Author's Note

Received hon mensh (runner-up) distinction in this month's contest.

December 2024: "A Good Meal" (hon mensh)

Getting Granular

It wasn’t the only breakfast Sunset ever ate. She’d long ago diversified her palate; it had been a necessity in a body whose taste buds rarely desired the same thing twice.

But oatmeal was a comfort food. It hadn’t always been, but it was now.

Growing up, Sunset had always preferred hay over oats. Much of Canterlot considered it a plebian taste more suited to Dodge Junction than the capital, but most of Canterlot never liked her either.

When she’d traded one Canterlot for another, though, she was horrorstruck to find her digestive system rejected hay – fries, burgers, and raw alike.

And thus, as the sun rose, Sunset grabbed her box, shook out the oats, poured the milk, sprinkled the cinnamon, and indulged.

It was a simple indulgence. Most of her friends wouldn’t think of it as one at all.

But what the hay. It was for her.