Complete this story if you dare · 3:30am Feb 11th, 2015
I began this for a write-off that's now over. I know where I was going to go with it. (Obscure hint: The title was "Party Knight.") But where would you go with it? I'll blog a link to any story published using this.
ADDED: People are actually publishing stories now! If you hold onto them before submitting, we can publish them all and I'll blog about them at the same time.
There were few ponies not named Apple who had seen Applejack’s morning face. The roosters were still crowing and, far away, Celestia was still snoring, when Applejack stumbled through the screen door of Sugarcube Corner and plodded up to the counter to add Pinkie Pie to their number.
“Hi, Applejack!” Pinkie said, bouncing up to the counter. “I had a counter-clockwise double-Axel tail twitch that told me you were coming! Did you come all the way from Sweet Apple Acres for one of my delicious new flugleberry-cinammon-raisin gobstoppers that I invented last night in my sleep?”
“No, Pinkie,” Applejack said.
“Well, did you come all the way from Sweet Apple Acres because you had a sudden premonition that it would rain chocolate rain today and you wanted to warn me so I could get in my swimsuit and put out an inflatable swimming pool?”
“No, Pinkie,” Applejack said.
“Hmm.” Pinkie scratched her chin. “Oooh! I know! Did you come all the way from Sweet Apple Acres to find out why your barn is upside-down?”
“Yes, Pinkie,” Applejack said.
“But Applejack, don’t you remember you said I could throw a party in your barn this afternoon?”
“Ah confess I did,” Applejack said. “But I expected the barn would stay upright at least until the party started.”
“Don’t be silly! Then all the water would run out!”
Applejack blinked.
“Pinkie. Is my barn upside-down and full of water?”
“Not yet!” Pinkie said.
You had me at water.
Perhaps. We'll see if I can think of something.
One part of me wants to turn it into a crack clopfic.
The rest of me wants to do something crazy with it.
Umm...
...
Hahaha!!!
2786831 When you say clop, you mean that is how the barn will get filled with water?
"Silly. If it wasn't full of water, where would the Seapony kazoo band play?"
2786965
That's too easy--filling the barn with various ... well, you know. A Pinkie plan would be far more convoluted.
I'm seriously considering it… My brain is already overbooked with unwritten pony words, but that's rarely stopped me before
Follow through on a premise built around explaining Pinkie Pie logic?
No. No, I definitely don't dare.
Bad Horse, water you doing?
EDIT: actually, this would be a nice set up for a feghoot.
Applejack confronts Pinkie about her lack of self-control and inability to take mid- and long-term consequences into account before acting on her immediate desires. Applejack gets angry during the discussion. Pinkie berates herself for not thinking about how her friend would feel about having her home turned upside down and filled with water, and she makes an honest effort to be more down-to-earth. She tries to distance herself from her friends to avoid hurting them. We have some Pinkie-Gummy bonding scene. Applejack comes over after about a day to apologize. Pinkie still blames herself, and Applejack makes it worse by telling Pinkie that she "knows how she can be". Musical interlude with Applejack and Pinkie Pie separately talking to themselves in duet a la Dr Horrible's "My Eyes". Cut to Rarity and Fluttershy talking about Pinkie's strange behavior while coming back from the spa. They split up, Applejack intercepts Rarity and asks for help. Applejack is really upset, and Rarity is trying to calm her down. They end up teasing each other, Rarity more aggressively of course. Tease the audience with a clop scene, but have it interrupted quickly maybe by an important customer. Applejack heads out.
It was evening when Applejack met Rarity. It's getting dark now. Applejohn heads back to the farm, but she wants to be alone so she sits under an apple tree watching the moon. Apple Bloom wanders over. AJ tries to talk to Apple Bloom about her situation, but she's being vague and Apple Bloom misinterprets everything in whatever comedic ways Writer can imagine. There should be some orphan joke in there, because those can get really funny. Apple Bloom should slip in there somewhere that she's spending the next night at Sweetie Belle's with her friends because the plot needs it. Insert some pseudo-intelligent remark by Apple Bloom. AB heads back to her swimming pool room, and AJ falls asleep under the tree.
Maybe add a Luna scene here.
Yada yada, some hints that AJ is planning something next day, asks Pinkie to meet her that night, they walk through the orchard, AJ points out trees she has fond memories of due to mishaps, tells Pinkie that she appreciates their time together, screw ups and all and that she likes Pinkie for who she is. Meanwhile, AJ reveals that she can be just as crazy and Pinkie when it comes to her trees. Lighthearted jokes, ApplePie Best Ship. The end.
