#prompt 192

[writersisland]

“I’ve been trying to ask for forgiveness but everyone who could have granted it is dead.”

[promptsbytaurie]

prompt #192

"I mean this in the best way possible, kid, but no one is looking at you. No one cares. Move on."

[notyouraveragewritingprompts]

Prompt #192

A: I don't get what everyone sees in him.

B: If you have to ask, you'll never know.

[wonderful-prompts]

Prompt #192

“Drop the act and stop fucking around.”

[thirtyminuteponies]

Prompt #192 compilation: "Letter to the Editor" (Pony Pen Pals Theme Week, Day Six)

The Prompt: Dear TMP Mod(s)…

Y'all are sappy as all get-out.

Don't ever change. You're all beautiful.

“In Which One’s Own Back is Patted,” by rwlart

“I CAN TITLE A LETTER TO MY WRITERS AND FANS OH THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” by Shoe Loves You Forever

“Creativity’s Fervor” by Versulia

“Ships In the Night” by Red Pen Ninja

“Help I’m Trapped A Really Houselike Cave” by Hurricane’s Ghost

“The Migraine Meds Made Me Do it” by Donny’s Boy

“How To Properly Conduct Negotiations” by Professor Piggy

“A Word of Thanks” by Shingo

“Kyronea Gushes Like Mad,” by Kyronea

“Freezing’s Letter to Donny” by Freezingshock

“Dear Admins…” by SuperGiantRobot

“Dear Admins… (for real this time)” by SuperGiantRobot

“Freezing’s Letter to Professor Piggy” by FreezingShock

“Expectations” by TheLastBrunnenG

“From The Heart” by Rawtooth

“Slander” by Quintus

[thirtyminuteponies]

Prompt #192: "Slander" by Quintus

Dear Thirty Minute Pony Editors,

For years, my sister and I have enjoyed reading your stories together. We've even made a routine of reading to each other over breakfast before I send her off to school, and I feel this has brought us closer together. However, there have been recent developments which are cause for concern for me.

When my friends and I began appearing as characters in your stories, I tried to take it in good fun. I suppose we are rather notable ponies, having saved Equestria multiple times among other things. But this I feel went beyond acceptable limits as soon as you began featuring stories of me and my friends engaged in scenes of intimacy hardly appropriate for fillies. Imagine my horror when I began reading to my sister only to realize the story featured me and my friend Rainbow Dash, and that I now had to answer as to what “making out” means. It's gotten to the point where I have to screen your stories before I can allow my sister to read them, and that is something I will not put up with.

While I have no problem with what ponies choose to do in the privacy of their homes, to accuse me and my friends of these acts is, I feel, nothing short of slander. I ask that you disallow all such stories in the future, and furthermore, that you stop encouraging such behavior with your prompts and commentary. If you don't, I'm afraid I will be forced not only to cancel my subscription, but to take you to court for defamation of character, and appeal all the way to Princess Celestia herself if necessary.

Please don't make it come to that. Do the right thing. Let me and my sister have our story time again.

Sincerely,

Rarity

---

Dear Rarity,

We are shocked and appalled to hear such things occurring. Makeouts? Why, we would never encourage such things! There are children reading our stories! We are not that rabble over at Sexty Minute Stories! We have morals! Principles!

And to write makeouts about ponies who are actually in existence is utterly unthinkable! Who would do such a thing? I assure you, that should we ever encounter such debase behaviors being submitted for approval they shall be struck down with the force of a thousand typhoons. Never shall a poor child's eyes be tainted again with such debauchery!

We apologize profusely. May it never happen again.

Sincerely,

Baby Seal Burritos, Head of the Makeouts Public Relations' Department.

[thirtyminuteponies]

Prompt #192: “From The Heart” by Rawtooth

Dear TMP Mods,

                Hi there, I don’t believe we’ve ever had a formal introduction.  My screen name is Rawtooth, pretty obviously.  I’m a born and raised Alaskan, having lived here my entire life, although I intend to change that shortly.  I’m post-bachelors for education and currently work diligently as an accountant.  I was introduced to the magic of ponies via my best friend and roommate, starting with the airing of “Putting Your Hoof Down”.  Since then I have been pretty keen on ponies, culminating in my attendance of Canterlot Gardens this past September, which I believe a number of you also enjoyed.  For the past two months, I have been consistently submitting into the Thirty Minute Pony Stories, to varying degrees of positive reception.  Now the question is, why?

                I will be blunt and state that the past year of my life has been pretty shitty.  I found myself post-college, adrift and aimless without a goal to orient my life towards.  My relationship of four years collapsed, leaving me bitter towards the world.  And most painful of all was the loss of my dear grandmother.  But from this morass of suffering came something new.

                I began writing again, and in doing so I rekindled my passion for the printed word.  At the start, I wrote fitfully, in relatively useless drabbles and scene sketches.  This continued for most of the summer, until one fateful day when I stumbled upon TMP.

                This was a completely novel concept to my mind!  A group of people, putting out worthwhile prompts daily and giving out helpful advice at the same time?  Impossible.  But after seeing  prompt #131, I could not help myself.  And so I wrote something, with nary a plan for structure or plot in mind.  I just sat down in front of my computer and typed like mad.  Looking back in hindsight, it’s a rather laughable effort, but it was still something very important.  It was a beginning.

                Day after day, I found new prompts waiting for me, signaling the end of the work day and the beginning of my evening.  Early on, I learned an important lesson regarding TMP.  Namely, be prepared to have your preconceptions blown.  Prompts here are wild and varied, with a staggering range of subject topics and concepts to draw upon for the creative process.  But more importantly in my writing I found peace.  I could set aside my own mind, my own concerns, my own stresses and just focus on writing about magical talking ponies.  To be sure, as some of you have no doubt noticed, the real world still intrudes into my writings, filled as they are with angst and sadness.  But still it was, and still is, amazingly meditative.

