Celestia, along with the foals on her back, went to the kitchens, where she knew her nephew and his wife were waiting for them.
She did her best to keep the disheartened expression from her face, knowing that the twins, and especially Pure, would pick up on it if she didn't. In truth, she had truly hoped Pureblood's meeting with Twilight would have alleviated her new student's melancholy, but she realized now that she had been foolishly optimistic. She had come to expect too much from the filly on her back, especially after she had told her the seemingly impossible.
Even now, the thought that Luna, not Nightmare Moon, might have aided in Pureblood's awakening filled the alicorns heart with a myriad of conflicting feelings. Joy that her sister was not lost completely within that monster. Hope that she could be saved, and that they could be together again.
Fear of what she might be forced to do if she couldn't free Luna from the Nightmare.
"How'd it go?" the elder Blueblood asked as they arrived at the small dining area directly outside of the kitchen. There was a larger one on the other side for bigger parties, but this place was used for small lunch meetings.
It took a moment for the alicorn's thoughts to catch up, having let her mind wander while her hooves carried them here, and it was Pureblood who answered first. "Fine, I guess," she said glumly. "Twilight is still sad, but she said she'd try to write me letters."
"Oh, I'm sorry, honey," Ornate said, coming over to remove her daughter from between Celestia's wings while her husband did the same for their son. "Maybe she just needs time."
"The chefs here are making us all a snack," Blueblood continued, hoping to cheer up his filly. "They were even telling me that they'll be taking out a fresh batch of cookies from the oven soon."
Both foals perked up at that, and Celestia smiled. "That does sound lovely," she agreed. "I believe they're making shortbread today, yes?"
"Mhmm," Ornate confirmed. "And it smells amazing every time the door into the kitchen is opened. I'm even afraid that they'll be better than my chocolate chip cookies."
"Impossible!" squeaked Pure with the same look of disbelief that was on her brother's face. "Your cookies are the best."
While Ornate blushed, Celestia nodded. "I do have to admit, those cookies of yours are quite delicious."
"Coming from sweet-toothed Celestia, that's a real compliment," her nephew said with a chuckle.
Celestia giggled herself. "Well, I suppose I have eaten quite a few cookies in my time, and yours are at least in the top twenty." She sighed wistfully. "I still wish I could have Merry Macaroon's signature macaroons again. Alas, she took the recipe with her to the tomb... and the raiders I hired came back empty-hooved."
There was a choking sound as the two adults stared at the princess in shock, but then she started laughing. "I'm joking, of course. Though those macaroons were positively scrumptious."
"Right," Blueblood began, rubbing at the back of his neck, "Well-"
"Ahh!" Just then, a mare with her mob cap on fire ran into the room. "Water! Water! Sink!" she yelled, darting past the ponies in the dining area without a glance as she charged into the kitchen. There was surprised shouting before the hiss of an extinguished fire came through the swinging door.
Just then, another mare rushed in, a gurgling, purple mass bouncing on her back. "Nursery! Nursery are you alright?!" she shouted before screeching to a halt to stare at the ponies in the room. "Princess Celestia!"
"Rhyme," the princess greeted calmly, tilting her head slightly to peek around the maid's neck. "If I'm to guess, our little dragon friend here was the cause of your sister's flaming hat. What happened?"
While Ornate squeaked at the mention of a dragon and held her daughter tighter to her chest, the maid shifted the reptile from her back to her foreleg. "Um, y-yes your highness, though it wasn't his fault. I had set him down to play with his toys while I prepared a bottle of quartz powder in milk as you instructed, and he just-just vanished! I must have left the door open a crack, or-or I don't know, but he had gotten into the halls, and then my sister and I were searching for him. I still had the bottle when I left, completely forgot about it, so when we found him, I figured he could drink it on the way back, but then he burped, and Nursery's hat just went up in flames! Goddess! I had no idea how flammable they were!"
As the mare grew more frantic, the baby in her grasp began to whimper and wriggle. Celestia stepped forward, taking the infant in one hoof while reaching out with a wing to place gently on her withers. "Shh, calm yourself, Rhyme. You're scaring the little one."
"I'm..." the mare started, taking a deep, calming breath. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm better now."
