Beads of moisture clung to the ends of her lashes.
"Miss Yearling..."
Her brown muzzle tensed. She curled her legs up to her chest, snuggling tighter under the wrinkled bedsheets.
"Miss Yearliiiiiiiiing..."
At last, her ruby eyes fluttered open, dull and drowsy.
Twilight Sparkle smiled gently from where she squatted beside the bed. Morning light drifted gently through thin spaces afforded by the room's thick black drapes.
"Wasn't there something you wanted to do today?" Twilight asked.
A. K. Yearling's nostrils sniffed. She threw the edge of the blanket over her face, hiding the sight of Twilight. "Mmmmnnngh... no..."
"You sure of that?" Twilight chirped through a bright smile. "It's a beautiful day. You're a healthy young mare."
"Not... quite so younggggg..."
"Awwwww... Come on!" Twilight leaned forward, nuzzling the petite lump beneath the bed sheets. "What ever happened to A.K. Yearling, creative pony and beloved inspiration to millions?"
"There was an author here, but she's gone now..."
"I didn't ask about writing, now did I?" Twilight smirked and pulled the sheets off the mare with one swift tug.
"Guhhhh..." Yearling covered her face, groaning into her hooves as she threw her shoulders to the light. "I don't... mmmnnngh... remember asking for help from any of you..."
"Neither do I!" Twilight trotted briskly to the other side of the room, fidgeting with the drapes. "It's just such a nice day out! It'd be a shame for you to miss it!"
"Don't... you dare--" Yearling snarled, pointing an angry hoof at the unicorn. "Keep them shut!"
Twilight's face twisted on confusion. "I'm not sure I'd figure out how to draw them even if I wanted to!" She turned around with shrugging shoulders. "Why do you keep your bedroom so dark, anyways?"
"It... mmmnnghhh..." Yearling sat up, rubbing a hoof through her disheveled gray mane. "It h-helps me think."
Twilight stared, blinked, and stared some more. "You sure about that?"
A. K. Yearling sighed.
"Oh well!" Twilight trotted gaily towards the doorway. "We're all up having breakfast! You should join us!"
"Who's 'we?'"
Twilight giggled. "Who else? Come along!"
Yearling stared at the floor, her features slumped just as loosely as her shoulders. It took much fussing—a little bit of groaning—but she eventually stood up on wobbly legs and shuffled across the empty shadows.
A shower and a mane drying later, A. K. Yearling trotted across the kitchen in a velvet bathrobe. The voices of six cheerful ponies and a dragon echoed across the cottage behind her hunched shoulders.
"What kills me is that she couldn't get herself to fly up the mountain even though she had perfectly good wings!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked from where she hovered.
"Rainbow!" Rarity gasped, leaning across the dining room table to give Fluttershy a reassuring hug as she frowned the other pegasus' way. "Honestly! Must you rub it in, so?"
"It's okay, Rarity," Fluttershy smiled bashfully with reddened cheeks. "I know it's awfully silly to not use the feathers that Mother Nature gave me."
"Hey! I'm only saying that it's crazy!" Rainbow smirked. "In—like—a silly way! You've totally carried your weight when push came to shove!"
"Oh!" Spike hopped up in his seat, smirking. "Like that one time Fluttershy calmed the flippin' huge manticore!"
"Or when she saved my farm from a bunch of overbearin' beavers," Applejack added with a tip of her hat.
"Or when she heroically stood up for Sweetie Belle and her closest friends when that awful cockatrice attacked them!" Rarity shuddered, but then leaned in to give the mare a close nuzzle. "You're our valkyrie in adorable armor, Fluttershy, wings or no."
Fluttershy smiled. "Uhm... do you girls remember the one t-time I drove a school of angry sea serpents away from Equestrian waters?"
"Errr..." Twilight and Spike exchanged glances before shaking their heads. "No."
"Me neither." Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane. "It's just... s-something I always dreamed of doing... somewhat..."
The seven friends laughed.
Yearling stole a glance at them while pouring herself a mug of steaming herbal tea.
"Heeheehee!" Pinkie grinned wide. "Imagine if Dashie and Fluttershy swapped wings for a day!"
"What?!" Rainbow did a double-take.
Pinkie leaned over her edge of the table while waving her tail around. "I bet Fluttershy would go zipping around Equestria at the speed of giggles, kicking dragons in the face just to make up for lost time!"
"Good grief." Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Eeeep!" Fluttershy trembled. "I c-couldn't possibly do that!"
"Pinkie, even if Fluttershy gained the powers of Princess Celestia, that doesn't mean she would start flinging the sun into random galactic nebulae," Rarity said between sips of tea. "She's still herself, just as Rainbow is still Rainbow."
"Yeah!" Rainbow grinned wide. "Besides, I wouldn't allow it! Only pony to kick a grown dragon in the face and live? Pffft! That record belongs to me! Now and forever!"
Yearling sipped from her tea, took a breath, and uttered, "That didn't happen."
Everypony froze. They turned, blinking curiously across the morning light inside the cottage.
