Hello, and today marks the HWMC's first weekly prompt. One of these will be posted each Sunday, either by myself or one of the other admins if I'm not available. Participation is optional, of course, since I still haven't found out how to twist people's arms over the internet (the day will come, however).

For those who don't know, prompt threads like these will simply be short stories, posted in the thread, under or around 1500 words long that are relevant to both ponies and the prompt word. These prompts can be anything, and the link to the prompt can be either obvious or subtle: that's up to you.

Today's prompt is

Maybe Pinkie is baking a cake when she's young, and Mrs. Cake shows her an example? Or perhaps Twilight is being a good example to the ponies of Ponyville? That's all up to you.

As soon as the next prompt is posted, this lil' thread will be locked. Feel free to discuss the stuff that's written, and if ever you even get an idea for a full-blown story, that's great too (be sure to tell me, since I'd be interested in seeing it).

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Now, off you go!

4559137 I was very proud of that meta. It took me all of five minutes to come up with.

I have an amazing idea for this. It will either be the greatest prompt fic of all time, or it will be the kind of fic that makes you want to kick the author in the nuts.

4559245 Those are, like, my two favourite types.

4559258 #winning, in that case (or possibiy #binning).

There is nothing as exemplary as this prompt. Heh.

I may have to apologise in advance for... something. You'll see. Probably.

Here's my take on the prompt.

Note! I plan to develop this into a full story. The post only consists of the first chapter, plus a brief part that illustrates how it's related to the prompt. (I'll attempt to add a chapter every 5 days or so.)

In the meantime, hope you enjoy :)

Any comments, criticism and advice are most welcome.
---------

"Are you sure?" the shopkeeper asked.

There was something about this customer he didn't like. Ever since he had moved to Canterlot, all sorts had gone through his shop - adventurers, treasure seekers, ponies set on revenge. Each had something they sought, and in most cases they found it. However, never before there been something like this. Or maybe the shopkeeper was just getting old?

"This is the last of the set, my friend," the stallion said, closing the box. "Very rare, very expensive. Are you sure you want to play with something as powerful?"

The customer just nodded, then dragged a golden scepter onto the counter.

"Ah, the Golden Twilight Scepter," the shopkeeper took it, then slid a hoof along it, carefully examining the craftsmanship. "One of a kind, very unique, very very expensive. How did you come by it?"

A loud cough indicated he wasn't going to get an answer.

"Very well," the shopkeeper placed the scepter on the shelf behind him. "The Exampler is yours. But be warned! If you don't make use of it properly, it will cause much suffering and discomfort. Should you wish to return it, you know where to find me. That is, if you are still capable of doing so..."

* *

Spike yawned. Mornings were his least favourite time of day. There was nothing he would enjoy better than spending a few more hours curled up in his warm bed. Leave it to Twilight to ruin things! Every morning she would wake him up exactly three times - once so he could refuse to get up, a second - to ensure he could no longer fall asleep, and, finally, a third to drag him up on his feet. It was really annoying, to the point that Spike would wake up on his own so as to avoid the torture.

"I'm awake, Twilight," he said, eyes half closed, as he went into the kitchen. "What sort of..." He suddenly stopped.

Twilight was nowhere to be seen. Usually she would be here by now, waiting for Spike to prepare breakfast. After her last attempt at cooking both had decided to never speak of it again and leave all domestic chores to the dragon.

"Oh, not again!" Spike slid a hand over his face. The only times Twilight wasn't here or taking care of princessy things, was when she was reading in the library. "Guess I might as well bring her breakfast there," he shrugged and started cooking.

Today's breakfast was going to be fried toast with salad - easy and quick to make, just as Spike liked it. He himself had a few emeralds in the meantime. Come to think of it, his gem supply was getting low. A perfect excuse to visit Rarity later. With luck they could go gem hunting again.

"Would you like anything special to drink, Twilight?" the dragon shouted as he arranged her food on a tray. No answer. She probably was too captivated by her book to hear him. "Grape juice it is then," he poured a cup.

Perfect! Everything was neatly arranged, as it should be. Now the hard part - making sure Twilight didn't flip the tray. She could be quite startlish while reading, often resulting in him having to clean up and prepare breakfast again.

"I'm here with breakfast, Twilight," he shouted upon reaching the library door. "So don't cast any spells on me!"

The dragon placed an ear to the door. No response. This wasn't good. Taking a deep break he gently opened the door and peered inside. Books messily scattered about cluttering the table - check. Waxy remains of fully burnt candles - check. Twilight... No Twilight? Now this was new. If she wasn't in the kitchen or the library, where could she be? The thought of the map sending her across Equestria came to mind, but he would have noticed that. At the very least she would leave a note explaining things so he could inform princess Celestia. Maybe she was sick?

