Filly Crimson Ink stood in front of the large teepee that held the writing competition. She had been waiting a half a year to work up the nerve and enter, ever since they first moved to Ponyville. Like all pegasi, Crimson was born in Cloudsdale, but her family moved all over the place when she turned four. They finally decided upon a good home in Ponyville, and haven't moved since. A half a year was a good amount of time, even for her family!
When they first moved in, Crimson got word that a writing competition had just ended, and that a filly named Diamond Tiara had won. When school started, she met this Diamond Tiara, along with her friend Silver Spoon, and they were, in her humble opinion, jerky little brats that only fed off of torment.
"I never said that!" Crimson said as she started to walk into the tent.
Well, sure, but, you thought it, right?
"Yes, but I never said it."
It's the same thing. Anyways, about two months later, she met the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and had been friends with them ever since. They all decided to join the writing competition together, in hopes at least one will get there cutie mark.
"Uh, I think they got that." Crimson said with an agitated tone. She was touchy-feely about being a blank flank.
"You don't have to tell them that!" She screamed through gritted teeth.
Ok, ok, sorry. Geesh.
"There ya are, Crimson!" Apple Bloom called. "We signed ya up ahead a time. Hope ya don't mind. Twilight told us our stories are due in two weeks."
"This is going to be so EXCITING!" Sweetie Bot exclaimed.
"Hey, don't call her that!" Crimson complained, looking up.
Sorry. Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"Don't call her what?" Scootaloo asked.
Crimson had a small smug look on her face. "Never mind."
"Oh, look!" An annoying voice called from behind the quadruple. "We have four blank flanks here, trying to get there cutie marks in writing!"
Apple Bloom turned around. "Be quiet, Diamond. There's tons a filly's here who don't have their cutie mark yet!"
Silver Spoon scoffed. "Yeah, they don't have a chance at beating Diamond Tiara." Everypony within earshot, which was quite a few, looked disappointed. Some of the younger filly's started to cry.
"They just don't have a chance because your dad has been running this whole contest for six years!" Scootaloo pointed out.
"Yeah? So?"
"So, of course your dad picked you over all these years. Your his daughter! Now that Twilight's running this operation, you'd probably lose against someone who has, as my sister would say, 'better taste'. Sweetie Belle explained. Diamond looked infuriated at this comment, making the trio all smug. All except for Crimson, who had no clue what they were talking about.
"Actually, I do know what there talking about. I just don't feel like being smug about this right now."
Yeah, sure.
"It's true!"
"Who in the hay are you talking too?" Silver asked.
"Oh! Uh...Nopony. Nopony whatsoever." Crimson said quickly, trying to cover up her mistake.
"Riiight...well, we need to go now..." The two snobby rich ponies backed up slowly, then ran out of the tent, trying to get as far away from Crimson as possible.
"Don't worry, Crimson. They're just bullies. We don't think your crazy. Scootaloo said.
"Thanks! That's not hurtful at all!" Crimson said, but it was most likely not intended for Scootaloo.
Oh, your welcome.
"What's the theme?" Crimson asked.
"Oh, Twilight didn't say. She just said ta put your mind an' heart inta it, an' that it's due in two weeks." Apple Bloom explained, looking a little embarrassed.
"OK. Why don't we get together and check on each others stories next week?" Crimson suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Scootaloo cheered.
"Meet us in the clubhouse next week. We'll look over it then." Sweetie Belle agreed.
Crimson soon left the teepee, due to the fact that it was a school night. As she ran home, a thousand plus ideas for a story ran amuck in her head. None had any good or clear ending that she could see.
A week later, Crimson still had no clue what she would write about. She was extremely hesitant to go to the CMC meeting, but, she decided to try anyways. Climbing up the steps to the clubhouse gave her butterflies as she tried to figure out what to say. If she went to straight forward, she might come off as if she didn't try at all.
If she lied to much, and said she was working on a story better than all of theirs combined, she would come off as an awful bragger. Plus, they would want to see. Taking a deep breath, she decided just to tell it as it is. There was no harm in that, right? Her friends would understand, anyways. She stepped to the door, prepared to say...
