The Arts of Friendship: Life in Color

by ColdCutChaos

Chapter 3: When in Rome...

I'm not trying to keep up or adapt. I'm allowing myself to grow, evolve and create new music. -LL Cool J

Chapter 3: When in Rome...

Flash!!

“Surprise!!”

“Ahh!!!”

Damien covered his eyes as the flash sent him into temporary presbyopia, the room filling with a bright blurriness. He had heard murmuring throughout the area and tried to focus his eyes again to see who was there. As he began to refocus, he noticed a pair of blue orbs hovering in front of his face. Suddenly, shades of pink surrounded the orbs, and, as his eyes began to focalize, he realized he was staring into a pair of bright blue eyes.

“What the-!!”

He tripped back and hit something solid. Looking back, he came face to face with the same guards from last time blocking his only exit. Only, they didn’t seem as determined to actually capture him now as to stop him from leaving. He slowly backed away and turned back to the pink pony, who again, was too close for comfort in his personal space. She opened her mouth and said, “Hello Mr. Human Man I’m Pinkie and I threw this party just for you I didn’t know if you remember me I’m the pony who knocked you off Sugarcube Corner that’s the building we’re in now anyways I just wanted to say I forgive you for kicking me and I hope you enjoy your stay in Ponyville and-!”

“Woah woah woah, hold up here!!” Everything went deadly silent.

"First off, I gotta couple questions, so don’t be going ahead and tellin’ me things I do or don’t already know! First off, who’s in charge of this lil’ party?”

Pinkie just giggled, “Well, me of course!!”

“So you’re in charge?”

“Well, of the party, yes!”

“What about the guards?”

“Oh, those aren’t my guards! I don’t have any guards! Well, except for some knee guards for hoofball, but those don’t really cmph!!” Damien placed his hand over Pinkie’s mouth and met her eyes with a cold, calculating stare.

“Then who’s in charge of them?”

“Me.”

Damien looked up and saw from the crowd emerge a small horse very different from the rest. While Damien noticed that some of these ponies (which he overheard one of them call another in the whole of the murmuring) had either a horn, wings, or neither, this purple pony had both. He recognized her voice as the one giving the orders last night. He moved Pinkie out of the way slowly and walked towards the pony, who looked at Damien muttering, “By Celestia… You’re… You really are fully human…”

Damien looked slightly confused, but quickly shook his head and asked, “Look, would you mind telling those guards to move their asses out of the way so I can go home?”

The purple mare shook her head and pulled out a scroll. “Before I do, I have several questions I need to ask you.” She slowly unrolled the scroll and cleared her throat. “First off, are you familiar of someone by the name Sunshine Shimmer?”

Damien shook his head, “No. Look, I don’t know what kinda voodoo you put on me, but I want to go back home. Now!!” He raised his voice to a degree that shook the building slightly, causing everything to be silent, save for a distant crying that Damien recognized as a baby’s cry. He held his head in anger and said quietly, “Look, if you really wanna know more about me, then you gotta show me a little respect.”

“Respect?” the mare said, slightly taken aback, “Sir, I don’t know your full traditions, but here, painting over official government buildings is illegal and considered vandalizing property!”

“Good!” Damien said as he lifted his arms up, as if to challenge her, “‘Cause that tells me all about this place! Unappreciative of the struggle of a person who just lost everything and’s got nothin’ but the one thing- the ONE thing!!- that made him stand out in a crowd and show a single fight against corruption!!”

“Corruption?” she asked, slightly afraid. “I-I don’t understand…”

“Of course you don’t understand! You’re not smart enough to open your damn eyes and see what we saw!!”

“Hey!!”

Again, before Damien could react, a pair of magenta met his dark brown ones as another pony, this one cyan with wings and a rainbow colored mane, hovered above his face, with a few other ponies approaching behind.

This is bad, he thought, I’m outmatched and I have no idea how strong these ponies are. I might be screwed this time.

