Maintaining Characterization in Romantic Story Arcs · 4:10am Jul 27th, 2014
(This is a partial rewrite of something I wrote as a comment to Famous Last Words' "Cuddle Chemistry"
There is a tendency to assume that, since My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic rarely does romantic stories, and never does them directly and seriously (as opposed to a comedic presentation such as "Hearts and Hooves Day") that this means that we have no idea what the canon characters would be like in romantic situations, and hence they may be characterized with total freedom, as if their canon personalities were nonexistent.
However, the show presents characters who display portions of their personality on stage. The portions which they don't display have to be consistent with the portions they have displayed, or they're not believable. Characters (at least sane characters) do not become entirely different ponies because they have fallen in love with or are engaged in sexual behavior with other characters. Character A in love (or lust) is still Character A -- not Character B, C or D.
For instance, Twilight Sparkle having a courtly romance-by-correspondence, including philosophical discussions, is completely believable: she's been shown to be a highly-educated and intellectual member of the gentry. That's exactly how I write part of her romance with Luna in my stories. Luna is doing it this way in part because she knows Twilight likes it; Luna herself is quite capable of being much more direct. Luna also meets with Twilight for long, romantically-overtoned conversations in which she fascinates Twilight with tales of times and places long past -- she knows that Twilight is interested in such things and she is winning Twilight's friendship by these tactics. Luna's immortal and she knows Twilight is as well -- she's in no particular hurry, and she's very aware that moving faster might frighten Twilight off. Their consummation would be passionate and strongly tinged with romance.
On the other hand, such would be entirely the wrong way to show love between Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich. Parties, escapades, mutually-silly behavior, a lot of cuteness back and forth -- that's how those two silly ponies interact. They might write letters to one another, but they would be full of jokes and puns and conceptual humor, such as finishing "and I'm standing right behind you" with the recipient turning to find out that, in fact, this is true. If they consummated their love, they would play and tickle and be generally silly in the process of having sex. Frosting and snack foods would probably be involved. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't be passionate and excited, it's just that they would express their passion and excitement differently than would Luna or Twilight.
Rainbow Dash is moved by deep loyalties but is uncomfortable with open emotional displays. She might try to maintain a certain apparent emotional distance even with a lover, but she would be an exceedingly loyal friend to that lover. She would feel many things she felt uncomfortable with saying, and would tend toward the simplest possible romantic expressions such as "I'm happy with you" or "I love you." However, she would really mean them. Her consummation would be energetic and passionate, physically unrestrained and verbally boisterous -- but she might still be shy about saying things.
Fluttershy is shy, but very warm when she decides to trust somepony. It is the trusting part that is difficult; she's very obviously a damaged Pony who finds most other Ponies rather frightening. She might feel poetry but be afraid to express it; she would show her love through little kindnesses. She would probably be a very passionate lover, though she might not say much, a point of similarity between Rainbow Dash and herself.
Applejack is direct. She would straight-out tell somepony she liked him or loved him (in show she never tells outright lies, only lying by implication and omission, and usually out of extreme shame or the desire to avoid hurting others). She is very honorable, and would be utterly-unwilling to pretend to a committment she did not feel. She would probably only consummate love with a lover she meant to marry. She would be energetic, strong, and extremely honest in any expression of her affections. She is not the poetic sort, but the prose of her speech would be honest and heartfelt.
Rarity is complex and subtle. She is quite capable of pretending to feelings she does not possess in order to maneuver socially; she constantly flirts with stallions to get them to do favors for her. She is however not promiscuous; she would only consummate love with somepony (or somedrake) for whom she genuinely cared. She gets strong crushes on Ponies she doesn't really know, which vanish when she gets to know them better. Her strongest romantic sentiments seem to be for Spike, who is still too young for her to act upon them. She has a strong earthy side under her veneer of sophistication, and would probably make an enthusiastic lover. She would also both express and demand expressions of romantic sentiment.
My point is that a character doesn't stop being herself when she falls in love. Instead, she displays aspects of herself which she would not dare to display to any but her beloved -- but these aspects are logical extensions of the character we see in public (unless the character is very emotionally repressed, and even then emotional repression follows patterns, it is not random). Character is unitary.