*cracks knuckles*
Huh. I guess I'm going to have to write that Fall of Equestria story after all.
Hmm...
I think I may be able to go somewhere with this.
... Does the story actually need continuing though? That's a pretty good punchline to go out on.
But if it did keep going, I think I'd have some sort of aquatic creatures invited to the party.
I was able to go somewhere with this!
Probably not going to be as good as less hasty attempts, but you can find it here.
2787491 2786965 This is why we can't have nice things.
2788103
Oh, you're gonna hate mine.
Just remember: You dared me.
"… After all, I only just now found Horace!"
"Horace."
Pinkie whipped a small cardboard box out from behind her mane. Adrenaline seized Applejack by the throat.
"Blorp," the small purple figure inside warbled.
"Pinkie," Applejack said slowly.
"Yes?"
"We've talked about this, Pinkie."
"But …"
"No, Pinkie. We talked about this. You Pinkie Promised."
"But the Barnquarium —"
"No, Pinkie. Give me the box."
"But —"
"The box."
Pinkie Pie's hair wilted. She slid the box over to Applejack.
"Blorp," Horace said.
Epilogue
Applejack tapped one hoof against her chin, then picked up a pen.
"For sale," she wrote. "Baby Smooze. Never barned." [1]
2788870 The next day, Fluttershy was reading the morning paper...
2786965
Sure. How else could you end up with Discord dressed in a black corset and fishnets swimming in the water-filled barn singing don't dream it--be it...
"God bless Lille St. Cyr..."
Mm, some kind of lesson on explicit and implicit contracts, the reasons for firms, management, and human interaction in general, drawing on everything from Coase to Wittgenstein. Perhaps the barn turns into a monster that threatens to eat Ponyville if Applejack and Pinkie Pie can't come to a mutual understanding of how they both relate to the barn.
Ask and ye shall receive.
fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/247524_r.png?1423711882
I made sure to blame you both in a blog post and in the story description.
2789885 2788704 2787969 2787491 2787355 2786828 Hey-- I see a couple of these are already published. Thing is, I don't want to blog about your story hours or days after it's posted, but I also don't want to make a separate blog post for each story. Can you hold on to your stories, post here, and then we'll publish them all at the same time?
Admiral B, you might want to "rescind submission" if you get this before your story is approved.
2789923
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm okay with hours or days after. Gives readers a chance to wonder why there are a bunch of stories involving upside-down barns in the feature box.
Too late. It's already on people's bookshelves, and the blog post is published.
Of course, it could still fail moderation for being too weird. That hasn't happened to me yet, but I keep toeing that line.
2789923
wat
Multiple submissions already?!
Oh, right: 1,070 followers.
That explains things.
I think I'll sit this one out in that case.
It would be interesting to see how different each entry is, however. Starting with part of a story is a far cry from using a prompt.
2789923
Fair enough. I just wanted to get the idea out before I could procrastinate it to death.
2789923
Don't wait on me. I'm the king of flakery.
2790307
But then there will be only 2 stories! 3 is much more respectable.
2792005
that's what he said
Er, no wait... That IS what he said. I mean, he just said it. Right there.
So ready for a posting of the stories based on it yet? Also it would still be interesting to see the original which prompted this.
Bad Horse, I rather embarrassingly noted that I really liked this introduction to a story in my latest review posts, having forgotten that you had penned it for people to complete, thereby inadvertently damning the author with faint praise as apparently I more or less said "the best thing about this story is the part you didn't write."
So, uh, I guess what I'm saying is that this is a really great story prompt.
2788870
This is great/terrible.
2850732 Theres' only 2, but that's not bad. Yeah, I'll post.
2788704 Are you doing one? Otherwise I'm going to post.
2851342
Nah.
2851325
> two
Oh, I see how it is, my powerful and moving commentfic epic doesn't count.
2851837 I'll link to it, but everyone on fimfiction knows that the definition of "story" includes a 1000-word minimum. I think Aristotle must have said it.
2851867
Well, yes, but Aristotle also believed there were only four plot elements rather than the 118 recognized today, and that creating universes required filling them with narratiferous aether.
Even though we can only see indirect evidence of them in the highest-energy literary collisions, the idea of a sub-1000-word story is established science now, denied only by cranks with agendas.
I hear we might even break the sub-950 barrier one of these years.