Secrets

by Robobrony

Twilight and Applejack's Attempt

Chapter 3: Twilight And Applejack’s Attempt

Midnight Star was just now finishing up his first work of art for advertisement to get others attention. “A splash of yellow there, a bit of orange here and, done. My first work of art is finally complete, now I just need to figure out the best way to show it off to others, maybe I should make more than one painting too, hmm.” He said out loud to himself. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. “Now who could that be?” Midnight walked over to the door and opened it.

He was greeted by another unicorn. “Good day, my name is Twilight Sparkle, I just wanted to come by and introduce myself and to welcome you to Ponyville, I run the library in town.”

“That’s nice of you but unless you’re here for business, I don’t have time for friendly greetings.” Midnight sad rather coldly.

Twilight kept her smile on. “Actually, I came by because my friend Rarity mentioned that you’re an artist so-“

Midnight cut her off. “WAIT, your friends with that fashion minded unicorn?” “Good grief, how many of these pesky ponies wanting to make me their friend is there, it’s nice and all, but I can’t risk them finding out my secret.” Midnight thought to himself.

“Why yes, she is, anyway, she mentioned that you’re an artist so I brought by some art books you might be interested in. Would you like to take a look?”

Midnight practically shouted out loud in his mind. “HOLY HAYSEED, ART BOOKS, I love art books, it was because of them that I got interested in becoming an artist and discovered my special talent. Play it cool, you can’t let her know just how interested you are, just accept them and get rid of her.” “Well, that certainly is thoughtful of you, I take it there is a rental fee for these since there from the library?”

“Actually, I can just let you have them for a while and you can just bring them back whenever you’re done with them, I don’t mind letting you borrow them for nothing, think of it as my welcoming gift to you. Would it be allright if I came in and looked over them with you. I never really bothered to look at them myself.”

“OH COME ON, that’s just not fair, that is way too nice, play it cool, just remember to act cold and casual.” “I do appreciate the gesture, but I don’t have time for visitors, I’m trying to think of the best way right now to advertise my work so I can start drumming up business for my art studio.”

Twilight then had an idea that might get him to open up a little and get him to talk with Applejack so she could try and talk with him too. “Maybe I could help, you see, another friend of mine named Applejack runs Sweet Apple Acres, they grow and sell apples here in Ponyville, I’ll bet you could make a wonderful painting to help her advertise her produce and she could inform others that it was your painting that she is using. Would that help, she would pay you for your work of course.”

“They just don’t give up, what do I have to do to make them realize I’m not interested, then again, I really do need the business, guess I don’t have much of a choice.” He fell defeated inwardly and decided it was best to accept. “Fine, I’ll meet with this friend of yours about making some form of advertisement for her to help with her sales, just let her know I’ll come over later this afternoon.”

Twilight’s smile grew bigger upon hearing Midnight Star accept her offer. “Great, I’ll head over there now and let her know, oh right, here you go, the art books I promised.” Twilight then levitated three books out of her saddle bag and magicked them over to Midnight who took hold of them with his own magic.

“Thank you for this, I’ll be sure to return them when I’m done with them.”

“You’re welcome Midnight Star, and if there’s ever anything else you need, just let me or my friends know and we’ll be more than happy to help you with anything.” Twilight then turned around and headed off to Applejack’s.

Midnight Star brought the books inside and set them on the table at the center of the living room. “I can’t believe this, these ponies are proving to be very persistent with trying to make me their friend, I wish they would just give up, the more they try, the more it hurts me to turn them down. It’s nice that they want to be my friend so bad, but I just can’t risk them finding out about where I come from, if they knew, I would be in big trouble………THIS JUST ISN’T BUCKING FAIR! WHY DID MY LIFE HAVE TO TURN OUT LIKE THIS!” Midnight Star was very upset over the whole situation, he just couldn’t let others close, yet there we’re so many ponies who seemed to want very badly to be his friend.

It was now just after lunch, Midnight had managed to calm down after his fit from Twilight’s visit, he got his saddlebags packed with his art supplies and headed off to Sweet Apple Acres to meet with Applejack about making a work of art to help with advertisement for her business and his.

Thanks to the map he had, he was able to find it easily, he came up on the farm and was stunned at the massive apple orchard before him. “Wow, I’ve never seen so many apple trees in all my life, how do they keep up with them all?” He wondered out loud. He walked up to the house and knocked on the door.

Applejack opened up and gave a real friendly smile and greeting. “Well howdy ther partner, you must be Midnight Star, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, I’m Applejack.”

“Ok, right away you can tell just how friendly she is, but don’t let her throw you off guard, just keep things professional and you’ll be fine.” Midnight Star thought to himself. “Yes, I believe we have business to discuss.” Midnight said with a straight muzzle.

Applejack kept her smile. “Right, right, but before that, me and ma family were just about ta sit down fer lunch, why don’t you join us?”

"oh great, with you getting upset earlier today, you forgot to get lunch, you can eat later, just turn her down nicely and tell her you’ll come back later.” “That’s nice of you to offer but I’m not hungry, I’ll just come back later after you all have eaten.” As if to disagree, his stomach started to growl. “Oh great, thanks for giving me away stomach.”

