A bunch of stories involving the two silly school colt brothers in one wacky situation after another. Helping out neighbors, missing due dates for school assignments, getting Princess Twilight angry, and being rambunctious in class. All with the best
Snips and Snails are these two colts who turn out to be brothers as well as unicorns. They live in the local town of Ponyville and go to school there. Many of the ponies tend not to pay plenty of attention to them, but when Snips and Snails think up of something mischievous to do, then they start getting attention. They obviously get into a whole heap of trouble as well. Enjoy these laugh-out-loud stories featuring two of your favorite background ponies, getting ready for some of their major comic roles.
Chapter 1-The Beginning of One Mishap After Another
Lately, like Spike the baby dragon, Snips and Snails too became heavy comic fans. Eventually, they grew so thrilled with the drawings on the pages that they began copying those as well. The title that they had been collecting every issue of lately was "The Everyday Lives of Scratch 'n' Sniff." A cartoon duo about two colts who get into different kinds of mishaps from school problems to science-fiction adventures. It was Snips and Snails #1 favorite comic so far.
Whenever a new issue was in the works, Snips and Snails couldn't wait to read it. When it finally came out, Snips and Snails would hurry over to the comic section of the book store and run home to read it. Sometimes they grew so impatient with reading the next part of the comic, that they end up bringing some of their collected issues to school and continue reading it on the playground or in class. This sometimes winds them up into trouble with Cherilee and their parents.
One Friday afternoon, just as class was finishing up at the Ponyville school, Cherilee made an important announcement.
"It has been brought to my attention that Princess Celestia will be coming by to visit Ponyville this weekend on a Sunday." she said "She needs to check on Princess Twilight Sparkle's progress and will even be able to stop by for a little while in town for lunch. Let's hope that each pony of another can be on their best behavior."
The entire class became full of excitement. Except for Snips and Snails. They were too busy secretly reading the latest issues of "Scratch 'n' Sniff." Cherilee knew, but decided not to say anything to them.
Soon the school day ended and all the little ponies headed for home. Just as Snips and Snails went back to their home Snips brought up a thought.
"Do you think Miss Cherilee said anything important while we were reading those comics in secret." asked Snips to Snails.
"I don't know," Said Snails. "I was too caught up in the escapades of Scratch 'n' Sniff trying to find their way out of that haunted campground."
"Oh, never mind," Mumbled Snips. "We'll ask one of our classmates if they know... Hey, Snails, where'd you go buddy?"
Snips looked back and found that Snails had paused right beside the book store and was staring at something in awe through the windows.
"Hey, what's the problem, Snails?" asked Snips. "Is there a... WOAH! What is that?!"
Standing on display behind the windows was a new issue of "Scratch 'n' Sniff." It was called "Scratch 'n' Sniff In A Underground Mine Adventure." It sounded very exciting to Snips and Snails so much that they quickly checked their backpacks to see if they had any money. They found none.
"Crud!" complained Snips as he and Snails continued homewards. "How are we ever going to get that next issue now. We can't just ask our parents for more allowances. They probably think by now that we've been asking too much from them."
"Maybe we can try getting a part-time job." suggested Snails.
"That's it, we'll find ourselves a part-time job." said Snips "Why didn't I think of that until now."
Snails sighed as he and his brother reached home.
Next day, everypony began inspecting and cleaning their property to please Princess Celestia when she came by tomorrow. Snips and Snails were noticing this, but tended to ignore it. All they could concentrate on at the moment was job hunting. They spent the morning going through the Wanted Ads section of the newspapers. They took a look at every poster and billboard in town but found nothing.
"We could ask some of our neighbors if they have any chores we could do for them." decided Snails.
"Nah, why should we." grumbled Snips. "Look at everypony in town keeping themselves busy like that. If we go up to them now, they'll just say 'thanks but we'd prefer to do the job ourselves.' The question is though, why is everypony being so busy tiding up their homes and buildings? It's like some kind of event is going to be happening soon but what kind?"
"We'll worry about that part later." said Snails "Let's go back to trying to figure out where else we can get a job at."
"If only if there was somepony lazy enough who doesn't like working." pondered Snips. "And if only if that somepony were living here right now."
"What about old man Mr. Lead-Miner." thought Snails. "He never seems to do any work these days."
"Hey, yeah, you're right, Snails." exclaimed Snips. "Let's go see if he has something for us."
