I'm definitely feeling better returning to Monday updates. Sometimes you just gotta honor what you care about, however silly that may be. I can't wait for some of these scenes to arrive
7029602 I've been here since the beginning, and I'll be here until you close the barn doors and shut the red light off. Nobody mixes plot and plot like you do.
I've been waiting for someone to sit Hina down and explain the facts of life. I should have guessed she wouldn't get it, though.
Kirin biology is quite strange, and I suddenly have the feeling that they may really not be as high-minded and benevolent as their affect, or maybe benevolence is a comparatively recent thing. Of especial note, I think, is the implication that kirin were... engineered? Or designed?
But to what end?
Are they perhaps the pony equivalent of a succubus? Some distant emotivore with similar roots as changelings? Or a sentient bioweapon seeking purpose, like a really flouncy Guyver?
Just look what you've done to me, Jinxie.
Still, I must say it's nice for Rarity and Mac to finally reconcile. Braeburn has been good for him. I hope that's not hoisting death flags for him (probably isn't; that'd almost be too easy).
Speaking of death flags, how can Snowy Hocks even WALK with all those things weighing him down? I think I'm starting to see how this is coming to a head.
Speaking of heads, Pinkie Pie! Friend or not, if you're not going to use the door, I should say you're not welcome in the boutique! For goodness's sake, even foals know how to use doors! (Leave it to Sweetie to call her out on her reality-warping.)
To my mind the interesting thing is that older Kirin SENT her off to have some experience and get a clue. Didn't know that before this chapter, but it makes sense. As for Kirin pleasure horse business, the conversation with Celestia strongly implied that they're pragmatic and take a long view unlike our Hina. May have originated from some sort of unicorn, may not have. Clearly they repudiated mammalian reproduction so vehemently that they don't even have the parts for it, or want 'em: pretty sure Hina doesn't have nipples, either, or navel. I didn't realize when I started writing them that they're not even GESTATED: these creatures are mighty different, and it explains how uncommon they are if they MUST magemeld at a staggeringly high level just to reproduce.
I'd call 'em a sentient bioweapon of magic seeking Virtue. But if you get into ethics you realise that's a complicated question. They're like fluffy Yodas and very serious about the greater good, and our Hina is like a n00b Kirin needing the leavening of experience. They don't tell her what to learn, they set her on a path where very likely she'll learn it for herself. She still thinks abstractions are a good way to deal with stuff, just because they're the ONLY way to deal with anything.
I don't know what male Kirin are packing, but whatever it is, it's amazing. Like 'leave you weak in the hocks and worshiping the fellow like a God' amazing. Pretty sure they're all a bit chaste in Neighpon, because they're using sexuality like a kind of special reward to direct the ponies of Neighpon and they can't do that while simultaneously balling everything that trots. But foreign lands seem to be where rules matter less, to them. Foreign lands are where they experiment and learn, Neighpon they take no chances with.
Hah, I think I simply assumed that was the case a while ago, so it didn't even register as important when she mentioned it! Whoops.
I don't know what male Kirin are packing
Oh. Huh. You know, it's funny: I hadn't even considered that male kirin might exist. At all.
...How's that for a weird sort of erasure?
They probably have something like Pinkie's tongue, don't they. Simple hugeness doesn't cut it because they have to actually fit inside. It'll naturally be a more specialised organ for extracting pleasure. (On that note, since a kirin mare is apparently about 10% clitoris by surface area, Hina might get along really exceptionally well with Pinkie Pie once the crazy passes.)
7033802 Disregarding some of the questions: Braeburn's in Ponyville! He's absolutely hanging out with Scootaloo, and balling Flight Lightning, among others. And you'll see him again, and see a particularly nice side of him, before Precious is done.
7035813 You're getting into that annoying 'those aren't actually mistakes' zone again so I'm making you stop. You don't know whether Pinkie Pie is more powerful than vampires when in full Reality Defying Mode. And you're making too much out of an offhand comment ("you know this mare?"), and here's why:
In the Cold Comfort scene, Hina is distraught and distracted. She knows he's said "sounding like Rarity with this talk of leashing" but her reaction is "huh?". His further conversation only confuses her worse, plus he talks of her being with Derpy (though, he says, Rarity knew he'd like taking a stallion, but he doesn't say HOW she knew). They're talking very much at cross purposes and Hina's not following his backstory, because he's speaking so tangentially. In the Exodus scene, he's said "Act like nothin’ happened and she got up outta bed lookin’ like that." and the context suggests he's shared a bed with Rarity so often he knows her morning ways, and that's new, so she's like "do you KNOW this mare?" with the emphasis on 'know' as in biblically.
