A small collection of drabbles, flash fics, and short stories.
This is a collection of assorted short stories, drabbles, and flashfics I've written.
There is a prologue, and a bit of connecting narrative, but for the most part, each chapter will be a separate story or scene in itself. If it's been posted elsewhere, I'll try to have a link to where I originally posted it.
"And remember, class," Miss Cheerilee said, as the school bell rang, "you’ll need to turn in an original short story by the end of next week! And it has to be one thousand words or more. I’ll be checking!"
The colts and the fillies of the classroom started running out, but Sweetie Belle hung back a bit.
"One thousand words?" She said, puzzled. "Why would a story have to be a thousand words or more?"
"Because Miss Cheerilee said so, duh," Scootaloo said. "Guess we’ll have to get writing!"
"Didn’t she say something about not having enough room to tell a complete story in there?" Apple Bloom said. "Not enough room for characterization and motivation and plot and such?"
"Well, it could be a tiny plot, and you could use characters that already have characterization." Sweetie Belle wrinkled her forehead. "I bet you could write a story that was shorter than that if you really tried."
"I don’t think Miss Cheerilee will accept it then, though--"
"Oh, I’ll write a long one for Miss Cheerilee," Sweetie Belle said thoughtfully. "But maybe I’ll write some short ones for myself."
Surprisingly, the idea was still rattling around in her head by the time she got home.
Okay, what’ve I got around here I can use?
She ransacked her room, looking under the bed and in the closet and all the drawers around. Eventually she plopped down a binder full of lined paper down on her desk, and wrote on the front page "Sweetie Belle’s Short Stories".
She pinned another piece of paper to a cork board hanging on one wall, and scribbled on the top "Story Ideas".
Then she pondered. What could she possibly write about?
Sweetie Belle went over to her idea list, and carefully wrote down "Prompt one: Waiting Time".
Then she sat and thought. There were multiple meanings of the word "waiting", weren't there? She started writing.
There were worse things than this, Flash Sentry reminded himself. Money is money, and he certainly needed it after what had happened. And it wasn't like anywhere in Canterlot would be willing to hire him now. Still...
He couldn't drag this out any longer, though. His new boss was glancing in his direction and tapping one hoof impatiently. He slung on the apron and trotted over to the nearest table.
"My name is Flash Sentry, and I'll be your server. What can I do for you?"
"Blueberry waffles!"
He wrote it down on his pad.
"And to drink?"
At least this should be a simple order.
"Orange juice! And the hashbrowns, a small fruit salad, some rolls..."
Flash sighed and kept writing as the customer went on and on. It was going to be a long day.
She scribbled down the next prompt, "getting warmer". Some comfy clothes sounded like just the thing to get her warmer. Maybe she should write about that...
Rarity waved a pair of socks at me hopefully.
I sighed. Never bring your sister along clothes shopping. At least, with a sister like Rarity.
She'd been all about wanting to make my clothes at first. That's not really a bad thing, but you don't really want all your clothes to be your sisters, and they should be stuff you like.
Still, I humored her. I tried on the socks, the mittens, the scarf, and the ear muffs, plus various legwarmers, even when my legs were starting to get tired, and all the clothes were turning into a blur. Then, finally, it was time to head to the checkout.
"Are you sure?" Rarity said, pulling out a pair of lime green legwarmers.
I nodded. They were warm. Bugging Rarity was just a bonus.
Still, things could have been worse. Imagine if our trip was gonna be more than three days?
Sweetie Belle put down "laugh so you don't cry" in the list of ideas, though she was starting to wonder if she really always needed a prompt for these things. Still, she did have an idea for this one, and for once, she had a story title.
"The Party"
“... Twilight, you are invited to Gummy’s Gummaversary at four. Don’t be late!”
Spike put the invitation down.
“Has a year already passed? It’s already almost four now! Coming, Spike?”
Was he? He used to be the one dragging her to parties, or she’d spend all her time studying. But times had changed.
