Just Background Noise for the Louder Sounds
The alarm clock rang with all the glories of a bird choking on a piece of gum. Shiny Giratina rolled over in her bed, hoping that it would just turn off on its own. Sadly, it didn't. After momentarily running over a list of ways to dismember the clock, Shiny decided that kicking it was the best idea. Grunting with the effort, she swatted at her alarm like it was a particularly irritating fly. It helpfully fell from her desk by the bed, continuing to ring from the floor.
"Whyyy..." Shiny lamented, covering her head with her hooves and wings. "Leave me alone."
The alarm continued to ring mercilessly. Shiny turned her head to glare with all the spite she could muster at seven in the morning at the pestilence that continued to buzz cheerily from her floor. Something suddenly clicked in Shiny's mind.
Seven a.m...
Shit.
Shiny lunged for the pair of ear muffs by her bed, but it was too late. A golden maned and glittering eyed alicorn burst open the cloud shutters of her bedroom window, a flock of brilliantly shaded songbirds soaring in and chirping in delight. Sunny Smiles flicked her glowing mane in the morning light, opening her mouth to sing a song in the perfectly sweet voice of hers. The birds raised their chirps to sing along, somehow smiling with their beaks.
"Good morning to the sun and the birds! Good morning to the clouds in the sky! Good mor-"
The sickeningly sweet chords of her song were cut off by her mouth impacting suddenly with a still-ringing airborne alarm clock.
"Well, that solves two problems." Shiny chuckled as the alicorn flapped away, undoubtedly to annoy some other pony into wakefulness with her perfect voice. Shooing the rest of the birds back out the window, she closed her shutters with a loud thud. Shiny shook her head, sighing. That mare may have been annoying, but it wasn't every day that a pony was written into the world with that kind of vocal talent.
It was every Tuesday to be exact. With a quick glance in her mirror to see if her mane was acceptable, Shiny swung her employee lanyard over her head. SHINY G. it read in bold, red letters right underneath the company logo GameGo. It was a simple yet obvious reminder of her regular life as a simple pegasus selling videogames to hyperactive children. Shiny forced a smile. Her job was fine.
Throwing her saddlebags on, she flung her door open, the sun shining at the perfect angle to be directly in her eyes. With a less than ladylike grunt, Shiny flung herself away from her cloud house and into the sky in the direction of Ponyville.
Her house was clumped with the houses of a few other Ponyville pegasi in a kind-of suburb floating over the endless fields just outside of the city lines. Shiny noticed her neighbor, Mist Weaver, setting off with her mailbag for a day of covering Ditzy's lovable but still irritating mistakes. After sharing a friendly wave, Shiny banked sharply right over a radiant pegasus streaking through the sky and trailing silver lightning. Soaring upwards, the pegasus performed three consecutive rainbooms before zooming off in search of other ponies to impress with his perfectly written-in skills. Shiny merely snorted in annoyance, before turning back to continue to fly to the town.
After a short and blissfully uneventful flight, the light turquoise pegasus touched down on Main Street. GameGo was only a short walk from here, and Shiny liked to pick up a newspaper at the stand along the way. Main Street also had the added benefit of being an interesting place to walk ever since the Authors started writing in different OCs, with buildings bearing signs like The Bureau For Better Crossovers (self inserts not welcome) and the Club Clopfic. Shiny tossed the mare at the nearby newsstand a few bits, and tucked a paper under her wing.
"I should really drink coffee." She noted, wistfully gazing at the distant but still tempting sight of Sugarcube Corner. Her view of the bakery was quickly obscured by a magic duel that had sprung up in the street between an alicorn and a stallion bearing what looked like an Element of Harmony. Her decision made much easier, Shiny pushed open the door to the GameGo.
She lazily flicked out a wing to turn on the lights, brushing the Closed sign so that it read Open. The cheap and softly buzzing lights illuminated a single room stuffed to the brim with shelves containing any videogame that anypony could possibly want. Off to the side, nearly hidden behind advertising posters, was a small glass counter whose only resident was an outdated cash register that Shiny often imagined felt quite lonely. After sidestepping multiple game and console displays to arrive behind the counter, she slid into an old rolly chair that her boss had given her. A quick glance at the clock told Shiny that she was a few minutes early.
