Words spoken on Painted Canvas

by LucidTech

Spoken by the Streamers

Alice sat in the middle of the chaos, unsure of what had exactly happened to bring her here. All around ponies of varying colors, heights, and races busied themselves with a multitude of games and activities. Leaving the human awestruck at the door to the building, up until that morning the girl had only seen four ponies, only two of which were from the same race, and while the white one had been quite breathtaking nothing was more amazing to the artist then what she now saw.

So many differently colored ponies of all shades of the rainbow, and some even from beyond the range of ol’ Roy G. Biv, were moving about the crowded room with drinks and cake alongside one another in what could be called harmony. They always made way for their fellow pony-kind regardless of what the other ponies had busied themselves with among the vast amount of distractions the party provided. It was quite amazing indeed, to see so many physically different ponies moving about amongst themselves in a blur of greetings and brief salutations. A blur of color and organized confusion.

When Alice had first seen the four different races of ponies her mind told her that they were probably like humans in that the unicorns would all be similar in some respects while the pegasus would all share a trait of being reliable in emergency. She hadn’t found the ‘normal’ ponies, the ones she related to the most, until the morning of this same day. And all she could say was that they were most definitely not similar to the ones from her world that they visually resembled.

It had all started that morning, after Alice had decided to go about some of the easier morning chores that she knew she could handle. This allowed her to work alongside the yellow pegasus that had taken care of her and attempt to repay some of the kindness she had been shown. It was during this time, while she went about feeding some of the birds, that a blur of pink shot out from around the cottage and hit her square in the chest.

Completely disoriented by the tackle Alice was quite shocked a moment later when she found herself lying on her back with a pink pony, devoid of both horn and wings, pinning her to the ground with a manic expression. The once peaceful backyard was now flooded with squeaks and panicked chirps from the sudden attack and Alice couldn’t help but share in their fear.

The pony continued to stare down at the human with a grin splayed across her face until a soft, shy voice spoke up from a fair distance away. Both recognized the voice and moved their heads to see the pegasus kicking her hoof embarrassedly against the ground as she said a few timid words that Alice, of course, had no idea what to make of aside from the fact that they sounded like a suggestion in the form of a question. After she was done speaking the pink pony stepped away from the human and Alice stood from the dirt, wiping some of the mess of her shirt and pants.

The pink pony suddenly exploded into action and started spouting strange words in an explosion of sound. After a time the cream colored pegasus spoke up and the pink pony nodded. That was when Alice suddenly found herself being dragged by her sleeve towards the town by the crazy earth pony, despite the sudden act the girl managed to see the rabbit, whom she had painted with the yellow pegasus, pull out a pocket watch from behind his back and smile as he waved it in the air in some sort of odd farewell. A minute later and here she was, standing awkwardly in the doorway of a building with what Alice assumed to be a slightly insane pony.

The crazy mare with bouncy hair shouted a few words to the gathered ponies and they all turned to see the biped standing in the doorway. There was a brief pause where they all looked at her in shock, a moment where Alice was truly terrified. These ponies knew nothing of her; knew only she was different from them in pretty much every way, shape, and form. So now the question was, what would they do in response?

It has been said that in such moments as these time seems to stretch and you feel like it lasts forever. This implies that the person who is experiencing this moment feels that it lasts far too long but in reality it never lasts long enough for them. The fear pumping through their veins, the pure adrenaline pouring into the person’s brain, telling them to run. Flight. Anything to get away from the air so thick with tension and ‘what if’s.

Time shrinks, it shrinks into a shining pinprick in the distance as the person’s brain desperately tries to work out the answers to which the question is completely obscured. They find themselves at the edge of mental thought, in bullet time as it were, where their mind is free to think a dozen thoughts every millisecond and never stop. Never stop because it doesn’t want to, it wants to be free of the situation.

Alice found herself there now, her thoughts dancing across the edges of time as the voices in the back of her head once again made themselves known. The girl could practically feel the dark weightless liquid rising about her. Suddenly and without warning, like a snapping rubber band, Alice found herself once more at the doorway to the party, though she had never actually left. Beside her the pink pony was blathering away to the gathered guests in her normal flurry of syllables, slowly the crowd set about their games once again, occasionally turning to look at the human.