Sure, he liked parties. But he hadn’t been invited to this one. He hadn’t been invited to a lot of them for a while. It wasn’t that he couldn’t go. No one would say anything if he did. But somehow, he didn’t think that he was who they wanted to see.
He didn’t really want to go on that basis, just as a tag-a-long. An eternal sidekick.
“That’s fine, Twilight,” he forced a laugh. “You go ahead. I hear my comics calling my name!”
"What I don't get, Twi," Rainbow Dash said loudly enough to draw looks from passersby. "is why some of the new Daring Do books focus so much on things that are obvious. Everypony knows how many dents there are in Daring's helmet, after all."
"I don't think everybody knows that, Rainbow," Twilight said, rolling her eyes.
Sweetie Belle headed home quick to start writing. Writing about things that were obvious sounded fun!
Scootaloo woke up one morning, and one thing was immediately obvious to her. She looked closely at her fur on her back, than looked around the other way, just to make sure.
"Wow", she said, despite there being nopony there to hear her, "my fur is totally orange today!"
She trotted into the bathroom and looked in the mirror there, and sure enough, there it was. Bright orange fur, all over the place, and a magenta mane to go with it!
She obviously needed to share this revelation with the rest of Ponyville. Luckily, a scooter seemed to have been left in her room. That, she thought, would certainly make getting around town easier.
She grabbed the scooter, darted through the living room, turned and yelled "Mom, I'm going out, okay?", and ran outside, slamming the door behind her. There was no reply, other than a potted plant shaking from the vibration and than settling down.
She scooted along through Ponyville, and almost immediately spotted Sweetie Belle. She braked in front of her and said, "Sweetie Belle! Do you notice anything about me today?"
Sweetie Belle looked at her quizzically. "A new manecut?" she guessed.
"I'm orange!" Scootaloo said proudly, puffing up her chest fur.
Sweetie Belle continued to stare at her. "Scoots, did you hit your head or something?"
“Wouldn’t be caught dead” was scrawled across Sweetie Belle’s prompt sheet, but that seemed a little vague to her, like it could go a lot of ways. Story telling was pretty different from song writing, too.
Of course, there were other forms of writing. Poetry, and iambic pentagrams and things. A sestina seemed interesting, but it also seemed difficult. Maybe she could just write with a bunch of rhymes and stuff, and see how it turned out...
In the Night
Through the gloom of night I creep (Oh, sister, why do must vex me so?) While most other ponies are fast asleep (But then, what would they know?)
Outside the moon shines full and bright (Though few are awake to see.) The bats do all play out of sight (Oh would that one were me!)
The castle halls seem cold and dark (Though my sister seems not to care.) Garish designs have left their mark (Though naught of the night is there.)
In her bedroom I quietly sneak (Though her snores do fill the hall.) As I step forward, the floor does creak (But she does not hear at all.)
Of the course to take, I have no doubt (The reasons should be plain to see.) As I raise my hoof towards her snout (And boop her thoroughly!)
Next up for prompts was "crossing over". There were a number of ways you could go with this one, such as being "cross all over", but literally seemed like the most interesting. Trying not to write too much was an issue, actually. None the less, she figured she could come up with something.
The rip hung in the sky and shimmered.
Scootaloo threw a rock, and it vanished halfway.
Twilight had said the rips went to another universe, one like this one, but where things had happened differently.
Of course, Twilight hadn’t known where any of them were, then. It was sheer luck Scootaloo had happened on one.
The sensible thing to do would be to go find Twilight and tell her. Then she could do a bunch of measurements and experiments. Anything could be through there.
But then, anything could be through there. When would she get a chance like this again?
There could be dinosaurs on a rampage. She could even be a dinosaur. There could be another Scootaloo who was a unicorn, or in the Wonderbolts, or who had lived a totally different life.
As Sweetie Belle flipped through her list of prompts again, one came up that said "Before the Throne".
There were a few ways that could be taken. Exactly how many thrones were there in Equestria, anyways, though?
She shrugged, and began to write.
Twilight stepped into the castle, mane drooping. Spike ran up to her.
“So? What was the big emergency? Is Thorax all right?”
