Thirty Minute Pony Stories

Applebloom felt a flutter of trepidation as she stepped into Sugarcube Corner’s lobby. It wasn’t as if she didn’t like Pinkie Pie; no, the hyperactive baker was a close friend of the family and had only ever been kind to Applebloom. Still, her sister’s tales of days spent fending off Gummy’s reptilian suitors or getting roped into taste-testing Pinkie’s newest confectionary experiments when Applejack had only meant to greet her friend with a hasty “howdy” and get on with her day were fresh in the filly’s mind, and she couldn’t help but feel just a bit nervous about willingly seeking out Ponyville’s resident madmare.

But there was nothing for it. Applebloom knew for a fact that only Pinkie Pie could help her with the problem she and her two best friends were facing, so she took a deep breath and steeled her courage as she trotted towards the counter. “Hi there, Mrs. Cake. Ah don’t suppose Pinkie Pie’s around?”

The plump mare behind the counter smiled invitingly down at her visitor. “She’s right upstairs in her room, Applebloom. Would you like me to go fetch her for you?”

“Nah, there’s no need for you ta’ go to that trouble,” replied Applebloom hurriedly. Her question was a private concern, for Pinkie’s ears only. “I’ll jus’ go up and see her. Thank ya!”

Carrot Cake waved as Applebloom turned to gallop up the stairs, taking them two at a time in her haste. Before long she was standing in the doorway to Pinkie Pie’s bedroom, staring down a blank-faced alligator that stood in her way. She cleared her throat nervously. “Um… hey, Gummy. Have you seen yer owner anytime recently?”

“Well, I sure hope so!” Applebloom nearly jumped a foot in the air as a familiar frizzy-haired earth pony materialized behind her, scattering confetti over her visitor in greeting. “I’ve been waiting for you all day, after all!”

Applebloom gulped as she turned to face Pinkie. “Waitin’ fer… me?”

“Yup!” Pinkie Pie nodded vigorously. “This morning, when I woke up, my lower left eyelid was twitch-a-twitchin’, my teeth just wouldn’t stop chattering, and one of my ears was super-duper flippy! Now that’s a combo I don’t get often! Do you know what it means?”

“Er…” Applebloom made a show of thinking it over before shrugging. “…Nope. Nope, I don’t. What does it mean?”

“It means…” Pinkie Pie gave a manic grin before ushering Applebloom inside her room and slamming the door shut. “It means that somepony is going to come to me for relationship advice! So—who’s the lucky stallion? Or is it a mare? Dragon? Griffon? Zebra? Buffalo? Deer?”

Applebloom reddened, drawing a forehoof through her bangs. “Well, mighty sorry, Pinkie, but I actually wasn’t comin’ here for me. Ah heard you set up mah sis and Rainbow Dash a few months ago, and ah thought you might help me gettin’ two other ponies together.”

The pink pony’s smile grew even wider, were that possible. “Ooh—a set up! Those’re tons of fun. Who’s the lucky couple gonna be, then?”

Applebloom cast a nervous glance around the room, checking that they were truly alone. The only onlooker she could see was Gummy, and he didn’t look to be particularly capable of spreading gossip, so she finally answered: “It’s Sweetie and Scoots. Last week ah told Sweetie Belle that she an’ Archer would make a cute couple, an’ she just blushed and said that that didn’t seem like too good an idea. Ah thought she was just bein’ shy, but then during school later that day ah noticed her looking at Scootaloo a lot more than usual. She had the same look on her face that I used to see on my sis’s when Dash was over! So ah thought, hey, maybe Sweetie has a crush on Scoots.”

“Ooh, that’s super cute!” gasped Pinkie Pie, eyes shining. “Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N—“

“Yeah, well,” carried on Applebloom, getting the impression that Pinkie wasn’t going to stop on her own anytime soon. “Ah thought the same thing, so I asked Scootaloo if she liked anypony—y’know, like liked them?—and she ran off shouting that that was a silly question and ‘of course I don’t like nopony, Applebloom.’ But if ah know Scoots, an’ ah reckon ah do, she was probably just too embarrassed to admit it.”

“The plot thickens!” announced Pinkie Pie, leaning even closer as she grew more and more engrossed in Applebloom’s story.

“So this Monday, ah’m startin’ to get a little suspicious, when all of a sudden ah see that no good Diamond Tiara bullyin’ poor Sweetie Belle. Ah… well, ah was gonna go help Sweetie, but to be perfectly honest that Diamond is mighty intimidatin’ and I was a little afraid to do it alone…” Applebloom shuffled her hooves a bit, biting her lip. “But then, outta nowhere, Scoots comes gallopin’ in, shoutin’ at Diamond Tiara to leave Sweetie alone or else she’ll have Rainbow Dash’s protégée to deal with, and that stuck-up filly was so surprised she actually jus’ left! An’ Pinkie—you shoulda seen the look on Sweetie Belle’s face! Ah’ve never seen her look so happy, at least not since she an’ Rarity won the Sisterhooves Social! So ah thought, hey, maybe my best friends’ special talents are actually bein’ an adorable couple, an’ I knew just the pony to ask fer help!” There was a silence before she concluded, “That’s you, Pinkie.”

—-time limit reached—-

Pinkie Pie beamed at Applebloom’s confidence in her. “Well, you came to the right place, pal! Pinkie Pie here is the best matchmaker in all of Ponyville! Maybe even all of Equestria! I’m actually not too sure; it’s been awhile since the last Iron Shipper tournament and I got fifth place then but I’ve improved a lot since then…” She frowned, temporarily lost in thought. “Anyways, there’s not a pair in Equestria I can’t get together!”

“Great!” cried Applebloom, fantasies of her two best friends in Equestria galloping towards each other in slow motion running through her head.

“Well… not a pair except for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”

The younger pony’s face fell. “What? Why?!”

“Because…” Pinkie Pie looked very solemn for a moment before beckoning Applebloom closer. The filly complied despite her confusion, leaning in to better hear Pinkie Pie’s whispered answer. “…Because d’you remember when I told you about that Pinkie Sense combo I got this morning? Well, it’s already come true!”

Applebloom frowned. “Well, yeah. Didn’t ya say you were waitin’ fer me?”

Pinkie Pie’s face exploded into smiles again. “’Course I was waiting for you, silly! Scootaloo told me she was worried about how you’d react when she came to me earlier. When you showed up here, I thought it was because you’d already heard the news!”

“The news…?” Applebloom sat, perplexed, for a good thirty seconds before it dawned on her, and her smile slowly grew into a mirror of Pinkie’s own. “So, y’mean—”

“As of this morning, when a very lovesick young pegasus came to me to discuss her crush, the two ponies Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are officially fillyfriends!” announced Pinkie proudly. Applebloom’s grin grew even wider as she leapt in to give Pinkie Pie a fierce hug. “What’d I say?! Best matchmaker in Equestria!”

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RWL’s Commentary

It looks like this is your first submission to the blog, so I just wanted to say welcome and we hope you’ll keep submitting!

Heh, it’s really fun to imagine Pinkie Pie as Ponyville’s matchmaker. I loved the mention of the “Iron Shipper” contest. Apple Bloom’s description of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, especially how Scootaloo came in and saved her from Diamond Tiara, was really cute. And I love that Pinkie has a Pinkie Sense tell for when somepony is gonna come to her for relationship advice. This story was just full of great details. Wonderful work!