Maximum Worry
The beads on the ceiling spinner went round and round, always moving but never getting anywhere.
Izzy stared upwards from the couch, anxiously drumming her forehooves on the floor. Then she shifted position to anxiously drum her hinds instead. Somepony was breathing heavy through their nose, and because she lived alone Izzy concluded the nose breather was her.
The job she had to do was simple. Only little ponies felt afraid to do simple stuff, and Izzy wasn’t little, right?
Right?
Well… she hadn’t measured herself in awhile. Nor stood next to another unicorn to compare. Not since… gee, not since she was still young enough to know for a fact how little she was. So much for simple stuff.
A tea kettle whistled from the other room. Loud enough to make thoughts seem quiet in comparison. Izzy bolted to the kitchen and was soon examining her stash of dippy bags. There were many. Too many. She was only one pony with one kettle.
Chamomile flavor? No, that’s for bedtime, not going-out time. Lemon? No, Izzy didn't need sour on top of stress. She chose one with no label. Uncertainty can be fun sometimes, right?
Right?
Horn into the bag, bag into the mug. The label-lacking tea sat stewing and so did Izzy.
"Just popping in for a mail call! Anything cool coming down the pipe, Hardwater?"
"Stop coming in here, Isabelle. If any letter is addressed to you, it's placed in your dropbox at the end of your property."
"Oh yeah absolutely, but I was free today and this is the closest building to where I live, so uh... ya know, I figured I'd check out what everyone else is up to. Maybe make chit chat with the local plugged-in postmaster pony."
"There's a bulletin board out front. With all the planned town events for the next month on it."
"Yyyyyeah, I saw that. It's blank and no one was nearby, so- "
"If it’s blank, then there are no planned town events for the next month."
"Oh."
"I don't see any saddlebags on you, Isabelle. Can I assume you don't have any goods you want to drop off?"
"I um... I don't."
"And you aren't here to buy another ad space on the back of the local paper."
"Well, I guess I'd need money to do that, right? And seeing as none of my crafts from the last ad got any buyers-"
"Are you here for any real reason?"
"Do I... do I need a real reason to just make small talk?"
"Yes. You do."
"Oh."
"Goodbye, Isabelle."
"Right. Right, sorry. Goodbye. I guess."
Last week's exchange at the post office hadn't gone at all like Izzy wanted. Never mind that it ended up being the longest conversation she'd had in months. The other unicorns didn't like her, Izzy was mature enough to admit that. But they didn't seem to like most most things.
Izzy liked most things. She liked way the rain sounded and the sun felt. She liked the music that came out of glass bottles when she blew on them just right. She liked foraging the forest floor for the straightest sticks to make more crafts because maybe, just maybe she'd eventually make something that would get a reaction from another pony. Some days her searches found more than just sticks. A certain search this morning had found a lot more than just sticks. For better or worse.
Horn into the mug, bag out of the mug. Bag into the trash can, with a couple open and shuts on the lid. Not for any reason other than to fill the house with a few seconds of sound.
Yes, Izzy did like most things, but quiet wasn’t one of them. In fact,-
“I hate quiet.”
Izzy buried her shameful muzzle into her mug, pretending as hard as she could that those awful, nasty words didn’t just come out of her. She shivered, which was odd because she didn’t feel cold at all.
Izzy was not a bad pony. The other unicorns didn’t like her, but that didn’t make her a bad pony, right? She hated a thing, but that didn’t make her a bad pony, right?
Right?
Izzy sipped her tea. Then she gulped it. Isabelle Moonbow chugged and chugged her mug until there was nothing left in it. The mystery dippy bag had definitely had a taste, but Izzy didn’t recognize it. If she had a friend with their own cup maybe they could have told her what the taste was. They'd swig from their own drink, share jokes as well as tea, point to the hoofmade decor all around, and compliment all the hard work Izzy clearly put into making her house feel like a home.
