This is a collection of short-short stories and character concepts inspired by the odd pony-related dreams I seem to get every Saturday morning before the new episode airs. The main attraction will be Skin's Tales of Tartarus, the slice of life misadventures of a laid back and somewhat cocky skinless pony living and working in Tartarus. Beyond that, I won't promise any outstanding plots or well-constructed characters; it's just whatever my subconscious cooks up that I think can actually survive the transmission to text form.
Character and genre tags will be added as appropriate.
Picture (by BetweenFriends) may or may not be indicative of how weird things will get.
Chapters (12)
By the by, if anything I put in this inspires you, feel free to contact me about using whatever it is. Chances are I won't expand on most of what I write here.
ME GUSTA MUCHO!
Now ship him with one of the mane 6
424296
shipping. Really?
Glad you liked it, but
424310 Yes
Ship ALL the things!
s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/176/026/shipALLthecharacters!whatthefuck.png
who needs logic when you've got dreams to work on?
lucky bastard...
...and you get pony-related dreams every week?
FUN FACT: Your brain essentially 'turns off' your logic functions during sleep, making the random thoughts during dreaming appear extremely real, despite how illogical they may be.
Good stuff. Will read when not sleepy.
424634
i wish i had a machine/device/devilish mahination to record my dreams with.
424363 Most unlikely ship ever but still...
i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb461/LegionScavenger/f113885_I20Concur20Gorilla.jpg
425288 Here's a better one that I made when I was bored
fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/099/4/b/ship_all_the_characters__by_iloveportalz0r-d4vielh.png
That's awesome, i'd love to read more xD
This sounds like the opening to a very good story. I wouldn't drop it if I were you.
426061
That's the same thing?
442478
The caption's better looking in the second version.
EDIT:
The entire image is cleaner-looking actually.
442482
Oh yes I see it now. I was distracted by how Discord was about to be violated by Apple Bloom there.
I wasn't expecting to get another story about Skin and Tartarus, but sometimes you get genuine sequels to your dreams. This one took a little more effort to turn into an actual story, since the dream didn't include the Smooze, Grogar, or much of a plot beyond "Tibia is a freak even by Tartarus standards."
442478
i62.photobucket.com/albums/h81/Garthor/ApplejackNope.jpg
442482>>442499 Click here for shameless self-promotion
hehe. so that's where that ugly goober got to.
The cover image sold this for me.
That was cool mang.
Awesome, you wrote a second chapter! I really, really like this whole Tartarus idea you've set up, and it only seems to be getting better as you expand on it. Please don't hesitate to write more.
I love it!
The last one...
holy fuck.
That's nice, living in a cell for eternity... not so much... I would rather die!
490889
Well I assume rehabilitation and leniency are not unheard of. I doubt Celestia would maintain imprisonment of anyone who was no longer a threat. After all, there are plenty of super-powerful but non-antagonistic beings out there not relegated to the underworld.
Random tense change dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Scootaloo_lolface.png
"The doctor said he was in no condition to travel back to Ponyville, no for several weeks." - Did you mean not?
Sweetiebot dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Sweetie_Belle_lolface.png
"But, since you choose to believe it, they pretend to it." - Did you miss a word? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Applejack_lolface.png
For the one where everypony is a robot, I think that it wasn't a dream... it's a TARP! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png
Dat tense change
Do you see what I see? DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR? DO YOU SMELL WHAT I SMELL? DO YOU TASTE WHAT I TASTE? DO YOU FEEL WHAT I FEEL?
496549
Yeah, I tend to slip into the present tense when I write first-person. I'm not subjecting these stories to the same degree of editing as my other works because they're primarily just messing around and having fun with randomness.
Although Skin and Tartarus are really starting to develop into a genuine narrative...
496639 That's no excuse
Liking this so far, although the idea that looking freaky get you consigned to guard duty and forbidden to show your face to the normal ponies seems a bit harsh to me. Did that aspect come from the dream? Maybe they just aren't the nicest of ponies and they don't want them doing not-so-nice things out in the sugar-bowl? Like Skin's Yahtzee scam? Of course, Flim and Flam are probably as bad, if not worse on that account, but...
If nothing else I would have expected Celestia to ask Luna to cut them in on her plans for the next Nightmare Night since their PR situation could be seen as somewhat similar to her's. Would you mind if I did up a side-story on the subject of which of them are worthy of this and which aren't and how it would work out? Not that I am saying I WILL, but I MIGHT if you are good with it.
Maybe it is more about their missions than their appearances? Celestia doesn't want the Little Ponies getting freaked out by monster-hunts for missing big bads... sounds counter-productive to the public health though.
I note that you took the Smooze from corruptive to consuming.
“Smooze is loose!” Tibia was engulfed almost instantly.
“Smooze is loose!” I scrambled to my hooves and ran.
“Suh-moooooze!” Alarms began to blare around me as automatic emergency spells began to activate.
-It doesn't show up in the copy-paste very well, but your indentation gets all weird here. Might be intentional for all I know, but I doubt it.
