Life of Art

Sometime later, a knock came at the front door. As she finished writing the letter, Twilight opened it and it was Pinkie Pie. She bounced in as she led the pack: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity. She let herself in and the group shortly followed. “What are you guys doing here?!” Twilight asked and Pinkie quickly replied, “well I thought it would be alright to introduce Arthur the whole gang.” Rarity then added, “Pinkie made this Arthur character sound rather a cute, and gentle like.” As she made her way in, Applejack added in the conversation, “we reckon he was going to introducin' himself sooner or later anyways, so we thought we introduce ourselves to him...Ya know, beat'em to the punchline.” Fluttershy chirped in, “If that's okay with you.”

Twilight asked Spike to make more sandwiches, “alright alright, you guys can see him. Just, be quite he’s had a long walk from Canterlot to Ponyville.” Pinkie Pie shouted, “HE WALKED ALLTHEY WAY FROM CANTERLOT TO—“ Fluttershy closed her mouth before she could finish, “We have to be quite, remember.” Pinkie zipped her lip, literally. Twilight led the group to the second library. The door slowly creaked and opened as they walked in, seeing Arthur sleeping under the covers. As he was sleeping he heard the sounds of giggling and small laughter. He blinked his eyes in a sluggish manner, as the mare’s were standing in front of him. He really didn’t know what to say, he quickly opened his eyes and just stared at them from quite some time trying to wake up. Applejack broke the silence, “Somethin’ the matter sugercube?”  He blinked out of his stare, “Wha-oh…ah no. Nothings wrong just a little tired from the trip still. I’m sure it’ll wear off though.”

Arthur removed the covers, realizing that he was naked missing his vest, covered himself up abruptly and asked,

“Anypony seen my vest, I feel, practically naked without it.” Applejack looked at him as if lobsters were crawling out of his ear, “ya know we don’t wear cloths right?” “Yeah I know, its just a thing with me.” Rarity with her magic levitated it over, “let the colt have his way dearie, I’m astounded that he has perfect manners, especially for one his, stature to say the least.” Rarity felt the brightly colored vest, “My, my what fabrics were used to make this cute little vest?” Rarity asked as it graced her face and continued its flight to him. He thanked her for the gesture. As he slide back into it, “To be honest, I really don’t know. I got this vest from one of my stepfather’s friends. So you’d have to ask him…if he was still around..." As he looked around the room," Anyways how bout that lunch?”

Twilight shoved every pony in the kitchen; he slowly followed them still trying to wake up. Spike was just about finshed setting up the table; seven sandwich’s around the table and a small plate of rocks varying in sizes and colors. It seemed that every pony sat around and left the head of the table open. Guess it’s their way of welcoming the new pony. It didn’t bother him much; he tried deciphering what was on his plate. A sandwich with flowers, spinach, and various other treats between two slices of bread. Fluttershy just asked, “Aren’t you going to eat it, if that’s okay with you?” “Ohh yeah, I just forgot what it was eating something as simple as a sandwich.”

Rarity then asked, “So, Twilight tells me you’re from Canterlot?” “Yup, born and raised.” Rainbow Dash interjected,

“If you’re from Canterlot, why don’t you act like it?!” The mare’s seemed to get a worried look on their faces. Twilight broke the tension, “Dash! That’s not nice.” Arthur took a bit and simply raised his hoof. He took a sip of some apple juice cleared his throat and answered. “Its alright Twilight, some pony was bound to ask sooner or later. With my size, stature and look, I’m surprised no pony asked that first. But I’ll gladly answer…Dash’s question, right did I get your name right?!” Dash simply chirped yeah. Arthur continued, “I don’t act the part because that’s not who I am. I don’t see my self as a high Canterlotian dope who sees himself as a some pony that’s among the elites and somehow superior to every pony.” Every pony gasped at what he said, “What?! Its true...at least from what I’ve seen.” Twilight then said, “Well, how do you see every pony then?”

Arthur looked around as if he was about to spill all the secrets of the Royal Family, “I see myself as some pony that just got the better roll of the dice and was better fortuned. But I really see myself is as a colt who’s level minded, treats others as equal, even though others or you treat me not the same.” Even though it wasn’t the truth, Arthur did feel the fear of being mistreated and abandoned by other ponies, especially his new friends. Twilight replied, “Wow…no pony has ever said that before,” He chuckled, “Guess I’m the first, I tend to be a bit more blunt when I’m honest just to forewarn you…anyways, lets get back to re-introducing ourselves, how bout you all start.”

