Platinum and Iron (a Princess Platinum short)
Platinum, not yet a princess, was a young mare at home and she hated it. Her parents' ranch was a primitive, squat ranch at the base of Canterlot mountain. She could feel the dirt. She could smell the pervasive smell of the manure that fell from the behinds of the buffalo as they toiled her parents' fields. When her father had collected her from the emmaculate gilded marble entrance of her Preparatory school in Canterlot, Iridium and Gold - friends who everypony in Canterlot agreed were future high-courtiers - had turned their pretty noses away from the stench of him. She had wanted to gag at the the spicy sweat of her father, Iron, when he went to hug her. His smell was just like the Earth pony overseers who kept the family buffalo in line, with their whips if necessary. When he spoke to her in the familiar rural idiom she bit her lip so hard that it had drawn blood.
Platinum's looked from her room as the sun set over Iron Bullion's fields. She looked away from the crops, teamsters and Buffalo that was his fortune. Her eyes flitted up the base of Canterlot mountain and the squalid Earth pony cities which were obscured by a haze of smoke rising from the foundries run by her father as well as the thousands of dung-fueled hearths of their denizens. Instead her tear-filled eyes fixed with longing on the beautiful castle at the top of the mountain.
---------------Explaining the link-------------------
The item card:
The problem card:
This was a tricky one to start with! The link between the cards and the story begins with the problem card.
The problem card (Sew Tired)
The problem represented by Sew Tired is from Magic Duel where Rarity and co are required to work for Trixie, a unicorn obsessed with being the 'highest level unicorn'. Platinum is also obsessed with her status as a unicorn and the inferiority of other ponies, which in my story is represented in various ways as an obsession with class, power and the literal high status of the castle. Buffalo are used as slaves in my story which echoes Trixie's use of the poor Ponyvillians.
The item card (Vittles stand)
This reflects Iron's role in the story. Iron is a pony of industry and wealth who is selling earth pony produce in order to make his fortune, just as AJ hoped to do with her stand. Also AJ's homely stand was rejected by the Canterlot elite just as Iron was. Iron is also oblivious to the rejection by the snooty unicorns, just as AJ was at first when she set up her stand.
The link between the item card and problem.
Like many of the Applejack-centric cards in the pony CCG (the orange cards) the link between the item and the problem is that hard-work will pay off. In the problem Rarity has to put her horn down and get to work or else Trixie will turn her hair green again etc :P AJ and her vittles stand help her to do this by given her some hearty vittles. In the story Platinum's desire to transcend Iron's lowly status is, ironically, reliant on Iron's hard-work and ability to use earth pony industry which she despises.
Hidden (An EqG Thorax/Teddy romance - mature themes but no sex)
I was half irritated and half aroused. This was my default state around Teddy ever since I realised I fancied him. Teddy had been a half-friend since the beginning of 8th Grade - although we were never close due to his preference for hanging around with the jock types. Teddy was a bit of a jock himself, while my friends had more of a bad boy rocker image (complete with studs and mohawks), and his aggressively boisterous attitude annoyed them. I could see through the bluster though, and knew that Teddy wasn't as secure about himself as he made himself appear. Secretly I yearned to comfort him, soothe him and be held by him.
We were in the cafeteria for lunch and as usual Teddy was practicing his peculiarly homoerotic brand of teasing on the lead guy in my group, Jupiter. It wasn't long before Teddy went too far for J - mussing up his Mo - and J snapped. "F- off Ted. Jesus." he snapped and got up from the cafeteria table. "I'm going down the field for a smoke." The other rockers in our group who had finished their lunch followed his lead. Teddy, who - like me - wasn't comfortable with smoking in school looked awkward. I hesitated too, wanting badly to take Teddy's hand and drag him away from the others. "Thorax you comin?" J asked. I gave Ted a look, but he was already walking away. I shrugged, feigning nonchalance, and left with J.
-----------The cards and explanation-----------
The friend
The problem
This is a fairly straightforward story. The problem Fear Itself is about ponies being scared of a spooky castle and in my story Thorax is scared to show his feelings for Teddy, and feels that Teddy is scared about showing his true self. This theme fits Thorax as he's a changeling and also he's a big softy despite being a scary Changeling (this is also why in the story Thorax associates with 'bad boys' which are akin to the bad Changelings). The friend card is Sweetie - Just a Snag which is also straightforward as Sweetie in the card is nearing the end of her own journey of self-discovery (she is using her skills to break Troubleshoes out of jail :P). Also Sweetie's development in the card is part of her CMC arc which represents the importance of self-confidence, and that is what Thorax wishes he impart to Teddy.
The relationship between the problem and solution is that the Mane 6 can overcome their histrionic fear of spooky castles by acting like the mature ponies that they are. For both Thorax and Teddy their fears can be overcome by self-confidence and building on their own identity - in the story I comment on Thorax's identity more which is his sensitive more feminine side.
