Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #00588 - A223: You Can't Make Me!

“You’ve lost the right to see me cry.”

“What?” said the cogniscent on his personal comms, sitting opposite Rael. “What does that even mean, Barbera?”

“It means you’ve hurt me for the last time,” said a higher-pitched voice. Either the cogniscent in question had her on speaker, or his volume was irresponsibly loud. Either way, the entire carriage of the Tram could hear them both. “I’m leaving, and I’m putting you on my blocked list.”

“What? How dare you? Did you know everyone here can hear what a bitch you’re being?”

“Actually,” corrected Rael, “We can all hear you–” a flourish of his handy mini-fan, all in silver, “–being an asshole.”

Some of the nearby passengers began digging for change.

“Those kinds of tactics don’t work, any more,” Rael informed. “She’s right. You’ve lost the right to see her cry.”

The cogniscent fell into stammering half-words as Rael collected a round of applause and enough Minutes to get something large and greasy at Unsuitable Food Eat.

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Challenge #00586 - A221: One Damp Afternoon on Tour

“Shock and awe can be dangerous and deadly, therefore the management has overturned your booking of the concert hall for a- what was it again?”

“A magic show.”

“Look,” sighed The Great Amaze-o. “We’re a comedy act. We show how everything is done and half the time we pretend to flakk it up. It’s funny.”

The Nephroton on the other side of the counter glared at them with her segmented

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Challenge #00585 - A220: One Life in Song

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun

Doe, a deer, a female deer…

Doe crept between the parked storage containers, heart pounding. She could still see the peak of the ship. She was headed the right way. 

Ray, a drop of golden sun…

Shadows made her jump for all of five seconds before she realised it was her own shadow. A skinny stick of a thing. Undersized, underfed, under-represented and, so far, under notice.

She

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Challenge #00584 - A219: Rocky Start

Human: *sneezes*

Other cogniscient: What the hell was that?!

Ax'and'l had been dubious from the get-go about joining forces with a human… but he’d run the numbers and this venture was profitable in the extreme.

Insanely profitable.

Now it was just looking insane.

They were standing in an abandoned hulk of a spaceship, looting it for anything they could get out of it. Both had their survival suits on. Ideally, they were protected from everything the ship could throw

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Challenge #00583 - A218: Draco Nobilis

“Which is better,” asked the ancient dragon, scales dull, horns broken, but eyes bright as he regarded the one sent to slay him, “to be born good, or to overcome an evil nature through great effort?” – Josh

[AN: JOSH! You live! You’re one of my fave anons :D I was getting a little worried that you’d fallen down a hole or something]

The Knight Gainsborough lowered their lance and became lost in thought.

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The most feared dance in the universe

(character) crept through the undergrowth, barely daring to breathe, as they followed the pulsing rhythm. Parting the bushes slightly, they sucked in a horrified gasp, seeing the flickering firelight and the Humans dancing around it.

There, in the light of the burning branches, were people skipping and hopping, drinking out of cups from large nuts and doubtlessly containing fermented grain juice. That, they could handle. But the dance, that caused all non-Humans to shake in fear … .

The dreaded funky chicken!

(there have

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Douglas Adams

Aliens discover The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

(#00581 - A216)

Space, the text said, is big. Really big. If you think it’s a long way down the road to the shops, that’s peanuts compared to space.

“People paid money for this?”

“I think it’s some of their Terran humour…”

“I don’t see any references to trousers falling down in this narrative.”

Bloz glared at Kenka. “You and

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Deathworlders

Humans meet a species from a different deathworld.

(#00580 - A215)

Things around the negotiation table were tense. It wasn’t often that the humans met another cogniscent race that could kill them with ease. The fact that both sides were willing to keep their hostile actions in check was a telling victory for the mamalian side of the negotiations.

For a long time, Trodonti and Human stared at each other.

“We have studied your home planet,” said K'ress.

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Challenge #00589 - A214: Like a House on Fire

Shayde and Ambassador O’Ranges

or

Julie, Nanny and Ambassador O’Ranges

[AN: You didn’t say ‘xor’ :D ]

Julie was still moaning. A constant monotone that, Shayde could tell, was starting to get on everyone’s pec’s. She was huddled in Nanny’s lap. Nanny couldn’t do much for her but be a living teddy-bear and mutter “Good girl, good girl,” at random intervals.

“Puir babby…” Shayde

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Challenge #00588 - A213: Explaining a Lot

Was trying to figure a way to rephrase this, but I reckon it’s probably best to send it to you in its original form: “(s)he/ze had a troubled childhood” == “They had a troubled evolution…” (a lot of the questions were me) – recklessprudence

“…and this is Ambassador Shayde. Her species had a difficult evolution.”

The assembled welcome committee aahed and nodded.

“Must ye do tha’ every time we go somewhere?” Shayde murmured.

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Challenge #00587 - A212: Confusing Hilarity

Someone being chased by a goose while others laugh too hard to help.

The humans saw her coming in to the launch pole.

“Up! Up! Up!” They called, using their fleshy hands to gesture the same thought. “Danger! Up!”

She scrambled for the little platform before she dared look down. There, in one of the grazing paddocks, one of the humans’ domesticated avians was chasing a young human keet. Kid.

It was a large bird. Semi-aquatic, judging

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Challenge #00586 - A211: Imaginary Union 1475

Monthly union meeting of trolls, ogres, and TUTBs (Things Under the Bed).

“All right, all right. Let’s keep this in order so we can all be back in our haunts before sunset.”

Grumble grumble mumble.

“If you don’t wanna be here, you can always skip on your fees,” threatened their president, Gruuh.

“Point of order,” said Oogle.

Sigh. “Yes?”

“Fees are hard to obtain. Kids are scared of less&

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Challenge #00584 - A209: Don't Speak

Challenge: No dialogue. Any ‘verse

What struck her at first was the alienness of the world. Even before she had to ponder how she got here or what ‘normal’ was supposed to be.

Everything had right-angles to it. The things that were not cubes of… stuff… were flat, two dimensional objects, things that looked like paper props from a tinkertoy town, or moving creatures also seemingly made of cubes.

But it was real. She was there. And she

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Challenge #00583 - A208: Big, Blue and Mostly Harmless

Challenge prompt: Try a MLP / Monster in Paris crossover WITHOUT Fluttershy being the one that shows everyone he’s really a very sweet giant flea.

Cornered. Trapped. Pinned. And no doubt about to be eaten by the Beast from the portal, Rarity hunkered in place and shrieked.

One of its four arms reached inevitably towards her…

…and began carefully combing her mane.

“Jolie petit poney,” cooed a voice that could easily have come from Heaven itself. “Vous êtes perdu?

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Challenge #00582 - A207: Visiting an Ailing Friend

Hatchworth and Fluttershy in the world of SPG 

[AN: I almost tossed this and then I realised it was a different prompt]

Hatchworth was certainly an interesting friend. He spoke of interesting things, of humans and dragons and an assortment of interesting beings in a place called Kazooland.

Rather like Equestria, it was part of something bigger, and also made up of smaller realms. And, like Equestria, it thrived on magic.

Fluttershy watched as Hatchworth hammered a road sign into the earth

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