Well said.
2319244
Thank you -- it was your original post that inspired this in the first place.
Well there is a bit of leeway with some of the personalities if you think about it. RD for example could be using the tough girl routine to hide a fragile and sensitive side. True it wouldn't just come up out of nowhere but it could still build over time. In fact for most of the characters the personalities shown could just be something that they hide part of their true selves behind. I do agree though that what they show wouldn't just vanish right away and it would take time and effort on the part of their love interest to get them to actually show it even in private. The whole personality changing out of nowhere has turned me off of some stories.
2319253 Like you, I'm tired of seeing people ignore standards and waste potential of characters simply to satisfy pointless and unrealistic story arcs. Luckily, you're a lot better at explaining details than I am.
But for real, I have a lot of new and aspiring authors that follow me, so I try to post stuff that can help them get started and avoid the depths of shame so many find themselves in.
2319257
Oh, of course they all have hidden sides, some of which have actually come out over the course of the series at least in part.
In the case of Twilight Sparkle, she has real trouble with expressing any of her own negative emotions, particularly when there is an element of irrationality about them. This is actually an improvement on her situation before coming to Ponyville, when she had trouble expressing her positive emotions as well. Pre Friendship Is MagicTwilight is a lot like Wind Whistler used to be like when she was young: the Wind Whistler you meet in Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason is the product of six thousand years of emotional development.
My Twilight's fascination with my Luna is in part because Luna has absolutely no problem expressing hatred and rage toward those she deems worthy of such emotions. One of the benefits Twilight is getting from her friendship with Luna is that she is learning how to express her own anger in a measured fashion, instead of bottling it up until it explodes. Luna, of course, has had problems of exactly the same sort as Twilight's in the past.
In part, Twilight is also fascinated with Luna because a part of her remembers being Dusk Skyshine, and loves Moondreamer. Another part of it is a sort of belief in obligation toward those whose lives one saves -- Twilight feels that she is connected to Luna by strong bonds since Twilight took the leading role in saving Luna from the Nightmare. Luna returns these sentiments, above and beyond her Moondreamer memories of Dusk.
In the case of Rarity Belle, she is ashamed of her common origins and afraid of being seen as anything but perfectly composed and fabulous. On the one hand, she must be flirtatious and universally charming; on the other hand, of impeccable moral character. Her chosen path of fabulosity is a difficult and narrow one, and on it she moves mostly in a world of Ponies she may like and find entertaining, but can never fully trust since they, too, are socially-climbing or struggling to hold on to their positions.
One of the really big attractions of Spike for her is that he has seen her at her worst -- he knows that she was an unwise and abandoned filly at his age, that she became pregnant and lost the foal to miscarriage -- a huge secret, and one she's shared with nopony else. He's seen her defated, crying, and ranting. He's seen her in full Nightmare. And despite all this, he still loves her. Rarity's trust in Spike is close to absolute, and that is a very rare thing in her chosen world: an especially rare thing regarding a male she knows to be romantically-interested in her. She knows Spike would never betray her.
Spike, for his part, has come to admire Rarity more and more the more he knows about her. He is awestruck by her ability to surmount disaster and keep on trying, to retain her ideals and her faith in herself, and by the skill with which she masters every obstacle. He knows that she's been teaching him many of the secrets of her chosen trade, and he's been applying himself assidiously to learning them. He's fully aware of the fact that as he gets older his position in her heart is only strengthened, and he's quite seriously decided that he's going to win her.
What's actually happening is that he's becoming lifebonded to her -- an emotional process which Dragons have which is equivalent to the strong monogamy found in some bird species. It's an archosaur thing, and if the process completes itself he won't actually be emotionally capable of rejecting her any more -- and will be very sad if he's ever forced to leave her.
Neither he nor Rarity fully grasp that this is what's happening. It might not make that much of a difference now if they did understand this -- though if Rarity had understood that this might happen, four years ago, she would have made sure to keep him at a greater distance, as she never actually meant to seduce him.
Luna is sort of aware that this is possible, because she knows Dragons. Though she isn't aware that it can happen in a Dragon as young as Spike. If Fischfootur ever gets to see Rarity and Spike togther, he would instantly recognize what was going on. But I don't know if this will happen in time to make a difference.
