mylittlejamjar | Fifth Starfall: A Confession [Visual]

[Unlike most times that Flare talks, she doesn't seem angry or concerned... more "ashamed". It shows in her voice, which is a bit more hesitant and awkward than usual.]

H...hey guys. I just wanted to come clean with something. Before that whole fog crap set in, I messed up. I hadn't really slept since I'd gotten back to being, well, my normal age, and I wasn't thinking too clearly. I'd been holding onto that thing to use as leverage, but it had started stinking up my place, so I figured I'd air it out and warn everypony of what was going on at the same time... maybe even smoke out allies of the guy I was looking for at the same time.

I bucked up, solid.

I don't know who that pony skin belonged to, but the clown owns it now. The one going by "Pierrot"? Yeah, it's his. Everything I've found out points to him being one of the statue ponies, and I can only imagine that he skinned a native in order to blend in around here to escape detection. I found out during that circus of his, and I never had a chance to confront him about it what with suddenly becoming a foal and forgetting about it.

I shoulda come clean with it as soon as I saw Pinkie Pie stepping in to defend him, but instead I just assumed she was in league with him. After all, how else would she know how to rebuild a statue pony unless she was working with them? And then to get it possessed by the spirit of Nemo, at that.

Look, fact of the matter is that I got way too overzealous and put everypony on edge right before everything went to hell.

And I'm sorry.

If you need to talk to me in person, you know my usual moping spots.

[And that said, she closes the scroll. She'll probably be fairly quiet should anyone approach her normally over the week.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That sounds to me less like saying you learned you couldn't force yourself to fit in, and more than you just didn't know what you needed to do to fit in.

No, what I learned came later, with time - the fact that I was trying to fit in somewhere that I didn't belong.

[Zetta facehoofs.]

Oh for Magog's sake. And here I was actually starting to feel sympathy for you, when you took away the wrong lessons from this whole damn thing.

You belong where you want to belong, damn it.

...That's exactly what I mean. I thought I had to be a Royal Guard because that's what my talent told me I was destined to do.

I didn't learn that "you belong where you're happy" crap until about a year ago. [Right before she showed up here, in other words.]

No, that's not the same at all. The fact is, you can fit it anywhere you damn well choose. There's no place you 'belong' or 'don't belong' naturally. It has nothing to do with whether you CAN or CAN'T, it's just do you freaking WANT to.

I didn't want to! I felt like I had to! I want to protect ponies, sure. But I need to do it in my way.

Feeling like you had to is the same thing as feeling like you want to, except confused. But you got the right idea out of it in the end, so you've got that going for you at least.

Uhm... thanks. I guess.

I didn't know pep-talks were part of an evil overlord's schemes.

I'm not giving you a pep-talk! I was just asking about your coat!

[Yes, he is literally denying that entire conversation happened. What may be more pathetic is that he might even actually have convinced himself in that moment, thanks to her comment.]

I had a whirlwind, lewd romance with a bucket of white paint and my life was never the same again.

[That's not what you said at all before, Flare.

Then again, if Zetta's doing a complete 180, she figures she can do the same.]

[Yes, if they can both pretend he wasn't trying to cheer her up a little, that would be splendid.]

[Zetta leans back to consider this.]

Hmm. That's pretty hot to imagine, but I bet the cleanup was a bitch.

There wasn't enough turpentine in all of Equestria. The cleanup could never be finished. Thus, I am forever branded with the symbol of my unquenchable lusts.

[...Oh, did she never tell Zetta that she's got a bit of a closeted love of crappy romance novels? Well, now he knows.]

Unquenchable lusts, huh? At last, a sentiment in this pony-filled land I can support!

[Is he playing along, or is he totally serious? Does he even know?]

Sorry, my heart only throbs for Geldden.

Let me guess, that's your 23" wrist-thick neon-purple vibrator.

What? No.

That's the paint brand.

Sheesh, way to ruin a routine.

Huh, you think? I think my contribution significantly improved it...

...also ponies don't have wrists.

[She's lucky she knows what one is by now.]

Well then what the hell do you call -- awww, crap, they're all ankles, aren't they. Damn it, it works out the same!

Fetlocks.

And I'm not really the type to use plastic to mask my need for a coltfriend, just for the record.

Snap 'em in two, huh?

[He's just trying to get her goat, now. General antagonism is better than moodiness, right?]

WHY ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIS?!

[Zetta slaps a hoof over his mouth and bursts into wild laughter. That may not be a direct answer, and yet it may explain everything.]

Fifth Starfall: A Confession [Visual]

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