“Did you hear me?!?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you ‘Huh?’ me! You heard what I said!! Don’t ever talk about my friends like that! You’re a gutless criminal ‘cause you can’t face anything! You just trick people to try and get what you want!!” This single sentence was enough to make Damien snap. In one fluid motion, he sent an open palm right to her chest, causing her to fly back and hit the wall. He heard hoofsteps from behind him, and quickly dodge rolled out of the way, picking up a plate and slinging it like a frisbee right into the face of one of the guards, causing him to fall back into the other. Good, an opportunity. By the time the guards got up, Damien had vanished out the door and disappeared out of the town.

~~~

The Next Day

“Scootaloo, are ya sure we should be doin’ this?”

“Positive, Apple Bloom! You saw that guy! He was an animal! He’s bound to get us our Cutie Marks!!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders wandered towards the entrance of the Everfree Forest. It had been the following afternoon since Damien was discovered and since then, his name had been slandered by the Ponyville Express. While Scootaloo would normally be mad at anyone who hurt Rainbow Dash, this creature was bound to help the girls get their Cutie Marks in Creature Hunting. Sweetie Belle, extremely hesitant at first, decided to accompany with her fellow Crusaders. It wasn’t because she was “honor bound,” like Scootaloo said earlier. It was because She wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to them. Not like what almost happened last time…

“Alright, c’mon girls! Let’s get moving!”

The three smiled and yelled in unison, “Cutie Mark Crusader Creature Hunting!! Yay!!” They ran into the forest, the darkness quickly filling their vision. They continued to wander. Eventually, as Scootaloo walked trying to keep her footing without tripping over anything, she noticed part of the ground was… Flatter. Looking down, she made out in the dark a large print in the grass. “Look girls, a print!! It must belong to that monster!!”

Sweetie Belle frowned. “I don’t really think he’s a monster. He’s just a bit misunderstood.”

“Sweetie Belle, he messed up Ponyville, hates Celestia, and hurt Rainbow Dash! What classifies to you as a monster?”

“Ah gotta agree with Scoots, Sweetie. He can’t just just wander inta Ponyville just paintin’ all over buildin’s like that. It’s wrong.”

Sweetie Belle looked at the two, a look of dejection clearly visible on her face and then said, “You’ll see. He won’t be that bad,” as she followed the footprints, her friends looking at her with a look of worry. As they followed the prints, a sound was becoming louder and easier to hear in the forest. It sounded familiar. Almost like… “Music.”

“Ya’ll hear it too?” Applebloom asked asked as she looked in the direction the music was going.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said as she bobbed her head slightly to the music, “Sounds pretty good.” The three followed the music to the source, which turned out to be a brick building which sounded like it was vibrating. Scootaloo turned to Applebloom, asking, “Did you bring the net?” She nodded and pulled a large net usually used for catching large beasts. “Perfect.” Turning to the door of the building, she took a deep breath and reached a hoof out, tapping the door. It slowly creaked open, letting a large amount of the music out. The three covered the hooves as the wandered into the houses.

“It’s too loud in here!!”

“What?!?” yelled Scootaloo.

“Ah said, it’s too loud in-” *click* The music suddenly stopped and silence fell onto them. “Here…”

“Um…” Scootaloo stuttered as the three backed up. “M-Maybe… Maybe we should go now.” As they turned around, however, they were met with a tall shadowy creature lurking over them while holding a strange and extremely scary pipe-like device in its hand.

“U-Uh…” Scootaloo stuttered, “S-Sorry, Mr. Monster… We were just leaving…” The three tried to leave, but the large dark-skinned creature quickly stopped them with a quickly placed foot.

“Who sent you?” the creature asked.

“Huh?”

“You heard me,” he said in a terrifying and almost threatening tone, “Who sent you.”

“N-No one, sir…” Applebloom said, shrinking back.

“Bull, you’re here with a net, it’s obvious that you’re here to capture me.” His eyes scanned the three up and down. “And it’s obvious that they’re bastards if they send children to do it.”

Scootaloo looked at the beast and stood up straight. “Hey! We’re big fillies, and we can handle anything!!”

The creature made a smirk and pulled the device away from them. “Heh. Cocky lil ones, ain’t ya?”

