"My worst fear," Rarity said, "is that one day I will sink into despair and never recover, that I shall lose the beauty of the world for ever and ever. I don't much fear death, but I do fear unending ugliness, within which I would drift, gradually becoming base and vile, unable to even perceive how I might once again be fabulous, let alone assist anypony else in expressing their inner beauty.
"In the last half-year," Rarity continued, "my nightmare twice seemed about to come true. When Tirek drained our magic, my aesthetic sense was muted. I still had some of my Talent, but it was weakened -- Twilight later told me because my natural magic was no longer there to power it. It was as it was before I got my Cutie Mark, save that I was exhausted, and no longer had the natural exuberance of a little filly. It was -- just barely -- tolerable, though I was frightened that I might never recover my former abilities."
She looked directly at Fluttershy, her eyes sad.
"Yes. I was terribly selfish. You must all have been feeling at least as bad as I -- you, in particular, were devastated by Discord's betrayal of your friendship, and the love he had so recently declared for you -- but in my craven misery, I ... All Equestria was in danger, yet all I cared about was my own fate. All I could do was cling to Spike, and try not to disgrace myself by openly weeping. Spike noticed -- but he didn't let anypony else know. As always, I could trust my dear Spike to keep my secrets." She smiled briefly, then winced, as she considered that she had perhaps ruined that friendship.
"What Starlight Glimmer did," Rarity said, "was worse. Far worse. I don't pretend to fully understand how it was even possible -- my own knowledge of Unicorn magic is mostly concerned with telekinesis -- I think Twilight was working it out in those papers she was writing on the train ride back. It felt a little like what Twilight did to us by accident, right before she Ascended -- but Twilight's spell only mixed up our Cutie Marks, confused us as to our true Talents. Starlight's spell -- to me it felt as if part of my soul had been torn from me.
"Was it like that for you?" Rarity asked.
Fluttershy screwed up her muzzle in concentration. "Well," she said, "I felt really drained. As if I'd been flying all day; completely exhausted my wings. I think that taking our Cutie Marks also took most of our magic, of all sorts -- I couldn't use any of my other special abilities -- I could just barely sense emotions, and I don't think I could have Stared anypony to save my life.
"I knew that Starlight had weakened all of us," Fluttershy continued, "but I didn't understand what she'd done until I tried to talk to that bird -- and I couldn't. I realized that she hadn't just drained my magic and taken my Cutie Mark -- she'd taken my Talent as well."
"How did that make you feel?" Rarity asked. It was obvious to her that Fluttershy, like herself, had wanted to talk about this for a while. It had been one topic of conversation they had studiously avoided on the ride back.
"At first, sad," said Fluttershy. "Talking with animals is one of the things that gives me the most joy in life. My animals are my friends. I love them, and they love me in return. They'd probably still like me, even if I couldn't talk with them, but I'd never know again for certain what they wanted to communicate. I knew that if I couldn't get my Cutie Mark back, I'd never be able to talk with my friends again!"
Her jaw firmed. "And then, I got mad." Her brows lowered. "We never asked to join Our Town -- we had just traveled there to see if they needed any help. We never told Starlight Glimmer that it was okay to take our Cutie Marks. She just decided everything for us, and she took something very special from me without even knowing what it was, because she'd decided to reduce me to her idea of what a Pony should be. And that I had to accept it, just because her magic was stronger and I couldn't stop her.
"She had a whole complex philosophy, I found out later -- more than just what was on those records she was playing, she talked to me about it in detail when I was over at her house -- but she was really just being a bully. I hate bullies," Fluttershy said. "It was at that moment, when I realized of what she'd robbed me, that I decided that I owed her no honesty -- that it was all right to betray her." Fluttershy turned troubled eyes on her friend. "Did I make the right choice?"
"Fluttershy," Rarity said firmly. "Starlight Glimmer ambushed and imprisoned us. She did not use us honestly, and we were not bound in honor to treat her any better."
"I know," said Fluttershy, regretfully. "But I want to be nice ..."
"Nice, yes," said Rarity, "and you are once of the nicest Ponies I have ever known. But remember the rest of what you explained to me about the way to be nice and still win the game -- 'and tit for tat.'" At Fluttershy's startled expression, Rarity laughed. "Oh, I have paid attention to your discusssions of Game Theory. And what happened to Starlight Glimmer was a textbook case why one should not enter a game planning to play nasty. If she hadn't attacked us, she would very likely today be still ruling her horrid little town."
Fluttershy thought about it. "I guess you're right," she said, "in terms of Game Theory. Though at the time, I was just angry. And worried about what might happen."
"You mean if we didn't get our Cutie Marks back?" Rarity asked.
"That, too," Fluttershy admitted. "But mostly what would have happened to Starlight Glimmer and her followers."
"Happened?" asked Rarity. "I'm sorry ... I'm not sure what you mean ..."
"When I didn't show up for my weekly tea ..." Fluttershy said.
"Eh?" asked Rarity.
"... with Discord," Fluttershy finished.
"Oh," said Rarity. Then "Oh!" as the full implications hit her.
"Yes," said Fluttershy. "Discord and I have been getting, well, closer," she explained, "and I fear he would have been quite cross with the Ponies of Our Town. He might have ... over-reacted."
Rarity shuddered at the thought of Discord, over-reacting. "It's probably for the best that her own Ponies overthrew her, then," Rarity commented. "So, how do you feel about it now that it's over?"
"Glad that it's over," Fluttershy said. "It was unpleasant. And scary."
"Scary?" asked Rarity. "For me that's too mild a description. It was my worst nightmares, come true. Rather, to be more precise, it was the exact situation that my worst Nightmare came into being in a misguided attempt to avoid.
