Princess Cadance was quite large—much larger than Sumac had expected her to be—and seeing her in pony was startling. Even sitting on his mother’s back, she towered over him and with her terrifying black armor, Sumac could not help but feel a little awestruck. He swallowed, blinked, and then just sat there, staring.
“Hello there, Sumac. Did you get my invitation?” Upon Cadance’s face was a beautiful, beaming smile that made the corners of her eyes crinkle. Her rounded cheeks pressed up against her helmet and glittery sparkles could be seen floating around her horn.
“I slept with you last night.” Mere seconds after uttering the words, Sumac knew that he had goofed. His face became a volcano ready to erupt and his neck blazed like an out of control forest fire as his mouth went dry. A squeak that only diamond dogs could hear slipped from his lips as his throat tightened. Any nearby lunar pegasi probably heard his cry of distress and he expected them to show up at any second.
As Twilight began tittering, Cadance replied, “Well, I certainly hope that I was soft and squeezable. Did I help you sleep better? Twilight tells me that your sleep has been troubled. I’ve been worried. Do you think that, perhaps, you might need a little therapy? You’ve endured some trauma.”
“I’m managing,” Sumac squeaked and his voice almost sounded as though he had sucked in a helium balloon. “If I need help, I’ll ask. Thank you for your invitation, but I want to stay where I am.”
Cadance’s look of disappointment was both real and sincere. She stood with her head held high, blinking, and her smile was now gone. “Stay safe, Sumac Apple. Twilight and I have much to do. You and I shall speak again, but at a later time.”
“Okay.” Sumac felt a little guilty for making a princess look so disappointed. “It’s complicated, Princess Cadance… I’m sorry. I couldn’t come north without my best friend Pebble… and I don’t want to leave Trixie and Lemon behind. I am just now starting to feel like I have a family—”
“I understand.” Cadance clucked her tongue and with a soft touch of her wing, she shushed Sumac by placing her primaries over his mouth. “You don’t need to be sorry and you don’t need to apologise. All you need to do is be happy, because you are special and you deserve that.”
“You know, Cadance, I think you’ve made it your mission to tell every foal that they are special,” Twilight said as she moved closer. “I can remember you saying that to me.”
“Yes,” Cadance replied, “I have.” Reaching out her wing, she touched Pebble as well. “You too, are special. Keep Sumac safe, Pebble. I think by doing so, you will learn the same lesson as your mother.”
“What lesson is that?” Pebble asked from where she sat on Octavia’s back.
“I think you’ll figure it out when the time is right.” Cadance’s beautiful smile returned and she beamed at Pebble. “The discovery is a lesson unto itself.”
“If you get a chance to speak to my mother, tell her I love her.” Pebble blinked once and gave Cadance a piercing stare. “And my father as well.”
“I’ll do that,” Cadance promised.
The balcony was a tiny affair, a private little ledge meant for the princesses so that they could look down upon the great hall and not be swallowed up in the crowd. It didn’t take Sumac long to realise that the balcony had a view of the whole proceedings that was to die for. The sitting audience would see the wedding from the tail end while he would be seeing the ceremony from the head end.
Ponies and others were still being seated. There were some smaller dragons in attendance, some diamond dogs, a few minotaurs, a gaggle of griffons, one manticore, which alarmed Sumac a great deal, and a host of other creatures. Wedding crashers faced the possibility of being eaten, though he doubted that the princesses would allow the guests to eat the invaders. But his imagination was overactive and refused to listen to reason, so he was treated to some delightful mental imagery.
Cautious, he peered over the rail and felt a bit of vertigo. Okay, so peering over the rail was a bad idea. He wasn’t that high up, but looking down sure did make him feel dizzy. He backed away from the rail, clambered up into his cushioned chair, and got comfortable. The chair was just about the nicest chair ever and he felt like a king.
Feeling like a king was rather nice, so he leaned over, prodded Pebble, and in a low whisper, he said to her, “You can be my queen.” Alas, his words were said without giving thought to how they might be taken out of context, as he had not told Pebble that he was feeling like a king.
Pebble took it well—she turned a dark, dark shade of purple brown and then squirmed in her seat as she refused to even look at Sumac. Beaming, Sumac tried to look as regal as possible while he looked down upon the few ponies already seated in the audience. Beside him, Trixie and Lemon Hearts both started snickering. Beside Pebble, Octavia and Vinyl exchanged a glance and a smile.