Before Alice could state her hesitations in regards to the party she found that the mysterious pony had disappeared. A moment later and the human ended up with a glass of punch in her hand after the party pony brought it to her. She didn’t stay long, however, as she was quickly dashing to and fro about the room as the hostess of the party, making sure everything was in order and that everyone was content.

She did such a good job that the only being in the building who didn’t feel at ease was Alice. She had never been one for parties in all her life, she avoided them if she could manage. She hated social events and this party was a nightmare and a half’s worth of them. Not only was she standing out in the crowd but the vast majority of the party goers were actively searching her out. Panic chased her mind around the room while she tried to find someplace to hide away, some location that would allow her to disappear from their view.

Eventually Alice settled into the back corner of the room behind the punch table and settled into the comforting shadows that hid her quite well from the prying eyes all around the room. She sat there for a fair period of time, the views of the other ponies missing her as she sat there, out of sight and out of mind. She was hidden from all of them. Well, at least, all but the pink pony who promptly ran up to her and dragged her towards one of the games. Alice tried in vain to fight against the pony but she was unnaturally strong and the artist soon found herself standing in the middle of the main room with a path cleared in between her and a poster of a pony that looked to be missing her tail. Before she could even figure out what was going on she was promptly blindfolded and spun, leaving only a false piece of material in her hand to place on the poster.

When the spinning stopped Alice didn’t move. Not because she was unsteady, rather because of the eerie tingle that was running over her spine. She could feel them all looking at her. The pairs upon pairs of eyes staring at her and into her at the same time to the point that it felt like her very identity was being torn to shreds by all these staring eyes. Unfortunately this put her in a bad position mentally and, taking advantage of her unstable emotions, the voices in the back of her head rose up from the grave where the girl had buried them the day prior.

A few exclamations of surprise sounded from around the human but she couldn’t hear them, her attention was being taken by the loud whispers in her ears. Telling her that the creatures around her thought her to be some horrible monster and telling her that if she really didn’t like being at parties she could just end her life and she would never have to go to another one for the rest of her life... Telling her that they were only trying to gain her trust so they could betray her.

Just as Alice was about to lose herself in her insane thoughts, she tore the blindfold from her face and dropped the false tail to the ground. With her vision unobscured she saw the various dark batches of some mysterious substance floating about her, the source of the sudden silence that had stricken the party goers. All of the ponies had backed away from her in fear. Among them, much to Alice’s chagrin, was the pink pony who was now practically shaking in her horseshoes. The hostess had made one horrible mistake when she was planning the party, she hadn’t talked to her friends about what might happen with the human.

Alice looked around, emotions raging across her eyes. Confusion from the sudden changes of her life, Hurt from how the ponies looked at her, Pain because of how her own wishes had been discarded, but under it all though was one single driving force. Anger. The dark blobs that floated around her tinted red and Alice swung her vision across the room, daring somepony to meet her eyes. None obliged though and Alice’s rage spiked again as she couldn’t help but wonder if this is how they were going to treat her. In this moment of anger there was only a single sensible voice in her mind, she heard her own voice whisper at the back of her head. ‘Calm down, you can’t lose your temper here.’ ‘They have done nothing wrong.’ ‘Is this really what you want them to remember you for?’

With a shuddering inhale from the human to calm herself the orbs gained all their other colors again and once again returned to their normal black. With her rage gone the human looked once more around at the ponies, some of which were beginning to raise their sight hesitantly, and let the slightly less shuddering exhale exit her mouth. Adopting a bent over posture that displayed her broken inner self to a tee the human exited the building and set off under the noonday sun, back down the worn dirt road that led toward the cottage at the edge of the woods.

The orbs of darkness continued to hover about Alice as she walked alone. Alone, that is, bar the voices in her head of course. She often played with the idea that, if she had so many different voices of varying volume in her head, did that mean that she was just another voice in her head, but was loud enough to be heard? Was this really her or was it some foreign body that she walked in. The curse of sleepless nights, that’s what these demented ideas and false memories were.

