Billiard Player
Billiard Player
"He cursed like a billiard player, his walking stick upon the ground, and she would ask him, she was young and she didn't know"
Princess Twilight Sparkle was an avid billiards player. It was a game she'd picked up playing in the human world. Visiting Sunset Shimmer for her 22nd birthday (in human years), she'd visited a bar with her friends, one which happened to have all manners of cue games. She tried it out, and even though none of them had played the game before, she liked the skill and physics involved, and they'd all had a good night. That was a long, long time ago now, but the game had stuck with her, Carom Billiards being her particular game of choice. Celestia had her chess (which Twilight still enjoyed), and Twilight had her billiards, another thing she'd devoted a great deal of time and energy to.
It was a brilliantly simple game. There were two cue balls, one for each player, and a red ball. The object of the game was to shoot one's cue ball in a way where it makes contact with both of the other balls. If she was feeling particularly devilish, she'd play a game of three-cushion billiards, where the cue ball must hit three of the table cushions before reaching the other balls. It was a very difficult game, and she seldom had a chance to play it with many other ponies, as most considered it a very, very dull game. Twilight preferred the term 'nuanced'.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was known to be an avid billiards player, having popularised the game many decades ago. Long enough ago for the game to have fallen out of fashion. This didn't bother Twilight, she was happy just as long as long as she had somepony to play against.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was known for being many things. The Princess Of Friendship, former Element Of Magic, hero of Equestria, principal of the School Of Friendship. And yes, billiards player. However, it did irk her to no end that, even more so than being a very high level billiards player, she was known for, and credited with creating that gesture. It didn't really have a proper name. It was sometimes known as 'the hoof', 'the buck', and (much to Twilight's chagrin) 'the Sparkle'. Indeed, it seemed that even after all this time, she couldn't escape it. It had become permanently ingrained in Equestrian culture.
She supposed it was ironic that her exercise in exploring another culture had such and impact on her own. It was even somewhat amusing that even without fingers, the gesture carried the same message as in the human world.
But it was annoying that it still overshadowed things she was more proud of. 'The gesture' had been around long enough now that the ponies who had seen Twilight's outburst first hoof were all now long gone, but still the gesture endured. Perhaps it was the combination of the simplicity and the intent that kept it in the public consciousness. Either way, it was now a part of the Equestrian language, much in the same way the middle finger was part of the human's language.
Twilight sat in her den room in the Castle of Friendship, gazing out the window. She'd grown so much since that day, seen and done incredible things, performed amazing feats, and indeed been a co-ruler of the nation. And yet, collectively, Equestria still remembered her as the Princess who invented a silent swear.
She smiled a small smile. Thinking about it now, was this not exactly what she was attempting to do in the first place? To take an idea from the human world and introduce it to Equestria. She quietly chuckled, if she thought about it that way then she'd achieved her initial goal in spades. It might not have been the greatest or most important idea to introduce (Twilight still stood by her belief that billiards was the best thing she'd introduced), but it was one that had withstood the test of time, that had overcome social divides, and was understood by all residents of Equestria.
It was interesting, to say the least.
There was a knock at the door. It was one she was expecting. Six o'clock on a Friday evening.
"Come in." She called, turning to face the door.
A pegasus walked into the room. A mare with a sonic blue coat with a three-tone blue/green mane, carrying a long, slender black case under a wing. Cloudy Clamour, Rainbow Dash's great granddaughter. She closed the door behind her and walked over to a cabinet on the far end of the room, helping herself to the fine alcohols Twilight kept there.
"Well, make yourself at home why don't you?" Twilight chastised lightheartedly.
"You know it, T. I'll need something to drink while I'm wiping the floor with you, I've got to get you back after the last game!" She replied, cockily grinning at the Princess.
Cloudy hadn't inherited her great grandmother's speed, but she had her competitive nature almost tenfold. Twilight rolled her eyes at her friend's words.
Twilight had made a great effort to keep in contact with all of her friend's descendants, and befriend them in turn. She liked to keep close with the families, as they meant a lot to her. Cloudy however, was a particularly good friend, as she was the only pony Twilight knew who took billiards as seriously as herself. Rather than sports, Cloudy was much more of a games mare, something that in Twilight's book was a very good quality to have. And of course, that competitiveness meant that she was always in for a good game.
Cloudy trotted back over to Twilight, carrying a small glass on each wing. Whisky, on the rocks, something of a tradition on their games nights. Twilight took a sip from her own drink as Cloudy set her glass down on the side of the billiards table, before trotting back over to where she had left her case.
