Passing the Torch
Chapter Three: Apple Family Problems
Written by TheCrimsonDM
As usual it took forever to walk all the way to Sweet Apple Acers, but the three of them had at last arrived. Sweet Apple Acers always worked as a nice hang out for the small group of friends, it also helped that this was where their secret club house was. Amber still remembered the day when the club house was given to them by Applebloom and her friends, back when the Applebloom still lived in Ponyville. It was such a nice gesture that the four of them continued to use the club until this day, although it seemed like Color Splash used it to escape from her mom more than anything else now, Color Splash being the pony that they came all this way out here to visit.
The farm was quiet today and the group of friends couldn’t help but feel excitement running through them, well maybe not Hushpuppy, but the other two were excited. Applejack, the orange mare with a blond mane tied into a ponytail was sitting outside on the front porch and watching a bright blue pegasus stallion flying around in the sky. Amber walked up to her along with Hushpuppy, Sophie was still riding on Amber’s back.
“Howdy, sugarcube, what’s ya’ll doin today?” Applejack asked, her southern accent carried all the warmth of an open hearth on a cold winter night, and was just as inviting.
Amber laid down in front of her, and despite taking a new position so low to the ground, poor Sophie still couldn’t reach it with her hooves. “So,” Amber said, “Can Color Splash come out to play?”
“She’s still grounded,” Applejack said flatly. She returned to watching the pegasus that was flying around in circles before shouting, “Soarin, get down here will ya.”
The blue pegasus turned mid air and changed direction towards the house. He came in quickly and slowed down to a stop at the last moment where he landed softly and trotted the rest of the way to the house. The first thing he did, as always, was walk up to Applejack and nuzzle her before asking, “Did you want anything?”
“We have company,” Applejack said.
“Oh, you’re here to play with Colors aren’t you? Well she’s up in her room right now but you can go see her if you want,” Soarin said happily.
“No they can’t, she’s grounded after what she did last night,” Applejack stated firmly.
Soarin turned to Applejack and pouted while giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes that Amber had ever seen. “Please.”
Applejack gritted her teeth and for a moment she looked like she was going to say no, but then she turned her head away and said, “Fine, I’ll let her off this one time.”
“Yes,” Soarin said excitedly. “Okay, you guys know where to go, just be sure to knock first. She’s seventeen after all and needs her privacy respected.”
“Yeah, yeah. Last thing I want to do is to walk in on her clopping,” Amber said half joking while getting off the ground.
“Amber Light!” Applejack snapped.
Amber Light walked through the door with Sophie still on her back and Hushpuppy following quietly. Without turning around Amber Light said, “I’m not apologizing.”
Applejack let out a low growl before saying, “Can you believe the nerve on her. She must get that from her mother.”
“Hey that’s not fair, her mother is extremely loyal to her friends, and she’s a much different pony then when you first met her,” Soarin defended.
“Yeah, yeah, but if Ah had said that at her age, Ah would’ve gotten my flank beaten with a thistle,” Applejack stated. Amber chose to ignore Applejack’s comments, after all Applejack seemed to have a permanent stick up her butt.
***
There they stood at the end of the hallway and staring at the outside of Color Splash’s door. A black sign with rainbow colored writing hung from the door, it read “Creative ponies only, narrow minded stuck up mothers not allowed!”
“Wow,” Amber Light thought aloud.
“She’s captured the darkness of this world wonderfully with this sign, the way the rainbow colors stand out in the blackened background are good representation of how we all pretend that everything is nice and happy but it’s all just a falsity made up by ponies in an attempt to hide from the darkness that surrounds us all,” Hushpuppy said flatly, he ended with a slight grin of approval.
“That’s just a little messed up,” Amber Light said.
“I don’t really get it, but I think that rainbows are pretty,” Sophie chimed in.
