Submission

A 900-post collection

Challenge #00904-B173: Cat Day

Steven Universe - Lion’s adventure

Lion finished his patrol of the city and curled up near the house of the Scion. Soon, very soon, it would be warm in just this spot. Warm was always good. The Scion would need Lion today. Lion couldn’t tell exactly when, but he knew. He was going to be Needed.

And in the meantime, there was sleep.

“Is it safe to just… lie on him like that?”

Lion peeked. The human friend of Scion Steven was here again. Lion didn’t mind her. She was lighter than some of his previous burdens.

“Why not? said Steven. “This is the best spot for… lion around and reading.”

Lion tipped him off for that one. Trouble. Trouble was on the breeze. This way? That way?

“What is it? A gem attack? A monster? A monster fusion?”

The human friend dove under the decking for her sword. Good. Humans were starting to approach life with a little more sense.

There it was. One of the hidden places. Lion bowed to allow the children on his back. Then leaped. Far enough in the right direction and… roar-warp to the nearest soft place to the Trouble.

Kindergarten. Lion hated this place as much as some of the Gems. It was dead earth. Ruined for any kind of life.

Except… that kind of life.

“Oh no!”

They were screaming.

“Euw,” winced the human. “What are they?”

“I call ‘em Mooshups,” said Steven. “They’re… y’know Frankenstein?“

They were screaming and only he could hear them.

“Yeah…”

“Dead gems are shattered crystals. These are… mooshed together like the monster.”

They didn’t want to be like this any more than he wanted to face them.

Whispered, “O my God…”

“We gotta poof them before Garnet finds out.”

Lion tried his roar. The smaller Mooshups poofed instantly, but the bigger ones. Especially the biggest one… didn’t seem phased.

Fortunately, there are always claws and swords.

Lion didn’t question why they didn’t fight. Why they seemed to surrender to claw and blade. That wasn’t important. Not in comparison to protecting the Scion.

Steven bubbled all the force-fused shards. Paused on the brink of sending them to the table.

“Wait! Won’t the others see these?”

“Oh. I… I can’t let Garnet see these. She was so upset by the last batch…”

Once again, Steven stored something in Lion’s other realm. He would keep these relics safe.

He was, after all, created to serve. Either the will of his former mistress, or that of his new master.

[Muse food remaining: 15. Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

Challenge #00903-B172: One Thing in Common

Francoeur and Sweetie Belle

Her big sister had a really big visitor. He was immense enough to make a full-grown dragon wary. All black and sharp spikes and luminous red eyes…

…and a gentle, almost foal-like way of investigating the world with all four hands.

Sweetie Belle thought she was well-hidden until he offered her a rose and cooed, “…joli petit poney…”

“Oh, don’t be frightened, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity singsonged. “Francoeur is as gentle as a lamb.

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Challenge #00902-B171: In a Shared Domicile on Amity...

Random number prompt - use a random number generator and redo a prompt from the first year of instants - do NOT read the first story before writing the new one.

[AN: The random number was 133: Anywhere in the story: “The element of surprise didn’t so much rest upon someone hearing you but registering the significance of your approach.” (I hope altering one word counts)]

There was an important lesson in here, somewhere. Living with Deathworlders taught them well. Continuing

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Challenge #00901-B170: Strange Creatures

Alternate universe prompt: The X - Mares

[AN: Of course I instantly thought of MLP:FiM]

Things went very quickly bad when the entirety of Ponyville discovered that Fluttershy’s strange friend was stranger than they had believed possible.

His glowing eyes almost bugged out of his head. He smiled with sharp, sharp teeth. He vanished in a puff of sulphur. He didn’t have hooves. He had paws. And his tail… was more like a dragon’s than a pony’

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Challenge #00900-B169: Mama Bear

Murphy’s law of Babies 2:  Toddler gone? It’s with the humans.

Nita almost didn’t notice the curious little Numidid until she nearly stepped on the poor child. She was big for a human, and this little scrap of pinfeathers barely cleared her boot.

“Whoops,” she said. “Hello, little peep. Where did you come from?”

Alas, the tiny child was still talking Scribble. Multilingual Scribble, but still Scribble. It varied between Numidid, Amity English, and Galstand. She sounded irritated, and

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Challenge #00899-B168: Rule of Innocence

Murphy’s law of Babies: When you look away for two seconds and your child has absconded, it will invariably be found in whatever situation would cause the quickest messy death or most political upheaval if an adult were in the same situation.

