//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Unexpected Ponies // Story: The Lost One // by thedarktome //------------------------------// Twilight and the other Elements were all situated in Applejack's barn, thinking hard and deep. Rainbow Dash was Pencil Sketch. Pencil Sketch was Rainbow Dash. Over and over again. "I'm trying to figure out when Rainbow even learned how ta' paint," Applejack whispered, breaking the silence. "I've never seen her pickup a brush in mah' life. Not even for her mane." "I've never seen her pickup a pencil," Twilight added, settling down on a bunch of hay. "Do you think......she'll ever come back?" "It's what Pencil Sketch thinks," Rarity answered. "Remember what she said. Rainbow's in there but doesn't want to come out. And if she does, she could be dangerous." "So we have to give her a reason to come back," Fluttershy whispered. "So we can fix her." "How?" Twilight asked. "We can't just grab her by the tail and drag her back here. We need a well thought-out plan. What does Rainbow need to get her back here?" Pinkie poked her head out of a haystack and suggested, "Therapy. She needs lots and lots of therapy." "She needs to be shown the power of friendship," Twilight corrected. "Rainbow is feeling alone. She's alone, scared, and very very angry, all at the same time. We need to find a way to tell her that she's not alone and that she doesn't need to be scared." "Yeah, but how?" Spike said, popping up from underneath a bundle of hay. Twilight looked at him oddly, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "Why were you in there?" "Pinkie keeps thinking I'm a mole and is trying to whack me-EEP!" Spike dived back inside the hay right when a wooden sledgehammer landed where he was not even seconds before. "Twilight, stop her!" The purple unicorn just stared before going back to the situation at hand. "We can always wait and let her pull herself together. It hasn't even been three months yet, I'm sure she'll wake up by then." "And if she doesn't?" Rarity pulled Spike out of the hay and hid him behind her while Pinkie waited for the "mole". "Then we start worrying more than we already are. Rainbow's a strong-headed pony. If she's broken to the point where she changes her identity, then we have a huge situation." "In a way, it's like Rainbow Dash died and we're stuck with this millionaire painter as a replacement," Applejack chuckled, shaking her head. "Who's opening up art studios all over Equestria," Rarity added. The room got quiet again, trying to process that information. *** "Well Pencil....you did it again," the painter muttered, chuckling and looking at her latest piece of a family of Phoenixes. The legendary birds were hugging each other in a tree that was going through its fall transformation, the leaves changing colors along with the branches becoming brittle. "Isn't it great...Rainbow Dash?" The painter felt the angry mare hidden deep inside of her stir, making her dark and peaceful side sigh. "Rainbow.....we are both lonely. It's time we came out of our shell, don't you think?" "No.....I'll just be made fun of again. And we both know what'll happen." Pencil set down her paintbrush and laid down on the carpet, preparing to go to sleep and visit Rainbow Dash. After she had hit the snooze button, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness in front of her. But behind her was the brightly lit cage...where the Rainbow maned Pegasus was currently crying in. Her coat was a darker blue than it was before. Something was up. Pencil sighed before trotting over to her, her hooves creating a loud clopping sound amongst all the quiet darkness. She sat down in front of the cage and sighed, looking at herself intently before Rainbow opened her eyes. "Do you know what is going on, Rainbow Dash?" "Yeah, I'm alone! No one likes me, no one wants to be my friend!" She yelled, her voice reverberating around the seemingly endless cavern. "All because of......what? I didn't like my cutie mark? Because I'm annoying, because I make others jealous, what is it?! Care to tell me that?!!" Looks like she's lashing out, Pencil thought. Time to calm her down. "Rainbow......only you can find out those answers on your own. Yes, I'll always be around, especially when we need to paint and make good artwork for those who want to defy the limit, just like we have. But we need to understand why we're doing it. Do you know why?" "To be adored?" She replied, finally looking into her alter ego's gray eyes with her cerise ones. "To be adored, yes. Why don't you show them what you can do sometime? You paint better than I do. Yes, I'm amazing, but YOU are legendary. Why not take baby