Equestria rejoices as Princess Twilight defeats evil, a castle ascends from the ruins of the Golden Oaks Library, and magical rainbows of friendship billow across the land. But there is grief even in the midst of joy: the Princess laments the loss of her beloved books, and a party stallion mourns a small rubber chicken.
Takes place after Equestria Games: The Cheese Course, and the season 4 finale. CheesePie; part of the same verse/continuity beginning with Swear on Camembert.
Cover art is Filly On The Ball, by Shiro-Gi. Used by permission.
This fic is 100% approved by Twilight's Library.
Chapters (1)
I haven't even read this yet, but I felt so sad when Boneless was turned into a key, so I like this story already purely for it's existence.
And yes I am actually gonna read it now
This was definitely bittersweet. On the one hand, we have the loss of Boneless, the rubber chicken that had been riding Cheese's back for years and kept him company.
On the other hand... mwahaha, Cheese cannot deny his love for Pinkie!
Oh, Cheese. You sweet goofball. Good thing that Boneless 2 was there for him and caught all that.
Also, I loved the bit about the mailpony. It was perfect.
Your story filled me with squirmy joy and wiggly giggles as well. I sort of knew some of it, but it was everything to grin at and more. It's like you're a party pony too, Scoots2.
4394288 I know. Hope you like it!
4394452 Yep. It's one thing to give Boneless away, and another to find out he's gone. Of course he can't deny his love for Pinkie. It might be the first time he's admitted it to himself, though, certainly out loud.
4394523 Aw. He IS a sweet goofball, isn't he?
BEST COMPLIMENT EVER
ALSO, DUH
This letter will be Iconic for the years to come!
Kinda of wonder how me and cheese are alike, I kinda talk to inanimate objects as well when I need to release something...........
um you heard nothing. Oh and the party pony magic must be in my headcanon!
Party pony magic is, in my headcanon, one of the most esoteric and dangerous subdisciplines of earth pony magic. One must reach into the bottommost fundament of the universe, the underpinnings of reality, the bedrock of existence. That is, one must recognize and accept one's nature as a fictional character and manipulate Macromedia Flash directly. This comes at a significant cost of sanity, but the smiles make it worth it. Well, the party ponies think they do, and who am I to judge?
Eldritch horror Pinkie Pie (doo dah, doo dah) is my favorite kind of Pinkie, and Jordan179's is one of the better ones. That you've found parallels between your Pinkie and his greatly intrigues me. I look forward to seeing the similarities between the Herald of Paradise and the Bringer of Joy.
In all, this was a fantastic requiem for a rubber chicken. Thank you for it, especially in the wake of #SaveTree.
Enjoyed this one as I do with all your Cheese-Pie stories. Your pacing always impresses me, and your stories feel just the right length to get the point across. I can't write one shots like this, I somehow end up with a novel.
Anywho, though I really enjoyed this one, I did have a bit of a problem with the exposition. It's not a big issue, but it felt like you were trying to cram too much background and snippets in too small a space. This made it come off as telling more than showing during Cheese and Boneless 2's scene. I could be wrong, I'm still a novice, but I thought I might point it out.
I adored the part with the mail pony, that was really clever. I like how you explain their connection, but I still prefer a little less extravagant one for my own story. Preferences are preferences after all. I look forward to your next Cheese-Pie saga. Thanks for posting!
4396303 Headcanon yay!
4398553 I know, right? I'd been hinting about the nature of the connection with Pinkie from the very first story, although I've built on the details. It's always seemed clear to me, though, that to a colt who splits himself into multiple bits and then conjures up a flashing dance floor, and who has a rubber chicken for a best friend, Pinkie makes total sense, and might be the only other pony who does. Plus, in a way, the Boneless thing seemed obvious, too, since he was always going to be connected with that box and therefore with the Tree of Harmony, AND he was a gift from Pinkie, AND the only one that made a circular trip (Pinkie --->>Cheese-->>Pinkie), AND is the only "key" that is described as a friend, AND was connected with Cheese's cutie mark acquisition, AND Cheese seems to have all those bizarre abilities because Pinkie does--the idea that this might create a thaumaturgical accident made sense as well. For a one-minute segment, "Cheese Confesses" is packed with fic potential. I'm looking forward to uncovering even more of it and figuring out how on earth he adjusts from all of this. Additional complicating factors, such as Pinkie not really thinking of herself as a quasi-goddess and also unclear about how one friendship is different from another and also so childlike that Cheese is extremely reluctant to spook her or overstep, are thrown in free of charge.
