Twilight Makes Coffee
The first thing that Twilight Sparkle noticed upon waking up at 6:55 AM was that her alarm clock sounded wrong. Higher pitched than it should have been. Louder than normal. Like it had been given a new lease on life and was hammering its bells like it would in its younger days, before time and use had riddled its springs and gears with arthritic rust. For a moment, Twilight listened to the mid-life crisis of her alarm clock, smiling to herself at the thought. Until the extra volume and frequency began grating on her ears, and her magic reached out with practiced ease to silence to the oldtimer playing at youth.
Only to miss the button, knocking the poor senior over. Its ringing accompanied now by a low rumbling as it flopped around on the bedside table, unable to right itself.
She looked over, and realized that this was not, in fact, her trusted companion of many mornings, but an imposter. A crude lookalike that had replaced her old friend and was doing its best at imitation but clearly falling short. Not least of which because the ‘off’ button was in a different spot.
Adjusting her aim, the whippersnapper fell silent, and Twilight frowned at it.
The shopkeeper who sold it to her had been very kind, though his patience had clearly worn thin by the second hour of letting her listen to each alarm in his shop. He must have thought she was insane, but it would still be a while before her belongings arrived from Canterlot, and she had to make due in the meantime. An alarm clock, the very first thing she would hear every morning, ought to be just right.
Shaking the thought, Twilight pulled herself out of bed, stumbling slightly. The floor was closer than she remembered. Rather, her bed was just lower than the one she knew - something she’d just have to get used to. Apparently shipping a fully furnished room in its entirety from Canterlot to Ponyville was prohibitively expensive, given that the library was fully furnished.
And the furniture was… fine. Really! Perfectly functional. Just…
The desk had too many drawers. Something she grew annoyed with as she struggled to find her checklist. Once that had been found, she still needed a quill, and a vial of ink.
She made a note to schedule some time for re-organizing the thing, and to find a use for those empty spaces. A drawer without contents was a drawer without purpose, and there were few fates worse.
Twilight checked the box next to ‘wake up’ and moved to the next task.
Thankfully, most morning tasks were unaffected by the peculiarities of her new environment. Toiletries and personal care products were among the things she’d brought with her. She couldn’t imagine using a different hair brush - what if it left her mane parted funny? Or if she used a different soap that interacted poorly with her coat and left her fur bleached or, worse, falling out entirely.
How would she be able to show herself in a new town, filled with new ponies, if an unfamiliar toothpaste rendered her teeth a ghastly shade of yellow?
It was through a thick, foggy haze of such thoughts that Twilight worked down her list on autopilot, filling in boxes with checks. Only occasionally tripped up by unfamiliar nuances.
The streak held until she was faced by her greatest challenge. Her next task read ‘make coffee’, and before her, in the oddly-shaped kitchen, was something that purported to be a coffee maker. Though it shared only a few commonalities with the one she was used to. The buttons were much larger - built with earth ponies in mind - and had almost alien-looking symbols on them. The pot underneath was normal, but she didn’t see where the reservoir for the water was.
Frowning, she examined the thing from all angles. The top obviously flipped to accept coffee grounds, but still nowhere to add water. There weren’t any other obvious hinges or openings along the top. Was this some kind of new model that didn’t need water? Did it somehow extract the sweet, sweet caffeine straight from the grounds to drip into the pot?
Did it even take pre-ground coffee? Had she bought the wrong kind of coffee at the market? The mare selling it had given her a strange look. Did this machine somehow-
Oh. There was a flap on the backside that opened and allowed the reservoir to be taken out and filled.
Twilight thought that was dumb.
With the coffee maker primed with water, she wasted no time in pulling out a filter, then hesitated. The previous difficulties left her questioning even the most basic of her assumptions - did this thing even use filters? It looked like it did, but it also looked like it didn’t use water, and that notion had been blown out of the proverbial water.
Twilight chewed her lip, glancing around anxiously. She felt like she was being silly, but what if? What if she screwed it up? What if she broke it, had to buy another one, and when the nice stallion at the shop asked her why she needed it, she’d be forced to admit to not knowing how to use a coffee maker. She’d be a laughing stock by the end of the day!
Should she just try and make it work? Should she ask one of her new friends for help? Should she just give up and never drink coffee again?