The door of the kitchen opened as the mare from before stepped out, concerned faces peeking out after her. The hat was removed from her head, and the smell of burned hair wafted from her soaked mane. "Nursery," Celestia greeted, turning to her. "Are you alright? Do you need to take the rest of the day off?"
"I'm fine, Princess," she answered tiredly, stepping forward to take the baby dragon without hesitation. She poked him on the snout, eliciting a giggle from the creature that got a tired smile to tug at her lips. "This little fella was just drinking his bottle too fast. I was probably bouncing him a bit too much on my back, as well. This was mostly my fault."
"Is that really a dragon?" Bluey interrupted, looking incredulously at the purple reptile from his place in his father's hooves. "He's even smaller than me."
"It's a baby dragon," Pure answered as she stared with a confused look. "Why is it here, though?"
"Yeah," Bluey agreed. "I thought ponies were supposed to fight dragons and stuff 'cause they foalnapped princesses..." He frowned and looked over to his sister worriedly. "It's not gonna try and foalnap Pure, is it? Aunty Celestia's too big for it to carry, but Pure's tiny."
"Hey! We're the same size almost! Maybe he'll foalnap you!"
"Nah ah! I'm the prince! I save princesses!"
"No! Grandpa says that princesses can be heroes too, and I'm a better fighter, anyway!"
"Yeah, well I can use magic!"
"Blueblood!" both parents shouted, aghast even as their son realized what he said and covered his mouth. Pure looked taken aback a moment, then scowled at her twin. A high-pitched giggle drained the room quickly of tension as all eyes went to the baby dragon, whose eyes had been darting back and forth during the whole exchange between the siblings.
"Sorry, Pure," Bluey whispered, unable to meet the other foals' gaze. "I didn't mean it. I was just being stupid."
"You were," she responded after a beat, pointing over at the dragon. "I mean, really, look at him. Does it look like he's going to foalnap anypony? He's in diapers."
It was an obvious attempt at changing the subject, and Bluey laughed a little. "I guess... That was pretty silly of me. I mean, it, um, he can't even fly. How'd he get away?"
"Right," Pure agreed, looking back over to the dragon who was sucking on the tip of his tail like a pacifier. "Um, actually, you never said how he got here, Aunty Celestia."
"I must admit, I'm curious, as well," Blueblood added as his wife nodded her agreement.
Celestia sighed. "That is quite a long story, though the abridged version would be that he came from the egg that Twilight Sparkle had hatched during the exam."
Bluey blinked in surprise. "He came from that egg?" he asked. "But I couldn't even hatch it!"
"That would be because you weren't meant to," Celestia explained. "The test was one meant to not only measure your magical prowess, but your patience and how you reacted to failure. The egg was inert - not alive - but during Twilight's surge, well..."
"Oh," Pure muttered, then gave a strained giggle. "That's going to be a weird birthday to celebrate."
The sentiment was clear, and Celestia closed her eyes. "I had intended to introduce the little one to Twilight Sparkle, seeing as she was the one who hatched him, but the memories of that day are not pleasant for the filly, and I fear that he might be an unwelcome reminder of the accident."
"It wasn't his fault, though," Pure said with a frown. "Just like it wasn't Twilight's."
"I know," Celestia agreed. "Though making Twilight believe that has been difficult."
"Um, actually, I've been meaning to ask," Ornate suddenly piped up, looking nervous. "I heard rumors around town. It's been hard not to, really, what with all the pandemonium of that day, but some ponies have mentioned that there was a large explosion of color in the sky when the incident occurred..."
"Ah, yes," Celestia said with a nod. "I know what you're talking about, and what some ponies are saying."
"And...?" Ornate prompted. "Is it true? I mean, it'd be easy to say it was just another part of Twilight's surge, but I've heard it happened before."
"Yes, that's true," the princess confirmed with a sigh. "Though the origins are still under investigation, and the answers haven't been forthcoming."
"There was an explosion?" Pure piped up curiously.
"Yes, and having asked Twilight, it's actually what had set off her surge," explained Celestia. "Though she's adamant about shouldering the blame entirely on her own, it's clear that it was in fact the stress brought on by believing she had failed the exam, then being frightened by the explosion."
