//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: Of Lord Night Light and Talk Therapy // Story: The Last Impressionist // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// By the time I exited the palace for the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, I was ready to collapse. There were some major hiccups involving Princess Twilight and her dragon assistant Spike, I’m still amazed that the palace was still in one piece. Grant it, the princess hadn’t enough sleep at the time and Spike had apologized for abusing his power by invoking Twilight’s title. However, even when we put that cursed gem statue back together again, the convention was still dripping from a flash flood and set things straight with the other delegates to clean up the mess, all I wanted to do was to go home. Along the way, I paused at a park bench to rest my hooves for a moment, letting my head settle before moving on. “Fancy? Is that you?” I looked up to find Lord Night Light walking up to me. “Hello your Lordship,” I said, nodding in his direction. “Forgive me for not being my usual cheery self; I’m a little stressed out at the moment.” “Oh?” He paused in front of me. “Why? What happened?” “Do you really want to hear it?” I asked, and he said he would. Scootching over, I offered him a seat. “I just got out of the summit, and I can’t begin to tell you how many things had gone wrong today.” “How so? I thought Twilight was on top of things.” “That’s just it, what most of us didn’t know that your daughter has worked so hard that she needed some time to sleep. So while that was going on, that dragon of hers had decided to run things for her while she gets some rest.” “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.” “Of course, when the boy explained it all to us, it sounds like his heart is in the right place, but his head certainly wasn’t. To begin with, there has been a water vane that busted right into the room where the summit was taken place. I asked one of the construction ponies why he didn’t fix it, and he said that Twilight told him not to. The same goes with the Dragon Sneeze Trees to be trimmed, in order to accommodate for Spike specifically so that he wouldn’t have a sneezing fit while the meetings were going on. I thought that this was completely irresponsible, especially coming from Princess Twilight (or so we thought). “So to make a long story short, all the delegates, including myself, had gotten so frustrated with how poorly run the summit was going that we stormed over to where the Princess was to give her a piece of our minds.” “You did what!” Lord Nightly exclaimed. “I’m sorry, what was that last part?” My ears folded back as I realized not only to whom I’m talking to, but what just came out of my mouth. “Uh… You mean about the part of the angry mob?” I asked sheepishly. The blue unicorn, on the other hoof, his jaw was hanging open. “Please don’t tell me that… any of you hurt Twilie.” “Oh! No,” I raised my hooves up defensively. “Luckily we didn’t do anything harmful to your daughter my Lord. She’s fine.” “I hope so! You do know that such a thing is practically treasonous, right?” Celestia, this got awkward quick, “In our defense, we weren’t exactly thinking straight, and that we were able to find out what was really going on.” He sighed, “So let me get this straight, you guys formed an angry mob over some misunderstandings?” I scratched the back of my neck, “When you put it like that in hindsight… yes, that was somewhat it. But I swear that your daughter and her assistant are okay.” “Okay, so what made you get up and leave?” “Well, I just got out with lending a hoof in cleaning up the mess that not only we, but Spike had created to make sure our responsibilities and all were intact, I just want to go home.” “So you had a long day?” I nodded. “You’re not angry at Spike, are you?” “What? No, no, we’ve already forgiven him, he is young after all, and he took up a responsibility that he wasn’t quite ready for. It’s just that it did put quite an amount of stress on the rest of us though.” “Ah… I see,” his Lordship looked away for a moment, “You wanna talk about something else?” I sighed, “Yes, please. How are things with Lady Velvet?” “We’re fine,” he replied. “I was just going up to the castle to ask her if she and Spike would like to have dinner with us. Is she still busy over there?” “I honestly don’t know. I knew that Princess Cadence was there too, last time I saw them.” “Okay,” he nodded. “I really do hope that she accepts the invite. We’ve missed her and Spike around the house. With all that’s been going on in our children’s lives, we hardly get to see them anymore.” “Really? Doesn’t she send you two a letter or something every once in a while?” “Yeah, we get a letter and maybe a package or two from her every month. She keeps us updated with her life in Ponyville and her friends. And Velvet always ends our reply letters with the same question.” “That being?” He smirked, “When are you going to find a coltfriend?” We laughed at this until he opened his eyes with a realization, “Oh! Speaking of which, since you’re here, I want to ask you something, it’s about Acrylic. How is he?” “He’s… starting to get better. Father is here to assist his mental health at the moment.” “I thought he was a CEO?” “He was also a part-time psychiatrist,” I corrected him. “The point is that he is starting to get better. This is good news on my