(more later, I think)
2319257
Rainbow Dash is boisterous and playful in love, much as she is in life in general. But this seeming superficiality covers up a very passionate character, though actual sex isn't very important to her. This doesn't mean that she has lots of casual sex; it means that she doesn't actually try that hard to be sexual.
The thing is that she's not only not promiscuous, but is very poorly-suited to promiscuity, since she is extremely loyal in love as in any other aspect of her life. She's only been seriously in love with two Ponies in my continuity, and most seriously with Fluttershy.
Her loyalty to Fluttershy is almost absolute: if the Mane Six ever split in serious civil war, she would be on whatever side Fluttershy took. She imagines herself, basically, as Fluttershy's Champion, and no merely romantic rejection by Fluttershy could change that.
Fluttershy is "very shy, but very warm" (to paraphrase Divine Jealousy. The hidden romantic aspect of her character is that she has a very strong sex drive, limited primarily by the fact that she would have to trust a Pony very much to display that side of her character.
Unlike all the other members of the Mane Six, she's naturally polyamorous, and would prefer to have a small coterie of lovers or spouses. And one thing about Fluttershy: she almost always gets what she wants.
Applejack has a strong sex drive and is both very honorable and strongly monogamous. My explanation for the fact that she's shown no romantic interest in anypony throughout the series is that she still considers herself bound by her Intention to Landscape Carrot, who has been missing since YOH 1498 and may be dead.
Pinkie Pie is, well, Pinkie Pie. She's very neotenous and has only started being seriously interested in stallions within the last year or so, despite the fact that she's now 23. Her love has focused on Cheese Sandwich. She also really likes Big Mac, but more as a good friend than as a potential husband. If and when she actually has sex, it will probably be a very silly and joyful event. Especially if her lover is Cheese Sandwich.
Too bad you couldn't be a professor at a wriiter's collage.
Funny you should mention that . . .
No, I'm not some kind of a pervert, but I've given some thought to this, both with humanized CheesePie and the regular version. I give thought to everything, honestly, right down to what they eat and how they sleep and do they have any odd habits, and they're in a romantic relationship or headed for one, anyhow, so of course I've considered it. Frankly, at first, on his end, I think there would be a good deal of "are you sure? No, seriously, are you sure?" For one thing, at least my version of Cheese is overwhelmed by her. She's his Muse and practically a goddess and adorable and squeezable and the most sensible (to him) pony he has ever met AND she makes him laugh. You saw the runner-up to this in Good Morning, Beautiful. On the other hoof, he's very conscious that she's a bit innocent and childlike--underlined by the fact that she is so much shorter than he is--and he wants to move slowly so that he doesn't risk hurting her.
Now, it's one of those weird things that it never crosses his mind to think, "hey, I'm kind of innocent and youthful, too, and I have no clue what I'm doing, and yet here I am, and I am utterly enchanted by her." One of my baseline touchstones for Cheese is Matt's monologue about Luisa from The Fantasticks. In context, this is a late teenaged boy talking about a teenaged girl. He is probably, at most, a year older than she is.
I have no idea how my Cheese somehow works, but from the response I get, I gather that he does.
Silliness is a kind of lovemaking between those two, and so is play and humor. That's why he kisses her when he says, "Say goodnight, Pinkie," and she replies, "goodnight, Pinkie." That was, though I didn't underline it too much, the most passionate kiss they've ever had, because DANG, she really gets him.
The frosting and kitchen utensils come later.
I'm probably not going to do anything with this, but tossing it out there: I had a parody of a French farce in which Flash Sentry was convinced that his wife Twilight was cheating on him (by the way, she isn't.) And he's partly convinced of this because someone has mailed her a package of socks. This is a grim indicator that some kind of hanky-panky must have been going on, because SOCKS. We all know why ponies wear socks. And he mentions this to Cheese, and Cheese says, "to keep their legs warm?"
Flash: Don't you and Pinkie know anything?
Cheese: Everything is better with balloons.
Flash: What?
Cheese: I said, "no."
I love writing them.