I grant you there are subtleties as far as what Mac's saying versus what he's thinking, and how distracted Hina is and whether she's picking up the implications of his reminiscing, but that's why Big Macintosh's responses include "Big Macintosh wasn’t paying too close attention to her. He gazed off thoughtfully into the distance". They are both talking, but not really communicating ideas, just feelings and comfort. And it's important to pick up on cues like that which say 'they're not really listening to each other'. In other circumstances, that might be where I leave a massive clue to the outcome of the story, on purpose, which isn't picked up on by the other pony!
In this case it's mostly setting up Big Macintosh's friendly reconciliation with Rarity, while Hina doesn't really know or care about any of that, and is busy explaining how un-fake and right she is. Her most important line is "The Kirin magic of knowing what is best.". What you don't know is that she may not literally represent how Kirin think after all: indeed, that they may have sent her off to get some experience and become LESS dogmatic and full of herself. After all, that line's in response to Mac asking, "How kin you possibly stop ponies from thinking different things?"
He has personal reasons for knowing that good ponies can sincerely clash in their beliefs, such as his past conflict with Granny Smith. To her, one or the other must be evil if they don't see things the same. She is mistaken, in that.
(and this is why I don't answer everything: if you dig up subtleties, they take a great deal of time and effort to explain, which I must reserve for actually writing the chapters, darling )
While it's a bit muddy yet, Snowy is starting to get it. If unbounded existence (since "immortality" or "eternal life" don't strictly apply here) becomes possible, the moral calculus changes. You start reasoning from eternity and work backwards:
* Anyone acting in ways that would limit you to a single mortal lifespan is effectively killing you, and should be treated as such.
* Anyone deliberately trying to prevent or undo your unbounded existence should be treated as attempting premeditated murder.
* Anyone who chooses (or likely would choose) to remain mortal can be written off as "already dead" and treated accordingly.
Eat the sheep and kill your enemies, for eternity is yours should you choose to take it.
Applejinx, you made my Monday. Go Big Mac, Go Hina!
Go Snowy... Go to hell.
7029417 Yay! The readers are out there
I'm definitely feeling better returning to Monday updates. Sometimes you just gotta honor what you care about, however silly that may be. I can't wait for some of these scenes to arrive
7029602 I've been here since the beginning, and I'll be here until you close the barn doors and shut the red light off. Nobody mixes plot and plot like you do.
I've been waiting for someone to sit Hina down and explain the facts of life. I should have guessed she wouldn't get it, though.
Kirin biology is quite strange, and I suddenly have the feeling that they may really not be as high-minded and benevolent as their affect, or maybe benevolence is a comparatively recent thing. Of especial note, I think, is the implication that kirin were... engineered? Or designed?
But to what end?
Are they perhaps the pony equivalent of a succubus? Some distant emotivore with similar roots as changelings? Or a sentient bioweapon seeking purpose, like a really flouncy Guyver?
Just look what you've done to me, Jinxie.
Still, I must say it's nice for Rarity and Mac to finally reconcile. Braeburn has been good for him. I hope that's not hoisting death flags for him (probably isn't; that'd almost be too easy).
Speaking of death flags, how can Snowy Hocks even WALK with all those things weighing him down? I think I'm starting to see how this is coming to a head.
Speaking of heads, Pinkie Pie! Friend or not, if you're not going to use the door, I should say you're not welcome in the boutique! For goodness's sake, even foals know how to use doors! (Leave it to Sweetie to call her out on her reality-warping.)
7029869 It's a fridge horror AND a show canon!
To my mind the interesting thing is that older Kirin SENT her off to have some experience and get a clue. Didn't know that before this chapter, but it makes sense. As for Kirin pleasure horse business, the conversation with Celestia strongly implied that they're pragmatic and take a long view unlike our Hina. May have originated from some sort of unicorn, may not have. Clearly they repudiated mammalian reproduction so vehemently that they don't even have the parts for it, or want 'em: pretty sure Hina doesn't have nipples, either, or navel. I didn't realize when I started writing them that they're not even GESTATED: these creatures are mighty different, and it explains how uncommon they are if they MUST magemeld at a staggeringly high level just to reproduce.
I'd call 'em a sentient bioweapon of magic seeking Virtue. But if you get into ethics you realise that's a complicated question. They're like fluffy Yodas and very serious about the greater good, and our Hina is like a n00b Kirin needing the leavening of experience. They don't tell her what to learn, they set her on a path where very likely she'll learn it for herself. She still thinks abstractions are a good way to deal with stuff, just because they're the ONLY way to deal with anything.
