Act I - Chapter 7 - Small Talk
The Alicorn Warrior
Written by iAmSiNnEr
Edited by Speccer
Chapter 7- Small Talk
The Badlands, Quick Brush’s home
The house was quiet, the silence permeated by occasional snores from the ponies that were sleeping. Twilight Sparkle was the only one awake, silently painting away at a canvas on the balcony. After she had told the rest of her story, they had all reacted with a wide range of emotions.
Applejack had been calm and collected, silently reassuring her with those eyes of hers. Rainbow Dash as usual had been loud and vocal and had expressed her desire to seek revenge on Quick Leash. Twilight had needed to remind Rainbow that she had already taken care of him before Rainbow settled down.
Rarity had shown obvious disgust and Pinkie Pie had just sat there for a while before disappearing into the house. When she’d returned, she had with her cupcakes on a tray. Twilight hadn’t questioned the cupcakes and had eaten some gratefully.
Spike had remained silent, choosing to just mull over what Twilight had told them. Starlight had felt extra guilty, but Twilight reassured her that it wasn’t her fault. Fluttershy, however, had just sat there in shock until Twilight told her the story was over. She then proceeded to hug Twilight, who returned it gratefully.
Another stroke on the canvas. Twilight found that painting helped her think, and her thoughts flowed smoother than they had a few hours ago. Twilight dipped the brush into a glob of green paint, and her brush glided gracefully over the canvas.
Finishing the final stroke, Twilight stepped back to admire her work. It had taken six weeks for her to paint this, owing to the fact that she needed to let some parts dry before she could paint other colors over them.
The painting was of the oasis that sat barely a mile away from her home. During the past few weeks, Twilight had visited it quite often to build up a good mental image. Twilight sighed contentedly as she sat down to appreciate her work.
“And yet, you say there are mistakes,” a voice came from behind her. Twilight turned her head to look, saw Starlight standing there. She trotted over and sat down beside Twilight.
“There are mistakes, Starlight,” Twilight slowly said.
“There’s always one or the other, Twilight,” Starlight replied. “What other ponies see as a work of art, you see as something that needs to be perfected. I can see why you’ve done so well here. All you want is perfection.”
Twilight smiled slightly. “I don’t see anything wrong with perfection, Starlight.”
“And yet,” Starlight countered. “You see the mistakes in everything. Sometimes, you just need to appreciate some things for what they are.”
“Maybe.” Twilight shifted a little as the cold winds blew through the balcony.
“Why are you out here in the middle of the night, Twilight?” Starlight asked.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to complete my painting. It’s been six weeks of work for this one.”
“Six weeks? No wonder it looks so good…”
“How are you, Starlight? I never did get down to giving those friendship lessons, did I?”
“I’m fine, thank you. As for the lessons, you have already given me those.”
“How so?” Twilight tilted her head.
“You introduced me to your friends. They could have ostracised me for getting you banished, but instead, they welcomed me as one of their own, and we’ve been watching each other’s backs in the desert and in some of the dodgy towns we passed through. I’ve learned a lot from traveling with them.”
“Of course. They’re great friends, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. They helped me get through some of my guilt, and that’s ironic since some of them are still feeling guilty about it all, but they helped me anyway.”
Twilight chuckled. “That’s them, alright. I’ve missed you girls all these years. Every time I think about you all, I always have to resist the temptation to blast my way back into Equestria. I also haven’t seen my brother and sister-in-law for years, too.”
“Your brother and sister-in-law?” Starlight was baffled.
“Haven’t the others told you yet? My brother is Shining Armor, and he’s married to Cadence.”
“Cadence? As in.. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?”
“Yeah.” Twilight nodded.
“You have no idea how jealous of you I am right now. You have royalty as family!”
Twilight smiled. “And I’m not royalty?”
Starlight laughed. “Of course you are, Princess. I nearly forgot.”
Twilight wiggled her wings. “How did you forget?”
“Oh come on. I just forgot. Can’t you just accept that?”
“If you say so…”
“How have you been these years? I know it’s been a rough few years for you, and I apologize yet again.”
Twilight waved her off. “As I said, there’s nothing to apologize for. I hold no grudges, and I still love all everypony the same. Celestia made a mistake, yes, but she tried to make up for that by sending you girls to find me. I still love her as my mentor and teacher.”
“Talking about Princess Celestia, do you really mean it when you said you might not stay in Equestria when you return? Your parents are going to be distraught. They already were when we were explaining the situation to them.”