"No beauty," Rarity explained, her voice flat and toneless. "Nothing fabulous, not ever again. No achievements -- no point even trying. No grand passions, no brilliant match. If I was lucky, a very ordinary marriage, perhaps blessed by foals ..."
"Actually," Fluttershy interjected, "Starlight Glimmer was undecided between arranged marriages and temporarily-assigned breeding partners in her plans for a Society of Sameness."
Rarity stared at her in surprise.
"You see," Fluttershy explained, "Starlight felt that some of the most painful and emotionally-destructive competitions were those between mares for husbands. So she wanted to do away with marriage entirely, but she ran into the problem that -- with no marriages -- there might not be a next generation.
"At first, she tried to have everypony mate at random, but most of the mares and even some of the stallions balked at this. Then she thought about arranging marriages, but if she did that without asking the Ponies she wanted to have marry each other, they were upset; if she asked them, then they would just be competing for husbands and wives again. And, under the sameness, most of them really didn't want to mate all that much anyway. So she never really solved the problem."
Rarity's mouth gaped slightly open in shock. "But -- all those foals --"
"Some of them were born before their mothers joined Our Town," replied Fluttershy. "Others -- most of the mares didn't want to mate at random, but some were just fine with it, or didn't mind enough to stand up to Starlight on the issue. And of course they were mating on their cycles -- the point was to get pregnant."
"Ugh," said Rarity. "Also, ugh. Those poor mares -- those poor foals. How could they bear living under such a custom?"
Fluttershy nodded. "It horrified me, too." She looked directly at Rarity. "I know what it's like to grow up fatherless. And just because I'm in love with more than one being doesn't mean that I'm willing to ... with just anyone."
"Oh," Rarity replied, remembering that the mare to whom she was speaking was a bastard, and had known it since she was old enough to grasp the very concept of illegitimacy. "Oh, Fluttershy. I didn't mean --"
"I know," said Fluttershy. "I wasn't offended. And it's different for those foals than it was for me. They haven't been born to a proud and ancient family, rejected for their birth. There's a whole generation of them in Our Town. They'll be each others' friends."
"Did their parents love one another?" Rarity wondered. "Could Ponies love each other under such a cold system?"
"Mostly, they were apathetic, and afraid," Fluttershy said. "But there was some love in Our Town. Party Favor, Sugar Belle and Night Glider were all very good friends -- and I think that Party Favor and Sugar Belle felt even more for one another. And Double Diamond ..." Fluttershy's face grew sad. "... I wish he hadn't been the one who needed to lead the rebellion."
"Why?" asked Rarity.
"Because he and Starlight Glimmer loved one another," Fluttershy explained.
Rarity's eyes widened. "But I thought she disapproved of voluntary ..."
"She did," Fluttershy continued. "It didn't change how they felt. Though they didn't seem very happy -- I think because she had to keep her secret from him, and follow her own philosophy." Her ears drooped. "I don't think they love each other very much now."
Rarity considered the point. "No," she said, "I don't suppose they would." She sighed. "It's sad to think of love shattered like that. But it's very hard for me to feel much sympathy for Starlight Glimmer, all things considered."
"Because she hurt us?" Fluttershy's tone was unusually challenging.
"I suppose," said Rarity, lowering her head and pursing up her lips. "Because she hurt me. Because she caused me to hurt ..." she winced, closed her eyes.
"Hurt whom?"
Rarity opened her eyes, looked up and away. "Do you know what I think the most beautiful thing in all the world?" she asked Fluttershy.
Fluttershy shook her head.
"More of a 'who,' really," said Rarity.
Fluttershy's eyes widened.
"He's beautiful, on the outside and within. Have you ever noticed how the sunlight iridesces off his scales? It's as if he's wearing a suit of gemstones, but infinitely finer and more subtly-colored than the most valuable gems I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of gems in my life," Rarity added. "His eyes are so alert and alive. The way he turns his head in that sudden way -- almost like a bird's, but in his gaze there's such intelligence! He's small, but have you ever held him? He's rock-hard with muscles, he's stronger than most full-grown stallions, and someday he'll be truly mighty ."
Fluttershy nodded.
"If it were just how he looked, I could just, oh I don't know, put him on a pedestal and have him decorate the boutique," Rarity laughed at the thought. "But he's also so good. He's like a Canterlot prince in Dragon form, or rather like what I thought Canterlot princes were like before I actually met one. He's brave, and honorable, kind and uncomplaining. And his mind -- Fluttershy, he's brilliant! He understands everything you tell him, and you don't need to tell him more than once. He's picked up half my business skills just by hanging around and helping me with odd jobs. He doesn't even realize how intelligent he is, because he spends most of his time in Twilight's shadow, and she's one of a kind. He's incredible ..." Her eyes shone with admiration at the thought of him.
"You really do love Spike," Fluttershy said.
"Of course I love him!" said Rarity. "Who wouldn't?"
"Most mares couldn't see past his species ..."
"Pshaw!" said Rarity, waving a hoof dismissively at such shallow Ponies. "Well, at first ... yes, I thought it was impossible. But then I did some ... ahem, research ..." She didn't want to explain the exact nature, or the reasons, for this research, but she greatly feared that Fluttershy, with her wide-ranging knowledge of biology, already had an embarrassingly-accurate estimation of her motives. "Did you know that there's even a name for the children of a Dragon and a Pony? They're called ki-rin. They're all the rage in East Neighsia ..."
Fluttershy nodded. "And his age?" she asked.