Tray in hand, the dragon went up Twilight's bedroom on the second floor and knocked on the door.

"Come on, Twilight," he said trying to sound annoyed, but the truth was he was worried, very worried. Slowly he opened the door and peered inside. "Twilight?"

"Spike, blessings," a very unusual Twilight said in a slow and relaxed manner. Her hair was all braided, a crown of flowers was on her head, and most concerning of all - for the first time Spike had known her, she appeared completely calm.

"Are you still in bed?" The dragon asked disapprovingly. "Do you know what time it is? Actually what exactly are you doing?"

"Aligning my chakras," she replied, eyes closed, forehooves lifted in the air. "Maybe you can too. Your vines seem tense."

"Vibes? Chakras?" he arched a brow. "Are you feeling alright, Twilight? Maybe you spent all night reading and got another brain cramp?"

"Everything's groovy, Spike," Twilight inhaled and exhaled deeply. "I just needed to unlock my past live experiences to become one with nature."

"What?" Spike was really confused. "You sure, you're ok?"

"Like, totally. The breeze is my mane, sunlight is my body."

"Ooookay," Spike slowly moved backwards. "I'll leave your breakfast here then- " he placed the tray on the floor, " -and go talk to nurse Redheart... about her aura!"

"Radical," Twilight replied and took another deep breath.

Not willing to see more, Spike rushed outside, closing the door behind him. What, by Celestia, had happened to her? Twilight would never behave like this. Something must have gone wrong, but what? It did't seem like Discord, or any villain that had attacked Ponyville in the past. Whatever it was, Spike was going to need help, and more than a nurse or doctor could offer. Rushing through the castle, he quickly grabbed a quill and some scrolls, and went outside. A few steps later, he stopped and looked at the sky in horror - it was all covered in rainbows.

"What happened?" he asked in shock. And the sky was not the worst of it. Everywhere around were ponies transformed in the very same way Twilight had been - braided manes, flower crowns and bracelets, weird clothes. It was as if he was in a dream.

"Alright, Princess Luna, if this is a dream, please wake me up," Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A dream would really explain everything.

"Radical!" The comment told him, this was no dream. "Writing down what you see as you transcend your mortal coil and become one with all."

Now that was too much! Opening his eyes, Spike had a mind to grab the pony who had said that by the mane and demand answers. The only thing that stopped him was it turning out to be a pony he knew quite well.

"Rainbow Dash?" he asked in disbelief.

Her mane might have remained the same, but he would have never recognized her from a distance. The blue pegasus had a brown vest, covered all in heart-shaped badges, a pair of purple circular shades, and a lily-patterned hoofkerchief on her head. And if that was not enough her entire wings had daisies in them.

"You look ridiculous," he frowned.

"Nah, it's just, like, radical," Raindow said, tucking a flower in his spikes. "Only I can achieve oneness to such a level."

At least one thing hadn't changed. Even in this state Rainbow's ego had remained intact.

"I was, like, going to check on Twiflower. Fluttershy is going to grace us with her presence and teach us to become one with all creatures."

"Fluttershy?" There were so many things wrong with that statement, that Spike head hurt. "You're talking about Fluttershy?"

"She is, like, the greatest. Her aura is so bright that she can talk to animals."

"You know, that's what she usually does?" Spike tried to interrupt, but wasn't given a chance.

"Everypony in Poneyvill will be there to listen to her words of wisdom," Rainbow continued completely oblivious. "And she will lead us into the Age of Butterflies, where all will be one, and live with nature as it was intended. Our Princess of Butterflies."

Fluttershy a leader? Spike never thought he would hear those words. The notion was completely absurd. From a pony that was always ignored, to the princess of Butterflies was quite the jump. For the life of him, Spike couldn't imagine her leading anypony. What would her first decree be? Be kind to animals? The notion itself was laughable. But at least nothing bad could happen with her in charge.

"And when the Princess of Butterflies shows us the way, we will tear down everything stone, crystal and metal," Rainbow Dash went on. "Once more we shall return to nature, where we belong, and remove any building and object that has kept us chained for so long, preventing us from entering the Age of Butterflies. First in Ponyville, then in all of Equestria, until everypony everywhere is free!"

Spike swallowed. He was wrong. Very bad things were going to happen. Unless he found a way to return everything to what it was, this could mark the end of Equestria as he knew it.

* *

Dear Spike,

If all is as you describe, I fear the situation is dire indeed. I need to check to be absolutely sure, but I believe an Exampler has made its way to Ponyville. Examples are dangerous items, created long ago, to try and guide ponies. I believed to have found them all and locked them away, but it seems I was mistaken.

