Life of Art

He felt the morning sunray on his face, once the light touched his face he was wide awake and couldn’t fall sleep. Once he was awake, it was pretty hard to fall asleep for him again. He looked the clock, it was 6, he packed his things and wrote a note thanking Twilight for letting him stay at her place while things were getting cleared up with his soon to be workshop. He also wrote that he went to his workshop to check up on it and see if he needed to do anything extra to it.

He left the note on the table and as he left; he maneuvered through the sleeping mares and baby dragon to get to the front door. For some reason, the top part of the door wasn’t locked, but the bottom half was. He opened the top and climbed over it, as fun as it was. After that, he closed the door and went towards Sweet Apple Acres. The workshop was a little before the Apple Family farm. It was a big wooden barn, with a yard just as big. He went in and it was empty, dusty and dark. He started taking measurements and making calculations.

He tried to figure out what was going to where; he drew tons and different pencil sketch’s on what was going to go where. He was somewhat tired, obviously from getting up early, and fell asleep on the ground where his sketch’s were laid out with various pen’s and pencil’s weighing them down from getting blown into the wind. As he continued sleeping, he smelled Apple’s. It wasn’t like the smell of fresh apple’s but it smelled like, juice. Arthur sniffed the air a bit more and heard some hoof steps.

He slowly got up and turned himself around he saw Applejack, Twilight and Rarity standing at the barn door with a cart Apple Family Cider. “Sorry bout’ last night there Art,” Applejack said. “Yes, it was a bit rude of us to ask such a personal question on our first meeting,” Rarity added, handing him a bottle of cider. “Don’t worry about it, no sweat.” Arthur simply replied. “For somewhat getting you emotional last night, I’m quite surprised your taking it well,” Twilight said. Arthur simply replied “Trust me, it takes a lot to offend me. Anyways, what bring you all the way out here,” He questioned them as he took a sip from the pint of cider. Twilight looked at Rarity and Applejack, “We just thought we should check on you, hoping that you somehow weren’t mad?” Arthur interrupted her, “*phft* What—me mad?! Trust me, like I said before it takes a lot for me to get upset,” He replied gesturing for another pint of the sweet cider. Twilight gladly replaced his empty pint with a fresh one, “Glad we got that cleared out.”

She looked around the empty barn noticing the scattered papers about the empty and desolate barn. “What are you doing anyways,” She asked looking at the papers with her magic. Arthur replied, “I’m trying to envision what this place would look like, or more or less what this place could looks like. Possibly even what it may look like, I’m still working on the sketch’s.” As Twilight looked at the different papers, she got an idea. “Why not just bring everything over and see what happens. Didn’t you tell me the best experience is not know what’s going to happen?” Arthur was about to reply, but thought that if he said anything he might give the impression of being a hypocrite. He just sat there, drinking, rubbing his chin and puzzling about the situation. After a long debate with himself, “Ahh, why not. Sounds exciting…hey, I got it! How would you girls like to take a train ride to my workshop in Canterlot?” They mare’s looked at each other, after a few gestures and nodding, they agreed.

The very next day, Arthur and the girls were waiting at the train station early morning. Pinkie stayed behind to throw one of her Welcome to Ponyville Partys for Arthur. As the train pulled in, Arthur never took the train before. So to him, it was almost like a field trip, and even better he’s doing the field with dear friends. Arthur slept on the train ride up there. The girls sat in the same car with him, a seat behind him to be exact. Each of the mares were hypothesizing what his shop looked like. Rarity thought there would be drawing’s everywhere and horse manikins scattered about with unfinished pieces of fashion. Twilight thought there would be books everywhere, some texts as old as the Canterlot archives. The other’s thought that he might have some sort of dance studio or some sort of giant garage filled with machines. Dash looked over the seat and saw Arthur sleeping, “Is that all he does, sleeping and gloating about himself?!”