"That couldn't have happened," Yearling droned. "The dragon would have devoured you in an instant."
Rainbow Dash's lips quivered, her ruby eyes wide as saucers. She gulped and hissed aside to the girls. "Is... is she talking to me...?"
Applejack chuckled. "Yup, sugarcube. She sure is."
"I... I..."
Twilight cleared her throat and gave Rainbow's floating flank a swat!
Rainbow gasped, finding herself floating suddenly towards the mare in the bathrobe. She cleared her throat, fiddled with her hooves, and avoided Yearling's inquisitive gaze. "I... uh... I kinda did, yeah."
"Why?" Yearling asked.
Rainbow gulped. Sweated. "Because... I... w-wanted to...?" She rubbed a hoof behind the back of her head with a belated "Squeeee..."
Rarity cleared her throat. "I believe what our fine feathered friend is trying to say is that she acts oftentimes on impulse, with no rhyme or reason. The pummeling of the dragon is a prime example."
Twilight spun to squint at her. "Rarity, she didn't pummel that dragon!"
"Well, it certainly looked like it from where I was standing."
"The word 'pummel' implies that Rainbow Dash thoroughly beat the dragon within an inch of his life!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Heh!" Rainbow Dash slicked her mane back. "I totally would have!"
"Hah! Bite yer tongue!" Applejack smirked. "That fella launched you out of that there cave with a single roar!"
"Only c-cuz I let him!"
"Applejack's got a point," Spike said with a pensive smile. "This one time I burped and it sent Snips and Snails falling into the river."
"It's not the same thing, Spike," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.
"Sometimes it is!" Pinkie grinned. "You ever heard Spike after he's drunk an entire bottle of sarsaprilla? Whew! I've still got bells ringing in my ears!"
"Then how about we haul Spike up the mountain with us next time we gotta kick out a dragon for snoring the sky all dark! Then we'll see who outroars who!"
"You're all missing the point! As awesome as Rainbow Dash is, it's mathematically impossible for an equine of her stature—wings or no—to seriously injure a fully grown dragon in such a way that would imply 'pummeling.'"
"Twilight, darling, are you still on that?"
"Why, of course! It's important to remember how exactly things—"
"It's a miracle that you all are alive," Yearling said in a breathy tone.
Everypony (and dragon) gazed at her, silent.
Yearling gulped. "Each and every one of you in this room." Her ruby eyes narrowed. "You're all just normal, everyday ponies. Best friends who take out the garbage and shop at the market everyday." She shuddered. "You should have died that day. End of story."
The friends at the table exchanged glances. At last, it was Applejack who exhaled through a weary smile.
"Whew! Well, that wouldn't have been much of a whizz-bang story!"
"Heehee!" Pinkie Pie giggle-snorted, then pretended to choke her own throat. "They all marched up the mountain and died! Hrkkkkk-bleachkkkkk! The end! Heeheee! No thanks!"
Twilight smiled. "Just because we inexpicably lived through something so harrowing doesn't make it any less interesting of a story, Miss Yearling!"
"Besides, darling, we're here in one piece to tell more stories, are we not?" Rarity smiled. "Seems to me that an edgy outcome isn't entirely conducive to a fetching narrative."
"Yeah! Heh..." Rainbow Dash smirked in Yearling's direction. "Besides, if Daring Do totally kicked the bucket in her last adventure, then you'd really have an excuse not to bother even starting on your next book with her, wouldn't you—?"
"Hckkkt!"
"Rainbow!"
"Shhhhh!"
Twilight and Applejack frowned while Spike and Fluttershy winced.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip savagely, her ears drooping in a painful fashion. She hung on drooped wings, trying not to look Yearling's way.
The mare in the bathrobe sighed, her gaze falling darkly to the cottage floor.
Rarity fanned herself, glancing nervously across the table.
"Whelp!" Pinkie stood up straight with wall-eyes. "Who's for walkies?!"
A. K. Yearling stared down at her hooves as they crunched across the fallen autumn leaves. A brisk wind blew at her mane. She shivered slightly, pulling her cloak tighter arond herself as she stared dully through a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
"...and to be perfectly honest, I was being selfish the whole time!" Twilight said as she and the other mares walked along with Yearling down the forested path.
"Selfish?" Spike blinked, glancing down at the unicorn whose back he was seated on. "How do you mean?"
Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed through a smirk. "Because... all I wanted was not to have a reason to keep Rarity's and Fluttershy's secrets from each other."
"Oh dear," Fluttershy blushed from where she trotted on the other side of Yearling. "I'm so sorry, Twilight. That must have been so stressful for you."
"Only because I let it be!" Twilight said with a pleasant smile. "Everypony's troubles would have ended if I had only wisened up and brought you two in the same room to confess each other's feelings to each other!"
"Goodness..." Rarity snickered, her blue eyes following the errant songbird or two flitting by. "You make it sound like some sort of intervention!"
