Manechester
The next evening
Easel Splash was fed up.
He’d been persuaded to attend a charity art gala and auction tonight, a mistake he’d definitly not make again. The event was to raise money for his orphanage, and while he was happy to help raise money for his and the other colts’ home, dealing with snooty ponies at an art gala had not joined his list of cool things. The snobby ponies, with their muzzles up their own flanks, only agitated Easel.
“Oh, this piece is not very original now, far too much colour.”
“I suppose it's not too bad, for an Earth pony.”
“When I see it I don’t feel anything, it's just a random assortment of paint.”
“This piece lacks any sort of Avant-garde.”
“I suppose it could be worth a few bits, just to give the orphans something.”
“Clearly all this painting shows is the inner turmoil of a colt without their parents.”
The light brown colt pushed his way through the backdoor of the art gallery, relishing in the cold breeze now blowing through his red, yellow and blue mane. Tonight was definitely not awesome. His art submission had been an expression of a recurring dream, a dream of freedom, colour splitting apart and no longer being bound to the earth. But despite putting his heart onto canvas, he’d simply been mocked and pitied. While he could admit that his submission wasn’t exactly what the other art pieces were, those were more of what ponies would consider “modern,” shapes out of proportion, random splotches, apparently they were meant to be, ‘thought provoking’. The painting merely called “Void” inspired Splash to think, sure, but that thought was: “The void could do with some new colour.”
Walking away from the gala building and into the adjoining park, Easel found a secluded bench upon which to rest on. It was a clear night, and thankfully the stars shone in all their splendour upon Equestria. The music from the gala was mostly muted, the breeze blowing through the trees, but something else was also in the wind. Was some creature snoring?
After a brief look around, Easel finally found the source of the snoring, and was surprised to find that it was not a pony, but a dragon. A large, purple and green dragon was sleeping by a nearby pond, defenceless and practically a blank canvas begging for some creativity pranking.
Taking out his name sake and a selection of paints from his tattered old saddlebag, Easel walked over to the sleeping dragon.
************
Darning Weave was having a delightful evening, if delightful meant hobnobbing with some of the worst examples of what upper class society had to offer instead of spending time with her loved ones then yes, delightful. Her fight with Jade Star still weighed heavily upon her mind, she’d gotten so caught up in planning her daughter's future, she’d lost track of what was much more important. At least Twilight promised to arrange some extra time with Jade while Darning went to visit their friend, Sunny Skies. Having her dear draconic friend Spike personally fly her to Manechester however had proven to be the highlight of the day. She had always gotten along well with the drake, and having a chance to say goodbye before his return to the dragonlands was a very bittersweet gift Twilight had arranged.
The (usually) pegasus Sunny Skies had invited Darning to attend an art auction with the intent of raising money for a local orphanage. Had any creature else sent the invite, Darning would have refused due to a more pressing deadline. Darning scolded herself, happy thoughts not morbid ones thank you, but she knew that if Sunny was requesting her presence, then there was more going on than an auction to raise some extra bits.
For Darning Weave’s entire life, she had been searching for a solution to a near impossible problem. “How do you fix a problem that wasn’t meant to be fixed?” The answer apparently was rather obvious, ‘Gathering the Elements of Harmony to open the way ’. What the stupid prophecy neglected to mention was that finding a group of creatures who could wield all the elements, when harmony itself had no interest in intervening, was nigh on impossible.
“Darning Weave! Is that you?”
Snapped away from her thoughts, Darning’s attention was drawn to none other than Sunny Skies herself. Though she would never admit it, Darning envied the pegasus, her poise, posture, short cut pink mane and fabulous tail were the perfect ensemble. What the unicorn wouldn’t give to look so effortlessly perfect.
“Hello darling, thank you for inviting me. I do hope you forgive me for not arriving sooner. I only received your letter yesterday, and had it not been for a certain gentle drake I doubt I would have managed to attend.”
“Well I am glad to see you. Just the news that an invitation had been sent to you increased the interest in tonight's auction tenfold, but I shall not waste your time. While I'm glad I managed to see you again, I hadn’t realised how far your condition had progressed. Should you not be home with Jade and Twilight?”
Darning cringed, Sunny Skies had the most horrifying ability to read a pony, at least she hadn’t picked up on yesterday's fight.