Using her magic, Vinyl opened up the bags that Octavia had brought in and pulled out her own camera, which she then set up and focused upon the dais down below. The camera, black, silvery, and sleek, was a movie camera and just about the best camera that bits could buy.
“It’s good to be the king,” Sumac announced, getting into the mood of it.
“The king is not well protected,” Trixie said as she lifted Sumac out of his chair.
The colt let out a worried cry, fearful that something terrible was about to happen, and sure enough, something terrible did happen. He felt Trixie’s muzzle press up against his neck, which caused tingles up and down his spine, and then he felt her inhale through her nose. Oh no.
The loud honking raspberry against his throat made him want to leap away, but then he remembered that he was on a balcony. Leaping away might mean flying over the rail, and that would be bad. She got him twice more and Sumac was powerless to do anything about it. Betrayed, zerberted, Sumac allowed Trixie to hold him while he made a sour face in protest.
Boomer, who didn’t appreciate the commotion, lept over to Lemon Hearts’ horn, curled up, and went still. She yawned once, blinked a few times, then, with a sigh, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep. Her little tummy was still bulging from her enormous (for her) breakfast.
Laughing, Trixie eased Sumac back down into his seat, brushed his mane out of his eyes, and then gave him an affectionate pat upon the withers. He was just about to say something when the door behind him opened and Fox stepped onto the balcony.
“My apologies, but I must borrow Octavia and Vinyl for a time,” Fox said in an apologetic voice. “There is nothing wrong, so don’t worry, but there is a minor musical emergency.”
Looking annoyed, Vinyl gestured at the camera that she had just finished setting up and then glared at Fox, who shrank away from Vinyl’s irate stare. She snorted a few times and then made a very rude gesture with her hoof that made Octavia gasp. Sumac, an observant sort, filed away the hoof gesture in his mental filing cabinet and resolved to pull it out later at another time.
“We need a cellist,” Fox explained, “apparently, the stallion scheduled to play ate some bad spinach dip at a party last night. There is no way he could play right now. We’re also having some pretty severe electrical issues with the sound system and we need an experienced sound engineer to fix some sibilance issues, along with some reverberation and distortion.”
“I’m tempted to just say no and see what happens,” Octavia said in a huffy voice.
“Today is Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s special day.” Pebble turned her cool stare upon Octavia. “Their wedding might be crashed by monsters. They have enough to worry about. Cut them a break.”
“Fine!” Octavia whined and she let out a frustrated huff. She bowed her head down, kissed Pebble, and then turned to face Fox. “Bad spinach you say? How dreadful.”
Sitting in her chair, Pebble looked over at Sumac and felt a twinge of nervousness as she looked at him. Looking at him always made her feel a little nervous for some reason, and she could feel little twitches in her muscles, little twitches that were impossible for others to notice because she held them back. If she failed to hold them back, the twitches might turn into kicks, and those would be noticed. Those would be impossible to ignore. It seemed like every day, she got a little stronger and it was a little harder to hold everything back.
A part of her felt like crying but she didn’t know why, and another part of her felt like screaming. Anxiety and emotion flooded her mind, clouded her perception, and left a tight feeling in her chest. Knowing that Sumac would listen to her, she opened up her mouth to say something, but the words she wanted say, the erudite, well spoken, meaningful words, they didn’t happen. Her foalish body betrayed her and she just blurted out some words that made her cringe even as she said them.
“I hate marriage and weddings are stupid.”
Right away, she regretted her sudden outburst, but she could do nothing to take it back. Hunched over in her chair, she felt the sting of tears and a dull ache in her sinuses. More than anything, she wanted to take the words back but it was too late. Staring down at the floor, she didn’t dare turn to look at Sumac, Trixie, or Lemon Hearts. Deep down inside, something hurt, but she couldn’t tell if it was mental or physical that was the cause.
“Pebble Pie, what has gotten into—”
“Mom, don’t.” Sumac’s words held a surprising amount of authority for a five year old. “Pebble, is something bothering you? You know you can talk to me, right? Because we’re friends, and friends talk. Like we did around the fire.”
“Miss Lulamoon, maybe we should let Sumac see what he can do,” Lemon Hearts suggested.