Scootaloo began to let out steam and marched up to the bipedal creature and said with a very demanding tone, “Hey!! You got some nerve comin’ into Equestria, painting over our town, and hurting Rainbow Dash like that!”

“R-Rainbow,”Applebloom tried to intervene, “Ah think ya better stop…”

“You came through this place and left a lot of questions unanswered, and by Celestia, you’re going to answer them!!”

The beast placed a hand on its chin and began to think. “Hmm…” A’ight.”

“Huh?” Scootaloo took a step back, bewildered.

“I said, a’ight. Imma answer your questions. On one condition.”

“W-What’s that?” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

“Answer me this question.” He leaned in to the three’s faces and asked, “Why did you follow me into the forest and enter my house with a net?”

The three looked down at the floor, their faces presented with a look of guilt. Sweetie Belle sighed and looked to the monster’s eyes with teary eyes, saying “We were planning on capturing you and bringing you back to Ponyville!!”

“Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom shouted.

“But it’s only because we’re really desperate on getting our Cutie Marks and we thought that if we brought you back, we would get them!!” Sweetie Belle dropped to the ground in a fit of tears, “Oh Celestia, please don’t hurt us!!”

The creature only tilted his head in confusion, “Cutie Mark? What the hell is that?”

“What, a Cutie Mark?” Scootaloo stepped in, “It’s a mark that appears on your flank when you’ve discovered your one true talent. You creatures never heard of it?”

The creature shook his head, “Naw man, back home, we don’t have things like that. To us, there’s no such thing as one true talent.”

Applebloom, feeling more at ease, decided to step in, “Ya’ll mean ya don’t have a way to tell what your special talent is?”

“Naw, ‘cause a real talent, to most of us, is shown by action, not symbols.” The three looked at each other in confusion. Actions, not symbols? they thought in unison, What the hay does that mean? “Well, you’ve answered my question, now it’s my turn.” He turned tail and sat on a sofa that rested in what appeared to be the creatures living room. “My name is Damien Angel Nelson. I’m a human, which apparently none of you pony folk are familiar with, I was born in a place called New York, in a part of town called the Bronx. I’m a street artist, meaning I make murals and paintings over the whole of the city in any spot possible.”

"Ain’t that wrong, though?” Applebloom added as the three sat in front of him, and Damien just shrugged it off, saying “To some, yeah, but that’s ‘cause they think we’re tryin’ to mess up the city with meaningless paint. In reality…” He leaned into the attentive fillies, waving a hand over their faces, whispering, “We spread secret meanings and magic throughout our paintings.”

“Woah…” Scootaloo’s eyes glittered in wonder of the story.

“My meanings…” He continued as he leaned back into the couch, “Was to fight a threat that had made my people homeless, broke, and hateful.”

Scootaloo got up and jumped, “What was it? What was it??”

Damien smirked and got up. “That… Is a story for another day. But I do got somethin’ better.”

The three tilted their heads.

“Imma help ya get your Cutie Marks.”

The three suddenly brightened up and looked at Damien. “R-Really?!?” Damien nodded and the three jumped and hugged him. “Thank you!!”

Damien, shocked at first, just rolled his eyes and smiled as he hugged them back. “First, you have to promise me that you won’t question my judgement as a leader and a teacher from this point on.”

The three got off Damien and saluted as they shouted in unison, “Promise!!”

“Good,” he smiled and turned to a stack of papers and a pen. “Hey, quick question, were those six ponies that stood their ground against me important?”

“Buck yeah, they are!!” Scootaloo said, “They’re the Elements of Harmony! Theres Applejack, Element of Honesty, Pinkie, Element of Laughter, Rarity, Element of Generosity, Fluttershy, Element of Kindness, Twilight, Element of Magic, and the best of all…” she yelled as she jumped into the air, “The Element of Loyalty, RAINBOW DASH!!”

Damien rubbed his ears as she yelled. The filly obviously has lungs, he thought. “Stay right here, I’m going to have some stuff for you.” Damien turned and grabbed the paper and pen and went to the kitchen. About a half an hour later, he came back with six folded piece of paper. “Take these to the Elements, but don’t let them see you do it. Wouldn’t want to get ya in trouble.” The four shared a laugh as Damien shouted playfully, “Now, get outta here, all of ya!!” The three nodded and ranout the door, yelling, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MESSENGERS, YAY!!!” DAmien simply smiled and looked down, thinking, Heh… I guess I got some new students, huh Mark?

