Pinkie Pie watches the chest of knick-knacks being pulled from a small shed in the middle of a forest, but not too far from Ponyville. Dropping the rope from the chest, Toola Roola breathes heavily at the accomplishment of taking out the heavy box.
Pinkie Pie scratches her head, "Are you sure you don't need any help, Tooly (that's her nickname now)?"
Tooly wipes the sweat from her forehead, and flashing Pinkie Pie a wide smile, "I'm glad you offered, but now that I got this heavy chest out the way, cleaning my grandpa's shed should be a piece of cake!"
"Are you sure about that?" Pinkie Pie chuckles, and points back to the shed. Tooly turns around and sighs at the sight of the it, which was still full.
"I guess I'm going to need all the help I can get..." Tooly shrugs, but her smile never wavers. Pinkie pats her on the shoulder in reassurance.
"That's the spirit, Tooly!" Pinkie Pie exclaims, "We don't want you to do something that's complicated alone, you have friends to help!"
"Plus, I can look forward to Sweetie Belle's delicious cookies." Tooly says, imagining the sugary treats that the young pony will prepare.
"I'll go on ahead and get the girls, but don't finish without us!" Pinkie Pie floats away with her one balloon strapped to her, towards the direction of where her friends could be hanging out at.
After that, Tooly continues to clean out the shed. It's been a while since she's ever been to the small little shack and wanted to help her grandfather out to take a load off of him, plus, he promised that she would find some cool and new interesting things. Wondering, Tooly hopes that it's more crafting stuff! Just thinking about it makes her pretty giddy, because so far, all she's been seeing is old antiques and boxes filled with old tools and some old furniture that's either broken or intact but unusable.
She did find some of her grandpa's old paintings that he painted in the past. Looking through them, Tooly gets a sense of nostalgia from the paintings, and wonders where he got his inspirations from. Doing a double take at one of the paintings, one with a beautiful waterfall, Tooly could've sworn that it moved, the water gently swaying down into the river below. Looking back, she shakes her head at her wild imagination. "The painting is beautiful, after all..." She mutters to herself.
After a few minutes of tirelessly taking out old antiques to put them in more boxes to either donate or get rid of, Tooly takes a break to wait for her friends. Within the shed, she sits on a box to catch her breath, her hair messy from working too hard as well. So far, she hasn't found her grandpa's super special surprise yet, and is wondering if he only said that just to get her to help him clean, even though she would help anyway...
"I wonder where grandpa got all these stuff from, it's so much..." She says to herself, looking around. She feels like she hasn't scratched the surface with the conundrum of things, but she knows that with her friends, they'll get it done, hopefully, by the end of the day.
Suddenly, something catches her eye, somehow. She didn't see it before, and she's wondering why she's seeing it now. Under a few books and old papers, is a shiny box made from wood. It has a small lock on it, but the key is nowhere to be found, or if it'll ever be found. Disappointed, Tooly puts the box down next to her as she continues waiting, but her mind can't help but stare at the box. 'What's in this box?' she thought to herself, the thrill of the unknown gnawing at her greatly. An idea pops into her head, 'Is this the surprise that grandpa wanted me to find?!' Feeling excited, Tooly makes sure to take the small box home after finishing, and to also make sure to find the lost key.
In an instant, the door to the shed swings open, causing Tooly to flinch and fall over in surprise. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo run towards her with glee, and helping her up.
"Let us help, Toola Roola! I wanna find some cool stuff too!" Scootaloo says while jumping around.
"And I made sure to pack some yummy cookies too! They're freshly made!" Sweetie Belle waves a bag of cookies in the air, while also eating a few in delight.
"Let's not spoil our appetite just yet though, Sweetie Belle. We have a lot to get done." Cheerilee says, already getting started.
"I'm sorry, I just can't help it, they're so good!" Sweetie Belle takes a another bite of her cookies.
"Careful now, we might not have many to go around." Rainbow Dash adds flaunting her new stylish outfits. "Also, couldn't your grandfather keep this place more... Cleaner?"
"Rainbow!" Cheerilee yells.
"It's ok! She's right, he hasn't been to his old shed in years. I was hoping I would find the answer as to why he hasn't been back to this place, but so far, all I found is this old wooden box." Tooly shows the group the old wooden box.
Pinkie Pie stares over the small box with wonder and curiosity. She sniffs it and covers her nose. "It's smells pretty old, all right! I wonder if there's any surprise inside, like confetti!"
