Brief Glimpses - An Anthology

by Ezn

Insomnishy

Insomnishy

It was past eleven on Hearth's Warming Eve and Fluttershy couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned under her covers, she stopped tossing and turning and just lay still, she tossed and turned some more but in the other direction... but it was no use. Sleep refused to come to her, so in the end she just lay flat on her back, wide open eyes staring wistfully up at the ceiling.

Then she had an idea. She'd try counting sheep! One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, all jumping over a lovely wooden fence in a beautiful meadow – a meadow with green, green grass that swayed and bent in the wind, and with a bright, happy sun dancing across the blue sky, passing puffy white clouds. And in the clouds – birds – eagles and falcons and jackdaws and jays and pigeons and every other bird from the robin and the hawk to the rare and brilliant shining phoenix.

And in the meadow below, sixteen sheep, seventeen sheep, eighteen sheep, all leaping over that fence, baaing in that funny, cute little way that sheep do, leaping with perfect grace unlike their species but nonetheless delightful to watch and quite mesmerising. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two. Baah baah baah! All the sheep smiled and none of them fell.

But enough with the sheep! This was a meadow of the most idyllic sort, home to all sorts of other wonderful animal friends! Bunnies and geese and goats and butterflies and tortoises and turtles and buzzards and hardeedars and kangaroos and koalas. And platypusbears and dragoturkeys and even parasprites – but nice, friendly parasprites that were just cute and didn't eat everything – just regular sprites, honestly. And even lions and tigers and manticores, but friendly docile ones that contentedly munched on grass instead of the thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six sheep flying over the fence.

All the animals she could imagine, playing together in that meadow in perfect harmony as the sheep leaped over the fence. And Fluttershy, fluttering about all her animal friends, petting them and cooing to them and talking to them and learning their names and translating them into pony language (for Fluttershy knew that that was the only proper, respectful way to name an animal friend).

And her friends would be there, Twilight and Rarity and Rainbow and Applejack and Pinkie, and so would their pets, and they'd all giggle and frolic and even Rainbow Dash would be quiet and gentle with the animals and by this point Fluttershy was the widest awake she'd ever been. She blinked a few times before looking down to see her hooves planted on the floor and the blanket lying where it had been flung half a metre from her bed.

"Oops," she said to herself. "I suppose I got just a teensy bit carried away there..."

She looked at her bedside clock. It wasn't even midnight yet.

Comments

[PYROontheAIR]

Now for some riffin'!

Bunnies and geese and goats and butterflies and tortoises and turtles and buzzards
Aren't buzzards birds of prey?
and hardeedars
Well Har-Dee-Har.
and kangaroos and koalas.
MARSUPIALS!
And platypusbears
wut.
and dragoturkeys
What.
and even parasprites
Whyyyyyy?
– but nice, friendly parasprites that were just cute and didn't eat everything
You mean an adorable pet I'd never have to bother feeding? SWEET.

Hope you enjoyed my little riffing segment!

[Ezn]

1864119
>platypusbears
Here.
>dragoturkeys
Here.

Both are pretty rad cartoons.