Shutter and Sunny in the Case of the Gurgling Gurgler

by shuttertwitch

03 - Chasing a Wild Tail

Sunny Tendersmile took a deep breath and slowly slid the empty pie plate a few inches away from her with an orangish puff of her unicorn magic. A few crumbs that were left-over from her assault jumbled about on the surface of the plate as it scooted along. She was now satisfied and full to the brim with fresh cider and macaroni bites. She patted her plump tummy with a tired, fulvid hoof and looked around at her friends.

Shuttertwitch, the Shaky Photographer Pony, shifted closer to Sunny. The rubbing of the old stool’s legs across the wooden floor made an abrupt flatulent trumpeting noise and everyone giggled as he quickly gathered their empty plates and cups into a pile at the far end of the table. Then, resting his deep blue hooves on the polished tree-stump they were all sitting around, he prepared himself for the story to come.

Spectre, the Ghost Camera, reacted as well, after having a quiet giggle at Shutter’s expense; mechanical clicks echoed and spun about as he focused his lens to a pinpoint on Sunny and his ethereal, violet glow dimmed a bit, a result of his own pensive concentration.

Everyone was ready, so she began.

“It all started a couple days ago.”

The room fell silent, even the ever-present gusts of summertime Ponyville wind seemed to calm outside as if it were carefully tiptoeing around Shutter’s little cottage and peaking in the windows to have a listen.

“I had stopped to pet a dog.” She continued, an innocent smile on her face. “He was a little Bichon Yorkshire Terrier mix, probably stood no more than five apples high. Somepony had tied him to a post outside of the Ponyville Bookstore and left him there, I guess while they went in to get some books? I don’t know. All I know is that he was sitting there just smiling away and barking and I wanted to pet him!”

“I assume gallivanting about and assaulting strange dogs is status quo with you, isn’t it Ms. Tender?” Spectre spoke up.

“She never said she assaulted any dogs you old gearhead!” Replied Shuttertwitch with an annoyed sideways glance at the vibrating camera. “She said pet!”

“Well actually,” Piped up Sunny with a bit of an embarrassed hue to her already bright yellow cheeks. “I didn’t just want to pet him. I really wanted to play with him too. He was so cute!”

“Oh here we go!” Grumbled Spectre. “You know, Sunny, it’s not a good idea to just go about —“

“I felt bad for it!” The yellow pony squawked at Spectre, defensively raising her voice “and I figured if I untied it for just a second, we could gallop around a bit and laugh and then I’d put him back and he would be happy and I would be happy and everyone would be happy! The end!” She smiled to herself as Shutter and Spectre marveled at the simplicity of her equation.

“I have a feeling that is not how it ended…” Whispered Spectre. Shutter shushed him and they both became silent, eager to hear what happened next.

“So I moved closer to the dog and pet him. He was very nice. It seemed like a good idea, but as soon as I undid the leash, the dog just went crazy!” Sunny pantomimed an explosion with her hooves to emphasize how insane things had gotten suddenly. “He started running up the path toward the Marketplace and I chased after him because I’d just be so sad if it was my fault someone lost their dog!” Her deep green eyes quivered in a sharp pang of melancholy at the mere thought of being responsible for such a terrible act. She fell silent for a moment, as if reflecting on this.

“So?” Urged Shutter. “So what happened?”

“Well, I chased Scruffles all the way to the market place. And—”

“You knew the dog by name?” Interrupted Spectre, now very confused.

“No, I found out his name later when the owner was yelling at me as we were washing him off in the fountain, but we’ll come to that in a bit.”

“I see,” Chuckled Spectre. “Do continue.”

“He was a fast little puppy!” She laughed. “He got way ahead of me and by the time I caught up he had knocked over the honey dispensary and the flower carousel, spilling flowers and honey everywhere and he was heading toward the Apple Family’s fruit cart, where Granny Smith happened to be working that day.”

“Oh no!” Exclaimed Shutter and Spectre almost simultaneously. “Not Granny Smith!”



“IT GETS WORSE!” Exclaimed Sunny.

“How could it get any worse?” Echoed Shutter.

“My dear boy,” answered Spectre,”This is Sunny Tendersmile we are talking about here. It can always get worse!”

“It does!” She admitted with a nod. “In the process of knocking over the honey dispenser, Scruffles had covered himself in the sticky goop, and then when he destroyed the flower carousel a bunch of flowers had stuck to him! So when Granny Smith looked up from pricing her apples, do you know what she saw?”

