A Really Bad Story

by BleedingRaindrops

I'm a filly and... Huh?

“Well that was... different.” Apple Bloom had her head cocked to the side, as though trying to determine what was in Sweetie Belle’s hooves.

“What am I even reading?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, holding the parchment as though it were trying to eat her face.

Scootaloo placed a hoof on her forehead. “Ugh, I don’t even know. You said I had to write a stupid love story with one of you, so there it is.”

Scootaloo crumpled up the parchment and tossed it over her shoulder, where it bounced off the wall and rolled back next to her. She looked down at it, then scooped it up and roughly stuffed it into her helmet, before turning back to her friends.

“It’s your turn, Apple Bloom.”

“Wait a minute. You mean this is still from that game of truth or dare last week?!” Apple Bloom asked, momentarily glancing up at the ceiling.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Sweetie Belle fell over on the floor, giggling. “I thought you’d given up on it.”

“Are you kidding?! I never give up on a good dare.” Scootaloo crouched, as if about to pounce on something. “So, what’d you think, was it good?”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom exchanged glances.

“Well...” Sweetie Belle began.

“It’s really... interesting and all, but maybe writing isn’t your special talent,” Apple Bloom finished for her.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle went on. “You win the dare and all, but the premise you chose was kinda dry and your exposition needs a lot of work, not to mention your weather report opening.”

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes at Sweetie Belle. “What are you, a dictionary? I don’t even know what those words mean!”—she threw her hooves up in the air—“and I worked really hard on that story!”

“Well, did you use the special spot?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“The what?” Scootaloo’s hooves fell limp as she looked over to where Sweetie Belle was pointing.

“Our great ideas spot!” Apple Bloom already stood over the red target they’d painted on the floor a few months back. “Where we stand to think of great ideas.”

Scootaloo glanced out the west window, through which she could see her house by the lake. “No,” she said, biting her lip. “I spent most of it up by the windmill. I like the wind under my wings. It helps me think better.”

“Is that why you wrote your home in as a hole in the ground?” Apple Bloom asked, smirking just a little.

Scootaloo put a hoof up, and opened her mouth to speak, then slowly shut it.

“Yeah, I was wondering about that while I was reading it.” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked again. “If your real house is underneath a windmill by the lake, why would you—”

“Oh, just— get over here.” Scootaloo scurried over to join Apple Bloom by the thinking spot, followed soon by Sweetie Belle.

“I’ve got it!” Scootaloo exclaimed, holding a hoof into the air. She stood there for about a minute before turning to Sweetie Belle. “Um, wasn’t it your turn to get the light?”

“Oh! right.” Sweetie Belle ran and climbed up a small ladder that hung from the ceiling. She climbed up into the small hatch above it, and lowered a lantern on a rope, so sit just above Scootaloo’s head, who promptly rolled her eyes before continuing.

“I’ll go ask Twilight. I’ll bet she knows all about writing, and she’s probably got some wicked awesome books I can learn from, too.” Scootaloo looked upward at no particular spot on the ceiling as she imagined what sort of amazing stories she might find at the library. “See you later, girls.” she said after a moment. Scootaloo dashed out the door and sped off on her scooter, wings propelling her as usual.

I’M A SCENE BREAK!!!

really though… scene break,

on with the story

There was a loud knocking at the door.

“Spiiike! Could you get that?”

The purple dragon groaned as he rolled out of bed and made for the door.

“Yeesh, I was taking a nap. What’s a dragon got to do to get some sleep around here.” Spike opened the door to find an excited orange filly bouncing up and down. “Oh, hey, Scootaloo. What’s up?”

“Is Twilight here? I need to ask her something. It’s really important.”

“Oh, yeah. She’s—” Scootaloo rushed in before he could finish, colliding with a large stack of books and causing a literary avalanche. “—re-organizing the library again, so try not to knock anything over.” Spike placed a clawed hand over his face as she shook his head. “Ugh, she’s going to make me clean that up,” he groaned.

“Oops,” came Scootaloo’s muffled reply.

The newly built bookfort lifted itself from the floor and began to zoom around the room as individual books.

“Can I help you?” Twilight asked through gritted teeth as she picked herself up off the floor.

“Oh, Rainbow Da— I mean, Twilight! I need your help with something.” Scootaloo’s original enthusiasm returned as she noticed Twilight.

“Well, it’s just going to have to wait, I’m reorganizing the library again, and I need to find a place to put all these books,” Twilight replied. “Spike, find a place for these.” She deposited about half of the books she was levitating right on top of the poor dragon, who let out a yelp as he was flattened.

Spike crawled out of the rubble, glowering at Scootaloo before picking up a few of the books and exiting through the door next to him.

The filly let out an apologetic squee and turned her attention back to Twilight. “That’s perfect, I need to ask you: Do you know of any really cool books that I can learn some awesome writing from?”

Twilight dropped the books she was still levitating, eyes wide. “You. Writing?” She turned toward Scootaloo, who stared back at her as though Twilight were actually Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, I thought I might try it out. Maybe I’ll get my cutie mark in writing fiction!”

