An Empty Can

by Next Gen Wonderbolt

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna, Changelings, Slice of Life
Length: 2115

The Fight is just about over. Good thing too. I've run out of paint.

2 years is how long it's been since I began painting. 16 months is how long it's been since my accident. a year since it's been over. 2 months since I married.

Now I can just sit back and remember the good times.

Published 2014-05-04 15:50:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-04 15:50:03 UTC

The Big Picture

Day 630

Entry 1158

This will be my last entry in this journal I have before me. Today marks the two year anniversary, well maybe not an anniversary, but you get the point. Since this is my last entry I might as well write down everything that's happened as a recap of my life so far.

2 years ago I began spray painting messages on the walls of buildings in Canterlot. I was so new at it yet I painted like a natural. It just seemed to flow like a steady stream.

My motivation for painting graffiti art on the walls was to gain support for my people, the Changelings. At first it was just for the respect. Respect, goddess that word still makes me shudder. It's the word that started me down this path. It's what I wanted, it was all that mattered to me. I wanted, no, needed it from society. I needed to be equal, and it haunted me for the two years I invested in obtaining it. It enveloped me and all of my free time. Eventually I left the hive and came to Canterlot.

From there I borrowed a hoodie from a local tailor to disguise myself. I could have changed my appearance like all changelings are trained to do at a young age, but for reasons even I cannot fathom, I didn't do it. I wanted to be seen as I was. I wasn't afraid of being discovered or being seen, but instead I was afraid of losing respect as a living being.

It's getting repetitive with the respect thing I know, but it was all that occupied me. It was what I thought was my purpose in life. To gain respect for not only myself, but for the changeling species as well. It was all that mattered to me, all that I needed, it was my only goal.

But it consumed me.

I was so enveloped in this struggle for respect that I nearly lost my life because of it.

Of course the accident was a result of an event that happened 8 months before.

It was possibly the most beautiful night I had ever seen and to this day it still is. The moon shimmered in the night sky and with it's light brighter than ever, I set out to paint an image that would still haunt me to this day. The picture of a changeling half turned into Twilight Sparkle is what sent me down the road I travel today.

The Princess of the Night herself had stopped by to see my art. She said she was quite impressed with my art and asked what my drive was. I was about to explode on her, to focus all of my anger and vent it out on her. I was so frustrated, angry, and prone to violence that it frightens me to this day. I kept my cool and asked her something back. She didn't respond at first, but then we talked over what would become a partnership between us. She would help me spread my message to the rest of Equestria.

Then, 8 months later, all hell broke loose.

It started with the announcement from Celestia. The mural I had painted in townsquare convinced her to allow changelings back into Equestria. The mural was of a changeling and a regular earth pony giving their hearts to one another. An image that will also haunt me to this day not because it predicted the truth, but more so of the era it spawned. After Celestia had finished her speech I revealed my cover to the crowd.

A mistake that I can never fix.

Luna introduced me to her sister and shortly after a white stallion, who I now know is her nephew, Prince Blueblood, struck me down by ripping my wings right out of their sockets. Next thing I know ponies are running in all directions and the prince is sent over the edge and hurling towards the ground. I still hear the thudding sound his body made when it hit. Luna teleported us to the doctor residing in the castle and they patched me up.

I woke up a day later to find out that the assault in townsquare had started a full blown civil war in Equestria. Ponies left and right were slaughtering each other over whether or not changelings should be allowed to be treated as citizens or monsters. It shocked me really and not because of the war I had inadvertently started.

It was because ponies were fighting for us.

They were fighting for our rights as ponies.

I was discharged from the hospital 3 months after. Luna had me stay at the castle and rest. I would sleep during the day when she wasn't busy, then at night I would sneak out and paint more pictures to sway the remaining ponies who hated us.

I was furious when I thought about it at first, but after Celestia caught me sneaking out one night and sat me down to talk about why I was sneaking out in the first place I knew why they were reacting.

Celestia explained that it was a psychological battle at hand. The ponies trying to rid themselves of us were afraid of change and of what they thought we would do.

The wedding incident spread fear of us to every pony living in Equestria. They were afraid of a complete and total take over of their land.

I wasn't furious afterwards. I realized that these ponies were simply reacting to the fear instilled in their minds. That's when I knew how to end the battle.

I gathered the changelings who had hidden themselves among Equestria's communities. They weren't evil or bad, but simply disguised in fear for their lives. The plan was to show the ponies of Equestria the good we can do, that not all changelings are bad.

From then on I traveled from town to town painting at night and spreading the news during the day. It eventually earned me the nickname Hidden Prophet.

