Ponyville Ciderfest 2024 Story - Historical License
Codeword #HistoricalLicense
Smolder sat at the desk in her room, confronted by one of the most frustrating and intimidating things known to student-kind: a blank piece of paper. She glanced at the pile of history books and only draconic pride kept her from whimpering.
Ocellus turned around from her own desk. “Smolder, are you okay?”
Smolder groaned and dropped her head against the desk in a gesture that transcended all linguistic divides. Ocellus sighed as she approached. “Oh Smolder … you haven’t even started your essay on historical friendships in Equestria? The assignment is due tomorrow!”
“I know!” Smolder pulled her head up. “Every time I even look at it I feel my mind go as blank as the paper—and somehow staring at it threateningly for the last half hour hasn’t willed the essay into writing itself.” She rolled her eyes, folding her hands behind her head as she leaned back. “Go figure.”
Ocellus sat down on the nearby bed. “That does sound frustrating.”
“It’s literally the worst!” Smolder exclaimed. “It’s like I’ll get this idea whenever I’m walking through the halls or grabbing some food, but as soon as I’m back at my desk it slips out and makes an escape. Every time I want to write I don’t have the time, but when I do have the time something happens to interrupt me or ruin my mood or I just flat-out don’t want to! It’s like a fog rolled right into my head and refuses to leave.” She sighed, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re lucky you don’t have it happen to you.”
“That’s not true,” Ocellus stood up, “I’ve had it happen to me too.”
“Really?” Smolder blinked. “But you always finish your essays so fast! You even go back to ask for extra credit even though you already get the best grades in class!”
Ocellus’ cheeks flushed, rubbing her neck awkwardly. “Well, maybe, but I’ve had days when whenever I wanted to write really didn’t want to come to me.”
“Come on, then what’s the secret?” Smolder asked. “How do you beat it?”
“There really isn’t one answer that always works for everyone,” Ocellus admitted. “Sometimes I took a break to work on other things, or to stop and think about something else. Sometimes I try to power through and write something even if it isn’t that good so I have a basis to work from for later.” She rubbed her chin in thought, looking at the books on Smolder’s desk. “Tell me what’s so hard about this for you.”
“Are you kidding? History is just a bunch of names and dates on paper—how can you write an essay about friendships like that?” Smolder snorted. “Imagine if we tried writing about us: ‘Monday, went to Sugarcube Corner for two hours and hung out.’ Does that say anything? Does it capture how funny it was when Gallus made Sandbar shoot soda out his nose thanks to that joke about Cranky Doodle, the wandering minstrel, and the cat? Or what about when Silverstream drank Mr. Cake’s espresso by mistake and got so hyper we needed to grab a pool net to get her out of the rafters?”
Ocellus giggled. “That’s part of the fun in writing, you can make things as descriptive as you want them to be! The way you told those stories just now was really enjoyable! Anything can be written in a fun way—even history.”
“Really?”
“Of course!” Ocellus’ wings fluttered. “Think of history as a bunch of stories: you’ve told plenty for the Feast of Fire, haven’t you?”
“Huh.” Smolder blinked as she thought about it. “I guess I have. But it’s so hard writing about ponies I don’t really know... Sure I’ve seen Princess Celestia a few times, or had Rockhoof dump a bunch of water on me, but I don’t feel like I can write about a friendship I’ve only seen in books.”
“That’s a good point.” Ocellus tapped her hoof in thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. “I know! What if you wrote about our professors’ friendships? You know them really well.”
Smolder was confused. “But, the assignment said they had to be historical. The professors aren’t historical—I mean, maybe Professor Fluttershy is getting there, but…”
Ocellus gave her a look. “Smolder, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are still around, not to mention Pillars of Equestria. It doesn’t stop being part of history just because it’s still happening today.”
“That’s a really good point.” Smolder tilted her head. “Any chance I could write one about you and me? I mean, we’re pretty famous and all…”
Ocellus giggled. “I think that we might be a bit of a stretch for ‘historical.’ Nice try though!”
“Can’t fault a dragon for trying,” Smolder laughed too, the fog in her head feeling like it was breaking up and letting the sun shine through. She flared her wings, her eyes gleaming as she felt her scales practically twinkling with some inner light. She must’ve imagined it of course, but she had so many ideas she didn’t know what to do with them all! Smolder took a seat and began scrawling on her paper, a manic grin crossing her face.