But Izzy's house didn't feel like a home. And she didn't have anypony to share her afternoon with.
Izzy had her empty mailbox and the quiet and too many teabags and the quiet and the ceiling spinner whose beads never went anywhere and that lantern from the woods yesterday and the note that was attached to it and the quiet. Izzy had lots of things. But she didn’t have any friends. Not in Bridlewood.
Though if the lantern note was telling the truth, she had friends in Maretime Bay.
Izzy rinsed her mug out in the sink.
Where was Maretime Bay? Absolutely no clue.
Izzy dried her mug with a towel she’d crocheted herself.
How many friends did she have there? No clue there either.
Izzy put away her cup and stepped back, seeing how spotless the kitchen was. Like nopony lived here. Izzy ate and slept, but did she really live?
Izzy was tired of having to answer her own unspoken questions all the time. It twisted her tea-filled stomach into knots, the thought of going out to search for the lantern's origin all by herself. But even worse was the thought of staying here, in this cottage. By herself.
Possibly forever.
The slam of plywood on drywood told Izzy she’d left her house and was trudging out of Bridlewood Forest. She blinked at the sunlight before noticing the quiet all around was being filled with the eager thumps of her own hoofsteps. Then her rhythm sped up as the trees thinned.
Across the open plains, Izzy was galloping for all she was worth, legs pumping like pistons as her uncombed mane trailed behind. She wasn’t a bead on a ceiling spinner, or an ignored ad in a newspaper. She was Izzy Moonbow, the grinning, laughing, hopeful unicorn.
And she had friends waiting in Maretime Bay.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- EvenCrazierSpacedust · 1.5k words · 253 6 · 4k views
- Masterweaver · 1.8k words · 426 10 · 5k views
- MLPSolarDash1907 · 3.1k words · 247 6 · 5.8k views
- Casketbase77 · 2.4k words · 237 5 · 2.7k views
- Buck Swisher · 2k words · 85 11 · 1.7k views
- Kaidan · 3k words · 194 10 · 3k views
- Mica · 2.3k words · 143 4 · 1.9k views
- ILoveSprout · 5.2k words · 74 2 · 3k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.238 seconds
Total duration
1,086 users online
1,633,369 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Ah yes, one of my favorite sort of story: the character vignette. Simple and elegant.
Izzy needs a hug.
Now I'm waiting on the sequel, "This is How a Unicorn Winks."
Honestly, she's pretty much Autumn Blaze 2.0, right down to befriending an Earth Pony and then a pegasus before restoring her kind to what they're supposed to be. Species aside, the only difference is that she wasn't banished from Bridlewood and has a (somewhat) better grasp on sanity.
But yeah, great fic. The only problem I have is that Izzy canonically got Sunny's letter as a filly, yet this fic has her setting out only a day after getting it. Even assuming Izzy got lost, given that the movie implied that each pony race's settlement is only a day away from either direction, if Bridlewood isn't assumed to be even closer to Maretime given how long it seems to take Sunny to get home... But that's a pretty minor nitpick.
Izzy is a good pone.
This was a nice story. Props.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58230/how-tell-whether-youve-got-angst-ennui-or-weltschmerz
Very good
That's an interesting take on Izzy. Good job!
You're back!
So... are you implying that Izzy lives alone because she's an orphan?
Also, it never occurred to me that Izzy would try to sell her crafts, but it makes sense.
11005998
Yeh, I’m in the saddle again. Writers block is killer.
The new film left lots of gaps in how Bridlewood operates. Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights both have governments, businesses, family units, pop culture, and public gatherings that we get to see in action. But Bridlewood is a big blank.
I don’t think the place has a government (or even a real leader), and we know for sure they don’t have electricity or industry. It seems to just be a backwoods hamlet of two dozen depressive beatniks and one upbeat hippy chick. This Snippet was me trying to fill in Bridlewood’s gaps as well as Izzy’s.
