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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 11, 2012 23:46:46 GMT -5
"Huh... alright then..." Well, Inkie just lost all usefulness. "Alright then... Umm..." she went quiet again, up until she felt the other pony brush up against her. Her reassuring smile didn't brighten her mood, but she certainly was feeling less dismal and dreary than before. "Alright then, getting cleaned up and warm sounds nice..." She says with a nod, returning the friendly shoulder-brush.
"I really wasn't headed anywhere special though, I was just sort of on my way back from doing some exploring of my own." She explains. "I think I'm finally starting to know my way around." she explained with the slightest hint of cheer in her voice. "You're welcome to come back with me if you want. I don't really want to get in Mr. and Mrs. Cake's way though... and it may not be a good idea if the foals are sleeping..." She dreaded the image that came to her mind, if Pinkie had trouble getting them to stop crying and laugh, Inkie was hopeless.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 12, 2012 7:55:57 GMT -5
Snowdrop was delighted! She would get to see the candy-house! Secretly she determined to give a window a lick when nobody was looking- just to see if it was a sugar pane! Of course, had she been a little more logical or scientific, she would had realized that sugar panes would melt in the rain and a candy house would have attracted all manner of bugs, birds and beasts to eat it. But she wasn't logical or scientific, and she wanted it to be made of candy. It was more fun imagining it that way!
"Don't worry," she assured Inkie Pie, who was looking even more worried than before. "We'll stay out of their way and if the foals are taking a nap, We can be quiet too! We can tell stories or talk quietly! I still have lots of questions to ask you about yourself! Like, What's your favorite color? And do you like to color? like painting? Or drawing? Or reading?" Snowdrop guessed what might be next and quickly added, "And if you worry that don't know any good stories, Why, I'll tell you some! and then you will!" she laughed happily, as though she'd been very clever to think of this.
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 12, 2012 17:20:48 GMT -5
When the two fillies finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner, things were fairly busy. Ponies were literally lined up outside the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake were hard at work. The smell of fresh-baked pastries filled the air, easily explaining the reason why so many ponies were so eagerly lined up.
Inkie slowly truged inside, whispering "Excuse me"s all the way through the crowd and up to the counter. She flipped it up and mumbled something to Mr. Cake. She pointed a hoof over at snowdrop, and Mr. Cake simply nodded, either not having a problem with the sudden guest, or simply too busy to bother with any other answer.
"This way, we'll stay out of their way." She explained to the pegasus, leading her up a flight of stairs to the very top floor, where Pinkie had been living... and now her as well. "Pinkie?" she called out, with no answer as she trotted inside. She must be out with Gummy." She mumbled, looking around a little bit longer.
All in all, it was easy to tell where Inkie had staked her claim, just a simple bed in the corner, plenty of greys, blacks and whites in a stark contrast to Pinkie's vibrant and colorful decorating style. "Home sweet home... I guess..." It felt strange calling this place home still for her...
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 12, 2012 20:09:14 GMT -5
Oh! The smell! it was heavenly. Snowdrop had to swallow a few times so that her watering mouth wouldn't give her away. She thought it must be a sweet, sweet torture to live above such a place. She had read a line like that in a romance book recently. She didn't really know too much about a sweet, sweet torture before, but now she was sure it was living above a delicious sweets shop like this. She saw Inkie Pie beckon for her to follow her up the stairs, and after a longing glance at the nearest window- There were far too many people about to take a secret lick now- She headed up behind her new friend.
Upon reaching the top, and the room there, Snowdrop looked from the rest of the room to the monotone corner. She could guess who that area belonged to! "Pinkie is your... sister, right?" she asked, trying to study both parts of the room without being too obvious about it. She wanted to learn what kinds of things, if any, Inkie's corner had to say about her. She was getting an idea of her personality now and wasn't expecting anything too fancy, frilly, or colorful, but she was looking for books, or things Inkie might do to amuse herself. And she was also looking for a rock or two. She DID come from a rock farm after all!
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 12, 2012 21:50:07 GMT -5
"Yeah, Pinkie Pie is my older sister." She affirmed "I'm sure you'll meet her very soon. I hear she makes it a point to know and make friends with everypony in town."