"Anything would have been better than what I resorted to doing! Helping Fluttershy embarrass herself on stage so that Photo Finish and the rest of the fashionistas would have rejected her?" Twilight shook her head with a sigh. "And here I thought that I wasn't capable of being melodramatic."
"It all worked itself out in the end, though, right?" Spike asked.
"Oh, swimmingly!" Rarity grinned, leaning over to nuzzle Fluttershy. "We had an open-hearted discussion and learned that we were torturing ourselves with stress and envy unnecessarily the whole time! Our little confessions cleaned the whole mess, didn't they, darling?"
"Oh, definitely!" Fluttershy said with a nod.
"Unnngh..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, ducking briefly to avoid a tree branch as she grumbled, "Enough with the deep hugs and tea parties! Can we talk about something awesome?"
"Like what, ya reckon?" Applejack slurred.
"How about that one time we totally bunched, kicked, and headbutted changelings at Cadance's and Shining Armor's wedding?!" Rainbow smirked. "Or that super huge hydra that chased Twilight and Pinkie Pie around! Or the buffalo stampede that nearly squashed all of Appleloosa to dust right before our eyes! Or—"
Yearling looked up and suddenly said, "No... I... I-I'd like to hear more..."
The ponies stopped in mid-trot to gaze at her.
"More of what?" Pinkie asked.
"Erm..." Yearling fidgeted, kicking at the loose acorns on the ground.
"Well?" Applejack smiled. "Don't be shy. Spit it out, sugarcube."
Yearling bit her lip. "About... Fluttershy's career as a supermodel." She gulped. "Or when Rarity met Fancy Pants in Canterlot. Or the time Pinkie Pie tried to make friends with a donkey."
"Oooh! Oooh!" Pinkie waved her hoof wildly. "I think I know that last one!"
Twilight gently brushed Pinkie aside and gazed curiously at Yearling. "You sure? I-I mean... they're not exactly exciting stories..."
"Or thrilling awesome adventure material!" Rainbow added.
Twilight said. "Yeah... or that."
"I know." Yearling nodded. "But... I-I'd like to hear more about them anyway." She smiled faintly, turning to look at Rarity and Fluttershy. "It amazes me that you two were so miserable, and yet you did all you could to pretend that you were happy so that you wouldn't hurt each other's feelings. It's really... inspiring..."
"Not to mention bordering on the warm and the toasty..." Rarity winked. "Yes?"
Fluttershy giggled.
"Yeah..." Yearling stared back at the falling leaves. "It's a good feeling" She gulped. "I wish I could share it more..."
Silence.
Applejack looked at the rest. Tilting her hat back, she smiled. "Hey. Did I ever tell y'all about how I got my cutie mark...?"
"And so... uhhh..." Spike gazed down at his twiddling thumbs as his lower claws kneaded the picnic blanket. "I was beneath the train seat the entire time. The only thing that nearly gave me away was my rumbling stomach. Thankfully, Angel was good enough to... uhm... feed me a gemstone just in the nick of time."
"And that was his way of showing you that he forgave you." Fluttershy winked. "Wasn't it?"
"Unnngh... yes..." Spike fell back, staring up at the bright blue sky as the mares around him giggled. "I totally didn't deserve it."
"But you learned from your mistakes that week." Twilight leaned forward with a smirk. "Riiiiight?"
"Yeah. Sure. Whatever." Spike shrugged, then fished his claws into a nearby picnic basket. "Hey! Pinkie! Are there anymore rubies left?"
"Unnnngh... Spike." Twilight rolled her eyes.
The ponies giggled again.
A.K. Yearling took a long breath of the autumn air, her lips curving slightly. "Has it always worked out that well?"
"Hmmmmmmfff?" Pinkie glanced over, her mouth full of cupcake. Gulp! "Whatsies worksies?"
"It seems that every single time you girls have an adventure or endure a series of calamitous events, you learn a clear-cut lesson." Yearling's eyes narrowed. "It's almost too perfect."
"Yes, well, it's quite easy to illustrate a structure to one's experiences in hindsight," Rarity said while magically knitting a sweater above an open saddlebag. She shifted her weight on a velvet pillow and cleared her throat. "It's a great deal easier to eke meaning from a situation that's portrayed in all its simplicity, after all."
Yearling shook her head. "It feels utterly fantastical to me."
"And real life isn't?" Twilight asked with a smirk.
Sighing, Yearling hung her head. "I wouldn't know all that much about real life..."
"Well, if you opened your drapes and let the light in some more, maybe you could tempt yourself to—" Twilight started.
"Whoahhhh... easy there, sugarcube," Applejack said, patting the unicorn's forelimb. She turned to gaze softly at Yearling. "Ain't nothin' wrong with keepin' to oneself, especially if it's how you... uh... get in 'the zone' or whatnot."
With a bitter growl, Yearling said, "I haven't been 'in the zone' in as long as I can remember."
"Pffft! Yeah right!" Rainbow Dash flung a hoof from where she lazily reclined on the blanket. "You pump out a Daring Do novel every Tuesday!"
"Nnnngh..." Yearling rested her chin on her forelimbs. "That doesn't count."