Pebble, feeling ashamed and hurt, couldn’t bring herself to look at her friend. A shudder made her shake and she hugged her forelegs to her barrel. She squeezed herself, but there was no comfort to be had in her self hug. The pressure in her skull increased and she knew that if this continued, she would get one of her migraines again—then she would need to get out of the light and go lay down.
“Pebble?” Sumac’s voice sounded worried to Pebble’s ears.
“Marriage is stupid and I don’t see the point,” Pebble blurted out, once more betrayed by her own mouth and her foalish outburst. An intense feeling of self loathing crashed over her like a wave and she squeezed herself even tighter, so much so that she made her own ribs ache. “Why do ponies even bother with it?”
“Because, it is a tradition.” Trixie’s voice was gentle now, but it brought Pebble no comfort. “It’s just something that ponies do. They marry and start a family.”
“That’s not a good reason.” Pebble could almost hear the petulant whine in her voice, but she knew from experience that others would only hear a flat deadpan. She wanted to scream, she thought about it, but she held it all in. She had to hold it all in. “It’s just plain stupid. If a bunch of ponies jump off a bridge because of tradition, would you do it? Traditions are no reason to do anything. It’s just stupid peer pressure to make you conform.”
“Pebble, what is really bothering you?” Sumac asked.
“Everything!” Now there was a bit of volume to Pebble’s voice, she could feel it and hear it. “I can’t even figure out my own family. Octavia is going to have a foal and it is my father’s. It feels wrong… everything feels wrong. They’re not married and that bothers me. I can’t make sense of what we are. I’m scared and worried that something will happen and they will stop being friends and Octavia will go away and my father is going to lose one of his foals and it will crush him and hurt him and I’ll be losing my little sister or brother, whatever it turns out to be.”
As Pebble took a few deep, heaving breaths, she heard a gasp from somepony, but she wasn’t sure who. She closed her eyes, gritted and ground her teeth together, and shook her head from side to side.
“They didn’t even consult me or ask me how I feel about it. They didn’t stop to think about how this might mess up my life. Nopony bothered to ask me what I think. And I hate them for the mess they’ve created and I hate them because I’m confused and I hate them because now I feel stupid and I can’t figure anything out.”
As she struggled to hold everything back, she felt Sumac climbing into her chair with her. Grunting, she resisted his embrace and pulled away. His touch, his affection, it was too confusing right now, but she was mindful of her strength and did nothing that might hurt him by accident. As her rage seethed inside of her, she gritted and ground her teeth again, which produced a dreadful sound as bits of her enamel chipped off. She would have to go to the dentist again and she could feel the horrible sensation of chipped teeth banging together in her mouth. Each touch, each tap of one tooth against another, each new chip and flake was electric and caused aching chills to run up and down her spine.
“I don’t ever want Octavia or Vinyl going away and I have no way of knowing if they’ll stay together… I don’t know if we are a family or not. I hate not knowing and I just wish sometimes that they would fight and hate each other and everypony just walk away and get it over with so that I could stop worrying about it.”
With a soft touch, she felt one of Sumac’s forelegs wrap around her withers, and mindful of how sore and tender his shoulders still were, she did not move or jerk away, fearing that she might hurt him. His touch brought comfort and that confused her a great deal. Her current emotional state couldn’t deal with the state of overload and much to her shame and embarrassment, she began crying.
It felt awful in the worst way, even worse than grinding chipped teeth together.
“I want them to stay together but I can’t stand not knowing,” Pebble whined as her throat constricted. “And I hate that marriage is necessary to show commitment… I just want them to stay together so we can be a family and I wish that marriage wasn’t needed to hold everything together.”
When she felt Sumac tugging on her, she relented and allowed herself to be pulled close to him. The tension in her body caused her to be as stiff as a statue. In that moment, Pebble had something of a feminine awakening, a decidedly female feeling, an undeniable feeling of femininity as Sumac held her and she leaned against him. Something about it was reassuring, comforting—because of that, she hated it, it confused her and felt like weakness. She also hated and resented Sumac just a little bit at that moment, as she felt that he had intruded upon her stolid independence. More self loathing flowed through her as she realised the fact that she liked being held and that she needed him during this moment, which disgusted her. She was filled with feelings of revulsion and shame that galled her and shook her to her very core.