"Sweet." She sighed, picking up a NaughtyCat poster to block the sun from her eyes as she leaned back in the chair. A short snooze wouldn't hurt anypony. Shiny had just closed her eyes when the infernal bell above the door signaled the arrival of a customer. Removing the poster from her face, Shiny locked her eyes on the little silver bell. Despite her intense glare, the bell didn't flinch.
"Y tú, señior bell." Shiny muttered to her sparkly nemesis, before turning a mildly bored glance to the customer. Her look turned to fond annoyance when she saw Button Mash stroll up to the counter with a sack of bits in his mouth.
"I would like to buy the new Ponymon game." He said, swinging the bag up onto the counter. Shiny's ear twitched in amusement as she poured out the bits from the sack. There on the counter, gleaming up at her, winked majestically a total of three bits.
"Kid," Shiny scooped the bits back into the bag. "a game costs more than three bits. You know that."
"Four bits?" Button questioned, flashing her his most innocent smile.
It was not very effective.
"Fifteen bits for used, twenty for new." Shiny pointed to the readily apparent prices sheet.
It was super effective!
Button Mash's ears drooped and his eyes widened into their cutest proportions.
Shiny's salespony ability made Button's move fail!
Sensing that he was losing the battle, Button gave up. "Awww. Come on! Please?" He pleaded. "I need this game!"
"No." Shiny tossed him his bag of bits. "What you need is some cash."
"How am I supposed to get money? I'm just a little colt!" Button protested.
"Go help some old ladies or something." Shiny offered, shooing Button back with a hoof.
"But that's work." Button whined, to which Shiny merely rolled her eyes. Button fell quiet after this, then walked over to peruse the games. Taking the opportunity, Shiny pulled out the paper she had bought earlier and spread it on the counter.
There wasn't much news today, aside from the regular events. Nightmare Moon had come back and been re-banished for the third time this month, Discord had nearly caused a global catastrophe but was stopped by another 'Seventh Element of Harmony', the changelings had adopted yet another alicorn OC as their new queen, and at least seven ponies had claimed to be related to Celestia this morning. The only mildly interesting news was an announcement from Cloudsdale debunking the rumors that rainbows were made from foals.
"What kind of nut-job rumor was that." Shiny chuckled. "Everypony knows that rainbows are made from-"
"Shiny, look!" Button cried, pointing frantically out the store window. Shiny looked up from her newspaper and cliche cliffhanger statement just in time to see a green unicorn stumbling about outside the store.
"guys thi5 is dah cuelest." The unicorn yelled, loud enough to be heard through the glass. "im in equestryuh doodz. ah m en bukin equstruh!!!!11!"
"What's wrong with him?" Button Mash asked nervously, his eyes following the pony's movements.
"He probably just got written in." Shiny shrugged. "It could just be a really bad Author, or a Troll. Either way, the Grammar Police will get him. Just don't draw his attention over here, I heard that l33t speak is contagious."
"Woah." Button chuckled slightly. "Who would write in a pony like that?"
"Someone who is really bored." Shiny sighed, absentmindedly flipping through her newspaper. "Kinda like the person who wrote my fic."
"Did yours have better grammar?" Button asked warily.
"I dunno." Shiny shrugged helpfully. "Ask the Readers."
Suddenly, flashing lights glared from outside and sirens blared. Button jumped when a squad of brown coated unicorns quickly surrounded the green unicorn by the storefront. The police ponies all wore red cloth on their front leg emblazoned with a black book with a schwastika on the cover.
"Desist!" The head Grammar Nazi cried, holding an open dictionary aloft in his magic.
"i dun no wha dat meenz" the green unicorn chuckled, and the police unicorns all fired words from their dictionaries at the poor, stumbling pony.
"Oh noes!1! like nd fayv doodz like nd fayv!1!!1" he cries, before the words are surrounding him in a bubble of knowledge. A few of the unicorns are levitating the magical word bubble at a safe distance behind them as the Grammar Nazis are galloping away in search of Authors who change tense in the middle of their story.
"Cool!" Button Mash cried, throwing both hooves into the air in excitement as he promptly fell backwards into one of the displays. Shiny stood to help him, but heard a distinct crunch as her back hoof touched the ground. Wincing, Shiny looked down and slowly, cautiously, lifted her hoof. Her vision was almost obstructed by the tears forming in her eyes as she surveyed the broken body of the Skybrim special Ponykiin edition disk.
