Half the Day is Night, Chapter 11

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8 ; Chapter 9 ; Chapter 10

     The whole of the valley spread out in the darkness before 

her, lights sparkling under the stars along what Rarity guessed 

was the river, and she found she could trace the route all the 

way back to Ponyville, a glowing cluster that didn't seem that 

far away, actually.

     If only she weren't about to plunge to her death, she found 

herself thinking, the length of wooden walkway that she, 

Fluttershy and Ory had ridden down the rapids of Canterlot's 

underground river sailing from the waterfall at its end and 

arcing delicately through the night sky before starting 

horribly, inevitably downward--

     If it weren't for that, this would be rather pretty.

Onto the Rocks

The 14th in the continuing saga inspired by the "prompts" Poetigress puts up on her page there every Thursday. There's previous ones, too: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, in fact.

     Now, this is one of the parts of this story that I don't 

much like.  Not just because I come off looking like such a 

jerk--though there is that, of course--but because it shows I'm 

really no better than anyone else.  And I hate that!

     'Cause I'm sitting in my chair on the sidewalk outside 

Deena's front gate and she's standing there on the porch, her 

dad beside her and Heather, her little dachshund-terrier mix, 

scampering back and forth through the scruffy yard of the house 

they've been moving into all week and she tells me she's here to 

go to rehab at the place where I've been a resident since my 

nervous system starting coming unstrung and she's looking down 

instead of at me and she pulls back the sleeve of her sweater to 

show me the needle tracks jagged and zig-zagging up and down her 

arm--

     And, I mean, I'm the guy in the wheelchair!  I should know 

better than to feel sorry for her, shouldn't I?  I shouldn't be 

sitting there thinking, "Oh, how brave she is, struggling to 

overcome this terrible condition," right?  'Cause I get that all 

the time, and it drives me insane!

Half the Day is Night, Chapter 10

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8 ; Chapter 9

     So far, Pinkie Pie thought, humming a song backwards as she 

walked frontwards with her friends into the already darkening 

throne room of the Day Palace, it had been the best day ever.  

     Of course, she thought that about every day.  And weirdly 

enough, it always turned out she was right.

     She was wearing her dress again, the one Rarity had given 

her this morning, the one that hugged her tight with one part of 

it while the other part flared out all poofy and made her feel 

just exactly the way a balloon would feel, she was sure, if a 

balloon ever wore a dress--

     And that was such a great idea--dresses for balloons!--she 

almost stopped to get her notebook out to write it down for when 

they got back to Ponyville.  

Half the Day is Night, Chapter 9

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8

     The others had gone on talking--"planning strategy," 

Twilight had called it--but Fluttershy couldn't focus on 

anything but the upcoming party at some strange stallion's 

house.  It made her stomach tighten, and her breath got so loud 

and raggedy, Applejack had finally suggested she go lie down for 

awhile.

     Pinkie had volunteered to take her back to the Night 

Palace, but Fluttershy hadn't wanted to be any trouble.  Panic 

building, trying to think of something soothing she could do 

without bothering anypony, the picture and the words had just 

popped into her head: "I'll just...just go out into the garden," 

she'd said.

     To be honest, she'd been hoping for an excuse all day to 

get outside.  The palaces were very pretty, of course, but 

nothing about them breathed the way a flower or a tree or a bird 

did.  The stones of the walls sat around tame and shaped and 

settled, not like real stones, all funny and lumpy and friendly.  

The buildings looked like the guard ponies, she realized as she 

hurried past the two standing outside the sitting room door: 

stern and kind of scary, like they didn't really want her there.

The Invisible World

Lucky #13 in our visits to the neighborhood courtesy of Poetigress and her Thursday Prompts. This week's was "what no one else can see," and the previous weeks can be found at the following links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

     So of course, the next time El Brujo and I headed past the 

Petersons' old place, the van sat in the driveway and Heather 

was tumbling around the front yard singing: "Air and grass and 

all the smells of both and one!  It shouts!  It yells!"

     El Brujo's ears folded.  "It appears we must first teach 

the child the principles of prosody."

     I was tempted to keep us rolling past, not even slow down, 

not give Deena the chance to notice me so she wouldn't have to 

consciously decide to hide from me, but--

     "Pretty cat lady!" Heather shouted, scurrying on her puppy 

legs through the lumpy clumps of grass, her dark red fur 

shimmering out from her more like smoke than anything else.  

"And Mr. Augie!  Hooray!  You really do exist!"

Half the Day is Night, Chapter 8

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7

     "You can't seriously suspect Pancake!"  Rainbow Dash 

pounded a hoof against Captain Destrier's desk.  "He didn't do 

anything!"

     Captain Destrier gave her a sideways glance; Dash grinned 

sheepishly, brushed the dusty hoofprint away, and settled 

herself back onto the carpet, the noontime light shining bright 

through the window of the captain's office.  "I mean, yeah," 

Dash went on, "it was his hacksaw, but he just loaned it to 

those other guys!  They didn't tell him they were gonna use it 

to chop down part of the Day Palace's roof and try to squash 

ev'rypony or whatever!"

