I want to write a story…

She stares at a blank page, a quill pen clutched in her magic.

“So how do I start this thing?” she mumbles, staring at the ceiling and trying to think of anything.

She’d just gotten home from work, nopony else was home, so she had stories to write. Right? She enjoyed writing, right?

All she needed was something.

“Do I write SoL story number 12 or try something new?” she mumbles, gritting her teeth.

With a sigh, she figured that she could work on ol’ reliable. The one thing she was good at.

A pegasus and a unicorn stood in the meadow, looking up at the moon. Cirrus was the pegasus’ name, and true to his name, he was thin and wispy with a light blue tint to his white fur.

The unicorn was Bubblegum, a small pink mare with frizzy hair and a smile almost as sweet as her namesake.

“I… can’t believe we made it.”

“I told you the view was incredible, right?”

The moon shone down on the meadow, illuminating the two ponies in a celestial glow.

“Wait, wait, wait…” she says, shaking her head to pull herself out of it. “This isn’t an SoL— this is a romance… that… wasn’t supposed to happen.”

She shrugs it off, eyes returning back to the page.

“I needed to write something unique anyways. It could still have a nice SoL bend to it. Something like… I don’t know…”

She growls.

“I was this close.”

She sighs, laying her quill pen down.

“Well, reconvene! We’re gonna try a coming-of-age sort of thing? Maybe.”

“You know, I didn’t actually expect to make it this far.” Cirrus said with a silly smile on his face.

“Yeah, me neither! Imagine my surprise when I learned that the stallion I had spent so much time with actually loved me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner!”

The two laughed in the light of the moon. Rolling over, Bubblegum stares up at the sky.

“Do you think our parents will care?”

“Ehh, parents never care.”

”Is that too meta?” she holds a quill up to her chin, staring absently at the ceiling once again. “Typically, the referential humor doesn’t hit. Besides, this isn’t an anime, I think the parents do care.”

“Well, you never know? Why don’t we start to head home.”

Cirrus pouted, but stood up, regrettably.

“But the moon.”

“It’s pretty yeah— but the moon’s not going anywhere!”

Bubblegum runs down the hill, laughing and dragging Cirrus along with her.

“How do I add some stakes? I guess the parents could be, like, the big problem here. But also, that’s so boring and overdone.”

She looks down at the page or so of manuscript she’s already written. It’s pretty good, but nothing all too special. Ponies probably wouldn’t care about the quality, but she did.

“Ugh, maybe I should start from the beginning. But this time, actually write a romance. Have there be some interesting stakes.”

She scratches out the entire page, and flips onto the next one.

“Well, from the beginning!”

“Come on Cirrus, I know a beautiful place we can go!”

“Come on Bubbles, where could you possibly be taking me?”

The two run in the dark of the night, one pegasus and one unicorn. One almost blends into the sky with their wispy frame, and one stands out with her gaudy pink.

“My favorite spot in the neighborhood, of course!”

“But my parents will be mad!”

“They weren’t when you came out? Come on!”

“Of course, as a Rose Thorn story the character’s gotta be trans. How many have I written at this point? Well, I don’t know what I could do with this one…”

The mumbling to herself trails off as she stares at the blank page in front of her.

“How… am I going to implement this? This almost needs more than a single short story to tell.”

She looks down at the floor.

“One which I’ll never finish of course… might as well just stick to the short story idea.”

“Come on Cirrus, just a little longer!”

“I can’t believe it…”

“What can’t you believe, oh, we’re here by the way!”

“The fact that you still love me—“

They looked up at the

“That needs a bit of fixing.”

~~They~~ Cirrus looked up at the night sky, Bubbles’ eyes sparkled, seeming to reflect the moon’s light.

“Why wouldn’t I love you?”

“Well… I’m not the stallion you thought…”

“And? You’re the pony I want, Cirrus!”

Cirrus looked down at their hooves, lightly kicking a pebble off the hill the two now sat atop of.

“I just find it hard to believe.”

“Stop it! Cirrus. I like you. There’s nothing in the world that’ll stop me from liking anypony but you. You’re cute, you’re funny, and you got that whole ‘mysterious stranger’ thing going on sometimes too…”

Cirrus looked at Bubbles, clearly confused. But, they eventually just decided to take it as a compliment.

“And… that’s about it?” Bubbles put her hoof to her chin, smile beaming brighter than even the sun.

“Soooo, what is Cirrus’ personality anyways?” The mare seems to stare at her manuscript in disgust. “Like, he— they’re nonbinary but like… that’s cool and all, but what else? I feel like I lost the manuscript somewhere.”

The mare rereads what she just wrote. “Ughhh… this is like, the end of the story anyways! I need more at the beginning.”

She flips back a few pages, past all the scribbled-out past drafts, and opens to a new page.

“12 pages better do it, right?”

The house was loud and bustling.

She looks at the single sentence she wrote, the rest of the page empty. “I… have… no idea.”

“Well, I better figure something out.”

Two ponies sat in the house, cooped up awkwardly in the bedroom. Posters of various bands lined the walls, and a full wastebasket sat in the corner.

On the bed, two ponies lie down near each other.

One of them, a wispy pegasus, lithe in construction, light blue in color, and a mystery to those that don’t know them. Next to them lay a pink unicorn, her hair frizzy, with freckles dotting her face.

“You know Cirrus, this is nice and all.”

“I know,” Cirrus said, nervously standing up and stomping their hooves a little bit.

“But, I don’t know why you invited me over.”

“Yeah…”

“Dear Celestia,” the mare groans, “and I have to redo that page anyways to remove the descriptions.”

Her eyes dart around the room— had it really been an hour? Maybe pushing on would get something done. It’s not like she had a deadline.

“But ughhh, that chemistry is negative. I don’t know what to do here!”

In the distance, a faint argument commenced as Cirrus and the pink mare gazed into each others’ eyes, examining the depth of the ‘windows into the soul‘ they both seemed to have.

“Do you have anything in mind?”

“Well, Bubbles… not really. I really didn’t plan ahead when I made these plans.”

“When will they stop?” Bubbles said, gesturing towards the closed door.

“Oh, they don’t.”

“Fun.”

“I’m so, so sorry.”

Cirrus threw himself to the ground, tears welled up in his eyes as he looked upwards at Bubbles, who had a smile plastered on her face.

She slumps into a desk, a light snack beside her parchment. “This is going to be, too short. I have no idea how to write this. I don’t know what this dynamic even is, Cirrus is a flat character… Ughhhh.”

Jolting upwards in her seat, she puts the quill down and rubs her head with her hooves. “I can think of something.”

After a few minutes of agonized thinking, she slumps down again.

“I… don’t know. Maybe I should come back tomorrow? Will I come back tomorrow? I suppose it’s not terrible— but it’s definitely not my best work.”

Kicking her chair back, she stands up, and walks around the room.

“I don’t know what to do! How do I write?