I don't know what male Kirin are packing, but whatever it is, it's amazing. Like 'leave you weak in the hocks and worshiping the fellow like a God' amazing. Pretty sure they're all a bit chaste in Neighpon, because they're using sexuality like a kind of special reward to direct the ponies of Neighpon and they can't do that while simultaneously balling everything that trots. But foreign lands seem to be where rules matter less, to them. Foreign lands are where they experiment and learn, Neighpon they take no chances with.
7030123
I love you so much.
Hah, I think I simply assumed that was the case a while ago, so it didn't even register as important when she mentioned it! Whoops.
Oh. Huh. You know, it's funny: I hadn't even considered that male kirin might exist. At all.
...How's that for a weird sort of erasure?
They probably have something like Pinkie's tongue, don't they. Simple hugeness doesn't cut it because they have to actually fit inside. It'll naturally be a more specialised organ for extracting pleasure. (On that note, since a kirin mare is apparently about 10% clitoris by surface area, Hina might get along really exceptionally well with Pinkie Pie once the crazy passes.)
1) Didn't Fluttershy enslave Pinkie Pie in the last story? So can't she just tell her to leave them alone?
2) Why did Hina not know that Big Macintosh knew Rarity when he was talking to her about Rarity 3 chapters ago in Cold Comfort?
3) Oh, yeah, and didn't Braeburn agree to go be Scootaloo's dad and maybe be with her mom? What's been going on with that?
7033802 Disregarding some of the questions: Braeburn's in Ponyville! He's absolutely hanging out with Scootaloo, and balling Flight Lightning, among others. And you'll see him again, and see a particularly nice side of him, before Precious is done.
7035498 Are the other questions spoilers, or did you actually make a mistake? How come you don't want to answer them?
7035813 You're getting into that annoying 'those aren't actually mistakes' zone again so I'm making you stop. You don't know whether Pinkie Pie is more powerful than vampires when in full Reality Defying Mode. And you're making too much out of an offhand comment ("you know this mare?"), and here's why:
In the Cold Comfort scene, Hina is distraught and distracted. She knows he's said "sounding like Rarity with this talk of leashing" but her reaction is "huh?". His further conversation only confuses her worse, plus he talks of her being with Derpy (though, he says, Rarity knew he'd like taking a stallion, but he doesn't say HOW she knew). They're talking very much at cross purposes and Hina's not following his backstory, because he's speaking so tangentially. In the Exodus scene, he's said "Act like nothin’ happened and she got up outta bed lookin’ like that." and the context suggests he's shared a bed with Rarity so often he knows her morning ways, and that's new, so she's like "do you KNOW this mare?" with the emphasis on 'know' as in biblically.
I grant you there are subtleties as far as what Mac's saying versus what he's thinking, and how distracted Hina is and whether she's picking up the implications of his reminiscing, but that's why Big Macintosh's responses include "Big Macintosh wasn’t paying too close attention to her. He gazed off thoughtfully into the distance". They are both talking, but not really communicating ideas, just feelings and comfort. And it's important to pick up on cues like that which say 'they're not really listening to each other'. In other circumstances, that might be where I leave a massive clue to the outcome of the story, on purpose, which isn't picked up on by the other pony!
In this case it's mostly setting up Big Macintosh's friendly reconciliation with Rarity, while Hina doesn't really know or care about any of that, and is busy explaining how un-fake and right she is. Her most important line is "The Kirin magic of knowing what is best.". What you don't know is that she may not literally represent how Kirin think after all: indeed, that they may have sent her off to get some experience and become LESS dogmatic and full of herself. After all, that line's in response to Mac asking, "How kin you possibly stop ponies from thinking different things?"
He has personal reasons for knowing that good ponies can sincerely clash in their beliefs, such as his past conflict with Granny Smith. To her, one or the other must be evil if they don't see things the same. She is mistaken, in that.
(and this is why I don't answer everything: if you dig up subtleties, they take a great deal of time and effort to explain, which I must reserve for actually writing the chapters, darling )
While it's a bit muddy yet, Snowy is starting to get it. If unbounded existence (since "immortality" or "eternal life" don't strictly apply here) becomes possible, the moral calculus changes. You start reasoning from eternity and work backwards:
* Anyone acting in ways that would limit you to a single mortal lifespan is effectively killing you, and should be treated as such.
* Anyone deliberately trying to prevent or undo your unbounded existence should be treated as attempting premeditated murder.
* Anyone who chooses (or likely would choose) to remain mortal can be written off as "already dead" and treated accordingly.
Eat the sheep and kill your enemies, for eternity is yours should you choose to take it.
Commence read.
Good for Mac and Hina.
Pinkie still planning.
Snowy...just...time shall tell.