"Hmm, yes, well there's the real problem," replied Rarity. "I could never make my mind up about that. I know he was hatched almost fifteen years ago, so if he were a Pony he'd be full-adolescent by now, almost a stallion. He's obviously not a 'baby' as Twilight keeps calling him, he's too intelligent and, um, emotionally-advanced." She did not want to go into details about Spike's emotional advancement, or on what precise basis she made this judgement -- she felt her cheeks begin to burn as she even considered the issue. "I think that he's in some sort of late childhood or early adolescence, but he doesn't seem to be growing as fast as he should. I'm not sure why."
"Not a lot is known about the details of the Dragon life cycle," Fluttershy said. "They don't like to talk about it. The Dragons, I mean. I think they don't want to reveal potential vulnerabilities."
"So I'm not sure how to treat him," Rarity said. "If he really were a baby, I'd never ... I mean ... it would be impossible. Even if he were a normal Pony colt of Sweetie's age. But he's not -- how can I treat him as if he were just a colt when he sometimes acts so mature? But I know he's not a normal Dragon adolescent, let alone adult -- I've seen adult Dragons, they're immense. Even the adolescents, like Luna's friend Fischfootur, are bigger than Big Mac." She sighed. "I don't really know what Spike is. But I know that, whatever he is, I love him."
"Have you told him?" asked Fluttershy.
"He has to know," said Rarity. "Isn't it obvious, from the way I treat him? He's my best friend -- along with you, of course. My assistant, my confidante. There's certainly no male creature I trust more than Spike. I -- I've become so used to having him at my side. I don't know what I'd do if he didn't want to be with me any more." Her ears drooped. "And of course I've made a huge mess of things."
"How have you done that?"
"When I came back to Ponyville, I was incredibly happy to be back, to see everything again, and see its beauty. When I saw Spike, I was overwhelmed by his beauty. I just wanted to hold him and kiss him ... and I behaved like a mad lovestruck fool, right directly to him and in front of everypony else. I ... you know, I nearly kissed him right on the lips."
Fluttershy looked at Rarity oddly. "Um, that's hardly terrible."
"I've never done that before, not with him," Rarity said. "I've been avoiding it, because when I start doing that I'm admitting to him, to myself, and to everypony that I'm in love with him. Such a first kiss has to be romantic and special. Not something one does on impulse in a spring drizzle in front of everypony."
"I wasn't aware that it was that complex," replied Fluttershy.
"I wasn't ready for that," Rarity said. "I'm -- he's still too young. He's not yet fifteen, and he looks younger than his true age. I'd be a wicked old temptress, seducing an innocent little colt. And he is innocent, in so many ways -- far more than I was at fifteen. He's almost as innocent as Sweetie Belle." She sighed. "I was going to wait at least another year. Maybe two. I didn't expect what would happen when I lost my aesthetic sense -- and then got it back."
"Maybe it's better this way," Fluttershy pointed out. "If you waited too long, he might have fallen in love with somepony else."
"Spike?" asked Rarity. "Well yes, of course he could -- that's one of the reasons I've feared it might never work. The other reason, of course, being that I might fall for somepony else." She smiled wryly at Fluttershy's look of surprise. "Oh, darling, I know my own flaws. Believe me, I know my own flaws." She frowned. "I wonder who he might fall for?"
Fluttershy remained silent. Rarity could tell from the conversational patterns that Fluttershy had a very good idea of whom Spike might fall for, and thinking about it, Rarity had the same idea. Rather than risk a sororial rupture over an event that had not in fact yet happened, she decided not to make it real to herself by either dwelling on the thought or asking Fluttershy to speak it aloud.
"Never mind about that," said Rarity. "It doesn't matter now. The fact is that I've blown it."
"How have you blown it?" asked Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy, did you see the look on Spike's face when I was about to kiss him? He was frightened of me. I showed him my true self -- the self I keep hidden under my mask of manners and decorum -- the randy, selfish little filly who just wants pleasure, regardless of the consequences. And he was repulsed by what he saw." Rarity lowered her head, let her mane hang down in a manner which -- had it been a bit longer -- might have covered her face in a gesture more characteristic of Fluttershy than of herself. "As well he should be," Rarity finished her statement in a tone like death. "I am not a good Pony."
Fluttershy stared at Rarity in what looked very much like disbelief.
"Rarity," she said. "Spike wasn't afraid of you. He was afraid for you."
The words penetrated Rarity's depression. "Eh?" she asked. "Do you really think so?"
"Yes," said Fluttershy firmly. "He knew you'd been off on an important mission, you came back acting very strange, and he was worried about you."
"He was?" Rarity asked. "Wait, you're just trying to cheer me up. I know how your empathy works. You can sense love, and of what sort, and that's about it, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's about it," replied Fluttershy. "But I'm not stupid. I can figure out things from what kind of love I sense, and when I sense it. For instance, I've known for a very long time that you love Spike. And that Spike loves you."
"Well of course, darling," said Rarity. "His crush on me has always been obvious. And he did love me -- until I ruined it all by acting like a madmare ..."
"No," said Fluttershy, very firmly, and with an undertone of anger.
"Fluttershy ...?" Rarity was genuinely alarmed. She'd rarely seen her friend this worked up about anything, and some of the few times she had seen her like this, it had been the precursor to The Stare.