"Doesn't count?!" Rainbow Dash shot up and battled a conniption. "But. It. That. You. How?!" She tossed her hooves and growled to the sky.
Fluttershy winced, turning to look meekly at Yearling. "If it's so unimportant, then why don't you stop?"
"You could... always write a different kind of story," Rarity said with a nervous smile.
"I want to. I really do. But..." Yearling winced.
Everypony stared at her.
With a sigh, the mare adjusted the glasses over her nose and closed her eyes. "I just can't."
"You sure about that?" Spike asked.
Yearling slowly nodded.
"Well, what did Mr. Fuzzles say?" Pinkie asked.
"Hmmm?" Yearling squinted one eye open. "You mean Mr. Feather Quill?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie nod-nod-nodded. "That Fuzzles!"
"He's yer editor, ain't he?" Applejack asked.
Yearling clenched her teeth, glaring off over the hilly countryside beyond the picnic blanket's windblown edge.
"It's not that I'm worried, Miss Yearling..." A finely suited stallion folded his hooves together and leaned forward in his desk chair. "But I'd be lying if I said that the publishers weren't getting antsy..."
A.K. Yearling sighed. Though she sat across from him, her spectacled eyes were locked on the Manehattan skyline looming outside his office windows. "I know."
"After all, it's been over six months since Daring Do had her last adventure freshly printed on the shelves. The readers are starting to wonder if her temple raiding days are over."
Yearling's jaws clenched and unclenched. "I know..."
"We've been working together for... how long?" Feather Quill smiled. "Ten years? I happen to know for a fact that you can write a novella in your sleep. So, if you've got several of your usual drafts lying around, why not toss one... or two of them my way... so that I could... take... a gander..." As his words trailed off, he craned his head with a curious squint.
Yearling's eyes were lost in the urbanity below.
The stallion gulped, cleared his throat, and muttered, "You seem a tad bit distracted today, Miss Yearling."
She didn't even wince. Slowly, she swiveled her deadpan expression to meet his. "I'm distracted everyday, Feather Quill."
He tried to hide his wincing expression; he failed. "Uhm... perhaps if... if..."
"I'm working on something new."
He blinked. "Something new?" He cocked his head aside. "All this time?"
"That is..." She sighed, looking into the far corner of the room. "I intend to be writing something new. I've been meaning to for a while now. It's just..." She didn't finish the last part.
Feather Quill found himself fiddling with the cuffs of his jacket. He stopped himself and stammered, "Something... other than Daring Do?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, Miss Yearling, it's just that..."
"What?"
"Well, I was under the impression that you enjoyed writing Daring Do."
"So was I."
"Did... something change?" He fidgeted. "I-I mean, are there no more ideas left for her? Are the adventures of everypony's favorite archaeologist over with?"
"Egads, no!" Yearling blurted, but followed it up with a breathy murmur. "Though they might as well be."
"Are you serious?" The stallion smirked. "Miss Yearling, Daring Do is what bought you that cottage in the middle of paradise! She's beloved by millions!"
Yearling snapped at him. "And now she belongs to the millions!" She broke her frown with a pained expression. "She's no longer mine, Feather Quill." Her gaze fell to the desk between them. "It's like we're practically strangers now. You can write anything about a stranger, but there's no feeling in it."
Silence hung between the blades of the room's lazy ceiling fan.
"So... uhm..." He squirmed, breaching an awkward smile. "You feel like writing something new?"
"Yes. I mean... I think so..." A.K. Yearling bit her lip. "I want to do something... special. Something grand. Something that will enter the minds of readers and stay with them long... something that they'll not want to forget. Something that will make them feel exactly what I want them to feel..."
"And what is it that you feel?"
Yearling opened her mouth but lingered. Her pupils shrank at the emptiness before her.
"Or..." Feather Quill calmly tapped the edge of his desk as he thought aloud. "Perhaps the more appropriate question is what do you want to feel?" He stared at her. "And is it something worth sharing? Worth it more than Daring Do's adventures and capers?"
All Yearling had to offer was a sigh.
So, with a gentle smile, Feather Quill stood up, trotted around the desk, and stood before her. "Miss Yearling? If I could offer a bit of advice? As a friend, if not an editor?"
She slowly looked up at him with glossy eyes.
He smiled. "You've given the world enough to make readers happy." He pointed. "Why don't you go about writing something that makes you happy for a change?"
"Awwwwwwwww..." Pinkie Pie cooed from her side of the park bench. "He sounds like such a sweet guy!"
"He's an editor," Yearling grunted, staring across the grass with sharp eyes. "Naivete will murder you."
Swooooosh! Rainbow Dash touched down on the other side of the mare. "Well, I say buck 'em!" She smirked.
"Pshhhhh!" Pinkie winced, waving her hooves dramatically. "Exnay on the bucknay, Dashienay!"
"No! I mean it!" Rainbow said with a frown. "Trying to talk Miss Yearling out of an awesome series just because she's in a funk!"