A year ago was when it ended. I was in Manehatten taking the train to the downtown area when I found a newspaper on the ground. It said that the civil war was over, that ponies had accepted the changeling's presence for the time being, but that many were still uneasy about it.

Happy could not describe what I was feeling. I was relieved and excited beyond comprehension. We could no longer hide ourselves from society, but we still had to watch our backs. The reality of the situation was that it was over, after a year of fighting, we were free from the hatred.

I returned to Canterlot shortly after and spent some time with Luna. Both of us were rejoicing in the current situation. We spent the rest of the day together as two friends and former partners. Little did I know that was the beginning of something bigger. Something that lead me to ask her out on a date 3 weeks later. At the time she didn't love me as I loved her, but when I asked her to give me a chance she asked for me to give her time to think about it.

I waited patiently and filled my freetime with the only thing I knew how to do.

Paint.

I painted a mural of a changeling with a hoodie looking out across Equestria from a balcony in the castle. The sunset's colors blended with the twilight sky creating a visual explosion of colors. The stars could be seen, but they were faded and slightly hidden. The grasslands spread and lightened up the environment with various shades of green. The wind could not be seen by itself, but instead through the leaves of the trees.

After I finished painting it I turned around to see the love of my life standing there before me. Her mouth was slightly agape, no emotion being shown. My first instinct was to flee and escape the situation yet I couldn't move my hooves. A moment was what it took for my mind to render the situation, then come to a conclusion. I bolted as fast as I could towards the main square. I needed to be anywhere but there at the moment, but I was stopped by her navy blue aura. She set me down in front of her and said she had come to a decision regarding my offer.

She said she would give me a chance.

I could have sworn I went brain dead at that precise moment in time. I couldn't seem to render what she had said even as it echoed in my head a thousand times over.

From then on everything seemed as good as it could get. I continued my hobby of graffiti art along with taking Lulu out for dinner every so often. She still gets on my case for pranking our waiter by changing my appearance every time he came to our table.

After 10 months of dating I decided to make my move. I planned it out a week before hand and spent the day before to get it set up. I told Lulu to meet me by the wall where we first met and when she showed up, the look on her face was priceless. The picture she was looking at was of a red heart surrounding two silhouetted ponies in wedding apparel. I could tell she recognized that it was the silhouette of her in the gown and my own silhouette in the tux holding her in my arms. I grabbed the ring I had saved up for in my green aura and proposed.

The ring was made of diamonds and a sapphire. The diamonds surrounded the sapphire in a crescent shape replicating the moon and somewhat her cutie mark.

The wedding was 2 months after the proposal. Celestia had taken the news surprisingly well and wished us well. I didn't bother telling the hive or Chrysalis. I hadn't heard from either in god knows how long, but I didn't bother figuring it out.

I asked Celestia to hold the wedding in the royal gardens, perfect timing too. The flowers were all blooming and I picked one of the lilies and put it in Luna's mane when she was up with me. When Celestia was about to say my name I filled in the blank by saying the name Blank Canvas. The name I have come to wear proudly.

The rest of the ceremony went off without a hitch. Not many ponies went, probably because we didn't bother telling any one mostly for press purposes, besides Twilight and Cadence as well as Discord and some of my changeling friends.

Everything after that doesn't matter now. It's all just little bits and pieces that wouldn't matter if I wrote them down anyway. I don't think they're important.

It still shocks me as to how this whole thing got started because of a spray can. A can that now sits empty on a shelf in our room. It'll sit right next to this journal, a reminder for who I was and for who I've become.

All of my paintings have faded away now, all but one. The one that Lulu saw days after I asked her out. She enchanted it with a spell that made it so the image would never fade. The only difference was that there was some writing next to it.

The writing said "RESPECT EXISTENCE -Hidden Prophet" and Luna's cutie mark was painted onto the hoodie.

That's all I really needed to scribble down. My whole life's summary just so I don't forget. I've really only written down the best moments or the memorable ones because I don't ever want to forget them.

To anyone who finds this journal in the near future when I've long since passed, I hope that it will give you some insight on the world we know as Equestria and of the stories it holds.

And to think this all started with a can of paint.

THE END

Author's Note

Somehow I find this isn't as good as it should be. Sorry if it doesn't explain the events of the aftermath of the prequel to this as descriptive as you would like, I didn't plan on continuing it so this was what I made.

I don't really have much to say other than thank you for everything. Much love and I'll catch you on the flipside.

EDIT: So fun fact, I had to change the name from Wildfire to Blank Canvas. (Cause he's not The Real Sibsy)