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#Post#: 144--------------------------------------------------
Blank Pages
By: Marked Twine Date: December 22, 2013, 11:58 pm
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Bit chilly today, Marked felt, the gray hoodie he wore being a
nice layer of clothing that helped to keep him warm against the
light breeze blowing past him. His hood was pulled over his head
as he laid out on the bench he was using to try and stay
comfortably within the suns rays. His notebook was laid out on
the bench in front of him with a hoof being laid across it to
keep its pages from blowing in the breeze, a pen was being held
in his teeth as he scribbled down ideas for the next chapter of
his newest book with the pony finding the speed at which he was
jotting said notes down to be less than satisfactory as he
paused to hum and tap his chin far too often for his liking. The
worst was when he would simply stare at the blank page with
absolutely nothing coming to mind, it causing him to get
frustrated with himself which would of course make thinking even
harder and cause him tp grow more frustrated, the two sides to
this feeding each other whenever given the chance and being
responsible for many a abruptly ended brain storming session in
the past.
Marked reached over the side of the bench with his free hoof, it
waving around a bit in search of his coffee as his eyes remained
glued to the notebook, the edge of his hoof bumping into and
nearly knocking over his cup once he'd found it, his brief sharp
gasp of worry nearly causing the pen his teeth held to jump into
and poke his mouth. Luckily both his beverage and pen remained
unspilled and unpokey respectively, a drop of the writing
utensil freeing up the stallions mouth so he could take a few
sips of the coffee and warm himself up a little more. Setting
the drink down then adjusting how his legs were pulled up
against his body, the pony took his pen back up in his mouth and
went back to his thinking. His thoughts were starting to drift
though at this point, the lack of putting anything really
worthwhile down in his notebook causing him to become a little
bored... and hungry... After a few more minutes of idly tapping
his pen against paper and fiddling with his reading glasses,
Marked decided he'd go distract himself with some lunch, the
earth pony climbing off of the bench and putting his things away
before scooping up his coffee so as to finish the cooling drink
with a couple of quick gulps. Setting off with a sigh, he began
to wander the streets of Ponyville, trying to decide on where he
would like to go for a bite to eat.
#Post#: 147--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Applejack Date: December 23, 2013, 8:21 am
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Today's weather was perfect. From the moment she'd heard that
the temperature was going to be a little chillier than usual,
Applejack had been preparing to make all kinds of hot, tasty
apple treats to sell to ponies. On a day like it was, apple pie
slices, apple fritters, bear claws and so on would all sell
wonderfully, and that was what Applejack was counting on: making
a little bit of extra bits while warming ponies up with a little
bit of homemade goodness. As such, a wide smile was plastered on
Applejack's face as she pulled her stand through Ponyville's
streets, her usual hat on her head and a light scarf around her
neck to help keep her a little bit warmer against the cold.
When she finally arrived in the market square, Applejack slipped
out from underneath the harness she used to pull her cart before
taking her place behind it, all the treats she'd prepared for
the day all kept safe and warm inside or in baskets on its
surface. The only thing left was to get ponies coming in, and
there was only one way to do that. "Apple pies, apple fritters,
apple cinnamon rolls! Come get Sweet Apple Acre's prize-winnin'
treats here, made fresh an' kept hot! Bring a slice o' home
t'yer loved ones t'day!"
#Post#: 149--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Marked Twine Date: December 23, 2013, 10:48 am
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Marked continued to trot along, head idly turning from side to
side as his eyes scanned the passing buildings for anywhere that
had a nice big sign of a pony eating a sandwich or something.
Years living in Ponyville and he still felt a little bit lost
whenever he came into town for whatever reason, his many hours
spent hold up in his house preventing proper memorization of the
streets and establishments most others here were probably fully
capable of navigating and finding while both half asleep and
under the influence of a strong cider. Still, he knew the
important and even somewhat famous points of interest within the
towns limits that ponies who'd never even visited the rural
community knew about, such as Sugar Cube Corner and Carousel
Boutique. This prevented him from getting lost in his own town
at least, and with his trips outside usually being to visit the
store for food or stock up on writing supplies it was easy
enough to form a...
Now what was that...? Something caught the writers attention, or
at least his nose's as the chilled breeze carried a sweet,
strong and all around wonderful scent his way. Almost
unconsciously his body drifted towards the source, his eyes
closed so as to have his senses put more emphasis on his ability
to smell while his hooves almost tripped over themselves in
their attempts to keep him steady and balanced. He wasn't near
enough to Sugar Cube Corner for it to overwhelm his senses with
the usual pleasant smell of cupcakes and cookies, even though if
you tried you could probably catch the faintest sugary scent of
the bakery from even as far as Marked's house, so this couldn't
be the Cake's doing.