part since I can at least trust father since he approved of our relationship.” “So he hasn’t harmed himself since the… incident?” Here we go, “Thankfully, no. I’m trying my best to be supportive of him when he needs it the most. Though to be honest, when the doctor told me that legally, Acrylic is considered to be insane…” I shook my head, “The last thing I wanted, was to put him in a mad-house to be on the same level with those gibbering, screaming maniacs. Because I know that he’s not. He’s not some madpony that can’t control himself – he can – he just needs some guidance in finding his path towards happiness. He’s been through enough as it is; I don’t want him to suffer anymore. Nor do I want him to think he’s alone.” I felt a hoof on my shoulder, “I wish there was something I could do for you both. You two are just going through the unimaginable.” “To be frank, Lord Night Light, I don’t know if there’s anything you could do.” “Now wait a minute. Who says I can’t? Tell me something that your coltfriend needs, and I’ll look into what I can do on my part.” I raised my eyebrow, “Such as Canterlot University?” “Sure. I’m guessing this has to do with him getting rejected by the school?” I nodded, he thought for a solid minute before he said, “You know, if there’s a will, there might be a way in.” This caught me by surprise, “Wait, what do you mean?” “I think that Acrylic’s talent might be the key,” he explained. “You see, the last time I was there, they have something called ‘Master Classes,’ this is for art and music students who wanted to understand or further their skills by going to a special class, that’s paid by the school, to learn from geniuses of a particular art. Given the reputation of Acrylic Brush, I could help open the door for him by teaching a few classes himself by teaching students what he knows about painting. That way, it would get the school’s attention of what kind of potential students they might have on their hooves.” How had I not thought of that! “My Lord… that’s… that’s ingenious! Thank you!” “Hold on a second,” he said. “If I do this, I want something in return.” This made me tilt my head, “That being?” “I’m planning to gather the family for a reunion. Since I’ve seen his portraits, I have an idea that will not only give us an original Acrylic Brush but as a credential for the university as to what he can do. Even if they still think that he needs a certain amount of learning before entering, I think that they will consider letting him in once they see the group portrait. Besides, I’m not doing this because his art is crazy expensive at the auction, but because we do love the art that he produces.” “An interesting prospect, but I have to let Acrylic know if he would take up the offer.” “Of course, and you don’t need to have your coltfriend do this right away. The reunion is months away.” “Good,” I nodded, “Acrylic, father and I have some major business that we need to be taken care of soon. We’re planning to be going to Mr. Brush’s hometown, so after that, perhaps we could discuss the payment of this group portrait.” “Fair enough,” his Lordship got up, “I need to go see Twilight now, Velvet will be wondering where I’m at.” “Very well, I hope to see you around my Lord.” After he left, I got up and called for a taxi to ride me home. Minutes later, I walked through my front doors and called out for Gustav. I found him polishing a silver candelabrum, “Can I help you, sir?” “Is Acrylic around? I need to speak with him.” “He’s in the garden with your father,” he told me. “Also, Mr. Pants had told me not to disturb them until they were finished.” “Well thank you for letting me know,” I said. Though as tired as I was, my curiosity had compelled me to head over towards the greenhouse, where I spotted them talking near one of the ponds. Unlocking one of the windows just a crack, I listened in into their conversation. “…. –‘re telling me that this isn’t the first or second time you’ve attempted suicide?” Through the glass, Acrylic shook his head, “Not really. I mean, with what happened at the edge of the hotel wasn’t the first time that I thought about ending it all. On top of my… attraction to certain ponies, I have long believed that I was actually cursed.” “I remember Fancy has told me something about that, could you explain it to me?” He looked down at the flowers nearby, gently touching them with a hoof. “Before I do, you have to know that my town of Lightning Falls has not only a strong family culture, but we uphold the idea that success is everything. In that, if you’re proven successful at your skill, you’re considered an adult in their eyes. This is why I immigrated to Equestria because I was told that here if you only work hard enough, success was guaranteed. “Before I met your son, sir, I had sold everything I had to come here. Walked many miles in hopes to gain my fortune, back then, I was so hopeful that things might get better, free of what my home town could provide. Since I couldn’t exactly pay for teachers or to buy canvass and paint, I had to rely on volunteers to help me based on what talent I had. It took a while, but I had attracted a few ponies to help me. But the thing was, with everypony that I’ve met that did want to assist me, they never last long. With every volunteer that wanted to teach me about art or have sold me art supplies, they ended up leaving me.” “How come?” “For some, it was over money