Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #00581 - A206: At the Other End of a Tunnel Through Snornia

(( You did say to stop the promptspam when you hit like 70, I think the plan was to try and keep things at a steady level of around 20 instead of spamming all at once and then waiting for things to drop off ))

Prompt: Hatchworth and Fluttershy in Equestria

[AN: The amount of prompts is an ongoing problem. Too many and my readers get bored waiting for any of theirs to turn up. Too few and I start fretting about having enough prompts. ANY clue for a nice stable number would be nice.]

Hatchworth had initially been in Kazooland to visit Upgrade in Snornia. Only to find that the pink dragon-robot-princess was hibernating in order to accelerate her transformation.

He’d left her some more plastic costume jewellery [pink, of course] and went exploring.

And promptly got lost.

*

Fluttershy turned back to reassure Spike, having marvelled at seeing Peewee the baby Phoenix take wing and rejoin his family.

Her comforting words died in her throat when she realised that there was a third… individual… in the clearing.

It stood tall, on two legs like Discord. And it seemed to be made almost entirely out of bronze. It steamed. And ticked.

And smiled.

“Oh…” it murmured. “That was beau-ti-ful.”

Spike said, “What the heck are *you*?”

It raised a red-and-black gloved hand to tip its entire head to them. “My name’s Hatch-worth. I am  one of Colo-nel Wal-ter’s Steam Po-wered Au-ton-o-mous Au-tom-a-tons.” He leaned down to murmur, “I’m in the band, now.”

“Oh my goodness,” said Fluttershy.

He grinned at her. “Hel-lo, ma’am,” another tip of his head. “May I ex-plore here? This land looks like so much fun.”

*

It was later. Mayhem had evidently ensued in the form of sandwiches over every level surface. And spiders.

There was a sobbing bronze automaton in the middle of it.

“There, there,” cooed Fluttershy. “It’s all right…”

“…i only wanted to help…” bawled Hatchworth.

Twilight Sparkle vented a noise somewhere between a sigh and a howl to the heavens that life was unfair. “I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she said. “It’s just that lots of ponies don’t like spiders like you do. And maybe every pony would be happier - including the spiders - if all the spiders went… somewhere… else?”

Only Discord thought this was hilarious. They were all still working on his sense of humour.

A steam-filled sigh. “Nobody liked spiders like I do,” he pouted. Then pulled a mandolin and started playing a catchy little tune.

It was like watching Pinkie Pie round up all the Parasprites. The spiders just… danced their way back into the machine’s hatch.

And when he was done singing the Tickly Spider Dance… he put away the mandolin and firmly closed his hatch. “My sand-wich-es are still de-lic-ious.”

“…celestia help me…” Twilight groaned.

“Of course they are!” Pinkie Pie bounced into the scene. “I’ve got everything I need to hold the biggest, bestest sandwich party for the whole town!”

“Yaaaaay!” Hatchworth cheered.

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Challenge #00580 - A205: Hug-a-bunch

Thomas’s very first run in with The Spine’s sleepy stranglehold

Somewhere in San Diego, there is a mansion with no doors. Well. Technically, it has two, but they’re in nonstandard locations. Theoretically, there is absolutely nothing to stop friend or foe from just wandering in and doing what they pleased.

That is, until you know what Walter Manor contains.

Thomas, a sleek silver robot made in the 1990’s, had no idea what he was getting into

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Challenge #00579 - A204: Imp-ossible Lover

Sorry, it’s just too cute

http://ofools.tumblr.com/post/88653271705/a-mass-photoset-for-all-your-giant-demon-bf-and

Sometimes, G'xyf'l did not know what was wrong with him. Maybe he’d been on Earth too long. Maybe seeing what humans could do in comparison to demonic lack of imagination had jaded him to the usual temptations.

Either way, he found himself looking off a bridge at the rocky canyon below and not thinking of anything very much, at all.

Then She walked into his life and

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Challenge #00578 - A203: You Swallowed What?

As one of the tech review magazines said a few years ago when the first 32 GB micro SD cards came out, “At last it is possible for a single human being to accidentally swallow all of the data collected by the Apollo Program.”

“This is it?” Shayde held aloft a crystal with a metal disk on one end. “All'o the survivin’ media from the twentieth century?”

“And some derivative works, yes,” said Rael. “

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Challenge #00577 - A202: Mass Destruction

Code 19: There is a small child loose in the area.

“LOCKDOWN! LOCKDOWN!” Rodriguez checked all the small storage bays before she locked them. Kept her eyes and ears open for any trace.

No sticky residue. No smeared prints. No suspicious puddles of liquid. No sign that the progeny had been here. And that was the dangerous part.

