//------------------------------// // Finding an Interesting Story // Story: Feather Bangs vs. the Bug Bear // by BrawnyBold //------------------------------// A light bulb lit up inside of an old-looking attic. It was like most attics where it had several boxes and other trinkets that were also covered in dust and cobwebs. Coming up the attic's stairs was Fond Feather as she lead her two friends, Swoon Song and Dear Darling, into the attic. "I appreciate you guys on helping me clean up my attic." Fond said to her friends. "It's no problem, Fond." Swoon replied. "You would help me or Dear if we need you." Dear shuttered from looking around the attic. "Could we do this quickly, I'm not so good when it comes to things that could be infested with creepy crawlies." Dear flinched when she spotted some cobwebs. "Sorry about that. After the whole village removed Starlight from power, I packed up most of the equality decorations and put them up here so I don't have to remember the bad memories of when Starlight was in charge. I think now it's a good time for some spring cleaning and permanently get rid the stuff." "Alright," Swoon agreed as she looked around at the boxes to see that they weren't labeled. "So, which boxes have the equality stuff in it?" Fond bit her lips from hearing Swoon's question. "Yeah, that's the thing. I sort of forgotten which boxes had the equality decorations on them." "It's alright, we'll just open the boxes and figure out what to throw out." Swoon suggested. "Let's just get this over with!" Dear claimed as she used her horn to levitate a box and carefully opened it. The cleaning began with each mare opening boxes to check what's inside. The mares were able to find some of the equality stuff and brought it outside. Fond opened one box to find a framed picture inside. "Hey girls, check this out!" Fond said which made her two friends move towards her. "It's an old picture of us when we moved to this town." The picture showed all three of the mares standing together while they were in front of one side of the town. Their mane styles matched and their coats were more bland than usual. On their flanks showed that they had the equal signs that appeared when Starlight used the Staff of Sameness to remove ponies' cutie marks. "Sheesh, it's a good thing we got our cutie marks back." Dear commented. "I honestly looked so bland back then." "Do you want to get rid of this photo, Fond?" Swoon asked. "It was the first picture we took as friends." Fond breathed heavily. "I think it would be best to get rid of it. I need to get rid of everything that reminds me of when we lived like that." Fond said as she brought the box outside. "Besides, we can always take a new photo with all three of us." Swoon and Dear nodded in agreement. "That would be a great idea!" Swoon said. "The only way to move on from such terrible memories is by making new ones!" The mares resumed with cleaning out Fond's attic. A few of the other boxes were filled with Fond's personal belongings such as old clothes and photos of her with her family. Sometimes, Swoon or Dear would tease about how cute Fond was when she was younger which Fond didn't mind. The cleaning went on for about an hour or Dear felt really exhausted. She got up and stretched her hooves from sitting so much. "I feel like Luna when she returned from the moon!" Dear claimed. "I'm going to head down to get some drinks." Dear said as she made her way to the attic's entrance. Little did Dear knew, she walked into a large spiderweb that was hard to see. Dear froze when she felt the web stick to her face. She began to scream in panic from the possibility that there would be a spider on her. "Ah! Get it off of me!" Dear said as she fired beams with her magic. "Dear, be careful!" Swoon warned as she tried to avoid getting hit by the beams. "You're gonna burn my house to the ground!" Fond included. Dear was so busy panicking that she didn't hear what her friends said. Dear ended up running into some of the boxes where she collapsed. "Ow," Dear whined as she rubbed her forehead. "It's a good thing these boxes broke your fall, Dear." Swoon claimed as she offered her hoof to help Dear get back up. "Other wise, Fond would have to deal with a big hole on her ceiling." Dear turned around to cringe from seeing that some of the boxes were really bent and broken. "I'll clean this up, Fond." Dear said as she opened up one of the broken boxes. Dear noticed that the box's content was made up of white paper booklets that looked similar to movie scripts. Dear used her horn to levitate a booklet to read what was written on the front page. "Mrs. Fond Feather Bangs' Honeymoon?" Dear read out loud while still confused. Fond shrieked and snatched the booklet from Dear's magic. "Please don't read this!" Fond pleaded as she hugged the booklet tightly. "Why? What's in it?" Dear asked. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Fond." Swoon said. Fond looked at her friends as she thought about her decision. Fond knew her friends longer than other ponies. She knew that Swoon and Dear would want to hear her out and not tell anypony else if she didn't want to. Fond took a deep breath before she spoke. "These are my fanfictions." Swoon and Dear just stared blankly at Fond. "Fanfictions?" Dear replied. "Y-yeah, I started writing them when I was younger as a hobby as I wanted certain characters to be in certain situations." Fond then started blushing. "Well, specially Feather Bangs," "So these are mostly about Feather Bangs?" Swoon said as she looked at some of the booklets. "Y-yeah, he is such a great stallion that he inspired me to write about him doing amazing things even though he can't do them in real life. But my stories show that he can do great things!" "So, what made you stop writing?" Dear asked. "I kind of grew out writing as I was too occupied with hanging out with you girls. I also thought that you guys might tease me for having such a weird hobby." Fond looked down shamefully. "Fond, you don't need to feel ashamed for having this kind of hobby." Swoon assured as she placed a hoof on Fond's shoulder. "Really?" Fond said in surprise. "Yeah! I actually think that this is pretty interesting! Especially if it involves Feather Bangs and we all agree that he is really great!" Dear said. "We all express our love for him and these stories are just another way of you showing that you care for him." Swoon explained. "Thanks," Fond said as she wiped some happy tears off with a hoof. "So, can you read us some of these fanfics?" Dear asked. "I could use a break from cleaning up this attic." "Umm, sure." Fond replied. "We should probably do it in the living room." Fond's friends agreed and made their way to the living room. Dear brought out some snacks and placed them on the table while Swoon brought out some bean bag seats and all three of the mares took seat. "So which story should we start with?" Swoon asked. Fond tapped her chin before she thought of something. She reached into her box to pull out one of the booklets. "How about this one?" Fond suggested. "This one was my recent story. It's about Feather Bangs fighting a bug bear." "Oh! Now that's a good story to start with!" Dear cheered as she took sip from her drink. Fond opened the booklet on the first, cleared her throat, and began to read out loud what she had written in her fanfiction.