Balloon Animal

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Balloon Animal

Party Favor travels to Appleloosa in search of work. He leaves with something he didn't expect to find.

Bronze Medal Winner of Bicyclette's A Thousand Words III contest in the Slice of Life category.

Cover art illustrated by me.

Chapters (1)

Comments ( 5 )

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TCC56

TCC56 #1 · July 15th · 1 · ·

Love it.

Mix-up

Mix-up #2 · July 15th · 1 · ·

Always love anything with Party Favor, he feels like a toned down Pinkie Pie with Impressible balloon skills, another version of how a party pony can manifest. Cute story keep it up.

twiggy_X3

twiggy_X3 #3 · August 11th · 1 · ·

gosh this was so tender ... loved it lots !!

RainbowInfinityReadings

RainbowInfinityReadings #4 · 2 weeks ago · 1 · ·

Greetings. Your reading has been completed and can be found below. I hope you enjoy.

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #5 · 1 week ago · 1 · ·

When Party Favor first saw the big rodeo clown stallion's cutie mark, he thought: it would look right at home, stored in Starlight's vault. An upside down horseshoe—a skin-deep brand of ill-fortune. How he never ambled down Our Town's thoroughfare to have it stripped from him was anypony's guess.

hehe love how that is his first thought

Laughter erupted, and Party Favor was startled from his reverie.

and augh love that after the events of that episode, to anypony that meets Troubleshoes after it would be the most obvious thing in the world what his cutie mark meant and what he was meant to be doing

Party Favor lost count of the miles he traveled since he first set out from Our Town. That distance hadn’t yet seemed to matter.
Not when the march was still in his hooves.

and oof, yeah, the scars from that period aren’t going to just go away easily for these ponies like it seems to in the canon

They exchanged introductions and his sonorous drawl was at home in his barrel chest. Troubleshoes Clyde, he called himself. A name to match the misfortune of his mark; a little blip in the otherwise perfectly built idea of him.
“Pleasure to meet you, Party Favor,” he said. “I’d offer to shake your hoof, but the last time I tried, I darn near punched the feller’s light’s out.”

and augh love how perfectly you capture Troubleshoes here, i can just feel his presence through these words

They cheered Party on as he twisted squeaking balloons into hats and animals, and he was happy—when he was creating. But as the sun set, and he held his last little balloon equine under the flickering lantern light, it looked a lot like him. A mimicry of a real animal.

and oof, yeah, so true about whatever it was that brought the ponies to join Our Town in the first place reasserting itself after that initial burst of joy that we see in the episode

“Thanks.” Party let out a raspy laugh. “I try. But, I wasn’t born one.”

and ooh, adds another layer to that “mimicry of a real animal”, being how Party Favor sees himself

Toubleshoes chuckled and said, “Is anypony? I was born a foal. Then I grew into a colt. And then I just kept growing.”
Party smiled, warmed to his soul. “I like that way of looking at it.”

hehe, that is a good way of looking at it, and Troubleshoes Clyde is indeed unusually large

“Well, if you ask me,” Troubleshoes said, “if anypony can take what he’s got and make it his own, it’s you.”
—
On the train ride home, Party Favor made a balloon animal. It looked a lot like him.

and aww, love the full circle of Troubleshoes helping Party Favor find what he needs to feel whole, just as he had been helped. wonderful slice of life, thank you for writing!

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