"Probably not confetti..." Tooly snickers, "But you see this lock? There's a small key somewhere, so once we start looking, please look out for any keys that you might see."
"Let's get to it then!" Cheerilee says. The girls pick a random spot to start at, and they get to it, pulling out a multitude of boxes from out the shed, and stacks of books that look like they go on for miles. One by one, the girls neatly place the items outside for Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to sort out, and by the time the evening sun is just about to go down, the shed is now clean and empty.
Tooly walks to the group, a confident look stretches across her face. "Good work everyone! The shed looks good as new. Now that we sorted out everything, we can now put some of the things back, and most of the stuff either in the trash, or donate."
"Are you sure we can just toss most of this stuff, Tooly?" Rainbow Dash asks. "Is you're grandfather completely ok with this?"
"Oh yea, he's fine with it." Tooly responds. "In fact, before he asked for my help, he was going to sell the entire shed with everything in it! I felt pretty bad that he wanted to make that decision, so I offered to help him at least arrange the stuff that he absolutely wanted, and since we did, we can throw out the rest!"
"Speaking of which..." Pinkie Pie holds up a small satchel towards Tooly. Looking inside, she gasps at the many keys that were found. "Look how many keys that we found! All the stuff in the shed besides that box you found don't have any locks to them, so we just have to pick and choose which key goes into the hole, which should be easy!"
"Since we are finished, can we figure that out back home? I ended up eating all the cookies, but I have more at home!" Sweetie Belle adds in, her face covered in cookie crumbs. Everyone laughs but understands.
"Sweetie Belle's right, and besides, I bet all of us are exhausted. Let's have some smoothies with our cookies as well, then we can figure out what's in the box." Tooly puts the small box in her own satchel that's wrapped around her waist.
"Last one there gets no cookies!" Scootaloo runs towards the direction of Sweetie Belle's home.
"Hey! No fair, I made those cookies!" Sweetie Belle runs after her.
By then, the rest of the girls all run as well, excited to know the secret that's in the box, and to also enjoy some sweet snacks after a hard days work...
A few hours after the girls had finished helping Tooly clean her grandfather's shed, and after taking a nice break by having some of Sweetie Belle's cookies, Tooly takes out the box and places it onto the table. Everyone is eager to know what is in the box, and each come up with ideas as to what could be in it.
"What if your grandfather was into fine jewelry, or expensive clothing, like a nice scarf or a necklace?" Rainbow Dash adds her 2 cents into the jar.
"What if it is more cookies?!" Sweetie Belle asks.
"That's disgusting, Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo laughs at the thought of old, spoiled cookies. "But what if it's a game inside? Like the entire box was a board game? How awesome would that be!?"
"That's not a bad idea Scoots..." Starsong adds in, hovering in the air at the box. "What if it's a time capsule? I know those are fun to do."
Cheerilee agrees, "That's a great idea! What if he has like a journal or other papers in there? Maybe he told his story and wants us to know..."
Pinkie Pie raises her hoof. "Oh! Oh! What if it's...--"
"No, Pinkie, It's not confetti." Tooly chuckles at her giddiness. "Everyone has such great ideas, but we can't find out unless we find the exact key that goes to the box."
"Tooly's right, and I can't wait either! Here. Try this key!" Scootaloo takes out a key from the satchel and hands it to Tooly.
Tooly observes the key, trying to match it up with the lock on the box. "Hmmmm, this one is a little too big for the lock." Tooly says. Disappointed, Scootaloo places the dud key on the side.
"Not to worry, we have other keys to try out! What about this one?" Sweetie Belle hands Tooly a smaller key.
Tooly examines the key, "Hmm, sadly, the key is small enough, but it's a different shape, so it won't fit... Sorry Sweetie Belle. Let's try another one.."
They go over most of the keys that are within the satchel. After a few minutes, they come down to the final key, which was much rustier than the other keys. In fact, in looked older than the box itself.
"Well, this is the last key..." Tooly says. "This key doesn't look like it belongs to this box, but it won't hurt to try."
"Ugh, the suspense is killing me!" Scootaloo blurts out.
"What if it doesn't fit at all? Then we'll be stumped for sure." Sweetie Belle adds.
"Hey, c'mon guys, she hasn't even put the key in the lock yet!" Pinkie laughs.
After Tooly examines the key for a few seconds, she finally decides to place the key within the keyhole.
It fits perfectly.
Everyone gasps, the tension palpable as Tooly slowly turns the key. A small but subtle 'clank' is heard, signaling that the small box is indeed opened.