Inkie's corner was... very plain, even if it wasn't compared to the rest of her sister's chaotic, colorful decorations. It's quite possible that Pinkie was prepared to party 24/7 at a moment's notice. Although, Inkie's lack of expression is just a little bit excusable, given that a few open suitcases still lay open on her bed. Lo and behold, resting on the pillow of her bed, was a rock, on it was written the words:
To Pinkie and Inkie, Have a wonderful time in Ponyville, I'll miss you both so much. Your sister, Blinkie
Inkie motioned a hoof over to the bathroom. "If you want to get cleaned up, go ahead." she offered, moving over to her bed, and starting to unpack a bit more. She did, in fact, have a book or two, which she began to unpack. A few looked like books of plays, tragedies to be specific, and a well-used book the exact same color as her fur, likely a diary of some kind, judging by the quill tucked between the pages. She slowly sits down at the foot of her bed, leaning back against it. She figured she should let her new friend get cleaned up first.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 13, 2012 0:31:54 GMT -5
Snowdrop took note of the diary and the books with a kind of hungry interest, wondering if she dared ask if she could look at them, or if it was too early yet. She decided to wait for another time. Even she, in a hurry as she always was to make friends, would have felt a bit shy about showing off her private diary to another pony. You just didn't write stuff 'for show' in something like that.
When Inkie remarked that Snowdrop would probably meet Pinkie Pie soon, the little filly had to hide a grin. She hadn't seen her yet, but she was willing to bet she was as colorful in her room, in both appearance and personality. She could hardly wait to find out. But in the meantime, a wash-up sounded good. She trotted cheerfully into the bathroom and filled the tub. Snowdrop wasn't meaning to take long, but she'd gotten pretty soaked, breaking through the ice, and even though the walk to market had warmed her a bit, the bath would feel so good! With a leap and flutter of wings for balance, the pegasus perched on the edge of the tub for a moment, then slid into the warm water!
22 minutes and 30 seconds later, a pure white filly left the bathroom where a muddy grey one had entered. One of her relatives had once referred to Snow as a 'dirt magnet'. While somewhat insulted, the filly had to admit that she DID seem to get dirtier than most. Or at least, it seemed so whenever she cleaned up! "That felt great!" She told Inkie. "Sorry if I took too long. I was a little colder than I thought. Your turn now!"
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 13, 2012 8:57:41 GMT -5
Inkie, unlike her new friend, had the benefit of a coat that hid her dirt well. She was just as dirty as her friend(possibly more so, considering the pegasus' little "Bath" in the frigid water.) and so, Inkie tried her best to be brief in the bathtub... but admittedly, she did end up taking her time and enjoying the warm water after that long walk in the early spring air.
Much cleaner now, she trotted out to greet her new friend once again. "So... ummm...." she looked a bit lost as to what to do next. "Can I get you anything?" she offered, falling back on generic hostess-esque stuff. She went quiet for a moment, thinking she could do better than that, but drawing a complete blank. She idly kicked a ball of yarn that was laying about towards the rest of Gummy's toys and things.
"I'm sorry, I'm not very good at this..." Inkie mumbled, hopping up to sit on the end of her bed, letting her hind legs give way with a melancholy plop. "Umm... what would you like to do?" She asked, figuring if anyone was going to revive this moment, it wouldn't be herself.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 13, 2012 14:39:38 GMT -5
All the while Inkie Pie had been having her bath, Snowdrop had been wrestling with herself. She wanted to look through that diary, but she didn't dare. Just a peek! she argued with herself, Just a single, itty bitty teeny weeny page! Even just a paragraph! Just to see what kind of thing her new friend liked to write about. No more than that. Inkie would never even know that she had pinched a peep!
But there was a strong counter desire, too. The one to be a good friend, a trustworthy friend, the kind of friend you trusted your secrets to because they would never do such a thing as sneak through your stuff. And THAT desire gave Snowdrop the strength to keep her hooves to herself. Well, almost. She had picked up one of the books of tragic plays and had been reading through it, stretched out flat in the middle of Inkie's bed. She looked up with bright eyes and a smile when the grey filly sat down too.
"You like plays?" Snowdrop asked, eagerly. "I like them too! They're like stories set up to be pretended already. This is a good sad, one. See how she doesn't tell her lover that she's in trouble? I wonder why lovers always do that. If you cant go to your lover when you need help, who can you turn to? But I guess it wouldn't be much of a story if it could be so easily done, just like that. Does this end happily or sadly?" she asked.
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 13, 2012 15:33:09 GMT -5
Inkie peered over at the book, not too disturbed by the fact that she had helped herself to her book it's not like it was her diary or anything like that. But it was definitely one of her favorite plays. She nodded when asked about it. "I really like plays too, so much goes into it, more than anypony could feel in a year, all together in one emotional play. Love, passion, betrayal, anger, hatred, misery, madness and depression!" that list of emotions she recited as if she were part of the play itself. Then, with that same enthusiasm, Inkie addressed her question about the play "Well, if you care about somepony, why would you want to trouble him with your own problems? I would never want to make someone I care about sad all because I have problems. I would just do my best without their help, knowing I didn't let them down."