She didn’t know, and the spiraling thoughts of embarrassing herself in front of strangers or ponies she’d only just made friends with or having to stealthily dispose of a broken coffee maker in the dead of night sent her sinking to the floor as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
“Twilight? What's wrong?”
She looked up just enough to see Spike crouching down next to her.
“I… I can’t make coffee,” she sniffled. “I miss the one at home."
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Stupid word limit. It was just going somewhere
.
11602358
Haha, I'll admit writing within the word limit was quite a challenge. First draft was almost 200 words over. Though this ending was not a casualty of the limit, and even if I had no limit at all I think I still would have ended it there.
did... did this get an emotional reaction out of me? yes... shh don't tell anyone. Great work!
Cute story, my gut reaction would be to place this in Comedy instead of SoL, but I understand why you chose this one instead. I really like the lines about the clock and the bed, they are great to show how unused Twiggles is to her new environment without ever needing to spell it out with these particular words.
Ha, ha. Ha, ha! It was the absolute absurdity of your premise that drew me to read your tale. And yet, this is so Twilight! Good job! Here, have a moustache:
11602589
Honestly the potnetial comedy of this didn't even strike me until I was writing the description. Looking at it now, it feels a little disconnected from the story, but I also kind of like how it primes the reader for something silly and instead you get something rather grounded. Kinda makes you feel as off-kilter as Twilight does.
Or maybe I'm nuts. At any rate, I'm glad you enjoyed :)
Most interesting.
Tho I've gotta admit, when I saw that title I thought we finally were getting the long awaited sequal to Georg's Her Royal Morning Coffee
Very sweet. You used your 1k well. Best of luck in the contest!
Best ways of making coffee:
Stovetop/Campfire percolator, pour over pot or aeropress.
Worst ways of making coffee:
Drip brewer with a "bold" option.
French Press.
K-Cups.
Also, don't ever buy preground. Or a rotary grinder, unless you dry your own herbs or something. Only use a burr grinder at home.
Twilight needs a measuring cup, a pour over coffee maker and some filters in the correct size.
Poor Twilight lol.
sometimes i think stories don't focus enough on small unimportant things because that's most of what we're aware of in our day to day lives, but this is twilight so that could never happen
Ah a fond reminder of time at cons trying to figure out the dumb hotel Keurigs.
I prefer my extremely simple Mr. Coffee.
Then, just when Twilight figures out this coffee maker and get attached to it, Tirek happens.
I'm not a TwiDash shipper, but this great character study of Twilight has convinced me to not only upvote, but also subscribe so that I can look through more of your work. Your wordsmithing is delightful, & I appreciate how vividly it paints her feelings. Moreover, I could see this completely in character as a prequel episode or comic. Kudos to you, & I look forward to more of your stories!
11631314
Ha, wow, that's quite the compliment! Thank you, hopefully I can live up to it.
Oh poor Twi. Glad she's got Spike on hoof.
Greetings. Your reading has been completed and can be found below. I hope you enjoy.
aww, very Twilight to be so particular about her alarm clock!
typical Twilight anxiety love it
hehe that is a nice touch
this seems quite infeasible just from a chemistry perspective, but then again Twilight does live in a world with literal magic
aww! of course anxiety horse of all horses would find difficult adjusting to such a very sudden change in her life. and it makes sense that it’s the little unfamiliar things more than the big ones, since the big ones at least feel big enough to make sense in how difficult they are. great Twilight character study, and great example of a slice-of-life. thank you for writing!
This worked quite well for me… though more as a Drama entry. We have here a portrait of Twilight in her very first days in Ponyville, forced to adapt and confront the inevitability of change after years of comfortable existence as a creature of habit who ate hay and excreted homework. Now she has to be a pony again, and she barely remembers how to do that. How better to symbolize this uprooting than denying her one of the defining accessories of the academic, a steady flow of caffeine?
Or I’m overanalyzing a rough morning as she works out the kinks of living in Golden Oaks.
Either way, good stuff. Thank you for it and congrats on the honorable mention.
Hello! I read all the stories in this contest that won recognition, so here's a review. I love "the mid-life crisis of her alarm clock". Nice characterisation and I liked the parallel with Twi's new life. A bit wordy for my taste,¹ but definitely an upvote from me.
¹ I'm probably being unfair there, since I often like wordiness and this is a Twific. Just how it read this time. I make no promises about my own logical faculties!