Thirty Minute Pony Stories

The earth pony reporter sat at the table with a broad smile, setting his notepad down beside his pencil.

“Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Miss Sparkle.” He said with enthusiasm.

“Oh, just call me Sunset. Miss Sparkle is what my doctor calls me.” Sunset replied, idly examining a feather on her left wing.

“Of course. Now, Sunset, I know you’ve been all over the papers already thanks to the peace accord you helped negotiate between Griffordia and Equestria, but what I’m here to ask about is your past. Family, friends, growing up, and so on. That alright?”

“Go right ahead. If anything is too uncomfortable, I’ll just say so.” She nodded to the reporter, who picked up the pencil and started to scribble a few notes, before launching into his first question.

“So…what was school like for you?”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The blue coated unicorn smiled as she sat her young students down in a circle in the middle of the classroom.

“Now class, as this is your first day in magic kindergarten, I’d like you all to say hello to each other, tell us your name, and something you like. OK? Now, I’m your teacher, Miss Breezy, and I like happy colts and fillies!”

The first foal, a unicorn colt, spoke first.

“Uhh…I’m…um…Stargazer, and I like…um…stars.”

“Very good dear!” Miss Breezy said with a smile. The foal beamed in response.

“I’m Lofty, and I like cakes!” Said a very enthusiastic pink unicorn filly.

“Thank you Lofty! Next?”

The introductions continued around until the last child was reached, a lavender furred and golden feathered hippogriff.

“My name is Sunset Sparkle, and I really like my Mommy and Daddy Twilight Sparkle and Gerald Gryphon.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“Oi! Beaky!” Came a voice from behind Sunset.

Oh great, this clown again.

“Enjoyed any good worms lately? Or is it birdseed today?” The bully yelled, laughing uproariously. The others with him laughed too, though mostly because their leader was laughing.

“Well, it was that or your Mom’s cooking.” Sunset replied snarkily. The bully snarled.

“Don’t you talk about my Mom like that!” With those words, the bully’s horn glowed brightly, and a nearby rock was levitated.

“Uh, you DO know who my Mom is right? So I have all her magic and stuff?” With little effort, Sunset raised a shield to deflect the bully’s incoming rock, which bounced right back and hit him in the face. The bully roared and beat on the shield, but Sunset simply sat and smirked.

“SUNSET! BRASH! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!?” Both Sunset and the bully cringed at the sound. Miss Breezy was looking very annoyed at the two children.

“Principal’s office. Now.” With a sigh, both children followed to the principal’s office.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“Sunset! Getting into fights? Being rude to your classmates? I expected better of you!” Came the admonishing voice of Twilight Sparkle.

“I know Mom…” Came the dejected reply.

“Don’t you ‘I know Mom’ me! We’ve had this talk before already! You have to be better than them, Sunset.” Twilight nodded firmly to her daughter. “Grounded for two weeks. In both senses of the word.”

“Buh…whu…grounded!? But he started it!” She yelled back.

“No buts, missie. Bedroom, now.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“So not exactly squeaky clean then? Not a perfect student?” The reporter asked.

“Oh, of course not! When you’re that young you always get into all kinds of trouble. It’s part of growing up.” Sunset replied.

“Of course. Kids will be kids, and all. Now, how about your parents? How did they meet?”

“Ah! Funny story, that! Mom’s gonna kill me for telling it…”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“So, uh, hey…Gilda…glad you’re doing OK and all nowadays.” Rainbow Dash cringed as the weak words left her mouth. Her old friend deserved better, even if she had been a bit of a jerk before.

“Hey, thanks Dash. Listen, sorry about the whole, you know, rage thing.” Gilda replied almost nonchalantly.

“Seriously though, secretary to the Gryphon Ambassador? You’re doing a desk job? You? What about your flying?”

“Eh, guess I had to grow up a bit. It’s not so bad though. Ambassador insists on flying to meetings anyway so I get to stretch my wings and stuff.”

“Oh, well that’s cool I guess. Oh, hey, where’s Twilight? She was around here a second ago.” Rainbow Dash looked about in search of her friend.

“I saw her go out to the library. Said something about ‘unread tomes of knowledge’ or something. My brother was in there a few minutes ago. Maybe he knows.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“So you see, gryphon magic is far more gesture and vocal based. We have to manipulate the innate magical field of the world. We don’t have power fonts like you unicorns do.” The gryphon male said with obvious glee. A girl who was interested in magic theory? Bliss!