About halfway to the cottage, the girl heard the sound of approaching hooves and looked over shoulder to see the pink pony running to catch up with her; Upon the ponies sides rested an odd pair of bags that were held on the mare's back by a single length of fabric. Alice stopped her slow walk and turned around to wait for the mare to catch up, partially because she didn't want to go home quite yet, partially because she was sorry for ruining the party. When she arrived, the pony reached into the saddlebags at her sides and withdrew a thermos and a small box.

Hesitantly, the human opened the box while keeping an eye on the pony. She briefly let her gaze move from the pony to the inside of the container, within were several slices of beautifully made cake. Realizing she was no longer looking at the party pony, Alice quickly did so and noticed a change in her facial expression, a hopeful, apologetic grin spread across the hostess’ face. Next, she slowly took a drink from the thermos and found it to be the same punch that she had sampled while she had been at the event. Alice allowed herself a smile at the pony’s sentiment and was shocked when the mare started bouncing up and down in response.

Fearing another attack by the pony like she had been greeted with earlier, Alice put her hands in front of herself, the dark liquid acted at the movement and quickly pooled into the palm of one of her hands as she took a step back to protect herself. The orb solidified, as it had the day before, and turned pink. A second later and her mind was flooded with random words and thoughts again, this time led by the emotional wave that said to the human ‘Pinkie Pie’. It was different though as, unlike with Rainbow Dash, it wasn’t a full on assault of ideas, but rather like walking into a completely chaotic room where at some points only a few ideas echoed while at others entire legions rested.

Two ideals were predominate here as well though, ‘Parties’ and ‘Smile’. By this time, Pinkie Pie had stopped bouncing and was looking at the human with her head tilted in curiousity. Alice dropped her hands and let the dark semi-liquid fade away into wherever it went. After a short pause she smiled again at the pony in front of her, this time in a knowing way. “Pinkie Pie, what a fitting name.”

The pony's eyes widened as her name was spoken and she started jumping all around again. With a content grin to herself Alice moved to the side of the dirt road and sat down with her box of cake and her thermos and started her own small picnic with just herself. A moment later and they were joined by Rainbow Dash and the cream colored mare, both of whom had been on their way to the party to see how the human had been doing without her caretaker. They were slightly surprised to find the human on the grass with Pinkie Pie talking away though. When the party pony noticed that her other friends had arrived she darted away to retrieve more food for the impromptu picnic and the pegasi settled down on either side of their human friend.

The pink pony returned with several boxes of cake balanced on her back and three additional ponies at her sides. Alice recognized one of them as the librarian but was at a loss for the other two. One of them, an earth pony like Pinkie, had an orange coat and blonde mane, upon which rested a wide-brimmed stetson. As she walked along sinewy cords of muscle danced underneath her skin, speaking of her strength. The other of the two was a unicorn and displayed a white coat with a deep purple mane, she was quite the opposite of the other and moved with a gracious, careful step.

Shortly the group of ponies arrived, the boxes of cake were more then enough for the ponies to eat and Alice was happy to be treated to a few thermos’ full of apple cider that was provided by the orange earth pony. After the first sip of the drink she was hooked, it was like all of the sweetness of regular apples condensed into a single liquid, even better was it was still warm from the process of being created giving it a warm homemade feel.

The six ponies and the human relaxed as the day ticked away, each of the prior grateful to have to opportunity to be with their friends amongst the chaos of their lives. Alice sat on the outskirts of the picnic, smiling to herself as the ponies enjoyed each others company, letting the moments tick by as she continued drinking from the thermos of apple cider. It wasn’t something she ever really got to witness in the city she was from, a calm moment where a group of friends would just hang out together with no panic or rush.

After a moment the cream colored pegasus noticed that the human wasn’t among the tight knit group and came over to sit with her. Alice smiled and let herself fall onto her back to look into the sky, tinted orange by the sunset. The pegasus followed the action and laid down as well. After a moment it occurred to Alice that she didn’t know the name of this pony, the one who had done the most for her. Now determined Alice decided that, sometime soon, she would see about learning the mare’s name with her new found voodoo magics of emotion if she could learn how to control summoning them.

