/pj2023/ Prompt Results


                                            Submitted for the Pastejam 2023 competition; written in 2 hours during the final 3 hours of the timer despite having 2 weeks to work on it.

                                            Special thanks to Aftercase for hosting again!


                                            Joint 3rd place in the contest! Thank you to everyone who voted.

                                            And it was also the host's favourite submission (thanks Aftercase, glad you liked it!)


                                            ---


                                            "She set it ablaze..."

                                            >Twilight Sparkle squints at the card.

                                            >The words don't change under scrutiny, so she checks the back. Nothing else there.

                                            >It's a nice card, she must admit, but the tasteful bone-white colouring and gold highlights don't help her with her problem.

                                            >She lowers it, and looks around at her assembled war council. Her veterans of renown, here to aid her in her time of need.

                                            "Okay," she says slowly.

                                            >Seconds pass, and the tension proves too much: one of the council members cracks.

                                            >"Well what the heck are we supposed to do with -that-?" yells Rainbow Dash. "Where's the prompt?"

                                            "That -is- the prompt."

                                            >"You said this was a writing contest!"

                                            "It -is- a writing contest. We have to write something based on that sentence."

                                            >"That's not a -sentence-, Twilight, it's a-- it's a quip!"

                                            "Technically it is a sentence; it has a subject and a verb."

                                            >"I thought we'd get a whole thing, like a mini story to get us started."

                                            "A synopsis? That'd be nice, but then it wouldn't be a challenge."

                                            >Rainbow Dash folds her forelegs and scowls.

                                            >"This is stupid."

                                            "Fifty-thousand bits isn't stupid, Rainbow, it's money the town could use."

                                            >"Can't we make it some other way? I already have an idea."

                                            "Go o-- no wait, no, we're not doing the mud wrestling."

                                            >She spreads her hooves wide in disbelief.

                                            >"Are you seriously telling me that ponies wouldn't pay good money to see me and Applejack wrestle in the mud? Seriously?"

                                            "Ponies, or stallions?"

                                            >"Technically stallions -are- ponies," she sneers, and Twilight rolls her eyes.

                                            "So Rainbow's calling it quits--"

                                            >"I never said that, I said this was stupid."

                                            "Oh, so you have an idea of what we can write?"

                                            >"Yeah, of course I do!"

                                            "Bearing in mind we're not allowed to use Daring Do?"

                                            >Rainbow's mouth flaps.

                                            >"Uh, I-I had other ideas, yeah, but why not Daring Do?"

                                            "Copyright, that's why, and I don't wanna deal with the headache of getting sued. Now, does anyone else have any ideas? Pinkie Pie?"

                                            >The other Elements of Harmony, gathered around a low reading table in Golden Oaks, offer nothing.

                                            >Applejack is slumped in her seat and has been since Twilight read the card, her hat pulled down over her face, probably sleeping.

                                            >Pinkie Pie rocks forward and backward on her seat, smiling at nothing and lost in a daydream.

                                            >Only Rarity seems attentive, and smiles when Twilight catches her eye.

                                            >"Whatever you come up with is sure to win, Twilight."

                                            "Uh. Thanks for the confidence, Rarity, but we all need to pitch in here, that's the idea. We're a team."

                                            >"What other teams are competing?"

                                            "It's a regional contest, so each town is putting forward their own collaborative story. I put Ponyville down because it'd be nice to put us on the map for something other than the Running of the Leaves and incest."

                                            >"There's nothing wrong with our traditions, Twilight."

                                            "I like the Running too but--"

                                            >"I meant the incest."

                                            "Fine, but the money's gotta be a motivating factor, right?"

                                            >"It -would- be nice to remodel my shop floor... Oh but we're not -writers-, darling! I've written a few tawdry letters in my time, but not a short story. I wouldn't know where to start."

                                            "How about with the basics. Okay, so, 'She set it ablaze', I'm thinking maybe a pony burns a letter of confession? Maybe a letter of love? Of murder?"

                                            >"Arson?" Pinkie Pie chirps.

                                            "Arson," Twilight echoes.

                                            >"Sure! Arson's fun, I did it all the time back at the rock farm, that's why they sent me to Ponyville!"

                                            "I didn't know rocks could burn."

                                            >"There's a lot you don't know, Twilight."

                                            "What if we tried something different... like a haiku?"

                                            >Twilight thinks deep.

                                            >No ideas come to the fore.

                                            >The idea is dead.

                                            >Pinkie gasps, loudly enough to momentarily stop Rainbow Dash from grumbling to herself, and to scare Fluttershy, whom Twilight had forgotten was even there, half to death.

                                            >"Oh my gosh, I just had the -greatest- idea for a story ever! It's a show-stopper! A winner! A real honest-to-Celestia masterpiece!"

                                            >Twilight smiles.

                                            "Alright, well are you gonna tell us?"

                                            >Pinkie's smile fades. She suddenly becomes suspicious, and squints at Twilight.

                                            >"No... no I don't think I will..."

                                            >She sinks below the table, not breaking eye contact with Twilight until she's gone.