“Oh no!” They both exclaimed again.

“Yes, the poor old mare saw a galloping bouquet of tulips coming at her, jaws gaping and paws scraping and all!” Sunny started clapping her hooves together like a chomping mouth. “He looked like a beast! And, well, as I rounded the corner, I saw the fear in old Granny Smith’s eyes! She screamed ‘The flowers are comin’ to get me! The flowers are comin’ to get me!’ And she nearly lost all her apples!”

“Oh my!” Spectre’s cogs were spinning in excitement and horror! Shutter just stared at Sunny open-mouthed, in disbelief.

“Killer flowers!” Sunny shouted, holding her hooves up. “She thought the flowers had come to life, like some evil florist’s nightmare, and were coming to eat her up! And what else was she supposed to think? That’s exactly what it looked like!”

“Poor Granny Smith!” said Shutter, biting his hooves. “For someone with such a dark history with timberwolves, I doubt she took well to being pursued by an evil flower dog!”

“She did not take it well at all, Shutter.” Sunny whined. “She up and abandoned her post at the stall and galloped toward Sweet Apple Acres, screaming about flowers the whole time she went!”

“So what did you do?” Shutter spoke up.

“Well I didn’t know what to do!” a tear was in Sunny’s eye. “Luckily one of the ponies who worked at the flower stand, who had seen the whole ordeal, took off after Granny Smith, you know, to tell her that there weren’t any flower monsters.”

“That’s good.” Said Shutter.

“And the rope selling pony, he made a lasso, caught the crazy dog and handed the reigns over to me.” She let her hooves fall to the table. “At that point I didn’t know whether to help everyone clean up or take the dog back to it’s post!” She sighed. “But everyone in the market agreed I’d already done enough, so I returned to the bookstore to find the owner standing at the post where the dog had been. She was scratching her head, confused and scared. I returned the dog to the owner, who was a bit angry at me for untying him in the first place and also for getting him all messy.”

“Well I should say so,” said Spectre, proper and dignified. “And I hope you learned a lesson here about touching other people’s dogs!”

“I did.” She looked down at her empty pie plate, ashamed at what she’d done. “So I went with the the owner and her dog to the nearby fountain to help her wash him off and it was there, as we were scrubbing Scruffles, that I overheard a couple of reporter ponies talking about a mystery the newspaper was in the process of trying to solve!”

“Ah, finally, we’ve arrived at the mystery! “ Spectre laughed. “Couldn’t you have skipped the whole part about the dog turning into a flower monster and started with the fountain?”

“Well I would have, but then you would have wondered why I was standing in the fountain with a stranger washing a honey-flowered dog, wouldn’t you?”



“Yes!” Shutter cut in before Spectre said anything else to delay the most important part of the story. “It was good to know the context. Now about that mystery?”

“Something’s lurking in the gurgling grove of the Everfree Forest!” She said bluntly. “And it’s territory is getting bigger! In fact, a couple who’d been picnicking at a park near there said they heard something rustling in the woods and it came out and apparently it stole their food!”

“I see.” Sighed Shutter. “And that’s it?”



“Well no! I mean, apparently this isn’t the first time someone’s been attacked by the Gurgler.”

“The Gurgler?” repeated Shutter and Spectre.

“Yes, that’s what they call it!” Sunny looked about with wide scared eyes. “They said it’s happened five times in the last two weeks!”

“Wow!” Exclaimed Shutter. “That is quite a bit of gurgling!”

“Yes and at this point no one knows how to catch it or even what it is! So Mayor Mare has put out a bounty for it’s acquisition, or at the very least—“ Sunny pointed at Spectre.” A PICTURE of it, so that it can be identified and properly contained!”

“I see, so if someone gets a picture of the beast, then maybe they’ll be able to figure out how to catch it!” Shutter repeated. “Just one picture.”

Sunny and Spectre could both see that familiar look of excitement come across Shutter’s azure face. He was already hooked and he didn’t even know all the details. “And that’s where we come in and save the day!” He whispered excitedly. “Yes!”

“Yes!” Whispered Sunny.

“Oh no,” sighed Spectre under his breath. “Here we go again…”

Comments

[donelel]

Very humorous third chapter!

I feel pretty bad for Granny Smith, and the mystery seems to be picking up. Nice work!

