Birthday Bios: Jamberry Rune · 2:36pm Apr 14th, 2016
In real life, the word “jamboree” popped up sometime in the mid-nineteenth century, and was apparently US slang. At least that’s what I got from a quick Google search.
But, in my pony fanfic universe, “jamboree” is derived from the name of this mare, Jamberry Rune, who is considered to be one of the greatest jesters in Equestrian history. She’s an early example of a party pony, living only to make others happy, though sometimes at the risk of her very own well-being.
Let’s check out her tale. I apologize for this mess in trying to work with a more ancient Equestria.
Long before Luna’s banishment, she was born as Jamberry Harvest to a peasant family, being just one foal in a big family. She had been preceded in birth by her brother Wheat Harvest, who took to looking out for her since day one. The two grew up together, helping their parents and siblings till the land and reap the harvest, though little Jamberry lagged behind the rest. However, she had a danger sense that warned her family of whatever beast was on its way to ravage the farm, and had many tricks up her sleeve in order to drive away pests.
Whenever she went to the village with her father to sell food, Jamberry’s first instinct was to try to entertain passersby. It usually had ponies curious about her, and they’d sit and watch for hours as she boasted unusual magic that the likes of the village had never seen. She managed to teleport whenever nopony was looking, yank items from behind her back to juggle or dance with, contort her body in unconventional ways, and much more. Her cutie mark appeared when she managed to make the village grump laugh, and she continued to be the village’s beloved fool as she grew to marehood.
Nopony dared question it aloud—the last schmuck who did was the victim of slapstick—but many members of the Royal Guard who came to town often talked about it when returning to the Royal City. A young mage-in-training named Wayer Rune grew curious about this mare, and ventured to the village in order to learn more about her.
Upon meeting Wayer, Jamberry was excited to meet a unicorn after hearing stories about them. She asked him to do a magic trick, and was amazed when he simply levitated an apple toward her. After that, he asked her to perform a magic trick, to which she replied in confusion, “We earth ponies don’t have any magic.” The two then ended up arguing about the existence of earth pony magic.
Still, she forgave him easily, and convinced her parents to let him stay at their home. While they were bewildered that a lad from the Royal City was staying at their little village, they welcomed him in.
The next couple years had him studying her and her strange mannerisms, from her burrowing in order to scare off critters to chewing up any rocks in the field, and from fetching tools far more quickly than anypony else (almost like she teleported) to her “Jammie Sense” acting up and her having to fight off any big animal or monster that came along, sometimes with her brother Wheat by her side. Wayer often rushed in to help as well.
Jamberry always noticed him observing her, but made no indication of it as she always had a thing to do that she wanted to be completely focused on. Of course, she loved to pop up in front of him and startle him, or share a treat that she stored in her mane.
She liked to drag him away from the farm to the river, often to get away from Wheat, who was taking Wayer’s observations of his sister as ogling. They’d sit and talk, with Jamberry doing her usual thing with hopping from tree to tree in the blink of an eye, asking him all sorts of questions about the city he was from, especially inquiries about the princesses and wondered if she’d be able to make them laugh.
It was also during that time that Wayer was gracious enough to teach her how to read and write, telling her that it may be useful in the future. Much to his surprise, she was a fast learner, though at first she bemoaned not having a horn to levitate her quill (Wayer had to resort to using his mouth as a demonstration). He later taught the rest of the family. In turn, she taught him how to bake a loaf of bread. He wasn’t a fast learner when it came to that.
When it was time for Wayer to leave, Jamberry was clinging onto him, desperately asking him to stay. Wayer admitted that he wanted to stay with her—heck, even marry her--but he had to return home to his city in order to learn more about his own tribe’s magic. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to integrate her into the city smoothly, and what other ponies would think of a mixed marriage. However, he did decide to take her on a quick trip to the city just to quell her curiosity before returning her home.