                                            >Twilight leans over, only to find that Pinkie's vanished.

                                            >She sits up, takes a moment to centre herself, and smiles in what she hopes isn't too frightening a manner at Fluttershy.

                                            "Flutters--"

                                            >"AGHH!"

                                            >Fluttershy faints onto her back, limbs twitching.

                                            >Twilight sighs, passes a hoof over her eyes, and looks to Applejack instead.

                                            "AJ, help me out here."

                                            >Applejack doesn't respond.

                                            >Rarity glances at the farmer and her brow creases, but she doesn't speak.

                                            "AJ?"

                                            >Twilight nudges Applejack's side, but she remains silent.

                                            >After a lengthy pause, Rarity tips the Stetson hat back, and she and Twilight both scream.

                                            >Applejack's eyes are wide open and glassy. Her mouth is slightly ajar, and a fly crawls over her face and naked eyeball, eliciting no response.

                                            >"Sh-- she's dead! My wonderful farming pony is dead!" Rarity is beside herself. "Oh, the horrors of literature were too much for her simple, simple brain, and she was overcome! I should have known that art would be the death of her, she never did understand the subtle subtexts of Poneish Transcendentalism in Vermouth's tapestries! We were fools to bring her here, fools to try and despoil her untouched mind with the blight of intellectualism!"

                                            >Rarity collapses against the apparent corpse of her childhood friend and sobs.

                                            >"I never got a chance to tell her that I loved her!"

                                            >Twilight recognises that she should feel shocked that Applejack apparently just literally died rather than help her out with writing a 700-word story, but mostly she just feels cheated.

                                            "Never figured Applejack would take the easy way out of a situation. Rainbow Dash?" She turns to Dash and nods her head at the corpse propped up in the chair beside her. "Any remarks on this?"

                                            >"What the heck is 'copyright', anyway?"

                                            "Copy...?"

                                            >"Daring Do. Why can't we write a cool story with her for the contest?"

                                            "Because she's not our character, we can't use her."

                                            >"So? Nightmare Moon belongs to Princess Luna but ponies still write horror stories with Nightmare Moon in them. Why doesn't Luna sue for that?"

                                            "That's not..." Twilight blinks. "No, actually, that is a valid point, I don't know why Luna's okay with it."

                                            >"Exactly! So why can't we use Daring Do? A.K. Yearling exists, and she -is- Daring Do, so we should be able to use Daring Do in a story!"

                                            "Why are you so fixated on this--"

                                            >Rainbow Dash slams a tome on the table. She fixes Twilight with a death-glare, and places a firm hoof on the tome.

                                            >"I have written five-hundred thousand words of Daring Do fanfiction, and I -demand- to use all of it in this contest."

                                            >Twilight stares open-mouthed at the book, then shakes her head.

                                            "No, hang on, we're getting side-tracked here--" she throws a hoof at the corpse. "Applejack is -dead-, Rainbow!"

                                            >"What? No way!"

                                            >Rainbow Dash gawks at her dead friend, then her expression contorts into one of apoplexy.

                                            >"Cheater! -I'm- the fastest pony in Ponyville! If anyone's gonna die first it's gonna be -me-!"

                                            >With that, she grips her head, snaps her own neck, and flops onto the floor.

                                            >Twilight blinks at where Rainbow was sat.

                                            "Seriously," she asks the air. "Seriously! It's a -contest-! IT'S JUST A FREAKING -CONTEST!-"

                                            >She rounds on Rarity, ready to either rant or lecture, possibly a mix of the two, but trips over her own words at what she sees.

                                            >Rarity is still crying, but she's now wearing Applejack's hat and pawing at the farmer's still-slack face.

                                            >"Be at peace, my love. I-I'll continue your legacy. Ponyville must never be without it's... i-it's precious Applejack. I'll do you proud, I swear it."

                                            "Rarity."

                                            >Rarity sniffs and looks to Twilight, then straightens up in her seat and puffs her chest out. Her lips waver, then:

                                            >"Howdy, darlin'! What can I do yer for?"

                                            "What."

                                            >"It's me, Applejack! Darn tootin'!"

                                            "Wha?"

                                            >"Ya'll ready to git down an' write some honest fiction? Why, I'm more fired up than a firecracker in a dragon hole!"

                                            >Twilight cranes her neck away from the dead-and-crazy side of the table to the dead-and-startled side.

                                            "Fluttershy? Are you... functional?"

                                            >Her voice rouses Fluttershy, and the mare shakily returns to her seat, hiding behind her mane, as is often the case when Fluttershy finds herself in a scary and unfamiliar situation, which is whenever she leaves her house.

                                            >"S-sorry, Twilight, you know how scared I get when ponies make loud noises or sudden movements."

                                            "That's alright, I understand," says Twilight, not even remotely understanding, "so do you have any ideas for what we can write for this short story contest?"

                                            >Fluttershy smiles.