Mr. Lead-Miner didn't live too far away from Snips and Snails. His house was only several blocks away. When Snips and Snails reached his house, they began to get unsure if they still wanted to do a few chores for him. Mr. Lead-Miner's front lawn was a total messy heap. The grass was overgrown with weeds. There were a bunch of lost toys tangled in some of the brambles. Dead leaves were all over the place. The trees were getting overgrown as well. The house looked like it was also in need of some new paint. It made Snips and Snails think that they had more than a few chores to do.
"Maybe he'll pay us extra if we get all of these messes out of the way for him." said Snips with confidence.
"I think we need to look for somepony with a less haunted-looking home." shivered Snails.
"Don't be so mean and such a fraidy cat, Snails." huffed Snips. "Now come on."
Snips and Snails made their way towards the front door. They knocked on it. There became a loud, groaning noise. Footsteps approached, paused, and a low, grouchy, gargling voice was heard: "Who is it? If that's you, Wild Star, go away! I told you not to come here again, or I'll make you stay away from here forever."
"Uh, Mr. Lead-Miner, it's Snips and Snails, a couple of your neighbors." began Snips.
"We were wondering if there were any chores you'd like for us to do for you." said Snails
The door began making the sound that it was getting unlocked, and out stepped, Mr. Lead-Miner who wasn't in the best of temper at the moment. He didn't even look his best either. His eyes were bloodshot looking as though he hadn't been sleeping properly lately, he had grown quite a beard, and was looking overweight. He even looked like he hadn't been outside for a while. He nearly fainted when he felt the sunshine.
"What did you say you kids wanted?" asked Mr. Lead-Miner.
"Uh, my brother Snails was asking if you wanted some help around the house." said Snips
"It sure could use some spiffing up." said Snails
"Sure go right ahead." said Mr. Lead-Miner "You can start off by improving both the front and backyards and re-painting my house a little. After that, you can clean the entire inside of my house."
Snips and Snails looked over Mr. Lead-Miner's shoulders for a moment and realized that the interiors of his house was a total mess as well.
"If you do a really good job," Continued Mr. Lead-Miner. "I'll pay you both, how about, let's say, $10.00 each. How does that sound?"
"Sounds fair." said Snips
"And I want the entire job done by this evening." finished Mr. Lead-Miner.
"By this evening?!" exclaimed Snails. "Why do you want this big job to be done in one day?"
"Because," Said Mr. Lead-Miner. "Princess Celestia is stopping by in Ponyville for a visit tomorrow. So I have to show that I still care for my home."
"Wait, Princess Celestia is coming for a visit tomorrow?" asked Snips. "Why didn't anypony tell us that?!"
"Mr. Lead-Miner, we appreciate helping you out and all," Said Snails. "But we think we can only manage doing a bit at a time. There's no way we can finish cleaning both the outside and inside of your house by evening."
"Then if I were you two, I'd quit yapping and getting right to it." growled Mr. Lead-Miner rudely. "Supplies are in the shed and you can find the cleaning supplies in one of the closets inside. Let's hope you kids know how to use those properly. Now, I'm going out to get some exercise and won't be home by late-afternoon. By the time I get back, my house had better look brand new, otherwise, no pay!"
Mr. Lead-Miner turned on his heel and went to town, leaving Snips and Snails on their own.
"Well, you heard what he said." said Snips "Let's get right to it."
"I don't know, Snips." said Snails "Can we really be able to finish this by evening in time for Princess Celestia's visit tomorrow."
"Less talking, more activeness would be much nicer." complained Snips.
"Alright," Said Snips as he viewed the entire messy property of Mr. Lead-Miner's. "We only have until evening to get this whole place cleaned up. So if we start getting to work right now, we'll be done in no time."
"Let's hope so." said Snails nervously. "Mr. Lead-Miner may not only revoke our pay, but could also do something drastic to us."
"Be quiet, Snails." snapped Snips. "Now, let's get to work! We'll start off with the front and back lawns. I'll get rid of these lost toys on the front while you get the lawn mower and mow the backyard. When you're done, you can mow the front by then."
"Sounds alright with me." said Snails as he headed for the gardening shed to look for the lawn mower.
Just as Snips was about to start pulling the lost toys out of the brambles there became another problem as he heard Snails calling his name from the gardening shed.
"What's the problem now, Snails?" asked Snips.
Snails pointed to an object of a machinery which was the lawn mower. It was a regular modern kind, the type that had a power motor in it which you push around.
"I don't see what's wrong, Snails." said Snips "Are you confused by the generations that Mr. Lead-Miner likes to keep up with since he's an elderly? Is it that you were expecting that he had a old-fashioned kind of lawn mower instead?"