They nodded and started talking about each other. Arthur never realized or thought how important friends could be. After hearing tales of how they saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and Discord, and helped out Applejack against the FlimFlam brothers, and even were told about how Nyx was Nightmare Moon. After the ties and webs of story telling, they introduced themselves one by one. Once they all finished introducing themselves; they all turned their attention to him. With all eyes gazing upon Arthur, he didn’t know what to expect. Twilight opened up the form, “So, Celestia tells me you’re a renowned artist?” Every pony ooed, Arthur blushed, “Well, I don’t tend to think myself as renowned, more or less highly gifted.”

Rarity asked, “What forms of art do you do? If I may ask for such a colt your size.” He gave a little laugh, “Sometimes, size doesn’t have to do with what your capable of. It’s the size of your heart and mind that makes the difference. *Ahem* Anyways back on topic, I’ve done forms of painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking, some photography…fencing…a little bit of fashion…playing musical instruments—“ “Ohhohh what instruments do you play?!” Pinkie Pie interjected, as Rarity looked at her, Arthur simply replied, “The violin and guitar.” Raritys' attention immediately went back to him as he said in her soothing, romantic voice, “Sounds romantic.” Dash then mumbled, “Sissy stuff.”

Applejack then said, “I see you have some schematics in your satchel, are you also a inventor?” He looked at his satchel being opened up, it didn’t bother him that his satchel was open, he didn’t have nothing to hide even though they should’ve asked he thought. Twilight somewhat glared at Spike as he nervously smiled. “Well, when I was still trying to get my cutie mark after my master died, I tried anything I could think of, one of them being a mechanic of some sort. So I invented a series of flying machines, although four of the five flew, nothing happened.”

Fluttershy asked, “Then how did you get you cutie mark, if you don’t mind.” He smiled and shook his head; “I got my cutie mark after I painted Celestia a portrait for her and a few close friends to hang in the throne room.” They continued to talk until it was dusk; they realized what time it was. Arthur interjected, “How bout we hold a sleepover, if you’re alright with that Twilight?” The other girls nodded and looked at Twilight with excitement. Twilight finally gave in and said okay. As quick as a flash, the ponies dashed out. He was still trying to contemplate on what just happened. The girls returned with bags and pillows, Twilight levitated the list out, Arthur jumped on over saying, “Put that away Twi.” She was confused, “Wha—why put the list away?” He then trotted up to her, slung his arm over her “Sometimes the best experience is not knowing what’s going to happen…”

Twilight pondered over it, “Ahh, why not, we’ll do it your way.” They started the night off making smores, he shared his special recipe on making smores; smooth and creamy, yet soft and crunchy. Although it was a caping thing, it was a treat that could be enjoyed inside the average home. The gang then went onto playing a card game that he was taught, it was poker. He spoke of learning the game after a few airship captians flew in from Fillydeplhia. The girls got a kick out of playing it they played for compliments. To Arthur, it sounded dumbfounded, but it worked…it was better than what he thought it was going to be. They then moved onto to truth or dare, a game that Arthur never played before. To see who went first, they spun a bottle, the bottle rattled and spun on the ground. It eventually stopped and pointed towards Arthur. He was first and he said truth.

Applejack asked, “What are your parent’s like?” “Well my stepdad was an retiring artist, as for my stepmom…I didn’t know who my step mom was.” Pinkie Pie asked, “Don’t you know who your mom was?” “Like I said I didn’t know who my mother was.” “Were you adopted? I’m just asking cause you said stepfather and you said that you didn’t have a mother and I knew a filly who had a dad and not a mom was well, I even knew another colt who had two mommies and a filly had two daddies.” Pinkie Pie chirped and rambled on. As her rambling continued, he didn’t know what to say, more or less think. He was confused, terrified and started feeling depressed, he felt his eyes watering up.  As he sniffled, Pinkie Pie ceased her rambling as Twilight used her magic to get a hankie and wipe his eyes, “Thanks Twilight, I grew up not knowing who my parents were. All I remember is Celestia taking me in for awhile, she then handed me to one of her patrons, the retiring artist who I considered my master and stepfather.”

He sat there, staring at the floor as the thoughts of his only family reoccurred in his head and his eyes watered up again. “I’m sorry I asked that question Art, I didn’t know—“ “Its alright Jack. It was bound to pop up sooner or later.” As he replied, they returned to the game and continued the rest of the night playing games, having fun and ignoring what happened on the truth or dare. The party slowly died down with every pony falling asleep except for him. As he looked up to the moon, he realized that even though he didn’t have a real family, he had friends who considered him to be family just as much as he saw them as the family. With that in mind, he cleaned up his face and drifted off into a deep sleep.