//------------------------------// // Act 2: Stone's Story // Story: Friendship is Failure #6: Write a Wrong // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT TWO All the rest of that afternoon, the friends followed Stone around trying to apologize, but stubborn as a mule, Stone wouldn’t budge. “I know exactly how this will play out, so don’t bother.” “Look, we understand if you’re upset…” said Twilight “But we do want to make it up to you, maybe even help you.” Stone only laughed sarcastically, “I’ve heard that before too. You mean you only want to help yourself. That’s what it usually is. Please, just do yourself a favor and don’t go any deeper into this.” He tried to go about his own business, but the friends just wouldn’t let him be. “Could you at least tell us why you’re so down like this?” Spike asked. Stone was really growing annoyed by all this harassment, but if it meant getting the friends off of his back, “Fine… though I really don’t see the point.” He invited them to his place after work at sundown where they could talk privately without anyone disturbing them, which was one of several reasons why Stone lived in a dugout out in the meadow; not many people lived around or came by and they couldn’t make fun of him or insult him. Twilight knocked at the door, and sure enough Stone was home and politely let them in, “Mind the books…” he warned them, but too late as Starlight bumped into and knocked over a large stack of books, “Sorry…” she said sheepishly. The friends suddenly saw why Stone didn’t take in those boxes of books inside from earlier. The entire house was pretty much all one room, and everywhere they looked there were many stacks of books, and unopened boxes of books. All of which were returned, unsold copies of Stone Heart’s novels. The friends didn’t have to read the books, from what they had read earlier that day, to understand the struggling Stone was going through. Stone made some tea and piled some biscuits on a plate. The friends all sat near the fire and Stone sat in a lone armchair away from them, almost as if he were trying to avoid getting too close to them or too friendly with them. “So… um…” Twilight said trying to choose her words carefully, “How come you write such… unusual… stories?” Starlight and Spike wanted answers too, and Stone sighed, “I’ve told this old story to so many, and it hurts me each time.” He explained there were several reasons why he wrote stories, preferably the way he wrote them, that no one seemed to like. He used to be into read stories, but unfortunately most stories he read usually ended up going against his preferences-- he would see and read a whole lot of plots that he did not agree with. -A boy being forced to accept the love of his life no longer wished to be with him, or that a life together was impossible; and most of the time… just accepting it and moving on with his life. -A hero struggling so hard to help save people’s lives and whole worlds from disaster and yet he got treated like a pest and went on unappreciated and scorned. -Cliff-hanger endings that neither explained nor showed how things happened after the end. “Every single one of them I ever read, it was always the same!” groaned Stone “No one ever bothered to explore alternative plots and ideas, or focus on What Else could have happened instead of just the one plot.” He angrily slammed his tea-cup down shattering it. The friends all jumped and were baffled by his frustration. “Whoa! Someone has priorities.” Spike muttered, but that earned him a nudge from Twilight. “Tell me…” asked Starlight “Did you have… any friends at all to confide with?” Stone looked more disheartened than ever. “I did once…” He explained that he had several friends he knew since pre-school, they all grew up together. One of them was a mare, Sandy Beam, whom he fell in love with, and for a while it seemed she shared his feelings. However, as the ponies all grew up, they began to change as they took interest in new things. Some of their friends moved away to lead new lives, just like that… gone. Sandy was all that Stone had, and she promised to always hang by his side… but then one day, she too had changed. She had made new friends, seen knew things and wanted to continue to explore. “I’m sorry Stone, but Things Change… I need to explore the world around me, try new things, and meet new people. Good Luck.” That was it; basically she just dumped him in cold blood, not even asking if they’d still at least be friends. Just up and left him… Stone felt so hurt and betrayed he grew bitter and cold. He detested the stories he had read, and scoffed at life itself for the things it took away from him and only ever left him with more and more things he detested and refused to put with. The friends all stared at him with wide-eyes, and Twilight was most livid; the very thought of some-pony just abandoning someone who cared about her just so she could fulfil her own desires and