"I'm sick and tired of seeing you torment yourself over a stupid little mistake," Fluttershy said, her voice almost breaking into a shout at points. "Spike loves you. Present tense. He always will love you. Future tense. In my whole life as an empathic emotivore, I've rarely tasted any romantic love as pure and strong as that Spike has for you. It's even stronger than the love you have for him, and that's pretty strong. He was still loving you when you started hugging and kissing him. When you acted crazy, it stopped being tinged with lust and switched to protectiveness, because he was afraid for you. You haven't lost his love. Not by a long shot. Do. You. Understand?" Stray flickers of The Stare played about the edges of her eyes, but so far Fluttershy was reining it in from full awakening.
"Oh," said Rarity. Her momentary fear turned to gladness. "Oh, Fluttershy. Thank you!" She reached out and hugged her friend tightly. "I've been a fool," she babbled. "If it's true love, then a little mistake wouldn't destroy it. You're right! Thank you!"
"Mmph," said Fluttershy. "Um, you're welcome." Her voice was once again mild. "I'm glad I could be of help. Um, you're kind of crushing me."
"I'm sorry," said Rarity. She smiled at Fluttershy, and they both laughed. "So you think that it could work in the long run?"
"I don't know," said Fluttershy. "I'm the wrong Pony to ask, if you're looking for 'normal.' I'm in love with more than one person, and one of the people I love isn't any more a Pony than is Spike. I was raised by a lunatic who thought Dragons were going to come eat us all. My sanity is shaky and my morality a work in progress.
"But, if Love has any power at all -- I think you and Spike have a chance," said Fluttershy. "At least a chance."
"I can work with that," said Rarity.
She was an expert with improvisations.
Okay so I'm being stupid, I realize in this verse that Fluttercord is a thing, but Flutters being poly and bi? who is the other being involved? Tree Hugger? Bulk Biceps? ...Monty the Manticore?
Joking aside, if this has been addressed in previous fiction, rather than spoiling it outright, if you could tell me what story it's from?
6503906
Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason, though it's unfinished. To a lesser extent, also Dragonshyness, A Robust Solution and Fluttershy Is Free. Fluttershy's sexuality is actually completely normal in those regards -- for Changeling Royalty. By Changeling standards, of course, she's extremely prudish, having been raised Pony.
6503906
In terms of actual vanilla canon, of course, we're never going to get any outright statement that Fluttershy is bisexual and polyamorous. But observe her affect toward Rainbow Dash, Bulk Biceps, Discord and Tree Hugger. She treats all of them as potential love interests -- sometimes simultaneously.
I think a lot of fans miss this because they mistake shyness for prudishness. They are not the same thing.
Compared to Fluttershy, Rarity is very romantically-conventional.
6503919 And to think, in my story I just made Fluttershy a transmare. regardless, I'm very much looking forward to more awesomeness.
There's like 3 series I really follow right now. Anything shadowverse (and, honestly, I should read more so I'm not as lost), Rites of Ascension, and TCB: Other Side of the Spectrum.
That said, do you have a story yet Chronicling Twilight's Ascension, and, when she ascended, did she become an avatar of one of the Concepts like Discord, Celestia, and Best Princ....Luna?
6503987
I'm thinking I should cut some of Fluttershy's ending monologue though, because I realize I didn't support it in-story, and it's jarring coming out of the blue like that.
6504022 Well, I think of it this way. I'm a real fan of the Dragonriders of Pern series, and you could usually tell a suggested reading order by how concepts in the series are introduced
Dragonflight, the first novel in the series in actual writing order, goes into great detail about how dragons impress their riders, the telepathic bond they share, the powers that a dragon has, and so forth. the further you go into the series, many of these concepts are simply taken for granted as common knowledge
One could argue that in not supporting Fluttershy's monologue in -this- story, that you're suggesting it be read after stories that would support the information.
Now, to ask a really really dumb question, the way Rarity's reacting reminds me of behavior I've seen from my friends in the past..
Those that have suffered sexual abuse. The constant talk of feeling filthy and dirty and used and etc.. Is that intentional?
6504044
Note the change I made: I think that's enough to not overwhelm readers with the details not stated. And after all Rarity already knows Fluttershy's secrets (they're best friends) so there's no reason for Fluttershy to restate it in detail.
6504051
Rarity was not precisely sexually abused. She was seduced, at 12-13, by Rush Rocks, a colt who was 14-15 at the time. She became pregnant, and he told her that the only help he'd give her was to pay for an abortion . She angrily rejected his help, and -- alone and afraid in Fillydelphia -- wound up having a miscarriage soon after she turned 14.
At that point, blaming herself for the death of her child, she considered suicide. She chose life, and revenge, instead. She learned how to use her Pattern-manipulating Talent to work social patterns against another Pony, and basically ruined Rush's life by getting him disgraced and expelled from their school for other misdeeds. Her revenge emotionally-exhausted her, and she decided never to use her abilities to harm anypony ever again.
She worked insanely hard, graduated at 17, and came back to Ponyville to set up her business, with the assistance of her parents. She found enough work to keep her doors open. One year later, destiny came knocking on the door of the Ponyville Town Hall, in the shape of Twilight Sparkle and Spike. And the rest is Friendship Is Magic.
Rarity was badly hurt by what happened to her in her early teens. Since then she's healed. But there are definite scars. For one thing, she's manipulative toward males in part in what she sees as her own defense. For another thing, she has very little trust for most males. Spike is very, very much an exception to this rule -- she doesn't really need to make more than a token effort to manipulate him, as he gladly wishes to help her. And she trusts him almost absolutely.
6504088 Man, you are -brutal- to the characters you write.
Seriously though, keep up the amazing work. and I look forward to more.
6504174
Seriously? It's in the mixture of manures and sources of soils. But yeah, much like you said.
6504160
It's a sadly-common tale. What's exceptional is the extent to which Rarity's risen above her early tragedy. Rarity is strong ... which is an attribute instinctively valued by Dragons.
