Ramblings of a Gloomy Pony

While I was traveling at the speed of Pinkie I had time to think. While this world is different it is interesting too and as time passed this version of Equestria started to grow on me. Over time I would become proud to call it my home. Anyway another thought that occurred was that perhaps I was in a coma from the lightning strike and that this was all just some dream. It was a lot more realistic than any of my lucid dreams had ever been but the possibility was still there. However at the moment I wasn’t really all that concerned with waking up rather I wanted to enjoy this for as long as I possibly could.  Anyway back to the situation at hoof. Pinkie was taking me to see Twi and she was definitely gonna try and learn more about my lucid dreaming skills. As I would later find out lucid dreaming was somewhat of a rare skill. Not many ponies outside of the dream school knew how to do it. Even less could actually pull it of consistently. Twilight had a field day when we actually sat down to talk about it. I thought she would have grilled me about at Sugarcube Corner that day but she wanted to talk about something else.

***

Here in my car, I feel safest of all, I can lock all my doors~

“Gloomy”

Its the only way to live~

“Gloomy”

In cars~

“GLOOMY!”

“Yes Gary Numan?”

“Wha? Who’s Gary Numan?”

“Oh uuuhhh nopony Twilight, oh hi Twilight”

How the hell did we get here so fast? And how the hell did Pinkie sit me down without me noticing. I suppose I can chalk this up to unfair fucking horse magic too. Well unfair Pinkie magic.

“Hello Gloomy.” Twilight had a tired look in her eye and her appearance reflected it as well. Her mane was messy, her coat was covered in dark black splochs and she wore a worrisome expression that didn’t help

“Okay I’m back.” I turned to see Pinkie had come back from wherever she went and had three milkshakes with her what looked like little red round reading glasses

“I didn’t know what flavor you like so I just got you vanilla”

“Oh um thanks Pinkie”

Somethings changed about her, she looks a lot more serious than before

“Pinkie are you okay? You don’t seem as energetic as before”

“Oh I just mellowed out is all. Can’t be fun and games all the time Gloomy. That would just burn me out. Don’t get me wrong I do get really excited to meet new ponies and plan parties but it doesn’t hurt to just  slow down and relax or be a little serious either besides Twilight needs my help.”

…...wow…..just…..that was way the fuck out of left field...like sudden OOC left field…

“Sorry Gloomy we’ll have our discussion about lucid dreaming later. In the meantime do you think you could look over my manuscript Pinkie?”

I cut Pinkie off before she could speak, “Wait didn’t you say that it would take you like four hours to finish your manuscript?”

Twilight coughed into her hoof. She seemed a little embarrassed. “Yes well I was doing calculations based off my old unicorn powers. I….forgot to factor in my new alicorn powers…”

New alicorn powers? So she hasn’t been a princess for that long then. How the hell is she so tall then? Do alicorn powers give growth spurts or something? Thats just fucking cheating…..

“That’s alright Twilight. With these new powers you can make manuscripts a lot faster and get feedback a lot faster.  Now let me see what you have so far.” Twilight levitated her manuscript over to Pinkie and almost instantly she began to look it over with intense look.

So aside from baker and party planner I take it that she’s an editor too. Damn talk about doing a one eighty this new Pinkie came out of nowhere

Pinkie set down her glasses and moved the manuscript over to my side. Needless to say I started to read it.

“Twilight I’m sorry to say this but you won’t even make honorable mention with this.”

Twilight sighed and started rubbing the base of her horn with one of her hoofs. “Yea I kinda had a feeling like that too. It didn’t feel all that different from my last manuscript but I was just kind of hoping that my art would help make up for it this time.”

“Your drawing is way better than before yes but you can’t get by on just improved art alone. You need to have a good plot as well. I always make sure that my story is solid before I worry about the art.”

So Pinkie’s a mangaka too eh? She probably writes gag manga or something

“After all what’s shoujo without a good steamy plot?”

Universe - 2 , Gloomy - 0

“ I know I know. It’s just that writing out a story is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

Her manuscript wasn’t that bad actually. It wasn’t terribly good either though. It’s supposed to be a one shot yet she’s cramming too much information into it. She’s writing this as if it were a novel and her character development is almost non existent. Most of the characters in it are just your stereotypical shonen archetypes and the main antagonist himself is pretty much your generic run of the mill bad guy, he even came with his own villianish panel that shows his eyes and outlines the rest of his body.Just like every other main antagonist. Well okay her story telling sucks but damn if the art don’t make up for it. Every page is vibrant, the character designs are incredibly well done and the backgrounds are colorful and detailed without being too cluttery.

“I would put off submitting this and perhaps try again for the next Akamare in three months. I’m sorry Twilight.”

Twilight looked as if she had just been told her puppy died. Suddenly all her tired feature made themselves more known. Her bags were deep and her coat looked as if it lost some of its luster. She was heartbroken

“I..I”

“Your art is amazing and I get that you’re trying to do a battle manga and all but with this kind of art perhaps you’d have better luck with a different type of manga.”