“But you seem stressed, did you have another argument with Jade Star? What happened this time?”
MIND READING OLD HAG!
Darning cleared her throat and collected herself.“ Yes, Sunny, sadly we had an argument before I left. I thought that she could join the candidates at Twilight’s school for the coming term. I know she’s not a match for any of the elements, but she’s around the same age as the candidates and there's a spot open at the school, some friends will be good for her. Friends I hope will help her move on. Speaking of candidates, I am rather hoping you might have a creature or two to introduce me to?”
“Indeed, only one I'm afraid. It took some doing, but I believe I have enough evidence that there won’t be any cost to you. His name is Easel Splash, he’s actually one of the orphans I teach, would you believe?”
“I would, though I struggle to see how arranging an art gala of all things would be relevant.”
Sunny skies smiled, and led Darning to one of the auction rooms. The room was filled with mostly ponies, though the occasional changeling and hippogryph were in attendance.
A portly gryphon stood on the podium, waiting for two stage hands to bring on the next item. “Now showing lot number 15, titled ‘Breaking Through to Freedom’ …”
Darning saw the picture and froze, noise faded away as the world around her seemed to blur away. She felt free, fabulous and weightless. She could feel awe from the gathered ponies all around her, then horror, she was falling then, an explosion of colour, relief and salvation.
“... going twice”
“One hundred thousand bits!”
Gasps erupted from the audience. Creatures looked around, as did Darning, now snapped out of her daze, searching for the creature to place such a ludicrous bid, only to realise, the mare who’d made the bid was none other than herself. Darning looked to her companion, only to see Sunny Skies with a camera in her hooves and a large grin plastered on her face.
“Gotcha.”
************
As the auction drew to a close, a merry Sunny Skies led a slightly comatose Darning Weave out into the cold Manechester air.
“I must thank you, Darning, that was indeed a most generous bid.”
“One Hundred.”
“With that much funding, and the resulting crazy bids, we should be funded for the next decade. If I'd known art could be this lucrative I would have given it a second at some point.”
“Thousand.”
“If you don’t mind, I'd even like to name something in your honour, perhaps a new art room?”
“Bits”
“Ok, Darning, it’s time to come back to reality.”
From seemingly nowhere, a bubble of shimmering golden water appeared above the unicorn. With a pop, the water came crashing down, soaking Darnings mane.
“AAaahhh, thank you darling. I'm fine now, but that painting, I don’t understand.”
Sunny smiled. “It reminded me of a competition I had the pleasure of viewing long ago, two ponies were in the arena, showing off their flying skills. One of the ponies, a generous unicorn, had gained the most beautiful butterfly wings, but she flew too close to the sun, burned her wings and she began to fall.”
Sunny chuckled, holding up a hoof to stop the question she knew Darning was about to ask. “Before you say anything, I had nothing to do with the accident. The other pony, a pegasus fortunately, saw the unicorn fall and hurried to rescue her, but not even the fastest of pegasai would have been able to reach the unicorn. Then a miracle happened, she went faster than any pegasus possibly could and saved the unicorn mere metres from the ground, and created -”
“The Sonic Rainboom?” Darning asked.
“Indeed, a feat only one whose soul resonated strongly with loyalty could achieve. Easel Splash, the colt I want you to meet, painted that piece from his heart, from a dream if I remember correctly.”
“Thank you Sunny, when would I be able to meet him?”
Sunny smile only widened. “We’re on our way to meet him, Darning. I believe that he's … right over there…”
Sunny Skies and Darning Weave froze, in front of them were two creatures.
A young earth pony colt with a tri-colored mane, and a dragon.
Last the mares had checked, the dragon was purple scaled with green spines. The dragon in front of them however now sported blue scales and his spines were six different colours.
Looking to her companion, Sunny could only chuckle. If Darnings jaw dropped any lower, it would touch the ground.
“Look at the bright side, Spike looks about 20% cooler now,” Sunny whispered.
Hearing her voice, the colt tensed and slowly turned to look at the recently arrived mares.
“Oh crud.”
*************************************
Four weeks and two days before school,
Canterlot
ACCHOOOOOO
During an early, Canterlot morning, a young mare was awoken by an inconvenient sneeze, bolting upright the mare takes a look at her environment.