"And yet you still haven't discovered the source?" Blueblood asked skeptically. "How is that possible? Surely something like that would have a pretty clear origin."
"You'd think so," Celestia agreed, "And my first instinct was that it had been a weather factory explosion or something similar, especially seeing as how it came from the direction of Cloudsdale, but word from there is that they're just as confused as the rest of us."
"So it really wasn't Twilight's fault," Pureblood suddenly uttered in awe. "She's beating herself up over something she didn't even do."
"She still did the surge thing," Bluey pointed out, sounding bitter. "Just 'cause she got scared by a big sound doesn't mean it wasn't her that hurt you."
"But it was an accident!" Pure shouted back. "Even more an accident than before, so she shouldn't be sad." Her eyes lock on the dragon. "And... and even if she should blame herself for some of the stuff that happened, she's been ignoring the good stuff."
Ornate was the first to speak up among the confused adults. "Good? Pure, what do you mean?" Celestia was wondering that, as well, seeing as the filly was the one who was hospitalized.
"She became Aunty's student," she explained. "That's good, but she only thinks you did it because she's bad and needs to be taught to be good." She pointed at the dragon, who had started nodding off, his head resting against the chest of the silent caretaker holding him. "And the baby. He wouldn't be here without Twilight. It can only be a good thing that he was born, but you're afraid that he'll just remind Twilight of the accident." She pouted. "That's not right. You should take him to Twilight and tell her how good it is. He's isn't a reminder of the bad stuff she did, he's a reminder of the good."
The room fell silent as all eyes locked onto the filly, who in turn began to lose the stalwart resolution from a moment ago as she squirmed. "Um, right?" she asked hesitantly.
Celestia smiled, stepping forward to nuzzle her. "Right, that was very well said, Pureblood, and very sound advice."
Her mother hugged her tight. "That's my daughter. Sometimes I think she's wiser than us grownups."
"Won't be long, and she'll be handling the family finances," Blueblood chuckled as he looked down at his son with a proud smile. "I believe, dear, that we have two of the most incredible foals in Equestria."
"Yep," Bluey agreed with a confident nod. "We are pretty great, and if Pure says the dragon should see Twilight, than he should." Under his breath, he added, "Then if he does foalnap somepony, it'll be her."
The adults all had a laugh at that before the mare, Nursery, moved to stand by her sister. The baby dragon in her grasp had awoken at all the sudden sound, looking around with a curious expression before deciding to add his own peal of high-pitched, happy giggles to the mix. Bluey didn't seem to know what was so funny, and was too busy shrinking under his sister's baleful glare.
"Well, I think we've dallied long enough," Rhyme said, reaching over to tickle the baby dragon's belly, much to his delight. "After his bottle, and all of the excitement, this one is no doubt in dire need of a nap."
"Him and me both," heaved Nursery as she ran a hoof through her damp, singed mane. "And a visit to the manedresser."
"I'll arrange for you to be reimbursed when you do," Celestia told her. "You shouldn't have to pay for getting your mane fixed because of a workplace mishap." Nursery looked ready to protest, but the princess cut her off with a firm, "I insist."
"That's..." Nursery started to say, then sighed and smiled. "Yes, Princess, thank you for the kindness."
As the two left with their infant charge in tow, Rhyme could be heard whispering, "Since the princess is going to pay, do you think you can try out one of those fancy salons on Saddle Street?"
"Rhyme!"
"What? You've always wanted to go!"
As the two continued their hushed argument, Celestia smiled and shook her head. Just then, the door to the kitchen opened, and a chef poked his head out, eyes scanning the room. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but... lunch is ready, if you would all like to eat."
"The cookies are done?" squeaked Pureblood excitedly, getting her brother's ears to perk up.
The chef smiled at the filly and nodded. After that, the food was brought out and the group ate happily. Despite the difficulties of the day, a tray of freshly baked shortbread cookies helped tremendously, and between the twins and alicorn, there were none left at the end of the meal.
Once the food was tucked away, it was time for her nephew and his family to go home, along with the books Celestia had bought for the foals. Seeing them off at the entrance of the castle, Celestia turned her gaze to the tower she had gifted her new student, and resolved to go speak with the filly as soon as possible.