"It worked! Hurry, hurry and open it!" Scootaloo rushes her.
Tooly slowly opens the it as her friends move closer around her, wanting to get a glance at what is in the mysterious box. Opening it fully, Tooly gasps at the sight as everyone else sighs in defeat. Within the box, is exactly what everyone had thought.
"There's no confetti in there after all!" Pinkie shrugs.
"There was never going to be confetti in the first place, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash says, but is also disappointed too that it's not something to her liking as much.
Tooly looks at the intricate colors of the dried paint that is neatly sitting within the box. Paint of all colors adorn the inside with a colorful array of memories from being used back in the day. Tooly glides her hoof over the inside of the box to feel the paint stains to get a feel of a time long gone...
"Well, I wasn't that far off from it being a sort of a time capsule." Starsong smiles at the thought.
"Yea, but strangely enough, I figured that it was going to be paint, after all." Cheerilee chuckles, also staring at the beautiful colors in the box.
"What do you mean?" Tooly asks.
"Well, isn't your grandfather a painter too? I'm sure something as precious as this would be left for you to find, so really, I guess you did find that special something, because now you can use the paint that he used when he was younger! It's magical if you think about it, bittersweet almost..."
"Yea, Cheerilee's right. It may not be exactly what we all thought, but that's not really what matters, isn't it?" Pinkie adds in.
"Yes, what matters is that he left his precious gift for you, Tooly. So, in the end, it made this entire build-up worth it." Rainbow Dash also responds, giving Tooly a fond smile.
"That's true, but I was still hoping it was gonna be cookies..." Sweetie Belle droops her head.
"Would you really eat spoiled cookies? Anyways, I'm sad it's not a game or anything, but it's something that you love, which matter to me the most, right Tooly?" Scootaloo says, but she gets no response. She spots Tooly just staring at the paint within the box, almost like a trance. "Hello? Tooly? You there?" Scoots waves her hoof over Tooly's face, and the rest of the girls start to worry as well.
They sigh in relief as Tooly blinks and smiles at the box. "You're right guys... This is the best gift I could find. I-I don't even want to use it, as to honor my grandfather, but that would be a waste, wouldn't it? I'm sure he would want me to use it as much as he did..." Tooly flashes a smile at her friends. "But still, I get a feeling from the paint, like it's calling out to me, as if... As if it's tugging at a nerve..."
"That's a sign that you should use it! At least test the paint first, since they're super old and dry..." Starsong suggests.
"Oh! Oh! Draw me! I call dibs!" Scootaloo raises her hand.
"Maybe we should have Tooly decide who she wants to draw." Cheerilee adds in.
"No, that's a good idea! You're gonna love the painting so much, Scootaloo, I can't wait to start!
Sweetie Belle hops around. "I wanna watch! It's so peaceful seeing you paint."
"Then first thing tomorrow morning, I'll set up my easel at Scoot's place, I won't start without any of you guys...." Tooly gently closes the box with the paint inside, a subtle but unknowing aura emits from the box as she closes it, and darkness consumes the paint once more...
The next morning couldn't have started sooner for Tooly. As soon as dawn broke, and with excitement, she takes the small box of paint and begins the process of giving them life again from not being used in so long. Simply using water and one of her brushes, Tooly carefully and gently mixes the different colors together, their bright colors shining through once again within their little tubs. After testing out a small amount of paint on a small sheet of paper, Tooly breathes out at her accomplishment, and closes the box to get ready to start the day, and to prepare for Scootaloo's awesome new painting!
Closing the box, Tooly takes in the old smell of wood and paint from the box and realizes that she hasn't noticed it before. It's a strong smell, but it's not overbearing nor stinky at all, in fact, it feels almost bittersweet, nostalgic even.
Also realizing that she should be heading out now, Tooly quickly grabs her things, including the small box with paint, and her trusty paintbrushes, and puts them in her satchel. She trots out the door towards Scootaloo's house.
After a few minutes, Tooly makes it to the young pony's home. All of her friends are there as well to watch the process, and to encourage Scootaloo to keep still during the long process.
"Think of it as like a game, Scoots. If you stay still, you'll win a prize!" Pinkie Pie reassures her.
"Oooh! I hope my prize is a new skateboard!" Scootaloo jumps in the air in excitement, her mind wandering at the many things she could possibly win.
"How about a painting as a gift instead?" Tooly says, flashing her a caring smile.