But that didn’t stop her from hugging him, which she did, she clung to him as tight as she dared and she didn’t let go. He was breathing in her ear, which tickled, and made her even more overstimulated. Closing her eyes, she shut out the light and embraced the sightless darkness. Clutching Sumac, she slowed her breathing and followed through with every trick she knew to calm down.
“I hate marriage,” Pebble mumbled, and then she went silent.
Gah
*Blindsided*
Oww.
Teeth...
Chipped teeth suck.
That was a suprise. First time that's happened(i think). And to a degree, i can sympathize. Marriage I don't mind, weddings, always put me a bit off. The oaths, GREAT! The ceremony, i don't see why so much is put into it.
And yeah, ouch. Half-brother/sister that hasn't been painstakingly explained, that will confuse a child.
And who gasped? Trix, or Lemon?
And here i thought you where kidding. Welp, at least she got the context.
is the manticor daughter gonna make a reaperance I feel like it would add some interasting conflict with pebble with octavias baby on the way
Wow.
Pebble has some serious emotional problems, and with her having her mother's emotionless expression, its even harder for others to tell.
7702092
You shall have to wait for winter for Megara.
The way you phrased it makes it sound as if Celestia and Luna are marrying one another. Which, if that is what you are going for, all the better-it would be interesting to see how you handle a public incestuous relationship between two of Equestria's rulers and its ramifications to the setting and characters alike. However, if that is not what you were intending, then I would recommend rewording this piece of dialogue.
Tell me, what are Sumac's chances of surviving their wedding night? I know it's many years down the line and there isn't a guarantee they will become a romantic couple-they could just as easily become best friends and heterosexual life partners-but, if the strength you imply Pebble has is anything to go by (especially considering her unique conception), then I just have this awful thought that the moment Sumac tries to stick it in she's going to accidentally mangle his special meat stick. This is not even to mention numerous other things that might happen that cause her to lose control and accidentally hurt Sumac
I wasn't expecting Pebble's outburst here, but I have to say I sympathize with her. The situation she's in sounds confusing to me as an adult, and dealing with her family issues, her personal issues, all on top of incredibly powerful beings that genuinely want her dead or worse-that she knows about might I add-it can't be easy to handle.
7702146
Tarnish and Maud managed just fine. I mean, Pebble came along somehow. Tarnish is a brave sort though.
And no, I'm not changing the dialogue, as kids say all kinds of messed up stuff.
Is it to soon to pull out the rains of castamere. Its time for a wedding.
Gah! My brain made too many odd connections with this chapter... none of them directly related to the story!
First:
Reminded me of a line from:
Then this line:
Reminded me of:
I don't know what's wrong with my brain.
I have never wanted so badly for a wedding to get attacked. (The time I got roped into ushering my aunt's renewal of vows doesn't count.)
Props to Sumac, although the way this ended has me feeling like the last sentence of the next chapter is going to be him asking Pebble to marry him...
Well, on a brighter note, at least Sumac didn't call Princess Cadence a busybody out loud in front of her. And thank goodness too.
Also, Pebble's ugly and misguided perspective on marriage will only disturb those who have immense intentions of marrying a sweetheart and raise a family with him or her someday, including this individual commenting (meaning me). I mean, why would she do something as crazy as condemn something so beautiful like that?!
Pebble voicing her perceptions of marriage and intimacy were amazingly written. I realy get where she is coming from.
7702146
Out of curiosity, have you read Perilous Romance of the Swans? That would explain why it's a special day for both of them.
7702609 No I haven't. However, even if that story does explain Celestia and Luna having a special day with their own special someponies, the way Pebble said it implies an incest lesbian romance between the two sisters.
7702626
I can see that, however in context the meaning is pretty clear... and it's something that Pebble is fully aware of.
I can't say anything else without spoiling one of the bigger moments from 'The Sun Also Surprises' and 'Swans'... I can't quite remember which one it happened in, but both of those deal with the build up to the wedding.
7702368
You gotta remember Pebble is a kid, and a smart one at that. At least in my own experiences, the more you know, the more you have to worry about. Add being a control freak who doesn't like change and no concrete evidence that marriage is perfect or permanent. I think it makes sense for her to draw her own conclusions from this. She is young...