"It's not a funk," Yearling muttered, watching as Spike and Applejack helped Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight pick flowers along the forest's edge. "The stories are going nowhere."
"How can you say that?!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she flailed on her side of the bench. "Your Daring Do stories are full of plot twists and fight scenes and exploding stuff!"
"They're all pulp drivel at its pulpiest."
"And you pump out at least one doorstopper of textual radicalness everyday!" Rainbow Dash grinned devilishly. "What other pony can measure up to that?"
"Writing a lot of garbage only adds to the smell!" Yearling coldly glared back at Rainbow. "And in the end, it's still rubbish!"
"Soooooo?" Pinkie bounced. "Change it up, sister!"
Yearling sighed. "That's what I want to do..."
"Yeah, well I don't see it happening!" Rainbow folded her forelimbs. "Which—if you ask me—is a sure sign that your heart and soul really aren't into something different!"
"It's not disinterest," Yearling said. "It's something else."
"Like what? Indigestion?"
"Fear is more like it..." Yearling muttered. "I've just gotten so used to... producing flimsy chapters full of slick, slippery, useless words... without any meat or substance to them whatsoever." She gulped. "Just for the sake of having it get out there..."
"Oh!" Pinkie waved a hoof and smiled. "Like a super-fast-jellyfish!"
"Easy there, maverick." Rainbow settled Pinkie down with a forelimb and turned to look gently at Yearling. "Look. It's not that I want to bust your chops or anything. It just... kind of freaks me out when I hear how casually you brush off the legacy you've got going here."
"I'm not brushing anything off..."
"Aren't you?" Rainbow's eyes were glossy. "You're a super cool mare, Miss Yearling, and the stories you've made mean a lot to ponies. And I'm not just talking about me, but about all the hundreds if not thousands if not more who've spent days and nights glued to the pages you've hammered together!"
"Give a crowd manure, and they'll make manure salad."
Rainbow Dash blinked cross-eyed. "Buh?"
"It's simple." Yearling gazed at Rainbow with a jaded expression. "Ponies aren't in love with my writing. They're just used to it. It's not their fault—I'm the one to blame for slapping everything together with blatantly repetitive formulae and lengthy redundancies. I'm not kidding when I say that I could write Daring Do with my eyes closed. As a matter of fact—anypony can. I'm just the only mare who does, and since it's there for ponies to read, then what's to stop them? Take cardboard, for example. Soak the stuff in rainwater and then turn it into stale mush. It'd still be something ponies would be willing to eat everyday like bland porridge. Sure, it wouldn't kill them, but it wouldn't stimulate their minds either. But what would they know if that's all I ever feed them?"
"Maaaaaaaaaybe..." Pinkie tapped her chin. "...if they sprinkled some cinnammon on the cardboard porridge?"
"Nnnngh..." Rainbow face-hoofed. "Pinkie..."
"That's just it..." Yearling sighed. "I want to... I want to very badly—but I don't think I have what it takes to find... my cinnamon." With a gulp, she stepped down from the bench and padded across the grass. "I'm tired and it's too bright out. Let's go home."
"But... but..." Rainbow Dash fidgeted, pointing towards the horizon. "The sun hasn't set yet..."
"I'm going. If you all want to join me, that's up to you."
Rainbow sighed, hanging her head. On limp wings, she fluttered away, slowly following the mare from a distance while Pinkie hopped at her side.
"Yeesh..." The pegasus rolled her eyes. "Writers are such flankholes."
"How about sprinkling some gumdrops instead?!"
"Pinkie, learn a new tune already. Jeez..."
A.K. Yearling squinted through the tree tops, watching as the bands of reddening sunlight dwindled between the branches of the growingly dense forest.
"... I dunno... if y'all were to ask me, I'd say Fluttershy had the longest mane out of all of us when she was just a filly."
"I beg to differ!" Rarity smirked, happily sniffing the flowers from where they flounced in her saddlebags. "Why, if you were to take my curled hair and extended it at full length, then your world might turn upside down!"
"Uhm..." Fluttershy bit her lip and smiled. "Is it alright if I concede to Rarity here?"
"Fluttershy, this isn't a competition." Twilight smiled. "We're just reminiscing."
"I'd give the medal to Fluttershy, personally," Rainbow Dash said from where she hovered above the group. "You should have seen her back at Flight Camp! The poor girl was tripping over her mane all the friggin' time!"
"Ohhhhhhh Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy winced. "Please don't bring up flight camp..."
"I find it to be a rather endearing mental image, darling," Rarity said with a slight snicker. "I've seen the photos. It's almost as if your body grew while your mane and tail remained the same size."
"My... uh... my mother insisted I keep it that long," Fluttershy said with a sigh. "I somewhat envied Rainbow's hairdo for the longest time."
"HAH!" Applejack guffawed. "You call what Rainbow's been sportin' all these years a 'hairdo?!'"
"Awwwwwwwwwwww yeah!" Rainbow Dash licked her hoof and flicked her bangs back. "I send all the stallions spiraling out of control, baby!"