However, when he brought her, word got out that the court jester had died, and that the princesses needed a new one. Jamberry was quick to seize the opportunity, much to Wayer’s mixture of joy and dismay. Jamberry’s bombastic entrance took everypony by surprise, and Wayer chased her around the castle, telling her that this was not proper etiquette and that they’d get in serious trouble. It didn’t help that Jamberry took advantage of the booby traps around the castle, up until she landed in the princesses’ throne room.
By the time Wayer caught up, he was surprised that she had already made them laugh. Seeing as she was now the new jester, he wasn’t sure how to break the news to her family.
Celestia and Luna blessed their marriage, reasoning that a mixed marriage may just well promote more unity among the three tribes. Starswirl the Bearded didn’t mind either, but the rest of the city was shocked that a respected young mage would marry a peasant-turned-court-jester. They often talked behind their back, wishing that Jamberry would die so that Wayer’s legacy wasn’t tainted. She often overhead them, and was hurt they they were judging her so harshly, especially since they were more scared than delighted when she pulled some of her tricks.
Of course, if Wayer found out, his temper might end up getting the better of him. He wasn’t going to let them sway him, and encouraged Jamberry to change her second name to “Rune” in order to spite them.
Jamberry’s family was moved closer to the Royal City, close enough to visit, but far enough so that they had room to till the land. Jamberry often told them about her troubles, especially with ponies not being so keen with her marriage to Wayer. While Wheat wasn’t happy that he wasn’t consulted with this marriage (their father had died earlier), he was at least trying to be respectful and supportive.
It was about a year into her and Wayer’s marriage that she bore their first son, Silver Rune. A strong and healthy unicorn, Silver was subject to much cuddling from his mother. Jamberry went on to bear nine more foals, with only four of them joining Silver into adulthood. With two stillbirths, two deaths before age one, and one dying before he was even ten, Jamberry felt her spirits hammered away at, leaving holes that could only have been filled by those deceased foals.
As the years wore on, Jamberry slowly got the respect of the nobility and the gentry, and they got used to her antics. The princesses enjoyed her presence, whether she exploded out an entire festival or just had a few jokes at her disposal. There were still rumors about her, though they were mainly wondering if she was the reincarnated Chancellor Puddinghead or if there was some of Discord’s magic stuck in her bloodline.
Other than her time spent making others laugh, Jamberry was happiest when she was with her husband. They were still in awe at each other’s magic, with Jamberry always eager to see what new spells Wayer had at his disposal, and Wayer ready to see what new tricks she had up her sleeve. Jamberry was thankful her husband discovered how to remove and store their deceased son’s memories, so that they had something to remember the colt by. Meanwhile, Wayer compiled a list on what his wife could do and tried to figure out how her magic worked, with little success. He thought that there wouldn’t be another pony like her, and that suited him just fine.
However, when the couple was fussing over their son Silver being of marrying age, they received word that Celestia had declared war on the Minotaur Kingdom. They were rather puzzled at this announcement, but Wayer decided to suit up and go to war anyway, thinking his wide range of spells could help with the effort. They didn’t question Celestia’s decision, as surely there was some good reasoning, right?
Wayer was joined by his brother-in-law Wheat Harvest, and Jamberry was happy that they were getting along and exchanging jokes. She waved goodbye to both of them, as well as the other stallions and mares going off to war. Their children—Silver Rune, Merry Joy, Pixie Dust, Harvest Moon, and Destiny Star—begged their father and uncle not to die, with Wayer promising that he wouldn’t.
The war went downhill relatively quickly, since minotaurs were far bigger and stronger than ponies were. While at first she enjoyed getting letters from her husband and brother, she grew to dread them as she sensed despair in their writing.
She eventually turned around and asked Celestia why the heck they were at war, and she was not happy when Celestia didn’t recall declaring war. Celestia and Luna geared up to go and stop it, but they ended up falling ill to a mysterious illness which made their magic erratic, with Luna getting the worst of it. Starswirl and other unicorns had to take over for raising the sun and moon, and was often too exhausted to do anything about the war It was about a year before Celestia was fully recovered and could go and stop the war.
