Crossing my forelegs, I shifted position slightly, relaxing on the couch as I flipped a page in my book. It was a adventure story about a unicorn mare exploring unknown lands with her trusty griffon companion.
Of course the two main characters were both female. That was the norm when it came to main characters, I guess that come with females being the dominant gender here as well as more numerous.
Then again, things have apparently been becoming much more equal for the last couple of thousand years, if much slower than back on earth. Things seemed pretty equal today.
So much so that I had not really noticed any real difference that could not be explained away with that there was simply three times as many mares as stallions. The only profession that I could think of that was limited to one gender was the Guard and that didn't stretch to other semi military branches such as the Wonderbolts.
Well, and Princess I suppose but that had it's own explanation.
I flipped another page. This book was actually better than Daring Doo in my mind. It was written for an adult audience while Daring Doo was rated for teens. Then again an Adult rating here meant: Contains some explicit violence and some bad language.
I was somewhat tempted to write Alien just to stretch their sensibilities if it wasn't for the fact that I would end up sleeping on the couch for a month or two for all the Nightmares it would cause.
Not worth it. So not worth it.
Snapping the book shut, I looked over at where Luna was doing her paperwork for the evening, “Anything interesting?”
Luna glanced up from the paper she was reading before she shook her head, “No, not particularly. Just the normal running of Equestria papers. Funding something there, needing an answer to that...”
“Boring.”
“They are. Necessary though.” Luna agreed before she sighed and shifted her wings, her hoof scraping at the chair, “The worst thing? I only do half. My sister does the rest. How she handled all of it alone for a thousand years, I hope I never find out.”
“Better to be on the moon?”
Luna frowned and gave the paper pile a annoyed look, “Right now, I'm starting to think so.”
“Time for a break?” I suggested and held up one of the plates from the table with my magic, “Come to the slacker side, Luna. We have cake.”
That got a snort from the princess, “I suppose it wouldn't hurt. But my sister is the one that loves cake.” Luna said with a grin and jumped off her chair to make her way over.
“Everyone likes cake.” I countered, “In moderation.”
Even with my exercise, I really needed to keep a eye on that kind of thing. All the food in the castle was so good it would be easy to overeat.
Luna crossed the room and rounded the table, jumping onto the couch next to me, her side against mine as she put her wing across my back.
“Worried?” she asked softly after a second.
Letting out a breath, I then nodded, “...Yeah.”
“I am as well.” Luna said softly, “But we need to trust our friends to be able to handle it.”
“...You realize I thought about sneaking onto that train to help, you know?” I admitted, looking up at her.
She smiled at that, “And I admit that I had guards standing by at the station to stop you. Why didn't you?”
I snorted and shook my head, “I realized it would be stupid. At best I would have been useless, at worse I would have gotten in the way. If Sombra really is back, he would squish me like a bug.”
“You are not quite that bad.” she teased and then nuzzled at my ear, “But you are correct that if Sombra has returned, he is out of your league.”
No shit. If he could stand up to you or Celestia I would barely register.
Taking the cup of tea she offered in my magic, I took a sip with a small frown before I smiled, “Luna... I have been thinking...”
“Did it hurt much?” she teased.
I gave her a small shoulder bump, almost causing her to spill her tea as she tried to drink it, “As I was saying,” I continued, “I have been thinking. How are your transformation spells?”
Luna put her cup down with a small frown as she eyed me, “...In what way?”
“Like, can you make yourself look like somepony else?”
She raised a eyebrow, “I can.” she answered, her tone taking a slight icy hint, “Why?”
I rolled my eyes at that, “Not that, you silly mare. I want to take you out on a date. Actual date, on town. Dinner, walk in the park, maybe theater and dancing. We can't if ponies know who you are, not without a causing a huge commotion.”
“Oh.” Luna said and blushes softly, “Sorry.”
“Though of course, if you are offering, I'm sure we could have plenty fu...” I teased with a grin and then tried to not let out a manly squeak as she gave my eartip a firm nip with her teeth.