“Leave him alone Dash, he’s probably tired from this morning, from the note that he left, he was up before any pony was up,” Twilight snapping at Dash, while Rarity was sipping her cup of tea asking, “What time did…or, more or less, do you think he supposedly got up,” She continuied her sip of tea. Twilight replied, “He got up 6.” Raritys' eyes widened up, “He got up that early?! What would posses any pony to do that. I mean honestly.” Fluttershy chirped in, “Maybe he’s an early to rise pony…or, perhaps he couldn’t sleep?” Dash then said, “Why would he get up so early, only to sleep later on in the day?”

“I don’t know, maybe because Arthur thought a nap would make the ride go faster,” He replied, sounding agitated. Rarity responded, “Sorry we woke you dearie, we didn’t realize we were being that loud.” Arthur chuckled, “Its alright, I was hoping one of you were going to wake me.” He continued his statement hopping on the other seat and turning to them.

“You guys talking about me and workshop got me excited a bit.”

The train finally arrived to Canterlot. Arthur led the gang and was greeted by some of the ponies as they trotted behind Arthur. After hearing a few compliments, shout out’s and various turns around corners. They finally came to his workshop; it was a couple of stories high. A big sign dangled above the studio door that had a paint palette on it, colored in purple and yellow. The sign reading, "Arthur's Art," slowly swung and creaked against the light wind breeze. Arthur pulled the keys from his satchel and unlocked the door. He trotted in and the girls followed, they were amazed at what they saw it was all of their visions combined into one. The nearest corner on the left had a library: a small nook with a writing station, to the right of it. There was a small dresser of various fabrics and a manikin. Further back the room was split into two: one side being the art studio, and the other having the various flying machines Arthur invented.

The mare’s looked, and awed at the free, individual and creative atmosphere. Rarity bolted to the mini wardrobe studio even quicker than what Dash would ever think.  Twilight trotted over to his library and Fluttershy followed her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed Arthur toward the back of the room, he found the light switch, flicked it and the studio brightened up. Twilight noticed that all the walls and the floor were painted a dark grey, almost like burnt wood that wasn’t completely chard. “Why is the room so dark, even with the light’s on,” Twilight asked as she eyed and looked around the room. Arthur simply turned, “Keeps my eyes from going bad. When you work with bright colors, ya wanna look at something darker.”

Arthur continued to talk about how he inherited the studio and how he works, he talked about some of the daily routines and how his latest creations became to be and how he gets inspired.

He overlooked her and saw a dark creamed color unicorn sticking her head in from outside. Arthur galloped up and hugged her, she simply replied with a hug back. “Good to see you Arty,” “Good to see ya too Serenity.” The other mare’s were confused about the unusual greeting. Arthur remembered there were other mares in the room. “I almost forgot this is my close friend Serenity Lights. Lights, these are friends from Ponyville.” He named them all as he pointed them out,

“That’s Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. There’s another one, Pinkie Pie, but she couldn’t take the train up here, still she would be here.” “Of course I’m here,” She said standing right behind Serenity. He jumped up and she caught him, “Celestia! Put a bell around her neck!!”

The five mares simply chuckled, “That’s Pinkie Pie for you,” Rainbow Dash said. Arthur and Pinkie Pie came in and the group gathered around a large drafting table. Arthur gestured Serenity to join them. She trotted in and her right back leg was hissing, and clanking with each step. The other mare’s tried ignoring that she was missing a leg. Arthur simply gestured her to come beside him. The group of ponies continued to talk and Serenity chirped in once in awhile. Arthur looked around and said, “Would your girls help me pack some of this stuff in my ship. I’ll make you guys lunch, dinner if we’re out here longer?” The girls looked at each other, and nodded in replying to his question.

Arthur led them to the back, where there was a platform. He told the girls to load the flying machines first, except for “bats” as he called it. They group loaded some of the draft tables, the wardrobe studio, some of the library collection and some of the art studio. The gang finished for the day and as Arthur promised, made them lunch. He made his special potato soup and veggie sandwich all washed down with a lemonade tea brew. As weird as it sounded, it was delicious to the mare’s taste. Serenity thanked Arthur for the free lunch and trotted out the door, leaving Arthur and his company a sense of privacy and closeness.