It's May, apparently. I say "apparently" because here in Britishland we've just endured one of our coldest Aprils since records began. The most night frosts for over 60 years, for example. So, let's warm the cockles of our hearts with another FF150. As usual, a quick reminder of the rules:

Here are the full rules.

Remember, there is no prize, as such, for this contest -- but if you win, you will be able to choose the prompt for the next contest. You'll also get a mention on the group's front page. I would normally put something stupid here, but instead I'll break with the habit of a lifetime and say something useful: please take the deadline as a hard one. In other words, entries close then, not when I actually remember to make the "time's up" post!

Prompt: "Animal Antics" (selected by last month's winner, Amereep)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Friday 21st May 2021, 11:59 pm UK time (world clock)

Please reply to this post with your entry. This makes it easier for me to keep track. Please do not leave feedback until after the closing date.

Entries are now open! Have fun!

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I know Amereep said I should consider possibilities other than Fluttershy… but I wrote a Fluttershy story anyway. Oh well.
:P

(For what it's worth, it was moreso because of this image than her connection to animals.)

Point being, here's my surprisingly early submission:

Fluttershy felt absolutely exhausted. A pregnant doe under her care had finally given birth in the wee hours of the morning, and while the cream pegasus had been ecstatic to help welcome the newborn fawn into the world, doing so had thrown her sleeping schedule completely out of whack.

She tried her hardest to keep paying attention to Twilight's explanation of the big magical discovery she'd just made, but ultimately, her grogginess won out. Her internal stay apparatus kicked in, its muscles locking Fluttershy's leg joints in place. Her eyelids fell, and she herself soon fell into a gentle — and upright — sleep.

…

…

…

…Eventually, however, Twilight took notice. "…Fluttershy? Fluttershy!"

The exasperated pronouncement of Fluttershy's name shook her from her slumber. "Oh, s-sorry!" she apologized, a sheepish grin promptly forming on her muzzle. "Was I, um… 'hammocking' again?"

Twilight gave her friend a blank look. "Yes. Yes you were."

(DISCLAIMER: For whatever reason, WordCounter.Net seems to think that some of the ellipses are actual words. The story meets the maximum word limit otherwise, but if that's going to be a problem, please let me know.)

On a related note, I have an anthology now! Check it out if you wanna:

EOdds 'n' Ends

• MLP: FiM
• Random
• Slice of Life
• Anthology

Flashes of everyday (and, in some cases, not-so-everyday) life in Ponyville, Equestria, and the lands beyond.

• Spike
• Other
• Main 6
• Young Six

TheAncientPolitzanian · 4.4k words  ·  12  5 · 384 views

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I can tell you some stories about some of the rabbits that've been in the family. Crystal, the Netherland Dwarf, was a Tsundere that could squeeze through the bars of her cage. Cody, the Mini Rex, was the biggest rabbit out of everyone who was ironically owned by my youngest sibling. Icarus, the Jersey Wooly, was my rabbit and both of us reflected Fluttershy's and Angel's personality, but flipped around. There's also Cookie, Maple, and Ebony, but I didn't/haven't spent enough time around them to say much.

Picking an event that has happened with them and telling them in a story for this month seems like the obvious choice, but I got something else in mind. This is something that happened to me one day after coming home from work. Seriously, everything in this story really happened down to the word.

*Chirp*

Sunset paused, questioning the odds. She pulled away from the motor, completely amazed that the bird was perched on the broom's head.

Gently lowering the broom, firmly gripping the handle's end, Sunset eyed the garage door and slowly went for it. She got stopped by her car's antenna, now noticing she ringed her arms around it.

Sunset stiffened her left arm and struggled to support the broom one handed as she swung her right arm around the antenna. She gripped the teetering broom with both hands, astonished that the bird is still perched, arched forward to the new angle. Sunset breathed in and continued for the door.

Sunset's eyes were on the bird.

The bird's eyes were on Sunset.

