Cream Jade was in the zone. She bit her tongue in concentration and stared intently at the parchment she was hunched over. Clearly this was something she was passionate about, as she scribbled away at her masterpiece with a twinkle in her eye.
 
Shining Star took notice and smiled. He loved seeing genius at work, especially from his girlfriend. “Look at you, so deep in concentration. Mind if I read it?”
 
The earth pony mare jolted up, almost out of breath from how much energy she was putting into her writing. But she grinned and passed over what she had. “Of course!”
 
As much as Star loved Cream, what he read was…not up to his expectations. It wasn’t lackluster, more like…overly-lustered. It was filled with whimsical fluff and cheesy romance, completely against all that he’d tried to teach her over the past couple years. It was just like every other poem she had written: naive and overly-romantic.
 
”It’s…not bad, persay,” Star cleared his throat, “But if you want to improve, you really have to broaden your interests. Every work you’ve written is whimsical and romantic. Don’t you think it’s time you write something more…intellectual?”
 
Cream frowned, with those puppy-dog eyes she always got when she was upset. “But this is what I like!”
 
”I know, and I respect that…” Star searched for the right words to try to soften the blow, “I’m just suggesting you try something different. More ponies will read it and recognize your talent that way.”
 
“I dunno, Shiny, everypony I know likes romantic stuff! My sister has a lot of Creature Comfort and Warm Embrace collections. My brother has a few Pillow Princess books too!”
 
”Yes, but hardly anypony has heard of them. Ernest Harmony, R.L. Sparkle, and other, more intellectual authors have been household names for decades. There’s a reason their works are so acclaimed.”
 
“That’s great, but those kinds of stories have no feeling in them!” Cream insisted. “We can’t be all brains and no emotions! The world would be so boring!”
 
”Yes, but-“
 
”Read this,” Cream pulled Star to her side and held up her poem for him to see. “Forget about that smarty-pants stuff and really read it. Don’t all the adjectives and descriptions give you a clearer idea of what the lovers are feeling?”
 
As Star briefly scanned over it, he couldn’t deny that was true. “Yes.”
 
“And read it closer. Doesn’t it make you feel something? Anything?”
 
Star squinted and read the poem more closely. It was so simple, so underwhelming to his intellect, but the story she told through her prose, upon closer inspection, was well written. He found himself almost…feeling for the characters she portrayed. It was a new experience, but he liked it.
 
A lightbulb went off in his head. She was right. There was value to emotional appeal in literature. It didn’t have to be intellectual to be a quality work. How could he have not realized this? Maybe he was the one who needed to expand his horizons.
 
His eyes widened in wonder. “It…it does.”
 
Cream giggled and held him close. “See? I told you it would!”