“Wow…I had no idea magic could work that way!” Twilight Sparkle replied, entranced. “Tell me more, Gerald!”

“Oh, well, magic user gryphons tend to have weaker flying abilities than most other gryphons. It’s rare we can manage high speed or high altitude flight. I think I prefer life down on the ground anyway. Far more to see down here, up close. Far nicer view, I think.” Gerald smiled and leaned in towards Twilight slightly.

“That’s amazing…you’re amazing…”

“Twilight, I can’t tell you how glad I am that I found somepony so interested in magic! I can’t believe the Element of Magic herself was on this diplomatic mission!” Gerald confessed, a blush in his cheeks. “I must confess, these last few days, I have found myself rather taken with you.”

Twilight smiled her warm, happy smile and nodded.

“I’ll admit, I feel the same way. I wonder if…well…do you think we could…do this kind of thing more often?”

“I…I think I’d…like that…” Gerald said, leaning closer to Twilight. Twilight responded in kind, leaning in, their mouths about to meet.

“Ahem.” Gilda cleared her throat to get their attention. Rainbow Dash was staring, barely able to hold back laughter.

“Shoulda figured the eggheads would get together! In the library too!”

“Hello to you too, Rainbow.” Said Twilight and Gerald at the same time.

“Hey, don’t keep her up too late, OK bro?” Gilda told Gerald. Gerald nodded, blushing brightly at having been caught.

“Uhh, um, until tomorrow then, Twilight?” Gerald said nervously, almost stammering. Twilight nodded, also blushing, and the two departed the room. Mere moments outside, both pony and gryphon were on each other, kissing passionately.

((TIME LIMIT REACHED))

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The reporter laughed loudly at the story, before scribbling down notes from what Sunset told him.

“Yeah, that was my reaction when Auntie Gilda told me the story too. Seems they were really embarrassed, but couldn’t wait to get their hooves on each other.”

“Well, thank you for that story. Now one last question – what are your hopes for the future?”

“Hmm…I think my speech yesterday summed it up pretty well…”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“Citizens of Equestria, gathered representatives of Griffordia, Your Hignesses Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I stand here today to make an announcement. As you all know, the growing tension between Griffordia and Equestria has resulted in many regrettable incidents between both our people. Growing dissent with trade contract terms, cultural differences, territorial expansion, all contributed to the unfortunate battle in Dream Valley 6 months ago. Knowing that an end to hostilities was in the best interests of both countries, I worked tirelessly with ponies and gryphons on both sides of the conflict to broker the best possible deal for our peoples. I am happy to say that the war is over!”

There was an almighty cheer from the assembled crowd. Sunset smiled and signalled for quiet.

“Now, as we wrap up our unfortunate past, we look onwards to the future. A future that ponies and gryphons will share in a glorious new age of co-operation and peace! I, because of my unique nature as a mix of both gryphon and pony, was in the best position to negotiate peace between us, and now I ask you all to trust me when I say we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

She paused a moment before continuing.

“I will be working closely with both our governments to ensure the best possible outcome for both our people in the fields of economy, science, education, trade and so on, but this venture only works with all of you helping. The world can’t change and grow without you – ponies, gryphons, dragons, minotaurs, all of us are necessary and special, and all of us are key to a future of prosperity and peace. So please, everypony…everyONE…listen to me and heed my words when I ask you all…please be nice to each other.”

The message was simple, but sometimes it needed saying. Be nice to each other. She smiled as she stepped down from the podium to the cheers of the crowd.

Yeah, that went well.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

“Be nice to each other. I like that. Thank you for your time!”

“Not at all. Take care, sir.”

“And you too, Sunset.”

Sunset got up to leave. She had a future to help build.

((Eep! My first one where I ran over! I kinda struggled with this one!))

Norse Pony’s comments: Ooh, neat. I love the worldbuilding on display in this one, with the ideas of interbreeding between species producing crossbreeds, and gryphon magic, and Griffordia, and the battle of Dream Valley, and just all of it. I’m a huge worldbuilding nerd in general, and this was well-handled. Sunset’s character was appealing. She felt like… well, like Twilight except more in-your-face, which comes off as perfectly believable as the child of Twilight and Gilda’s brother. Good work!