"Uh, no, Snips." said Snails "I just don't know how to start this kind of power mower. I was wondering if you knew how?"
"Oh come on," Fussed Snips. "It's so simple, you just need to pull that cord on one of the sides of it and then it will do it's thing. And then when you're done, you pull it again."
"Oh, right." said Snails
Snips went right back to the front lawn while Snails took the lawn mower to the backyard.
"Right, just pull the cord and it will go." said Snails
Snails pulled the cord but pulled it too strong of a motion. The lawn mower started purring and growling noisily, and shot off dragging Snails along as his back hoofs got scraped along the ground! He was in such a state of panic that he couldn't think of what to do next. All he could think of was trying not to get hit by the trees by swerving around them and avoiding other kinds of pain. The good side of this was that he was able to get the backyard lawn done in no time but he had still forgotten how to stop so he swerved towards the front lawn to get reminded by Snips for help.
Snips was still in the middle of clearing away the lost toys when he heard a loud buzzing sound approaching him. He turned around and found, heading straight right towards him was the power mower at maximum speed with Snails right behind it.
"EEEYAHHH!" shrieked Snips as he started making a run for it.
The power mower started gobbling up the front lawn and ran over the remainders of the lost toys that Snips didn't have time to clear. The power mower made a terrible noise as it chopped up the lost toys into pieces.
"WOAH! How do you stop this thing again Snips?!" cried Snails.
"Pull the cord, pull the cord!" yelled Snips.
Snails tried reaching for the cord but before he could, he saw Snips jump over to the side, clear of the power mower's path. Snails looked at what was ahead and saw a tree in the way! He too quickly jumped clear.
"I can't watch!" cried Snips and Snails as the out-of-control power mower crashed right into the tree with a horrendous noise.
Snips and Snails uncovered their eyes and found that the power mower was now smashed to bits.
There was a moment of silence until Snails spoke up: "What do we do now, Snips?"
"Well, we're going to have to pick up all the broken pieces that we can find," Said Snips. "Throw them away in the trash, and hope that Mr. Lead-Miner doesn't notice that his power mower is missing until we're able to make the money to pay for the damage we made by doing chores for some other neighbors."
Snips and Snails cleaned up the mess, took it to the garbage cans, and dumped the remains.
"Now what about the lawn?" asked Snails. "It looks like I did too much with the power mower's rapid speed. Mr. Lead-Miner will know for sure something's up if he sees his lawn like this."
"This is your mistake, Snails!" exclaimed Snips angrily. "You figure out how to fix this. I can't even get rid of those toys now since the broken pieces are spread everywhere. If I try now, it will take too long. At least you were able to get rid of all the weeds and brambles but still!"
"There was some bags of fertilizer in the shed." said Snails "But I can't pour it all over the lawn by myself."
"Alright, I'll help." moaned Snips.
Snips and Snails gathered the bags of fertilizer from the shed and poured as much as they could on the front and back lawns. Once they were done, they put the bags back in the shed.
Snips and Snails decided that the next job to be done was to start cleaning the inside of the house. They went in and found most of the house to be out of place. Every part of it looked disorganized. There were piles and piles of old magazines and classic literature, unopened envelopes of junk mail, dishes in the kitchen sink, clothes that needed to be washed, and other messy piles. Snips began trying to decide how exactly this part of the job needed to be done.
"We'd better start off by getting these piles off the floor," Said Snips at last. "Put them where they belong, and throw some of the old stuff away. After we're done with that part we can... Hey, Snails where'd you go this time?"
Snips found Snails looking at one of Mr. Lead-Miner's bookcases that shelved some of his most prized possessions; his music records collection.
"Come on, Snails!" ordered Snips. "This ain't a music store, we've got work to do."
"Can't we at least listen to one of these while we work?" asked Snails.
"No," Said Snips firmly. "Besides, Mr. Lead-Miner wouldn't like it. Those are his prized possessions, what would he say if we touched them without his permission."
"Even if we just listened to one?" asked Snails.
"Alright," Sighed Snips. "Only one, but that's it. Pick out the one you most want to listen to."
Snails happily started to flip through the music collection and came across a cover with the tile; "The Night Club Ponies' Jazziest Sensations." Took it over to the phonograph, placed it on the turntable, winded it up, placed the needle on the record, and out came music. Soon the two colts were able to get back to work again.
