My Pretty Pony

"My Pretty Pony" was also the name of the predecessor line to the My Little Pony toys.

"My Pretty Pony"
Author	Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction short story
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Publication date	September 26, 1989

"My Pretty Pony" is a short story written by Stephen King and illustrated by the artist Barbara Kruger. It was the sixth publication in the Whitney Museum of American Art artist and writer series. An original limited artist edition of 250 was published in 1989 and was an oversized fine press slipcased book with stainless steel faced boards and digital clock inset into front cover. A trade edition of 15,000 was later published by Alfred A. Knopf and was later included in King's collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

Plot summary

An elderly man, his death rapidly approaching, takes his young grandson up onto a hill behind his house and gives the boy his pocket watch. Then, standing among falling apple blossoms, the man also "gives instruction" on the nature of time: how when you grow up, it begins to move faster and faster, slipping away from you in great chunks if you don't hold tightly onto it. Time is a pretty pony, with a wicked heart.

Trivia

In his note on the story in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, King says the piece was originally a flashback scene included in a full-length novel-in-progress in which the grandson was now a brutal hitman reflecting on his childhood. The novel was intended to be published under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, but the author grew disenchanted with the work, and finally scrapped it entirely.

King references this concept again in the "Sorry, Right Number" screenplay (also collected in Nightmares and Dreamscapes) where a direction states that a character's "pretty pony has done its fair share of running" (indicating that they have aged relatively rapidly).

"My Pretty Pony" is also the name of a fictional indie rock band in "Debasement Tapes", an episode of the TV series Veronica Mars.

"My Pretty Pony" (2009) is also a Dollar Baby short film, based on the Stephen King short story, directed by Mikhail Tank and starring Paul Marin (HD/SAG/4.4 minutes).^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Principality Productions/mTank (15 June 2009). "My Pretty Pony Teaser (Stephen King Dollar Baby Project, directed by Mikhail Tank) USED BY PERMISSION". Vimeo. http://vimeo.com/5175281. Retrieved 14 September 2011.  Official teaser.