She nodded slowly. It was pretty much how she lived her life, kept all that sadness bundled up in an Inkie-shaped package, and always expected the worst from the world, just in case, thinking she was miserable so nopony else had to be. Of course, she didn't really realize the irony of her connection to the tragedy.
When asked about the ending, Inkie just shakes her head. "I won't spoil it for you, that would ruin it. But if you want a hint..." she shut the book, pointing to the cover. It depicted an artist's rendition of a scene from the story, and a massive mask, in the shape of a frowning, crying face. The very same that is often accompanied by it's smiling, laughing counterpart for comedy.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 13, 2012 22:58:23 GMT -5
Snowdrop stared at the cover thoughtfully, turning over Inkie Pie's response in her mind. why would you want to burden someone else with your problems? Wasn't it better, nobler, to just try to muddle through it alone? But then.... Maybe I don't understand because I don't remember what it's like to be able to trouble someone else with my problems. The thought made her ache a little inside. Maybe my life is a tragedy too! This thought pleased her, and dissolved the first gloomy feeling. She flipped to a passage she especially liked and read it aloud.
"Oh silver sylph! Thou airy sprite! I wouldst hold thee to my heart and treasure thee ever after. But I stay my grasp, lest I should, in so doing, pull thee down to dust and dirt with me, debase and humble thee, and deprive the smiling sky of it's greatest joy."
Snowdrop took a minute to decode this passage and then added "Here, her lover is sad because she's a pegasus and He's not. She can fly, but he cant, and he feels like he doesn't dare to tell her he loves her to her face, because he doesnt feel good enough for her." Snow tried to imagine what that might be like, but she kept getting stuck on the lover part. She couldn't even imagine having a lover! "I still think he should just tell her. He doesn't know it, but she loves him, and they could be much happier together if they would just be more honest about how they feel."
Snowdrop just wanted everyone to have a happily ever after.
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 14, 2012 12:28:19 GMT -5
Inkie was impressed to say the least. Snowdrop not only seemed to understand the play, but it's deeper meanings, the very minds of the characters were easily laid bare to her. And the way she recited from the book... she would make a wonderful actress... but now Inkie couldn't help herself. They /were/ reciting lines from a play she knew inside and out. She lept up on the bed starting to recite some of her won lines from the play.
"Oh, but mine dear earthbound love. How cruel fate's hand it is to place me upon this cloud, looking down at you, beyond my reach forevermore, were it that I may remove my wings by mine own hand I would, and cast myself from the heavens to be with thou... yet... it would take the love of scores of ponies to for thou to notice mine own. My fate is here, above, with another skybound stallion of my family's choosing. He brings a frightful chill to my heart like the clouds of a blizzard whenever he is near." She hopped up on the bed, reaching down at the floor as if she were perched on a cloud. "Oh my beloved Golden Grain below. My heart breaks that we wouldst be apart... but thou still has a chance to love again, a mare more befitting to thine self..."
Inkie doesn't seem to realize just how "into character" she's gotten, using the bed as a cloud-sized stage, and acting quite well. "May you live in happiness, so mine own is not sacrificed in vain..." She says, flopping backwards onto the bed, a hoof raised to her forehead dramatically.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 14, 2012 14:18:14 GMT -5
That was all the encouragement Snowdrop needed. It was wonderful to see her new friend so ...excited was not quite the word. Interested was a bit closer, but rather understated. But whatever it was, seeing Inkie Pie 'catch fire' from the lines of this play, the pegasus filly enthusiastically swept her glance over the next part, to make sure she understood it. Since the stallion's next lines had not so much tenderness in them as they had passion, she had an easier time imagining them, and she bounced off the bed where she'd been lazing and whirled about to recite energetically.
"I curse the fates that have so wickedly separated us! What are wind and cloud, that they should come betwixt two such as ourselves? Doest thou not crop the good grass and drink of the cool stream such as I? Doest not the rain fall on all alike? Nay, I say, I defy this fate! What good this mind, this heart, if they must live in an endless winter? If thou cannot come down to I, then to thou I shall find my way, or perish in attempting!"
Snowdrop paced about the room, feeling twice as big as she was, and about eight times as bold. She was not shouting, her voice was still at a regular speaking volume. Yet she managed to carry the feelings of the furious, fate-defying stallion into her acting, even though she really WAS just a small little pegasus filly.
