Running Away Solves Nothing
There are times when doubt creeps into the minds of any pony. In these times one can't always turn to a friend for advice, sometimes they must distance themselves from others to find some kind of answer to their doubts. A reasoning for their fears. Even as Twilight flew away from her friends she only had those fears on her mind. Her inner doubts had shoved their way to the top of her mind and had erupted in a nervous breakdown in the center of town, and that all happened in less than two minutes. Certainly any other pony in her situation would be just as frightened, but Twilight was different from other ponies. Yes, she was a princess now, she could not follow the same unspoken rules as regular ponies did. She had to act with decorum and class, but at the time she felt neither of those things.
It had started a long time ago when Twilight had first become a recognized princess, back then she had forced herself to repress her doubts as much as she could for the sake of herself and her friends. She had made it so far, even Tirek's rampage had not been enough to unsettle her, but what had happened in the market square that day had finished the job. It had seemed so innocent to her friends to ask how she was planning on handling her new duties as a princess, but soon the question devolved into a constant barrage of comments and arguments that Twilight had finally snapped.
In her state of disarray she had let her rage and fear take over. and with a sudden outburst towards her friends she had found herself flying away as fast as she could. Her problems were hers to bear now, she couldn't bother her friends with them, not after what she had said to them. The memory of the actions she had taken only a few minutes ago brought tears to her eyes, but they soon fell away from her face and evaporated behind her as she charged on through the air. Even when she had flown for a good five minutes without any sign of her friends following her she did not stop. It was only when her emotions rose again that she finally collapsed onto the ground once more in a shameful state. Her head hung low as she tried to make herself as small as possible after the complete realization of what had occurred hit her.
"What have I done?" She said softly. "I drove them away, and then I ran. How could I have done such a thing? Why would I have-"
She paused as her thoughts resurfaced and brought back the doubts and fears that had driven her away from her friends in the first place. She had caused it all, and only now did she realize. Because of her inability to share her fears with her friends she had created the rift that was now placed between them. Even the promise that they would share everything so as to prevent something like this from happening had not allowed her to share her very deepest doubts with her friends. How could she? They had never and would never experience the kind of responsibility she had been forced to take up. How could anyone understand? Her heart ached even more at that realization, and her body slumped into the dirt as her will to go anywhere else faded away. She didn't even know where she was anymore, she had come to a part of Ponyville that she had never seen before which probably meant no one would be searching for her here.
"With a look like that on your face I would say that you are trying to get away from something. Am I right?"
The voice was so close that Twilight quickly jumped up from her near fetal position out of shock. Her head turned from one side to the other in search of the source of the voice, a voice which was feminine in nature.
"Over here." The voice called out from Twilight's left.
The princess turned her head to the voice and took in the mare before her who sat on a nearby crate of fresh potatoes. She wasn't a particularly dazzling pony, in fact she seemed rather normal for an earth pony if not a bit more dirty. Her butter cream colored fur seemed well kept, and her mane was impeccably well done, twisted into a perfect braid that draped down the side of her face. She had a two toned mane, each color a contrasting shade of magenta. As Twilight took a closer look she saw the freckles on her face that reminded her of Applejack in a way, and she took note of the distant, silver eyes that seemed to look past Twilight; or perhaps into her.
"Ah, good, I was worried that I had suddenly turned invisible." She spoke with a soft smile on her face. "So then, what seems to be the cause of your distressed state, hmm? A lover's quarrel? Or perhaps you lost your bits to a scam? Oh, the best one I hear is that you've somehow ended up flat broke because of your nonexistent addiction to alcohol."
Twilight was, needless to say, quite offended by the flippancy of the mare. The nerve she had to make fun of Twilight's situation was unsettling, not to mention quite rude and abruptly unkind. Her frown and gaze of anger must have been evident to the mare, for the words she spoke reached right to Twilight.
"Calm yourself, I mean no disrespect. You're obviously not in a very good place now, and I just want to know why? I don't really care whether you're a princess or not, I just want to help a fellow living being."
The mare did seem less interested in Twilight's status, that much was obvious from the way she was speaking to her. But Twilight was nowhere near in the mood to entertain a stranger with her own feelings, feelings she hadn't even shared with her friends when she had the chance. The princess stared at the stranger who had taken to eating one of the potatoes she had been sitting on.
"You wouldn't understand my situation." Twilight spat. "You wouldn't know the first thing about it."
The mare smiled as she took a bite out of the potato in her forehoof. " Well, maybe so. I doubt I have any experience in the struggles of a princess. But I do have something you would need at a time like this; a good pair of ears."
She took another bite out of the potato before extending her other forehoof towards Twilight as a simple sign of delayed greeting. "I'm Autumn Spice by the way, but just call me Spice like everyone does. I take it you would be Princess Twilight Sparkle, yes? If not then I clearly am not getting out enough since that would mean a fifth princess decided to show up."