                                            >"Oh, um, I-I liked your idea about a mare burning a letter of confession. Maybe she wanted to confess her love to her friend, but she gets cold hooves and backs out? Maybe her friend is already married, and the mare has to grapple with knowing that she can never act on her love, and will never see it reciprocated? I-it could be a tragedy, or... um... well, you know, something like that..."

                                            >Twilight leans forward, nodding eagerly.

                                            "That's -great-, Fluttershy! I knew you'd be a big help on this."

                                            >"I have more ideas if you'd like--"

                                            >Rarity sneezes for absolutely no reason. Twilight suspects spite.

                                            >"AAGH!"

                                            >And Fluttershy faints again, but no amount of pleading can rouse her this time.

                                            >Her only lifeline to fifty-thousand bits and her own sanity denied her, Twilight grimaces.

                                            >She slumps back and surveys the damage.

                                            >Two dead ponies, one catatonic, one missing in action, and the last remaining friend is a basket case.

                                            >And they'd only been here for nine minutes.

                                            >She had no idea writing competitions were so intense.

                                            >"This hoedown's been nothin' but a plum-pickin' disaster," offers Rarijack.

                                            "Thanks, Rarity."

                                            >"Ah ain't called that no more. Don'tchu dead-name me."

                                            "Okay," Twilight whispers, on the verge of stress-tears.

                                            >Retreating into a comfortable escapist headspace, she picks up her quill and sets it to paper.

                                            >Then, with one final phrase of wisdom from Rarijack:

                                            >"Ya'll ain't nothin' but gumtrees on a hootinanny."

                                            >She starts to write.

                                            >In silence she scribbles for ten minutes, pausing only to acknowledge elegant-accented countryisms from the surviving lunatic with a robotic nod.

                                            >The words form, and Twilight finds that it becomes easier the longer she does it.

                                            >It flows forth, and ten minutes turns to twenty as her worries fade and the joy of creative expression takes hold of her.

                                            >Worlds coalesce in her mind, and the mystical dances before her inner eye as a fleeting dream she need only articulate if only she were so daring.

                                            >Just as she finishes her frenzied writing, Rainbow Dash gasps from the floor.

                                            >Fluttershy screams, as is custom.

                                            >Rainbow coughs, hacks, and drags herself back into her seat.

                                            >Then, grinning, she leans an elbow on the table and watches Applejack closely.

                                            >Twilight is frozen. Rarity is frozen. Fluttershy, who had recovered several seconds after Rainbow, is also frozen.

                                            >Then, Applejack abruptly retches forward and bangs her own chest, coughing, clenching her eyes then inhaling as much air as she can.

                                            >"Hah!" crows Dash. "I -told- you I'd beat you back to life!"

                                            >Applejack looks blearily at her friend, completely ignoring the absolute mess that is a behatted rural Rarity hanging off her and kissing her face.

                                            >"I-I saw things beyond the veil, Dash," she says quietly. "There're dark things past life that decent folk shouldn't speak of."

                                            >"Pfft, the only thing -I- saw was you trailing behind me on the way back to the living world."

                                            "I feel like we're all missing something," Twilight offers.

                                            >"Hey yeah you are; me and Applejack just did the sweetest race through the land of the dead. You're looking at Ponyville's fastest pegasus and Tartarus' fastest spirit. How'd you like -them- apples, Applejack?"

                                            >"I saw the spirit of my father, an' he was screamin'."

                                            >"Yeah yeah, you -would- say that, loser."

                                            >Rainbow Dash leans back in her seat, hooves behind her head, smugly gazing at the lantern on the table.

                                            >"Score one for the Dash. This contest is a joke."

                                            >Twilight looks down at her story. Stares at it. Only then seems to recognise it with a surprised blink.

                                            "I think I'm done."

                                            >"Does that mean we can submit it?" Fluttershy says.

                                            "You know, I think it does. Maybe this hasn't been so bad af--"

                                            >A scroll materialises before her eyes, and the table's occupants look to it in surprise.

                                            >Twilight takes it tentatively, and unfurls it with her magic.

                                            >She reads it, and her eyes gloss over.

                                            >"What does it say, Twilight?" Rarity asks.

                                            >Twilight swallows, then clears her throat.

                                            "To all contestants in the Equestrian Writing Jam. Please accept my apologies, the wrong prompt was issued. Please find enclosed the proper prompt. Any submitted works using the previous prompt will be dismissed. Yours sincerely, Princess Celestia."

                                            >A card falls out of the scroll, and Twilight picks it up.

                                            >She stares at it, then looks around the table.

                                            >Rainbow Dash is still lost in the phantasmal replay of her latest victory.

                                            >Fluttershy remains goat-like on the floor beside the table.

                                            >Rarity won't stop sloppily kissing the side of Applejack's face with as much tongue as possible.

                                            >Pinkie Pie emerges from the kitchen, rotund and covered in crumbs, the fridge wide open behind her.

                                            >And Applejack just looks dumbfounded about the whole ordeal, the pony staring at her hooves with a haunted look.

                                            >Twilight wets her lips and glances down at the new card and, fully understanding what she's about to unleash anew, reads it in a cracked voice.

                                            "She blew out the candle."