steps? You've literally been in here for two months." Rainbow Dash glanced up with her chin to the floor before raising her head. "I'll.....think about it, okay? I promise, Pencil." "Will you give the others another chance?" "No." Pencil sighed and backed away from the cage. Baby steps had to be taken before they could tackle the big problems. Rainbow lowered her head back to the floor and said, "I'll be watching, Pencil." "I know." The painter closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again to see herself back in her west wing studio, the painting still on the easel drying. She sat up and sighed, realizing it will still be a long road to recovery. And that she had a lot of work to do. Checking on the progress of her studios, that newspaper interview, and that painting she has to send to Zebrica. She got up and looked at her painting one more time before smiling and walking away, heading towards the kitchen. The complexity of all of this was really deep. The two sides would constantly switch places, with Rainbow Dash coming out for a little while before going back into her cage that she felt she belonged in, while Pencil would be the most dominant. They both knew dark magic and were aware of everything that was going on outside. It was just that Pencil was handling it better than Rainbow Dash. She opened the refrigerator and looked inside, pondering on what she wanted before shrugging and levitated a large tub of Blueberry Ice Cream out, placed it on the table behind her and closed the door back. Then opened a drawer and pulled out a spoon before taking a seat at the table and popping the lid on the container. She took a big dive in, eating a big chunk of it, the cool sensation making her hum in satisfaction. After a few more minutes she set the spoon down and sighed, looking around the kitchen. "Well.......this is.....boring," she muttered. If you were to be walking by a house on the west end of Manehattan, you would never expect to see a celebrity casually walking past you and up to the two story home. If you did, what would you do? Nothing, just wave and mind your business. But of course, since they weren't the average pony, you'd do something differently. Such as— "OH MY CELESTIA, It's Pencil Sketch!" A filly yelled quickly, watching as she walked by, wearing a gray dress. She stopped and glanced their way, expressionless. She looked to be around Scootaloo's age, a yellow pegasus with an orange mane. "Hello," she greeted blandly before moving along. "WOW! SHE SAID HI TO ME! EEEEEE!" Pencil just continued her trek towards the front door, albeit a little faster. She was all for foals, but that one was as excitable as Scootaloo whenever she saw her do a trick. Probably more so! She quickly pulled out the key with her magic and unlocked the door before stepping inside and promptly closing it behind her. Sighing and closing her eyes in relief, she didn't notice the adult mare staring at her from the kitchen table with two more stallions, watching her in surprise. "Okay......depending on her reaction, she is probably going to tell the other foals about her seeing me......and will try to follow me," she muttered. "It's happened before, it will happen again." She huffed before finally opening her eyes, her face graced with a smile, only to lose it when she spotted the three ponies staring at her. A moment of silence followed before Buff chuckled nervously. "Hey.....Pencil. Mom? Dad? This is—" "Pencil Sketch, I know," the other male said, stoically. "Question is.....how did she get in here?" The two older adults turned to their son, who was still smiling. "Well.........I gave her a key. It was her birthday, so I gave her a key to the house. She lives in a mansion all by herself, and I figured she could come over here." "Oh okay." "And we're dating." "Alright—wait, WHAT?!" The mother, Pencil obviously assumed, yelled before turning to the painter, disbelief written all over her face. "You're dating my son?!" "Uhh.........yeaaaaahhhhhh," she droned. "EEEEEE!" Pencil gasped before she was grabbed by the mare and pulled into a hug. How she got to her so fast from fifteen feet away was a mystery to her before the father did the same. "MY SON'S DATING A CELEBRITY! THAT MAKES HIM A CELEBRITY!" 