The Idea Bin

“Three likes!” Twilight bellowed, staring at her computer screen with barely disguised rage. “What kind of crap is this?! Who wasn’t pulling their weight?”

Turning in her swivel chair she came face to face with Spike and Owlowiscious, the former looking at the ground nervously while the latter stared passively back at her.

“Well?!” Twilight repeated when neither of them answered.

“I don’t know what to say Twilight,” Spike began tentatively. “Three likes isn’t bad, and you didn’t get any dislikes at all. So if you think about it, you have the best ratio you could hope for.”

“But my stories never do so poorly,” Twilight whined, looking back at the screen. “I know I’m no A K Yearling, but I usually get a few more likes than this straight after publishing, and that’s not even mentioning how many ponies favourite it.”

“How many did?” Spike asked warily.

“Two,” Twilight replied bitterly.

“Ouch,” Spike uttered.

“Hoo!”

“I don’t know who they are,” Twilight replied to her pet, forgetting that was just the noise he made. “Ponies never use their real names on these sites.”

“Maybe ponies just don’t care for the format,” Spike proposed. “A bunch of really short stories with no connectivity, not exactly a literary masterpiece.”

“That’s the point Spike,” Twilight shot back as if she were stating the obvious. “They’re supposed to brief enough that anypony can read one in a few minutes, quick shots of entertainment that don’t take up much time. I was sure it was the recipe for success.”

“So what do you expect us to do about it?” Spike asked after a moment of silence.

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted exasperatedly. “Tell your friends about them, post links to them on your social network accounts.”

“I think ponies would find us really sad if we did that,” Spike retorted, earning a glare from Twilight.

“Fine then mister socially aware,” Twilight snapped, standing up from her chair and levitating Spike into it instead. “In that case, you can be in charge of raking in the likes for this story.”

“Me?!” Spike repeated, his eyes widening. “Why me?”

“Because Spike, I seriously doubt that this failure would be due to the actions of an intelligent and well-read pony such as myself,” Twilight reasoned haughtily. “And if I’m not to blame, then clearly you are in some way.”

With that Twilight began to storm away from the desk.

“You’re Princess Celestia’s student!” Spike called after her. “You’re supposed to be doing work, not obsessing over fanfictions!”

His shouts were to no avail however as the library door was slammed shut behind Twilight. Sighing, Spike slumped into the chair and looked at the screen. How would he ever increase the popularity of this mess Twilight insisted on calling a story? Spike knew as well as anypony that despite all the books Twilight had read, she was only a mediocre author.

Reaching out, Spike grabbed the mouse and began clicking through a few different screens. With a few clicks he changed the story rating from ‘teen’ to ‘mature’ before adding the ‘sex’ tag.

“That should do it,” Spike said confidently to himself before saving his changes and walking away.

As Spike walked into the kitchen to find some ice cream, Owlowiscious was left alone in the main library wondering why everyone he knew was so stupid.