The neighbor's eyes were on them.

Out on the driveway, the bird turned around.

*Tweet chi*

It flew off the broom and back to the sky.

Sunset sighed, "You're welcome."

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Well, when I saw the prompt, I immediately knew what I was going to do. I give you,

Capper was leaned against Rarity’s wall, glaring at a white mass of fury that was across the room.

Like-wise, Opalescence glared back.

Rarity nervously chuckled, taking in the scene in front of her. “Ah, Capper, is there a problem?”

“Not yet.” He growled, “I just want to know why a house-cat is living here.”

Opalescence flashed her claws, hissing at him.

“Well, you see, I’m her owner.” Rarity said, “I didn’t expect her to be a problem when I offered you a new coat...”

Capper let out a scoff. “House-cats are nothing but trouble. They’re not smart enough to be real cats, and too full of themselves to like them.

“But... I think I can stop myself from doing something rather... Unsavory, for you, Rarity.”

“Well, that’s a relie-“

Opalescence tossed a mug at Capper with a flick of her tail, nose turned to the sky.

Capper’s claws flashed out.

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“Rarity, your cat hissed at me! I’m scared!”

“Opalescence is just establishing its territory. That’s how cats act, Sweetie Belle.”

---

“Rarity, Opalescence sliced a piece of my tail! Again!”

“Opalescence is just playing. It’s what cats do, Don’t worry about it”

---

“Rarity, Opalescence scratched me! I’m bleeding!”

“Don’t concern yourself with that. It’s just animal antics.”

---

“Rarity, Opal bit me! It’s sucking on my blood now!”

“Cats go into hunting mode whenever they see a weak prey. Don’t mind it. It’s just what cats do.”

---

“Rarity...”

“Sweetie Belle! Will you stop stealing food from Opalescence’s bowl already!?! That’s cat food, meant for cats.”

“But it’s so crunchy...”

Edit: 11 - Her Antics…

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You may have replied to my comment instead of LoganBerry’s.

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Here’s my entry!

Rated E

Sasquatch Pony

Your typical afternoon at the Ponyville Schoolhouse. The CMCs were having lunch together. “Bathroom emergency! BRB!” said Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo and Applebloom decided to look for a different table. When Sweetie Belle came back, her lunch was missing! Applebloom and Scootaloo’s lunches, which were on the table, gone!

More disappearances happened. Rarity’s red top, one of Applejack’s zap apples, and more. Rarity decided to investigate. Twilight planted a trap. She left a hayburger on the floor and hid nearby. Our Sasquatch came in.

He was wearing the red top, and black sunglasses. The girls caught him, and returned the items.

The End!

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The mane 6 all have pets, but the pets get very little screen time. What exactly do they get up to while their owners are away? (Btw, there are multiple cannon spellings of "Owlysius"; I just picked one.)

"Attack pattern delta!" barked Tank.

Owlysius swooped down, snatched Gummy from the ground, and threw him through the air.

The bugbear spun... just in time to catch an alligator in the face.

Tank watched it all on the Command Center displays. "B-Team! Now!"

With the bugbear distracted, Winona leapt from her hiding place. She chomped the monster's leg just as Opalescence descended with a vicious claw attack.

That left Angel to fire the bazooka.

The inferno forced the bugbear to retreat, and the team quickly regrouped.

"The owners will be back soon" muttered Tank. "Everyone, go home and act normal!"

-----

Twilight and her friends returned to Ponyville on the evening train.

"Wow" said Rainbow Dash, "that was our coolest adventure ever!"

"I hope the pets are ok" mumbled Fluttershy with concern. "I hate leaving them alone like this."

"Hey, these are our pets. I bet they can handle anything!"

A day and a bit to go, everyone! Thank you to everybody who's already entered.

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And we're done for this month's entries!

A smallish entry this month, but a varied one. Thanks to everyone who gave it a shot. Also, a new participant in LightningChaser04 -- welcome! And not said in a creepy S5-premiere-Starlight way. Probably.