"Oh... Oh no." Button Mash eloquently stated, seeing the look on Shiny's face.
"Sweet CELESTIA'S FIERY TITS!" Shiny screeched. "How the BUCK did this get on the mother bucking floor?! Who the hey did... This... Uh..."
Shiny trailed off as she noticed how much wider Button's eyes had gotten. She groaned inwardly as his mouth began to form the shape of an evil "I'm totally going to tell my parents the words I just learned" grin. Desperately searching for anything to prevent the coming nightmare, Shiny's eyes came to rest on the new Ponymon game being displayed across the room.
Hurriedly traversing the advertisement-filled space, Shiny grabbed the game and shoved it into Button Mash's surprised grip.
"This never happened." Shiny said emotionlessly. Button's face swelled with a grin that could have cut his head into two parts.
"Oh my gosh ohmygosh." Button squealed. "Thank you!" Shiny sighed in relief as he bolted out the door in a brown blur, all thoughts of what he had just heard removed by the new game.
Shiny got to work sweeping up the broken game and holding a short funeral. Not much was said, but all of the one ponies involved agreed that it was quite moving.
With that crisis taken care of, Shiny glanced at the clock. It read eleven, which she thought was as good of a time for a lunchbreak as any. Sticking up an 'out to lunch' sign for good measure, Shiny strode out the door, orienting herself in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. She walked purposefully and unflinchingly for about three strides before she was forced to jump out of the way as the fabric of reality shifted. The rift in space unceremoniously burst forth a clone of Twilight Sparkle, who proceeded to run down the road while cackling manically and turning little foals into banana yogurt.
"Damn those out of character writers." Shiny cursed, brushing herself off from her run-in with the newly written pony.
The rest of her stroll was more or less uneventful, with the only complication being an over-ardent Ox-Y-Clean salespony. Shiny finally breathed in the rich and delicious smells wafting out of the bakery as she pushed open the door. Her sigh of happiness quickly transformed into a gasp of horror as she witnessed one of the resident bakers and Element of Harmony, Pinkie Pie, embed a carving knife deep into the stomach of another pony strapped to a metal table.
"Holy shit!" Shiny cried, her hooves and wings flailing in a futile but hilarious attempt to run away quickly on the polished marble flooring. Pinkie turned around, knife in hoof, frosting dripping from the blade...
Frosting?
"Oh, hiyah!" Pinkie giggled cheerily. "Just cutting up the cake for the Nightmare Night celebration tomorrow!"
Shiny was rendered speechless as she realized that the pink mare had only been cutting a realistic-looking cake.
"Oh." She articulately stated. "I forgot all about Nightmare Night." She thought. "Maybe that explains the increase in Nightmare Moon rebanishings."
Pinkie set down her knife and sighed. "Yah know, I've been losing alot of business to these meany-weany rumors that I cut up ponies and bake them in my goodies. It's absolutivily ridiculous! Like I would ever cut up other ponies, ponies taste terrible! And, yah know, that's not very nice."
"Yeah, I've heard that ponies tend to not take being chopped up too kindly." Shiny joked, deciding to ignore Pinkie's observation on the taste of ponies.
Pinkie snorted good-naturedly, before setting the knife down and heading behind the counter.
"So, what'll it be?" Pinkie asked, gesturing to the display of pastries. Shiny licked her lips at the delectable goodies stacked high and dripping with sugar. When it came down to the cooking abilities of the Cakes and Pinkie, it was just so hard to choose. Her eyes eventually came to rest upon a confection resembling a doughnut that somehow got made into a sunflower and poppy sandwich, her favorite.
"Oh, whatever that is looks amazing." Shiny sighed in delight, already imagining the satisfying crunch of the sunflower. "How much for it?"
"How does ten bits sound?"
Shiny's wallet seemed to convulse at this new information, but her stomach had lost interest in anything not concerning the sweet, sweet confection.
"Uh, nine bits?" She suggested hesitantly. Pinkie was quite friendly, but her unorthodox bargaining skills were nearly legendary. Shiny involuntarily shrunk down slightly at the thoughtful look on the mare's face.