Then he heard it. The voice of a mare he was most likely going
to be giving a special thanks to in his next book announcing
what it was he'd discovered. Finally opening his eyes again, the
stallion was greeted with the sight of the market square, him
still moving forward towards a cart of apple baked goodness,
though you'd have probably needed to remind him for him to
recognize that it was under his own volition with how he felt he
was just along with the ride at this point. No line had formed
yet. Seemed he'd arrived just when the cart had opened for
business. Awesome! That meant everything was fresh, hot and
fully stocked! The brown stallion trotted his way up to the
cart, the smell that had brought him hear now being able to
fully envelope him while the sight of all the baked goods on
sale were easily enough to make his mouth water. He pulled down
his hood, as if wearing it was somehow limiting his experience,
and simply stared at the goodies being displayed for a few
seconds, brain having apparently temporarily forgotten how to
function.
With a blink and small shake of his head, the stallion managed
to return himself to the world and escape, albeit a bit
reluctantly, the apple one he'd taken a brief vacation into so
as to glance up and find the pony who'd brought such beautiful
food into the world, him having been so focused on the pies and
such that he'd failed to even remember that somepony had to be
here to sell them first before he could dig in. It shouldn't
have come as a surprise to him who the mare selling the goods
were, though he still nearly took a step back because of it. He
recognized her instantly of course, him being a big fan of her
and and the other Element Bearers and now found himself actually
feel a little nervous. Their adventures were always a wonderful
source of inspiration for Marked's own stories, but he'd never
had the courage or reason to actually meet them beyond his
initial welcoming party upon his arrival, which he spent shyly
avoiding the spotlight as much as he was able, that however
being rather difficult when he was of course the guest of honor.
Any books he wanted he bought and had delivered to his house,
the clothes he wore were old and from before he'd even moved
into town, his diet usually consisted of cheap energy drinks,
bread with some kind of spread or even just the grass growing
around his home.
So... Marked was a little nervous...
"Uh... Hi," he greeted with a small smile, trying his best to
keep his voice level and not make himself out to be one of those
annoying fans that would just gush on and on, "seems you.. uh..
decided to pull a Luna today by stepping right out of my dreams
with all these treats here, huh? In case that wasn't obvious
from how I was acting. Heh.."
#Post#: 152--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Rainbow Dash Date: December 23, 2013, 2:58 pm
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Thunk... Thunk... Thunk...
Rainbow Dash groaned audibly to herself as she continued to hit
her head monotonously against the backboard of her bed. The
weather team sure did know how to mess up her day... When she
was told to simply leave the day in overcast to start bringing
in the cooler weather, it left her with little to nothing to do
for the rest of the day... And unfortunately, that left the
Pegasus utterly and profoundly bored. Dash snorted to herself as
she finally rolled out of the bed and started to pace around her
room, mostly due to the back of her head starting to throb in
protest. "What to do, what to do..." she muttered to herself,
stopping for a brief moment to gaze out the window and look down
at the nearby town of Ponyville. "Nothing to doooo, nothing to
reeeeead..." Dash glanced back at her bed, wondering if she
should just crawl back under the covers... But despite her
half-laden eyelids, she really wasn't all that tired.
"Well... This bites. The one time I practically get a day off
and I'm too bored to be lazy." She blinked, furrowing her brow
in confusion. "Wait... Is that even possible?" Dash shook her
head and trotted over to the room next door; an open balcony
that faced outwards overlooking Ponyville. If she was up, she
might as well go find something worth her time. Perhaps some of
her friends were already up and about... But what if they
weren't? Dash smiled wryly to herself as an idea popped into her
head. If none of them are up, I'm suuurrrreeeee they would
appreciate an impromptu wake-up call~, she mused to herself,
knowing exactly which pony to visit first. With a quick stretch
of her wings, Rainbow Dash took to the sky, pausing for a moment
to appreciate the view before she streaked across the town,
headed straight for Sweet Apple Acres.
In route, however, Dash caught the familiar scent of... Fresh
baked apples? The Pegasus screeched to a grinding halt midair,
doing a double take over both shoulders as her cerise eyes
scanned the streets below. There was absolutely no mistaking
that scent: Applejack was somewhere nearby. With a brief sigh of
disappointment, Dash backtracked until she finally spotted the
orange pony in the market square. She was hoping to surprise the
mare before she had gotten up, but it seemed like that plan was
out the window... Or was it...? The Pegasus swooped into a
nearby alleyway, hoping that Applejack hadn't already seen her.
She spied on her for a few moments, watching, waiting... And as
soon as her first customer lined up, Rainbow Dash struck. Within
a mere moment, she was directly beside her. "HI AJ! WHATCHA
SELLIN'?"
#Post#: 164--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Applejack Date: December 24, 2013, 6:52 am
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Just like always, her ushering worked almost immediately.