please her own personal gains. “I can’t believe she did that to you.” she said to Stone. Stone nodded and said, “Friendship never got me anywhere but down, and I was so incredibly angry about it I had a hard time thinking clearly or sleeping well at night. Until one day I started writing out my own stories in ways that vented my frustration and anger into harmless tales… which he called Fics… Fic… being short for Fictional. It became an obsession. Ideas just kept pouring from my mind, inspired by my life and by the terrible stories I had read before, and as the saying goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” He went on explaining how he wrote the stories the friends had all read… -The boy being dumped in cold selfishness, like he had been, instead became insane and consumed by evil, threatening vengeance against those who wrong him. -Or even running away from those who disagreed with him, rather than try to fit in, and go on a world-wide journey to find himself, and a new life. -Sometimes at the end of the story, even if the friends of the character realized how wrong they were to have treated him so bad and wanted to make up for it, he would refuse and not wish anything to do with them ever again, as punishment for hurting him in the first place! …All this and more, the way reality actually followed instead of always ending calm and cheerful. “To me, getting all these ideas and feelings out in story-mode… it just felt so wonderful, and so reliving. A world I could control, and get things I wanted to see for once…!” It was at that moment, Stone began to sing about his Fics… (19:30) When I feel dismayed, or hurt, or betrayed, By the so-called friends and ponies I knew… I find myself recovered, because I have discovered… …There is one other thing I can do. It’s a special little hobby of mine To write up many stories so divine Fics, they are how I get my kicks… Like a box of magic tricks… All the messes they can fix Fics, when my heart is poked with pricks, I can straight out the cricks When I write into my fics I’m not the kind of guy, who lets pain and woe slide by. It’s just hard and stressful each and every day. When I want to scream or shout, I just write fics all about… …And soon I cast all of my woes away. When I’m fed up with the stories I have read, I can write it all different way instead Fics, put my feelings in a mix Better than sunny picnics… Of all things they are my picks Fics, make ‘em four, or five, or six and the way that my heart ticks… When I’m writing up my fics So keep all your changes and friends to yourself, And let my work on all the Fics in my bookshelf Fics, when the pain of life inflicts Like a bunch of old slapsticks I can turn to all my fics Fics, No one knows what it predicts Others give me big conflicts… …but I love them all, MY FICS!!! Stone felt much relaxed after the song, and the friends were amazed at how some-pony showed such devotion to their own works and pride that went into it. Suddenly Stone’s features hardened, “I tried to publish my works, feeling maybe I could living off them, but I was panned harshly by critics and proofreaders who never once said anything nice about my characters, plots and everything else…” He showed them all scrap books of reviews he had received from publishers and critics, which read… “Your story reads like a spoiled brat!” “Your characters are so boring, I’d rather watch paint-dry than read this train-wreck.” “You shouldn’t be a writer.” “You need to learn to improve your writing.” As much as even Twilight understood why all these ponies were saying such things, even she began to realize this was going a bit too far. “No pony even gave you the slightest bit of encouragement?” she asked. Stone shook his head, “No… and when my sales never happened and publishing companies went downhill because of my failure, that’s when ponies in the street began to taunt me, making me loathe and despise life even more. I can’t believe how many ponies like all the stories that I don’t like, when all I tried to do was give something different, something new, but no… to them, it’s always got to be what they want! They would either say rude things to me… and those that didn’t offered to help me… by suggesting I do things that I won’t have in my stories—giving characters more development, making them more mature than emo, and making them grow and do a whole bunch of things just so they would turn out less how I wanted them to be, and more how they wanted them to be. Since I refused their so-called help, they all ended up turning on me too; making fun of me wherever I went and treating me like a pest.” He didn’t have to go on; the friends were clearly able to realize what happened after then. Stone obviously quit writing since he was getting nowhere with it, and took up a dead-end job as a trash-picker, as it was obviously the best he was able to get given the bad reputation he had. It really wasn’t a nice life to lead.