled back his head to consider his efforts, and it was only after he studied for a short time that he responded. Not taking his eyes from his work, he shook his head no, sniffled briefly, and then he resumed his task without a single word said.
"Such a serious little guy," Carnation said to Paradox.
"He is," Paradox replied. "Sensitive artist."
"Yes"—Carnation nodded in agreement—"serious and sensitive artist."
"Wouldn't you like to have a little fun?" Paradox asked of the still-working colt, who carefully applied a dollop of mud to his unfinished masterpiece.
This time, the colt did turn around, with one eye wide and the other squinted. His face was lightly freckled with mud spatters and the somewhat floppy tips of his ears waggled in the light breeze. After turning his head, he completely turned his whole body around, and the precocious colt studied Paradox with a critical eye. He held out his foreleg—which he stared down the length of—and the tip of his tongue poked out from between his tight-pressed lips.
"Your nose is trapezoidal," Ochre remarked in a rather casual way, as if this was a perfectly normal thing to say to other ponies.
"Her nose is what?" asked Carnation, who had a serious face but a mischievous twinkle in her eyes betrayed her true feelings.
"Trapezoidal," the studious colt replied. "Nose is wide on top. Skinny chin. Angled sides."
"Sweetie Biscuit"—Carnation's words were saccharine—"where did a little fella like you learn what a trapezoid is? I don't think I knew that at your age."
"I dunno." Ochre shrugged. "I di'n't learn it from anywhere. It was just in my head one day and it wasn't there the day before. After I got my mark, a lot of stuff just showed up in my head."
"Wouldn't you like to throw mud at Sundance with us?" asked Paradox while she stared cross-eyed at her trapezoidal muzzle.
It was an incredibly silly look for the dangerous, fiery unicorn.
Hovering in place, Sundance watched and waited; what else could he do? As for Ochre, the colt seemed almost overwhelmed now and his confused eyes blinked a great many times in a short span of time. With a turn of his head, he glanced at his progress on the stone retaining wall, sighed once, and then returned his attention to Paradox.
"Why?" he asked.
This befuddled Paradox, who shook her head suddenly. "Well, why not?"
"It's fun." Carnation stomped in the mud hard enough to completely splatter Paradox's legs. "I didn't think it would be fun to play in the mud, but it is. You should join us."
"But then I'll be dirty." The colt's ears pinned back. "If I'm dirty, then I'll hafta take a bath. If I hafta take a bath, that'll be more time away from my painting."
"He's got us, Carnation," Paradox whispered to her accomplice.
"He does, Paradox. He's smart."
"That he is. We'll have to do something about that."
"Oh, indeed. It'll be grand."
"What are you painting, little guy?" asked Paradox.
"It's a dot-picture."
"What's a dot-picture?"
"If I add enough dots, eventually it will look like something. You have to add a lot of dots very close together to make a picture." The colt's ears pivoted forwards, pricked, but the tips remained ridiculously floppy. "It's super-hard and takes a lot of thinking."
Carnation asked, "And that's more important than throwing mud at Sundance or having fun?"
The colt nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, suit yourself, Sweetie Biscuit."
Celestia help us all if he starts to make weird noises when painting.
You do realize, a good chunk of the audience is going to have no idea what you're referencing. Feels old, man.
But all the artsy fartsy types who know what pointillism is will. A
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long with the ones with a large vocabulary.
if no one does you put a flopamatron video in the notes
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Sounds like a them problem. Besides, dot matrix is still in use today, just not in home or standard business use.