I honestly haven't tried writing any other couples (I think?), so I'm not sure how I'd do. But yes: the baseline is knowledge of each character, cold, and then understanding of how those characters would interact as lovers, which probably isn't all that different from how they'd act as friends. It's why I have a hard time getting behind PinkieDash: Dash seems to trigger all of Pinkie's insecurity and abandonment issues, which is bad enough in a friend, but with a lover, it would be sheer hell. But Dash would have a steep learning curve in any romantic relationship, and it's good for writers to remember this.
Extrapolation, the fan fiction author's best friend, even if some don't know that. Look at the characters, get into their minds, and try to determine how this bundle of thoughts and feelings and beliefs would react in a given scenario. It's much easier said than done, but rewarding when done right.
2319487
Given what happens when your Cheese is in a kitchen, are you sure that's a good idea?
Since that particular one is what led to the events of Triple Threat, I can safely say that neither of them were thinking about what was or wasn't a good idea. I think eventually Pinkie is going to have to let him in the kitchen to wash stuff up and put them away, but cooking is probably off-limits for good.
2319487
Hee hee, I wasn't so much thinking "perverted" as that everything with Pinkie generally involves frosting and everything with Cheese snack food at some point, and extrapolating from there!
Wow, that monologue is very appropriate. What is this taken from?
I very much love what you've created here. I seriously doubt that the show will achieve anything nearly as good with the characters. Though it might surprise me -- it's pleasantly surprised me more than once before!
Yes. What I don't think some writers get, maybe especially the younger ones, is that a person doesn't really change that much just because they're in love with someone else. They may feel happier or more fulfilled, but he or she is still the same person, with all the virtues and vices they had before.
To be fair, the episode to which you're referring, in which Pinkie practically stalks Rainbow Dash, is the fifth episode of the whole series. Pinkie's not as secure about Rainbow's friendship as she becomes later on.
While Rainbow Dash isn't exactly stupid, she has a tendency to just ignore anything which doesn't fit her script of how the world should work. She's oblivious to a lot of the subtler messages passing around her or directed to her. This sometimes frustrates her friends, especially Twilight and sometimes Applejack, both of whom are, note, among her closest friends.
Twilight gets frustrated because she is highly intelligent, she knows that Rainbow is smarter than she acts, and she feels that Rainbow Dash should know better. Twilight, of course, sometimes misses certain subtleties herself, but she generally tries to understand what's going on around her. Twilight is actively uncomfortable with anything romantic or sexual, and usually ignores anything like that directed to or around her unless it shoves itself in her face.
Applejack is like Rainbow Dash in that she's direct but very unlike Rainbow Dash in that she's perceptive. I read Applejack as very good but not at all innocent because she's too wise for innocence. Some of what Applejack perceives about others pleases and some of it distresses her, but she accepts it all as part of Reality and tries to deal with it honorably and rationally. One of the reasons why Applejack is so loyal to her friends is that her perceptions tell her that her friends are all truly good Ponies.
Pinkie Pie is very perceptive but doesn't always understand what she perceives, because she is both very innocent and very strange -- she is very benevolent but she is seeing the world at something of an angle to the way other Ponies see it. She often forgets this and fails to communicate her motives and reasons clearly to other Ponies, then gets disappointed when they fail to cooperate with her attempts to achieve her goals. The Parasprite episode was the purest example of this -- she immediately knew just what were the Parasprites and how to deal with them, but did not clearly communicate either to anypony else.
The main problem between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash is that Pinkie might not communicate without being asked, and Rainbow might not perceive the need to ask. In a relationship as close as romantic love, that could make their life a series of comical misunderstandings -- which is probably not as funny to live as it is to watch (and remember, the real-life Lucy and Ricky wound up getting divorced).
In my version of the Winningverse worldline, they work primarily because Pinkie Pie's been Tainted into near-mindlessness and Rainbow loves her anyway. Interestingly, Rainbow is never actually Tainted; she's just oblivious to the emotional disaster Cloud Kicker is spreading around her, because the Taint operates on levels Rainbow doesn't want to even try to perceive. (Plus, I think that even if one isn't Tainted, the effort required to resist it lowers one's effective intelligence).