“It wasn’t exactly an emergency, Spike.”
Spike frowned. “But he said it was something only you could solve. Some sort of friendship problem?”
“It wasn’t a friendship problem, either.” Twilight sighed. “It was about the throne.”
“That big, black magic-inhibiting one Starlight broke up? Was it turning the hive magicless, or something?”
Twilight shook her head. “They tipped that all into a garbage pit well away from the hive. And it lost most of its power being broken to pieces, anyways.”
“Then what did he want?”
“Well…” She said slowly.
“Twilight— “
“Thorax thinks I’m a chair expert!” Twilight burst out, finally. “Five hundred pages of possible throne replacements. Five hundred!”
Sitting at her desk at home, Sweetie Belle frowned, and shoved aside her homework.
It wasn't like writing a book report was that hard, anyways. Reading it out loud in front of the class was, but, well, she had a couple days to work on it. For now, it was story writing time.
She had a new prompt on her faithful prompt list, too. She pulled it out. "The generous and the dead". Well, Rarity was supposed to be generous, right? And that left-
She started writing.
“Sweetie Belle!”
Rarity paused, seeing her sister’s seemingly lifeless body on the bed. Lifting up her arm, it fell limply to her side.
“Sweetie Belle, you are not dead.”
She gazed up at the ceiling unseeingly.
“Now, I know you have a book report due-”
Sweetie Belle’s tongue stuck out of her mouth.
“But I’m sure your friends are expecting you-”
A bit of drool ran onto her pillow.
“We can make giant hats when you come back?”
Rarity paused hopefully. Nothing.
“Then, of course, there will be ice cream.”
A small voice spoke up. “Ice cream?”
“Ice cream and waffles.”
“What kind of giant hats?”
“What kind do you want?”
Sweetie Belle heaved herself out of bed. “There’d better be.”
“Would I lie? There will be drama! There will be fashion!”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes narrowed. Rarity continued quickly. “And there will be ice cream.”
The book report was over, thankfully, and she hadn't died of embarrassment or burst into flames. She could've done without the clever comments by Diamond Tiara and not so clever comments by Snails, though. Some ice cream would have been nice, too. She was feeling kinda hungry.
Still, it was dark out now, and the day was almost over, and she wanted to just spend some quality time writing about cute cuddly things. Or maybe bats. Cute cuddly bats...
“Eeeee?” The noise came again, interrupting Princess Luna’s quest for a snack.
Where had that come from? The royal kitchen looked unoccupied.The refrigerator certainly had been.
The cabinets? Or… did that fruit bowl just move?
She picked up an apple from the bowl, and found something black and furry staring back inquisitively at her from the other side.
“Eeee!” It exclaimed, as Luna peered at what turned out to be a rather excited young bat pony.
“Now where did you come from, little one?” she mused, trying to remove its clutches from the apple. It enthusiastically tackled her hoof instead.
“I’m sorry, your majesty—” One of her guards rushed in. “Star slipped away from us—”
“Your daughter?” He nodded sheepishly.
She picked up a ripe mango, transferred a now rather happy filly to it, and carried her over. “Come on, and stop worrying your father.”
Sweetie Belle looked down at her notebook, where it said "Now we're friends". She remembered a day she'd made some friends. Though, she supposed, it wouldn't have been a very good idea from some other ponies perspectives.
She thought about that, and started to write.
She glared down at them from the stairs. It was a pretty good one, her number two glare, but they continued on, oblivious.
"So I was thinking, now that we're friends... I mean, we are friends, right?"
"How could we not be? We're totally alike. We don't have cutie marks, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon drive us crazy—"
"Totally crazy."
She'd drive them totally crazy, alright.
Who needed friends, anyways, especially a bunch of blank flanks? She didn't need anypony, let alone a bunch of losers! It didn't matter that everypony was ignoring her now! It didn’t matter that her parents weren’t here! It didn't matter—
A hoof touched her shoulder.
"You want to blow this party, and go over to my place? I've got some new manga—"
Sweetie Belle put down her book reluctantly. All this talk of future technology and cyberpunk and such was fun, but she really should get back to writing. What would it be like with a high-tech future like that coming to Ponyville, though? She could almost see it...