“I thought human infants were helpless,” said Chor'i'za.

“Human infants, yes. But once they learn how to move, they

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Challenge #00576 - A201: The Delicate Process of Acquiring Snuggle-Buddies

The first time K’iiv did the Noise.

“I… have not acquired a snuggle-buddy.”

“Want one?”

K'iiv’s tail flared. “Are… you… volunteering?”

“Are you amenable?”

Now his tail war twitching in a manner dazzle and enrapture female members of his own species. What the human thought of it was beyond him. “Oh very. So much. Yes. I– I–” SKREE-AH!

“AAAAH!” Del ducked in

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Challenge #00575 - A200: Alas My Love...

An Ice Cream van on Amalgam station.

Someone, somewhere, was playing Greensleeves on a glockenspiel. Rael knew this because he was chasing Shayde, who was racing about, trying to find the source of the noise.

The only information she’d supplied had been “MISTAH WHIPPEH![1]” before she had taken off at -as she called it- warp nine.

One day, one day… in the far, far distant future, he would not need half an hour and a pocket

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Return to Sesame Street!

A while back you posted a horror-splash about a the terror that a hyper-realistic Sesame Street would be. I’d like to see this world reconciled back into the treasured childhood series, rather than as a grim-dark reboot. After the adrenaline-fueled shock wears off, have your protagonist step back, take a deep breath, and realize they’re not really scary at all. I realize this may be a bit specific, but for my peace-of-mind, and that of everyone who grew up on

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Challenge #00573 - A198: One Fine Evening in the Nightvale Maternity Ward

“Slowly, the doctor turned. Extending a pointing finger, he said “But … but that’s an orange … !”"

“Yes,” said Mrs Murray. You know her, she was born with octupoid-like tentacles instead of hair.

“We couldn’t be happier,” said Mr Murray, through the independently levitating ouija board that is his sole means of communication. Since he is corporeally-challenged.

“All we want to know,” asked Mrs Murray carefully, “is to the signs and portents indicate

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Writing Prompt

The first encounter of T’reka and her people with Big Bird (or any of the Muppets, really, because why wouldn’t they still be around?)

(#00572 - A197)

Still relatively impaired by her injured leg, T'reka stared in amused confusion at the screen.

It was a program meant for juvenile entertainment and/or education (it was hard to tell, with humans. It may be both and something else), she could tell by the puppets. And it was a locally-produced show, because

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Challenge #00571 - A196: The Big Reveal

http://cnvvj.tumblr.com/post/88170279521/wintersoldjer-but-what-if-cyclops-can-wear

He called them all together into the big meeting room. They gathered into their appointed seats and in a general air of confusion.

“For years, I’ve made myself scarce on April first. And for those same years, all of you have managed to make me your butt-monkey for pranks. Every joke in the book and some of the new ones… you played them all on me.”

Now most of them

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Challenge #00570 - A195: Casual Toxicity

“Absolutely not! There is no way in-”

*human calmly peels and eats a banana*

“Er, whatever you say, sir.”

The Membletak did not adapt well to their new, human captains. They did not adapt well to the insanity of their commanding officers.

And they did not adapt well to illogical commands.

But Captain Millbury was prepared.

“Sir. The odds against surviving such a manoeuvre intact are astronomical to begin with, you can’t possibly expect the

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Challenge #00568 - A193: Buddy-buddy

An alien and a human with a Han and Chewbacca-esque relationship

(I don’t think Hwell counts, that looks more like babysitting)

[AN: Well, yes, but Hwell does spend large volumes of time making gurgling noises…]

Ruscis still couldn’t believe this was happening, but a duty was a duty and this… being… hadn’t left her side since the convoluted happenings that involved saving its life.

“You remember what I said,” Ruscis repeated. “

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Challenge #00567 - A192: Unsuitable Food

“The secret formula, it must be kept out of the wrong hands or it will doom us all!”

“This is a recipe for clootie dumplings.”

In the wake of sanctioned, regulated, guaranteed foodstuffs, there was revolution.

Astrid slipped her fingers into the knuckleduster she kept in her pocket as the shadowy figure approached. Just in case. Her life had been saved by precautionary measures like this, and the dust mask she wore to obscure her face.

“The

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Challenge #00566 - A191: Vampirism Sucks

A group of casual vampires, perhaps playing poker or lounging by the pool, with cheesy-looking coconuts with straws in, when in bursts a newbie vampire hunter who apparently got all his info from a book written before both the discovery of the coconut milk thing and safe volunteer blood donor procedures.

The sun had risen. Those in the pool had fled for the cabana at the first hint of light in the east. There, they applied zinc oxide very liberally to their

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