“I was. I’ve grown the arena from a place where ponies fight to the death into a place where ponies can challenge each other in a contest of strength. I also own several establishments, including that cafe you went to earlier. It feels wrong just leaving all of this behind, you know?”
“I can’t pretend that I completely understand how you feel, but I get what you’re saying.”
“Thank you, Starlight.”
“I’ve never understood emotions much. Your friends-”
“Our friends, Starlight. I think you’ve earned the right to call them that.”
“Alright. Our friends taught me a bit, but I still don’t get some things. Even so, I’m trying my best not to become that bitter mare who almost destroyed the time streams in an attempt to get revenge against you.”
“You’ve apologized already, Starlight. Why are you bringing this up again?”
“I’m a bitter mare, Twilight. All this stemmed from because my fillyhood friend got his cutie mark first. All these years, I’ve been trying to find an actual reason why I did it, and I couldn’t. The only explanation I had was that I just couldn’t let go.”
Twilight closed her eyes. “Letting go of something is important, Starlight. I let go of my hate for anypony years ago, and it’s been better for me ever since. Living life without regrets is extremely important, and I can testify to that. Having fulfilled several of my dreams out here such as learning how to paint, I can say that I have never felt better in my life. Except missing you girls, of course.”
Starlight gazed into the distance towards where the horizon met the sky. “Have you ever felt really guilty until it eats you from the inside out?”
Twilight didn’t like where this was going. “No, Starlight, but-”
“Let me finish. I felt like that until one night where I was forced to tell everypony how I felt. After that night, I never felt like that ever again, just the occasional twinge of guilt whenever I thought of you. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Friendship, Twilight. I can tell how you six saved the land so many times. When there is true friendship, I felt like I could do anything. And with friendship, it helped me get over my feelings and I let go of the past. When we return to Equestria, I want to see Sunburst again. Our friends have convinced me of that much.”
“Friendship is magic.” Twilight agreed. “Even out here, friendship has helped me. I have a friend named Hard Line. He’s tough, sure, but he helped me get over killing for my life. I’m not saying that I’m a cold-blooded killer, but at least I was able to do it. He’s saved my life many times over, and for that, I’m thankful.”
“He sounds like a good friend.”
“He is.”
“Do you want to hear some of the adventures we went through in the desert? I can’t imagine they’d compare to your stories, but they certainly were adventurous, if nothing else.”
Twilight beamed. “Do I ever!”
“Alright. So there was this one cave where we encountered the…”
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Good to have one of them actually talking to Twilight and listening to what she says.
What a lovely chapter.
It's so nice to see a little one on one chat, between Twilight and a friend of hers. Great work as usual iAmSiNnEr.
Even with the girls I’m rather surprised Starlight didn’t develop a complex from this.
Yeah ....about that
Yeah, always nice to have a little SoL amongst the drama.
If I can make a suggestion from an editor's POV: you should stop adding the apostrophe after "Twi." It's a nickname on its own and doesn't need that cutoff mark. Writing " Twi' " is like writing " Rich' " when you're shortening the name "Richard." I get why you're doing it, but it isn't like " 'bout " instead of "about." The former actually is missing part of the full word as it's normally said, which is why it needs the apostrophe. Using the name above as an example, you'd write " 'ich " instead of "Rich" if somebody was trying to say the name with their mouth pried open; you can't actually say that part of the name, which is why you need the cut-off mark.
Imagine you just finished building a successful Our Town where the morale is actually healthy, the people are actually happy and the town is at peace with its neighbour's and a flourishing example of Marxism.
Then someone form your past comes along and tries to get you to leave your ultimate success Becuase of their 'fee fees' and they keep insisting despite staunch refusals on your part.
I think the feeling would be quite accurate to whatever she is.
nice work
I so love this story! Such a different premise, keep up the great work!
Great story. Looking forward to reading more.
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You're right. It isn't Celestia. *winks*
10455472
Suggestion accepted, changes made from chapter 9 onwards.
So either Celestia developed some kind of split personality when Starlight 'shook the foundations of the world' and it's slowly becoming the dominant personality, or she's been replaced by Chrysalis. Or a Twilight from another timeline slipped through during the Time Travel Fiasco is taking advantage of Celestia's guilt weakening her willpower to control her. Maybe I'm completely wrong!
What the hay is SoL google says this is chemistry compound.
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SoL stands for "Slice of Life"
I want Twilight to introduce her paintings to Luna, I believe Luna is also an artist? I would love to see her reaction.