                As time wore on, I noticed something remarkable happening with my writings.  I was getting better!  No longer was I struggling with the time limit for a simple sketch, I was instead grappling with the issue that my plots were too big to wrangle into thirty minutes.  I found myself stepping outside of my comfort zone, attempting to dig deep into the heads of characters I have little personal relation to or concepts that I personally have little experience with such as religion.  It’s breath-taking and wonderful to be able to click on my username and see page after page of writing.  To know, that during the month of November alone, I wrote approximately 25,000 words, half of the word count of a NaNoWriMo project just off a series of daily prompts!

                I can’t thank all of you enough for your efforts.  From an outside perspective, there is nary a glimpse of the man behind the curtain at all.  Instead everything is seamlessly reviewed and posted and categorized like clockwork.  I am sure that looking from the inside out is a drastically different point of view, but I can only hope that you all are aware of how much you can help people.  Each of you, from Donny’s Boy’s love of pink pony to Professor Pig’s delight in angst to Norsepony’s favor of world-building prompts and all the rest of you, have made the world just a little brighter and a little better by spending some of your own precious time supplying these prompts to us, the writers.  So really, the reason why I continue writing is obvious.  I came for the prompts, but I’m staying for the staff.

                There is a blizzard outside, the snow blowing by on a harsh wind in the cold darkness of the Alaskan winter night.  It’s alright though, I’ve got ponies to write today and tomorrow.

Most sincerely,

Rawtooth

PS – Rarity is best pony!

---

Dear Rawtooth,

I am also an Alaskan, born and raised, although I have since moved away for school. Not really relevant to anything, but I'm always a little excited to meet another Alaskan. I am sorry to hear about the circumstances leading up to your writing for TMP; I know that life can be incredibly rough sometimes-- maybe even most of the time-- and it's never fun to hear about someone getting so much dumped on them at once. At the same time, I am so glad to hear that not only are you doing better, but that TMP had a hand in helping you get to a better place in your life. That's just really incredible!

I speak for the rest of the mods when I say that we've consistently enjoyed what you submit, and it was fun when you got yourself a Tumblr as well to interact with us further. It's not always easy to run the blog, being perfectly honest, but with all of us mods working together we do our best to keep things running smoothly so that people like you can enjoy it, and hearing such glowing praise is really wonderful and we thank you so much. We will continue to do our best to bring interesting prompts to the table if you continue to produce interesting stories, how does that sound? After all, this blog would be really boring without people like you contributing to it.

Sincerely,

Baby Seal Burritos on behalf of the rest of the crew.

PS- I think Obscure Reference and Professor Piggy would have to agree with you on your choice of best pony. :D

[thirtyminuteponies]

Prompt #192: “Expectations” by TheLastBrunnenG

Dear Moderators at Thoroughbred Matchmaking Professionals, Inc.,

Per your Terms of Service, Section III, paragraph 4, I respectfully request a refund of the bits I paid for your matchmaking services, or a replacement match, at your option. In my matchmaking questionnaire I specifically stated that I would like to be paired with a stallion, preferably a large red one. Instead my blind date was average-sized, pink, and a mare. Your advertisements promise “Satisfaction Guaranteed!” and despite the excellent cupcakes my date brought, I am not satisfied. Please remit, or forward contact information for a replacement match.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle

~~~~~

Dear TMP Moderators,

Thank you for arranging a replacement match. My date was polite, kind, and adorably quiet. We had an excellent time, thanks in no small part to the lovely songbird chorus with which she serenaded me. However, you still did not take my stated preferences into account. I must again insist that you refund my payment or provide a companion which matches my specifications: a large red stallion! Well, maybe a stallion. I think. And definitely red. Or maybe just a little red.

Yours,

Twilight Sparkle

~~~~~

To the wonderful Moderators at TMP,

I wanted to express my sincerest gratitude for arranging my most recent match. We went flying, shopped for an authentic Daring Do pith hat, and shared a cloud-top picnic. We’ve already arranged a second date - I think she’s the one! There’s a little red in her mane, and her voice is a bit gravelly in a colt-ish way, so I’ll go out on a limb and say she matches my specifications perfectly. Thanks again! You Mods are the best!

Your Faithful (and satisfied) Customer,

Twilight Sparkle

~~~~~

To the real TMP mods,

The first fiction I ever wrote, fan- or otherwise, was for prompt # 120. Sixty submissions later I’m addicted and loving it. You’ve given this little corner of the Pony universe a pleasant and encouraging atmosphere and I couldn’t imagine writing anywhere else. I’ve been blessed to have been Featured on FiMFiction twice, both times for collected TMP prompts. I credit that in large part to you, the helpful and friendly Moderators of TMP, your creative prompts, and your positive and supportive comments. If I haven’t said it often enough or loud enough - thanks!

Yours,

TheLastBrunnenG

---

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

That first pony we sent should have been a perfect match. I just don't understand...

Dear TheLastBrunnenG,

This was fantastic. The subversion was excellent and I applaud you for it. I speak for all of the mods when I say that we've been really happy to have you on board for the last twenty prompts, and we've consistently enjoyed what you wrote. Your success on FimFiction is due, in large, to your talent, but we're happy to accept your praise just the same. :D In all seriousness, we're glad you've enjoyed yourself here with us, and we hope that you'll continue to write fun and clever things.

Sincerely,

The TMP Mods