It was news to the princess when Pureblood had said Twilight believed her position under Celestia's tutelage to be some sort of punishment, and she had every intention of setting her straight. Though she'd only known her for a short time, Celestia could see the intelligence and talent hidden beneath the young filly's closed-off demeanor, and she did not intend to let it be smothered by self-hatred.
Thinking on what else her niece had said, Celestia decided that she'd also be introducing Twilight to the dragon she had hatched. It is as Pureblood said, after all. It's because of Twilight that the infant even drew breath now, and that was something the gifted foal could take pride in.
She'd been holding off on giving the dragon an official name, having been unsure on whether or not she should find him a dragon family to take him in, as difficult a task that would prove, but perhaps it was time to forge him a proper birth certificate and make him an Equestrian citizen. She could even ask her student to help come up with a name.
Yes, Celestia decided, that sounded like an excellent idea.
Glad to see an update. Also have to pity any mare that can include sudden cranial immolation as a workplace mishap.
Enjoying the good work! Such fun this chapter, can't wait for more!
Awwww ... was hoping when spike got fussy pure would sing him a song or a lullaby .... children of the night.... would've definitely made celestias jaw drop.
This was sweet
For a second I thought this was meant as a compliment for Pure.
Well I liked it that they sort of praised Pure for a few thinks and no matter hor they meant it, that they told her she is great/ good at something again.
I just remember that it was something I missed for a few chapters if I remember it right.
It feels as if it was a longer time ago that I saw the last chapter so I wouldn't compline about a timeskip I suppose.
I just don't like the main char making friends that appear more often in the story or stuff like that which we aren't able to see because of the timeskip. I would say maybe let her meet the more important characters in the story itself and maybe make a good flash back or whatever for what happened in important family situations.
I forgot how "important or awesome" Pure is for the story, I mean if she is some sort of choosen one too or not.
However I still hope she get's to be some sort of Guardsmare or something more important and has some sort of influential position.
It's the old story, if Twilight and her friends have that element of harmony thing and Blueblood get's his magic and whatever else in the story, I don't want Pures biggest achivement to be that she can breath.
I know the next guy will maybe say "but she is clever and has thought of this and this stuff in the story already".
Yes but I guess that was more or less small stuff and some stories have a talent to make the main char do something quite nice but somehow either everyone ignores it and not really aknowledge it, or they act as if it was nothing special.
In chase I messed that sentence up, more than a few times in certain situations the other chars would not really applaud the main char for everything only to turn around and give a bigger applaus to Twilight and the gang.
Maybe that finally explained it well.
The chapter itself was nice especially this time. I liked how even Celestia thought it was clever of Pureblood, it's one of the rare "not so perfect" moments of Celestia I see often enough.
9525563
Pure never watched the show. Also that song doesn't fit for a baby dragon anyway.
Pure is such a sweetie. And yes, Twily needs to be reminded or the good.
Yeah a cutie mark story would be lovely
Thank you for an update!
9525563
My brain saw "children of the night", and went straight to the line "creature of the night" from Toucha Toucha Touch Me from Rocky Horror.
a good little chapter extremely fun.
Always glad to see more of this.
Perhaps next chapter should be letters over the years between Twilight and Pure.
The opening quote does not match the closing quotes.
I hope Celestia is able to reassure Twilight.
The letters mentioned in last chapter give you quite a bit of freedom in skipping a lot of stuff... assuming Twilight is actually going to send them, but that seems like a reasonable assumption. It's especially true for the early years, where this form of communication might still be awkward for the duo and thus fairly rare - making it even easier to jump over last period of time until something important happens.
Cutie mark seems perfect, since it's supposed to be a "life changing experience". Especially for such a unique character, whose purpose in life is pretty unclear due to her "issues".
Meanwhile, "when" is best answered by "now". We all know it's coming, we all know it's going to change things a lot - delaying it any longer might be too much of a buildup, making it impossible to create a satisfactory payoff.
I got to ask.. though I've think I asked before already but is the human tag still needed? I understand flash backs and memories but if humans won't be involved then I suggest it just be removed, but if they do come involve, well... I'm bailing. It's throwing me off.... mostly me.