Quite the intriguing point of view on Izzy before everything big happened! Lovely stuff to think about and imagine the whats or hows! Hope ya didn't mind, but I simply had to make a reading of this cognitive fic of yours!
Audio Linkyloo!: https://youtu.be/yaQPyPzyZNY
(I don't mean to offend anyone with this comment in any way!)
11006031
Aha, this fic scores me a Hat Trick with you; already have two other stories that got audiobook treatment.
Always happy to contribute community content.
11006014
I find myself wondering what the hell happened in Equestria since the time of G4.
If what we see in Bridlewood is really all that's left of the unicorns? If Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights are the last major population centers for Earth Ponies and Pegasi? Something seriously horrific must have taken place.
When magic failed, I'm sure there were a lot of casualties. But damn...
Izzy is far more clever than she feigns to be.
11006049
Izzy is an open book, sincere and guileless. Not very clued into social nuance, but always motivated by good instincts and lots of trust.
Sometimes she ends up embarrassing herself. But other times she’s the only one equipped to handle a situation. Pretty much every story I write puts a flawed protagonist in the right spot at the right time.
Poor Izzy. She needs to know how amazing she is.
< IzzyAddict
Addiction intensifies!
You published it! Ten times the attention as MY g5 submissions, good work man!
Loved it!!
Brilliant portrayal of the decision that got everything started (well, after the letter did.) Plus it’s just a great snapshot of the one spark of positivity in Bridlewood sticking out like a sore thumb. Thank you for it.
This is good. This is very good. Izzy deserves this level of attention and appreciation.
11005569
Being in this fandom has taught me entirely too much about horse anatomy.
The lantern may have saved Equestria, but someone needed to answer the call. The lantern could never have reached a better pony.
11006043
Yeah, that's one of several Fridge Horror scenarios and inconsistencies that really makes it hard to reconcile the idea that G5 is set in the same universe as G4, but just umpteen centuries into the future.
The best-case scenario is that there are lots of other isolated, insular settlements all over what used to be Equestria, whose inhabitants are wondering what the buck just happened and why their magic is back all of a sudden.
11007157
A lot like all the other nations during and after the Longest Night, many of whom apparently don't realize that the ponies are the only thing keeping the planet habitable.
11007159
Y'know, that's another thing that kind of blows up the idea that G5 takes place in the same world as G4 -- if magic went away, who or what has been raising and lowering the sun and moon for the last few centuries?
I can't help feeling that the people behind G5 didn't really think this all the way through...
11007205
Just like G4, where you weren't even supposed to look at what anyone else was doing and your "show bible" contains images that contradict the text right next to it.
11007205
11007213
Just because it hasn't been explained yet doesn't mean they didn't think about it. Take a second to consider how much lore G4 introduced season by season. We only learned about Hearth's Warming and Nightmare Night in Season 2, and it took the better part of the second half of the show to introduce and properly expand upon the non-pony races of Equestria despite Griffons being introduced in Season 1.
To be blunt, it's nonsense to have expected the film to answer many, if any questions about "what happened between Generations?" due to the simple fact that it's the start of a new generation that needs to bring in new fans. There's no reason to think our questions won't be answered by the upcoming series, even if it takes a while. Our new ponies weren't starting off by redeeming the pony who's supposed to move the moon, so the day/night cycle didn't matter to the plot and thus did not need to be explained right away, especially since they only had 90 minutes of movie to work with.
Just think for a moment. It's absolutely ridiculous to conceive that they just somehow forgot about the whole "ponies have to move the sun and moon" thing, especially when the film went out of its way to have an earth pony gem and a mid-credits scene blatantly showing that they have magic too and had completely forgotten about it.
Seriously. Come on. The sun and moon thing was prominent throughout the entire cartoon, but anyone could be easily forgiven for forgetting that Earth Ponies had their own magic. It's utterly absurd to claim they remembered the minute detail of Earth Ponies having magic but just didn't think about the freaking sun and moon.