     "In the first place," the captain said, "we don't know for 

a fact that these are the ponies who did it.  That's why we call 

them 'suspects.'  In the second place, we still don't have the 

saw in question; we found none here on the palace grounds, and 

of the suspects you led us to, only this Pancake fellow is doing 

any talking.  In the third--"

     "There!"  Dash couldn't keep from springing up to hover 

over the carpet in Captain Destrier's office.  "See?  He's 

trying to help us!  Those other jerks aren't!  They're the ones 

we need to lean on, not Pancake!"

Half the Day is Night, Chapter 7

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

Chapter 6

     Shedding that jacket of Rarity's made Dash feel twenty 

percent lighter--she could barely stop herself from racing up 

into the weird currents twisting around the open spaces between 

all Canterlot's little towers.  "The unicorns must do mosta the 

weather stuff around here," she told Pinkie Pie as they trotted 

into the streets, the Day Palace behind them shining like a 

jewel in the morning sun.  "The air's itchy with magic!"

     Pinkie nodded.  "Like my uncle Zebulon used to say, 'When 

in Canterlot, do as the Canterlotians.'  Except I don't think 

'Canterlotians' is really a word."

     Dash gave her a sideways glance.  "Where are you getting 

all these uncles from?"

     "The usual places."  Pinkie pointed her snout at the sky.  

"It's OK if you wanna wing it, Dashie.  I'll be fine down here."

     And as much as the wind was tickling her, teasing her with 

its odd swirls--  "Naw."  She tossed her mane like she didn't 

care.  "Maybe after we get done with this whole saw thing I can 

take a spin around."  A thought made her brighten.  "Or later 

when I head up to the Citadel!  I mean, did you see??  Captain 

Destrier??  Knowing who I was??  He gave a talk once at flight 

school about joining the guard and said he turned down the 

Wonderbolts--turned them down!--so he could serve Princess 

Celestia!  That's, like, either the coolest thing ever or the 

craziest!  I can't wait to meet some of those guard ponies and 

see what their HQ is like!"

Man in the Street

Another Thursday Prompt from Poetigress, this time the word "regret." Before this one, though, comes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

     "There!"  El Brujo perched on my knees like the figurehead on

a ship, her tail arched and waving slightly just in front of my 

face.  "Don't you feel better now?"

     "No one was home, Brujo."  Which actually did make me feel 

better, but damned if I was gonna give the cat the satisfaction 

of knowing that.

     The tip of her tail swished back to smack my nose.  "You're 

so results oriented, August.  It's really quite unfortunate."  She 

rolled onto her side, then, tucked herself against the framework 

of the chair's arms.  "Aren't you familiar with the dictum that 

'getting there is half the fun?'"

     We were rolling along Haggard St. at that point, had left the 

Petersons' old place when the lack of van in the driveway and 

puppy in the yard had made it clear that Heather--and, I tried 

very hard not to think and, as you can see, failed miserably--

her mistress Deena weren't there.

Half the Day is Night, Chapter 6

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

     "Twilight!" Applejack yelled.  She lurched sideways, shoved 

Twilight Sparkle bodily around, and pointed at the huge metal 

beam tumbling from the ceiling toward the crowd filling the Day 

Palace's throne room.  "Lift it!  Now!

     Leaping forward, she heard Twilight gasp, but Applejack 

couldn't do anything except trust her friend would do what she 

could.  "Clear the floor!"  She pitched her voice like she was 

calling Big Mackintosh in from the back forty.  "Y'all can exit 

to each side and at the back!  Nice and orderly, now, but move!"

     Rainbow Dash burst into the air and streaked to hover above 

the center of the crowd.  "Folks on my left through that door, 

folks on my right through that one, and folks behind me out the 

back!  Let's go!"  She jabbed her hoofs at the nearest three 

pegasi in golden armor standing along the walls.  "You, you, and 

you!  Help 'em out!  

     The soldiers jumped, their wings unfurling to sail them 

over the crowd, and that was apparently the first time anypony 

in the audience looked up, the first time they saw what was 

glowing and hovering in the air above Rainbow Dash.  Applejack 

heard gasps and shrieks, spared just enough of a glance to see 

the beam was holding steady halfway between the ceiling and the 

floor, the thing big as the windmill back home but solid metal 

and weighing who knew how much!  Long as it kept floating, 

though--

Openings and Closings

Looks like a plot starting to form out of all this stuff I've been kicking together for Poetigress's Thursday Prompts, so you might wanna make sure you read number 10 before this one. Or go and read 'em all: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10!

     "Are you getting up at all today?" Donna's voice asked 

through the door.  "'Cause your cat's laying out here in the 

hallway making it a little hard to get past."

     And as tempted as I was to not answer, to just let the 

whole damn world go hang--  "Go ahead and let her in, thanks, 

Donna.  And sorry.  I...I think maybe I've been overdoing it 

lately."

     The clatter of her keys in the lock, the swish of the door 

over the carpet.  "Go on, Brujo," Donna said.  "D'you need a 

Tylenol or anything, Gus?"

     I kept my face pressed into my pillow, reached a hand over 

for my nightstand, rattled the pill bottle there while 

pretending to groan the way I would've if my shoulders had 

actually been hurting.  "I'll be OK," I told her.  I mean, I was 

already lying to her; what difference would one more make?