You are very welcome!
4400531 Thank you! Yes, I think the wordiness issue is true here. Having it as a "dialogue" with Boneless was better than the original format, which was almost pure retrospective. I didn't exactly plan this one, but I also realized that this was a golden opportunity, since Cheese is never, ever going to mention any of this to another pony if at all possible. He's just vulnerable enough to spill it, if that makes sense. And since Boneless is the source of his magical connection with Pinkie, he thinks, that's going to be uppermost in his mind.
Well, yes--I think I've been hinting at the Party Pony Magic for a while now. Sounds like it *is* very different, so I should be able to get back to reading yours pretty soon!
I absolutely love how you're able to catch the true nature of a party pony, especially the different styles that Cheese and Pinkie hold. You can find the similarities and you can find the differences, but you don't flat out say what they are. Instead, you just let it flow through the dialogue and the descriptions of the actions taking place. Few CheesePie shippers are able to do this and I applaud you for being able to. Keep up the good work, you brilliant CheesePie shipper, you~
4401425 Aw! Thank you so much! That's very sweet.
Everybody's kinda nuts. Don't you know that?
Your story is beautiful and touching. And I felt honored when you wrote in the Notes
I'm glad that your concept was at all inspired by mine, and yes: I was inspired by Lovecraft (esepcially The Dunwich Horror) to create my version of Pinkie and her family history.
Horror and wonder are the two emotional axes of speculative fiction. Essentially, speculative fiction (science fiction or fantasy) shows us something beyond the mundane, and the emotional reaction that the characters (and audience) have to it is either horror ("Look! How awful!") or wonder ("Look! How awesome!") with the type of reaction having much to do with the moral ugliness or moral beauty of what we are being shown.
Now it's pretty obvious from observing Pinkie Pie in My Little Pony"Friendship Is Magic that she is not a "normal" Pony -- she's a very strange Pony -- and also that she's strange in a morally beautiful way. She radiates joyfulness, and she goes out of her way to make sure that other Ponies are happy. She's very strange, very smart and she came from somewhere very rural (more rural than Sweet Apple Acres, in canon). So my natural model was Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror.
So I decided to reverse the polarity of the original scenario behind The Dunwich Horror, make every character in it morally-beautiful. The "Wizard Whateley" character, Goldie Pie, is a wise, kind mystical scholar. The "Lavinia Whateley" character, Cloudy Quartz Pie, is a sane and well-treated mother. The "Wilbur Whateley" analogue is Pinkie herself, who wants to bring Joy rather than Destruction to her maternal species; and her Twin (physically an equinomorphic analogue of the monster in The Dunwich Horror) Claire is benign and loveable. The Yog-Sothoth like creature, Paradise, wants to recreate a world of happiness for all Ponies who wish to join it.
And -- in my universe too -- that's why he loves her.
4404618 Oh, yes, certainly! It was interesting to me that some of these ideas had developed in parallel, considering the very different kinds of inspiration. I went ahead and read Least Noticeable and Little Flappy, and I cheated and read the Wikipedia entry on The Dunwich Horror, because I know I can't handle horror, at all, despite having taken a course in it in high school that I loved. I'm just far too suggestible. I would sit up all night humming, like Scootaloo.
I don't quite understand the drive to turn Pinkie into a psychotic killer. Even at her most angry or despondent, that is not where she'd go. Her drive to make other ponies happy would militate against it. But laughter is an extremely powerful force in many ways. It disarms, among other things. Puts the conflict with Gilda in a whole new light, doesn't it? Yes, Pinkie is acting like a jealous McJealousypants, but at the same time, Gilda is causing misery and chaos. It is small bore stuff, admittedly, but it's early enough that the only real villain we've seen is Nightmare Moon. Pinkie's strategy is to make her happy, so she stops it and comes into the group. It's inclusive humor, as opposed to exclusive humor.
*party horns*
Doesn't matter, though, because I love your read on Pinkie.
