story does have misspelled words, but they are supposed to be
American Beauty
One beautiful spring day, all the ponies gathered in the meadow next to
Paradise Estate. They were holding a meeting to determine what special
thing to do for the babies ponies since they had been good all week. They
had promised the babies that if they were good and cleaned the nursery, they
would plan a whole evening of fun and games.
"Okay," Locket said, trying to get everyone's attention. "We need something
big. Any suggestions?"
"Wets pway dwess-up!" Baby Licketysplit said. "I wanna wook pweety."
"Yeah," Baby Quackers exclaimed, "I wanna paint my hooves and wear make-up."
"Well, I was actually think of more like a party with games and contests.
Games like pin the tail on the pony, or bobbing for apples, or....
"But dose is baby games!" Baby Tic-Tac-Toe complained. We is big ponies and
want to do grown up games."
"That is true, Locket." Magic Star said with a wink. "They have grown up.
So why don't we have a grown up beauty contest?"
"Yea!!!! Beauty Contest! I can't wait!" Cried all the baby ponies.
"What?" Baby Waddles said. "I don't wanna to go to no stupid beauty contest.
I wanna get dirty."
"Yeah" Baby Racer added. "Lets have a monster truck race or somethin' cool
like that."
"I got an important jog for you boys. You boys will be the judges!" Locket
decided.
"NOOOOOOO!" Cried all the boys, but it had done no good. It had been
decided.
With that, all the ponies scattered about to get ready for the contest. But
off in the distance stooda solid gray baby pony.Her dull gray mane and tail
just fell lifelessly to the ground. None of the other ponies seemed to
notice as she lowered her head and turned away from the commotion.
"Beauty Contest," she mumbled. "Why does everything have to be about beauty
and not about intellect?" For what this dull gray baby lacked in beauty,
she made up for in intelligence. Ever since she was born, she had been
ridiculed for her lack of beauty and never allowed to play games with the
other babies. Instead, she read every book she could get a hold of and
became the smartest pony in Ponyland.
"Beauty is not as important" she said as tears built up in her eyes before
running down her nose. But she couldn't stop thinking about it and the more
she thought about it, the more she cried. And the more she cried, the
faster she ran until she was at a full gallop. But by then she couldn't see
through the tears and she tripped over a loose tree root and tumbled down
the hillside.
She was finally stopped near the bottom by a patch of thorns. Still crying,
she worked her way out of the thorns and crawled to a near by lake. As she
peered into the calm water, she saw the most horrible thing ever - her
reflection. She was covered in mud and dirt. Her hair was corse with
rotten leaves tangled in it. She also had blood running down her legs from
the thorns. She looked awful.
"Beauty..." she said softly. "the one thing I will never understand." But
from across the lake, something caught her eye. Forgetting about her stiff
muscles and all her problems, she got up and walked over to it. out in the
middle of no where, unseen by pony eyes, was the most beautiful rose she had
ever seen. IT was a deep red, almost black, and had the most percept green
leaves.
"It is so beautiful. I have never even read about such a magnificent rose
in any of my books." As she walked closer, her hoof stepped on something
hard below the decomposing leaves from past autumns. She scraped the leaves
away to find a marble plaque with "American Beauty" inscribed on it.
"Beauty" she mumbled again as she was reminded of the past days events. A
single tear ran down her nose and fell onto the rose. At that same instant,
a ray of sunlight broke free from behind the clouds and shone directly on
the rose. Then the sunlight moved and started across the surprise pony. It
touched her nose first and turned it a pale yellow. It moved on up her
nose and to her eyes turning them to a jade green. As it reached her hair,
it pause ever so slightly before turning it to the deep red of the rose.
She watched as the sunlight reached her back and flank and there it printed
the American Beauty rose in all of its beauty.
Surprise at this new development, she trotted over to the water's edge and
peered into it. Instead of seeing the drap gray pony she had always known,
she saw the most beautiful baby smiling back at her.
"I'm beautiful!" she exclaimed and turned back to the place where the was to
thank it, but it was gone! She looked all around, but couldn't find it
anywhere. Nor could she find the marble plaque. So she held her head up
and trotted happily back. "The others will never believe."
* * * *
Meanwhile in Ponyland, all the babies were getting ready for the contest and
all the adults were helping them look their best. Crumpet and Confetti were
preparing the food and decorations, respectively.
"Sherbet made a wonderful fruit punch." Crumpet remarked, "And I made some
special cookies for them."
"This is going to be so much fun!" Confetti added. "And the babies are so
looking forward to it."
The day loomed on while everyone prepared and now was the time everyone was
looking forward to.
"Okay, everyone get in line like we practiced. Fantastic Fifi, your
first." Firefly announced. "Lovely Licketysplit, get ready because you are
next."
Baby Fifi was really nervous, but stepped out and paraded out in a lovely
pink and blue dress with a white bow in her hair. Baby Licketysplit
followed wearing a light pink and white dress, similar to Fifi's. And so it
continued until all the babies had shown off their new dresses and hair
styles.
Baby Waddles reluctantly stepped out to announce the winner.
"Well, after seeing all the pretty girls," Waddles said, thoroughly
disgusted.
"We macho boys declare..."
But Waddles was cut off by the doors swing open and revealing the prettiest
baby pony. Her crimson red hair fell in perfect curls around her hooves and
her yellow body had not a speck of dirt. She walked so poised and with her
head held high. Who was she?
"Am I too late for the beauty contest? She said calmly.
"Who are you?" Locked inquired.
"I am .." She paused. She had not yet thought of a name. She had always
been the dull gray pony before, but that no longer fit. "I am ...American
Beauty! But most of you know me as the dull gray pony."
"The gray baby?" Everyone asked astonished. No one could believe that the
stunning pony before them could be the drab baby they all knew.
So American Beauty told her story of finding the beautiful rose and her
transformation. Every pony there agreed that she should win the beauty
contest.
"Thank-you all so much!" American beauty cried as tears of joy ran down her
face. Majesty approached her and put her own robe and crown on American
Beauty.
"For the rest of the evening, I declare American Beauty as queen of all
Ponyland!"
All the ponies cheered.
"First thing I would like to do as queen is make sure everyone has a good
time tonight!" American Beauty declared. And everyone did and no one ever
made fun of any other pony's looks ever again.