Applejack chuckled. “He he, already ate huh, nice try sugar cube, come on in and join us.” Applejack then grabbed Midnight by the hoof and pulled him in. She led him to the kitchen table where three other ponies were waiting for them. “Midnight Star, meet ma family, this here big guy is ma big brother Big Macintosh.” Applejack pointed to a big red stallion with a short orange mane and tail with a green half apple for a cutie mark and a wooden yolk around his neck. “This is ma little sister, Apple Bloom.” She then pointed to a little filly with a yellow coat, a red mane and tail, and a big pink bow in her mane. “And this here is Granny Smith.” She pointed to a lime green elderly looking mare with a grey mane and tail tied up in a bun and an apple pie for a cutie mark.

The little filly who was identified as Apple Bloom spoke up. “Howdy mister, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, glad you could join us fer lunch.” She had such a cute little smile on her face.

Big Macintosh followed up. “EEyup.”

Midnight fought back the smile threatening to come out because of the cute little filly who greeted him. “Now there using adorable little kids against me, what is up with these ponies, that little one is just too cute for her own good.” “Uh, thanks for having me.”

“Think nothin of it partner, consider it a thank ya fer comin ta offer yer services fer our farm.” Granny smith said from her seat at the head of the table.

Midnight took a seat next to Apple Bloom, Applejack took a seat next to him with Big Mac sitting across from Midnight. The table already had food on it and was ready to be eaten. “Allright every pony, dig in.” Applejack announced. Every pony began to dig in to their meal.

As the meal began, Apple Bloom decided to ask a question. “So Midnight, where you from anyway, if’n you don’t mind me askin.”

Midnight recoiled a bit inside. “You should have seen this coming, they’re making it hard for you to be rude with all this, I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm in telling them a little bit about yourself. Just be careful not to tell too much.” “I’m not actually from anywhere, I’m a traveling artist, I just went from place to place, making and selling paintings wherever I went.”

Applejack seemed to frown a little at this. “Ya mean, ya never had a home? That musta been rough on ya.”

“Not really, I got along just fine on my own.”

Apple Bloom then asked another question. “So does that mean that yer only gonna be here for a little while?”

“No, I was getting tired of travelling around, so I decided to settle down somewhere and make a permanent place for myself. In my travels I had heard a lot about all the different places in Equestria, but the place that seemed to stand out the most to me was this town, so I came here after getting up enough bits to buy a home and came here.”

Applejack smiled big, glad she was able to get him to open up some. “You couldn’t have picked a better place, as I’m sure you know by now, Ponyville is full of real nice ponies.”

“Yes, I noticed.” Midnight said rather low.

“So what about yer family, don’t ya miss them, where are they at anyhow?”

Midnight Star said nothing for a moment. “More than you know.”

Applejack looked worried. “You all right there hon, what’s wrong?”

“I’d…….rather not talk about it.” The mood really dropped at this point.

“Awe, come on now sugar cube, ya’ll can tell us, what’s wrong?”

Midnight Star lifted his head and turned to Applejack with a glare in his eyes. “I SAID I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOU IT, my family is my business, not yours!” He shouted at her.

Applejack was recoiling at Midnight Star’s glare. Apple Bloom ran over to Granny Smith for comfort as she looked on at the scene in worry. Big Mac was ready to do something in case things turned violent. “I….I’m sorry Midnight, I didn’t mean ta upset ya, I just thought that it would help ta talk about whatever has ya so upset is all.”

Midnight Star started beating himself up on the inside for yelling and scaring this nice family after they gave him a nice meal and was going to help him with his business. “IDIOT, these nice ponies welcome you into their home and you explode at them for a simple question, way to go genious, why not just buck them too!” Midnight backed off. “I…..no, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that, it’s just that……look, can we discuss this business transaction some other time, I need to go for now.” Before they could respond, Midnight got up and left the apple family for his home.

The apple family just watched as Midnight made his way out. Applejack was now even more worried as she may very well have stumbled on to why he was so cold. It must have something to do with his family. “Poor Midnight, there must be some way ta let him know we want ta help.” Applejack said to herself.

On his way home, Midnight was still beating himself up inside for what he did. “IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT, now they’ll never want your art, you may very well have sabotaged your first chance at a customer, way to go idiot!” The whole way back, he just kept berating himself for exploding at Applejack for a simple question. He would definitely have to do something to make it up to her somehow, but what? Then it hit him. “Maybe I could just go ahead and make something for advertisement for them for free. Sure I need the money, but after what happened, I guess I owe her, besides, she and her family did treat me to lunch.” Midnight Star finally made it to his home and decided to get started on a master piece for Applejack to help her business. The question now was what to paint.

Author's Note:

I would very much like to hear from all of you that has favorited this story, please leave comments below and let me know what you think of it so far.

Comments

[Chaotic Mind]

No one else wants to comment? Pity...

Anyways.

The character development is good so far. I should know since I excel at character development. For those who didn't read the old chapter 2 will see that he must have a big secret that is truly something, well..., large. I won't spill the beans since I read the old chapter 2 but if the same plot line is being kept, then I'm looking forward to the struggles that our main character will be facing.

For those reading this comment who are just now finding this fic, you are in for quite the ride. Assuming the same plot line is being kept from the old chapter 2.

[Robobrony]

2667529 The plot line is the same, I was just given an idea to extend the story by shadowrider89 on fanficton.net, the story is the same, just longer than what I would have done originally. Thanks for your dedication.