Other then my thing, another great chapter.
Forge it? Why does it need to be a forgery? She's the princess, I'm sure she can have a proper one written up.
9525949
I'm pretty sure they mean forge as in craft or make (like forging a sword), but I could be wrong...
Excellent chapter, nice to see the Twilight issue isn't going to be a quick fix. I always thought that Twilight was so humble about her talents because of that magic surge; turning your parents into potted plants sounds pretty scarring to me...
9525949
Nah, everyone knows Dragon birth certificates need to made from metal, because they might accidentally burn it otherwise.
9525603
Sorry meant come little children thought the the real title was children of the night it was used in the movie hocus pocus which came out around 1993... i meant her hearing an unknown lullaby from earth its the only one that sticks out except hush little baby. But now that you point it out that would make it a double whammy. She allready suspicious of her connection to luna.
9526046
Tungsten specifically, since that has the highest heat tolerance of any metal. Spike's fire reached temperatures to do that long before he gained his wings.
9526061
That movie is not for children as young as Pure was when she died as a human. The recommended age is some countries was ten or more and she didn't have cable in the hospital to just see it on TV.
9526224
Oh great and powerful author who governs what is decided in the story ... let it be known in different areas some had movies played on basic channels especially around holidays ... she was a child pretty much left alone in a hospital room she had free reign to watch what she wanted. God i was 7 when i first saw friday the 13th ... tv restrictions were way more lax back then. Scared the bejesus outta me when he jumped outta the water and grabbed her. Watching it around Halloween isnt hard. Nowadays you have reality tv shows that have violence sex and drugs/alcohol but heaven forbid adult swim/toonami plays during normal hours.
Well sarcacity aside its irrelevant the chapter is written and posted.... wouldve been cute and given me the fuzzies... but wasn't meant to be.
9525596
So... you don't want her as a background character? Considering the tags, this isn't an adventure where such developments as you describe could happen. And I can't forget, Spike is a background character, too.
Being honest with you, it is indeed a wonder that Pure can still breathe while still within Canterlot borders--heh, now I'm picturing a cutie mark based on the wonder of breathing.
9526309
Eve on TV the movie is a PG 14 movie and again, it was never mentioned she had cable on the hospital. You can get cable in your hospital room but you do have to pay extra. And since it was never ever mentioned that means she didn't have it.
9526603
Hey your the one saying the hospital doesnt have it ...the author never stated they didnt... unless the author says otherwise they very well could .... from personal experience basic cable was in long term care rooms ... premium channels arent an option maybe its different now... hymn. Still why people are so against a sweet scene which would be pure singing i dont know..... maybe their heartless monsters who want to drink crying dragon tears. But the chapters done the author moved on my wishful thinking is more self musing ... i didnt scream you suck im down voting i couldve written it better ..i just put i wish he had pure sing to spike itd been cute. Especially if it was that song ... for some reason people broke out the torches and pitchforks
Not every states basic cable runs the same .. we get 45 channels with a basic plan .... and outta that 45 we got atleast 9 channels that show movies especially around holidays .... usually a different one every night at 7 or 8 ....all they do is play holiday movies like the nightmare before Christmas / the corpse bride / hocus pocus while during Christmas we get a Christmas story / the grinch / the polar express. Plus hocus pocus is flat out pg rating not pg 14 here. I've heard of pg 14 so your not from the states...only non us countries use that rating .. emmm canadas 1 i think. Gotta remember the ratings system came out around ..... it was voluntary in 1968ish.... they didnt start with the amount of ratings we have now ... i think their originally 5 it became mandatory in 1984ish... even gremlins and indiana jones and the temple of doom was originally pg ... until pg 13 was an option because Spielberg thought jaws was definently not pg and pushed for pg 14 thats when they made the pg 13 rating ...1st awarded to red dawn believe it or not. Jaws got R obviouly. The others got new rating for obvious reasons. God im so old .... *sigh*
Thank you for the lovely chapter!
I really hope Pure and Twilight get closer
Timeskip: 10,000 years later...