Speaking of Fluttershy's friends, I'm sure you've read this story about what one of her other friends might have done.
Great work; keep it up!
6504198
That story was really excellent!
We're pretty much running into Fluttershy's core conflict: wanting to be nice and friendly to the glaringly undeserving. Starlight is a hateful fanatic willing to burn the world down to scratch a philosophical itch and is owed no more loyalty than any other pernicious vermin requiring cursory extermination but Flutters can't really hate her as much as she should.
Rarity's fear makes perfect sense. I imagine everypony worries about something similar to one extent or another. It may not be their worst fears, but the idea of losing something so integral... Well, Starlight's propaganda hut was there for a reason.
Fluttershy, she literally ran a cult built around ritualistic soul mutilation and devoted to the elimination of love and distinctiveness. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to hate her.
Yeah, the Mane Six have friends in very high places. And Spike probably would've sent an alert to Celestia even before the weekly tea. Male bonding can fill only so much time.
And Fluttershy exercises the lesson of the Breezies. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is be direct, especially when it comes to piercing the layers of drama Rarity loves to wrap around herself.
Healing, healing everywhere... with the possible exception of Twilight. Even after she's asked Celestia those awkward questions, she's still probably going to need a heart-to-heart with someone about this. Possibly Celestia; she'll be right there.
6504198
Whoa. Thanks for the plug!
6504432
I very much agree with you that Starlight Glimmer doesn't really deserve Fluttershy's sympathy, given how many Ponies she hurt. Rarity is horrified by some of what Fluttershy tells her, in part because of Rarity's sympathy for her other victims -- the mares pressured into having loveless sex, and the foals born of these matings, many of whom are effectively fatherless. Rarity doesn't go into this, but she's also quite reasonably afraid that if she'd become Starlight's thrall, the same would have happened to herself, and it's a reasonable fear because Starlight would see Rarity as of superior inherent stock (and the Sameness only partially reduces abilities besides one's Talent) and want her to have children.
Rarity also understands economics very well, both in theoretical and practical terms, and she can see what would happen if all Equestria were run like Our Town, with Talents universally or near-universally suppressed by the Sameness. Mass poverty, with the least competent being reduced below subsistence level and starving to death. An end to art, literature and science, to everything that makes Equestria a great civilization. All that would be left would be a mass of suffering Ponies struggling to raise enough food to survive, and sometimes failing, and doing all this within a social context of emotional depression and mass misery.
Discord misruled Equestria better than that, as he points out in Fan of Most Everything's story. And I believe Discord can see everything I just saw, and more -- he's just less tender-hearted about the consequences. However, he would find Starlight Glimmer's Equestria boring, and hence unacceptable -- he can tolerate a mostly harmonious and orderly society which still produces interesting things and Ponies (such as Fluttershy and the rest of the Mane Six) better than he can Starlight Glimmer's projected nationwide North Korea.
Starlight Glimmer has an ideology, but she's obviously also insane, and in a very destructive way given her magical powers.
6505035 Which means that instead of the defeat means friendship thing the writers are going for wherein she magically realizes that she's wrong, any sane, orderly society interested in preserving itself would either lobotomize her and shove her in some oubliette or simply kill her out of hand as an example to others. Political rights are for those interested in respecting the rights of others, not dangerous monsters like her.
6505060
I truly don't know what will happen to Starlight Glimmer. Twilight already offered her the "defeat means friendship" option, and had it contemptously rejected. Of course, Twilight hadn't completely defeated Starlight Glimmer yet. And she still hasn't, in the sense that Starlight Glimmer managed to get away.
I think it's obvious from the leaked part of the Season Five Finale and from what I've had Twilight Sparkle realize so far in my story that my Starlight Glimmer has at least one good Evil Plan left in her, and it involves using Starswirl the Bearded's temporal magic. In the Shadow Wars Story Verse, temporal magic is very difficult and dangerous to use if one is aiming at doing anything other than observing the past, because one might trigger Paradox, and the likeliest effects of triggering Paradox involve the caster either failing at her attempt or being destroyed.
Twilight Sparkle already tried this sort of thing once ("It's About Time"): she was lucky, she wound up merely setting up a stable time loop. She might have instead set up an unstable time loop, which might have destroyed her. That spell was usable only once, but there are probably other temporal manipulation magics (the Spell of Destiny is actually one of them) and I don't know how rational is Starlight Glimmer's evaluation of danger versus opportunity.
My Pinkie Pie specializes in precognition, retrocognition, and worldline twisting, but she was born to do this, and she's been learning how to do it her whole life. And even she has to be careful how she does this, even though she actually has the power to snuff out (small) Paradoxes.
What I'm saying is that if Starlight Glimmer does this, there's a good chance that the issue of punishment will become irrelevant, for she may be hoist by her own petard.
6505676 The teaser for the second part is that she keeps trying to change history because no matter what she does, she can't prevent the Mane Six from emerging and foiling her plans. This means that at some point during that episode, we'll be dealing with six ponies wondering if they can hold out and keep history on track only to find themselves back in Ugly Product Placement Palace five seconds or so after Starlight first went back in time wondering what happened to the time loop they were in....only to have Doctor Whooves, Muffins and Roseluck explain that there was some sort of flux in the time stream that erased itself when somepony named Starlight Glimmer died as a filly when some crazy pony who looked like an older version of her accidentally shoved the poor little thing into the path of an on-coming train X number of moons ago.
6504979
Rarity feels that she has to prove that she's special through her Talent, or she'll be worthless. Fluttershy and Spike notably do not agree with this estimation of her character: they think she's special whether or not her Talent is blocked.