"Snkkkkt-Hahaha!" Twilight laughed so hard she almost threw Spike off her back. "I-I can't believe you s-said thaaaaat..."
"What?!" Rainbow shrugged with a raspy chuckle. "I can drop 'em dead! Just you watch!"
"You could certainly do with a head-start along that road, darling," Rarity said.
"Huh?"
"Mmmm—Nothing!" Rarity's eyes darted towards the forested walls while Fluttershy giggled.
"Grrrrgggh!" Rainbow hissed and kicked a passing tree. Her voice rose above and below her normal pitch. "I'm sick and tired of you guys laughing at stuff I don't understand!"
Yearling coughed. Yearling choked. Yearling wheezed.
The mares turned and stared back at her, blinking.
"Uhhhh..." Spike raised an eyecrest. "Miss Yearling?"
"You're not sick, are you?" Pinkie asked.
"No... no, I-I'm not... I just..." Yearling took a deep breath, then broke out in hyperventilating laughter. She waved a hoof, teetering as she smirked up at Rainbow Dash. "It just kills me."
"Uhhhhh..." Rainbow fidgeted in midair. "What does?"
"The way your voice cracks all the time!" Yearling inhaled, exhaled, and giggled. "Especially when you're trying to be tough or fierce! It's like you're a foal trying to pass herself as a big pony! It's so adorable!"
"Wait..." Rainbow grimaced. "Is... is that your way of saying I'm 'cute—'?"
"And Fluttershy!" Yearling turned, leaning back against a tree for support. She pulled her glasses off and rubbed her tearing eyes as she chuckled. "That... that sound you make! When you're really frightened! Like a cat trilling!"
"Mmmmmm...!" Fluttershy nervously hid behind Rarity.
"Yes! Yes! That!" Yearling giggled some more. "And the way your voice hisses when you become frustrated, Rarity! Or the way Pinkie sings! Or the yelping sound Spike makes when he pratfalls! Twilight and her squeaky adorkable voice... and... and..." She turned towards Applejack. "Applejack! Quick! Say 'celery!'"
"Uhhhh..." Applejack shifted about nervously before eventually producing: "Celery!"
"Haa haa haa haa!" Yearling hugged herself, red in the face. "You guys kill me! You really do!" She sucked in her breath. "You're all so cute and you don't even know it! It just feels so... feels so..." She gasped, and suddenly her eyes were wide. A blanching expression ricocheted across her muzzle, and she stared daggers into the earth.
Silence lingered upon the virge of cricket song.
"It's not fun anymore..." Yearling gulped. "Every day. Every hour. I live it. I breath it. I sweat it. And all the words are the same. Every chapter begins and ends just like the one before it. Just like the days I live. Dark, dank days with the shadows of thoughts that used to warm me. And every night is spent with the same suffocating fear, the chilling thought that I'm never going to get out of this hole, that I'm never going to rise to the heights that I've risen to before. But it all sinks, doesn't it? No matter how high you ascend, the weight of the thing just... crushes in on itself. The story grows dense, stale, predictable. And before you know it, everything you attempt... every paragraph you concoct is just an accident waiting to happen. A train wreck with no rails. And what am I speeding into the abyss for? What is this pretentious detritus worth that I'm making with every minute of my moronic life?"
The six companions stared quietly, their ears twitching to her words.
She gulped. "There's so much I could be doing. So much that I want to do—even if I don't know what it is that I want to produce. But I can't go faster than I'm already going and I'd rather die than stop but... where else is there to go?" She looked up with a quivering lip. "I'm so... so scared of lying still and yet too mortified to switch gears. Now all I do is linger. In bed. At the dinner table. In the shower. Everything happens but me. And if it keeps up, I'm going to die this way... having gone in every direction—but not having reached a single finishing line."
Their eyes reflected her shivering figure.
At last it was Rarity who said, "But what is it that makes you happy, darling?"
Yearling's eyes glossed over. "You do," she whimpered. A sniffle. "You always do. Even without me asking. And... and I fear... I know that I haven't done enough to repay you." She smiled weakly. "For making me feel so happy about life when I wake up... for giving me warm cuddly visions when I go to bed... for allowing me to laugh and feel young and innocent again..." She bit her lip. "And feel so... so loved..."
Twilight smiled gently as she said. "You have every reason to feel that way, Miss Yearling."
"No..." Yearling choked on a shuddering breath. "No, I don't." She shook her head, sniffling. "Because long ago, I had something a lot like you, something precious. And it's what got me started. But I got so focused on... on myself by the time that train got rolling, that I couldn't make out the destination from the shapes in the dark. All of those visions... all of those tumorous meanderings, and all of them gradually losing sight of that precious thing, unraveling the warm nub until all was just dust and the hint of sparks." She gulped and hung her head. "They all took me nowhere by taking me everywhere at once. I just... I just wish..."
"Wish what, sugarcube?"
Yearling sighed. "...that it could be simple yet again."
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie bounced over, leaned in, and nuzzled Yearling with her fluffy mane.
Yearling looked up with a sad expression.