“Inconvenient sneeze? Check, forgot what I was doing? Double check, oh oh and a twitchy nose! That's seventh sense telling me that something plot related and requiring me to do something is going on!”
Speaking to no creature, the golden coated mare rolled out of her bed, and began to trot to the room's vanity mirror.
“Messy hair? Check, white, blue, yellow, black and pink mane? check check! Still a slightly overweight earth pony who’s cutie mark is a toastie, with rainbow syrup filling? Yep thats me, now I exist as more than a statement from a past chapter that's not chronologically happened yet, oh and my name is Liquorice Toastie by the way”
I have no idea what's going on here …
“That's fine, don’t worry, chapters and segments that involve me as the focus will be very rare to the point where unless something changes, I probably won’t get to do this till Chapter 13.
Hey, that's not set in stone yet!
“Of course silly, but what else were you planning to do with me in this chapter?”
Well …
“And how else were you going to explain my inclusion? After all, you need my flank to be a plot hole filler”
Why are we going for the teen rating in this chapter?
“Welllll, if you don’t want to get censored on certain platforms, if you add a random bit of non-PG content you don’t need to worry about being labelled childrens content!”
And why is that our problem?
“Oh thats easy, its to let everyone know that everypony in this fic going forward is a legal adult, since everyone's age is a bit ambiguous, here is the clarification”
Thanks I think, why am I having this conversation with you again? You’re a fictional character, I'm starting to think I'm going a bit crazy?
“Oh, am I a fictional character? OR, is what you’re writing just a window into a parallel universe that will end abruptly once you get bored, so to stop that I secretly devised a plot spanning 500 years to -”
And Scene change.
*************************************
Four weeks and one day until school.
Canterlot Castle - Throne room
The bells of Canterlot had not rung today, though the sun had risen, it did not shine and while Princess Twilight Sparkle was holding day court, mentally she was absent.
The events of yesterday had not come as a surprise, Twilight knew this day was coming, she’d tried to be prepared, but it hadn’t helped. Yesterday morning, Darning Weave had passed away peacefully in her sleep from a rare and undiagnosed magical deficiency disease. That was the official story of course, what really happened was that Darning weave had traded her life force to power far too many divination spells, all in an attempt to find the answer to Equestria's salvation.
Three hundred years ago, Twilight had accepted that the end was inevitable. It was a fact, mathematics proved it and astronomical data backed up the calculations, you can’t fight against that kind of evidence.
Thirty years ago, her heart was stolen by a beautiful mare, who had made her feel more alive than she had in centuries. Friends came and went, filling her days with joy, but this mare was different.
Eighteen years ago, that silly mare had convinced her to help Cadence with a ritual that the other alicorn had devised, a year later they greeted their daughter, Jade Star.
Now, the pony whom she vowed to share a life together, had left her all too soon. Twilight desperately wanted to see her again, but more than anything, she wanted to make sure that the greatest gift Darning had left her, could have a future. A future that was currently in danger.
Taking a few moments to focus on court, Selene Sentinel, Captain of the Night Guard was proceeding over matters in her stead, though with news of Darning Weaves passing, most petitioners had rearranged their appointments to a later date, but there seemed to be a mare entering now.
The mare walked closer to Twilight's throne, perhaps a little too close. Then the world froze, the mare had pulled something from her saddlebag, and thrown the projectile towards her. She couldn’t react, even Selene had been caught off guard.
“Surprise!”
The world went dark, she’d been hit. She felt a trickle of something trickle into her mouth, was it blood? No, it was …
Syrup?
It was vinegar and strawberry flavoured syrup. Studying her hooves, most of a tart now lay between her hooves, the rest was smeared all over her face.
Twilight looked up from the tart to where her pastry armed assailant had been. What was there now was a pile of guard ponies, attempting to subdue the pony. Said pony however, was currently standing next to twilight with a large grin.
“Hiya Twi, did you like the balsamic vinegar and strawberry tart? I also brought you some hay burger, just how you like it” the intruder leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially into Twilight's ear “a second burger and three servings of hay-fries, no cheese on the burgers.”
Twilight took a few seconds to inspect her assailent, fluffy hair, crazy grin and light blue eyes filled with joy.
At this moment Twilight decided to do the only thing that made sense, she laughed.