Not as good as the previous two parts, but since you are working from whatever your sub-conscious throws at you, I can't really complain.
-Ah, alternate endings... this could be good...
eyes die and pleading for understanding,
-"eyes die" seems to be a typo.
Curse you Black Stone,
-Are we supposed to know who "Black Stone" is? A reference to another fic perhaps, or is it just a hook for possible continuation?
no for several weeks.”
-not
“Seems ta me like you’ve used just about every clee-shay worth doin’ already.”
-The middle one didn't match any cliche I know of very directly. Not since the injuries were short-term, rather than permanent, let alone lethal. The third one... close to "The Matrix" and maybe one of the original Star Trek episodes, but... I guess since it is AJ talking a little imprecision is acceptable, but at the same time I don't want you to be selling yourself short, especially TO yourself.
569100
The indentation is quite intentional.
As to why the Tartarus guards don't get out much: I'm not sure they're technically ponies. They're more like... hellspawn or something. I'm still in the "make it up as I go along" stage of Skin's stories, but this has been a solid fact from the get-go: Skin and his compatriots are perfectly content in their jobs and don't envy the ponies who live on the surface.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Who’s the new guy?
-Going to guess Chrysalis.
Y’all have a thing or two in common.
-Hmmm... con-artists? On the whole though this makes me think it might not be Chrysalis.
“Your fault for pulling it off,”
-Seems a little harsh to keep him from flying just to save a little time... then again, I am only assuming he CAN fly with only one feathered wing. Seems likely though.
tall, skinny, bug-winged
-Well, I was right the first time. Will be interesting to see what they have in common. Oh.. wait! The form copying! Well, that AND the con-jobs although the flavor of those are different enough that I am not sure it counts.
“Somepony finally discovered you for the monster you really are.”
-Nice one...
Bewilderment crossed her face for a moment, but then she smiled, revealing some nice-looking fangs.
-Chrysalis about to try to take advantage of the situation and confirm his suspicions? She might have a chance.
She’s clearly confused as to why she’s following my commands, and so I enlighten her:
-I was wondering why she hadn't blasted HIM just as easily, yes.
“Oh, smart girl,” I say, “We’re definitely going to have a good time, you and I.”
-Heh... I would think that getting to know him would be the first part of those escape plans myself... master manipulator and all(or is she?), gather informaiton, especially about the social relationships she might be able to play against eachother... then again, with nopony likely to buy her shapeshifts she might be a bit off-balance in terms of coming up with plans and she is learning plenty so far anyway. Might be suspicious if she got chatty too quickly.
Her eyes lit up in hope and she called out, “Oh Skin, thank goodness you’re here!”
-Yeeeeeah... should have chatted with him first. This is pathetic.
confused at the lack of alarms.
-Doesn't seem too bright does he? Unless you want something more like "the lack of alarms was making me suspicious, but I couldn't be sure either way yet."
“Sit tight,” I said to Tibia, “I’ll go track her down.”
-Then again, either he is smarter than he seemed, he has had good procedures drummed into him even if he doesn't remember the REASONS for them right off the bat, or he just isn't about to miss a chance to leave Tibia safely locked up where he thinks she belongs for a bit.
“Oh, I get it now,” I said, walking up to the bars of the cell with a swagger, “Changeling. That’s literal; you can adopt the appearance of other creatures.
-Not too big on having the guards read the inmate's profiles, are they?
That brought me up short; Tibia never whimpers. She’s pure skin and bones, and none of those bones are of the compassionate or emotional kind, unless you count well-veiled and creepy malice as emotional.
-I would say Chrysalis!Tibia crossed that line seconds after he came into view.
569413
He's a gambler, but that doesn't always mean con-artist.
Does Skin really give off con-artist vibes?
569637
My entire impression of him as anything along the lines of a con artist is based on single phrase from the first story. Let me give the larger sentence.
Note the word "racket".
Change those last three words (by deleting the first two of them) and I wouldn't have thought of him as having that as a possible point of connection with Chrysalis.
This idea had a lot of potential in my head, but then I wrote the phrase "vampire ghost" and everypony just gave up on me...
Actually, I found this one to be really good. It felt a lot like an actual dream.
Bon Bon changeling and werepony Lyra.
Heh heh, Vampire Ghost. A much tamer cousin of the mythic 'Zombie Goasts.'
571568
Dont you mean "zombie goatse"?
That was pretty awesome but I still don't even...
Things are looking up for the Skin-meister.
Heh, well played Chrys.
Although I find it idiotic the guards were not briefed on their charges' traits, needs and abilities.
587037
The only possible justification I can think of is that they are so bored out of their gourds that they intentionally do things the hard way, just to keep life more interesting.
630855
Sure, let's go with that...
631075
630855
Now I'm amused to see what will happen if Chrys realized that Skin is also a shapshifter. And I wonder if he can shift into a changeling, them being pony-like in shape at least. Now I'm imagining a scene where they turn into each other... Awkward...
Just as planned.