In the meantime though the human was happy merely to lay on the grass next to the mare that she trusted the most as the sun set behind the constant horizon and plunged the world into the deep blue of the night. The moon shone down from above and a few of the mares left the picnic, before each of them left they shared a hoofbumb with the human. Pinkie had left somewhat early, surprising just about everyone, when she had gotten up to leave Alice had offered the thermos back to her but the mare had declined. This left Alice alone with the pegasi of the group. They enjoyed each other’s company but before long Alice found herself yawning loudly as she looked up into the full moon that seemed to be luring her to sleep.

When Alice awoke the next morning she found the yellow pegasus asleep on the grass nearby while the cyan speed demon took her nap on a cloud. Alice paused briefly to wonder how she was staying on top of the cloud but disregarded it when her mind started to stutter over the fact that this was a world of ‘talking’ ponies. With a content grin the human turned her gaze to her surroundings. The light of the sun as it just started to breach the horizon reflected across the greenery all around and left the vibrant emerald colors of the trees and grass to shine in the beautiful morning.

Alice found her beret and thermos next to each other on the ground where she had fallen asleep, she couldn’t remember putting them there herself and assumed that one of the pegasi must have done so for which she gave them silent thanks in her thoughts. Taking a sip of the remaining apple cider caused her to smile, it was still warm from the thermos and it still had the same homemade taste in it. She quickly finished the addicting drink and pocketed the thermos before looking to the sleeping pegasi.

With a grin Alice quickly and quietly made her way to the cottage and retrieved her painting equipment from within, then she hurriedly returned to the clearing to find both pegasi still asleep. Silently the human set up her easel and placed the second and last of the empty canvases she had brought with her upon the wooden stand. With a glance around the edge to view the subject of her painting again Alice started her art.

All of the colors on her palette started to disappear with their hurried use as they were being utilized upon the canvas and, before either of the pegasi had awoken, the girl had finished her painting. When she was finished a wave of sleepiness hit the human and she yawned again. After looking over the painting with a grin the human turned the easel around so that both of the winged ponies would be able to see it when they woke up.

After placing it such the human picked up the rest of her equipment except the easel and the painting and returned to the cottage. The return trip was short as it had been the first time and, upon arrival, she rested the various pieces of painting material and flopped herself loudly upon the couch to try and catch up on the hours of sleep she had missed with her early rising.

A few moments later Rainbow Dash awoke as the light started to reflect off the bright white of the cloud that she rested on. She groggily opened her eyes to her surroundings, the first thing that she noticed upon doing so was, much to her surprise, a painting of herself displayed within full view. Excited at the prospect of having been drawn by an artist she dropped off the cloud and lowered herself to the level of the painting to get a closer look. The action of her dropping loudly to the ground awakened the cream colored mare and she came over to have a look at the image as well.

Both were quite impressed by the picture, esspecially Rainbow Dash as her ego sky rocketed. Displayed on the picture the cyan mare’s face was set in a determined scowl and raindrops etched their way across her face as she set off to some unknown goal. Lightning danced across the background and Rainbow couldn’t help but grin at the fact that whoever had drawn this painting of her had posed her in such an epic way. Meanwhile, not too far away, the artist rested on her borrowed bed, knowing not of the praise that Rainbow gave the drawing, but not caring as she descended deeper and deeper into the comforting folds of her dreams.

Author's Note:

(Apparently yawning is addictive enough to leak through the words of my story, I think I'll take a nap now. I went over it but if you spot any mistakes make sure to point them out in the comments. -N64Fan)

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

As if Rainbow's ego wasn't big enough. Well done, keep up the good work.

[warpd]

I was wondering when you were going to use the white rabbit.
Alice could probably make a good life in Equestria painting for ponies.

[RaptorJesus]

This story is fantastic so far. Keep going, friend. That's some mighty great job here.

[StapleCactus]

Good...good... I sent you a PM with some mistakes, because for some reason the site don't tell you when you get a message...

Tis good though.

[SweetieSings]

This is so awesome! I'm loving this so much <3 All of my likes are belong to this story.