Feedback is open, folks!

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It took me a bit to figure out the action here.

"She pulled away from the motor" What motor?

"the bird was perched on the broom's head." Where is the broom, in relation to Sunset and the motor?

"Gently lowering the broom, firmly gripping the handle's end, Sunset eyed the garage door and slowly went for it." Ok, so Sunset was holding the broom. But then she "went for it". Went for what? The bird? The garage door?

I think there's a bird on the end of her broom and she's trying to bring the broom outside so the bird can fly away and not be stuck inside the garage. But it took me a couple reads to figure that out.

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I never thought of how Capper and Opal might react to each other. Good idea.

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Vampire Opal. Nice. =)

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Ponyville Stallion Draws Knife From Gator's Head, Crowns Himself King

(Seeded from a memed photograph)

A Ponyville stallion was quick to the rescue of an injured alligator this week when it showed up sporting a knife lodged in its skull. The following cry of pain attracted the attention of everypony in the town square. Were it not for the magical services of Twilight Sparkle of Canterlot teleporting him to safety, Ponyville Stallion easily could have been down a wing and a leg. "I don't know if he was being brave or stupid. I'm just glad I could help."

No ponies have claimed responsibility for no doubt defending themselves with what appears to be a generic kitchen knife.

The next day, Ponyville Stallion returned to the town square waving the knife around and declared himself the new king of Ponyville. He has forcefully taken up residence in town hall accompanied by a previously unknown group of deer mercenaries from beyond Everfree.

The situation is still unfolding.

Image curated from This Pony Does Not Exist by Shadow_8472.

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Thanks! I’ll be participating in more Flashfics to come!

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Oh Fluttershy, I understand. Stuck in a monotonous situation has gotten me to take an hour nap... quite frequently as of late.

The animal antic, for those that might not have caught it, is that horses tend to powernap throughout the day for roughly about 2 1/2 hours in total. They can reach it by standing, but they'll need to lay down to reach REM for a few hours every few days.

One would think that Luna wouldn't be so tired if all she has to do is work nearly 1/4 of an average work day.

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Really happened? Pfft, you're lying.

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Capper meeting Opal isn't anything new, but this story did strike something I never considered before. Comparing Capper to Opal wouldn't be that much different to comparing a human to a monkey.

...return to kitte, Capper.

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One of the possible stories I was suspecting was a foal acting like an animal. This isn't what I quite had in mind to animal antics, but I find it ironic that Sweetie Belle is lacking animal instincts after receiving assaults.

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This story is very... floaty, like you decided to give us the bullet points to a 1000 word story and you kept cutting more out of it with each paragraph you make. I know that 150 words might be hard to squeeze in (or in your case, 100 (not including 'The End!')), but this doesn't really ensnare me on a steady flow to follow.

It's like telling vs acting out Shakespeare, I could simply tell you that Romeo poisons himself in the name of love or I could speak 'Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide. Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on. The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark. Here’s to my love!'

If I were to pick a section in your story to expand and write a 150 word flashfic about, I would pick the part where the girls are waiting for the elusive beast and end it with them attempting to catch the sasquatch.

It would also help to put some forethought to the character actions. Take this line for example...

Scootaloo and Applebloom decided to look for a different table.

...I assume you placed that there as a way for the sasquatch to go about his way undetected as he steals the lunches. However, this line brings up more problems than it does fix, as it make Scootaloo and Applebloom appearing to be insensitive towards Sweetie Belle (if I left my friends for a moment and came back to see that they're gone, I'd feel like I've been ditched). Another problem with this sentence is that if they're eating lunch and if they decided to move to another table, why wouldn't they take their lunches with them?

These are just my thoughts and suggestions on your story that might help next time, so don't take this long analysis as something negative. To be honest, I found the idea of a sasquatch to be very clever. A lot of people just fling a singular human into Equestria and make jazz hands to distract the fact of how they got there in the first place. A sasquatch, a missing link that isn't quite human, seems more intune with it being found naturally in Equestria than a Anon.