It is enough for a pony to hold the Exampler to become a living example for all others around her. Without even knowing it they would start behaving in exactly the same fashion - their thoughts, desires, even tastes would become the same. You must be unaffected, because you are a dragon, and that is why I must give you this difficult task - find the Exampler before it becomes too late.

I am sorry that neither I nor my sister could be of any help, for I fear if we near it, we too will fall victim to the Exampler's effects.

The whole of Ponyville relies on you, Spike, and I know you will not let them down.

Believe in yourself,

I have great faith in you,

Celestia

Well, I might as well participate myself.

Example:

Learning, Sweetie thought, wasn't very easy. It involved making mistakes and correcting them, which was very tiresome. It involved hard work and concentration. And it sometimes required seeing something done right to be able to imitate it properly.

Like most things, life was something that had to be learned. This struck Sweetie as rather unfair, since life was something that more or less happened to her without her consent. Still, it was important to make the best of things, as her aunt Goldie Bling would say. However, after giving the matter a great deal of thought, Sweetie wasn't very sure how to 'learn life'. It wasn't a subject studied in school, after all, and the books she had found on the matter were all rather long and struck her as a bit hokey.

Sweetie wasn't keen to make too many life mistakes just to learn their lessons (although these tended to happen anyway, regardless of effort on her part) and she was finding school too tiresome to dedicate large amounts of hard work just to make herself a better pony. So what she really wanted was an Example.

With a capital E.

Her first instinct was to look to her friends. Unfortunately, it became quickly obvious that neither Applebloom or Scootaloo were very skilled in the Life department, simply because, like her, they didn't have a lot of it. Scootaloo in particular had a whole year's worth of Life less than Sweetie, meaning that realistically, Sweetie should be the Example to her.

However, both of her friends provided part of the answer. They had Examples of their own. It was unfair that some ponies had Examples happen to them without much work, but that was just another part of Life. Sweetie decided that maybe she could learn from theirs, since an Example of her own was proving difficult to find.

Rainbow Dash was perfect for Scootaloo to idolize. Sweetie almost wanted to idolize her too. After all, lots of ponies knew exactly what they were good at. Fluttershy knew she was good with animals, Pinkie knew she was the best party-planner, and Rainbow Dash knew she was the awesomest pony around. And objectively, Sweetie Belle decided this was an accurate statement, objectively. She was strong, brave, had impeccable style (although very unlike the style her sister had, which was also impeccable in it's own way), and was very keen on pushing ponies to be the best ponies they could be.

But she wasn't awesome to Sweetie Belle. She didn't push Sweetie Belle towards being good at anything, really. Sweetie didn't like sports that much, and Rainbow was far too loud to get along with for any extended period of time. She wasn't her Example.

Applejack was a far better candidate. She was the perfect case of an Example turning up on somepony's doorstep, and quite literally too, since she lived in the same house as Applebloom. She was like Rainbow Dash, Sweetie thought, but better. Quieter, more responsible, kinder even. In terms of caring for somepony, a quality Applebloom sorely needed, she was the best pony around. But that wasn't what Sweetie needed.

Sweetie needed ambition. Applejack wasn't... well, she wasn't going anywhere. She was less of an Example, Sweetie thought, and instead more of a helper. Somepony to tuck you in at night and help you up when you scraped your knee, or save the town from a giant bear thing with teeth. Anything, really, but she wasn't... inspirational. It was an odd distinction to make, but it felt right to Sweetie Belle.

So who else was there?

Sapphire Shores was a magnificent singer, and had everything Sweetie wanted. Fame, a voice to die for (hopefully not literally) and a darn good pair of hips (although Sweetie would never say that out loud). But she was so distant and faraway, she was no help to Sweetie at all. Magazine articles made for poor Examples.

Sweetie's last thought was Rarity.

Truth be told, she was sometimes the worst pony Sweetie knew. She could be as rude and insensitive as Rainbow Dash (and twice as loud), seemed as distant as Sapphire Shores, and even after many years of trying, she didn't seem to be any closer to her dreams of being a great fashion designer. She was nice... sometimes, when she wasn't busy. Those were moments Sweetie cherished.

You always cherish what doesn't come often.

It took a great deal of time for Sweetie to examine her sister properly. Rarity had the annoying tendency to be frustrated. Frustrated with herself, with her sister, and her work. Most of all, she seemed frustrated with time. That was when Sweetie stopped thinking.

Frustration was something Sweetie understood. Finding a cutie mark wasn't easy, after all. Neither was Life.

