A Small Collection of Small Stories about Small Ponies

by Snowfeather

Empty Slots

Link to the Cover Art

The dust swirled as the filly exhaled into the air, the sunlight illuminating each speck. She sighed, letting the light heat up her fur. Lying down on the floor, she stretched, looking around the attic.

There were boxes stacked on top of boxes, and in the few spots there weren’t boxes, random things lay strewn about. An old toy from when she was little. The deconstructed clock...buckets of paint.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her warm fur. Twisting around, she arched her back and opened her eyes.
To a spider less than an inch away from her muzzle.

The pegasus shrieked, leaping to her hooves and hovering up into the air. The spider, sensing the vibrations, scuttled away. Calming herself down, the foal squished the bug under her hooves.

Turning a hoof over, she grimaced at the spider guts smeared on her orange fur.

“Eww,” Scootaloo said and wiped her hoof on a nearby box. She didn’t find spiders scary; they were just gross when dead.

She proceeded to clean her hoof until the original idea for coming up here came to her: She had to find the picture of her as a filly for a school project. After asking her dad repeatedly for a chance to come out to her grandfather’s house and work on the assignment, he finally gave in and flew her out to his house in the countryside. The filly could hear them talking below her. They had let her come up on her own; giving some directions that she had already forgotten to find pictures. Sighing, she glanced around.

The pegasus filly quickly spotted the box with the words ‘Photos’ scribbled on it. Dragging the box out into the clearing she was previously in, she opened the box. Luckily, it hadn’t been taped shut or anything.

Peering down into the box, she coughed as the stench hit her. Reaching in, Scootaloo pulled out the first photo album. It was silver with a metal cover. The filly ran her hoof over the stars engraved in it before flipping it open.

The first picture was of ponies she didn’t know eating at a table. She turned the page again. More unknown ponies. Scootaloo turned the page again and considered putting away this album. She didn’t know what was even going on, and the pictures looked old enough to be before she was even born.

One more picture, and if I still don’t know what’s happening I’ll try again.

The next picture was of her father and mother at their wedding. The idea of putting away the album was gone as Scootaloo gazed at the photos.

Most of them were of her mother at the reception. She looked pretty; an orange pegasus with a bright orange and white mane. There were a few pictures of the cake, and other ponies, but Scootaloo skipped those, she wanted to look at her mom.

Turning the page, the filly looked at her mother, without her dress, leaving for her honeymoon. Scootaloo remembered what her father had said: it was a cruise.

The filly didn’t know how long she spent up there, gazing at each photo. They still continued to feature her mother, which the pegasus was grateful for.

Suddenly, the page grew blurry. Scootaloo rubbed her eyes, but her hooves came away wet. She looked at her mom again. If she had been here, things would have been different. Things would have been better.

A tear slid down Scootaloo’s cheek as she turned the page to find the slot blank. And the next slot. And the next one. All the way till the end.

Memories they never had together as a family. Because she left.

Scootaloo curled up on the floor of the attic and began to cry, for the first time in years, for her dead mother.

Author's Note:

Prompt: “Going through your great-grandfather's attic...what do you find?”
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/201217/promptaday/thread/104934/prompt-72-treasure-hunt

The prompt was titled, 'Treasure Hunt'. I'm pretty sure this was not where the idea was intended to go.

Comments

[Checkmate the Unicorn]

Brilliant! Of course!

[Snowfeather]

4771647
Oh, that last story? It was all part of my evil plan...
Actually, it's one of my goals as an author to get someone to cry because of my story.

-12th P- Consider rewording 3rd sentence to "Out of her peripheral vision, she spotted a pony standing right next to the hedge through the twigs and leaves."

When I was writing this I kept rephrasing that sentence but I could never get it right. Thanks!

Thank you so much for editing. I really, really appreciate it. In a world without editors I would be scared to read a story.

Thanks,
Snowfeather

[Dark Avenger]

Damn... that last one...

Kind of a nasty "mood whiplash" after two funny ones, but otherwise excellent work. Although the "orphan Scootaloo" (or rather "Scootaloo with either one or both parents missing") is not a new thing, the part at the end more than made up for it:

A tear slid down Scootaloo’s cheek as she turned the page to find the slot blank. And the next slot. And the next one. All the way till the end.

Memories they never had together as a family. Because she left.

Scootaloo curled up on the floor of the attic and began to cry, for the first time in years, for her dead mother.

Sublime. In this short segment (plus that line or two where you mention her dad), you tell almost an entire life story (i.e "mother died, father had take care of Scootaloo on his own, they grieved for some time, then moved on" ). The use of the empty slots as a metaphor is absolutely brilliant.

I think you have a bright future in prose ahead of you.

[Snowfeather]

4771760 Thank you!

That line was added at the end after I realized that I could use this as symbolism. Like your critique of Lonely Hearth's Warming, that line that you liked was added in there last minute. Double woah...

Kind of a nasty "mood whiplash" after two funny ones...

Does this story need the comedy tag? The stories are borderline (I think), since I've never really considered myself good at comedy. What do you think?

Thank you for the comment!

(Oh, and how do you do the text block thing? I've never figured that out.)

[Dark Avenger]

4771816

Actually, I think it's best if you just use the "slice of life" tag. The first two are not "sad" while the last one isn't "comedy." "Slice of life" can hold pretty much all of them.

And your comedy is alright. I wasn't rolling on the floor, but it made me smile.

(Oh, and how do you do the text block thing? I've never figured that out.)

Add "spoiler" before the text in square brackets, just like with the other tags (italics, quotes, etc.), then end it with "/spoiler" (NOTE: you have to do this separately for every individual paragraph in case you have more than one. It cuts off after the first one if you don't.)

[Snowfeather]

4776144 Oh yeah, I never thought of that.
But would it be pretending to be hurting if you were really hurting?

[Fluttershyisacutegal]

poor scootsy