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Angel Bunny: I hope you're ready for...

*Rabbit put on sunglasses with bazooka in paw*

Angel Bunny: ...Hell's Angel.

P.S. Your assumption on my story is correct. A bird in the garage, Myself Sunset using a broom to carry the bird outside, all of it.

A few things happened prior to when the story began, from getting a startled reveal to tempting it with bread, but I thought I should start when I Sunset tried to shove the bird off the motor to the garage door with a broom for multiple reasons. Limited words, gets the reader to think, states the problem with a resolve, an ironic form of metaing the cooperation between two individuals at each end of a pole to form an understanding (Sunset & Bird : writer & reader), and... because I really wanted to throw in that eye contact joke.

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I'm suddenly getting the feeling that Ponyville Stallion is a fan fave for Florida Man. And the fact that an alligator being involved doesn't help disclaim that idea.

I'm surprised we had roughly half the people participating compared to last month. I had a whole bunch of ideas from simple ones like Pinkie rolling in the grass to humorous ones like timberwolves having termites. My favorite one that I pushed aside was playing off of a documentary idea...

The male displays his teeth as a way to attract the female into a courtship. This young stallion here has acquired the attention of a mare to his liking. The mare, in turn, gives him some tail.

Rainbow Dash spins around, creating a loud slap as she whips her prismatic tail across Zephyr Breeze's cheek.

And thus the courtship has begun.

But I tend to write something more directly personal in the months I made a theme for, so...

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"Hell's Angel"! Perfect! =)

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Results time!

Despite the smaller entry this month, it was still very good to see the variety of ways in which the prompt was taken. Trying to choose the one I liked most when they varied this much did make my job harder, but I suppose your job is to make my job harder!

In the end, I chose Frazzle2Dazzle as the winner. Unlike Amereep, apparently, I haven't seen much at all with the two cats interacting and it really tickled me. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't want to be the pony who has to clean up the mess when they've finished with each other. Especially if I were Rarity, given her somewhat chequered history with both cats.

Only the odd very minor thing I'd pick up on, for example that "likewise" doesn't have a hyphen and that "unsavory" shouldn't be capitalised there. These didn't take away from my enjoyment, they're just little things for proofreading assistance.

Congratulations, Frazzle2Dazzle! It's now up to you to provide a prompt for June's contest. When you have one ready, please post it in this thread. Thank you again to everyone who had a go!

By all means continue feedback and suchlike if you wish.

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And with May 2020, I have finally succeeded in a win for one of these! Awesome!

For the prompt, I suppose “Sleight of Hand” will be my pick. I look forward to seeing what people do with it!

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May 2020

Fortunately, it's not 2020 anymore. Though I have to admit, 2021 isn't anything to boast about, either.

Edit:

“Sleight of Hand”

Are you sure you didn't mean "Slight Sleight of Hoof"?

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Sounds like an interesting prompt! I can see a few ways of getting around the "Hand" bit already, but doubtless people will come up with things much cleverer than I could have done. Anyway, prompt accepted, thank you!

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I mean, it would only be a ‘Slight’ change to the wording... But Sleight of Hand is the more popular phrasing.

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I'm suddenly getting the feeling that Ponyville Stallion is a fan fave for Florida Man. And the fact that an alligator being involved doesn't help disclaim that idea.

Sure is. Always has been. This one just happened to be based off a related meme.
https://cdn.discord app.com/attachments/752360596254621776/843522071001825300/image0.jpg
Link broken because while I'm pretty sure it's safe, I still find it mildly disturbing. It's literally just a low-res gator head in the water with a knife in the noggin.

My apologies to Shadow_8472 for not mentioning that their entry was ineligible -- which was simply for coming in after the deadline. It was fine in every other respect and I did enjoy reading it.