I jacked in, let my eyes settle. Ear twitch here and here, and I was there. Orange’d pay good for Apple intel, and if family was hurt, what of it? A cred was a cred.
The ice on the site was bog-standard. Fine if you weren’t expecting trouble, but there was always another corp around the corner, and a good decker could find a way to make a profit.
A standard ice-breaker did the trick. Saw a flash, but nothing showed on a scan. Easy as pie.
The maze beyond was trickier and a mind was behind the attacks, but I still broke through to—
Nothing? Faint laughter. A trace!
I cut the connection, looked at my empty account, and swore. A message blinked.
“Too slow, Babs! You need creds, come visit your family sometime, hmm?”
The Wizard of Oz was a great musical, and Sweetie Belle was always happy to see it. Lots of spin-offs, too.
She couldn't help to think there'd be certain practical issues with some of the things in it, though.
"Dumb costume. I knew I should have triple-checked everything..."
"Missing something?" A dark and mysterious stranger held out a broom.
She grabbed it with both hands. "Yes. How did you know? It was the most important—"
*Poof*
She blinked. Had it been too convenient? Her costume was perfect with the broom, though. Maybe too perfect. Somehow the green on her hands didn't seem like makeup. Still, what did it matter? She started to laugh.
"EeHeHeHeHe! I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog Toto, too!"
She jumped on her broom, which sent her soaring upwards, unlike any normal broom. She zipped and dashed and whirled through the air with ease.
A blue figure joined her. "Hey, you're pretty good. Want to race?"
A torrent of water suddenly hit her.
"Thunderlane, next Tuesday is rain! Sorry about that," the figure continued. "Hey! Where'd she go?"
Looking at her prompt list, it seemed that "I Was Blind (But Now I See)" was next on the list.
She thought speculatively. All in all, not being able to see well must be a pain. She wondered how Silver Spoon dealt with it...
I peered forward at the vast array of blurry shapes ahead.
“Are we just about there?”
“We’re right at the mall now! Just go forward through that hallway…”
A pink leg pointed at a blur ahead. I nodded, and headed towards what quickly resolved itself into a wall.
“No, the hallway!”
“I can’t see, alright?”
“Well, I didn’t mean to step on your glasses!” An exasperated sigh came from beside me. “Here.”
“Eep!” I couldn’t see the stares as I was dragged forward, but they were undoubtedly there. Fortunately, we must not have been that far as I was plopped down in front of a familiar door. I gratefully pushed it open.
“Ah, Miss Spoon?” A familiar voice called out. “I was expecting you. Let us see about the fit, no?”
As the world resolved into crystal clarity, I resolved never to go without a spare pair of glasses again...
And she was back with the prompts again. This one was "The Last Item on the List". Only it wasn't the last item on the list, so it was kinda inaccurate. She supposed it might have been the last item on it at some point. Lists were complicated.
Twilight was good with lists. Or Sparkler, was, and Rarity had her lists as well.
The last item on the list was sure final sounding, tho'. She licked the tip of the quill, dipped it in ink, and started writing.
“Twilight, I am not planning on killing everyone,” Celestia said patiently..
“Then that isn’t your to-do list?”
“It is.”
“But… you wrote...”
She glanced down at the ancient parchment.
“Twilight, do you know how old I am?”
She paused, and shook her head.
“Neither do I, any more. I did. Suffice to say that it was a long time ago. Alicorns do not die… of natural means, in any case.”
Twilight glanced at her own wings, self-consciously. Celestia nodded.
“So we have to think in a longer frame of reference. Will I check that last item off? Some day, perhaps. But not now, or any time soon.”
“But you will?”
Celestia sighed. “Yes. I’m responsible for the sun rising and setting. It will come to me to finally turn it off, when everything is gone. But, come, let’s talk of more pleasant things.”
Old candy wrappers? Toss. She paused over the stuffed bear for a moment, then put it in the 'keep' pile.