Pinkie looked over and eyed me with curiosity while Twilight just looked at me.

“Like?”

“Well you’re backgrounds are really detailed and I noticed that you like to use dark colors a lot in both characters and settings, that draws a lot of attention to both of them. In a battle manga you’re more focused on the battle and the story behind it not so much the characters since everything usually gets revealed in a battle anyway. However in an adventure manga you can use those detailed backgrounds and dark characters to your advantage since the story in them usually revolves around where they travel to and what they want to do there. Along the way you can slowly develop your characters as they travel as opposed to the usual shonen way of cramming a whole bunch of character development with some massive power up. An adventure manga will use your detailed backgrounds and excellent character design to its fullest.”

Pinkie and Twilight just sat there with their jaws dropped

Years of reading manga finally pays off

“T that is actually a good idea, an adventure manga would make full use of all of Twilights skills”

“B but I’ve never written adventure manga before, I wouldn’t know where to begin”

“Well you could write about a modern samurai in a steampunk world who was cursed by the gods with immortal life and is now traveling in order find a way to die who at the same time is running from the government who wants to experiment on him and figure out if they could replicate his immortality somehow and rid hu...ponyanity of the fear of death.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped again while Pinkie was just laughing quietly to herself

“That was a really creative idea Gloomy,  steampunk settings aren’t really done that much anymore but they usually always make for the best stories.”

“T that...h how?”

“Years of reading manga I guess”

A grin was slowly forming on twilights face and twinkle in her eye was becoming more and more noticeable

“You’ll do it”

“Do what?”

“You’ll write the story and I’ll draw.”

Is she really going Bakuman on me?

Pinkie was just nodding her head, “That might actually be a good idea, partners aren’t exactly unheard of in this business either.”

I wouldn’t mind but I am working for Rarity now and I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to write in between deliveries. Not to mention that I have to work another job to make up for the days that I’m not working. Then again I’m pretty sure I could make something pretty epic. With Twilights drawings and Pinkies experience we’d get published for sure. I need to think about this.

“I need time to think about this Twilight. Give me a week and I’ll get back to you.”

Her ears drooped and she gave me the most diabeetus inducing sad face ever, “Well okay I do suppose you need time to settle in. I am holding you to that one week deadline though.”

Me and Pinkie laughed at Twilight being Twilight

“Anyway I should probably head to Rarity’s I wanna get settled in.”

Pinkie nodded and gathered our empty milkshake cups, “I need to clean up here, Twilight do you think you can show him over?”

Twilight nodded and magic’d her things together and motioned me to head over

After we said our goodbyes to Pinkie me and Twilight started to make our way over to Rarity’s

“So crazy first day huh?”

“Yea no kidding. Didn’t think I’d find a job this quick or meet two mangaka.”

Twilight giggled, “Or that maybe you’d find a job as a writer.”

I nodded, “that too”

Twilight looked at me for a second while walking, “Where are your things?”

Oh fuck me sideways I forgot you need to stuff to settle in

“I uh lost them in the Everfree, some monster was chasing me and I had to make a choice”

“Oh I’m so sorry to hear that.”

I waved that thought off, “No worries I didn’t have much anyway, sucks that I lost my bits too though.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll make them all back by working for Rarity, she’s a really popular designer and ponies are always buying clothes from her. Well here we are.”

“woah”

Her boutique is a lot bigger in person, well bigger by pony standards anyway

“Thanks Twilight, it’s not very gentlecoltish for a mare to walk a stallion back. Next time I’ll return the favor.”

She smiled a bid me farewell while I proceeded to knock on the door and wait for Rarity to open up. A few seconds later I could hear the sound of hooves approaching

A door opened and out popped Rarity, “Oh Gloomy you’ve come. I trust you found your way here without any difficulty?”

“Yea Twilight showed me the way.”

Rarity giggled, “A mare walking a stallion home how adorable.”

Yea yea I look like a girl and got walked home like a girl BLEH

“Come along darling then I’ll show you to your room.”

I nodded and closed the door on my way in. As I followed her I couldn’t help but notice that the boutique looked more or less the same. I did notice that she didn’t have too many dresses out though. In fact I saw a lot of regular clothes on her models.

Shirts, sweaters, hoodies? What the hell Rarity makes regular clothes too?

“Here we are, its a bit dusty but we can clean in the morning. Speaking of which Applejack has asked if you could stop by tomorrow morning. She wishes to speak to you regarding a second job”

“You don’t need anything delivered tomorrow?”

“I haven’t finished up the orders yet so at the moment no.”

“Ahh alright, thanks again for the room Rarity.”

She smiled, “Think nothing of it dear. I am the element of Generosity after all. Well good night Gloomy I hope you enjoyed your first day in Ponyville.”

“Yea I did, Night Rarity”

She closed the door and left me to myself

Well I got a job and a place to stay not bad for a first day. Still how did I get here? Why did I get sent here? Is this even real? Ehh I’m tired no point thinking about it now. Tomorrow.