troubles, or that they were too depressed, or their business failed, they didn’t want anything further to do with art, or just completely disappeared off the face of the earth. This was happening so frequently to the point where I began to wonder if all of this was happening because of me – as if I’m the one that was responsible of them quitting before the job was done. It wasn’t just teaching or art, but friends too. Many friends that I’ve made from Lightning Falls have stopped writing to me after I moved to this country. It was as if everypony that I came in contact with either up and leaves or disappears altogether. “Since I immigrated, thoughts of suicide came more frequent with every failure that I came across. I kept going through a cycle that got me nowhere to the point where I was sick of predicting what was going to happen next. First, they offer their help, saying that they’re dedicated to do what they can. Then we work a bit for the first few days or weeks. Then something would happen to them to change their minds and leave. With that happening year after year, how couldn’t I think these dark thoughts of ending it all?” “How many times had you tried to kill yourself?” my father inquired. He shrugged, “In my whole life? Probably… seven, maybe eight times.” “Oh my!” the old stallion exclaimed, “You’ve attempted to kill yourself that many times?” “Not in the same year, I said from my entire life. Though each time that I was about to take that step (so to speak) there was something that pulled me back.” “That being?” He sighed as he plucked a flower from the garden, “As an Impressionist, we look at the ordinary and see something beautiful. At the time and places where I could have died, back when I had a little faith in my art, I found the light of the forest, or a field of flowers, or the river at the bottom of a cliff was something that I had to capture. Usually, I hated the thought of dying before I could express whatever creative idea I had. But when I became convinced that nopony wanted my art, I found something else that kept me alive.” “It was my son, wasn’t it?” Acrylic nodded. Father nodded, “You have indeed been through quite a bit in your young life. But did you think that maybe this so-called curse isn’t your fault for having ponies leaving you.” “I don’t follow,” he tilted his head. “All I’m saying is that you may not be to blame for others that have tried to help you because it happens more often than you think. Not that your situation isn’t unique, because to have this little success for this long is noticeable. However, realize that the ponies that help you, also have lives of their very own and that something unpredictable can happen to them in the last minute. I had several clients who, without warning, left because of something that was beyond their control. Volunteers or not, you can’t be sure if everypony that is helping you won’t leave halfway.” “Don’t you think I don’t already know that?” He turned around to look at his reflection in the pond. “But that’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I’ve never been in a serious relationship before, and given my past, how would I know that Fancy won’t get bored of me and…” “I highly doubt that he would,” Father interrupted. “Knowing Fancy, he’s not the kind of pony that would just dump you without good reason. Perhaps it’s my fault for hammering the idea into his head that if you want some kind of relationship to work, being platonic or romantic, it has to be based on trust. As long as you give him all the reasons to trust you, he’ll stay loyal to you till the end of time. In this case, even if your curse exists, I don’t think it’ll have the same effect on my son.” “You… You really think so?” “I raised him, didn’t I?” the two of them laughed. Acrylic looked over at the sundial. “It’s getting close to dinner time, sir. I need to get back with the staff to prepare before Fancy gets back.” “Understandable,” father nodded, “shall we continue our session same time tomorrow?” “Yes please,” he said as he started to walk towards the kitchen doors. “But for now, I’m needed to help the other hoofcolts with dinner.” Once my coltfriend had open and closed the door behind him, I stepped out of the greenhouse and into the garden. “How much did you hear?” father asked. I was surprised and asked how he’d know. He rolled his eyes, “If you wanted to eavesdrop, make sure you don’t leave your outline on the glass.” “Oh…” I blushed, “I’ve just got back from the summit, and I wanted to know how Acrylic was doing.” “He’s getting a little bit better,” father said as he picked up a pebble before tossing it into the pond. “The good news he’s opening up his thoughts and feelings from the talk therapy I’m having him undergo. It seems that he still feels insecure about your relationship with you and his feelings can get out of control because he had many who had to help him just leave him hanging out to dry. Too many disappointments by the sound of it, where it’s gotten to the point where he is paranoid you will abandon him.” “But you know I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “I know,” he nodded. “But I do have a question for you though: when do you expect to go his hometown to confront his parents? I mean, I can go at any time since I’m already packed.” “Since the summit is over, I was hoping we can do it next week where we could start heading down there by rail.”