Twilight sighed as she walked down the street towards Sugarcube Corner. Despite the fact that Pinkie Pie was an earth pony, she figured that she was one of the ponies least likely to be involved in something like this, second only to Fluttershy, and if Fluttershy's Nightmare Night behavior was any indication, she wouldn't even want to come out of her house. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, seemed like the type of pony who would love this particular holiday, so that left Pinkie Pie to give a little more perspective as to what was going on.
Twilight pushed the door of the confectionery open, and was greeted with the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Cake standing behind the counter, organizing a fresh batch of cupcakes in the display case. They looked up from their work when they saw Twilight walk in and both raised an eyebrow.
"Not every Cleansing Day when we get a horn jabber in here," said Mr. Cake. "What, you want to see how we lowly earth ponies live?"
Twilight shook her head and walked up to the counter. Seeing as she was here, she might as well try to get something for her and Spike since they were low on food. "Nope. I was... well, I wanted to talk to Pinkie."
"Oh, she's back in the kitchen," said Mrs. Cake, motioning back to the room in question. "You want me to call her?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, and... I know this is a stupid question, but can I also get half a dozen cupcakes?"
"Of course you can, dearie." Mrs. Cake pulled a box out from under the table. She loaded half a dozen cupcakes into it and tied it up with string. "That'll be fifty bits."
Twilight's jaw dropped, and her eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "F-fifty bits?! The normal price for half a dozen cupcakes is fifteen bits!"
"Not today for stick heads," said Mr. Cake with a frown. "I mean, you can afford it, can't you? All you stuck-ups are rolling in money while us earth ponies are barely scraping by. I know you hold on to your bits until the Celestia on the bit screams, but you can let go of a few more bits. You can afford it."
Twilight closed her eyes with a sight. Right. Cleansing Day. They don't really mean it. She opened her eyes and gave the Cakes a fake glare. "Well, why would I pay fifty bits for cupcakes that filthy mud ponies made? That's probably what they're made of anyway!" Twilight scoffed and made a show of sticking her nose into the air. "You should let me make them. I'd do it with my magic a hundred times better and faster than you could ever imagine!"
Mrs. Cake raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" She chuckled and turned to her husband. "Imagine that, Pumpkin: a stick head who actually volunteered to do a little hard, physical labor instead of some simple job with their magic."
"Making your cupcakes for you would be simple with my magic!" Twilight retorted, snapping her head back down to make eye contact with the Cakes again. "Anything you can possibly think of I can do better with my magic."
"So you admit that you're worthless without your horn?" Mr. Cake said with a smug smile.
Twilight turned her glare to him. "If a pony is worthless without a horn, what does that make you?"
Mrs. Cake began idly examining one of her hooves. "Smarter, more resourceful, dexterous with our hooves, stronger, and not as big-headed as you stick heads. I'd say that's a fair trade."
Twilight snorted, but didn't retort. She merely continued glaring at the Cakes, who smiled at her for a few seconds before Mrs. Cake began chuckling. "I've heard from Applejack that this is your first Cleansing Day. I must say that you're doing rather well." She widened her smile, and Twilight saw a little more warmth behind it. Mrs. Cake pushed the box closer to Twilight. "Fifteen bits as usual, of course."
Twilight returned Mrs. Cake's smile and put the bits on the counter. "Thanks, I guess."
Mr. Cake frowned and cocked his head a few centimeters. "You do know that we didn't mean a word of it, right?"
Twilight smiled reassuringly at the couple and nodded. "Of course I know that. It's just that I found out about this day the hard way, so it's a little different getting used to the idea. That's all. I know that you would never say that and actually mean it."
Mr. Cake's smile returned "I'm glad to hear that, Twilight. Now, you wanted to talk to Pinkie?"
Twilight nodded as she remembered why she had come to Sugarcube Corner in the first place. Mrs. Cake returned her nod and went back into the kitchen to retrieve Pinkie Pie, and within a few moments the pony in question came hopping out of the kitchen, dotted in clumps of flour. Her face split into a wider grin when she saw Twilight.
"Hey! It's one of my favorite unicorn supremacists in the whole wide world!" Twilight bit the inside of her lip as Pinkie bounced over the counter and wrapped her in a hug. "You wanted to talk?"
"Uh... yeah," Twilight replied.