That was when it became very obvious that Rarity was the perfect Example. Sweetie didn't want to be the awesomest and bravest pony around, and neither did she want to be the kindest and most caring.

Rarity, her sister Rarity, would be her perfect Example, because despite everything, she was a pony who tried. She tried being a fashion designer, tried being brave, and she tried being a good sister. And she tried hard.

Sweetie really just wanted to try as hard as Rarity did, and that seemed to be the most important thing of all.

Not even edited, so if there's an error in there, do point it out. Hope you enjoyed it.

4560999

I was thinking Sunset Shimmer too, but I haven't gotten anywhere yet; I find it surprisingly hard to write about Sunset Shimmer without having the setting go haywire. Ideas I'd had:

* Something about Sunset as Sweetie Belle's favorite substitute big sister. Sweetie Belle has a ruthless streak; I could see Sunset accidentally being a bad influence, by teaching Sweetie how to get what she wants without being able to teach her how to want the right things. What form could that take? Not something relating to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon; Sweetie Belle almost gets along with them, and she doesn't consider them very important. More likely something related to Rarity, who Sweetie Belle doesn't get along with, and does consider very important. How to do that without rewriting For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils? Perhaps by having Sweetie Belle think more about surpassing her sister than competing with her... whereupon Sweetie Belle decides to move to Equestria with Sunset Shimmer. Whoops.

* An alternate start to things going wrong for Sunset:
** Princess Celestia is older than the hills and as wise as you'd expect; but she's a bad judge of character, and not very good at putting herself in other ponies' horseshoes.
** What Sunset Shimmer fundamentally wants isn't power, it's respect and admiration. This is why she gets along with Sweetie Belle and Rarity doesn't. Rarity doesn't care about the opinions of the powerless; Sunset enjoys being looked up to, regardless of who's doing the looking up.
** So... what if Sunset was coasting, basking in the glory of being the best in her class and the Princess' personal student, feeling healed of the insecurities of her family life... until the Princess took her aside one day and told her what had prompted her to take a personal student in the first place? She might even give Sunset a lesson or two in the real history of Equestria, revealing how a unicorn with Sunset's talent can become a force more potent than armies and kingdoms, able to single-hoofedly alter the course of history; she can aspire to so much more than being a mere stuffy Canterlot aristocrat.
** Once again, whoops. This is not how you teach someone to bear the Element of Friendship... but this is a story that I understand how to write now. It doesn't sound as OOC for Princess Celestia as it initially did, either. (And when Princess Celestia encourages Sunset Shimmer to draw herself up and out of the cultural milieu of the School for Gifted Unicorns, she has a point. The milieu of that place is toxic; "gentleman's C" students and their parents set the tone of the school. With her mix of ambition, insight, irony, and compassion, Sunset could easily have risen to the top of the herd; she just had to realize that the top of that herd was nowhere to be proud of... ideally in a less harmful way than she actually did.)

4560999 You went a little overboard? Oh noes!

I thought it was a nice little 1K word story, anyway. Although my brain is still fuzzy from waking up, so I don't know what to say about it in detail just yet.

4561232

The fact that you got memes for everything is quite worrying about your personnal none internet life time.

4559125 Like with all the contests on this site, I'll promote this one on my user page in an attempt to get you more contenders. Good luck!

(19 June)

Are you sure it isn't July?

4566801 You forgot the time difference, silly.

I will fix that quietly. They must never know.

4566833 My bad.

-Bad

4566846 Also, this isn't technically a contest, since it's just a prompt thread for now without prizes and stuff. We will have contests further down the line that will be very fun, though. Also, there will be one of these every week, which may be a pain for you to change constantly, if that's what you're going for.

There will even be character based ones once every two weeks. So that's a lot of threads.

4566864 You will announce the winners, though, right?

If it's going to be every week, I'll probably just link the whole group in the contests list and be done with it.

4566954 I was thinking of something like that. Sort of a 'best prompt' thing and have 'em displayed weekly on the main page.

I'll probably get Biker to judge, since he's not written anything yet.

4566975

Don't forget me, you exlpoding pegasus you.

4567106 Yes, yes, yes, you to.

You don't let me forget you.

4567157

I gotta leave an everlasting impression, after all.

I have an idea for a prompt... but I don't know if Ill have time to write it. If I do, I'll post it here, if not... guess I'll be adding it to my "Write Later" folder...

4559125

So, just to confirm. You want us to post what we write in this thread and not actually submit it?

... I suppose the answer is obvious, but I just want to confirm that I'm not missing anything.

4571113

Yep. If ya answer to the prompt given here, post it in this very thread, like others did, above your question.