Fluttershy's really bad at hating. She is intellectually aware that there are real enemies in the world, but she really would prefer if everyone could just get along. She's also very forgiving, though not necessarily trusting. For instance, she'd probably forgive "Nosey" if she met him again, but she wouldn't trust him one bit.
Yes. The romantic tragicomedy approach would be to let the misunderstandings continue, either to a bad or a good end. Fluttershy isn't willing to let Rarity and Spike suffer through this. She cares too much about both of them.
I see that you've noticed that Twilight has dealt with the intellectual challenge, but not yet faced how she was emotionally harmed by her encounter with Starlight Glimmer.
I really love how you portray the characters and their fears. I'm looking forward for the next chapter. Can't really say more what has not be said before (and way better than anything I could do - language barrier and stuff) but the background of the stories (especially Rarity) is awesome.
Thank you, dear author, for writing this.
I still had some of my Talent, but it was weakened --
Her cutie mark vanished too.
I imagine Glimmer did what she did because she concluded the mane six were there to destroy her life's work.
but she was really just being a bully.
Doesn't feel like the right description for Staright's mania. Tirek was a bully.
"Fluttershy," Rarity said firmly. "Starlight Glimmer ambushed and imprisoned us. She did not use us honestly, and we were not bound in honor to treat her any better."
Starlight Glimmer, "And why should I be bound to use those things for those who came for the explicit purpose of destroying our community?"
"and I fear he would have been quite cross with the Ponies of Our Town. He might have ... over-reacted."
Or fallen on his knees and puked his guts out from trying to get close to a place that radiated order to such a degree that it could barely be called living.
So she wanted to do away with marriage entirely, but she ran into the problem that -- with no marriages -- there might not be a next generation.
I imagine for Starlight Glimmer, with no marriage in existence, they just follow the trend of the hippie ponies and go for free love. (There's actually a fanfic where Starlight and Treehugger meet and they hit it off, since a world with no masters or servants appeals to both of them). You think for Glimmer, the logical thing would be to go for her 'everybody wins' mentality and no one having exclusive times or rights to anyone.
They're called ki-rin. They're all the rage in East Neighsia ..."
It turns out I was a bungle. The proper term was longma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longma (It literally means 'dragon horse.')
Tirek's power -- which probably began as a spell with which he enchanted himself, since I seriously doubt that all of his race can do that -- is akin to the Sameness in that it involves the theft of the power of a Pony's inherent magic. The difference is that Tirek takes the power into himself, while Starlight Glimmer separates it and keeps it in a crafted containment vessel: also, Starlight puts a suppressor spell on the Pony to keep the power from regenerating. It is possible that Starlight can do other things with the stolen Cutie Mark; I suspect that she has abilities not yet revealed, and which may or may not be revealed in the Season Five finale. Thus, though Tirek's ability is more powerful in terms of benefitting himself, Starlight's may be more permanent and more flexible (if she can manipulate the stolen Cutie Marks to achieve other magical effects).
Talents appear to come before Cutie Marks; the Cutie Mark is an outward manifestation of the Talent. Drained by Tirek, Rarity still had her basic talent for pattern recognition and manipulation, which she had even when she was a blank-flanked foal; she simply lacked the inherent magic to do much with it. She could still weakly sense beauty, because there was nothing actively interfering with her intellectual processes save her overall shock and lassitude (Rarity is being way too hard on herself about her inability to act immediately after being drained; none of her friends was able to do much at that point save for Spike, and Spike wasn't drained -- but the emotional reasons why Rarity reacts particularly poorly to certain Draining attacks (Psychological Weakness: Feels Worthless when Talent Drained, Irrational Actions, Will Roll to avoid, Uncommon Situation) are part of her own personal emotional baggage, dating back to Fillydelphia and Rush Rocks' betrayal of her.
The Sameness is worse (and thus affects Rarity's mind worse) because it includes an active damper element that prevents Talent expression, though it doesn't as deeply drain inherent magic. Note that Sameness-afflicted pegasi could fly, unicorns telekinese, and earth ponies exercise a modicum of strength; they just couldn't fly fast, telekinese strongly, or kick in solid thick wooden doors. Rarity's reaction to Power Drain is less about the loss of strength as the loss of finesse, which entirely suits her character. Did you notice in The Cutie Map that Pinkie kept trying to use her Talent for Laughter, and every time she did the Sameness Mark glowed to counter the energy she was generating?
Indeed. Normally, she might have moved more slowly, tried to seduce them into the community (she did try, a little bit) but she feared that Twilight had been sent by Celestia to shut her down. She knew Celestia well enough to know why Celestia would neither simply destroy Our Town (too much collateral damage to innocents) nor be foolish enough to expose herself to Starlight's power (which might have worked even on Celestia, as Twilight took pains to warn Celestia in the telegram). Celestia would instead send a magically-adept emissary in as a scout.
The joke here was on Starlight. Celestia didn't send Twilight. The Harmony sent Twilight. And Starlight's ambush was her fundamental error. Had Starlight let them leave unharmed, they probably wouldn't have done anything with the intent of destroying Starlight's little utopia, because they wouldn't have realized how horrible it was. The main problem is that Twilight would have sent Celestia a letter at some point describing the odd little village she'd visited in the mountains; Celestia might or might not have taken action, because Celestia might not have realized what Starlight was doing.