“Behave.” she snorted before she smiled and let go, “I believe I can do that. I am better with illusions and have not practiced it for a while, but we should wait until the crisis is over as well as give me time to review the relevant books on transformation magic. I would need to put an illusion over you too.”
I nodded, “Of course. If not and I'm recognized somepony is going to come to the wrong conclusion.”
“Speaking of dinner...” Luna said, “There is one at the Griffon embassy in one week. Do you wish to attend with me?”
“...Diplomatic function?”
“In a way.” Luna explained, “My sister and I are invited to join the Ambassador and his family. I know you dislike these kind of functions, but it is going to be somewhat informal.”
I still hesitated, “Do you want me there?”
“I would like your company.”
“Then of course I'm going. You need just ask.” I said with a smile before I frowned slightly, before admitting, “Although, I might need some training in what fork to use.”
Luna giggled at that, “With Griffons, I do not think you need to bother.”
I vote for him doing the Alien or something similar with a bit more action to it...He really need to raise the Mature rating requirement. Or invent a new rating called "Nightmare Inducing" Read it at your own risk.
6777834
I vote he names the new rating: Nightmare Fuel!
>D
And anyway, maybe sell it to the griffins first. They might appreciate it more than the ponies.
6777866 Hah...I'd love to see the reaction of both the griffin and the ponies.
6774433
If you say so. I'm not saying that I'm expecting rollercoaster dramatics out of this story, it being what it is, just that I think it feels emotionally flat. Everything is just sort of muted, like nobody really cares all that much about what's going on. I don't think that's good storytelling. Even in a slice-of-life story, the character should feel involved. It should, if nothing else, feel as if they care, as if it's harrowing and important to them. It's their life, after all, and there's hardly anything more important than that.
What would be scarier for Ponies? Alien? Or Predator?
Nice chapter. Look forward to seeing what you have in store for us.
I didn't realize that New Beginnings had a sequel!
...aaand I binge read it and loved it.
Congratulation on being featured!
Him interfering once again with canon would've been nice, if only indirectly. But I guess that convincing Celestia to drop her test idea was outside the realm of possible.
And true, Blank Page as he is now would've been a dead weight against Sombra.
6777866
Considering the nature of nightmare in Equestria, it would be either nightmare food or nightmare bait
6778342
Nightmare Bait. Even better xD
6763551 I'm sorry but Luna's expression in that picture makes her look like she has her rape face on... literally.
6777866
Just what I was thinking. And make it even more popular by featuring griffons as the protagonists in it.
6778073 Heh! Why not both? You know you want it
6779212 Ohohohoho, it isn't rape if that's his eager face.
6780151 true! Or maybe Go for the time travel thing and do Terminator
Cover looks fantastic! Keep it coming!!!
Im loving this ... cake of life, was it? XD Very good, though the chapters are very short XD
I'm going with Alien,they are way better choice for a horror story and they are much more possibility of making several original stories that doesn't follow the original story about them on how they got to Equestria or how a crew of a doomed merchant ship visit an uncharted island to find an alien ship on it. Predator is just a hunter and it is hard to make more out of that themed.
6780260 thanks, hope you comment on it on my DeviantArt page.
6780341 on my way.
6780335 I don't know. While both are inherently scary, look at Predator from a species that would be unanimously prey.
You cant see it, but you know it's their...
Magic, doesn't seem to faze it,
It climbs and jumps with massive strength,
And when you see what it does to its victims for the sake of "sport".
On second thought don't do either. Ponies are my happy place, don't want to spoil that with a trophy room scene.
6780391 ha, i agree with the ponies being the happy place but if they can be cute when scared i don't mind
This should be: "Firethorn many thanks for betaing this section, should receive"
I would take banishment over paperwork any day of the week, no need to make you punishment cruel and unusual.
There is no evidence that there are more mares than stallions in Equestria. Yes, they were short on them for the first couple of episodes of the first SEASON. But the evidence of a 50-50 parity is overwhelming.