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 15, 2012 0:02:35 GMT -5
Inkie wasn’t excited at all. It was a tragedy, how could anypony be excited? No, for inkie, this was something else entirely. She had never done something like this before. Pinkie left before she started reading plays, and Blinkie didn’t quite share her interest. So... now with Snowdrop, this was new. She wasn’t herself at all...
She was Silver Sylph, the beautiful pegasus mare about to face an arranged marriage, while she was in love with another pony. She could never be with him, since he was an earth pony (This was the time before Equestria, when the three ponies were divided into three xenophobic and distrustful kingdoms) She didn’t know that Golden Grain loved her back, and didn’t want to risk breaking his heart with the truth, so she keeps it a secret...
“Oh what a cruel thing love is, to separate us so... yet she is gracious... though has a chance to find another, before thine heart might break... and for thou I will accept mine own fate with a different stallion. Only being close to thou could ever warm me from the presence of Blizzard Breeze, but I must face the cold, for thou. I pray that thou might find thineself in love’s good graces, finding a mare more befitting of your kindness, charity, and looks.” She sighs sadly, rising onto her hind hooves to raise her forehooves dramatically. “I swear upon swears that thou will never hear the truth from me, for thine own good... and dream upon dreams that we might one day be together, land and sky meeting like the highest peaks of a mountain.”
Inkie seemed perfectly gripped in the passion of the moment, even on the verge of tears. She was, of course, acting, but how was Snowdrop to know if she couldn’t tell the difference. She just kept going, as if her bed were the stage, and she truely was Silver Sylph.
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Post by Snowdrop on Apr 15, 2012 11:20:46 GMT -5
Golden Grain continued to pace restlessly across the floor (after taking a quick peek in the book while Silver Sylph had the stage) and then suddenly, he turned and addressed a sack of flour (with a party hat set on top) tucked away in a corner. "Fair witch! Thou must makest me a potion that shall give me wings as fair and light and strong as any pegasus that ever was! See, I lay down all my wealth at your feet, all that I have may be thine, if thou will but do this thing! I care not for danger. Thou will do this? May the fates bless you for this kindness to me! I shall return when the moon rises with thy payment! Till then, Adieu."
And Golden Grain strode away from the 'witch', only to change posture a few moments later. Then he was the cowardly, wicked and sneaking Blizzard Breeze, who was burning with hatred and envy. "Witch!" he cried, turning and entering once Golden Grain had departed, "This draft thou must not make, for the pony hath evil in his heart and mischief in his mind. Mix instead a deadly poison to strike this viper dead in his track! See, I shall reward thee well, and thou mayst yet collect that villain's fee. So shall perish all mine enemies!"
And with that, Blizzard breeze left the apothecary and 'flew' to the cloud where Silver Sylph rested. "Thou must resign thyself now, madame! I have discovered thy secret and your lover is on the path to death as surely as though the poisoned chalice were at his lips already! Those who might call the heart of Blizzard Breeze as cold as ice do not say that he be as blind as the storm! Thinkest thou I would not see? Thou shalt be mine, and if thou hast no heart to give me, then none else wilt have it, either!"
Snowdrop was enjoying herself immensely. To be brave and noble Golden Grain one moment, and then the cowardly and conniving Blizzard Breeze produced in her such a variety of strong emotions that she was really a little frightening, for all her size. She was Golden Grain, Desparate, longing, willing to throw everything away. And she was Blizzard Breeze, full of malice and jealousy and cruelly triumphant!
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Post by Inkie Pie on Apr 15, 2012 21:16:59 GMT -5
'Silver Sylph' gave out a gasp, flopping onto the 'cloud' pleadingly at 'Blizzard Breeze's ' hooves. Inkie could practically feel her heart breaking with Sylph's. "Nay, you mustn't! Wouldst thou have this good pony's blood on thine hooves? I beg of you, spare him. Let him live free, and I shant even look below again. I will remain here, and you shall have me as thine own."
Inkie appeared to be either a bit too emotional at the moment, or a very good actor, as tears actually began to fall from her eyes. "I beg of you, find a single spark of charity in thine heart..." she stood, stamping a hoof in determination through her tears. Lest I cast myself below to be with him in death, an you shant lay a hoof upon me." She said with determination, raising up onto her hooves as if she were about to jump from the bed.
Inkie never even knew or could imagine what it was like to be a pegasus, but right now, she imagined a pair of majestic wings, stretched out with her hooves, ready to help her fall into a final dive.
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