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Description

Lois the Unicorn beamed as she stepped outside, her long, colorful mane flowing behind her. Between the fingers of her left hand she twiddled what looked like an ordinary pen, but was far from it; this magical little family treasure had the power to color anything in any way. Today was Lois's twentieth birthday, and as she had finally come of age to wield the pen, her mother had granted her free reign of it-- provided that she promised to use it to make the world more beautiful, a promise she had eagerly made.

The world is my canvas, Lois thought to herself. What should I beautify first...

No sooner had those words passed through her mind than Lois gazed upon the road she was walking along. It was early in the morning, and no traffic was about. The tarmac's only decoration were the bright yellow stripes that led down the middle-- how boring!

Grinning proudly, the unicorn uncapped the pen and waved it back and forth like a magic wand, creating shimmering rainbows in the air. As the ribbons of color drifted down and touched the tarmac, the road took on beautiful hues of red, blue, and green.

Hmm... no. Let's do something a bit less abstract...

An idea popped into Lois's mind. She ran across the road and waved her pen in various patterns, decorating the road with circles, spots, and lines. Upon reaching the other end, she turned around and stopped to admire her handiwork. The road now looked like a portrait of outer space, with planets, stars, and other celestial features scattered around. As the finishing touch, Lois knelt down and drew a few quick lines, and a space shuttle appeared in the corner of the scene.

"Perfect! Now... what's next?"

Lois skipped down the sidewalk, twirling the magical pen in her hands. She had spent almost an hour painting the town red (not to mention every other color). Sides of buildings, utility poles, road signs, nothing was safe from the unicorn's artistic touch. A traffic light up above now shined cyan, hot pink, and black-and-white-stripes instead of red, yellow, and green; how Lois had reached it to do that was anyone's guess.

Aha! Lois thought as she spotted a bus stop that had hitherto escaped the influence of her magical pen. Stepping confidently up to it, the unicorn drew back her pen in preparation...

"That's enough, young lady!"

...only for someone to grab her arm. Lois yelped in protest as she felt someone yank the magical pen out of her hand before letting go of her. Whipping around, the unicorn found herself face to face with a border collie dressed in a cop's uniform. The rainbow smudge on the cop's chest suggested that she had accidentally gotten him with her pen.

"Uh..." Lois began.

"Ma'am, I saw you back there," the cop interjected. "You're under arrest for multiple counts of public vandalism, including obfuscation of traffic signs and signals. (He gestured at a stop sign that had been painted up to look like a flower, and as a result was no longer readable.) The scale of the offense qualifies this as a felony. Please come with me and we'll talk about this further at the station."

Not having much choice, Lois nodded and began to follow the officer down the sidewalk, her head hung. She spared a glance at all the art she'd created, but considering the mess she'd just gotten into, looking at it just made her feel worse. Some twentieth birthday this was turning out to be...

My entry for the #da20thbirthday challenge. I was told over Twitter that there was no official deadline, but the general public has to forget about this challenge and move on to new things at some point. Maybe that's already happened. That's the problem with being an incurable procrastinator, I suppose.

There's no way this stands up to the other entries in this contest in the quality department, but I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be an object where this challenge is concerned.

Description

Lois the Unicorn beamed as she stepped outside, her long, colorful mane flowing behind her. Between the fingers of her left hand she twiddled what looked like an ordinary pen, but was far from it; this magical little family treasure had the power to color anything in any way. Today was Lois's twentieth birthday, and as she had finally come of age to wield the pen, her mother had granted her free reign of it-- provided that she promised to use it to make the world more beautiful, a promise she had eagerly made.

The world is my canvas, Lois thought to herself. What should I beautify first...

No sooner had those words passed through her mind than Lois gazed upon the road she was walking along. It was early in the morning, and no traffic was about. The tarmac's only decoration were the bright yellow stripes that led down the middle-- how boring!

Grinning proudly, the unicorn uncapped the pen and waved it back and forth like a magic wand, creating shimmering rainbows in the air. As the ribbons of color drifted down and touched the tarmac, the road took on beautiful hues of red, blue, and green.

Hmm... no. Let's do something a bit less abstract...

An idea popped into Lois's mind. She ran across the road and waved her pen in various patterns, decorating the road with circles, spots, and lines. Upon reaching the other end, she turned around and stopped to admire her handiwork. The road now looked like a portrait of outer space, with planets, stars, and other celestial features scattered around. As the finishing touch, Lois knelt down and drew a few quick lines, and a space shuttle appeared in the corner of the scene.

"Perfect! Now... what's next?"

Lois skipped down the sidewalk, twirling the magical pen in her hands. She had spent almost an hour painting the town red (not to mention every other color). Sides of buildings, utility poles, road signs, nothing was safe from the unicorn's artistic touch. A traffic light up above now shined cyan, hot pink, and black-and-white-stripes instead of red, yellow, and green; how Lois had reached it to do that was anyone's guess.

Aha! Lois thought as she spotted a bus stop that had hitherto escaped the influence of her magical pen. Stepping confidently up to it, the unicorn drew back her pen in preparation...

"That's enough, young lady!"

...only for someone to grab her arm. Lois yelped in protest as she felt someone yank the magical pen out of her hand before letting go of her. Whipping around, the unicorn found herself face to face with a border collie dressed in a cop's uniform. The rainbow smudge on the cop's chest suggested that she had accidentally gotten him with her pen.

"Uh..." Lois began.

"Ma'am, I saw you back there," the cop interjected. "You're under arrest for multiple counts of public vandalism, including obfuscation of traffic signs and signals. (He gestured at a stop sign that had been painted up to look like a flower, and as a result was no longer readable.) The scale of the offense qualifies this as a felony. Please come with me and we'll talk about this further at the station."

Not having much choice, Lois nodded and began to follow the officer down the sidewalk, her head hung. She spared a glance at all the art she'd created, but considering the mess she'd just gotten into, looking at it just made her feel worse. Some twentieth birthday this was turning out to be...

My entry for the #da20thbirthday challenge. I was told over Twitter that there was no official deadline, but the general public has to forget about this challenge and move on to new things at some point. Maybe that's already happened. That's the problem with being an incurable procrastinator, I suppose.

There's no way this stands up to the other entries in this contest in the quality department, but I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be an object where this challenge is concerned.