EOf Lilies and Chestnuts
MLP: FiM
Slice of Life
Unable to have a child of their own, Canterlot socialites Fancy Pants and Fleur give adoption a shot. Enter Chestnut—a filly from beyond Equestria who will quite possibly turn their life upside down.
OC
Fancypants
Fleur de Lis
Bat Pony
Prane · 43k words · 1,930 24 · 18k views

089 Adventures in Flashficking! · 9:11pm Jun 24th, 2017

089 Adventures in Flashficking!

The anthology project-thingy is gaining some momentum, not only thanks to Flashfic, but also to you, chestnut connoisseurs! Shoutout to Kapuchu and Jedi Wolf for throwing prompts at me. Yes, that's a thing now, y'all feel free to give me some!

So what's in store this month? A hat-trick made of the following:
- She Wanna Rock (Rock!) (prompt: Wouldn't Be Caught Dead),
- Per Castanea Ad Astra (Time for School)
- Safe House (Trick-or-Treating on Nightmare Night)

Enjoy!

She Wanna Rock (Rock!)
Fleur, you silly little filly. This is your house—no need to act all sneaky!
She retreated to her bedroom and set the "borrowed" record spinning. One could certainly appreciate the rhythm, but lyrics and sounds were a chaotic mess, far from her refined preferences. However, that band had a special place in her daughter’s heart and Fleur wanted to know why. She needed to understand.
So she turned the volume up, but soon her humming muffled the verse.
So she turned the volume up, but soon her singing drowned out the refrain.
So she turned the volume up, but soon her shouting overpowered the chorus.
The song was over before she knew it, leaving her with a hammering heart, disheveled mane, but above all, a smile.
Fleur returned the vinyl where it belonged. She then put a needle on again and sauntered around the empty house, accompanied by Beethooven’s classics.

Let’s start with Fleur and a situation taking place shortly after Of Lilies and Chestnuts. When the rest of the family is out, she sneaks to Nutsie’s room and borrows the song that woke her up so brutally. She treated that type of music with disdain at first, but she’s giving Gemtrance and their Shouts & Whispers album another shot. She enjoys it – but of course she keeps that to herself, because aside from all the things she has or is, she’s also a proper lady of the house.

Per Castanea Ad Astra
Everything was green.
Green were the tiles forming a three-leaf clover in the foyer. Green were the streaks dashing across it, students in their three-piece uniforms. Green was Chestnut’s three-button blazer, which together with a tidy shirt and a tie constituted the wear at the prestigious Clover the Clever University, or CCU for short.
Green were the eyes of a teacher who called the state of her uniform ‘exemplary’ as he was chastising fellow students for sloppy looks. Green, with envy no less, were some of them when Chestnut casually mentioned she had one Rarity of Carousel Enterprises narrow it around the waist so it would fit. Green was the school’s courtyard where they confronted her as if she didn’t belong to the high society, but where she deftly proved them otherwise and even made some new friends—and some serious enemies, as far as teen malevolence could go.
Chestnut’s new school was the kindergarten of the Canterlot Elite, which meant the rules and regulations of social dodgeball applied to every young Clover. Somehow, that didn’t worry her much.
Everything was green, but certainly not Chestnut.

This prompt turned out more challenging of the two you guys gave me. A lot of “classic” school ideas I could’ve gone with I either already used for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Individuals presented in Arcane Realms, or still want to use them there, so it made little sense to repeat myself. Or worse – dilute the good ideas between two schools! Of course Chestnut has no magic, so she’s left with attending a university named after a hero from tribal times, which was mostly Fleur’s choice. Still, not bad for someone who spent the last couple of months being taught by the best tutors her parents could get!

Anyway, at the time of Per Castanea Ad Astra (which features some intentional repetition I wanted to try out) Chestnut is ready to face both educational demands and peer pressure. She’s also thinking about becoming a lawyer, of all things!

Safe House
Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!
Unlike most children, Chestnut preferred to stay on the giving end during the annual door-to-door extortions. However, just because she didn’t feel like trick-or-treating herself, it didn’t mean it couldn’t be fun for anyone else. She waved a zombie Wonderbolt goodbye, letting him terrorize the neighborhood with his bags properly replenished.
She didn’t need to leave the house to have fun. She had enough treats back in the living room, and a few tricks to spare for the upcoming Crystal Graves of Canterlot game night with her parents. She was immensely glad to have someone to play and to be with on occasions like that, and especially on two: the Summer Sun Celebration and Nightmare Night.
Those were important. The former reminded her of the day she became an orphan. The latter—of the very reason she turned into one.

Throughout the events of the original story, I’ve had a chance to give Fleur (and the readers, and myself as well) a glimpse of how an orphan mind works. What wasn’t discussed, or even meticulously avoided, was Chestnut’s past and her biological parents. She lost them, that’s a given, she wouldn’t be an orphan if she hadn’t, but what were the exact circumstances? With Safe House we’re one step closer to the truth. Consider the two mentioned events and put them in line with what Doctor Hugs tells Spitfire in Operation Wonderbit, and you’ll have part of the answer. I’m hoping to give the full one in a side story one day, but you know how it’s like with our best laid plans.

That's a wrap! I hope you've found those short stories worth your time. It turns out that I'm perfectly capable of producing three per month, so if anyone has a cool idea they would like to see realized through the characters of Fleur, Fancy Pants and Chestnut, you're more than welcome to leave a word!

Somewhat relatable, since there's no pictures of Fleur rocking her mane: