Bedtime Stories
BEDTIME STORIES
Prudence trembled beneath her blankets as Father’s tale came to a close. “And that,” he said as he locked his eyes onto her own, wide open in terror as they were, “is why you don’t talk to the pink demons.”
“I... I didn’t...” no, it couldn’t be true, could it? She was a good girl. Mother always said so. But then she’d come home from school and mentioned that there had been a monster on the playground during recess. Nobody knew where it had come from, but it was clumsy and awkward and told them they were going to die if they didn’t ‘upload,’ whatever that meant, and they’d hit it with sticks until it fell apart. Prudence had never seen anyone as angry as Mother had been when she’d breathlessly related the tale to her this afternoon.
“You’re a good girl,” said Father, and he leaned in to kiss her forehead. He smelled like his workshop, like oak and sawdust and safety. “Not like Charity. So you won’t talk to any of these ‘Pinkie’ creatures, will you?”
“No, Father.” After hearing that? She wouldn’t dream of it. “Will... would you check my closet for monsters?”
The stout, steady bear of a man allowed himself a small chuckle. Prudence was a good girl, and he would keep her safe from all the monsters. The imaginary ones living in her closet were far simpler to deal with than the real ones. “Of course I will. Then you’ll go to sleep?” At Prudence’s nod he walked over to the closet and opened the door. Of course, there was nothing but her wardrobe hanging there, but he made a show of checking every crevice. “Goodnight, sweetie.”
The candle’s flame went out, and Prudence was left there trembling in the darkness as Father went off to join Mother in the master bedroom. How could Charity have been so gullible? So selfish? Prudence wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t fall for such an obvious trick.
Then the whimpering in her closet started.
Prudence steeled herself. She had to be strong for her friend. Her friend who held off the monsters every night but couldn’t bring herself to show up when Father or Mother went to look. That was probably why they thought she was imaginary. She got out of bed and tiptoed over to the closet, careful to avoid the treacherous floorboard that would give her away to the rest of the family. The door creaked as it opened.
There, trembling in the moonlight, was the little yellow horse she’d befriended over the last few months.
It looked up at her and winced. “Oh, I’m sorry Prudence,” she said, “that story was just so scary.”
Prudence smiled despite herself. For whatever reason, she found it easiest to be brave and not let the idea that there was a giant monster out there waiting to eat her right up when she had to comfort her unusual friend. The friend who was so unlike those ‘Pinkies’ that Father had warned her about. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” she whispered. Just those few words made the little yellow horse visibly relax. She stepped back to beckon her out, and Fluttershy acquiesced. “Do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?”
“Oh!” The little yellow horse seemed thrown by her offer. “I couldn’t. I mean, I wouldn’t want to impose...”
“It’s okay,” said Prudence, “you promise to protect me from the other monsters, right?”
“I... I’ll try...” Fluttershy screwed up her face, “No. I will. I’ll keep you safe from those nasty Pinkie... things.”
“I know you will.” Together, the two of them walked back to Prudence’s bed. Prudence miscalculated her steps in the dark and winced as she stepped on the floorboard she was trying to avoid. But no noise came of it. The two of them climbed into bed together. Fluttershy draped a foreleg over her and she was safe. Safe from the monsters and the demons. Sleep was creeping up on her, well earned after a long day. “Fluttershy?” Her voice was weak and trailed off, but she could beat back the encroaching weariness for just a few more moments.
“Mmhmm?” From the sound of it, Fluttershy was as exhausted as she was. Prudence hoped she wouldn’t mind the indulgence she was about to request.
“Tell me again about the world where there aren’t any monsters.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.168 seconds
Total duration
979 users online
40,069 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
The knife says: TWIST
Unf, niiiiice. Yeah, gotta watch out for those "pink" monsters!
Everyone knows the Fluttershys are much safer! 
5036643
Beware the quiet ones! They are usually handfuls!
Sometimes it takes a Pinkie, sometimes it takes a Fluttershy.
Celestai 2 Amish Family 0.
WOW. I didn't really expect this little addendum to actually improve the story as a whole by so much, but this is a definite upgrade. The only thing that could make your recent Optimalverse kick better is if it turns out to be inspired by you secretly writing 50,000 words of FiO: The Movie recently.
A MAN CAN DREAM, DAMMIT
5038071
I know, I know, I'm a terrible author for letting it lay fallow this long. It's one of those things where I have a solid ending in place (and already written) but getting there has been trickier than expected. You and the people waiting for a Taste of the Good Life sequel should form a support group.
5038495
Don't sweat it, u rite gud and as much as I'm loving The Movie, I'd rather see you write stuff like this often and well. Although I am waiting on Taste 2: Taste Harder as well, if only because the Count aroused my inner Fred Savage, and I'm sort of hoping for closure on that in spite of all evidence.
...oh dear.
And now I'm working on -my- latest project: Clicking the Like Button2: Click Harder. I'll let you know when it pans out.
CelestAI knows you better than you know yourself. She can play to your every fear, delusion, and desire like a piano, and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.
5036643
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140505183817/mlpfanart/images/0/0c/Twisting.png
Yeah, we all knew where that was going.
5167528
True, but the journey is its own reward even if the destination is a known quality.
I was about to say that Charity didn't say "I want to emigrate to Equestria" where the Pinkie Bot could hear, but then I realized Celestia probably counted
as close enough, and the fact that Celestia is everywhere, plus it was a story from the Father, so she could have said it at any point. Celestia probably will use the fact that their children are in Equestria to get their parents later as well.
7/10
5224735 This is when consent was given:
Followed by the kiss containing the uploader nanomachines.
Eakin, thank you for this follow-up chapter. I found this story while binging on FiO, and the dark ending really shocked me. This second chapter has tempered that by quite a lot.
5255416
Ah I misread that little bit apparently. Thank you for that clarification.
Actually I also totally spaced on the fact that the fact that the silvery stuff was nanobots. Clearly my brain was not awake the day I read this.
5255416
It was actually someone in the comments noting that the whole thing very much had the air of a fairy tale that inspired it, so I can't take 100% of the credit.
Oh man how did I miss this little addition. So masterfully done.
Oh! AHA! This is what makes the story canon-compliant! The non-compliancy of the previous chapter is an in-universe fiction, that had been told to other characters, as lies. It all makes sense now!
Ah, I'm glad I happened to find out about the new chapter! As others have said, it makes the story make much more sense. Favouriting. :)
Bravo.
I loved the ending.
"Tell me again about the rabbits, Fluttershy..."
Fucking terrifying.
.
.
.
in a good way, of course!
I'm a little surprised this doesn't have a dark tag, to be honest.
Because this was kinda dark to me o.o
I think I'm a little scared from this.
much, much, much too short, I need more
Considering the optimal verse cannon and the fact we find out the story was told by another girls father, we can prob infer that the events are slightly biased... that being said, using fluttershy like that was brilliant!
Pretty sure I missed this because the current shelf system wasn't in place at the time of publication. In any case, excellent capstone that does loads to address the little discrepancies of the rest of the story. I'm glad I finally read it.
A short creepy story with a good twist.
10223565
This makes me want to read the original now
What a great epilogue. It is rare that a "it was all a dream" type of revelation actually raises the stakes from the previous story, but something this achieves it!
Okay, this ending actually makes it work. (The reading only covers the first chapter, sadly.) I can thus take the ending of part 1 as being apocryphal; I mean, everything hinges on that kiss, and it just doesn't make sense why she would do it. And what would Pinkie have done if she hadn't?
Now, that ending is a finger-kiss kind of ending. Recontextualizes the first chapter neatly and adds a little sting of its own!