"Sephiracorn Pureblood!" came the stalwart call of Vice Admiral Guano of the Pegasus Armada. "They're attacking again! Super Alicorniyan Starlight says they'll breach the barrier any moment if we can't stabilize the magishield across the event horizon!"
"Curses," snarled Pureblood, adjusting the two patches over her eyes... which she wore mainly because she liked to nap without being noticed. "And the Sisters?"
"Uhm... one of the aliens broke through and... hit them with foam arrows. They went down instantly and haven't woken up since."
Facehooving, Pure growled, "I swear they do this on purpose." Sighing, she knew it was time to break out the last resort... though she was loathe to unleash such a terrible weapon. "It's the only way... Admiral... release the red and black alicorn with the teardrop Cutie Mark."
The pegasus Admiral lived up to his name and produced some guano of his own in horror. "A-are you sure?! Must we rely on such a horrible creature?"
"We have no other chance against them! Their obsessions know no limits, don't you understand?! We can only strike back with something of ultimate patheticness and terrible characterization of even less than one dimension! Now quit dawdling and GO!"
The Admiral hastily saluted and flapped off while Pure looked out towards the battleground, "You just couldn't let it go. G5... G6... G47... ("BINGO!" shouted an elderly pony off in the distance) the one with the Pony version of "Berserk"... what were mad fools thinking? Why couldn't you just have found another show? We'll never let you do that to our actual worlds! Not even the lame one where Sombra's from a race of goofy smoke moths. Damn you all... bronies."
(I'm sick. Not my fault. Blame the viruses.)
9526910
it kinda feels like that the there should be more than one time skip, like snip it's of her life as she get's older, the cutie mark one like you said, her first date, until you get to the point you want to be at.
oh slightly morbid thought, discord, when he first escapes the statue if he uses his magic as willy nilly as normal then pure's probably gonna end up in the hospital again when the story get's to that point.
A lunch that consists entirely of cookies. Only in magical horse world
9526808
9526603
It actually was mentioned in the first chapter that Pure had a TV in her bedroom.
I just assumed they all did as, whenever I stayed in the hospital as a a kid, there was one in the room.
As for her singing human songs. Ponies speak a different language than humans, so they probably wouldn't translate well without modification.
9525884
That's actually a good idea for another interlude chapter leading to a time skip.
I could write out a bunch of major, minor events in the form of Pure telling Twilight what's going on with their group of friends and the like, informing the readers at the same time, so that I can sort of give you all the cliff notes of what happens during the time being skipped.
9527411
Great story by the way ... thanks for the confirmation. Back in the 90s I remember having tv in my hospital room but not the emergency room ... nowadays they got tv's in the emergency room ... rooms plus WiFi... and cafeterias are waaaay better.... made to order from the grill ... lobster I shit you not. I've spent alllot of time in the hospital ... mostly visiting. Holy s**t I just realized I haven't gone a year without stepping into a hospital for atleast 25 years. Damn *sigh*. Always something.
9526562
If I understand you right then, yes i guess I don't want Pureblood as a simple background character.
About the story development :
Why not?, I just want to see and feel that Pureblood is noticed as someone strong as I described, I don't think I mentioned her needing to fight. It doesn't only happens with adventure type stories even if you noticed it easier there, but if someone get's all the blame for something or stuff like that, then it's usually the main char as far as I noticed.
The guard itself would be more a title I suppose, no need for her to have any big adventures.
I think I remember what I said so I didn't went back and read the whole thing completely again.
Oh yes, I think if I remember it right she recently was pretty close to being bedridden forever again right?
I don't expect anything to big even if it sounds like that. I guess I want to see that other characters think of Pure as pretty important and whatever in a certain way and maybe her getting better in the second half of the story, she doesn't even have to develop awesome magic but maybe her condition could get stable?
I guess if you make a timeskip her condition or another potential accident could be easily used to prevent her from suddenly having a bit group of random friends. Maybe it's just my taste but I like it more to get to know them instead of someone suddenly throwing a group of ponies or second human at me while telling me I have to like them now.
edit: I admit I'm not to sure how long ago it was since she had her last accident.