In my main worldline, where Pinkie and Paradise defeat Winning-Through-Degradation, Pinkie Pie is too complex and alien for Rainbow Dash to understand (heck, she's too complex and alien for Twilight Sparkle to understand). Hence she's more likely to generate behavior which will confuse Rainbow Dash. What's more, normal-Pinkie isn't bisexual.
Though she does have a "love" mode that works more toward females than toward males -- but this is the asexual romantic friendship from the World That Was Lost, the emotion she feels toward Minty / Twilight Sparkle. It would make her want to hang out and have fun with Rainbow Dash, not have sex with her. Pinkie's sex drive was born of her current incarnation, and is heterosexual.
This suits Rainbow Dash just fine. Rainbow Dash is bisexual, but she's not all that strongly sexual, certainly not to the point where she's going to make sexual advances at most of her close friends. Her two great loves have actually been part- or full-Changelings -- Fluttershy was frustrated by Rainbow's low sex drive, and Sky didn't much care as he enjoyed her love regardless of how sexually it was being expressed at the moment. To a Changeling, Rainbow Dash is like a flare spraying positive affect everywhere, which is probably why they like her.
Rainbow Dash's response to Pinkie's childlike friendliness, directed toward herself, is "Great! We can have fun!" Dashie has a strongly innocent streak to her as well, and mushy stuff complicates things.
So yeah, I've never really seen them as being likely lovers, save for the fact that Rainbow Dash is bi and they like each other as friends.
Heh, the socks scene is funny.
2320025
It's from The Fantasticks. The show probably won't do anything like that with the characters--I think that's what fanfic is for! But the more I think about it, the more I think they might leave Pinkie's love life entirely alone. She certainly seems to be utterly free of romantic entanglements in the comics, and extremely off-the-wall.
I was actually thinking of Wonderbolts Academy, which is in Season 3! Even in Too Many Pinkie Pies, there's an element of "oo, wowie, Dashie almost NEVER asks me just to hang!", whereas Applejack is asking Pinkie to a party. That should have been a no-brainer, especially since it might have been a chance to meet some new ponies.
Pinkie does worry about Fluttershy in Three's a Crowd, but it's over almost immediately. And Dash does love her friends fiercely, but she hates being demonstrative.
Fluttershy and Dash could have the same dynamic, since Dash regularly asks Fluttershy to do stuff she really doesn't want to do (joust, go on spy missions), but they're always undergirded by the fact that Dash just KNOWS Fluttershy can do this, rah-rah! Oh yes, and trading her for a first edition, there's that. But it doesn't seem to rankle with Fluttershy, which is probably partly because it's tough to push her to where she feels inconvenienced or put-upon, and partly because she's never been shown as insecure as to whether her friends really love her or not. Or just possibly because there is something undergirding Fluttershy's relationship with Dash that makes for a strong mutual trust.
Pinkie is now totally secure in the steadfast affection of all of her friends! Right! Rrrrrright?:
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140203105421/mlp/images/d/df/Pinkie_Pie_grinning_while_Twilight_is_about_to_walk_away_S4E12.png
I can't help but think that the conflict in Pinkie Pride gets as fierce as it does partly because it's Dashie's birthday, and because Dash is insensitive enough to say, "I mean, Pinkie's parties are fun and sweet and all . . ." and Cheese can't possibly know he walked into that one. On the other hand, ponies DO seem to get unduly carried away by musical numbers.
I've created a unique reason why Cheese's absence doesn't trigger her anxiety, but I think any Pinkie shipfic should consider that. And I can't help wondering where it came from.
2320112
You're right, and I hadn't noticed that about Pinkie -- she is very insecure about Rainbow Dash's friendship. Maybe this is because Rainbow Dash is very well-liked, so she has competition? When I drew the Friendship Diagram for the Mane Six I noticed that Rainbow Dash has four Love-level friendships among them -- with Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
The Wonderbolts Academy episode is also one of the few ones where one of the Mane Six would be living away from Ponyville possibly for years. The other obvious one would be Applejack in "The Last Roundup" (where it probably wouldn't have been years but AJ was communicating very poorly because she was ashamed of her failure) -- in "Trade Ya" and "Rarity Takes Manehattan" the implied absences of Fluttershy and Rarity would have been weeks to months.
That's a particularly significant point.