I can't remember the last time my stomach felt this warm. It was a nice feeling, kind of like when it rains and the droplets pelt your skin until it gets all pruney. This was a good feeling too. I relate to Izzy, she doesn't like quiet. Quiet makes her feel.
11007049
Having worked with horses for almost twenty years now, the fandom has so much more to learn. ;)
This is a nice little fic! I don't have much else to say that hasn't already been said, but I'd like to point out that some subtle tricks in the narration make the premise work a lot. There's only one I can point out for now: the repetition of a question ending with "...right?" and saying "Right?" again, first before and then after the flashback, which is a nice way to sorta' book-end the story (or at least the flashback).
If I had to nitpick somewhere, I think this is a bit telly since it nearly flat-out dictates to the reader what the answer is:
Though of course, at this point, I'm just trying to find a needle in the haystack. And show-don't-tell isn't that simple of a rule anymore, but I' just rambling on now...
Anyway, again, this is great! Good to see you working on G5, and here's hoping this is what breaks the dam of writer's block for a long time! Thank you for the story!
this is a relyy good story i like how its written can you please teach me how to right pretty please pretty ples with a cherry on toip I will like you forever but only has a friend because otherwise that would be gay and I'm not gay and oh my god I don't know how to stohap typing ahhhhhhhh
This made me feel kinda sad for Izzy. Bridlewood really is a boring place to live, especially for somepony as upbeat and active as her.
This is quite good for a short story, good work.
Well, this fic certainly answered the question I immediately asked when the other Bridlewood unicorns were revealed: "How did Izzy live here?" And the answer is... she didn't.
Very well written, especially the way the ugly, imposing truth is tucked away into carefully neutral/positive narration before Izzy admits it to herself.
I like it. I like her chip, her determination to find joy in ever little thing, despite the circumstances.
This is so on the nose for how I see Izzy.
I nearly cried at the end.
Seeing Izzy going through the motions of a life without friends makes clear her mental fortitude. I like this take on her.
This is an absolutely perfect character piece. You pretty much nailed everything I've been unable to get just right about Izzy the story I'm writing. I might just have to link to this one instead.
oh yeah :D
Good story!
Minor suggestion for possible correction:
Is my knowledge of building materials flawed, or did you perhaps mean "drywall"?
11017975
I did type “drywood,” on purpose, simply because it’s fun to read “plywood on drywood” out loud. Izzy has a sing-song way of thinking, and my narration was trying to share some of that. Seems my intent wasn’t apparent in the final draft. Oh well.
This isn’t my first fic where the webpage’s words were woven together to transcribe the thaumaturgic thoughts of a particularly peculiar pony.
- MLP: FiM
Twilight is still fresh from her coronation as sole Princess of Harmony. The junior Anarch of Chaos is even more clueless than she is. Together, they wrangle the responsibilities of their predecessors.Izzy must be protected at all costs...
Greetings. Your reading has been completed and can be found below. I hope you enjoy.
This song by 4EverfreeBrony makes me think of Izzy in Bridlewood.
4EverfreeBrony - Without Me (ft. Joaftheloaf & Relative1Pitch) - YouTube
11085899
Well. That’s certainly more downtempo that the Slim Shady song of the same name. I’m sure Izzy would appreciate both songs, depending on her mood. We know she’s into both silly hip-hop and serious showtunes.
Sadness is where Izzy begins in this story, but it’s certainly not where she stays. This fic takes place before the movie, so compare her mood here to The Mare On The Mount, my follow-up that takes place after everything.
Izzy is doing ay-okay.
Very well done! Really enjoy Izzy's characterization here!
The postal clerk was a real grumpy guts weren't they, If Izzy came to my work, I'd be happy to small-talk with her. Granted I might not pay close attention as it can get pretty busy, and I won't deny that some mornings I'm tired and kinda grouchy, but that guy was like "get your mail and get the b**k out of here".
Hugs for art horse.