//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Glistening Soaps The Soap Pony // by Positive Musical Brony //------------------------------// A few hours later, Glistening had returned to the bakery as Pinkie had asked. It was around 6:30, and the sun had started to rise. He had a good night that night. He walked around while listening to some of his favorite songs. He even went swimming as well, which he really loved to do. When he opened the doors to the bakery, he was expecting Pinkie to be asleep, so he tried to be quiet. Though, as he was about to sit down, he heard a sound from the kitchen. It wasn’t the sound of the floorboards creaking, but more of like two pots accidentally being hit together. He was a bit frightened by it, since it was unexpected, and also because it was still early, so no pony should have been awake. He went to the kitchen, and peaked his head in. Inside was Pinkie, and she seemed to be baking something. When she noticed him, she said, “Oh, good morning! How are you?” “Good morning, Pinkie!” Glistening greeted. “I’m doing pretty good, thank you for asking! How about you?” “Well, I’m doing very good! I’m making you some pancakes.” “Oh, really? Thank you, Pinkie! I really appreciate that!” “It’s no biggie! Just have a seat at one of the tables, and I’ll bring the pancakes into you when I finish.” “Okay!” He said, heading out of the kitchen and sitting down at a table as he waited. A few moments later, she came out with a plate of pancakes that were already cut up and syruped. She placed the plate in front of him. “There you go!” “Thank you Pinkie!” He thanked her, and started to eat the pancakes. Pinkie went back into the kitchen and around the bakery to set up for the day. Glistening finished eating within a few minutes, and got up to bring his plate into the kitchen and wash it, since that was his first instinct because he has always lived alone, but Pinkie came over, picked up the plate, and said, “I can get it!” “Oh, thank you! And thank you for making the pancakes as well! They were really good!” “No problem!” She said, hopping into the kitchen with the plate. Glistening followed her to say, “I’m gonna grab my stuff and head back to my house. It was nice seeing you!” He started walking to her room to grab his bag. Pinkie called out, “Wait! Why are you going?” He stopped and turned around. “Well, I need to get some rest. It’s time about time that I get some sleep.” “Well, you can sleep here if you would like!” He thought about it for a moment, before asking, “Are you sure?” She nodded, and he said, “Ok!” Pinkie smiled, and hopped up the stairs as Glistening followed behind. After she made sure he was good and needed nothing else, she hopped to the door, turned off the light, and said, “Good… morning, I guess.” She giggled, closed the door, and went back to her business as the soap pony got some rest. Glistening slowly opened his eyes as he stirred awake. He blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes, and rising from the bed. As he sat there, he heard faint voices. They weren’t in the room, but sounded like they were under. He freaked out for a few seconds, until he realized that he was at Pinkie’s place, not his own. He got out of bed, and put on his jacket. He opened the bedroom door, and was gonna go down to the dining area, but Pinkie was waiting right there. “Oh! Hey, Pinkie!” He greeted. “Hey, Glisty! I made you something!” She said as she walked into the room. She placed the tray on the bed, which had donuts on it. “I wasn’t quite sure what types of donuts you like, so I just made some glazed ones.” He walked over to the bed and picked one up. “These are fine. Vanilla frosting is my favorite, if you would like to know.” “Alright! I’ll remember that for next time!” She sat down next to him as he ate the donut. “So, how’d you sleep?” “It was good, thank you for asking! How has your day been so far?” He asked back. “It’s been good! I have a surprise for you down stairs when you finish!” She revealed. “Oh? How kind of you. Even though I haven’t seen it yet or gotten to experience it yet, it is really nice and sweet of you to get something for me, even though we’ve only known each other for… not even a full day.” As the two ponies upstairs talked, the other six ponies and dragon down stairs worried, especially Twi. “Girls, let’s just try to calm down a bit. So no ponies have shown up yet. That doesn’t mean that they won’t show up at all. Maybe they are just a little late, or think that it’s happening a bit later.” Starlight said, trying to stay a bit positive. “Yeah, yeah you’re right, Starlight! They’re just running a little late! They’ll be here soon.” Twilight agreed. She then heard footsteps from the stairway, and whispered, “They’re coming down, shhhh!” Twi, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight, and Spike stood side by side as they waited for the two other ponies to come into the room. A few moments later, Glistening and Pinkie came into the room. As they did, the other ponies yelled, “Surprise! Welcome to Ponyville!” Glistening’s smile grew even more and he chuckled a little as he looked around the room, which was decorated with banners and streamers, and looked a bit different than before. “Oh, wow! A party for me?” He asked, looking at Pinkie. “Yep! It’s tradition to welcome somepony with a party whenever they move into Ponyville, but since you’ve lived near it, we decided to throw you one anyways!” “Thank you so much! Oh, and what’s the names of all of you?” Glistening asked as he walked over to the others. They all introduced themselves, and then Twi asked for his. “I’m Glistening Soaps! It’s really nice to meet all of you!” He then shook Twi’s hoof. “You’re the “soap pony” Pinkie was talking about, correct?” Twilight asked. “Probably! I’m the only soap pony I know that’s around.” He chuckled. “I could show you if you would like!” “Sure! Let’s do it.” Twi replied. “Alright!” Glistening said, then heading toward the door. As he opened it to let the others go first, there was a bat pony and a regular pony standing on the other side of the door. The bat pony was black with light grey hair that got darker at the ends of it. He had