A lot would have depended upon whether or not Twilight described the Mark of Sameness. That would have alarmed Celestia, because it would have meant that Starlight was up to her old evils in the mountains. Still, Twilight would have felt no particular urgency to either think about or describe Starlight Glimmer, and Starlight might have been able to evacuate and move somewhere else, or escape with more of her her materials than she did. Starlight might have even gotten lucky; Twilight's description might have been perfunctory, since until they were attacked, all Twilight and her friends would have known was that this was a weird village inhabited by weird Ponies.
Starlight's quite good at scryshielding; that's how she was able to avoid Celestia's attention all these years, and also why she's able to move freely about Equestria even after her identity and some of her ambitions are known.
True. On the other hand, Fluttershy tends to describe people who do bad things to her and her friends as "bullies" or "meanies" (the last one either being a term she picked up from Pinkie Pie, or more likely a poor translation from Equestrian into English of an Equestrian concept involving being obnoxiously uncooperative, just as when I use one of Rarity's terms of opprobium, "cad" in-story it's actually the translation of a harsher word than it is in English, meaning something more like "worthless (male) slut, immoral sexual exploiter."
That's a very good point! Of course, Fluttershy can be forgiven for having a perhaps inflated opinion of Discord's powers. In a lot of ways, he's her hero by now.
I should have seen this too because I've used the "extremely orderly living generates an anti-chaos field" idea repeatedly in my world -- that's what Lith was doing by linking its whole civilization to the Lawstone, and that's what each and every Changeling Hive does through their (not very bright) Hive Minds, and for the exact same reason -- to keep Discord out. In a more disconnected way, that's also how the Crystal Empire extended the power of the Crystal Heart to cover their provinces (though not as well as it covered the Crystal City, which is why the Empire declined during the Age of Discord). The cultures of Chi-Neigh and Neigh-Pon used similar techniques (Discord thew rogue weather at the first culture and tsunamis and giant monsters at the second one).
However, this is far from a perfect protection, because Discord doesn't have to strike directly to bring a foe down -- he can work through allies, dupes and minions. He has obvious allies here -- Celestia and Luna, though it would burn him up to outright ask them for help -- and as many dupes and minions as he can recruit. And Starlight Glimmer wasn't leading a powerful empire -- all she had beyond her own magic was a single small settlement.
You have a very good point here. I would mention, though, that this is Rarity's opinion, and Rarity hates Starlight Glimmer. One of the ways in which Rarity differs from the rest of the Mane Six is that she's quite capable of hating -- this is more a Draconic than a Pony trait, and it's one reason why she and Spike understand one another so well (though by Dragon standards, Spike is about the mellowest, sweetest, most forgiving and most loving drake you'll ever meet).
Rarity hates Starlight Glimmer even more because at the point she was speaking, she (irrationally) believed that Starlight had damaged her to the point where she might lose Spike's friendship and love forever. (Fluttershy sets her straight on this later in the scene). Spike means a lot to her by this point: she is easily capable of taking him for granted, but she never forgets he's important to her.
Starlight tried both policies: neither worked all that well for her.
The first problem was that, under the Sameness, all desires were rather muted. This included both romantic passion and simple sexual desire. So almost nopony would have mated unless they were told they were supposed to do so for the good of the group.
The second problem was that the inhabitants of Our Town, though they were misfits in Equestria, had been raised with normal Equestrian values, so they conceptualized sexual relations in terms of marriage or betrothal. Which led to the problem of competition for mates.
The third problem was that while Starlight could simply tell them to all have sex with at random, without having any personal feelings about the matter, that's not an easy order to enforce.
The fourth problem was that Starlight usually led by a mixture of consensus politics, subtle bullying and the very sparing use of force. She never had the sort of naked power of a Hitler or Stalin or Kim. So she had to be careful that if she gave orders, they were ones that her Ponies would be willing to obey.
The fifth problem was that Starlight Glimmer herself was raised very conventionally, and thus had problems giving those sorts of orders and following them up in such a way as to ensure that she was obeyed. (The fact that in my story she was falling in love with Double Diamond, according to Fluttershy, emphasizes this point).
Fluttershy was originally attracted to the idea of equality (and kindness from and to all members of the collective) and this would probably appeal to Tree Hugger as well. Both Fluttershy and Tree Hugger have far more respect, however, for the rights of the individual Pony -- it's really too bad that Starlight Glimmer didn't meet Ponies like them sooner, they might have been good influences on her
Three things came to mind:
One, your Rarity really puts Spike on a pedestal. The reality doesn't quite match the picture she's created in her mind, though. He does it too in regards to her, but not even to this extent.
Starlight Glimmer's personal issues with relationships become even more poignant with the reveal of how she felt abadonded by her childhood friend and possible crush. Random breeding without emotional attachment (meaning no chance of getting hurt—again), arranged marriages with or without input, i.e. forcing ponies to be together with no chance one can abandon the other?
As well, it's no wonder Starlight fixated on Double Diamond. If what he said is true, then Starlight more or less came stumbling out of those caverns and he was the first to greet her, accept her.
And lastly... Fluttershy's bio makes it unlikely for Zephyr Breeze to exist. Which is a little sad. I like the character. I like the contrast between Fluttershy and he; and I find his flaws very fascinating. Such a fragile ego he must have. We know Fluttershy was horribly bullied and is haunted by her many fears and worries, but he honestly worships her.
Even his name is fascinating. He doesn't act like one of the Shys, so of course he's not named after them. Instead, he's named after the mildest of the four winds and the breeze. Just like his Cutie Mark: Maybe it symbolises a go-with-the-flow personality, maybe it refers to his putting on smooth and warm airs, or maybe it refers to feeling like he's simply drifting helplessly without ever making any impact or progress.
