building
Lightning could help her. But Fiddle doesn’t need her. She’s a mare of independence. She can take care of herself.
She climbs the ladder effortlessly, the bags on her back not bothering her. Lightning hovers nearby, watching.
As she climbs up, Fiddlesticks takes a moment to adjust the white stetson she loves. A thin strap keeps it secured to her head. It’s worked so far.
The fire escape is sturdy. It’s meant to be, after all. But it still makes Lightning nervous. Who knows how well it’s aged.
Fiddlesticks pauses, noticing a broken window. She waves at Lightning, and the two climb through the hole. It takes a second for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.
The room is packed with cubicles. Plain white dividers siphon off the room into workspaces. At one point each one had a black office chair, phone, and computer. None of them have all three now.
Chairs are scattered across the room, some in odd places like on top of a desk. Most of the computer screens are cracked and destroyed. Papers are scattered on the floor, and filing cabinets are knocked over.
The foam ceiling tiles aren’t all there anymore. Bits and pieces of wires and cables are dangling from above.
Lightning goes over to a cubicle. There are some photos taped to the sides, showing a smiling family. Lightning wonders if they’re still alive.
White papers sit in a messy pile on the desk. A memo sits on top of them. “Stamp’s sick. Please fill out ASAP,” it reads.
Lightning picks up the phone and presses it to her ear. There’s nothing. Not even a dial tone. Looking down, she sees it’s not even plugged in.
Fiddlesticks laughs and turns away. Lightning hangs up the phone. She hesitates, then gently peels the photograph off the wall. Lightning sticks it in her saddlebags and follows Fiddle.
They pass the cubicles and go to a door marked “Conference.” It’s unlocked.
Inside there’s a big oak table and a bunch of chairs surrounding it. A projector hangs from the ceiling, facing a blank screen. Lightning wonders if they could get it to work again. It’d be nice to watch a movie again.
There are a bunch of boxes on the tables. Fiddle takes a knife from her bag and cuts the tape off one. Inside there are medical masks and bottles of hoof sanitizer.
Lightning nods in approval. Not a bad find. In the next one there are bottles of water. Then canned food. Then first aid kits.
Fiddle smiles and takes out her green book. She makes a note of their location and what they found. They’ll come back for them later.
Lighting used to be worried about looters. Then she realized there weren’t many ponies left alive to loot anything.
She looks out at the empty office. Ponies used to work here. Ponies with a life. With a job. With a purpose. She sighs. That life is gone now. It’s never coming back.
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Why did you choose these two ponies to be your main characters?
10123026
A few reasons, really. The first i can trace all the way back to my 'Time Changes Everything' project, where I went about selecting background ponies to write stories about. While I never paired these two together in that project, I did find them interesting characters to write about.
They then carried over to another concept, 'The River,' which saw Lightning move to Appleoosa and befriend Fiddlesticks, although the main story didn't revolve around them. As I was planning out this project, I wondered if I could draw similarities between their dynamic and that of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Unfortunately this project never panned out and the two kind of went to limbo from there.
I ended up bringing back Fiddlesticks in 'isohel' and remembered how fun it was to write her. That got me revisiting their dynamic and thinking. Here, I took the characters I planned for 'The River' and changed the plot to focus on Lightning and Fiddle in a project called 'the Black Parade.' This one didn't pan out either, but I was determined to get their dynamic out there.
Currently I'm working on an unnamed project that will feature Lightning Dust as a main character and Fiddlesticks as a background character, but the two will most likely be in a relationship. I decided however that I wanted to explore their dynamic in a different fic, and I had been kicking around an idea about a post-apocalyptic Equestria for a while. The end result was this fic.
So, yeah, there's a lot of reasons. I think they are both very underrated characters: Fiddlesticks doesn't even have her own tag, and there haven't been very many Lightning Dust stories since her last appearance on the show, and even then there haven't been many stories about her redemption or underlying motivations.
Besides, I'm a big fan of background ponies. I feel that we have enough stories about characters like the Main Six, but then we have characters like White Lightning who only has 10 stories written about her, Little Strongheart who didn't even have any stories written about her since 2018 (before I wrote 'Give 'Em Hell, Kid) and characters like Fiddlesticks who again don't even have a character tag.
Hope that answers your question!
10123040
That reminds me, I first chose to write about Sassaflash because I wanted a fanfic to be about background ponies, since I wasn’t confident enough to write the main characters, and I wanted to go to Cloudsdale in the story, so I chose the first background pegasus to appear in a specific episode. I’ve cancelled that fanfic, but I wrote about her in another. Since Sassaflash isn’t very popular, I feel like she makes my fanfics stand out, and the personality I gave her is something I can call my own.
10123049
Yep, that's exactly why writing background ponies is so fun! Especially when there is so much we don't know about a character like Fiddlesticks or White Lightning.
Interesting note, Sassaflash does make an appearance in an upcoming chapter that will be out Wednesday.
10123056
Why does White Lightning have a tag, but Sassaflash doesn’t, when they have similar amounts of stories?
Also, I’m considering saying that Lightning Dust is Sassaflash’s sister in one of my fanfics, but it might feel too out-of-left-field.
10123093
Does she not? Huh, that's very interesting. I'm not too sure but I think it's something the site creators did. I don't know when exactly they were named, but perhaps White Lightning had an official name before Sassaflash did? I believe both are never named in the show but are named through merchandise, as is the case with many background ponies. I believe for a while characters like Blossomforth didn't have a tag either?
10123101 White Lightning’s tag was only added in 2017. Also, I want to encourage people to write about Sassaflash so she could get a tag like RainbowDoubleDash did with Raindrops, but I don’t have enough influence. Hopefully, you’ll generate some interest about Sassaflash.
10123109
Sadly I don't think so, but it'd be awesome if I could. Best of luck to you and your works!
Post-apocalyptic, eh? Is it zomponies? War? A deadly coronavirus? Some other fantastical event? The two former seem more likely, since the protagonists are carrying around rifles. But it's rated E, so I wonder. (?_?)
I think I should expect a tale of mournful remembrance, rather than an exposition of ethics and survivalism.
10124933
Pretty much, this is a contest entry after all so I'm operating under some specific restrictions. Hope you enjoy!