"I've got nothing." Scootaloo said once Crimson opened her mouth. Hearing this, Crimson quickly shut it in shock, and to look like she wasn't going to say anything. No, just say it. They'll understand.
"Me too." She agreed.
The CMC looked extremely disappointed.
"We all don't have any idea fer a story, and the deadlin' is a week away!" Apple Bloom complained.
"Well, I think I have the...starts of one?" Sweetie said. "I mean, I started my story, but, I have no idea where to go from there."
"What do you have so far?" Crimson asked.
"There."
"Oh." Crimson cringed. "OK."
"I just wish at least one a us would have one idea! Otherwise, signin' up for this was a lost cause." Apple Bloom cried.
"Oh, don't say that." Scootaloo tried to put on a positive tone. "We'll probably get an idea soon."
Crimson was deep in thought, trying to think of a way that they could fix this whole mess. Then, and idea struck her. Her eyes widened and she stared into space as the idea started to form.
"Uh, Crimson? You OK?" Scootaloo asked. They all looked at her with a worried look in there eye.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-"
"I-I-I-I think she's broken." Sweetie said.
"I gotta run." Crimson called in a rush, so it sounded like "eye lotta fun". She took off at top speed to her house. She didn't want any part of her story to slip away. After dodging an elder pony and a crowd of school filly's, she finally reached her home. She grabbed a lined sheet of paper, her favorite pen that help Crimson-colored ink, and started to write. She could feel it in her wings that this one would win the contest for sure!
Tomorrow would be the day the writing contest ended. Today, everypony had to turn in their stories. Earlier that week in school, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom told her they had an idea and were working on there story. They seemed enthralled about it. Later that same day, Scootaloo stopped by the club house and said she couldn't join the meeting, because she was 'in the zone' of writing her story.
Now, they all stood in line, bouncing excitedly, Scootaloo fanning her wings as fast ash she could, and Crimson hovering just a couple inches above the ground.
Soon, it was finally their time to turn in their stories.
"Oh, hello." Twilight acknowledged Crimson. "Are you new here?"
"Kind of...I moved here six months ago..."
"SIX MONTHS?!" The princess obviously was shocked that she didn't know about a family moving to Ponyville. "Do you know Pinkie Pie?"
"Do I ever. She's thrown, like, 20 parties for me and my family ever since we moved here." Crimson explained.
"Well, that's Pinkie for you. I remember when I first moved here. I was just a unicorn then. I-"
"KEEP IT MOVING, WILL YA?!" Somepony shouted from outside the teepee. Twilight looked in his direction with a disgusted face.
"The manners of some ponies..." She murmured under her breath. "Ok, well, i see you have quite a story there."
"Yup." Crimson agreed.
Twilight levitated the story over to the stack of paper that was piling up. "Your contestant number 073." She said. "It was nice talking to you."
"You too." Crimson said casually. Then walked off and waited for her friends.
Crimson hardly slept that night. She kept having dreams about the writing contest. Some were good, like she winning and Diamond Tiara bowing down to her, while the whole town lifted her up and gave her money and candy. Others were bad, such as Diamond Tiara winning, growing ten times her size, then smushing the CMC under her hoof.
Poor Crimie-
"Don't call me that." Crimson said to the celing.
Sorry. Poor Crimson had the nightmares more than anything, and kept waking up in a rush, with a gasp and sweating. She knew this would be a long night.
Crimson arrived at the teepee an hour early. Her friends had agreed to meet at the clubhouse, then go to the teepee, but, Crimson was far too anxious.
"I'm not anxious!" The pink pegasus called. "I'm just excited! I have go really good feeling about this in my wings."
Well, aren't you nervous too?
"Yeah... kind of..."
That's called being anxious.
"No." Crimson said. "I'm nervacited."
That's not even a word!
"I don't really care." She said, walking towards a stage that was sent up behind the teepee. "I don't like the word anxious."