Applejack wore a friendly smile as she watched a pony practicaly
begin to hover over to her stand, no doubt more enticed by the
smell of the treats rather than what she'd called out to the
ponies in the streets. She offered him a large, welcoming wave
as he approached, smile widening to help make him feel at home
at her stands. "Howdy, sir!" she greeted, then perked her ears
when he responded--albeit somewhat haltingly. Not fazed at all
by this, she just continued to listen with her smile as the
stallion spoke, then pawed at the ground with a hoof at what was
said.
"Aw shucks sir, Ah don't know anythin' about all that. Ah just
make--BWWWAAAHHH!" she cried, eyes widening and jumping up in
surprise as Rainbow Dash appeared out of nowhere and shouted,
causing Applejack to fall over. When Applejack realized what was
going on, she huffed at Rainbow Dash and brushed herself off,
srunching her nose at her friend. "Dangit RD, what've Ah told ya
'bout sneakin' up on me like that? Howdy ta you too. Gimme a
sec, Ah got a customer," she told Rainbow before turning back to
Marked and wearing her earlier friendly smile. "Anyway, what kin
Ah get ya, sir? We got all kinds o' apple treats--Ah think it'd
prolly be easier fer me ta list what Ah don't have!"
#Post#: 170--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Marked Twine Date: December 24, 2013, 9:58 am
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With her smile managing to get him to loosen up a little, though
he still felt like he was on the verge of simply trembling from
his nerves getting the best of him, Marked tried to keep up his
smile without having it look goofy or awkward. Then, at the
sudden shout of another mare, Marked actually fell over with a
short yelp of surprise and landing on his runp Sith a slight
"oof". Gritting his teeth, more out of embarrassment than any
kind of pain, the stallion slowly looked up to try and see who
had managed to scare him without even trying to scare him
specifically if what the mare had said was any sign. And then
Marked was having trouble even breathing.
It took only a second for him to recognize the second mare just
as he had the first, and now being in the presence of, not one,
but two of Equestria's most famous heroes was almost too much
for him to handle. His breathing was starting to pick up as he
witnessed the short exchange between Rainbow Dash and Applejack,
though he pushed it back down to normal in a final attempt to
keep himself in check. Again, he knew that these mares were
friends, all of the Element Bearers were, and it was a very
common sight in Ponyville to see them together, but being being
behind closed doors and drawn shudders as a borderline shut in
again prevented Marked from really being witness to it himself.
"U-uh..." He tried, eyes flicking between the two ponies and
ears barely registering that one of them had asked him a
question. Turning his eyes back down to gaze over the feast of
apple deliciousness laid out on the cart, mostly to stop being
rude through staring and blabbering gibberish like an idiot, he
attempted to pick something out. "U-uh... Gimme a slice of bear
pie. I-I mean! An apple roll. Or, no! What I meant was..."
Finding no current way to make his tongue work for him, the
stallion just used one hoof to cover his mouth and shut himself
up while the other simply pointed at an apple fritter. Marked
felt rather silly doing this, but at this point he was worried
he'd say something dumb... or, well, dumber...
#Post#: 174--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Rainbow Dash Date: December 24, 2013, 12:03 pm
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Rainbow Dash busted out laughing when Applejack fell over, and
even harder when her customer fell over nearly at the same time,
which was completely unintentional on her part. "Score!~," she
managed to squeeze out in between a bout of laughter, obviously
very amused with herself. "Two pones with one stone? Now that's
how it's done. And to be fair, AJ, you told me 'don't sneak up
behind you'... Which I didn't. I sneaked up beside you~." The
Pegasus cracked another grin before folding her wings and moved
around to the front of the cart. "What are you doing up so
early, anyways...?" Dash blinked, realizing that was a silly
question to ask a pony like Applejack. "Wait, no, don't answer
that. The better question is how early did you get up? Do you
even sleep?" Rainbow Dash knew that many ponies were early
risers. In fact, the Pegasus herself was supposed to get up even
earlier to manage the weather for the day, but that rarely ever
happened, if at all. What was the point of getting up early when
she could just do it all in about ten seconds, anyways?
When Dash rounded the cart, she opted to stand next in line as
she had planned to get something herself. She had skipped
breakfast, much to her own annoyance... After spending nearly an
hour trying to wake up, Dash was just simply too lazy to cook
and had planned on finding something in town, anyways... And
Applejack's famous stand was the place to go for one of her
favorite apple-fritter treats. Just the mere thought of piping
hot apple-fritters was enough to start making her mouth water...