Scootaloo stops bouncing around to shrug. "I guess a FREE painting would be nice too."
Everybody laughs at Scootaloo's carefree response. After setting up the easel and the paint from the box, Tooly sits down on her stool, and Scootaloo gets into position by hopping onto her scooter and fastening her helmet on her head.
Tooly then gives her some directions, "Ok Scoots, you can be in any pose you want! Just make sure it's comfortable enough for you to keep still for a little while longer while I paint. Remember: even the slightest movement can be a HUGE change!"
"All right, all right. I get it. Not moving, keeping still, I promise Tooly, I'm going to be just fine!" Scootaloo waves her hoof, reassuring Tooly in a playful manner.
"I wouldn't keep promises like that if I knew I wouldn't keep them, Scoots, but I have absolute faith in you." Rainbow Dash nods her head.
"Sounds like you're being sarcastic, Rainbow..." Scootaloo droops her head. Chuckling to herself, Tooly gets ready, and so does Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle prepares food for everyone as they watch Tooly gently glide her brush across the canvas. The paint within the box shows beautifully within the sunlight, and every stroke seems to excite Tooly more and more as the picture comes to life through a magnificent and vibrant array of colors. The paint on the brush feels light, like nothing is on the brush as Tooly uses each color, and surprisingly, Scootaloo actually keeps still throughout, although her facial expressions and obvious frustration to move around is evident.
Tooly puts the finishing touches on the paint, giving Scoots the go-ahead to move again after being static for a moment. "Ok, Scoots. you can move now. I'm just putting some finishing touches to it, then you can see!" She says cheerfully, continuing quietly.
Scootaloo stretches, breathing in and out with a loud huff, and Sweetie Belle offers her some fruits to eat. "Here you go, Scoots! Standing still surely would've made you hungry!"
Scootaloo takes an apple and bites into it, savoring the ripe taste. "Who knew that standing still is so much work! Good thing Tooly is good at it, right Tooly?"
Tooly doesn't answer.
"Tooly?" Scoots says again. By then, everyone goes to check on the finished painting, and to their amazement, the painting that Tooly created of Scootaloo is nothing like they've seen before from Tooly. It looks the same as all of her other marvelous paintings, but something felt different about it, yet none of them could put their hooves on it.
As for Tooly, Tooly stares at the painting, almost like in a trance again. The painting seems to move slowly and whimsically, almost like a dream, transporting Tooly to a wonderous world filled with vibrant colors and streaks of paint. Tooly watches the painting of Scootaloo riding carelessly on her scooter, and seemingly having a grand'ol time. Tooly smiles, her eyes seemingly empty as she sinks deeper and deeper within the painting, the commotion and excitement from her friends drowned out completely.
Suddenly, Tooly's smile fades as a scene unfolds that was not drawn within the painting at all. Instead of Scootaloo just riding around, she moves out of the painting! Tooly whips around to follow her movements, and the drawn Scootaloo, while silent, rides around everyone within the real world, but the problem is, not one else but Tooly can see what's happening around them.
Cheerilee notices Tooly's sudden change in behavior and walks up to her, seemingly worried. "Tooly? What's the matter? Do you not like the painting?" She asks.
Tooly doesn't hear anything that she's saying, and only seeing her lips moving in slow motion as the painted Scootaloo continues to ride away.
"Scootaloo, wait a moment!" Tooly yells, and chases after her, completely forgetting that she's just a painting, and the real one is watching in confusion.
"Um, I'm right here-hey! Where are you going?!" Scootaloo yells out for her.
"I guess she doesn't like the painting?" Sweetie Belle says confusingly.
"No, something else is wrong, we gotta go after her, and quickly!" Pinkie Pie says, and all of them begin to follow Tooly closely behind.
Tooly, still in a daze, follows the painted Scootaloo, who is carelessly and without emotion, rides through the town and towards the bridge that crosses the river.
Tooly gasps, "W-wait! Scootaloo! Watch out for the bridge! And the river!"
In that moment, the painted Scootaloo, with empty eyes, stares into Tooly's eyes, before speeding up. Completely missing the bridge, Scootaloo uses her scooter to jump forward and into the river, but before she could do so, Tooly hops into the water to try and save her.
"Tooly!" Tooly hears the faint yells of her friends from above the water as she sinks into the water. Looking around for Scootaloo, Tooly spots the morphed form of the young pony. The painted Scootaloo stops moving, and simply melts away quietly within the water...