4398553 Ever have an idea and then forget where it came from?
Me: Bringer of Joy, Bringer of Joy--huh, I wrote that, but why? It's ringing a bell. What is that?
My own blog, several months ago: AUGH, it is like Dante and Beatrice, but with party ponies! Augh, drown me in the feels!
Beatrice: Latin, "Bringer of Joy."
And there it is. Didn't even know I was doing it.
4410151
I think a lot of people confuse "misfit" with "crazy" and "crazy" with "violent." Pinkie is definitely a "misfit" (as are also Fluttershy and Twilight in obvious ways, and Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity in subtler ways), and she is at times "crazy," but she's not very violent. She's a misfit in that her approach to life is different than that of most other Equestrians: her goal is to spread joy and her perceptions of reality are slightly alien -- she is a precognitive with an eidetic memory and very high intelligence, but she has problems communicating certain things to others because she does not share all their assumptions. I'm guessing that the assumption of violence comes from the passion with which she regards her code of honor -- which I think is very important to her because without it her mental and emotional processes would become genuinely chaotic. She can be very scary if you break your word to her, especially if it's a Pinkie Promise.
Gilda is definitely a bitch and she starts the fight. I don't see Gilda as "evil," but the fact is that Pinkie was perfectly fine with Rainbow being friendly with Gilda, while Gilda didn't want Rainbow to be friendly to Pinkie Pie. Part of this may have been that Gilda's attraction toward Rainbow Dash had distinctly romantic overtones, but even if that's the case, refusing to allow one's beloved to have friends is unhealthy. This may also possibly have been due to some mismatch between Griffon and Equestrian culture -- it's hard to tell because "Griffon the Brush-Off" is the only episode to focus on a Griffon character.
Interestingly, I assume that this is Trixie's full personal name. "Beatrix."
4410987 Ponies don't normally have regular human names, though. Maud and Pinkamena Diane Pie are the exceptions that prove the rule. I always figured her first name was something like "One," as in "One Trixie Pony." Honestly, I do think that's the real origin of her name. But I was mainly pointing out the parallel that had occurred to me: a bit over the top, of course, but still. Dante sees Beatrice when they're both around eight or nine, and he instantly falls in love, and she becomes his inspiration--but he doesn't actually talk to her for another nine years.
Only, of course, with party ponies.
I don't understand elaborate defenses of Gilda. She's nowhere near Chrysalis levels of bad, but I don't feel any need for her to be "redeemed," either.
Oh, Pinkie's capable of losing her temper, certainly. She loses it at Cheese. He loses his, too, in fact, and it temporarily blocks out whatever he was trying to accomplish:
1) help Pinkie throw an epic birthday party--because that is what he initially said he wanted to do; help
2) show her what a great party pony he is because of her.
He moves from trying to impress her to trying to win, and doesn't quite realize that he's blown it spectacularly until he already has.
I think party ponies in general have to have some kind of a code. If they didn't, they would cause all kinds of chaos. I think "ordinary itinerant party ponies" like Ponyacci and Cheese learn it from experience. Try pulling out stuff just because you can, or even worse, pranking in order to humiliate, and party pony karma gives you a box on the snoot.
This gave me more feels thanSwear On Camembert. Probably because he said it was a dumb move to fall in love with Pinkie Pie. Also because Boneless is d-d-d dead. P.S the mail pony isn't Derpy?*faints*
4396303 It's ok. I gave away a even bigger secret on Pinkie Promise.
4398553 I've already lost my sanity, but I don't if I make anyone who I don't fake around actually smile! I scare them!
4421076 Aw, thanks. Yeah, this is more personal, in a way. As for the mail pony--
--well, we've seen several on the show, and she hasn't been any of 'em. I had this guy in mind:
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121215094939/mlp/images/3/3f/Rainbow_snatching_letter_S3E7.png
--although since he's a Canterlot mail pony, he could be any Pegasus mail pony.
4421145 Ohhhhh, ok!
Oh, Cheese Sandwich, you are so awesome.
4410987
According the preview for the new comic, we've got a canon name for Trixie.
It's Trixiana.
I. Love. This. So much!!
The joy spreading idea was awesome, and Cheese being in love was just downright adorable.
