Friendship is Failure #1: Writer's Blockade

by DakariKingMykan

Stone Heart's Life

ACT TWO

The next day, Twilight and Starlight visited Canterlot town hall and asked to see the records of pony addresses. Of course, being Princess, Twilight was granted access.

They found what they were looking for.

Stone Heart lived in an underground house dug into the side of a grassy hill in the meadows.

Such a simple and cute looking place, but all the shutters were drawn tight, and hung on the door was a sign that read “No Solicitors or Sales-Ponies Allowed”

At the curb near the trail road by the mailbox were three recycling binds all filled to the top with empty cans of bathing-soap. “Gee, I’m starting to have a bad feeling about this.” said Starlight, but Twilight reminded her “We should at least try. We’re trying to help friends, remember.”

Unable to argue, Starlight knocked at the door.

The door then opened, and the Stone Heart himself answered, though he looked a little pale and under the weather. His expression was that of someone who had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed. “Can I help you?” he asked in a low tone.

“Hello, um… are you Stone Heart?” Twilight asked.

“Unfortunately...”

The girls felt this wouldn’t be as easy as they thought.

“Ahem… I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Starlight Glimmer.”

“Hello.”

Stone did seem too impressed, “Princess Twilight, I’ve heard of you. I don’t believe there’s any-pony who hasn’t.”

“Um… may we come in for a moment?” Twilight asked.

Not wishing to give the princess trouble and seeing it harmless, Stone invited them both inside, “But not for long. I have to leave for work shortly.” he told them.

It was very dark inside his house, which was expected as it was underground, but it was even darker with all the shutters closed, so Stone lit as many candles and oil lamps as he could.

The house itself was only one big room, bed, kitchen, library, fireplace, and a small bookshelf next to a desk with a lot of dusty old piles of paper on them. They were stories all kept together with clips and folders.

“Wow, you do love to make stories.” said Starlight.

“I used to.” said Stone “Those are all stories I wrote years ago. Some of them I just rewrite a bit as hobbies, but please tell me why you’ve come here.”

Twilight handed him an invitation to the High School Reunion from Sandy and Shining, but seeing it made Stone sigh in dismay, “You were sent by them too?”

“Well, not exactly sent by them, we came on their behalf.” said Twilight “They’ve invited you to your high school reunion.”

“I know all about that…” said Stone “…And I won’t be going.”

“Oh, you mean you have plans that night?” asked Starlight

“Nope...”

“Will you be working late?” asked Twilight.

“Nope…”

The girls gawked at one another. “Don’t you want to go?” asked Twilight.

“No… No, I don’t. I don’t want anything to do with that reunion, or either of those two, or pretty much anyone for that matter.”

He then opened the door to his closet and stepped inside, but he poked his head out and said to the girls, “Now, if that’s all there is to say, I have to leave for work.”

He shut the door and began to change.

The girls were very concerned, and began to feel that Stone was a little more upset than they thought, but neither of them were willing to give up, at least Twilight wasn’t.

“We’ll just wait until he finishes work and try to talk to talk to him again.” suggested Starlight.

“No… it would take too long.” said Twilight “We’ll just walk to work with him and see how it goes from there.”

That’s when the door opened, and Stone came out wearing an orange suit, rubber boots over his hooves, wheeling a mobile garbage bin with a pointy-stick clipped onto it.

The girls gawked at him awkwardly.

“What?” he asked “Haven’t you ever seen a trash-picker before?”

“You’re… a trash-picker?” asked Twilight, and Stone sighed, “Yes! That’s what I just said. Now, if you don’t mind, please leave my house.”

With that, he left for work, and the girls left the house as told, and Stone walked down the trail with his bin, and using his magic to levitate the pointy stick to pick up every scrap of litter along his way.

“Wow, he really doesn’t seem happy.” said Starlight.

Twilight said nothing, and couldn’t seem to put it all together yet. “I thought he loved to write, and here he is picking up garbage and living alone in the dark?

I’m going to get to the bottom of this!”

And she took off after Stone. “Wait for me!” called Starlight as she galloped after her.

They followed Stone around and watched him as he cleaned up the parks and roads… all by himself! They offered to help, “That’s very kind of you, but believe me I don’t need or want any help. I’ve been doing this for years. I’m used to it.”

He spoke very sharply towards them, “I’m sorry, I get a little carried away at times.”

He explained that he had given up on his dreams to be a writer and publish his stories; he tried to send them in, but no publisher liked his ideas, saying they were too clichéd, too one-dimensional, and full of plot holes, and often suggested he change the plot and characterises.

That made him very angry, the fact that others could not accept his style of taste and only demanded what they wanted, and when he tried to seek help from others, they wouldn’t help him and just suggested he get another job or find a new talent… discouraging him from writing.

So now here he was, cleaning up other ponies’ trash. The work was long and hard and didn’t pay so much, and he would come home very smelly--which explain the many empty bottles of soap-- but it was all he was able to get, and he preferred to be alone than in the company of others!

Friendship meant little or nothing to him, and he felt he was better off without it, “I don’t really need friendship to be alive you know.”

The girls felt and saw things only getting worse and worse by the second, especially when bypasses deliberately threw more garbage onto the ground and called out to him, “Hey cleanup-pony, you missed a spot!”

“Ugh!!” groaned Stone, but he picked up the trash anyway, and he was starting to grow a little uncomfortable with the girls hanging around him, and he asked “What is it you want me?”

“Well…” Twilight said “As Princess of Friendship I want to know… why you don’t want to attend the High School Reunion?”

Stone was very annoyed by this point, but he calmly said “Why should I? Who says I have to go? I don’t want to go anywhere near any of those ponies, especially not Sandy Beam of Shining Hope. I’m not comfortable being around them.”

“But why is that?” asked Starlight.

Stone really hated to say it, but he felt for once he needed to tell someone “Because they are better than I am.”

The girls felt shocked at those words.

“They all have better lives than I do, they make me feel very uncomfortable, and I’m afraid things may get so out of hand I’m afraid I may hurt them, or they may hurt me again, I don’t want to see that happen. So I prefer to keep away from them. Then I can’t hurt them and they can’t hurt me.

Now, please excuse me.”

He walked off to pick up more trash and the girls didn’t follow him anymore.

Starlight felt she knew how he felt, remembering how she strayed from friendship or much to do with it, and deep down she felt lonely, like she did want to break out of her shell and make friends.

It was Twilight who spoke first, “I think he needs to really rekindle with his friends.”

Starlight agreed, but deep down she wondered about something else, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked “What if he doesn’t want to reconcile?”

Twilight figured that would be possible, but the way Stone was acting was no good either; being distant of ponies and ignoring calls for friendship and things. “Remember what I said…”

“I know… “You won’t know until you try.” said Starlight, and she smiled at her friend and Twilight smiled back at her.

They had a plan.

Comments

[Pete100]

I feel like that’s not the entire reason, because if it was he probably would have turned his life around.

[TeriyakiSundae]

This story is getting interesting. It isn't written very well (I'm ignoring that this was written 6 years ago), but I'm loving the concept.

[GreySlime]

Having a cutie mark that involves writing, but working as a track-picker (no offense to trash-pickers. People who deal with trash and grime, I respect a lot! Like, who else makes our place clean and free of germs?) seems kinda sad. I want him to seek his passion! Though I understand being turned down a lot, can really damper your spirit. At the same time, I wanna see Stone Heart happy and getting into writing again! ... But I also wanna see how this all goes downhill...
... Oh boy...