bright red eyes, and had both wings and a horn. The mare was a bit smaller than the bat pony, had emerald eyes, a red mane, was tan, and her cutie mark was a bouquet of roses. All of the others gasped. They were silent for a few seconds, before Glistening apologized, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m in your way.” and then stepped out of the way. The bat pony and mare walked into the place. “Wait,” The bat pony said, turning toward Glistening, “You’re the new pony, aren’t you?” Glistening nodded, and the bat continued. “Well, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Shadow!” The bat held out his hoof and the soap pony shook it. “I’m Glistening Soaps! Nice to meet you, Shadow!” “This is my friend, Rose.” Shadow said, looking over at the mare. The mare got closer, and Glistening held out his hoof to shake hers. “Nice to meet you, Rose!” He said as he held out his hoof. She scoffed and said, “Yeah, nice to meet you too.” Shadow elbowed her, and she held out her own hoof, and Glistening shook hers. “So, we were gonna head outside so I could show them that I’m a soap pony. Wanna come too?” Glistening asked. Rose was going to say “No”, but before she could, Shadow butted in and said, “Sure! Let’s do it!” He headed outside with Rose, the others following behind. They all went outside as Glistening showed them what he showed Pinkie, and they all seemed to be amazed by it. All of them, aside from Rose. She didn’t seem to find it cool. She thought that he was just pulling a trick to get some attention. They all went back inside, Glistening and Pinkie hopping in as the others walked, and they took a seat at a table after getting some snacks.  “So, Glistening, how has life been with the whole “soap pony” thing?” Shadow asked, taking a bite of his brownie. “It’s been good. I finally got out of the forest and I get to talk with all of you, so it's been really good as of recently!” Glistening replied with a smile. “How was it before you came to Ponyville?” Twilight asked. “Quite lonely. There weren't a lot of ponies around to talk to since no one knew that I lived in the forest. There was a zebra that I talked to, but we stopped talking over the years.” He remembered, a bit of the happiness gone as he recalled the time. “How come?” “I’d rather not go into that. Right now, at least. Maybe another time.” He bit into one of his cookies. “Well, what about your parents? Surely you would have them to talk to while living in the forest.” Rarity said. Glistening stopped for a moment, before saying, “No, I didn't. I don't live with them… or even know them, for that matter.” That made all of them stop eating and take a second to process what he said. “What do you mean by that? Somepony must have had to take care of you while you were young.” “Yeah. It was the zebra that took care of me while I grew up. Apparently she found me on a river bank one day, and took me in to care for me. But like I said before, we talked less and less to each other over time.” They all sat in silence for a few moments as they thought about what to ask him next. Eventually, Spike asked, “Are there any other ponies like you? Like, any other soap ponies?” “I’m not sure. I haven't seen or heard of any others like me. So I can't be too sure.” “Of course.” Rose said under her breath, but not quiet enough, since everyone else in the room heard her. They all looked at her. “Rose…” Shadow said in a warning tone, giving her a glare. “Could you repeat that, Rose?” Glistening asked her. “Well, I just think that it's a bit funny how there apparently aren't any others like you. As if you just made this up to-” “ROSE!” Shadow barked, getting up. He took a deep breath, and calmed down a little. “We've gotta get going. I'm sorry about the inconvenience. We'll catch up another time, Glistening.” His horn lit up, and a few moments later, him and Rose were gone. The ponies stared at the spot where the two previously were in disbelief at what Rose had said. “‘Make this up’? What did she mean by that?” Glistening asked himself. Shadow was mad at Rose. No, angry at her. He teleported them back to Rose's place, and when they arrived, Rose asked, “What's the big deal?” “‘What's the big deal’!? You accused Glistening making up him being a soap pony!” Shadow snapped angrily. “Because he is! He's doing it for attention!” “Wouldn't you know about lying for attention?” Shadow remarked. Rose didn't really think about that comment much, and went back to her argument. “Well, you can't lie that it's a bit suspicious of how he is the only one of his kind, and how he hasn't seen any other soap ponies. And then you have the fact that he was apparently found by a zebra on a riverbank and raised by the zebra, and not by ‘soap ponies’.” “Even if it is, you can't just accuse him of lying about it for attention! You don't have any proof! For Celestia's sake, he hasn't even been in the town an entire day! How do you think it feels for him to be accused of lying about who he is day one of being here? I was hoping that you'd be a little bit nicer given that barely anypony else showed up to the party.” “I can see why they didn't show up, he's a liar and an attention-seeker.” Shadow was about to explode and probably break things, so to prevent all of that, he just went into his room. He slammed the door shut, and took a few more deep breaths. He took a look at himself in the mirror he had in his room to give himself a little pep-talk. Wouldn't be the first time he had given himself a talk like this. He took a look at himself, then took a deep breath, and started. “Look, you can’t let her get to your head, Shadow. She’s very, very annoying indeed. But she’s just another pony. The only reason you are living here is because you don’t have any other places to stay in the town. You can deal with her, just calm down. And maybe you can finally get another friend. Glistening’s here, and he seems like a nice stallion, so maybe you can become friends with him. Just gotta figure out a way to get away from Rose. You can try again tomorrow, it’ll be alright.” He said to himself. He then teleported to a lake he liked to be at to calm down, took a seat, and watched the stars in the sky.