"Okay." Pinkie Pie turned her head to the Cakes. "I'm gonna take my lunch break now, okay?" The two grunted in affirmation, and Pinkie led Twilight to a corner booth of the shop and had her sit down. Pinkie made a brief detour to get a tray of cupcakes and a pair of sodas, and placed them on the table before sitting opposite Twilight. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Twilight took a deep breath, and levitated one of the cupcakes over to her. She took a bite and relished the sugar rush that went through her, and chewing the cupcake gave her time to formulate what she wanted to say. She swallowed her bite and took another deep breath. "Pinkie Pie. Am... am I a racist?"
Pinkie Pie nodded as she took a cupcake off of the tray. "Uh-huh."
Twilight's jaw dropped, and her concentration nearly broke to the point where she dropped her cupcake. "P-Pinkie, how could you say that?!"
Pinkie shrugged. "Well, you asked, didn't you?" Pinkie cocked her head. "This is about today, isn't it?"
"Of course."
"Okay, then, what about today makes you come to me, a supposed worthless mud pony, and ask me if you were a racist?" Pinkie leaned back in her chair and crossed her forelegs. "Something had to make you think all of that."
"Well yeah..." Twilight uneasily scratched the back of her neck. "I just... I dunno, I guess... I guess I'm just worried about how easily these slurs that I'm slinging at you guys are coming to me. I don't have to even think about it before extolling the virtues of my horn over your complete lack of one."
Pinkie shrugged. "Well, it's not as though Mr. and Mrs. Cake had any more difficulty. Besides, I know you didn't mean it. You two smiled about it afterwards, right?"
"Yeah."
"Exactly." Pinkie Pie smiled at Twilight and glanced back at the Cakes. "Don't get me wrong, I don't think you're racist in the sense that you think unicorns are the master race or anything like that, I just think that you lean more towards unicorns because it's what you're familiar with. You don't know what it's like being anything else, so you prefer to stick with the familiar."
"Well, I don't hate other races, Pinkie."
"I know that," said Pinkie with a wave of her hoof, "but if I gave you the opportunity, right here and right now, to turn you into an earth pony forever, would you take it?"
Twilight bit her lip and shifted in her seat, averting her eyes. "Well..."
Pinkie put a a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "It's nothing against you, Twilight, it's just that it's familiar. You like being a unicorn. You don't know how to be anything else. If you could go back to the moment of your birth, you'd choose to be a unicorn, right?" Twilight's ears flattened, but Pinkie gave her a reassuring pat. "It's not a bad thing, Twilight."
Twilight frowned and tilted her head. "That doesn't make me a bad pony?"
Pinkie giggled and shook her head. "Of course not, silly. We all do it. Applejack would choose to be an earth pony again because she could keep her natural connection to the earth, and that would help her farm. Fluttershy and Rainbow would become pegasi again because they like their connection to the sky. We're all biased towards our own race, and that's what today is really all about."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Applejack told you the history of today, right?" Twilight nodded. "Right, so you know that ponies took that feeling of the familiar and actually thought that it meant that they were better. All three of the races did, and it came out in really bad ways." Pinkie's smile faded and she flattened her ears. "Ponies said and did a lot of bad stuff to each other back then." Pinkie's ears perked back up. "So that's what today is about: getting those bad feelings out in the open so we can see how silly they are." Pinkie giggled and winked at Twilight. "Giggling at the Ghosties, if you will."
Despite herself, Twilight cracked a small smile. "Interesting. But doesn't that kind of show how everypony feels? Like a "drunken words are sober thoughts" kind of thing?"
"Er... not exactly. At first, maybe, but once we all started laughing, I think we realized how silly those words really were." Pinkie giggled. "You don't really have a stick on your head."
Twilight frowned. "I'm not sure I totally get it still."
"Words only have the power we give them, Twilight, and if we laugh at those words that are supposed to be mean to other ponies, they don't have that power." Pinkie tapped her lower jaw with her hoof, and looked down to the remaining cupcake on the tray. "It's like if we all decided that the word cupcake was a bad word, would it be a bad word?"
Twilight scratched her head and looked down at the cupcake. "Well... I guess it would be. I mean... hmm."
Pinkie's smile widened, and she leaned forward. "Whatcha thinkin'?"