'At least you got one of those right,' Pencil thought, her face turning blue from the squeezing. "You two are choking the life out of her, stop!" Buff yelled, running over and peeling off his way too giddy parents. "Jeez!" "Sorry, muffin!" His mother cooed. "We're just so proud of you!" Pencil smirked at him, which he noticed and gave her a deadpan glare. "Don't....even.....think about it." "Aww, come on, muffin!" She teased, rubbing his chin. "You need to have some chocolaty fun!" "What did I just say?" "You should know I have a tendency to rebel by now." "Awwww, you two are so right for each other," the stallion cooed before getting a serious expression. "But.....as a father, I need to know what your intentions are with my son." Pencil looked at him nonchalantly, putting the others on edge before she cleared her throat. "Well, of course to keep myself happy as well as him. Love is not present yet. I didn't expect to meet you so soon." Buff chuckled before turning to her with sympathy. "Got lonely in the castle, I take it," he said calmly. Pencil nodded before he draped a wing over her, making her blush. "This is why I gave you the key. So you could come here, knowing that there would be someone on your side." "Thanks." He leaned down slightly and gave her a nuzzle. "So, Pencil.....if you don't mind me asking.....where'd you learn how to paint?" The mother, that she came to learn is named Fire Speed, asked her. Explains the whole grabbing her without a single sound being made thing from earlier. The four of them were seated on the couches across from the kitchen. The house was really nice so far. Small and simple. Something she could finally experience. Everything she ever had was big. "I always knew how to paint, I just never used the skill publicly before," she responded, drinking a cup of tea using her hooves. "Really? Is that your special talent?" Navy Sword, his father asked enthusiastically. "Nope." The two parents looked at each other confusedly before raising an eyebrow at her. "Wh-what do you mean?" Fire Speed asked, shifting her orange mane. "Pencil's views on cutie marks is controversial," Buff clarified before she could say something. "She believes cutie marks are a limit of what we could really do. Her motto is 'Defy The Limit.'" "The rule only applies to those with cutie marks that do not let you explore," Pencil clarified some more. "For instance. If you had a position in doing something like cleaning, where could you really make a big impact? But if you had a cutie mark that represented science, you could take that to new levels, learning new things and putting them to practice." "So you're saying a cutie mark is irrelevant to what we could actually do, I assume," Navy Sword interpreted. Pencil nodded her head, taking another sip of her tea. "Yep. It pretty much gives you a floor to take off and land on while the real goal is the branches above you. The branches are your interests, the floor is your.....'purpose in life.' Your cutie mark. Of course, there are ponies who actually enjoy their purpose. In which case it doesn't apply to them." "Wow, that's..." Fire Speed glanced at her husband before looking back at the millionaire. "Moving. Are you going to go public with that, it sounds influential." "Maybe......but it's high risk." "High risk?" All three of them of them asked, surprising her. "What do you mean?" Buff inquired. "Well....let me ask you something. How happy were you when Buff got his cutie mark?" "We were overjowed!" Navy Sword cheered. "Mostly because he was so happy with it!" "We were very excited," the mother agreed, holding her husband's hoof. "Mmmhmm," Pencil hummed, nodding and sipping a bit of her tea. She set it down onto the table before huffing and directing her attention back to them. "Alright. Now imagine this scenario. Your child get's his cutie mark. You scream, 'Look, Buff! Your Cutie Mark!' He gasps and grins as he turns his eyes towards his flank, only to see his gold and blue shield. Once he sees it, he gets a sad then upset look on his face. He turns to you and says, 'I don't want to be a pony with a shield! I want to be an investigator!' You say, 'Sweetheart, it's part of our family line.' He replies with, 'I don't wanna follow the family line! Pencil Sketch said that a cutie mark doesn't tell us who we are and who we must be! So I'm gonna go out there and do something else! All of this waiting was for nothing!' After his rant, he walks out the door and probably gets himself hurt. Who do you blame?" She picked up her cup and took another sip while they all stared at her. "Ohhhhh," Buff muttered. "There could be some negative results after that," she continued. "You would get upset with me, try and sue me, and if that doesn't work, you'll do something like......spread the news about it across the country, which will get ponies upset. Including historians, schools, governments, nonprofits, art clubs, and the occasional fan club. All of which will impact my work, my bank account, and my vault, and probably make my dream and hard work all go down the drain. So sadly, it