By the way, I like the play on words in the chapter title.

[shuttertwitch]

6784194

Very humorous third chapter!

Thanks! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was funny! Writing humor is rather new to me, I'm more of a SciFi/Horror dude when it comes to reading AND writing, so I wasn't sure if I was hitting the beats or not. All I knew was that the story was starting to make me laugh and I was enjoying that.

the mystery seems to be picking up. Nice work!

Much appreciated, man! I l like how it is coming together myself. Of course I have a rough outline, but many things change in the works, and I think it has improved since I first thought of the idea! Can't wait to share more!

I feel pretty bad for Granny Smith

Me too! Poor old mare! She did what I think any of us would do in that situation! :) lol Ran like hell!

By the way, I like the play on words in the chapter title.

Thanks. I now wish I would have done a play on words for the first chapter, but I did't come up with the idea until the end of chapter 2. I might go back and change the name of the first chapter if I think of a good one. :)

As always you've been a great source of feedback and positive reassurance and I thank you for it! I hope that I continue to earn your time and you get more out of the story as it goes. Have a good one, man! :)

[Willowwind]

Yay I love Granny Smith! THIS WAS OMG SO FUNNY!! I won't spoil it but the whole chase part made me laugh! Like actually laugh out loud! My favorite chapter so far! Lol! I just can't wait to see where the story goes next!

I still don't like Spectre but that's ok because when it comes to Shutter and Sunny the love has been doubled! I'm getting to the point where I want to draw these two they are so amazing!

I keep imagining what the Gurgler looks like! I can't wait to find out!

A few questions:

What the heck does "fulvid" mean? I looked it up and I couldn't even find a definition. Is it even a word? Did you accidentally mispell a different word or something?

Why did you make all your OCs names start with S? It's confusing. I love the characters but geese the names drive me nuts! Too many s's but I'll forgive that because I love 2 out of the three characters so much

That's all the questions I have. I really like this story and I can't wait to see where it goes! I hope you introduce more ponys from the show because you seem to write them well! Ok then, hurry up and write the next chapter! Bye!

[shuttertwitch]

6789133

Yay I love Granny Smith!

Me too! She has always been one of my favorite characters and I'm glad I was able to work her into the story!

THIS WAS OMG SO FUNNY!! I won't spoil it but the whole chase part made me laugh! Like actually laugh out loud! My favorite chapter so far! Lol! I just can't wait to see where the story goes next!

Yeah it made me laugh out loud as I was writing it as well! :) That little chase scene just made me so happy, and it is my favorite chapter so far also. I think you'll be happy where the story goes from here. It's only going to get weirder and funnier, that is for sure!

I still don't like Spectre but that's ok because when it comes to Shutter and Sunny the love has been doubled! I'm getting to the point where I want to draw these two they are so amazing!

Oh nice reference! lol I'm happy to have doubled your fun! I love these characters as well, I'd have to in order to spend as much time writing about them as I do! :) Spectre is and always will be a grumpous, it's just his nature. I'm happy to inspire art of any kind! Feel free to draw any of my OC's or write your own stories about them so long as you link back to my original story so people get the context, I'm fine with that!

I keep imagining what the Gurgler looks like! I can't wait to find out!

Well for now it is certainly a mystery, but I hope our ragtag group of explorers can solve it soon enough!

What the heck does "fulvid" mean? I looked it up and I couldn't even find a definition. Is it even a word? Did you accidentally mispell a different word or something?

Fulvid is an weird old word. I think I first read it in a Cormac McCarthy book or something. It means a brownish orangish dirty yellow. The idea behind using that word was to convey that Sunny's hands were dirty from eating the macaroni pie. Hope that helps! :)

Why did you make all your OCs names start with S?

It was actually completely by accident lol. I didn't even really think about it until you mentioned it but yeah I can see where that could be confusing.

I really like this story and I can't wait to see where it goes! I hope you introduce more ponys from the show because you seem to write them well! Ok then, hurry up and write the next chapter! Bye!

I'm so happy you're hooked to my story! Thanks for faving it and for watching me, that's very kind! I think you'll be happy to learn that there will certainly be more show characters showing up in the story, for sure. I can't be specific because I don't want to spoil it, but a certain couple will be making an appearance soon so chew on that for a while! Ok I will get that next chapter out to you as soon as possible, thanks again for all your support! I really appreciate it!