Upon closer inspection of the stallion in front of her and his
quirky stammering, Dash leaned over to wrap a hoof around his
shoulder. "You okay dude? You seem to be having a little trouble
deciding." She glanced at Applejack, wondering if her friend
knew anything about this guy... For a moment, Dash thought she
had broken him from her earlier scare. But then she saw him
pointing to an apple-fritter... And then she actually looked at
the stallion. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before...? You look
familiar, yet I can't quite put a hoof on it..." Dash poked
Marked gently in the chest a couple times with her free hoof as
she spoke, as if trying to prod an answer out.
#Post#: 205--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Applejack Date: December 25, 2013, 3:03 pm
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Applejack just sighed quietly as Rainbow started talking about
her success. Of course. She always did have to brag about her
wins. Applejack opened her mouth to respond to Rainbow's words,
but just released a sigh through her nostrils as Rainbow
continued, questioning her on her sleep schedule next. "First
off, it's 'snuck' up, RD. Not sneaked up. Second off, 'course Ah
sleep, an' Ah wake up about four or five in the mornin'." She
turned her attention to Makred then, falling silent.
Though one of Applejack's brows raised at Marked's apparent
nervousness, she continued to wait patiently as she waited for
him to order whatever he wanted. A light frown soon accompanied
that raised brow when Marked stumbled over his words, hooves
moving as it to grab something... but just paused in mid-air
when she realized she didn't know what to grab. She once more
opened her mouth to speak but--yet again--was stopped when he
pointed to a treat. Brow still raised, Applejack then took one
of the fritters, laid it out on a napkin and hoofed it over to
Marked. "That'll be four bits, mister," she told him, her gaze
briely moving to the back of the line, a small smile growing as
she noticed more ponies were walking over to line up to get
their own treat. "Eh? You know this feller, RD?" she asked,
gently tossing her head to RD to silently ask what she wanted
next, still waiting for Marked to give her the bits.
#Post#: 206--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Marked Twine Date: December 25, 2013, 3:22 pm
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Not wanting to risk further embarrassment, Marked had planned on
simply keeping his hoof firmly planted over his face until he'd
gotten his food, then hobble away on his remaining three legs in
the hopes of just being immediately forgotten as an awkward
customer instead of briefly remembered as a blabbering idiot. A
very muffled "thank you", sounding more like "mmph yumph", was
given to Applejack as she, after he'd managed to get his message
across through hoof gestures, wrapped up his choice of apple
treat and hoofed it over, him however then fumbling to pick it
up for himself and nearly dropping it with a short gasp of
surprise, his hoof on shut up duty being pulled away to catch
the food, as Rainbow Dash wrapped her hoof around his shoulder.
"U-uh-we-I-" being as nervous as he was, the stallion's mind
immediately jumped to assuming he'd done something wrong when
Rainbow seemed to be starting to recognize him, especially when
she started poking his chest, him having trouble pulling his bit
pouch out of his pack to pay for the fritter as his hooves
almost started shaking, "b-you-I-well-y-you might have s-seen me
h-hanging around the p-park writing?" He eventually stammered
out, pouch being freed of his pack only to be dropped to the
ground as Marked started breathing heavier from his furthered
embarrassment.
#Post#: 224--------------------------------------------------
Re: Blank Pages
By: Rainbow Dash Date: December 26, 2013, 8:43 pm
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"Sneaked? Snuck? Pfff-yeeeaaah right... Sneaked sounds so much
cooler, right pal?" Rainbow Dash glanced at Marked, but he
didn't seem quite... responsive... Dash stood baffled for a
minute as she tried to understand the pony's muffled words,
throwing quick glances to Applejack every now and then as if to
ask for her input... Chances were, however, that the orange mare
was probably just as confused as Dash was, if her expressions
were anything to go by. "Iiiiiii dunno, AJ... He looks awfully
familiar. I just can't place my hoof on it." The Pegasus
continued to meticulously scrutinize the stallion as though the
words 'personal' and 'space' didn't exist within her
vocabulary. "Oh! I'll just take a couple of those fritters, AJ.
This is probably one of the only chances I'll be able to catch
you early enough to get one before you run out, which always
seems to happen right when I get here. It's a conspiracy, I tell
you!"
When Marked started to stammer out coherent... Well, somewhat
coherent words, Dash just eyed him curiously, seemingly at a
loss of what to do. And then he dropped his pouch, which earned
a not-so-inconspicuous eye-roll from the Pegasus as she removes
her hoof from his shoulder to bend down and pick it up for him.
"Okay, look pal, I know that being around somepony as awesome
and famous as me can get your tongue tied--" a quick glance at
Applejack before quickly adding, "--And Applejack, of course,
but you gotta get a grip on yourself and breathe..." She held
out the pouch to return to him and offered a genuine smile. "I
can't say a pony writing in a park rings any bells, pal. Lots of
ponies go to the park. Whatcha writing, anyways?" Rainbow kicked
off the ground a little bit as she started to float mid-air,
tapping her hoof curiously against her chin.
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