Twilight, with great apprehension, shook her hoof. "Yes, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight didn't really know why she was talking to this mare, she had been trying to get away from other ponies. Yet, even as her mind tried to remind her of this it occurred to Twilight that Spice was right, she could use a good pair of ears right now. A stranger could offer more to her right now than her friends considering she had just told them off in the most impolite way she could think of. Even a clearly unwashed pony like Autumn Spice might be of good use to her at that point.
Twilight sniffed, "You don't really seem like someone who would be the listening type. Why are you even here?" She stopped for a moment before bowing her head in apology. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me."
Spice laughed, "No need to apologize. I know what I look like, and I know it ain't pretty. I'm grimy and slimy and pretty nasty all around. But even with those faults and all my other ones I can still offer up my time to a sad mare in need." She paused to finish off the potato that was in her hoof before speaking again. "As to what I'm doing here I would say I'm scavenging for lack of a better term. A pony has got to eat, you know?"
Twilight was taken aback by the notion. "You're stealing?" She cried out. Theft was so out of place in Ponyville considering how quiet the little hamlet was, so to see a thief was a rare thing. Spice, however, simply held up her hoof as a means of asking Twilight to allow her to explain.
"Rule number one of Spice's School for Wandering Ponies; it isn't stealing when people don't want it. These lovely potatoes are spoiled, or at least slightly so. If the people who bought them don't want them anymore then who am I to let them go to waste?" She snatched up another potato and tossed it towards Twilight who caught it in her telekinetic grip. "Here," Spice said, "Have one. They're only a day spoiled as far as I can gander, so they're still pretty good."
Twilight was astounded that anyone would eat a spoiled potato no matter how long it had been bad. Surely Spice wasn't in such a bad spot that she needed to scrounge spoiled potatoes in order to have a meal, she didn't seem like someone who needed to. That whole Wandering Ponies bit cranked the gears in Twilight's head as well, what had that meant? Could Spice be a visitor from another town? The thought settled nicely in Twilight's mind and eliminated the worse options she could have come up with.
"You know, where I come from it isn't polite to not eat when a friendly pony gives you free food. It's also frowned upon to waste food."
Twilight shook her head and realized that she had been standing still for a good minute as she mulled over Spice's words in her head. She blushed slightly at that realization and unwittingly took a bite out of the potato which she had seemed to have forgotten was spoiled. It tasted just as fresh as any other potato Twilight had ever had. Spice smiled and picked up another one for herself.
"See," she snickered, "I told you they were good. Ponies throw out food all the time that they think is spoiled, but it takes a good eye and nose to really tell when they go bad."
Twilight turned pale as she remembered that the food she had just put in her mouth was stale. Part of her wanted to spit it back out, but it was good. She swallowed it without much of a grimace, she was no Rarity when it came to these things. She continued to suspend the rest of it away from her body, she didn't have any wish to take another bite just in case Spice was wrong. The lavender pony then focused in again on her conversation with Spice.
"So-"
She was cut off by Spice holding up her hoof again. "I think you've asked enough questions for now. I believe I asked you a question first. Tell me what's got you in a tizzy, not to mention splayed on the ground like a badger mole."
Twilight quickly stood up and composed herself in front of her conversation partner. Even now Twilight couldn't help but try and keep herself composed, she had been a princess for long enough for that habit to take hold. This was also her last chance to back out of this whole thing. She could just as easily walk away from Spice and forget they had ever even crossed paths, but what would that accomplish? She would be back to where she had begun, running from the mistakes she had made, from the doubt she had let control her. Twilight breathed heavily while the decision formed in her mind.
"Well," Twilight began with a sigh, "I said some bad things to my closest friends. I don't know why I said what I did, but it just came out. And then I ran away, or flew away as it were. That's how I wound up here."
Spice looked at Twilight with a frown on her face. "Well so far I must say you haven't made a very good impression with me. I mean honestly, I've bunked up badly in my life, but if there's one thing I know it's that you messed up even worse when you ran."
Twilight looked at her incredulously. Did she really think she understood what she had done just by that little blurb? "You would have done the same thing in my case? How can you judge me on something like that?"
Spice only shook her head in contempt at the argument. "As a princess you should be more wise. Yes, you're right, maybe when I was younger I would have done the same thing. But that's the point, neither of us are children anymore. We can't just run away from our problems. Word of advice princess no it all; running away solves nothing."
Before Twilight could offer her own words Spice stood up and slid off of the crate. She looked Twilight in the eyes and gave her a serious gaze. "Come back tomorrow. Think about those words, and I mean really think about them. When you really get what I'm saying you'll be better for it." Before Twilight could even open her mouth Spice had vanished into the streets. The princess only stood there with her mouth agape.
Author's Note
So like I said, this is my first try at writing so just bear with me. I would love to hear some constructive criticism so I can get better.