Luckily children can get away with anything by virtue of being children, and will not be immediately vaporised for hiding behind Graknor, Conqueror of Galaxies’ legs.

Sahra let her toddler go so she could tuck herself back in. Poor

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Challenge #00898-B167: Rule of Cute

Observation: The more fragile a species is, the less danger it is in (physically) from the humans. The ones that can withstand them are treated aggressively and with much suspicion, and the dainty little ones are coddled and cooed over. And petted if the humans can get away with it.

[AN: Just FYI, not all Havenworlders are tiny. But loads of them are]

It should have been an ordinary shortcut. Just a quick dash home to pick up her LifeAlert bracelet. She

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Challenge #00897-B166: Adult Onset Responsibility

So if the first person to contact another world is automatically ambassador, what happens if an accident involves first contact being between the alien civilisation and Bigot McAssface, who would fit right in on that Greater Deregulation. Specifically, the rest of BMA’s civilisation, especially the ones interested in galactic alliance, would usually say the complete opposite of anything he does, but now he’s their galactic spokesperson.

[AN: This story will contain slurs because my main character is an arsehole]

“Keeping

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Challenge #00896-B165: Instruments of War

The gentle breeze softly ruffled the hair of the Spine as he lay in the field

[AN: This fic is inspired by Photographic Memories and may contain The Feels]

He
reached over and picked it up. The fastening clips were still intact. Good. He didn’t like being bare-headed. It made people stare and treat
him like a thing.

The downside to always wearing hair was that he
was not used to putting it on, so it took him three tried to

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Challenge #00895-B164: The Old Heart-Stopper

There is coffee, there is turkish coffee, there is paper-due-in-six-hours was-coffee-once, and then there is whatever you just made and drank.

Grace watched Sara cautiously as more and more ingredients kept
coming out of random storage places. Turkish Coffee steeped in its
special apparatus. Espresso poured out of the little budget coffee maker
that pushed hot water through little capsules, and it did so on a near steady stream. The finished cups of steaming liquid went into a cooking
pot that already

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Challenge #00894-B163: The Unexpectables!

Beauty, brains and brawn. The traditional makeup for any team. Have fun.

There’s hundreds of ways to be a hero. And more than one way to be a heroic team…

Munashe finished the delivery forms for her auction winnings. An entire library of childrens’ books from a now-defunct school. Purchased for a dollar from a government auction because nobody was interested in buying things from a school.

The story books were going to a children’s hospital. The educational stuff

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Challenge #00893-B162: Perish the Thought

(Was trying to find the post that inspired this, but couldn’t)
Considering that literature professors, English teachers, and mandatory readings have managed to make Shakespeare boring, even with the subject material, jokes, innuendo, memorable insults everywhere, and masterful handling of it all, imagine the travesty that will be lessons on Discworld in a few centuries.

Time’s winged chariot… renders all things boring.

They were
doing the Pratchett section of English Lit, which was only slightly less
dull than the Victorian

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Challenge #00892-B161: Malevolent Dictatorship

Person #1: Y'know, despite the fact that we’ve been conquered by a mad scientist, you’ve got to admit at least they make the trains run on time.

Person #2: So the train /won’t/ be late?

Person #1: Might be a bit early. And on fire. With electricity flying off it. And a dark cloud of doom preceding it. And a strange, shrill laugh.

Person #3: You know, like the 11:25 one.

Say what you like about Mad
Doctor

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Challenge #00891-B160: Nil Mortifi Sans Lucre?

FAQ Assassins

- Business hours are 9:00 to 5:30
- Please deposit last will and testament in box below
- Knock and remove shoes before entering

They say that life is cheap on Ghiisham, and they are correct. Life is cheap. You get one for free. Living can be expensive and death, though inevitable, is much more expensive than taxes.

Especially if you want it tailored.

Junior assassin Mykoss looked up at the client. They were all over sores and

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Challenge #00890-B159: Absolute Power...

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est - Knowledge itself is power

Knowledge is power. The knowledge of physics allows many species access to space travel.

Power corrupts. Those with the power to conquer worlds will do so.

Those with the knowledge of how to fight back… sometimes fail to apply it. They have better ways.

“This system is now ours,” boomed the bird before them. “You will serve us in all things you do.”

“As you will,” said the Chief Librarian.

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