Twilight’s gape shifted to a smile as she raised her hoof into the air. “I know!” She levitated an ordinary looking book over in front of her. “‘A Compelling Tale’ by Twilight Sparkle. It’s a story writing guide, and it’s written by me too. It only sold a few hundred copies, but It’s in the Canterlot archives so...” Twilight squeed.

“Ugh, no way,” Scootaloo replied. “I need something totally radical to read, so I can take in all of its awesomeness. It’s got to have adventures and explosions and lots of actiony stuff in it!”

“Oh, that sounds like the Daring Do series. I have them all, but I lent them to Rainbow Dash. You should—” At the mention of Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo disappeared before Twilight could complete the statement.

ANOTHER BUCKING SCENE BREAK!! WHOO!!

“RAINBOW DASH!” Scootaloo yelled up to the cloud mansion. There were some sounds of falling objects, and then the dashing rainbow herself poker her head out over the edge of the cloud.

“Oh, hey there, Scoots. What’s up?” The expression on her face told Scootaloo she was the last pony Rainbow Dash was expecting to see.

“Rainbow Dash!” the little filly responded. “Hi. Twilight said you’ve got some awesome books I could read. Can I borrow them?”

Rainbow Dash might have been knocked over the head. Her eyes glazed over and she looked back over her shoulder. “I, uh... Oh, yeah! Hang on.” She disappeared for a moment—more crashing objects were heard—and then re-appeared over the side of the cloud again, her wingtips visible above her head. “Here, I’m just gonna drop them down to you. Can you catch?” Rainbow Dash said.

Scootaloo looked confused. “Why can’t you just fly them down?”

Rainbow Dash looked around nervously. “Well, I uh, because I’m too busy...” beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she searched for an appropriate answer. “...writing my own story. Yup that’s it. I’m writing a story for the...” Rainbow Dash nervously began nibbling her hoof. “The, upcoming writing contest. Yup, that’s it. Twilight should have told you about it.” Rainbow Dash put on a huge smile then, waiting for Scootaloo to respond.

“You’re writing a story, Rainbow Dash? That’s so cool! Can I read it?”

Rainbow Dash’s smile disappeared so fast it may as well have never been there. “NO! you can’t it’s uh... not finished yet!” The smile returned as Rainbow Dash slowly rubbed the back of her head, but this time it was somewhat of a nervous smile

“Oh, well, what’s it about?”

And once again the smile disappeared, meanwhile Rainbow Dash’s cheeks turned beet red. Her wings also started drooping. “Uh...” A bead of sweat rolled off of Rainbow Dash’s nose and landed on Scootaloo’s. “It's a story about two, um... colts! Named Scooter Lord and... Sweetie Bro! And it's about how they both discover something unexpected, but wonderful about themselves."

"Does it have any explosions?!" Scootaloo asked,

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. “Well, um, no...”

“Eh, whatever. Good luck with that. I’m going to go ask Twilight about that contest,” Scootaloo replied.

“Sounds cool. Now, I’ve got to get back to my... writing.” Rainbow Dash disappeared back over the edge of the cloud.

“Wait, Rainbow Dash!” A sound like skidding hooves reached over the cloud, before the same blue face reappeared.

“What is it now?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I’m busy.”

“You forgot to drop the books down to me,” Scootaloo called back.

Rainbow Dash slowly turned her head to the side, slapped a hoof to her forehead. “Oh, oops. Here you go.” Then Rainbow Dash slid a bundle over the edge of the cloud and vanished quickly once again.

GUESS WHAT? IT’S ME AGAIN! FOR LIKE, TWO SECONDS.

Aaaaaaand we’re back.

“And I even have a story started already.” It’s got Rainbow Dash in it!”

“That’s really great and all, Scootaloo, but there is no writing competition. At least not to my knowledge, and I’m the town librarian, so if anypony would know it should be me.”

“Wait, what?!” Scootaloo looked as though her favorite Rainbow Dash action figure had just been smashed. “But then, what was Rainbow Dash...”

“Now that you mention it, though, that does sound like a really great idea. We’ll host a writing contest! I’ll just need to write up some flyers. Wait! How should we run it? A Prompt? Oh, what should the time limit be?” Twilight began pacing back and forth around the library.

“Huh?” Scootaloo’s jaw dropped, adding to her bewildered complexion.

“I’ll need to write up a list of materials. SPIKE!” Twilight returned her attention to Scootaloo. “Can you and the other girls whip up some flyers? Don’t worry about the date for now, just make it look interesting, can you do that?”

“Um... okay, I guess we could do that.” Scootaloo frowned, but perked up a second later. “Anyway, thanks for the tip about Rainbow Dash. I’m going to get back to my writing now.” She fired up her wings and sped off on her scooter, leaving a thick trail of dust behind. Twilight looked down to find a smooshed, crumpled roll of parchment on the ground, which must have fallen out of Scootaloo’s helmet when she threw it on.

Twilight ran to pick it up, calling after Scootaloo, who was already out of earshot. “Wait you forgot your... What is this anyway?” Twilight looked down at the ball of paper she was holding. She unfolded it to see that it had something written on it.

“Love me, Scootaloo

It was a beautiful spring day in Ponyville....”

Twilight recoiled in shock, dropping the parchment. “Oh no. I hope she doesn’t plan to submit this to the contest.”

Comments

[Not quite real]

beautifully self-aware