=========== (Unfinished Writing Prompt Submission)
Prompt: Pinkie Pie is staring at you! Why?
Subtlety, you discovered, was not one of Ponyville’s strong points.
A Fillydelphia colt by birth, you thought that such a quiet, backwater little village would be a wonderful change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, having spent more than half an hour in the town, you thought that the word “eccentric” could be added to its list of descriptors.
You were standing in front of something out of a foal’s fairy tale. It was a building, (you thought,) with a roof made entirely of what looked like gingerbread. It was trimmed with frosting, covered in bits and bobs and little candy canes. The smell was mouthwatering, cupcakes and pies and every sort of confection imaginable being lovingly crafted inside the quaint little diner.
This place, you’d been told, was called Sugarcube Corner.
Well, the day ain’t getting any sweeter.
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A tiny bell above the door jingled as you entered. A jovial blue mare with a hairdo that looked suspiciously like cupcake frosting called a vague greeting over to you. Nodding back in assent, you found an empty booth and sat down. A nice place, to be sure, very...homey. Comfortable, even. Wondering if there was a menu or something, you looked across the table in front of you and-
“Woah!”
The pink mare sitting across from you didn’t blink.
You faltered, heart still racing from the pony’s sudden appearance. Her curly pink mane hung in front of her face, the protruding tuft pointed accusingly at you. Her eyes were wide and staring. Her mouth was drawn into a hard line, with the slightest downturns at the corners. Even her posture was unnatural and rigid, like she was using all her strength to not pounce across the cute little diner table and rip your moon-damned throat out.
Swallowing hard, you tried to address the pony. “Uh, can I help you?”
Nothing. You might as well have not spoken.
What was with this mare? The icy blue eyes were cutting into you now, a claw of unease working it’s way into your stomach. The more you looked into her eyes the more you started to lose yourself in them. Tearing your gaze away, you glanced around the diner, but something was wrong, the patrons were unnaturally still, some in mid bite or mid smile, unmoving. What was wrong with everyone? You nervously looked back at her. Her eyes bore into you. This wasn't normal. This wasn't how normal ponies acted. Something was wrong with her. Something was wrong with everypony in the diner. Was it the pink pony? Did she do this to them? Did she have them all look into those formless black pits until they detached from themselves?
You were sweating now, you could tell. The mare hadn’t moved an inch. Voice shaking you whispered fearfully to her still form.
“What do you want from me?”
She twitched ever so slightly.
Then, with a metallic creaking sound, her jaw slowly opened and locked in place. The harsh rasping was echoed throughout diner as all the other ponies’ mouths widened, bright eyes and glittering smiles still stuck in place. The cupcake mare was frozen in mid laugh, one hoof holding a tray of drinks, and mouth opened wide. With a warbling buzz, the not-ponies produced a single utterance, their maws unmoving.
“YOU’RE NEW.”
“New? N-new to what?”
“YOU’RE NEW.” The thing repeated, never breaking eye contact. You could hear something, now. Underneath the tinny whistle there was an unholy sound, rising and falling and clawing with it’s rotting nails at your ears and at your brain, scraping the flesh from the inside of your skull, you could feels it’s skittering noise poking out from the fleshy openings beneath your eyes, you could feel and hear and bleed and you just needed to stop stop stop be quiet and still and unbled but she doesn’t listen. She just breathes more of her death onto you in that horrible screeching voice.
“YOU’RE NEW. YOU’RE NEW. YOU’RE NEW. YOU’RE NEW.”
You retch. Something within you has broken, and suddenly you’re splayed across the diner table, hacking and coughing, and gasping for air, air that’s free of blood and noise and her. The sound is growing now, the claws are tearing and stabbing, splintering the skull bone apart and reaching down to peck at your bleeding eyes. You numbly wonder if this will ever end, or if it ever began at all. All you know now is that whirring, hissing buzz, chanting faster and faster, crushing and ending you.
“YOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEW.”
Your eyes roll upwards, and they are filled with blue.
She’s standing over you now. With a screech of rusted copper, she leans down toward your ear. Her voice now barely cuts through the terrible hiss that pervades you.
“YOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEW”
"HEY."
“YOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEWYOU’RENEW”
"YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR?"
It all blends into a hellish maelstrom of noise and copper and grey.
And just as your heart stops, she speaks.
"A PARTY."
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“And now we’re having this party! Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie hollered. After what must have been the fifteenth triple backflip, she finally concluded her story and leaned forward, beaming.
Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, sat with her mouth open, mind working furiously trying to catch up with what Pinkie had told her.
“Wait just a minute, Pinkie. I thought you said you just asked this stallion to come to his welcome party?”
Nodding vigorously, the pink pony started trotting in place while talking a mile a minute. “I did! I did I did I did! See, I was making my daily churro runs, and while I was getting my shipment from The Churro Burro, the donkey running the stand was all, ‘Say, who’s that over there?’ And I was like ‘Oh, pick me pick me, I LOVE guessing games!’ and he pointed to that pony, and the donkey was all, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen him ‘round these parts.’ And I was all, ‘Pfft, as if! That can’t be, because I know everypony in town.’ But he was RIGHT! I DIDN’T know him! So I panicked and then started hyperventillating and then I got this great idea on how to invite him to his party, so I went to Sugarcube Corner and waited for him!” She inhaled deeply before giving Twilight another trademark grin.
The alicorn blinked several times before shaking her head vigorously.
“So...why didn’t you just ask him?”
From behind the two, several bottles, punch bowls, and terrified party goers were sailing through air of the Golden Oaks Library on the receiving end of an infuriated Fillydelphian.
Pinkie Pie merely shrugged.
“Eh. Had a combo. Told me somepony was going to be hard to convince today. Anyway, who wants to play pin the tail on the pony?”
Author's Note
In hindsight, perhaps there was a reason I never finished this prompt on time.