Binder? She flipped through it.
Oh, this was her story binder, wasn't it? Well, that'd be a keep. In fact...
Sweetie Belle started scribbling down another story, for old times sake.
She blinked, for the first time in what seemed like forever. Everything was so stiff! Why was she in front of a mirror?
Then she was shoved forward, and everything changed. It was daylight now, and she seemed to be on a school lawn? She wasn't even sure what the creatures around were.
No matter. She could make friends. She would make some friends, then they would all pay.
There, the girl nearby in the leather jacket. She would do. She screwed up her face and ran over.
"Excuse me? I'm vewry sorry. I've gotten totally lost, and I don't know where I am! Can you help me?"
The girl frowned, and crossed her arms. "I've been told all about you, Cosy Glow. If you want to not go back to being a statue, you'll come with me and do what I say."
Sweetie Belle hustled inside, struggling to close the door, and shrugged off her raincoat, trying to keep too much water from getting on the floor. It was intense outside!
Weather like this, it was obvious what she needed to do. She slipped into the kitchen.
A few minutes later, she was sitting at her desk with hot cocoa and a lemon-poppy muffin, a blanket wrapped around her, and some pencils and her notebook at hand.
She took a sip and felt warmed up all over.
"Now, what should I write about?"
The wind swirled purple and blue, glittering outside the window.
“Sweetie, don’t open it!” My sister called out.
“I’m not!” Probably not, anyways. “Isn’t there some way to go out, covering our faces or something?”
“You know better, Sweetie. That’s wild magic. Twilight might’ve found a way…”
Rarity grew silent. Twilight had been outside when the first wind hit. So many ponies had.
“Will it ever stop?” Usually the Carousel was home, but during the wind, it seemed like a prison.
“I don’t know. They’ve been getting longer. We should be safe in here, though.”
“Everything is sealed, right? The cat door?”
A pained look passed Rarity’s face. Opal had gone out in the last wind. What returned… wasn’t Opal. “Boarded shut.”
“Good.”
Was there even still a world out there? Rarity joined me at the window and we kept watching the wind ever swirling and getting thicker...
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Spike huffed into view. “Geez, do you have any idea-- whoa, where did those come from?”
“They shouldn’t be there. I’ve already ascended! I shouldn’t be getting more wings!”
“Maybe you ascended again?”
“That's not scientifically possible!”
“Sheesh, just calm down, Twilight.” *Scribble scribble scribble foom*. “Here, I’ve sent a letter to Princess Celestia. I’m sure she can sort this out.”
Twilight sighed. “You’re right, Spike. No need to panic. I’m sure she’ll know what to do.”
*Belch* “She’s replied! Dear Twilight. Yadda yadda yadda… congratulations on your double-princesshood. We gladly offer our fealty to you, Princess Princess Twilight, new ruler of Equestria? O-okay, maybe not.”
Twilight groaned. "I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when this is all over."
Sweetie Belle was off in her room in the Carousel Boutique today, since her parents were out of town, as always, and from the sound of it, Rarity was having one of her usual bits of drama and fashion outside.
It was probably best to stay in here for the moment, and do some writing, and what better to write about than Rarity, and staying at the Carousel Boutique?
Her quill started to write.
*Knock knock*
Sweetie Belle opened the door to see... dog things?
"We seek Miss Rarity!"
Okay, Rarity could handle this. "Just a moment!"
She ran to her sister. "Rarity, there are... some dogs to see you?"
"Stay back. I'll take care of it."
"How can I help you?"
"Really? I'm afraid I'm much too busy..."
"Oh, that is lovely..."
"No, Rarity, stand strong. I will not be tempted by baubles. I'm afraid I can't help you. Good day!"
The door slammed shut.
"What was that about?"
"Remember when the Diamond Dogs kidnapped me?"
"And now they're back?"
"Well, that was their leaders idea, and it seems he's passed on."
"Yay?"
"Yes, but... Apparently I was the only one they could agree to take orders from."
"They want to make you their queen?"
"I'm not having it, though! I'm a leader in fashion, nothing more!"