“That’s the spirit, I knew you could do—” Her smile froze and fell a fraction as she noticed something. “Um, I don’t remember Professor Rarity ever mentioning that—and I’m pretty sure that isn’t true for Professor Fluttershy.”
“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m thinking about stories that add the details books and stuff won’t go into.” Smolder waved a claw. “Plus you gotta spice things up. It’s what any good story teller does and history is telling stories, right?”
Ocellus’ jaw dropped. “Smolder, you can’t just make stuff up about our teachers!”
“But that’s what I’ve seen you do in your essays,” Smolder retorted.
“W-what?” Ocellus looked affronted, a hoof pressed against her own chest. “No I don’t—everything I write is rigorously fact-checked!”
Smolder regarded her with skepticism. “What about those essays involving our friends?”
“I don’t write essays about—”
“You left them out on your desk last week.” Smolder rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you changed the names a bit but I’m pretty sure I know who Slipstream, Galbraith, Yonan, and Blandbar are supposed to be. And I definitely don’t remember Silverstream and Gallus going on a date where they danced in front of the full moon or Yona rescued Sandbar from a tower in the middle of the Everfree Forest while he swooned.”
Ocellus eyes went so wide they seemed to absorb half her head, her ears flattening against her skull. “Y-you saw—t-those aren’t—I’m not—!” she sputtered, her face turning bright red as she shrank down and let out a squeak. “H-how about if I help with your spelling and you don’t mention those … essays … to any creature else? Please?”
Smolder was confused but shrugged it off. Ocellus kept their tea parties together secret; Smolder could do the same for Ocellus and her weird essays. “Sure, no problem.”
“T-thank you.” Ocellus gulped. “Y-you didn’t see any other stories … did you?”
Blinking owlishly, Smolder tilted her head. “What other stories could there be? You already wrote about all our friends.”
“Oh. Ha! Haha! Hahaha!” Ocellus laughed very suddenly in a way that did not sound natural in the slightest. “S-silly me, you’re right! You saw all the stories I had written about our friends, yep, those are definitely all the ones there were!”
Smolder thought about pressing her on it, but she didn’t want to lose the creative spark now that she finally had it. This was going to be great!
***
Twilight’s eye twitched as she looked over Smolder’s paper with a shellshocked expression. “What am I looking at?”
Spike chuckled as he tidied up her office. “Seems like Smolder let her creative side out.”
“That’s one way to put it!” Twilight shook her head in bafflement. “Rarity befriended Sassy Saddles during a high-stakes modeling duel on the runways of Manehattan? Fluttershy met Tree Hugger when they were agents of some secret organization called S.M.I.L.E.—and also Fluttershy can see through the eyes of her animal friends to spy on ponies? Applejack had a singing career under a secret identity where she and Countess Coloratura traveled around Equestria solving mysteries?”
“Rainbow Dash really liked her and Gilda becoming friends by doing a double sonic rainboom that blasted a cookie-zombie Mare-Do-Well straight to the moon!” Spike chuckled. “I heard she was giving Smolder an A++ and nominating her for student of the month.”
Twilight rubbed her forehead. “These stories are ridiculous! The last one says Pinkie Pie is so stretchy because her sister gave her a magic fruit that lets her use her imagination to defy physics! That’s totally—” Twilight paused, decidedly not paying attention to Pinkie Pie walking past while whistling a sea shanty and wearing a yellow straw hat. “Never mind.”
Spike shrugged. “Okay, so maybe it’s not the most factual account buuut she does understand what makes those friendships so strong and unique. Just call the rest, eh, adding to the legend.” He elbowed Twilight gently. “Besides, would you really want to read a boring textbook about your own life?”
Twilight sighed. “Well, I’m not one to want to stifle creativity…”
THE END
Author's Note
This was a short story I tossed together in about two weeks for the Ciderfest writing event, which was about all the advance notice we got for it. It had to be about creativity and had a roughly 1,500 maximum word cap, hence the admittedly brief and abrupt ending. Still, I had some fun with it and got to enjoy more silliness with my favorite students. Hopefully you all will get a little enjoyment out of it as well.