Suddenly the door swung open and out popped a peach colored mare, who wore a red ribbon around her neck. She had a long mane with six different colors streaking through it, starting from left to right there was, red, purple, blue, green, yellow, and finally orange. Her tail was much the same except for the tip was black and ended in a fine point. The mare looked at the three ponies and smiled brightly.
“Did I hear somepony with an actual understand of artistic creativity?” She asked.
Hushpuppy smiled and said, “You’re understanding of the bleakness of life is always a wonderful treat.”
Amber Light face hoofed and said, “Color Splash, Hushpuppy, could we please not get into this right now?”
Color Splash frowned a little but backed away and swept her foreleg wide saying, “Welcome to the den of creation, all art is welcome, dark, cute, silly, or mystifying are all accepted in here.”
The three ponies walked in and were suddenly bombarded by the sight of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and everything else somepony could attribute to being art. All of it was created by Color Splash herself, as she has proclaimed herself to be Ponyville’s one true artist. Amber Light saw a new painting on Color Splash’s wall and found herself suddenly revolted by the sight.
“Is that what I think it is?” Amber asked.
Color Splash smiled and quickly placed herself in front of the image. “This is my interpretation of how Princess Celestia treats Princess Twilight, I was going to make a sequel of this which involved her treatment of the elements of harmony… except I remembered that my mom was one of them.”
The image on the wall showed a more then provocative image of Celestia doing something very personal with Twilight. The expression on Celestia’s face was more or less a manic grin while she stood behind Twilight Sparkle, Twilight however had her eyes rolling into the back her skull, her tongue sticking out and her entire face was red from the act that she was committing with Celestia. Amber had to force herself to look away before she said something that she knew she’d regret.
Color Splash smiled and asked, “So what do you think of it?”
Sophie put a hoof over her mouth and with her face becoming red she squeaked, “Um… I don’t… What are they doing?”
Hushpuppy stared at it in silence for a long time with his own face becoming an increasing shade of red. Color Splash finally poked him and he croaked, “It’s um, a good, um… I like it, if that’s okay with, you…”
Amber Light giggled and said, “Dude, you just became Fluttershy. Is it really that sexy?”
Hushpuppy glared at Amber and said, “I did not become ‘her’. And… I’m not answering the second question.”
“Pervert,” Amber joked.
Color Splash looked back at the image and grinned. “So what do you think, Amber?”
“I don’t think.”
“Do you think that Twilight would appreciate it?” Color Splash asked, seriously.
Amber gave a hard look at Color Splash for a long moment, there were a few choice words that she wanted to say about the painting, but she chose not to give into her anger because Color Splash was very sensitive about her art. After a moment though Amber began to wonder what Twilight would do if she did happen to see this, and suddenly she burst out in a fit of inane laughter.
“What’s so funny? It’s supposed to represent how Celestia screws Twilight on a regular basis. Especially when it comes to fighting off the villains of Equestria, it’s not fair that Twilight has to do all of Celestia’s battles is it? I mean where was Celestia when Discord first returned?” Color Splash asked.
Amber Light managed to slow her laughing down just enough to say, “You know what? I think that Twilight would have a grand reaction to this image. But if you decide to show it to her, you have to have me present, that’s a requirement okay?”
“That sounds like a deal to me, can you arrange a special meeting for us then?” Color Splash asked.
“I think I can,” Amber said.
“So how come you’re grounded?” Sophie asked.
Color Splash carefully placed a sheet over the painting of Celestia and Twilight before explaining, “My mom saw this and she freaked. If not for dad’s intervention she would’ve destroyed my precious work. Instead she just grounded me for drawing ‘porn’, this is not porn it is art.”
Amber looked out the window and said, “Yeah, well I don’t think that you’re mom understands that kind of stuff.” Amber then walked to the window and said, “You’re dad said you were un-grounded, so let’s all head to the club house.”
Everypony nodded in agreement and followed Amber out the bedroom door. Amber gave it a little thought, and she just couldn’t wait to see Twilight’s reaction to the painting. It was going to be the best prank ever.