She undid the latches, opened the case, and began to assemble her cue. It was a beautifully crafted thing, built from the finest woods by one of Applebloom's descendants. Twilight similarly had her own cue, built to incredible standards with the most ornate materials. It was a work of art. A functional one, but art nonetheless.
"Alright then, hotshot." Twilight spoke, setting the balls up on the billiards table. "I'm feeling like playing a three-cushion game, I hope you're ready to get decimated again!"
Cloudy simply looked Twilight in the eyes, and raised her hoof. The rude gesture.
Twilight sighed.
They both laughed.
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That was hilarious. Well done.
9063440
Cheers boss
I didn't expect such a well written closing chapter.
Given the fun and silly nature of the story.
Nicely done.
9063914
Appreciated, bud
That's the funniest damn thing I've read all day. Bravo.
9064193
Thanks man
This was pretty damn funny! I was honestly surprised to see that it was a first story - most first (or early, looking in your blogs you seem to be working on something else, which I'll be looking forward to!) attempts aren't this good (mine certainly wasn't).
The first chapter alone would have worked pretty well (and what a name for it - Twilight the unwitting Prometheus
), and Rambler worked as a nice little epilogue to it - but I was actually impressed with Billiards more in a sense. As funny as the first part was, Billiards felt like a very real glimpse into how an older Twilight might look back on her life and her friends, and what she might be like. And it had a perfect closing line. Well done!
9065224
Thanks matey, this was the first new thing I'd written since I started that other bigger project I mentioned in my blogs, glad to see people seem to like it.
9066409
Cheers bud
Nice story
Typo: "Thinking about it now, was this not exactly what he was attempting to do in the first place?" she I think.
I hate to be that guy, but would Twilight Sparkle really use the word decimated when she means defeated or destroyed?
9066773
Corrected, thanks
9067450
I don't see why not, given her vocabulary and the situation. A bit of playful cockiness is fair game IMO, especially when it's a regular play against a regular opponent.
Though really who's to say for sure. Not me, that's for certain.
9067556
Except that there's no indication anywhere else in your story that that's her sense of humor. It's not a call back to anything nor is it obviously ironic; just suddenly, out of nowhere, this very meticulous, very intelligent person, who has thusfar been shown to be highly particular about language, is misusing a very particular word in an obvious and lazy way. While the quality of the story as a whole doesn't suffer much because of it, the mistake, or at least the lack of some kind of mitigating context, does serve to undermine the character and cheapen the overall experience.
Come on. We're all better than that. This is your story and your version of Twilight Sparkle. Everything she says and does here is a direct result of your own authorial prerogative. While you are certainly under no obligation to justify your creative choices to anyone, you do have to take ultimate responsibility for them. If you like things the way they are and see no reason to change them, cool. That is entirely your call, and don't let anyone tell you any differently. Just please, don't be disingenuous about it.
9067932
To be honest with you I did originally have a longer chapter with future Twilight with more dialogue, but I cut it out because I thought it didn't really go anywhere. It might well have set her character better, but I felt it didn't particularly serve the story, and perhaps I still had the cut section in mind when writing the rest of the chapter.
My own particular version of Twilight is a kind of mis-shapen one, I'm really only getting back into this whole horses thing, so if she sounds off to you then that's really on me.
That in mind, and as this story was very much an on-the-fly kind of thing, I can see where you're coming from and wiill keep it in mind for anything else I might do. This story in particular though I'm happy to let slide a little, as I didn't really have a goal or message in mind, it was just a bit if fun for me.
Apologies if my last comment sounded like I was just trying to write you off, it was written in a hurry before I left the house.
Typo:
9069804
Corrected, cheers
9068036
Cool. For what it's worth I really do like your characterization of Twilight. You've kept her loose enough to be whatever you might eventually need her to be while still hitting enough specific beats to give her a definite personality. If this is just you stretching your legs, getting back into the habit of pone, then damn. I'm very much interested in what comes next.
9069987
Appreciated, thanks very much. I'm nothing if not inconsistent though, so we'll see what happens next, haha!
Now all we need is a running commentary for the Princess' game...
9071468
I would love to hear Brian Blessed narrate a game of billiards the way Steve Albini writes about billiards.
This is really good for a first story.
9090122
Thanks dude
I've reviewed your story HERE!
That was a surprisingly moving little ending.
9229916
Thanks chief
I forget what song this line is from, but it feels all too accurate.
"Make a joke and I will sigh, you will laugh and I will cry"
9341972
That is Paranoid by Black Sabbath my man
9342061
Thanks. I remember hearing it somewhere, and couldn't remember for the life of me. Glad somebody caught it.