Long time coming, but here's a sneak peek at the next story + hints for the next story!

I meant to have my next story, "A Hearts and Hooves Day Mystery" out 2 if not 3 weeks ago but I was hit with a writing motivation problem (in which I had very little) so I had to wait until it passed. Thankfully, it has, and my next one-shot story is planned to be out on either Friday or the weekend.

However, I will reveal the first scene of the upcoming story. Since I haven't fully finished editing and proofreading it just yet (but most of the work is done), the final version of the scene might look slightly different.

And before I show the teaser scene, I will first show some hints on another story, projected title One of Them, that is planned to be released around the 20th of this month. Some may already know what the story will be about, but for those who don't, have fun trying to deduce the meaning of the hints.

Finally, the main event: the teaser for "A Hearts and Hooves Day Mystery". And now I'm off to go play some Super Mario Wonder. Bowser's up to no good. again, and must get his butt kicked. again.

Ta-ta!

“Last chance, Spike: ya want to back out of our bet?” Big Mac asked. His underused lips curled into a smirk oozing utter assurance.

“No way!” Spike answered. He pointed a claw to an apple lying in the center of a table of the Apple Family’s living room. “Not even you could cut apples in half just by pounding a hoof near it!”

The big red stallion chuckled. “Suit yerself.” He leaned his head to the waiting apple and surveyed it from the top, then from the side in various angles. Once he seemingly spotted the secret he was hunting for, he pounded his hoof on the table while narrowly avoiding slamming his apple. The table rattled, but the apple in question split into two equal halves.

Spike’s mouth widened while mentally kissing some of his bits goodbye. “So, this is how Twilight feels when she’s instantly proven wrong.”

Big Mac raised his head and grinned in victory. “Eeyep! Never doubt an Apple!”

“Well, guess I owe you 10 bits.”

“Heh heh, Ah’m not gonna make ya pay me any bits over bets; yer not Applejack. Just the look on yer face is good enough for me.”

“No, let me pay you at least one bit.” A picture of the Apple family hanging from a wall caught Spike’s eyes. It just then sank in how he hadn’t yet seen Applejack around today. “But since you brought her up, where is Applejack? She’s not on a Hearts and Hooves Day date, is she?”

Big Mac shrugged his hooves. “Beats me. She had already skedaddled by the time Ah woke up, but Ah’m pretty sure she’s not on any dates.”

“She left that early too? Twilight was gone even before my alarm went off, but she left me a note saying she’d be back tomorrow.” Spike rubbed his cheek. His “something’s not right” sense threw a temper tantrum and demanded to be at least humored. “Wait, she was gone all day on last Hearts and Hooves day too, but refused to say where she went.”

“So did Applejack last year. She wouldn’t tell me where she was off to either.”

“In fact…save for Starlight, I didn’t see any of the gang today. They don’t have any ‘very special someponies’, so what could they be doing?”

“Maybe Granny Smith knows somethin’.” Big Mac looked toward a bedroom and yelled, “Hey, Granny Smith, you know where Applejack ran off to?”

“Sorry, Sugarcube,” Granny Smith answered from her room, “but Applejack sworn me to secrecy. Y’all be wise to just drop the matter.”

“Fine,” Big Mac pouted.

“Good boy. Knew Ah raised ya to have some restraint.” The elder pony stumbled out of her room. “Anyway, Ah’m gonna go check some of the apple trees for a bit. Remember mah words.” She left the house through the back door and wandered toward the closest trees.

Spike said, “Great. Now I really wanna know what they are doing.”

“Don’t tell Granny Smith, but me too.”

“Let’s try asking Starlight about it. She’s probably in her room right now.”

Big Mac’s pupils constricted. “Wait, Starlight as in Starlight Glimmer?” A bulge rolled down Mac’s throat. His and Starlight’s first meeting was…not one to remember. “Uh, on second thou–”

“Don’t worry. From how I heard Applejack acted after she made you ‘talk’, Starlight won’t get any spell-casting ideas again.”