"Alrighty then!" Pinkie burst out, startling Shiny and causing her mismatched tail and mane to poof up in surprise.
Shiny quickly deposited the bits on the counter, and carefully received her pastry. Holding the treat as if it were a fragile artifact, she sat herself down at a nearby table to graciously stuff her face. The sweetness of the doughnut complemented the slightly nutty flavor of the poppy, and was balanced by the juicy crunchiness of the sunflower. It was like eating pure culinary genius.
At least, that's what her subconscious observed as she continued to greedily devour the delicious deli delight.
"Ahhh." Shiny leaned back, patting her stomach happily. Meanwhile, her wallet sat back grumpily, irritated that it never got any recognition. Or, it would have, if it was capable of these actions.
Time, however, was much more active than the fictitious personality of a wallet, and Shiny could not help but notice it's steady march forwards.
"Time to go sit behind a counter and catalog stuff." She sighed, reluctant to leave the warm and inviting bakery. Straining with the effort, Shiny started to wrench herself away from the shop's sweet atmosphere. Each hoofstep was nearly painful, as the overpowering urge to procrastinate threatened to turn her legs to jelly.
"No." Shiny gasped quietly. "I... Will be... Productive!" with a final lurching stride, she made it out the door.
"Thanks for stopping by and come again soon!" Pinkie giggled as the door swung shut.
Shiny, fueled by her drive for productivity, turned to head straight back to the shop. She was thoroughly surprised when she saw the police barricade around the GameGo, with signs hanging from newly erected posts reading "Caution: possible l33t poisoning, do not approach".
"Well would you look at that, it is contagious." Shiny chuckled, deciding to take an extra-long shower when she got home.
With the shop closed, she really had no reason to not head home now. Even if she did stay in Ponyville for the rest of the day, what were the possibilities of something fun going on on a Tuesday?
Ignoring the soundly presented argument that she had just proposed to herself, Shiny set off down another street. A few shops appeared mildly interesting, but none enough to warrant entering them. Eventually, her wanderings led her to a group of changelings lounging around a large bulletin board.
"-3- Days since last changeling invasion!" the board read, causing Shiny to roll her eyes at the irony of the situation. One of the changelings noticed her presence, yawning lazily at her.
"Boo." It sighed halfheartedly, and Shiny shrugged. It was kinda scary, she could give it that.
"Ahh." She cried sarcastically, and the changeling gave her a sideways smile before kicking the number on the board back to zero.
Shiny chuckled, then continued her walk. No-one was really frightened of the changelings anymore, especially after Chrysalis was defeated. Besides, there were really only so many times that a pony could get chased through town by something before they just stoped caring. The mutual relationship seemed to be working quite well for both races as far as Shiny could see, or at least, neither race was bothering the other too much.
Shiny's pace eventually took her to the town hall, the center of the city at the corner of Main Street and Mane Street.
It's always so hard to give directions to this intersection. Shiny commented to herself, before settling down at a bench across from the hall. Ponies of all sorts came through here, most of them visiting or adventuring OCs. Zebras, humans and griffons chatted casually with the many, many alicorns by the stands or on the town hall's steps, giving the place a lively and colorful atmosphere. A few other ponies; earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi like her, walked through the area much less frequently. They almost seemed like background noise to the extravagant figures scattered around.
Shiny sighed, her head lowered. Was that really all she thought of her fellow 'regular' OCs? Was that all she really was? Just background noise for the dances of another, more extravagant pony's life?
Even her cutie mark, which makes a pony unique, wasn't much of a source of confidence for her. A recolored sprite from her favorite Ponymon game gazed back at her, it's presence an affirmation of her talent as a graphic designer. When she had first gotten it as a kid, it seemed like she knew just where her life was headed, like her future was bright. She hadn't predicted that she would be stuck working in a GameGo for five years, becoming just another pony that everyone else simply passed by.
Shiny straightened, a determined look on her face. Lifting her hoof, she slapped herself so hard that she toppled off of the bench.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself." She scolded herself from the ground. "That won't change anything."
Her sideways perspective was suddenly blocked out by a pair of yellow legs. "Umm, excuse me? Miss? Are you okay?"
"Peachy." Shiny affirmed, looking up. It was Fluttershy.