"We gave the word cupcake negative power, so... it has it. If we all then decided that it didn't, that it went back to meaning a cake in a cup, then the power of those words is gone."
"I think you got iiiiit," said Pinkie in a sing-song voice. "We do this so that words like that don't make ponies feel bad anymore."
"So then why don't we say that kind of thing the rest of the year?" Twilight questioned. "If a day like today gets those bad feelings out into the open, then why don't we say them all the time?"
"Would you like to be called a stick head every day?"
Twilight's brow creased, and she crossed her forelegs. "So it doesn't work? Those words still have power at the end of the day?"
Pinkie Pie's wide smile faded, and it turned a little wistful. "Some words have a lot of power, Twilight. Saying what we do, yeah, it's still technically racist, and honestly, you can only laugh at that for so long." Pinkie Pie's smile widened ever so slightly. "But that's what today is. It's us all getting together to forget that those words have power. We all use them to laugh at how silly we are for letting them have any power." Pinkie shrugged. "A lot of power of those words is gone because of today, but you still wouldn't want to hear it in casual conversation, right? You'd rather be referred to by your name, and not categorized by your race, right? I mean, even if you weren't offended by the phrase stick head at all, would you rather be called that, or Twilight?"
"Well, Twilight, of course."
"Right, so that's why we only giggle at the power those words hold over us once a year. It gets tiresome otherwise." Pinkie giggled and took a bite of her cupcake. "Those words only hold the power that you let them, and today we don't let those words have any power. We giggle at how ridiculous it all is, and nopony has any ill feelings. If we actually used it as an excuse to be genuinely mean, I think we'd stop it." Pinkie finished off her cupcake and pushed the empty tray aside. "Have you talked to Rarity yet today?"
"Yeah."
"So you know that Sweetie Belle is involved in Cleansing Day too. Well, Sweetie Belle isn't allowed to say that stuff to ponies that she actually doesn't like, so there's no ill will at all. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom know she doesn't mean it, and they all laugh about it." Pinkie widened her smile and stood up. "I have to get back to work now, Twilight. Just think about it, okay?"
PhilosoPinkie is best Pinkie! Great new chapter, good response to the few disgruntled readers too!
That... Makes a little bit of sense, at least, coming from Pinkie Pie. Still don't agree with the logic, but I kind of see where they're coming from.
"You prefer to stick with the familiar." Hahah. Get it? "Stick to the familiar?" Because Twilight is a unicorn, or a stick head.... hahaha. no? okay....
3393578 The argument Pinkie uses is not quite correct. Even if the original meaning of a phrase is forgotten by a group, that group can still detect the animosity in its use by another group.
That said, Pinkie is right in saying that words only have the power we give them, and even the phrases that offend you most can become a term of endearment from the ones you love.
It is not about the word, it is the way you say it.
3393562 The philosophical pink party pony Pinkie Pie provides perplexing advises to the pondering Twilight for her precarious problems pertaining her pretentious mind of this popular period of date.
It would be really funny if Luna wandered into town today.
Nice to the see some of the problems with the story addressed.
Man, I can't wait to see how both RD and fluttershy act towards Twilight. I bet RD will just be a big jerk about it, and fluttershy, that'll be interesting to see. worth the wait
Please I want.
stephenchy520.blog.com/files/2012/02/more_main.png
I'm just loving it so far. I can't get enough.
~Leonzilla
3393796
What the dirty screwhead said.
3393932
What that sexy Master-Race pony said.
[youtube=dWdVwt2deY4]
And... The Beetle in the Box.
3393983
Nice to see we are agreement despite your crippling ignorance. I was afraid the sun had baked what little mind you possessed while you were out plowing the fields with your primate tools. Good for you.
: SCREW YOU, YA DIRTY-
: Fluttershy, you're a pegasus too.
: Oh, right.
3393578 What don't you agree with?
3394077 3393983
I'm better than all you stupid stickheads and idiotic mud ponies
Now, something on-topic....
Um
The story's awesome, keep up the good work
Couple of things:
"Cleansing Day" should always be capitalized, since it's the proper name of a holiday.
"big-headed" is a compound adjective, and needs to be hyphenated.
I think the word you want is "flour", not "flower." (Then again, this is Pinkie Pie; being covered in clumps of flowers would be about as normal as anything else she does. )
"Cupcakes", on the other hand –
(Hoof.)
