Silverer Soul
Chapter 1: It's A Chapter About Nothing
Equestria has changed.
Years ago, a single visitor from a far away land arrived and soon more came...then more. An ever increasing flood made their way from afar, taking portions of land that were unused by the ponies and other citizens of Equestria to live upon. While a great number of these foreigners eventually left, more continued to move into Equestria until finally the Equestrians and foreigners began to butt heads and came at odds with one another.
A war was waged: the Foreigner Conflict.
To the distress and horror of the Equestrians, in the end the Humans, as the foreigners came to be known as, won...
Unlike the rest of Equestria, Ponyville had largely stayed the same. Where paved asphalt roads, highrise buildings, glass covered skyscrapers, and electric billboard signs appeared in the cities of Trottingham, Los Pegasus, Neigh Orleans, Manehattan, and Baltimare, Ponyville remained a dirt-road town of only sporadic development. Apartment buildings scattered about, telephone and internet cables stretched atop tall wooden polls that were patched up with large nails and boards rather than wholly replaced when they were damaged.
Highways and high speed rail had connected the country and brought it closer, alongside human imports such as computers and telephones and the internet.
In a world now flooded with information available at one's hooves with the click of a mouse, certain aspects of life in Equestria had become vestigial at worst and nostalgic at best. In the northwestern portion of Ponyville, the library remained largely in tact and still in use simply because it was located in what was considered a backwater of a town.
The librarian was the cranky sort, but the despite his imposing size and intimidating leer the young adult dragon was one of the kindest individuals you would meet. While never one to mince words to spare the feelings of those that needed a strict talking to, Spike was someone that anyone and everyone in town was able to approach with their problems. Largely because he was good at giving advice but also because of a certain unicorn mare that lives in the upper portion of the library-within-a-tree.
Spike didn't live at the library himself...at least, anymore. Despite how much he had made peace with, there were still too many bad memories...
The unicorn mare on the other hand had no such qualms and despite the fact that she was supposed to pay rent, she lived mostly as a freeloader. Money came and went whenever she struck luck at a nearby gambling parlor or whenever she managed to secure a venue for her performances and was paid in actual bits rather than food or for a coupon for half off on an additional item after a purchase, only to squander her pay by going to the nearby gambling parlor.
In-between performances the mare would help around town. To be more specific, Spike would tell her to go help in exchange for delaying the rental payment.
"What, you think I'm going to just forgive a month's rent for doing this?" The dragon would snarl at such a ridiculous demand.
With an uninterested look on her face and staring right at the dragon she would shamelessly reply, "Yes."
As luck would have it, the mare "hired" an "employee" of sorts to help her when she went to deal with the requests a few months ago and since then, business had never been better.
"Better" as in "nonexistent" as usual.
Money was a mutually exclusive reward with ponies that desperately needed help in the first place. It didn't stop her from trying to wring her clients though, much to Pip's, her "employee's" annoyance.
Smaller-than-average for an earth pony teen, Pip was lucky enough to have saved enough bits when he was employed as a town watchpony in Trottingham to be able to pay rent for his own place, meaning he commuted between Trottingham and Ponyville everyday.
Pip was inadvertently one of the mare's clients and in helping him with saving his foalhood friend he saw an opportunity to do more good for the world while at her side rather than continue the languishing torment and thankless work as a town watchpony.
What he hadn't expected but sadly enough learned to tolerate was his "employer's" behavior...and attitude...and laziness. Everything heroic and inspirational he had thought about the mare named Trixie that had saved him and several others including his foalhood friend Dinky and her mom became inverted as soon as he started working for her. It stopped being surprising to walk to the upper portion of the library and smell the heavy stench of wine and cider as a blue-colored mare with a tangled, messy silver mane lied face down on the couch. Pip made it a habit to clean up the bottles and wrappers and overall mess when he showed up in the morning after a long weekend.
Not out of a sense of obligation, more of pity? Pip would shrug at the thought and considered the better things involving Trixie such as her effect on so many ponies and even humans around Ponyville as a result of their helping them.
After bagging and throwing away the garbage and setting the dishes to be washed later, Pip had spent the last half hour tinkering with the television set that was placed on a stand across from the couch. Not very good with electronics, himself, Pip instead turned poked at the buttons and messed with the menu until finally the images on the screen regain their color rather than being tinted a green for some reason. "Eh? What's this? Oh...it's back! Oh, happy day!" He cheered loudly to himself, forgetting the restless mare shifting about on the couch behind him.