Pinkie Pie grinned. "Just what is 'simple' anyways?"
Yearling blinked.
Pinkie snorted.
Yearling chuckled.
Pinkie fell over, giggling.
Yearling hugged herself through the resounding waves of laughter.
Twilight motioned to the rest. They all trotted over to give A.K. Yearling a tender hug. Then, collectively, they trotted the rest of the way to her forested cottage under amber sunset.
"...the reunion was almost plum over by the time I caught on to just how big of a mess I had made," Applejack said, slumped lazily in the chair at the dining room table. "I was just so dag-gum focused on tryin' to have the family get together happen all proper-like that I lost sight of what was really important."
"Oh?" Rarity glanced over from where she planted several of the day's flowers into the table's central vase next to a flickering candle. "And what was that, Applejack, dear?"
The mare tilted the brim of her hat back and drawled, "To just let ponies enjoy themselves. I mean, shucks, that's what they were there to do, and they knew it." She gave a bittersweet smile. "All of that fussin' and all of that stressin' was for nothin'. The best way I could have organized thangs was to just let the event organize itself. Oh, and keep the barn from spontaneously catching fire, I reckon."
"Hmmmm..." Twilight smiled from where she sat in the candlelight, stroking the spines of a quietly snoring Spike atop the table. "That reminds me of the time I nearly lost my mind over being tardy with a friendship report."
"Euuuuughhhh!" Rainbow Dash yawned, stretched, and rubbed her fuzzy face. "Nnngh... how in the hay does Applejack's story remind you of that?"
"I'll have you know that writing a friendship report to Princess Celestia is a lot like Applejack's family reunion," Twilight said with a proud smirk. "It's a wholesome thing. A good thing. And if I'm not having fun doing it... or at least attempting it..."
"Then why do ittttt?" Pinkie Pie uttered before diving her face into a bag of popcorn once more.
Fluttershy giggled lightly. "I can't count how many times ponies have trotted up to me at my cottage just to ask me the same question over and over again."
"And what question is that, darling?"
Fluttershy looked over. "'Why do you live way out here on the edge of the forest with nothing but animals who can't talk?'"
"Aaaaaaaaand?" Rainbow leaned in.
Fluttershy shrugged. "Because it gives me fulfillment. And... I'm happy." She smiled. "If neither was the case, I would be living closer to downtown Ponyville. I figure... why live with something that means so much to you if all it gives you is discomfort?"
"I think that's something Celestia was always trying to teach me," Twilight said as she stroked Spike's slumbering scales. "She was always trying to tell me to relax, to indulge in friendship, to not fill my days with too much work and study. I used to be flabbergasted at the end of those conversations. 'But aren't I your student?! Don't you want me to learn all there is to know about magic?! Shouldn't I work harder?!'" Twilight took a deep breath. "Well, I like to think I learned my biggest lesson of all."
Yearling looked up from across the table, blinking. "And what's that?"
"You couldn't work to attain that magic. You had to live it." Twilight smiled warmly. "And I found that life." She leaned over and nuzzled Applejack. "It was with my friends."
"Awwwwwww..." Applejack wrapped a hoof around Twilight and blushed. "Yer too dang sweet, darlin'."
"It's true, though..." Twilight sniffled slightly, resting her head on Applejack's shoulder. "I didn't know what made me happy until I found it. And once I had... I stayed there—in that place—and life did all the rest."
"Pffft. Just stretch my philosophy into a novel, why don'tcha?" Rainbow Dash said.
Yearling glanced at her. "And what's that?"
"Do I gotta spell it out?" Rainbow yawned, leaning back in her chair. "Living and doing? Neither mean horse apples if all you do is fill it with too much thinking."
A.K. Yearling twitched. She stared off towards the windows, her eyes reflecting the sheen of candlelight against the glassy surfaces.
"Is... is everything alright, darling?" Rarity asked.
"I... I have to be going," Yearling muttered, standing shakily from the table as her weighted gaze led her—stumbling—towards her bedroom door. "Forgive me, girls. It's been a wonderful day. Really, it has."
Twilight glanced over. "Off to sleep already, Miss Yearling?"
"What is sleep?!" The mare called back, and was gone.
Twilight blinked... then smiled. The candle beside her went out.
A.K. Yearling slid her typewriter onto the center of her bedside table. She scooted her chair forward, slid paper into the dispenser, and started plonking away at the keys.
She did not stop. Not several minutes into the document when her ears started itching. Not an hour into the process when her coat formed a fine layer of sweat. Not even when she started aching and had to shift her weight over and over again in the chair in order to meditate on the words that were coming out too quickly for her to dwell on—much less fret about.
It wasn't until a bright beam of flame stabbed her eyes that she blinked, paused in her paragraphs, and glanced at the edge of the table. To her breathless wonder, a two-inch thick pile of sheets lay before her, just to the edge of the typewriter.
Craning her neck to see where the beam of flame was coming from, Yearling limped out of her chair on stiff legs and trotted across the room. She approached the drapes, unclipped them, and flung the veil open with suicidal vigor.