(...what?)
(We have hoofth, thir, not handth.) *waves hers by way of demonstration*
(Rrrright. Moving on.)
– "Cupcakes" should not be capitalized.
"The new Pinkie Pie action figure, with amazing Power Jaw Action!!"
(Yay!)
(My what did what now?)
3394202 Fixed. Danke.
So, what's the racial slurs for alicorns or crystal ponies?
And really? No unicorn bonehead jokes?
Or pegasus dove-wing jokes?
3394223 Well, Twilight hasn't run into pegasi yet, really.
I'm running an MLP roleplay, and one of the player characters is a racist Earth Pony. As such, this story is full of handy words I can steal when writing sialogue for him, so thanks for that.
Also, the story itself is great and the writing is up to your usual superb standards. Clearly you are a member of the Unicorn tribes, for no mud pony or featherbrain could possibly have written something this inspired.
When/If twilight meet Fluttershy and Fluttershy isn't either 1. The best at this out of all of them. or 2. Clueless to the entire thing cause no one says these things around her. I'm gona be slightly disappointed.
3394303 3393833
It was stated clearly in chapter one that any pony can immune to insult provided they didn't insult back It was explicitly stated that Fluttershy took this option every year and stayed at home.
There isn't going to be any Flutters swearing like a trooper, although that would be amusing, and she does know, which is why she stays at home.
3394223 The Crystal Ponies already have Sombra, so there's no point in beating a Crystal Pony.
Meh. I like it.... But I don't.
Yeah yeah. I know it's all pretend and I know they smile after. By the moments when they're sling slurs at each other there is no sign that they don't mean it. No overexxagerations or snickers in between. And the glares. They don't seem to be jokingly racist or saying the slurs to make fun of the idea because they aren't just talking talk. Y'know? They're walking the racist walk as well. Instead of a day to poke fun ( which I would assume is what it would turn into after people actually overcome their racist mind sets) it feels like a day to act like a racist and to be a racist because you can with no consequences. I'm not sure If I'm explaining myself correctly but I tired.
That had a nice moral that I think i'll carry with me for the rest of my life.
Ps. I think I feel this way because it is clearly stated that it is a joke at the beginning. And unlike with pinkie in nightmare night, when asked why she's doing what she's doing or when you actually talk with her she isn't afraid to "break character" but just laughs about it. If the set up for this story were that everyone WAS an actual racist (for whatever ) reason then I wouldn't really care because that's how things are and then I could laugh at it. But here they don't just say things racist they act racist as if they're playing a character.
Pps. Why do they just recycle the same couple of slurs over? Nothing new?
3394784 No, they're being over-the-top about it. Remember when Twilight said that she gave the Cakes an exaggerated glare? Maybe I'm not explaining this well enough, but no, their body language tends to state that they're being facetious. At least, that's how I'm trying to write it. Pinkie Pie especially says it with a smile and a laugh. I can add some bits about their body language, but they're being totally not serious, and everybody else knows that.
3394775 She did it assuming Twilight knew what Cleansing Day was, so she assumed that Twilight would respond as such. She thought she knew that Twilight was kidding based on the day.
3394888
Maybe having more breaks in the conversation. They seem to be taking themselves pretty seriously over a joke day. Like rarity and sweetie. Why keep up the facade at home? They didn't even laugh about it. And then they kept going until sweetie left the room. Why? I mean. It's not serious, right?
3394980 Sweetie was explaining what happened at school that day. I'm re-reading the section, and that's the only time they're acting like that. I added a little more light-heartedness, but all the two of them were talking about was what Sweetie Belle did at school with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. They're still talking like that (briefly, might I add) because that's the purpose of the day. Besides, they don't have to be laughing all the time for people to know that they aren't serious about it. I mean, look at this clip here.
Gandalf and Frodo seem irked with each other, but, let's be honest, you know they're joking even though they're not being over-the-top about their fake anger. Same idea here. Applejack and Blossomforth seemed mad at each other at a distance, but if Twilight was actually involved in the conversation, she would have spotted quite easily that they weren't at all. Make sense?