Proofs:
1) An all-male guard. (we are yet to see a single female guard in the actual show, put your fanon away.)
2)Plenty of stallions in Appleoosa.
3) Plenty in Canterlot.
4)Plenty in Manehattan.
5)Plenty in the Crystal Empire.
6)Plenty of COLTS in Cheerilee's school.
7)Dating and marriage practices shown on the show are strictly 1:1
There are plenty of stallions in Equestria. What you MEAN is "why weren't there many stallions in the first few episodes in Ponyville?"
Meta reason: poor planning in the art department, slowly rectified. That's right, it was a MISTAKE. Which they FIXED, by adding more male character models.
reasons within the context of the show:
1)We're following the adventures of six MARES, none of whom have a steady boyfriend. So, no surprise that we don't see stallions onstage that often at first.
2) Ponyville is a rural farming community. And as typical of farming communities, especially as seeing as they don't have TRACTORS, the majority of the larger, stronger stallions are going to be busy most days working in the fields, like Big Macintosh.
3)Again we address Cheerilee's class, which has a more or less even divide between fillies and colts, depending on episode... again as you would expect in a farming community, where the colts too young for farm work would still be in school.
4)You'll also note you see more stallions in the background on holidays (Hearts and Hooves, the harvest parade, etc.)--- aka, on their DAY OFF.
6785018 Hurray!
Someone who thinks like me about the mare/stallion ratio.
I would love to create a list entitled 'REASONS WHY FiMFiction STORIES TEND TOWARDS GENDER IMBALANCE.'
But everything I can think of really boils down to a single reason.
1) A large percentage of the FimFic writers are in high school or college.
a) At this age they have harem fantasies. (I know, I've had them myself.)
b) They have yet to experience a mature relationship, and interpret sexual desire as love. Conclusion: More is better.
(Psst: They (love and desire) are not the same thing. Really!)
c) 'Heat season' also feeds into the horny adolescent fantasy of getting sex for free.
There is NO indication of there being a heat season in the TV show.
Rip the turkey limb from limb!
Can't tell if this is a reference to Portal 2's 'cake is a lie' meme, or if this is the 'come to the darkside, we have cookies' joke.
6883642
Obviously, all of the above.
They don't have cake and it's in the same form as "we have cookies."
So...Barely push the Everyone rating on this site basicly...
6813581 Not all of them are for those reasons, though that's probably how it started...
I could totally see Blank Page making a story based on The Thing. Unless, of course, he's never seen it. Now that is going to give ponies nightmares.
You know... normally a few nightmares wouldn't be that bad for ponies. However, since Luna is spending all her time nibbling on Page's ear, she'd be too busy to actually help ponies with their nightmares. Little does she realize that this was Page's plan all along. (Laughs in an evil manner while lightning strikes in the background.)
8703431
Considering The changeling issue right now, that’s probably not the best move
9167567
Assuming you're referring to The Thing, I never said it was a good idea, never mind "the best". In fact, what I was saying was more along the lines of "speaking of bad ideas... The Thing!"
I now want to see how ponies would react to the alien stories
8703431
Actually Invasion of the Body Snatchers would also work. Or War of the Worlds.
10247716
Oh, oh, he should make a radio-broadcast equivalent to War of the World, like that one back in 1930s or something
9169675
A worse idea would be if Blank Page decided to bring The Silence of The Lambs into Equestria, as far I am concerned the fact that Hannibal Lecter was just a highly intelligent old man would be terrifying to the ponies, they would be looking over their shoulders wondering if anyone near them would do anything like what Hannibal did.
Griffons! More likely to have the human tasting nom noms at Claw~♡
Eeee we need more griffons!!
10977911
I hear they taste like chicken!
I made Cadance a pink ascented Griffon in one of my stories, i wonder what meat they focus on?
Fish is a given, but what else? Rodents and perhaps non sapient beings?
Resident Evil would make for a great story I Xenomorph are a no go...