9528271
I'd stick with this story even if Pure ended up in an Earth Pony town working as the manager of a store to calm down her hypersensitivity to unicorn magic. Also, this kind of story shows the limelight of background characters which is a good thing, since we all know and love the stories from the main cast. It is a chance to show what happens behind the curtain, so to speak.
And from what I remember of this story Pureblood isn't 'the chosen one' by any means. Heck, this story reminds me a lot of Hiver's collection of stories involving Blank Page, though in Pure's case she was too young and inexperienced to actually bring something from the human world to the pony one and exploit it for fun and profit.
9526562
Sounds like a pony with a job as a respiratory specialist in some big hospital like Baltimare General.
9529019
great story you have here hope to see more sometime
I normally don't like time-skips but you really peaked my interest with that AN.
Rereading this. I realised something. Pure's very high sensitivity to magic could allow her to (if she wishes) create the magical version of quantum physics (the science of the very small).
Then again, Pure seems to take to diplomacy like a fish to water so, eh.
You do remember that Twilight got her cuty mark when she did the exam right?
9531747
Hey! I said for when she gets older. It would be creepy if she got one now.
I understand why everpony jumped on Blueblood for that dig about Pureblood's issues with magic... but look at it from the other side.
Blueblood has nothing going for him compared to her except magic. And he's not even all that exceptional at it.
In that sense, he and Twilight Sparkle share something: One is scared of her powerful magic because she hurt a pony with it once and fears doing it again, the other doesn't have powerful magic but can't even really be proud of what little he has since he could also end up hurting a pony. And it's the same pony.
I'd say you've done enough work to do a timeskip pretty soon if you need to. You could probably do one right now if you really wanted to without it coming across as to horribly jarring-you've done a pretty good job setting the stage for how the characters are likely to develop.
I forget how old Pure is at this point. Young but not like 3... I hope... Anyway her getting with the cmc? I'm curious as to how that would work since by the time they do all their crusading Twilight is a young adult and has moved to ponyville so at that point Pure would be a young adult too... I am very confused... Granted I'm working on non optimal sleep lately SO! I might just be having a case of flatulant cranial organ syndrome. If so feel free to rake my brain out with a trowel and shove a plate of cookies in there. I do kind of want a time skip to where she's much older "relatively to current age" since I'm getting a little too full of "I'm a kid" stage. Not that it's bad it's just a wee bit predictable now for me ^^
Looking forward to seeing what you will do with the story however.
Keep up the good work.
9534927
Kind meant that Pure might be around the CMC's age after the timeskip.
I believe it was last chapter someone brought up a good point. Will it be painful for pure if she gets a Cutie Mark? They're pretty magical in nature. I do agree that should be around where the next chapter starts, though: the age that she would get one. I know this is a major slow burn kind of story, and I've especially appreciated several of the scenes we've got to see, but with how sporadic the updates are for this story I've been waiting for the early childhood stage to end for a while now. Mostly, I've been waiting to see how Twilight's relationship with Pure and Blueblood would develop as Celestia's Student and Noble Princess/Prince respectively, and while I am curious to know how Twilight's first year(s) with her new position will end up, I'd much rather see that summarized with a bunch of other things until we get to around the CMC's current age or so. Right now, I think all of the youth are around the CMC's age back in Season 1 if not just a bit younger, though, so maybe the big timeskip should come after Pure gets her Cutie Mark, which could be tied into Twi's first year.
9536903
Well, they're just finishing up in kindergarten now and are going to start first grade, so they're a bit younger than the CMC. If we assume that the CMC were in about third or forth grade, than that means Pure and her age group are three or four years younger right now.
But yes, I was thinking about skipping to CMC age, but the thing I'm really pondering is Blueblood's cutie mark story. I'm thinking about doing the multi-letter format still, and maybe telling Blueblood's story in the last one, and ending it with Pure wondering what her cutie mark might be as a result.
So yeah, the chapter after will start with Blue already having his mark, and will probably be Pure getting hers.
As for Pure's mark hurting her when she gets it, I don't think that'll happen. It's a magical moment, yes, but it's fueled only by the magic in her reserves, meaning it's not going to be a surge that's greater than she can reasonably handle. Plus, her magical health will be improved by this point, so magic won't bother her as much in general.
always happy to see an update.