Fluttershy and Dash in my fanon have been best or close to best friends since before they had their Cutie Marks -- some 15 or so years by the end of Season Four. Most of their lives, since they're only 24 and 22 years old at that point, repsectively. They've been lovers, and their friendship survived a breakup of their romantic relationship which might or might not be permanent. Their friendship is essentially unshakeable -- either of them would give up almost anything for the other, including their lives. If I made a four-tiered Friendship system, they'd be at level Four. They're almost as close as Celestia and Luna.
Pretty much anypony who wants to be either of their friends accepts that their friendship is going to be secondary to that dyad. Even Discord accepts this. It's that strong and that obvious.
Fluttershy is willing to do a lot of things that she normally wouldn't be willing to do if she gets to do them with Rainbow Dash. About the only thing that challenges this is Fluttershy's fear of Dragons, and Fluttershy isn't as afraid of Dragons as she used to be.
Neither of them is jealous of each other's friendships with others because they are very confident in the strength of their own. The minor tragedy in my fanon is that they are both very much attracted to each other romantically but are not all that romantically compatible -- Rainbow Dash has a weak sex drive, Fluttershy a strong one; Rainbow is naturally monogamous and Fluttershy polyamorous; Rainbow scorns mushiness while Fluttershy is openly sentimental.
Still, Rainbow's jealousy of Bulk Biceps wasn't enough to make Rainbow abandon her friend in need even though the need came directly from that relationship; it's not even enough to make Rainbow hate or even dislike Bulk, as she liked him before and she can easily see why somepony would love Fluttershy. Rainbow's petty about small things, but very rarely about large ones. Twilight observes Rainbow's attitude toward the situation, and loves her for it.
The irony being that Cheese was trying to impress Pinkie, which is why he was pulling out all the stops.
My take on Rainbow's attitude toward Cheese is that she likes him, for many of the same reasons she likes Pinkie Pie. If Cheese hangs around Rainbow more, he will probably wind up one of her friends.
In addition, there's the mundane reason that Pinkie knows from the start that Cheese is nomadic, so the main issue would be that she'd want him to keep coming back.
2320188
Everypony else evidently knew it was only for a week, because Dash said "See you in a week!" To Pinkie, this translated to "she won't even recognize me." Admittedly, that's comic exaggeration, but still. If Dash were to stay with the Wonderbolts permanently, that would be different, but she wasn't going to.
Absolutely agreed, and that's the way I've got it in my EG fic. It seems really unlikely that he would be equally good friends with everyone, usually the sign of a Gary Stu. In order, it's more or less:
1. Pinkie, because duh. For multiple reasons, not the least of which is that they are doing things together and spending a lot of time together.
2. Fluttershy. Lab partner, study buddy, and because of this, she knows him really well.
3. Rainbow Dash. Mostly, they crack each other up at lunch, and on the rare occasions that everyone hangs out, they're sort of simpatico. They are NOT bestest buddies, though. She's friends with him because of Pinkie. If something bad happened to Pinkie because of him, she'd be a sworn enemy in a nanosecond--unless she could be convinced otherwise.
4. Rarity. Really acquaintances more than anything else. They just don't have much in common except for Pinkie, and they don't spend a lot of time together; the restrictions on his activity limit this. (In my most recent regular fic, Rarity's feelings could be summed up as she's quite happy for Pinkie, but personally, she's not overwhelmed.)
5. Applejack. She likes him ok, but . . . Pinkie's family, and he's a stranger, and a pretty strange stranger, and she's protective of Pinkie for some good reasons. On the other hand, she lent him her barn to make explosives, but that was because it was a present for Pinkie. On the other other hand, he was making explosives in her barn. And the way I've written her, she's a little slow to make up her mind or change her mind about people. If you get on her poop list, you'll probably stay there.
I think the fear about Cheese, if she had it, would be that he might never come back, which you would think would drive her crazy. It works if you work in the idea that "he's somepony like me. I've never met anyone like him, and I'm sure he's never met anypony like me. Of course we're friends. Of course he'll come back. I would." And that's without assuming any romantic attraction.