I'm an adult and engaged but Pebble didn't bring up anything I haven't had to work through myself. I'm used to always having to be the one in control at all times, for family and my exes. My fiancé shoulders a lot of responsibility and it is both nice and uncomfortable to let him help me... my whole mental construct was that I didn't need a man to help me. Admitting any weakness is hard, but feeling as if you are being changed by someone else(because you love them) is even harder to accept, especially if you perceive yourself as less than you were. Kudz hit this right on the nose.
7702684 That is indeed a very valid point.
7702673 Oh I am certain Pebble knows what she's saying-on the surface. Pebble is certainly a smart kid, but she's just that-a kid. Even as adults, you can accidentally say something which, while technically true, also implies any number of things you don't mean. So, while Pebble may be smart, she's lacking in both a lot of basic social skills other fillies her age have and in the experience adults get which typically stop us from blurting out technically true but also have embarrassing implications-all without actually knowing what she'd done beyond the most obvious.
7702368
Because she doesn't understand it. She's got the mind to comprehend things a child normally can't conceptualize, but she doesn't have the wisdom or perspective of someone who's lived life to have true understanding of emotions, and permanence in the face of mortality. She is, essentially, an incomplete adult. Not necessarily a child, and missing many pieces of a foundation she'd need to not feel terrible about any of this.
She doesn't have a problem with marriage, as we can see from her arguments here. She doesn't even understand what it entails, and she doesn't complain about marriage itself in the way someone who actually gets and hates marriage would. Instead, she has severe control and self-made abandonment issues, and is taking it out on marriage because it's sort of the root of a stronger relationship, and her problems lie within those relationships, so she's attacking the trunk to spite the branch that just dropped an apple on her head.
And again, like Maud pointed out before, all of this is basically Pebble's fault. It's something she'll have to properly own up to, not just lip service and a minor epiphany. Pebble is the one creating this problem where no problem exists. No child should have a say in how their parents' lives are run. Pebble is not their owner, their master, mentor, creator, and they owe her nothing but care and guidance. Anything beyond that is because the parents WANT to give it, or the child has earned it. When Pebble understands her place she'll feel a lot better about her life. Until then she can't handle the idea that things are happening which indirectly affect her that she has no say in.
It's the equivalent of a child saying "Stop having sex, I don't want a little sibling." and expecting the parents to follow through. If they don't listen, and the child can't FORCE them do as they like, they sit and stew about how unfair everything is, internalizing and blowing up the problem they think there is. Fact is Pebble is jealous and needs to get over it in order to grow up.
Same thing I said on another story where Twilight finds out her parents have had multiple sex partners and never told her about it, going off on them and treating them like they did something wrong for not including her in that decision making process: it was none of her goddamned business.
7702626
No it doesn't. Not at all.
Pebble isn't speaking to the reader, she is speaking to other ponies, ponies who would know what is going in the situation. The reader doesn't exist and therefore, she does not owe them an explanation. She is speaking to other ponies, ponies who, with reasonable assurance and intelligence, know that the both of the sisters are about to marry Gosling,
Since the reader does not exist in Pebble's mind, she is under no obligation to coddle them with carefully chosen words to carry along a reader that does not know, just as she is under no obligation to help a fellow pony that doesn't read a newspaper or keep up with current events.
Any implications the reader makes are entirely their own and there is no onus upon her. She cannot be held responsible for the uninformed.
Wh- Octavia is pregnant!? What!?
7703047
This is not the first time this has been brought up in the story.
7703139
7703047
This is easily the fourth time I can remember seeing it. However this is the first time I remember hearing that it was Tarnish's. Which makes sense, Love-conception doesn't work in Kudzu's 'verses and they're primarily hetero-oriented. So a lesbian couple will actually need a trusted donor.
7702626
I am 100% for Celestia-dominant princest. But that is not what's going on here, or what Pebble is referring to. Kudzu tends to write scenes that - when they start to focus on what one character's saying, are more or less said from their perspective, rather than holding the reader's hand and having characters break vocabulary to repeat exposition. Try to look at it from Pebble's POV rather than what it might sound like out of context, then from the POV of the ponies she's talking to.
7703139 But the first time I noticed that as well.
Did I miss something in the other stories? I finished the "Perilous romance" and the "Venenum Iocus", but that's the first time I read about it...
7703187
It's been subtly mentioned quite a number of times now.
That's chapter 64.
Chapter 59.
The story rewards those who pay attention to the details. There are other mentions, but I see no need to go through and list them all.