4571113 Yes. This thread is for short stories, many of which will be under 1K words. For those, posting in this thread is more or less the only option you'll have, since you can't post stories shorter than 1K on this site.

That said, as you can see, some users have gone ahead and made these into full-fledged stories. That's no problem either (even if it wasn't the intent of the thread) but I'd appreciate posting at least a link to the story you made with the prompt.

Hope this helps.

4559125
Here's me throwing my hat in the ring.

And that's the week over! Moving onto the next prompt: Moon.

To those of you who posted proper stories, I'm making a folder just for you guys (since there are more of you than I expected).

Have a good one!
4574389
4560999
4559886

Well, I wrote something small last night. I know it's a bit late, but I hope you'll let me post it.

I had writter's block while working on one of my stories, and I decied to focus on your writting prompt to try and pull me out of it. This is suppose to take place in my "Solar Beach" world, and it may not make the best of sense on it's own... anyway here it is:

*Beep*

Inside the large metal case a small piezoelectric speak squeaked out an error. The small electric twang rang thought the golden oaks library, and buzzed through Twilight's ears.

"Fatal Error, System Halted." The green text flashed on the computer monitor, erasing all the data she had spent an hour entering. Twilight's eye twitched a few times in frustration.

"Ugh." She cried out before her head slammed into the table.

"... owww." She moaned.

This was the second time her program had failed to execute and she still had no incite into why it failed.

Picking her head up she looked over the cray computer manual she had opened next to her. This book, along with the small pile behind her and the computer in front of her were a gift from Reece. Who had lent it to her tp help her study and learn. It seemed like a sweet gift at the time, but now it felt more like the evil offspring of Pandora's box and a Trojan horse.

Quickly she turned to the last page she was on, 23. At the top of the page was the chapter title "Introduction to multi threading". A few paragraphs of text and then the first example was written out. She had copied this example word for word and yet she still couldn't get it to work. To make matters worse, this was only the first chapter in a very lengthy book.

She closed the book and rubbed her now tender forehead with her hoof. Perhaps she had started out too quick. Maybe it was best if she went back to square one. With a protracted sigh, she turned about and began fishing about for another book, a much smaller tome, "Programing basics, an introduction to C++"

Flipping through the pages she reviewed her highlighted texted, nodding her head as she went along. All this was familiar, and she knew it all in depth or at least she felt that she did. Her pace spread up until she reached the final chapter. She took her time on this last chapter, re-reading everything over indepth.

For the next thirty minute she read over all the advanced examples at the end of the book untill she came across the most relevant one. It was a simple program, not more then a hundred lines. She read it over once, twice, internalizing the entirety of the program to memory. Once she was confident she knew it and understood it she closed the book and put it down neatly next to her.

Reaching her hoofs out, she sat them on top of the modified pony keyboard and began to rotate the two knobs about, causing a string of characters to appear on the screen. Words like "int main", "void", and "return" flashed on the screen and she quickly speeded through the example now burned into her mind. An hour later, and one finale line was written, "return (0);".

A short review of her code brought a smile to her lips. Everything looked correct. It was a simple program, just a few parallel calculation done in separate threads, but it was her program, and she was proud of it. A smile crossed her muzzle as she gave a few quick keyboard command and the program began to compile and execute.

*beep*

"Fatal Error, System halted."

"NO!'" Twilight screamed at the screen before grabbing it with her hooves and shaking it violently, much in the way you would not shake a baby.

*Click*

The sound of the library's door opening echoed through the hollowed out tree. The sounds of feet steps slowly thumped their way up the stairs, approaching closer to her.

With one last defeated sigh, Twilight let go of the monitor and turned around to see Reese standing in the entranceway. Judging by his face, she must have looked like a train wreck

"Twilight, what are you doing? Are you ok?" He asked.

She took a moment to compose herself and thing about what to say. "I'm fine. Just been trying to understand this 'Programing Language' stuff." She held both th cray computer manual and C/C++ guide book in her hooves.

"I don't understand your human magic." She looked at him with pleading almost defeated eyes.

He walked up to the large metal tower next to her and stared at the side, trying desperately to suppress a laugh.

"Twilight, you know this system has a fault in it?"

She put the books down, and thought about the word he used, 'Fault.'

"... it has a what?" She asked, almost unwilling to find out what he meant.

Reece pointed to a red sticker on the side of the box. "A fault. The second CPU is bad. I told you early not to take any from the shelf."

Twilight turned her head to look at the screen, the green text slowly burning itself into the LCD matrix. She could feel her eye twitch once more, before her head hit the desk again.

"Buck me."