~~~

Later that Day

Rainbow Dash yawned as she awoke from her nap. She rubbed her stomach. Nothing was broken, but she definitely wouldn’t judge that creature again, if it ever showed it’s ugly mug around here ever again. She looked down from her cloud, and noticed something unusual. Lying in the middle of the field was a folded piece of paper. She flew down and grabbed it, unfolding it. As she was about to read it, she heard the distant sound of, “Rainbow!!” She turned her head and saw, in the distance, her friends. She knew something was off when she saw in each of their mouths the same type of paper. “Girls, what’s going on?” She asked as they made it to her.

Twilight placed the paper down and was the first to speak. “It’s DAN.”

“What did he do?? Did he hurt somepony?” Rainbow began to get riled up. “I swear if he did…”

“Calm down, Dash.” Applejack interrupted, placing a hand on her friend to calm her down. “It ain’t bad. Apparently, the varment wants to make amends.”

“What?!?” Rainbow shouted. She turned away and read the letter. Afterwards, she turned to the rest, saying, “This is crazy!! we can’t trust this guy! He’s so unpredictable! You saw how fast he was!! This could be a trick!!”

“We know, Dash,” Twilight said, turning towards the Everfree Forest. “We understand how bad this situation might be. Which is I’m keeping supervision on him at all costs. We could all be wrong about this human. He could be a misguided soul who just needs some direction.” She turned back to her friends, continuing, “But we know better than to assume something as such. What do you say, girls? Should we give him a chance?”

Applejack nodded. “I think we should give the feller a chance.”

“I second that,” Rarity added

Fluttershy stepped forward, “Me too.”

“You bet I’m in!!” Pinkie jumped up, cheering.

“Well, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked at the rainbow-maned mare who grumbled, “Rgh… Fine, I’ll give him a chance. But no funny business!!”

Twilight nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.”

While the five talked about the subject of DAN, Twilight looked at the setting sun, thinking, I won’t misjudge you, Damien. Not like I did Sunshine Shimmer…

~~~

Dear Elements of Harmony,

First off, before you ask how I know you, it's cause I got little helpers know. Now, I know we aren't on the best of terms, and for good reason. I wrecked your friend, Rainbow Dash, and to her, I'm truly sorry. I was just defending myself. My first instinct, when I met you, was to interrogate you and not trust a word you say, cause that's how I was raised. But seeing- hell, feeling- all the peace this place had, I could tell this place ain't like mine. So, I want to help better this community. Try and make it even brighter than it was. I never seen real friendship like what you guys have in a long time. I respect that. I plan on stopping by later tomorrow for a bit of discussion on settling in. Then you guys might be able to send me back home. I'd really appreciate it.

With feelings of cool,
Damien Angel Nelson
DAN

End Notes

Phew, this took a while. I apologize for anyone waiting for this chapter, I guess I just got a case of Writer's Block, it was hard on how to word this. Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! Try not to die on Black Friday!! ColdCutChaos signing out!!

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[first hand account]

First painting Tetris?