All the Smallest Things: Original Draft

Izzy Moonbow woke up with a sudden urge to visit the Boardtrot.

The unicorns of Bridlewood, of course, had a superstition about this. They said that you should follow your urge, because it's guaranteed to lead you to something important. A lot of strange things had been happening around Maretime Bay lately — Posey was complaining about plants in her garden she couldn't get rid of, some of the trams had bitemarks in them, and several beach-goers claimed to have seen sea monsters at night — and Izzy just knew her feeling would lead her to one of them.

So, in the early hours of the morning, Izzy trotted out of the Brighthouse and towards the beach.

"Hello? Anypony here?" she asked once she arrived at the Boardtrot, but got no response. No surprise there. Most ponies were asleep right now. Still, that feeling hadn't gone away, so she looked around. There was nothing under the market stall, nothing on the bumper cars, nothing on the rollercoaster, nothing in the Ferris wheel... Aha! She saw something moving behind the smoothie stand's counter.

Izzy crouched down and took slow steps, trying not to startle whatever it was. Her ears twitched as she heard its footsteps faintly brush against the wood and sand. She took one step closer, and saw it open the minifridge with what she could only describe as a flat tentacle. It picked up an apple and took a small bite out of it. While it was distracted, Izzy seized the opportunity to get closer and leaped into the stand.

Startled, the creature dropped the apple. It was almost as tall as Izzy, and covered in pink and white fur. It had the ears of a rabbit, the face of a cat, the body of a fox, and was all-parts adorable. One of its eyes was pink, and the other was blue. The part that stood out the most were the ribbons attached to its ear and neck, which moved like part of its body. Those must be the tentacles!

"Hi," Izzy said gently, bending down even lower. "It's okay. You don't need to be scared of me!"

The creature mewed out something in response.

"Maybe I should get Hitch..." Izzy thought out loud. Then, she headed back to the Brighthouse.

A few days ago, Penny had woken up on an unfamiliar beach as a Sylveon. She was ecstatic at first — she'd become her favourite Pokémon! It was like a dream come true, but her dream had quickly turned into a nightmare when she realised she couldn't find her Veevees' Poké Balls, or her Rotom phone. She'd spent all day scouring the beach, hoping that her belongings had been buried under the sand, but couldn't find anything besides some seashells and pebbles.

After her fruitless search, she'd headed towards the first sign of civilisation she could find: an amusement park. Even though everything looked shiny and brand-new, it was strangely deserted, but she decided it'd make a good home base. She'd even found a food stall that had a minifridge full of fruit. Now Arven didn't have an excuse to complain about her eating habits anymore... assuming he was still around.

Penny had never been one for adventuring — or adven-touring, as her dad would call it — but her excursion into Area Zero had taught her a few things. Everyday, she'd head out into the surrounding area, hoping to find her friends or anyone who could explain what was going on. She'd set foot into the nearby town, once. Its inhabitants looked like Ponyta, but came in a wide variety of colours, like something out of a cartoon. (Not that she watched cartoons anymore. She was into anime now.) The town had been so noisy and chaotic that she couldn't bear to go further in, so she'd headed straight back to the beach.

Now, she was minding her own business in the stall, when a "Ponyta" jumped at her like a predator ambushing its prey. Startled, she dropped the perfectly good apple she was eating. Its body was purple, with blue hair or whatever it was called — a mane?

"Hi," she — judging from the voice — said. "It's okay. You don't need to be scared of me!"

"Too late..." Penny mumbled. It still felt weird, making Sylveon noises that she understood intuitively.

It didn't seem like the purple thing heard her, though, because she said, "Maybe I should get Hitch..." and then left.