Remembering how to Paint

Blackberry sat on the ground in the middle of the Marketplace. His easel set up in front of him, his brush in his mouth, which he chewed on a little anxiously as he tended to do when he was thinking. It had been so long since Blackberry painted what he wanted, rather than what other people wanted him to, that he forgot how to use his eyes to see the true beauty of what was around him.

The artists most important tool is their eyes, and here he was, straining his eyes and his brain looking at a beautiful marketplace and having absolutely nothing catch his eyes. Finally, a couple ponies at a fruit stand put themselves in the perfect position where Blackberry's brain finally sparked.

His horn glowed as his paint brush and palette began to float as he began to lightly paint the images that were going through his brain.

Lauzet had been shopping for fruit at a stand, when she noticed that somepony was painting on their Easel. She wondered for a moment why this pony had been doing that, it seemed to her that maybe asking would be a good way to figure out why he was doing this.

"Hey, you?" Asked Lauzet staring directly at Blackberry. "Why are you painting?" She wasn't sure what kind of reaction would be obtained, but this pony didn't seem mean to Lauzet.

Blackberry stopped mid-stroke as the most bizarre question he had ever heard was brought to him. Why is he painting...? Not what is he painting... or why is he painting fruit... But just-- why?

He snapped out of his moment of thought of this question to look up at a light green pony looking him over. He hesitated for a moment longer pondering a proper answer to her question, "I paint because I enjoy it..." he said simply with a warm smile, realizing that her question wasn't weird, it was brilliant. It was the question he had been looking for. When he was in Manehatten he was painting simply trying to survive-- now that he was back in Ponyville, he could do it for the same reason that he started painting when he was a young foal, "Actually, I love to paint."

Lauzet's eyes blinked as soon as she got her answer to her question. She was unsure how to respond to this. Without even realizing it Lauzet began to make her way over to Blackberry. Her thoughts began to wonder what he was painting.

"What is it that you're painting?" Asked Lauzet having finally made it over to Blackberry. She couldn't really make out what Blackberry had been painting, mainly because the painting seemed to be in early development.

Blackberry started to paint a little more but stopped as he glanced up to see the green pony continuing to come over to him. He used his magic to set the brush and palette down, knowing that he was not going to get much of a chance to paint until the conversation was done with this seemingly slow witted pony.

Blackberry sighed a little as the pony continued to ask questions. Hopefully he would be able to pick up where he left off after this distraction was over. "That fruit stand over there" he motioned with his hoof, "Something about it wanted to be painting..." he told the mare.

"Oh...." Replied Lauzet upon hearing what Blackberry had to say. She began to stare at Blackberry with a look of confusion on her face, she wondered why a pretty mare had a voice that sounded slightly masculine. It was slightly odd, but it was probably just best to ignore it.

"Oh my! How rude of me," Exclaimed Lauzet in a random outburst. "I forgot to introduce myself to you. I'm Lauzet and it's a pleasure to meet you. What's your name?" Lauzet began to smile, she always thought that was the best way to present herself in her introductions.

Blackberry raised an eyebrow as the green pony stared at him, making him feel a little awkward. He tried not to stare back at the odd pony during her inspect of him. After moment e cleared his throat.

Finally Lauzet introduced herself and blackberry smiled seeing that there was something on that head after all. Blackberry nodded his head with a smile at Lauzet, "I'm Blackberry," he said, "it's very nice to meet you."

"don't see many painting ponies, I take it?" he asked.

Lauzet chuckled for a moment. This pony seemed funny to her, but she didn't know why.

"You'd be right, I don't see to many painters," Said Lauzet in response to Blackberry. "But you seem awfully beautiful for being a painter. In fact you have the cutest mane that I've seen in a while."

"it's hard to make much of a living being a painter" blackberry told Lauzet, "I tried moving to Manehatten to be a famous painter but decided it best to move home. " he explained.

Blackberrys jaw hung slack after Lauzet complimented his appearance, before smacking himself in the face with his hoof. "I don't care about the way I look," he grumbled, "I just naturally look like this." he told her. He tried to brush his mane some behind him but it just kept looking pretty.

Yet another look of confusion came onto Lauzet's face, she couldn't understand why this pony did not care about the way they looked. 'Oh well' She thought, it must be an artist thing. Lauzet interests had gone back to art now.

"Have you ever seen anything interesting because you paint?" Asked Lauzet. She had began to hope that her constant questioning wasn't bothering Blackberry. Things like this had often happened to her, but she usually never realized it. Still it was a thought that was in the back of her head.

Blackberry raised an eyebrow again as he contemplated Lauzet's rather fuzzy question, "Well..." he started to say, but hesitated as he thought about it, "because I paint, I've seen the worst of ponykind, I've seen what life is like being the very bottom of the food chain..." He said, lowering his ears some as he thought about it.

"You see Lauzet," he said, looking up towards her, "before I came back to Ponyville... I was living in the worst homes in Manehatten, a horrible place that'll forever hang in my nightmares..."

Lauzet began to frown, this conversation was starting to get awkward. She usually never got to hear things like this. A sigh came out of Lauzet and she continued on.

"Well at least you're here now. So how is it to readjust to Ponyville?" Inquired Lauzet trying to steer the course of the conversation to something more pleasant, or at least less depressing.

Blackberry rubbed the side of his head with his hoof as the questions kept coming, "Uh-- its nice to be back in my home town," he told her, "its just tough when so many people I knew have moved away..." he admitted.

Blackberry sighed, this game of questions was getting old, perhaps it was time to turn the tables some on the young mare, "So, Miss Lauzet, what brought you to Ponyville?" he asked, a little smirk crossing his face as he turned her game of questions back on her, "Where do you come from? Cuz I don't recall you around here when I was younger."

It was kinda relieving for Lauzet at this moment, she was finally being asked something and not the other way around. She let out a sigh and began to speak.

"Oh, I'm not from around here, I'm actually from upper class manehattan." Replied Lauzet nonchalantly to Blackberry. "My main reason for moving here was to help ponies, well that and I also wanted to get a change of scenery. This is a nice place to live in, I enjoy myself a lot here." Lauzet grinned after she was done speaking, having thought that she had given a satisfactory answer to Blackberry.

Blackberry's eye twitched a little bit as she mentioned upper class Manehatten. Those were the snobs that shot down his work, that put him on the street... he loathed them... Lauzet came here because she could, probably has a big beautiful house paid for with her daddies money...

Blackberry turned his head and glared at the ground, clentching his hoof. Calming his anger, Blackberry put on a fake and empty smile and looked back up to Lauzet, "Ah, well... welcome to ponyville..." he said flatly.

"Well... if you don't mind, I should probably get back to painting..." he said, trying to hold back the irritation in his voice. He immediately turned his attention back to his easel and raised his pallete and brush with his magic.