Author's Note
This story has a bit of history to it.
One thing that might not be obvious is that this story is exactly a thousand words, or it was before I copied it into fimfiction. It might be counting the authors note and/or tags as words or something. Copy it into a word counter and it still shows the right number.
A while back, there was a thread where palelordhiphis had posted the steps of a heroes journey and had a chart breaking down roughly how many words each section should be for different lengths of story.
I noticed that it went down to one hundred words, and just for fun, I decided to write a one hundred word story with exactly that number of words in each section. I did, and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I couldn't publish it, though. I put it in a blog, but that still bugged me.
So now I've expanded it to a thousand words, and I still followed how many words go in each section. There are spots that I'd have liked to have spent more time on or worded better, but I think I like it, and hopefully you do too.
As a bonus, I'm adding the original one hundred word version as a second chapter.
A Filly's Journey
Noi was a perfectly ordinary filly. She liked reading books and playing games as much as anypony else. She did like things to be neat and tidy, but didn't most ponies?
On this particular Sunday, Noi was busy cleaning up her room when there was a knock on her door.
She opened it to find her best friend Bloo staring back at her. It seemed like Bloo was always up to some sort of mischief. Her packed saddlebags and the grin on her face said that she had something special planned for today.
"Let's go on an adventure!"
An adventure?
Looking back towards her room, it was still going to take a while to finish. And didn't she have something else she was supposed to be doing?
"No, Bloo, I'm kinda busy right now. Can't it wait?"
Bloo blinked, as if the thought of Noi refusing hadn't occurred to her.
"It'll be a lot of fun, though! And I can't go without you!"
"But-"
"You must," Twilight Sparkle said, stepping towards them. Noi looked at her, startled. Maybe she had teleported in? Of course, she was a princess. If Twilight wanted her to go, her room would have to wait.
"Okay," the two of them said, Noi a bit more reluctantly than Bloo.
"But why do we have to go?" she asked, but Twilight was already gone. What a strange day this was already turning out to be.
Noi grabbed her saddlebags, and the two of them set off together.
It wasn't that long after the two of them left that Noi realised what had been in the back of her mind to do today. She groaned.
"Oh no, I forgot my math homework!"
It wasn't like she hadn't started it, but it was due tomorrow, and she needed to finish it tonight. Would she be able to finish it in time?
Bloo shrugged. "I've got it."
What? "You've got it?" she repeated blankly.
"Remember we were studying together? You left it with me. It's in my bag. We can finish on the way back."
Oh. She had been planning on stopping by Bloo's to finish it.
"Yay!" she said, relieved, as that was kind of a difficult assignment. The two of them continued on.
After they'd been walking for a while, something occurred to Noi. "Bloo, where are we going, anyways?"
Bloo stopped and rummaged through her saddlebag, her tongue sticking out, and pulled out a piece of paper.
"I found this map! 'X' marks the spot, see?"
Peering at the paper, Noi could indeed see a big red 'X' marked there.
"How long 'til we get there, then?"
"I think we're almost there, actually. Let's split up and look around for anything exciting."
The two fillies searched around the area until Noi heard Bloo call out. "Over here!"
Noi quickly tucked the neat-looking stick she'd been looking at under the strap on her saddlebag, and ran over to Bloo.
"Is that a cave ahead?"
"Yeah! Let's explore it!"
The two of them cautiously walked inside. The inside of the cave was pretty dark, but fortunately, Bloo had a flashlight. Any time they reached a corner, she'd poke the flashlight around, and they'd take a quick peek before going on.
The twisty dirt paths in the cave had claw marks along them, and all seemed rather sooty. Noi was getting more and more worried, but Bloo seemed oblivious, and she was hardly going to leave her friend behind.
Finally, looking around one bend, a big scowling dragon was looking straight back at them!
"Roar!"
Bloo just stood there, petrified with fear.
Thinking fast, Noi pulled her stick from her back and whacked the dragon right between the eyes. It fell to the ground, motionless.
Wide-eyed, Bloo looked at Noi. "D'ya think it's dead?"
Still in shock at what she'd done, Noi went a little closer, and then spotted a whisp of smoke coming from one nostril.
"Just knocked out, I think. Let's check."
"Are you sure that's safe?"
Noi very much doubted it was, but she slowly walked right up to the dragon, and it just lay there. As she got closer, she could see a bump forming on its head, making her start feeling a little guilty.
It was laying on all sort of gems and gold and glittery, shiny objects, though, and some of them looked pretty neat.
"Come on, Bloo! We'll be fine."
Bloo reluctantly walked over, and they filled both of their saddlebags before leaving.
After they'd gotten safely away, Noi realised something was bothering her.
"Was taking those things really right? They were the dragons, after all, and we were in its cave."
"I doubt it's going to complain to anyone, Noi."
"Yeah, but-"
"Besides, some things had other ponies' names on them. They were probably stolen."
"Well, alright, I guess." Noi said. "What about our homework, though?"
"You and homework!" Bloo sighed. Since there weren't many problems left, they stopped and finished it before heading back.
"We had plenty of time to finish our homework tonight, you know," Bloo grumbled, as they finally reached Ponyville’s outskirts.
"But now we've already finished it, so that time's ours to do whatever we want. That's why I don't put it off too long."
"That's quite right." They turned to find Miss Cheerilee behind them, smiling.
"Oh, um, hi, Miss Cheerilee," Bloo stammered. "We were just-"
"Just giving me your homework, I believe?"
Handing Miss Cheerilee their homework, they continued to Noi’s house.
Tired, the two lay down on Noi’s bed. Emptying their saddlebags, they heaped everything into one big pile and started figuring out what was somepony else's and what they wanted.
"I still wonder why Twilight wanted us to go, though," Noi said, dropping a necklace in her pile.
"I've got an idea about that," Bloo replied, holding up a circular purple pendant. Engraved on the outside was "Twilight Sparkle".
"Huh. Wonder what that's for?"
That, however, was a story for another day.
The End.