The burning gaze of the morning sun stabbed its way through the trees and assaulted her eyes with pinpricks. Nevertheless, she gazed bravely into that vibrant shine. There was still something in the way—something thin and hazy. With a tired hoof, Yearling rubbed a swath across the glass, peeling the dust away so that she could see the green of the leaves, the brown of the tree bark, and the sapphire blue of the sky in all its glory.
"Hmmm..." She smirked to herself, relishing the exhaustion clinging to her skin. "Young."
Feather Quill flipped to the second-to-last page of the stack of freshly-typed papers in his grasp. His eyes darted across the paragraphs as he rubbed his chin in deep thought.
A.K. Yearling sat across from the stallion in his office, biting her lip as a smile consistently struggled to stay beneath the surface of her muzzle.
Feather Quill took a deep breath. At last, he finished the last page, then laid the whole manuscript down on the table between the two of them. "Hmmm... 'Friendship Is Magic.'"
"Well?" Yearling leaned forward with an anxious look in her face.
"It..." He nodded lightly. "It has potential."
Her spectacle'd eyes narrowed. "But..."
"Well..." He fidgeted with his suit's sleeves while speaking aloud. "It's an awful lot to chew, Miss Yearling. So Princess Celestia has an apprentice—this... 'Twilight Sparkle...'"
"Yes..."
"But instead of sending her out on missions of exploration and diplomacy like a traditional sorceror's apprentice, she's tasked with moving into this small rural town full of ordinary ponies with ordinary problems and... doing ordinary things..."
"Is that... bad?"
"Well, I like a good slice of life story as much as the next pony," Feather Quill said. "But you're putting so much weight on the... well... the magical importance of these otherwise mundane social situations. Though, I gotta admit that I'm rather fond of the characters. Rarity is flawed, but relateable. Fluttershy is pensive, but capable of dramatic spontaneity. Rainbow Dash is an easy cash-in. Applejack can speak to ponies outside the target demographic. Pinkie Pie... is fun, though she could use a bit of tweaking."
"When would she not?" Yearling smirked.
"They're all great characters, even the 'Golly Jee-Willickers' dragon kid. But..."
Yearling raised an eyebrow. "What's the issue?"
"Well, it's not an issue per se, but something that could be rearranged." Feather Quill flipped to some of the earlier pages. "It's here in your outline. This... 'Return of Nightmare Moon' story arc..."
"Uh huh..."
He glanced up at her with an arched eyebrow. "Do you really want to start out with this?"
"Why not?"
"Because... well..." He shrugged. "Any self-respecting author could see that it's a very dramatic plot device. I mean, you're digging deep into monarchal lore here. You could spend an entire novel milking the concept of Celestia's banished lunar sibling coming back to curse the world with everlasting night."
"I want it to be the first arc."
"But why, Miss Yearling?" He asked with a confused expression. "All of these events that follow her rise and defeat—you could very easily have them take place before what would otherwise be a very riveting climax, and then you could interweave bits of foreshadowing between the copious amounts of slice of life."
"I don't want it to go that way," Yearling said, shaking her head. "The battle between Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony must happen first."
"And why is that?"
"Because it's not what's important," Yearling said with a confident smile. "The friendship is."
Feather Quill leaned back, staring at her thoughtfully. After a prolonged breath, he said, "The friendship..."
"Yes."
"And how'd you come upon this idea?"
"I took your advice," she said. "And in so doing, I felt something. Now I want my readers to feel it too." She pointed at the sheets of paper. "Through them... the ponies who helped me get here."
He stared at her, at the papers, then at her again. Rubbing his chin, he sighed. "Like I said, it has potential. But the ultimate decision—I fear—is going to be up to the publishers, even if I forward this to them with my full confidence. I mean... they're going to be expecting Daring Do, temples, flames, and the like—but this?"
"I can't pretend to imagine they'll be altogether thrilled."
"It could crash and burn, Miss Yearling," he said, staring sharply at her. "Like a train wreck."
"It doesn't matter. It's out there." Yearling looked aside, smiling into the bright world beyond the office window. "And so am I."
A.K. Yearling trotted alone down the forested path to her cottage.
She lingered at the front entrance to enjoy a brisk, autumnal breeze. Then, breathing deeply, she opened the door and trotted inside.
Her hoofsteps echoed against the walls of the place. Furniture lay bare and untouched. A fine coat of dust lingered on every desk and table top... but not for long.
One window after another, the mare let light into her domain, exposing all of the clutter and sediment to the outside world. Just as she was fetching a mop and duster from the closet, she paused, staring at the dining room table a few spaces away.
In the center, beside a fully melted candle, there sat a vase with dead wilted flowers hanging off scraggy stems.
Yearling trotted towards the table, leaned in, and pulled the dead flowers out. The petals crumbled to the touch, almost dissolving in her grasp. This didn't stop the mare from leaning in and nuzzling the bits as if they were as fresh as the day that they were first picked.
"Thank you," she whispered, a tear running down her smiling cheek. "...friends."
Author's Note