Oh, okay. You could've just said that.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo ran up to her that moment. "What don't y'all care about?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I don't care if I win or not." Crimson lied.
"Was Diamond Tiara here?" Scootaloo asked. Crimson shook her head. "I hate that filly so much!"
"We all do." Sweetie Belle said. "But we shouldn't dwell on her. We should focus on the fact that Twilight is going to announce the winner any second!
Sure enough, the Princess of Friendship herself was walking up to a podium. Crimson didn't even notice the crowd that had gathered around until now. She and her friends were at the front.
"Hello, everypony, and welcome to the seventh annual writing competition!" Twilight called. "We have had many, many excellent stories come by. However, only three are lucky enough to succeed!"
The crowd cheered at that.
"In third place, we have Sunny Daze with her story, 'Soon I Will'!" Everypony cheered wildly as a yellow filly with a white mane trotted onstage and received her trophy. She smiled as many flashes went off, thanked the princess, then walked off stage. Twilight had to calm down the crowd before she spoke again.
"In second, we have Pipsqueak with is story 'Nightmares in the Day'!" The crowd cheered again as Pipsqueak ran onstage in his Nightmare Night outfit. Some laughed politely. "Thank ya, Twilight!" He said as he ran off with his trophy in his mouth.
"Finally, in first place, we have...drum roll, please..." About 100 hooves started pounding the ground, sounding, and feeling more like an earthquake more than anything.
Twilight waved her hoof, and the crowd abruptly stopped. "CRIMSON INK WITH HER STORY 'CUTIE MARK ADVENTURES'!!!" The crowd's cheer was deafening, as Crimson blindly made her way up the stage. She was waiting for somepony to call out at any second: "You just got pranked! Your not the real winner at all!"
But that didn't happen. Instead, she got a giant gold trophy. Then, she started to feel tingly. The crowd stopped cheering and gasped. Her parents started crying. There were some whoop's from the crowd.
"What did I do?" Crimson asked.
Her CMC friends excitedly pointed at her flank. Crimson lifted her wing and saw something that wasn't there before. "I got my cutie mark! I got my cutie mark!!" She exclaimed, jumping around wildly.
Twilight was trying to get the crowds attention. "Everypony? Listen, everypony!! LISTEN!" She screamed. The whole crowd stopped and stared.
"Thank you." Twilight said, regaining herself. "Now, I didn't just choose Crimson's story because she moved here six months ago. I choose it because it spoke to me. It was inspiring, to say the least." She looked at Crimson. "Do you mind if I read it out loud?"
Still ecstatic about her cutie mark, Crimson nodded. "Go ahead."
When I first moved here, I had no clue what was expected from me. Ponyville was so different from the other places I'd been too. I was alone for the first couple of weeks, to scared to go outside and screw something up royal.
Crimson's story was five pages long, all about what school was like, and how hanging out with the CMC felt. The last page was when Crimson was in the clubhouse on the day she got her idea.
As they stood there, all with disappointed looks on their faces, I knew I had to do something to help. I had never seen my friends so sad! Suddenly, I had no idea what took over me. My vision went black, my pupils probably went twice as large was they are now, if that's possible. To much information gathered in my brain. I heard one of them ask if I was OK. I don't know what I responded with, though.
I ran out, and they probably thought I was the strangest pony out there, for that moment. But, if it wasn't for my friends, and them letting me join there club, I would literally be at a loss for words. So, thank you, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Even if I don't win, your friendship is the greatest prize there is.
After the contest, the CMC and Crimson walked back to the club house. All enthusiastic about her winning and her cutie mark. Making up different ideas for what it could mean. When it turned dusk, she trotted home, getting many congratulations along the way.
"Mom? Dad?" She asked as she opened the door. She had something she wanted to say to them.
"Yes, sweetie?" Her mom asked.
"Can we stay here? I don't really want to move anymore."
"Well, I think that's appropriate, considering you got your cutie mark and some really good friends here." Her dad said.
Crimson beamed and went in for a group hug. She didn't want her life any other way.