is a personal belief. And since I am the number one influential pony in all of Equestria, whatever I say would more than likely make a big impact among everypony everywhere. They would take it to heart and either become very offended or very inspired, either one. But considering that ponies like to host parties for friends and family over a foal getting their cutie mark, they would be hurt as well once their foal says, 'I don't wanna be that, I wanna be this!' I'm leaning more towards the fact that they'll become offended and miffed. "I'll give you another example. In Ponyville, South of Canterlot, I have a few contacts that informed me of a possible pony that was greatly offended by my beliefs. There was another pony there that had attended my first show here in Manehattan that had gotten the chance to meet me and Hoity Toity. She was a seamstress, always sewing up dresses. And he was a friend of hers. Someone had brought up Cutie Marks and the mare had said it defines us. I told her that she was wrong. That it doesn't. It's what a pony does that defines them. A cutie mark is just a predetermined choice for you. A mark to symbolize what you're good at. Keyword? GOOD. Not GREAT. There are other things that a pony could do. For me, that was painting. "Well, she went home and told a certain librarian that and she became furious. This furious pony you may know of as Celestia's protege and student." "Twilight Sparkle?!" Fire Speed asked unbelievably. "Yep. She became upset, saying that I was wrong. She took it to heart since her special talent was magic. She apparently thought that I was saying her skill in magic wasn't impressive. She thinks deeply anyway, but she must've been pondering on that subject for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if she showed up to my house right now to start an argument over my beliefs........or try to use it against me to come back......or worse," she muttered unnoticeably. "You know......I just realized something," Twilight said, narrowing her eyes. The elements were all once again back in the library, trying to come up with ideas to bring Rainbow back. And so far........things were becoming desperate. Especially since they all took dark magic as a threat to civilization. "And what is that?" Applejack asked, munching on an apple. "It was....Rainbow Dash who said that my magic wasn't good enough!" "Ugghh, not this again!" Spike yelled in frustration, burying his face in his claws. "When will you let that go, it's not offensive, it technically doesn't even AFFECT you!" "But it affects everypony else, which I do. Not. Like! I'm going over to have a little word with her." She stood up and made her way towards the door, walking past everyone trying to tell her to calm down before Spike stood in front of the door. "Twilight, I'm not letting you look like a foal and make US look bad!" He said defiantly. "Spike....get out of the way." "No." She groaned before she disappeared in a flash. The group looked around in confusion before Spike gasped, finally realizing what she did. He turned around and yanked the door open, watching in disbelief at Twilight running towards the train station, yards away from the library. "We have to stop her!" They ran out the door and tried to catch her before she could do something foalish. Surprisingly, she teleported to the train station, leaving them in the dust. Luckily for her, the train was already waiting for passengers and was about to leave in a minute. She paid for her ticket quickly and boarded right when the train started leaving the station. Applejack had caught up, watching as the train left, disappearing in the distance. "This.....will not end well," she muttered. *** Pencil unlocked the automatic gates to her home, walking past and onto the grounds before closing and locking it back, making sure no one unauthorized was allowed inside. Afterwards, she walked into her home, locked the door behind her and headed to her library to get some reads in. She really needed to get some Daring Do novels or else she'll be bored out of her mind. Reading mail and textbooks on finance and business gets stale after the first day. Well......for her. After walking inside the room, she stopped, feeling a sense of a threat coming to her. And arriving soon. Her dark magic had gotten a lot stronger than it was before. She couldn't tell if it was from her negativity or from Rainbow Dash who was still angry in her cell. Either way, something was coming. If it was what she thought it was, she should probably just wait at the door. Groaning and rolling her eyes, she turned around and made her way back to the front. "This.....is going to get interesting."