"Pip..." Trixie groaned out loud and moved her head under the pillows to muffle the mind-numbing sounds around her, "Shut yer face!" The blue unicorn let out a low yowl as the migraines began to pang at her head even harder.
"You wouldn't get hangovers if you didn't waste your nights drinking." Pip said back in reply and sighed.
"What's going on with that picture, anyway?" Pip all but groaned in his tired sigh.
The blue-colored unicorn brushed her hoof through her silver mane and wore a thin prideful smirk. "Oh? What ever do you mean?"
Pip sneered. "You know exactly what I mean."
"Hmm, no. No I don't." Trixie glanced away and failed to conceal her giddiness. "Maybe you should explain so that I might, little Pip?"
Pip sighed. "That one!" He said loudly, pointing his hoof to the image hanging off of the balcony outside.
"Ohhh, that? It's a billboard. An advertisement. You know, for the library."
"No, I don't know..." Pip said with a frown.
"Well I figure that putting up a billboard will attract attention to Spike's shabby library and get ponies to start visiting more often! Aren't I just thoughtful?"
"There has to be something else."
"In any case, there were just so many pictures that could have been used that it must have been impossible to choose! For example," Trixie took out a large photo album from her desk and opened it up.
"It's just so true!"
"This one is quite dynamic, but it doesn't really capture my 'Je n'ai sais pas', don't you think?"
"You've stopped thinking years ago."
"This one is simple, but a bit too plain for my taste."
"That didn't stop you from printing it out as a poster and hanging it in my room."
"Until you pay the rent you owe me I'll hang whatever I please in your room."
"I don't owe you rent because I don't live here! Heck, you don't even pay your own rent!"
"Hmmm...I don't really like this one."
"What? Why not?"
"I look a bit deranged. Plus I don't like how my butt looks."
"I'm not touching that one."
"You're too young to, anyways."
"That's not what I meant you know it!"
"Next"
"What's wrong with this one?"
"I don't like showing pictures of me as a filly."
"But you look cute."
"What did I just tell you about you being too young?"
"What did I just tell you about me not meaning it that way?!"
"Eh, it's been done."
"Huh? What's this even doing here?"
"Are you hiding something important from us, Trixie?"
"Hush, you!"
"Um...just ignore this one."
"What? Wh-"
"Because!" Trixie said and slammed the album closed.
Recovering after his "employer's" more-shifty-than-usual actions, Pip turned back to the original topic. "I'm completely fine with your vanity, Trixie."
"There's nothing vain about me. Beautiful, articulate, stupendously gifted, yes, but not vain!"
"...anyways, what I'm not liking about the..."advertisement" is that neither me nor Scootaloo are on it! I mean, after all we've been through together, you didn't think to at least ask me and Scootaloo before putting it up?"
"here for a quick summa-"
"DON'T GO THERE! That link has spoilers! Trixie, why didn't you warn them?!"
"Hmph. Like I care about a group of 20-something year old 'men' ranting and raving about their 'waifus' or some such. They should recognize how shameful they ought to be!"
Pip shook his head and rested it with his hooves placed on his temples. "How did you even manage to become the main protagonist of this story...?" The teenaged colt mumbled over this absurd fact.
"Isn't there a picture with all three of us? You, me and Scootaloo? To show how close we've become after all of the adventures we've had...at least if the author didn't delete all of his stories a few months ago?"
"Well, there is one picture that I have that isn't just me that I think we could use."
"Really, Trixie? Can I see it?"
She turned to the page then showed it.
"...Trixie...what is this?"
"You don't like it? I thought you wanted a picture that had you and Scootaloo in it, too."
"...that's not me or Scootaloo. Are you serious? I hope you're not, because if you are I swear I'll hit you."
"You. Wouldn't. Dare."
In a blue-ish blur of surprising speed, Trixie managed to get on top of him and-
"Ahem."
Scootaloo was standing there at the room's entrance, followed by a giant tortoise about her size. "Er...did I miss anything?"
Trixie and Pip glanced up at the confused pegasus teen and simultaneously yelled out,
"No!" "No!"
"...ok...come on, Tank, let's unpack the groceries."
Scootaloo trotted toward the kitchen with the giant tortoise slowly lumbering behind her.
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Author's Notes:
I'd like to thank the various artists for letting me use their pics (and those that haven't gotten back to me yet)!