But already lives on both sides had been lost, including Wheat’s, and many of the soldiers returned home behaving differently, including Wayer. Silver Rune quickly noticed that his father was acting less like an equine and more like a canine, though Jamberry refused to believe it. Wayer often went out of the city on full moons, and the family shudder at the sound of many wolves howling. Jamberry shrugged it off as just Timberwolves, which Wayer could handle easily.
Finally, various reports came in from all over Equestria, with all the same basic details: villages were bloodbaths, with former soldiers having apparently turned into wolves and attacked friends and family. Putting down the offending ponies didn’t solve the problem; in fact, anypony who had been bitten in an attack would turn on the next full moon. When Jamberry heard about these events, she shot them down as just jokes.
Wayer didn’t seem to have a problem with these reports as well. He ended up going on mantras about how ponies were weak, and about he wanted to solve that problem. While the kids were disturbed, Jamberry was trying to assure them that he was joking, that ponykind was just fine as it was. She brushed off his temper tantrums, his sudden obsession with dark magic, and his more carnal behavior towards everypony. After all, she reasoned that he needed to recover from his time in the war and his grief over Wheat’s death.
However, deep down, she knew that Wayer had done something to those soldiers to make them turn into those wolf monsters. She kept trying to justify it to herself, knowing that Wayer must have had a good reason to do so. He was in war, he was desperate, and he was just trying to make his soldiers stronger. Surely, he had good intentions… and he was still good! Right?
Her antics when entertaining Princess Celestia were less and less funny as time went on. Celestia was too concerned about the wolf monster problem to be entertained, and found herself disturbed by Jamberry’s darker jokes about how it wasn’t so bad.
Even after a shaky meeting with Wayer’s wolf form, Jamberry still tried to justify his actions to their children. However, Silver Rune wasn’t having it, and was quick to inform the princess and Starswirl about the source of the wolf problems.
Jamberry was a witness to the confrontation that followed. It involved Wayer trying to attack them in wolf form, Celestia testing a counter spell to remove the “Wayerwolf” curse, Starswirl casting a purification spell so that he couldn’t turn back into a wolf, and then Wayer attempting to kill them with a reverse breath spell. Without thinking, she smacked his horn to disrupt the spell, which then had him turn on her. But, Celestia caught him, and they took him away, leaving a heartbroken Jamberry.
Soon after Wayer was locked up in Tartarus and Celestia’s campaign to cure the werewolf curse began, Jamberry died from her shock and grief, leaving behind her five foals. Everypony, both noble and peasant, was saddened that the beloved jester was gone, and Celestia held a big funeral for her.
Silver looked after his siblings until they grew up, married, and had foals of their own. While they couldn’t ignore their father’s story and used it as a warning for future generations (at least Silver’s line did, all the way down to his descendent Quasar Rune), they also wanted to preserve their mother’s memory, and told the stories of her hilarious antics in Celestia’s court and her loving, happy nature.
There are few tragedies quite like a clown fighting to keeping a smile on her face while the world's crumbling around her. And the political intrigue inherent in the declaration of war raises quite a few questions. That sort of thing doesn't happen by accident. Who instigated it, and why? How could a war of all things slip under Celestia's radar for so long? Who gained from this conflict? What did they gain?
Also interesting are the possibilities presented by five children and more than a millennium between then and now. I doubt that Jamberry was the first party pony, but I wouldn't be surprised if she were the ancestor of quite a few modern ones... assuming there's any genetic element to it. Still, at minimum, there's Party Favor.
An especially engaging biography this one. Thanks for it.
3870282 These guys. They ruined everything.
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(And maybe a few corrupt nobles who kept the war going because they didn't like minotaurs...)
3870304
I actually remember that refence from chapter 8. I was wondering who they declared war on.
When I first saw the title of the blog, I thought that this was the future foal of Party Favor and Sugar Belle. I mean, Kazam is in prison, and Silk doesn't have anyone in her life, it may be up to Party Favor to pass on the Rune name.
It also seems a real shame Quasar never recalled the stories about his ancestor Jamberry, it might have made him more likely to understand his son.