3395066
I know what you're getting at and I understand what you're trying to portray. But even in the clip they're pretend anger doesn't go on for more then a sentence each and they are light hearted about it and then they laugh because it's a joke. This day being a joke that no one laughs at is kind of off-putting. And when I read the conversation between any of the ponies it doesn't have them smile during their interactions or anything. It's like it's an obligation to make it through a racist conversation before you can joke around. If I were to have a pretend racist day with my friends we would just tease each other like normal but replace ridiculous pretend insults with racial ones. That why I would expect twilight and pinkie to joke around like normal first. Or to have an interaction where they insert what would commonly be a taboo term into the place of regular nickname or casual conversation. Instead of acting like they're really racist.
I don't know. I don't think theirs really anything wrong with the story. But I feel like its a bit too heavy handed for me to be able to take light heartedly and to laugh about it. I guess I can't relate to it because it doesn't reflect how I would act. But this may just be me.
3395132 What? What do you mean they're not laughing about it? They're constantly laughing about it! At the end of almost every conversation they smile and laugh with each other. Sweetie Belle says that after the Crusaders tear into each other, they're on the floor. Applejack and Blossomforth are barely concealing smirks, even at a distance, Twilight's body language with the Cakes is so over-the-top I'm surprised anybody could see it as being taken seriously. Pinkie PIe was flat out grinning when she called Twilight a stick head. I'm... not sure where you're getting them acting so serious.
3395162
Hm. I don't know either. Maybe twilight's constant uneasiness reflects onto me?
Pinkie's speech really helps.
I don't know. I like it. But I don't.
I really don't know.
It's a good story. It's just not played out the way I would have done it. But the way I would have done it wouldn't have ended with such a nice speech. And it's not my story so I shouldn't be so caught up in it.
3395221 Well, wouldn't Twilight be uneasy? She just found out that today is racism day. That's weird for her.
3395237
Yes
Half of my 2nd last comment didn't send -.- ugh. Rewriting it takes away the authenticity of how I felt. But I guess you deserve it so,
I went in to say that I don't know why I'm complaining. It's good story and it's well written an there isn't really anything wrong with it. I guess I came in expecting for a silly comedy and instead I got a thoughtful well-written narrative. And for some reason I'm upset with that? I don't know. I'm whining for no reason. It really is a good story so don't worry about me.
3395281 That's okay. I went in expecting a silly comedy, and instead I got a thoughtful, well written narrative too. It's something that just happens.
I think you've hit your stride here. This chapter is very funny, and the racism isn't so blunt. It's even quite nice how Pinkie explains the "holiday".
Something's going to go off... I am MORE than sure of it... when the Mane Six are in on something, it's going to end in either explosions, hurt feelings, or both.
I like the story, but the racism with the cakes seemed a bit too real for me.
I think it'd be hilarious to see Fluttershy getting in on this holiday... horribly, HORRIBLY OOC, but hilarious nonetheless.
3393719
you just won. with that one alliteration, you just won. I'd give you a cookie or a Pinkie stamp of approval, but I don't have either one on me right now.
I have a bad feeling about this.
3395458 How so?
3396125 It seems as though they're slinging valid, logical insults rather than mock-harsh words. Makes it seem more as if they actually mean it. (I know that's not the case, though.)
3396146 Well that's the point. I mention in the very first chapter that "stick head" is the unicorn equivalent of the "N" word, because it trivializes their horn, something important to unicorns. Stick Head, Ground Pounder, Featherbrain, they are all very real, very hurtful slurs in this story, but as Pinkie said, they use them on this day to remove their power.
3396178 Yes, i know, but calling someone a mean word is not the same thing as trying to come up with an actual insult. It's not actually that important, just what I think.
I totally agree with Pinkie on this, that words only have the power we give them and if we take that power away then they mean nothing. Her whole talk with Twilight is how I have been treating this story, that everything about Cleansing Day is to show everyone that all the racial slurs and hateful feels toward each other is silly, not about hurting others or teaching the foals to be racist to others.
I look forward to the next chapter. I would love to see how Dash participates in Cleansing Day though I have a feeling she might not participate, not sure why but it would be funny to see Twilight's reaction to being wrong about Dash loving Cleansing day and it turns out that Fluttershy is the one that absolutely loves it, cause it would allow her to appear more bold and out going I guess.
i'm half expecting Scootaloo to say something to diamond tiara, and DT loses it and gets physically violent with scootaloo