And then Pinkie at the end
Oh Pinkie...
You know what? I loved this. The idea behind several party ponies being something like agents of Joy and happiness is something I've never seen before. And Pinkie being the embodiment of it all, the center? That's different, and that's good.
You've definitely come up with a unique universe in and of itself. I am giving this one an upvote and a fav.
Nice story! Liked, favorited, and to be featured on the blog I work for!
4578455 Aw, thanks.
4579992 Thank you very much! Yes, it sort of seemed appropriate.
That's quite a compliment!
4584824 Thank you very much! Which blog would that be?
4717645
http://onlyhooves.blogspot.com/
4722345 Thanks!
And yet I feel like people can read it as a stand-alone without being confused.
That's important for getting into Twilight's Library, you know...
i.imgur.com/nzapftb.png
4728398 Thank you! I was careful to make sure it could stand alone before I submitted. I'd just noticed some readers on other stories being confused about how one story related to another, so I wanted to make sure they had that information.
I now have a smile frozen on my face thanks to you. I don't know wether I should be joyful or mad. Maybe I'm just madoyful.
. . . Damnit! There is no Cheese Sandwich face!
4957150 Read it first. He does think that.
This seems like an interesting series. I will be reading the rest of it soon. Good luck.
So I've gone on record to say that CheesePie is an easy pairing to write. After some more thought, I do stand by that statement. Their affinities and relationship by the end of Pinkie Pride lend them to being tossed into any cookie-cutter shipfic scenario, really.
But wow.
Cookie-cutter this is not.
I would never have guessed that you'd dream up this sort of connection between the two of them. This is some above and beyond shipping. Cheese was earnest and pure and I felt all his trials. The entirety of Pinkie's letter had me swooning. If this is the flavor of cheese pie you're selling, I guess I'm going to have to buy the rest of what you have in stock.
It also counts in many ways as a Headcanon Blog Post Fic, but as I read it I didn't care in the slightest. So now I'm going to have to sit down, and analyze this story in comparison to the ones that throw me out of them with their headcanon overblather, to find out what the difference is.
5558073
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw10517_medium.png
I am sooo glad you liked this!
Woooooo!
And actually, CheesePie CAN get kind of cookie cutter, but I think that potentially anything can. Of course, your Dr. Frankenstein methodology tends to prevent that.
Let me know if you come up with any differences. The only thing I can think of is that the connection and what I thought about it was already there from a much earlier story, so it wasn't as though it was boom, saw the episode, now have a heapin' helpin' o' headcanon.
**warning for shameless self-promotion**
. . . as long as you're in the mood for my CheesePie, would you consider reading my Equestria Girls fic The Looking Glass World of Cheese and Pie? Because I have been dying to ask you to read it, but didn't want to be a pain in the butt.
5559007
...oh dear, 80,000 words.
That's not a length I normally mess with for online reading. Like, nowhere near. It's the reason I haven't read The Albinocorn's works, and that stuff is Sunset Shimmer-worship left and right.
So no promises. But no declinations, either. Just by the description, Looking Glass has all of these concepts I already know I'll love.
In other words... we'll see.
5562865 No worries. I had just mournfully hoped that someday, someday, it would get put in the Geeks folder. But I'm not much for gigantically long fics, either. I just don't have the energy or time. So don't feel you have to unless you think it's going to be fun.
Hi! I just wanted to let you know I put together a reading of this story for youtube. thank you for writing such an awesome story.
5597507 I SAW IT WAS AMAZING
5805882 Thank you!
I'd offer, but I'm a professor in RL, and I have to comment on multiple papers for about 70+ students. And as you can see, I haven't published in a while! So I'm afraid I'll have to say no.
I was really proud that the Lost Narrator chose to read it.
I love this story. I've read some of your stories already and it's hard to pick a favorite, they're all so good. Also I love CheesePie.
6168171 Thank you! What a nice thing to say! Also, thank you for the follow.
... I did not know I needed this in my life.
6224772 Well, I hope that's a good thing! Thank you.
You can has review!
6410811 Thank you!
This was anazing
I think someone read this awesome story on youtube! :D
Just the right amount of Party Pony lore. Liked and faved.
I laughed my butt off when I saw dis. Lol