Shiny immediately scrambled to her hooves. "Oh! So sorry, Fluttershy! I didn't mean to be rude or anything! I was just, err, getting a new perspective! Haha, yeah! What, uh, what are you doing in town today?"
Fluttershy seemed unconvinced with her excuse, but the shy pegasus moved on.
"I was just stocking up on some food for Angel, and I thought you were hurt. Please don't fool people like that, it isn't very nice."
"Um, I wasn't. I mean, I didn't, uh, I was just, well... Yeah, okay, I won't" Shiny smiled nervously, hoping that the Element of Harmony wasn't too mad with her.
Fluttershy smiled politely in farewell, leaving Shiny's grin to fade. "Well. That was awkward."
At this point, the sun was just starting to dip below the horizon, with bright pinpricks of light from the distant stars winking into view high above. A bright orange and red glow covered everything with a blanket of warm color as the daylight faded into night, it's long hours celebrated in a final, majestic display. The ponies slowly filtered out from the roads, withdrawing into cozy homes and brilliantly lit clubs to enjoy the night. Shiny stayed on her self-proclaimed sympathy bench until everypony had left the road in moonlit silence.
She got up, stretching, and walked into the middle of the deserted street. Lights shone cheerily from homes where families sat eating dinner, while distant and muffled thumps came from nearby restaurants and bars that were apparently testing the durability of their speakers. The moon shone down onto the road, washing it in cold, monochromatic light.
Her previous thoughts returning, Shiny closed her eyes to simply bask in the calming moonlight. Her mind wandered to the stars up above, twinkling brightly in the night but entirely invisible in the day. They were a lot like the background ponies, only there when they were wanted to be seen.
A strange thought popped into Shiny's head. What happens to an OC after their story is written? Do they continue to live in Ponyville? Are they sent somewhere else? Do they disappear? Or are they, Sisters forbid, Forgotten?
"I don't want to be Forgotten." Shiny whispered to the distant stars. "I don't want to fade away. I want to be remembered."
Silence ruled over the road for a long while before Shiny finally sighed, chuckling slightly.
"All this free time has gotten me melodramatic." She explained to the empty road, pushing down her loneliness. "Maybe I just need a drink to cheer me up."
After the road didn't respond, Shiny turned back down Mane Street. There was a little hole-in-the-wall bar, The Prancing Pony, that served a great home-made hard cider just near the end of the road. Finding it, Shiny pushed open the heavy oak door.
Her eyes were met with a pleasantly low-lit room, big enough to fit the bar but still small enough to give a cozy feel. A stereo sitting on the far end of the bar played some soft music that melded well with the quiet chatter of a few ponies. The place was populated by a couple ponies sitting in booths along the walls or lounging at the bar, though it was far from crowded. Despite its great quality, The Prancing Pony was relatively unknown.
Shiny took a stool at the bar, signaling the unicorn mixing drinks for a hard cider. After a friendly nod and a few moments of waiting, the pony slid a mug of light-amber liquid towards her. With a clink of some bits on the counter, Shiny downed a few gulps of the brew. It was just as delicious as she remembered it being, and soon she was staring forlornly down an empty mug. Shiny reached for her wallet just in time to realize that she was now broke. She never carried many bits with her, and her sandwich earlier had nearly cleaned her out.
"Huh." She slid the empty mug back down the counter. "That was short lived."
Down the bar, a pony slammed down their drink, throwing their hooves in the air wildly.
"Another! These are sooooo great!" A painfully familiar voice cried, before a smaller figure next to the pony tugged it's hooves back down.
"Come on, Twi." The little figure growled in annoyance. "You have by far had enough."
"Ahh." Shiny shook her head. "Another out of character Twilight Sparkle fic. They even wrote in Spike."
"Nope! I, hic, am a princess. And I think I'm good... for just one more."
"Ohh, an out of character Princess Twilight fic. Creative."
Shiny simply put her head down on the bar. I really don't wanna hear this right now.
"Ma'am, if you can't take one cider, I don't think you should be drinking." Shiny looked up to see the unicorn behind the counter standing in front of her, trying to get her attention while simultaneously cleaning a mug with his magic.
"It's not the drink." Shiny sighed. "It's the company."
The unicorn gave her a knowing smile as his gaze drifted to the purple alicorn further down the bar. "Aren't out of character ponies so interesting?" He sighed sarcastically. "I get them in here all the time."
