It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. Celestia's golden sun hung high in the sky whilst gentle breezes carried the scents of fresh flowers. Upon a lush green meadow near the Everfree Forest, the Mane Six enjoyed a picnic. Well, all except Pinkie Pie, who was helping the Cakes with baking at Sugarcube Corner. Twilight sat reading a thick tome from her vast library. Rainbow Dash lay on her back sunning herself, sporting her trademark black sunglasses. Applejack ate a piece of apple pie while Rarity sipped on sweet tea. Fluttershy enjoyed watching the squirrels and rabbits play happily upon the grass.
"Timberwolves!"
The five ponies jumped to their hooves. "That sounded like Apple Bloom!" said Applejack, bounding off towards the forest with the other four close behind.
The ponies sprinted across the meadow, their hearts racing. Timberwolves! Apple Bloom must be in danger! If those beasts got to her before they did, Apple Bloom would be torn limb from limb! Applejack led the group, with fear in her heart, but with a grim determination to fight a whole pack of wolves by herself to save her sister. The five reached the edge of the meadow - nothing.
"Where the hay is she?" asked a visibly shaken Applejack.
The five ponies stood there looking for signs of a struggle. Anything – hoof prints… fur… blood. It was deadly quiet. Only the faint rustle of the wind through the trees could be heard. Then, slowly, the five ponies began to hear soft giggles.
"Who's there?" demanded Applejack.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo emerged from behind a bush. They desperately tried to hold back their giggling, but failed and let out hoots of laughter. "We got you good!" cried Apple Bloom.
"Apple Bloom! Is this all a joke!?" yelled Applejack, the fear in her eyes being replaced with anger.
"Uh - "
"Apple Bloom ya had me scared out of ma wits!" yelled Applejack.
"Sweetie Belle, I can't believe you were in on this prank," admonished Rarity.
"Not cool," said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head at Scootaloo.
The three fillies began to realize they were in deep trouble.
"We were just pulling a prank," explained Scootaloo.
“Yeah, Rainbow Dash pulled a bunch of them,” added Sweetie Belle.
"Pranks are supposed to be good natured. This was mean," said Twilight.
The CMC exchanged glances amongst themselves. "We're sorry," said the three in unison, producing the biggest eyes and poutiest lips they could muster.
Seeing this, Applejack felt her fury die away. "Well, Ah reckon y'all learned your lesson."
"We sure did," replied Sweetie Belle.
The eight ponies stood there, looking at each other.
Dash turned to Twilight. "Uh, what's going on?"
"I don't know." An aura glowed around her horn and she teleported a thick book. Using her magic to levitate it in front of her face, she began leafing through the pages. "Okay, I think I got it."
"What is it?" asked Fluttershy, concern pervading her voice.
"According to the rules, we need to hit 1,000 words."
Looks of confusion spread among the other ponies.
"Well, how many are we up to?" asked Applejack.
"523."
"But we learned our friendship lesson. Didn't even take half an hour!" exclaimed Dash.
"Doesn't matter, we have to hit 1,000 words. It’s the rules."
"So we just have to stand here until we hit 1,000?" asked Rarity.
"Pretty much. And now we're at 568."
"No sweat. I'll just perform some of my Wonderbolt moves." Dash leapt into the sky, performing corkscrews, loops, dives, and even some flat spins. She landed on the grass. "So, we should be at 1,000 now, right?"
"606."
"Your're kidding? That didn't even add fifty words?"
"No."
"Well, how about my fabulous sun dress?" asked Rarity. She showed off her lovely yellow dress made of fine silk.
"636."
"Hmph! My dress could have easily been a thousand words on its own!"
"Well, I could give a lecture on obscure magical history starting with - "
"No Twilight, we don't need that," interjected Dash. "Fluttershy, you say something."
"Oh, I, um, have nothing to say."
"Geesh. Well, let me tell a joke," said Rainbow Dash. "Three college mares walked into a frat house and - "
"Rainbow Dash! This isn't the place for a joke rated mature," admonished Rarity.
"Yeah. We've got youngin's here," added Applejack.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Riiiight."
Twilight looked in her book. "735."
"Can’t we make this go faster?" asked a visibly frustrated Rarity.
"Give it some time,” replied Twilight.
Two hours later....
"756."
"You mean we only had 20 words in the last two hours?" cried Rainbow Dash.
"21. Every word counts. And now we’re at 780."
"Applejack, how long do we have to stay here?" whined Apple Bloom.
"Until we hit 1,000 words. Y'all remember this next time y'all think 'bout pullin' a prank."
"Well, I don't think it's too bad," spoke Fluttershy. "It's a lovely day."
"Yes, but we're forced to stay until we hit 1,000," replied Rarity.
"834."
“This is going to take forever,” complained Sweetie Belle.
Rainbow Dash took off into the air.
"What are you doing?" asked Twilight.
"Something I should have done 300 words ago!" Rainbow Dash streaked across the sky leaving her signature rainbow colored trail in her wake.
"Now what?" asked Scootaloo.
"I don't know," replied Apple Bloom.
"890."
"Ooo. We're almost there. Once we get done here, I'm going to the spa. I need some relaxation after this boring experience!" declared Rarity.
"915."
"We're so close!" cried Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah, just a little more and we're all dun!" said Applejack.
"933. Everypony keep talking! It doesn’t matter what we say!"
“I like to ride on my scooter!”
“Ah like to buck apples!”
“You should see my fabulous fall collection!”
“I can’t wait to tell Granny Smith about this!”
Just then blue and pink blurs came streaking over the horizon. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie appeared. Rainbow Dash said, "I brought the ringer! Pinkie, let 'er rip!"
The End
Author's Notes
I hope you enjoyed this story. It came to me one night and then it started nawing at my brain, screaming "Write me! Write me! Write me before you forget." I'm super busy at the office (I often push 70 hours a week) and spend what little time I have working on my other fantastic stories (shameless plugs for Dreams of the Heart and Lost Pegasus). But nevertheless I sat down and in a little over an hour, I cranked it out. It was a little challenging getting 1,000. As you can tell from my other stories, I don't have any problem with writing long fics, but the challenge was writing a short enough story that would have a beginning, middle, and end while still leaving plenty of space for the annoying loafing that the characters had to do. I think I balanced the two pretty well. It was also challenging to get it to be exactly 1,000. Towards the end, I had to trim a few words to fit Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie appearing. But then I had to go back and recount all the words throughout so that Twilight's running tab would be accurate. Oh well, I think this story turned out well.
Feel free to leave feedback (I encourage it) so that I know what you thought and how I can improve as a writer. Also let me know if you prefer my more serious work (again shameless plugs for Dreams of the Heart and Lost Pegasus), or my shorter comedic stories. In the end, I guess it doesn't matter. I'm going to finish all my stories. Plus, while I was away, I wrote a number of short comedies, so you'll be getting those of the coming months, along with some new chapters of Lost Pegasus and, if I can find a nice quite place to think and write, Dreams of the Heart.
Keep Writing,
Dreadnought