2320265
It is weird. I actually don't know why Pinkie's that obsessed with Rainbow. Maybe she was almost falling in love with her. Maybe it's a matter of Rainbow getting Pinkie's sense of humor more than anypony else -- until she met Cheese Sandwich.
Amusingly, I've just written a scene which I may get to publish tonight in Divine Jealousy in which Pony-Applejack is sitting in the library, thinking about a lie-by-omission that she absolutely must commit (telling the truth here could get at least one Pony killed) and she says to herself in thought "What happened to my innocence?"
And Pinkie comes bouncing over to her and says something Pinkie to her and Applejack thinks "Well, that's not my innocence but that'll do" and gets happier.
2321674
I've been waiting on tenterhooks for that chapter, you know.
2321674 I'm going with something like "schoolgirl crush." "Griffon The Brush-Off" starts with her enthusing about Dash's athletic abilities: particularly pegasus abilities Pinkie can never have. If there was a Pony version of ESPN, Pinkie would be glued to it for the pegasus events. And if you add in the fanon idea I also like, that Surprise is Pinkie's ancestor, that desire to be up in the air doing all that cool stuff makes sense. Look at Pinks. She's constantly in the air. Hanging out with Dashie is like the next best thing.
And Dashie is COOL. Like, so super-amazing-ginormously COOL! Like she has cool shades and everything!
Fluttershy's immune to the coolth. She doesn't have to envy Dashie's flying ability, and she doesn't want to emulate it, and she's known Dash since they were fillies.
I noticed that Pinkie's crush seemed to be wearing off just a little, even as early as Baby Cakes--which not so coincidentally is when she became Pinkie Responsibility Pie. And then her friendship and kinship with Applejack got a good bit deeper. It mattered to have "family" nearby, and I think she's been developing a bit more self-confidence. In other words, the filly's been growing up.
(Notice she was pitching in helping Dashie learn something in "Testing, Testing," too.)
2321850
Really? In Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason? It's basically about the Mane Five minus Twilight and plus Spike hanging out in the main room of the library while waiting for Twilight and Luna to finish their private conversation. Just some bridging and character development, exploration of what some of them think of each other and the situation ...
2322049 Yeah! But it's a chapter! And it's by you!
2321896
Yeah, I think you're right -- despite Pinkie's age her immaturity (and to some extent Rainbow's immaturity) make it more like a schoolgirl crush than the seriously romantic friendship between Rainbow and Fluttershy. It's also notable that Pinkie doesn't seem to at any point be jealous of Fluttershy or anypony else who has Rainbow's romantic attention, which would be because Pinkie doesn't want to make love to Rainbow, she just wants to hang out with her and bask in her awesomeness.
2322050
Awww ... Thanks.
I feel the same way about your writings too. I've been writing this one for over a week -- it's a bit over 7000 words so far and will probably reach about 8000 -- I've just gotten to the Rarity POV and want to conclude with a Pinkie POV for various artistic reasons. I may finish it tonight or another time, not sure. I'm working full time these days so I'm slow now. 
What about foals we already know how to write the mane six in character for romance now comes the baby. For some reason I can see Fluttershy being a hippie mother Rarity I can see being strict I mean we see how she is with her sister. Pinkie and Cheese would spoil their kids since they see the fun in everything. Well she does Cheese a little bit more down to earth don't forget he's still shy which is why he moves around a lot and doesn't form emotional attachments until he saw Pinkie again.
2322316
Yes, what sorts of parents characters would make are also a logical extension of their characters before becoming parents. In many cases in-show we see clues based on the characters' treatment of younger kin or friends. For instance Applejack and Big Mac with Apple Blossom, Rarity with Sweetie Belle and (when she's not falling in love with him) Spike, Twilight Sparkle with Spike, Pinkie Pie with the Cake Twins, Fluttershy with her animals, and Rainbow Dash with Scootaloo.
Oh yes, I can see that. She practically is that world's version of a hippie, in lots of ways. Her parenting style would oscillate from too soft to too intense -- though hopefully she'd only unleash the actual Stare to save the lives of her children.
And she's strict with herself, too. Rarity's emotional personality could be summarized as "strong passions strongly bound."
Pinkie's learning how to parent by sitting the Cake Twins. Cheese I think would make a good dad. He has the right instincts.