"Do you ever wonder what it's like to be a clone of another pony?" Shiny asked, her attention dominated by 'Twilight' as she struggled to remove her drink from her young assistant's grasp.
"I can't even imagine." The unicorn sighed, picking up another dirty mug with his magic. "It must be terrible for the actual Mane Six. Us other ponies sometimes can't even tell who's real! It's just the Mirror Pond incident all over again."
This got a chuckle for Shiny, but an even louder laugh from down the bar. Shiny and the bartender both groaned as 'Twilight' literally dragged herself into the conversation.
"Oh, that was sooo messed up. Too many Pinkies, waaay too many Pinkies." The purple alicorn's smile slowly slipped off of her face, dripping into a scowl.
"Now it's too many Twilights." She muttered, before slamming her hoof down on the bar, her wings spread behind her.
"I'm sick and bucking tired of these bucking clones!" Twilight raged, while Spike rubbed between her wings, trying in vain to calm his thoroughly drunken friend.
"It's not enough that I still have to follow the script for, I dunno, the actual bucking show. Ohhh, no! I have to be used in every single fanfiction under the sun! Do you know how many people write me wrong? Pretty much bucking everypony! I am sick and tired of these mother-bucking clones in this mother-bucking town! And then all the humans and the alicorns came and the oh i'm-so-special and blah! That's a whole 'nother problem there! Princess of Friendship my sparkly ass, how about the Prince of Power who I finalized the paperwork for last week or, I know, The Princess of Rainbows? Bucking rainbows!"
Twilight, who Shiny was no longer certain about the authenticity of, growled into her mug. "I deserve a drink."
Spike simply rolled his eyes. "At least you aren't a gag character." He sighed. "Everypony just laughs at me."
Shiny, in turn, rolled her eyes. "At least you guys are characters. I'm just an OC that shares a name with a Ponymon. Hay, half of my story was written after midnight. I don't know if anypony is gonna even laugh at me."
Then it was the bartender's time to roll his eyes. "At least you have a story, I'm just a side character in a fanfiction. I don't even have a name."
Shiny and Spike both patted the unicorn's hoof in sympathy. "That's rough, man." Spike said.
Twilight was still caught on Shiny's remark, though. "It ain't so great to be the main character." She grumbled. "No-pony ever seems to realize that I have my own problems and things to do! I'm not just here to filter through the stories of everypony else, I've got no time to go on useless adventures with 'seventh' and 'eighth Elements of Harmony'. Humph. Those stories leave me with enough paperwork anyways..."
Twilight downed her drink, smacking her lips at the delicious, crisp taste. "Speaking of paperwork, I have some to get back to. Thanks for the conversation."
Setting her drink down on the bar, the alicorn stumbled to the door, her assistant scurrying up to help her. Shiny and the barpony merely sat waving until they were out of sight.
"Was that the real Twilight Sparkle?" Shiny finally asked, her tone expressionless.
"I have no idea." The barpony answered with equal inflection.
Sighing, Shiny got up from the bar and stretched her wings. " I better head home too. Got work tommorrow. Thanks for the drink."
"You paid for it." The unicron shrugged, but he smiled anyways. "Come back again!"
A few minutes later, Shiny cut through the cool night air, her wings pumping to gain the altitude needed to reach her home. It was well in to the night now, and the lights were all off in the neighborhood. Landing silently so as not to awaken her neighbors, Shiny stumbled up her stairs and collapsed on her bed of clouds. The moon shone through her blinds, but as Shiny contemplated her conversation with 'Twilight Sparkle', both her life and the glowing beams didn't seem so cold and lonely anymore.
Or, it could have just been the narrative coming to a dramatic ending.
Author's Note
Alright, so this was just a side project to clear my head so I could go back to my other story with an open mind and a little less frustration. It was kinda funny, so I decided to publish it. I also haven't seen many stories like this, so I thought I may as well add to the variety. I hope everypony enjoys it!
Also, because I probably have to say this, any characters from My Little Pony, Friendship Is Magic belong to Hasbro and not to me. The name 'giratina' also does not belong to me, but is owned by Nintendo and Pokemon.
With that out of the way, please leave a comment and like and fave! (Um, if that's okay with you, that is.)