7703158 That's...now I'm confused. Why do you think I was going on about Kudzu's narrative techniques?
All I've commented on is that Pebble's comment had implications that she did not intend, and being a kid, likely didn't even notice them. Also,other ponies are aware of what she meant, but she still phrased things in such a way as to imply lesbian royal incest wedding, rather than what they knew she intended.
7702991 This conversation is getting weird. Where did you get the thought that I was implying Pebble was speaking to the reader?
It doesn't matter if she's aware of our existence or not in this instance. All I've said is that, with the way she said things, it could be misconstrued-both in universe and from a narrative perspective, the latter of which, while relevant to us, is secondary to the story.
And yes, the other ponies in universe know what Pebble meant. However, the way she inadvertently phrased it implies other things. It's honestly not terribly different from Sumac's comment that he slept with Cadance. He didn't meant it that way, even though it had other implications. The main difference is that Pebble's comment was subtler and no one reacted to it, although in my opinion it was no less funny.
7703371
I was clarifying why I wrote it the way I did, that's all. I pretend the reader doesn't exist.
I know that it drives some people crazy and folk get upset.
7703139
7703158
I certainly don't remember this.
7702146
Celestia and Luna are both marrying Gosling, who is the same pegasus pony that comforted Sumac on the big black battle train a few chapters ago.
How Gosling won their love is the primary storyline of "The Perilous Romance Of Swans" which is a prequel and parallel story to this story "PTSSFFF".
Cadence.
Cadence is wonderful right now. If I hadn't read BBB, this would have come out of left field. Now she fits not only in show, but in Weedverse.
Sumac and Pebble are five right? Or is that not counting Equine vs. Human development rates? Because plenty of humans have a hard time remembering things at or before five. The brain just isn't developed enough to store or handle certain concepts or ideas until a certain amount of physical growth. I mean, I know kids can be smarter than we give them credit for and Sumac and Pebble are smarter than the average foal when it comes to their awareness of the world, but this chapter really isn't something I'd expect from a five year old. Maybe a ten year old, but even that's still pushing it.
Then again maybe it's just your choice of diction? Pebble and Sumac fail to voice many of the epiphanies they have in this and other chapters, so I suppose they could only be partially aware of them while we as readers get the whole spiel.
7703712
Competent Cadance really shines in The Sun Also Surprises and The Perilous Romance of Swans.
7703720
A yearling is capable of complex speech and social ritual, as evidenced in the show. So I would say that brain development is greatly accelerated, at least for a time, and then it appears to slow down a bit.
Some in world science: Intelligence is influenced by eye size and I've played heavily upon this fact. Ponies have huge eyes, which actually makes sense in a way, they are a prey species, so having huge, perceptive eyes would be an evolutionary advantage. Those eyes would be worthless without the cognitive horsepower (heh) to back them up. Ponies would be considerably smarter than humans based upon eye size and brain comparison.
In summary, ponies show signs of having intelligence magnitudes greater than humans.
7703722
Dunno how I forgot those, I read them too...
7703990
Waterfowl thing to say.
7704066 I'm already ducking for cover at the puns...
...wait... THAT manticore?
7704066 There are times I can't help but post lowbrow puns. It's a quirk.
But I was waiting for you to point out that there were two "rubber ducky" ponies in that crowd that day.
And just because I'm not a nice guy: Here's a wild typo I caught.
Beside him, Trixie and Lemon Hearths both started snickering.
7703595 Can't recall if it was VI or Perilous Romance but it was covered,
7702626 Not lesbian, the sisters were goosed!
7702251 Still think Vinyl or Trix needs to 'crown' him for that cheek...with more pillows...POMF!
7705072 DOH sorry Kudz, how did I miss that?
Sumac's mouth is going to be getting him in trouble for his entire life.
Yeah, like I said above.
Zerberted!
On the other hand, maybe it won't just be his mouth getting him in trouble.
Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh. I can see where she's coming from in being so confused and upset about events. Kids are going to have emotions, you can't stop that.
7705054 what manticore? I know its not the one from weed chapter 1 as I have read wtcch alredy (I am reading in the suggested reading order on the forms)
where is the scene or so with octavia asking tarnish to donate his seed?
It makes sense that Octavia would ask Tarnish to inseminate her. In essence, he'd be like the foal's father in all but title, given how much the biological parents hang out.