Ugh. I already disliked Starlight Glimmer's little utopia, and this story just makes it all the worse by giving it more of a real-word feel. As well as showing what happens when you mess with people's minds to make them 'ideologically perfect'.
It does say something for Flutter's virtue that that she is able to forgive even pre-reform Starlight, though I still feel she deserved punishment of some sort for her awful actions. Forgiveness is good -- for the genuinely repentant. For the unrepentant it's very foolish.
"Actually," Fluttershy interjected, "Starlight Glimmer was undecided between arranged marriages and temporarily-assigned breeding partners in her plans for a Society of Sameness."
Rarity stared at her in surprise.
"You see," Fluttershy explained, "Starlight felt that some of the most painful and emotionally-destructive competitions were those between mares for husbands. So she wanted to do away with marriage entirely, but she ran into the problem that -- with no marriages -- there might not be a next generation.
It seems like every real-world Shining New Tomorrow wants to get rid of marriages, too. It makes me wonder if their founders just plain hate the idea of people feeling emotional connections to each other rather than to the Republic of Perfect Virtue; or if they want to set themselves up with a harem? Because the latter seems pretty common IRL situations like this.
You have some...interesting...beliefs, my dude. You consider teenagers having sex a moral failing one should be ashamed of, you hate sex outside a permanent marriage so much that you're bigoted against the children such acts produce, you have no issues projecting your feelings about pregnancy (a term you cannot even spell) onto everyone who isn't you...And yet somehow you don't condemn non-monogamy, at least as long as it involves characters you like.
You have some deep-seeded issues with females. Get that shit worked out before you harm somebody who actually exists.
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You are confusing my views with the views of two of my characters, namely my Rarity Belle and Fluttershy Wind, which do not necessarily correspond with my own nor even entirely with each other's.
Rarity is the one who judges that it was a monumentally bad idea for somepony -- specifically herself -- to have had sex, at thirteen, with somepony who neither truly loved her nor was willing to stand by her if she gets pregnant. I submit that this was a bad idea, and the proof of this pudding was that Rarity found herself alone, abandoned and pregnant in Fillydelphia at 13-14.
The moral failing Rarity demonstrated, for which she castigates herself, was a lack of self-control; specifically, a propensity toward hedonism. Rarity, both in the Shadow War verse and in vanilla canon, has strong hedonistic tendencies, but is also very self-disciplined and hence often chooses not to act on her hedonistic impulses. When writing her my capsule description of her personality is "strong passions, strongly restrained."
Rarity's character developed in this fashion in part through the emotional (and physical) suffering she endured in her abandonment, pregnancy and miscarriage. This has left her in many ways a bon vivant who nevertheless has fairly strong sexual morals. Rarity was always a very powerful and precise artist, and great art requires emotional self-discipline, and this artistic focus is a very strong element of her character.
Rarity wasn't being bigoted against the single mothers or fatherless foals. She was being concerned about their very likely suffering; a suffering that would come from a combination of cruel economic realities (less hoofs available to support them) and the bigotry of other Ponies against them. It was precisely this concern which fed into Rarity's later nightmare, in which she imagined herself in their place.
Rarity herself is rather prejudiced against sex outside of permanent marriage, because the one period of her life in which she tried living that way, she wound up abandoned by the father, pregnant, and losing the child to a miscarriage. My Rarity is a bit of a prude by early 21st century American standards, and surprisingly so given her obvious hedonism. Though note that she mostly condemns herself for her own (self-perceived) moral weaknesses.
Now you're talking about Fluttershy Wind, whose sexual orientation and morals are distinctly different from Rarity's. It is that distinct difference which you are seeing as hypocrisy.
Rarity is a monogamous heterosexual. Fluttershy is a polyamorous bisexual. Being very good friends, they are quite aware of the differences between their orientations and morals, and both being capable of acceptance and tolerance toward those with differing beliefs, they are able to be good friends despite their differences (a common theme even in vanilla canon Friendship Is Magic).
You are missing three points here:
(1) I am not my characters, even my sympathetic protagonist characters. Their beliefs and actions differ both from my own and from each other's. This is called "characterization" -- imagine how boring this story would be if all the characters were identical!
(2) Early 16th Century YOH Equestria is not the same as early 21st Century AD America. My Equestrian model is in fact late-19th to early-20th Century AD America/Britain, with some siginficant differences, mostly in the direction of greater acceptance of variability where sexual orientation is concerned. There are some other major differences, but those are the main ones where sexuality is concerned.
(3) Some of the problems of single motherhood -- and fatherless childhood -- derive from economic and emotional realities. Children are both economically and emotionally expensive, and Ponies have long childhoods, just as do Humans. Rarity -- being a mistress of social patterns -- understands this quite well.
I'd appreciate if you showed me where I typoed "pregnancy," as I try to edit out mistakes like that.
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Oh, and when Fluttershy says:
she is simply being ruthlessly honest with herself (and Rarity). She is quite aware that she suffers from what we would call social anxiety disorder, bouts of paranoia and at least one major phobia. And by "work in progress," she means that she is trying to reconcile her desire to lead a multi-species version of a Changeling Hive, with herself as Queen, with her (imperfect and odd) socialization as an upper-class Pegasus Pony. She's not saying that she behaves immorally; she's saying that she often has to make up her morality on the spot, because neither a normal Changeling Royal nor a normal Pegasus Pony would face exactly her life situation.
8848485 If you say so, dude. It's not like "These are just MY CHARACTER'S views" isn't the oldest misdirect in the book but sure.
You know, this verse is really interesting to me, but I'm not sure I'll be able to explore it given how much this Starlight makes my soul scream in primal fear.