They placed Mr. Lead-Miner's classic literature collection in the vacant spaces of the bookshelves, trashed some of his old magazines dated from a long time ago along with the junk mail. Just as Snips was finished gathering the dirty clothes over to the laundry room, the record stopped playing. Snails went over to change the side to hear the remainder of the songs while Snips got the filthy laundry ready for the washing machine. Snails was just getting ready to try and flip the side over when Snips pressed the start button, the sudden noise startled Snails that he dropped the record with a crash!
Snips hurried over with a rush.
"AAAUUUUGH!" cried Snips. "That was your fault, Snails!"
"No it wasn't," Growled Snails. "It was your fault, Snips!"
"Oh, never mind who's fault it was." complained Snips. "We have to figure ot what we're going to do now."
"Is throwing it away out of the question?" asked Snails. "Mr. Lead-Miner will definitively know that one of his prized records is missing."
"All I can think of is piecing the broken parts together and putting them back inside the case." said Snips "Hopefully, Mr. Lead-Miner won't think about listening to it until we can replace it with a new one."
Snips and Snails quickly found some tape and glue and began putting all the broken pieces together that they could find. Then they put the crumbled up record back in the case. After that, they gathered cleaning supplies and tidied up the floor and walls. At the same time, the clothes were done getting washed, so they placed them in the dryer. Next, they moved to the kitchen and washed and dried the dishes and cups. Finally, they heard the ding on the dryer and gathered the clean clothes into the drawers.
Before Snips and Snails went back outside to see if anything else needed to be done, they took a look back at their work.
"Not a single thing out of place." said Snips
"Except for part of the music collection that is." responded Snails.
"Be quiet, Snails." snapped Snips as they went back out to the front yard.
Once Snips and Snails were back out on the front lawn, they realized that the grass was beginning to grow back already.
"That fertilizer must have done some wonders." said Snails
"I know," Said Snips. "It's like we put the right amount where it can grow at a fast pace."
"So, what's the next thing to be done." asked Snails.
"Mr. Lead-Miner did say he wanted some of his house painted a little." said Snips
"I remember seeing some paint cans and brushes in the tool shed." said Snails
Snips and Snails went back over to the tool shed. They collected all the painting supplies and brought them over to the house. As soon as they opened the cans, there became another problem. There wasn't much paint left in each can. Snails pondered the situation.
"We could try mixing some of the colors all into one." he suggested.
"Snails, that has got to be one of the most outrageous ideas you've ever had yet." began Snips. "Which is why it might be just crazy enough to work."
Snips and Snails started to mix the colors. They put blue and yellow together, then brown and red, and finally green and purple. When they were done, Snips began to have doubts as he looked at each mixed color of paint.
"Are you sure this is still a good idea." he asked Snails.
"You said it might be just crazy enough to work, right." said Snails
Snips shrugged and he and Snails climbed up the ladders and got to work, spreading the paint all over the exteriors of the house. As soon as they were done, evening arrived and Snips was now worried than ever. Snails on the other hoof, thought it looked great. The house was now covered in a mixture of both bright and dark colors. Then, at that moment, Mr. Lead-Miner came home.
"Hey neighbors, I'm back," He called. "And boy did I need that exercise. By the way, how did... AAAUUUUGH! What did you do to the place?!"
"Oh man, I knew this would happen." cried Snips.
"Now we're going to get it." shivered Snails.
Mr. Lead-Miner stared at his new-looking home for a few moments and then turned to Snips and Snails.
"Neighbors!" he said "My new home looks... great, it's fantastic! I'm amazed!"
"It is?" pondered Snails.
"Um, yeah, that's right, we did do a good job didn't we, Mr. Lead-Miner." said Snips cheerfully. "Together with my bro here, anything is possible."
"Well then," Continued Mr. Lead-Miner. "I suppose you've earned it."
Mr. Lead-Miner went into his house and came back out with $10.00 each for Snips and Snails and handed it to them.
"There you are." said Mr. Lead-Miner "Anyway, good night."
"Now we can finally buy the comic we wanted." said Snails
"Can't we wait until some other time." yawned Snips. "It's been a long day."
"Oh, alright." mumbled Snails.
By the time Snips and Snails reached home, Snails was still being worried. Not about the purchase of their next comic issue, but something else.
"I just hope that Mr. Lead-Miner doesn't find out about some of the broken pieces we made until we can afford some replacements ourselves." he said
"Not to worry." said Snips confidently. "He shouldn't be able to find out for at least a long while to come."
But that very next morning, on the day of Princess Celestia's visit, something unexpected happen!