Rose and Sam
Chapter 10: Fallout
Admiral Biscuit
I’d known that this was going to come, and I’d already decided that there were three outcomes. One, Lily would gallop up to her room and barricade herself in. Two, she’d run out into the garden to make sure all her flowers were okay. Three, she’d just started yelling at me.
I hadn’t thought of that when Sam was first at the doorstep; I’d only thought of how I would deal with her, and it wasn’t until I’d really noticed how Sam was leaving her scent everywhere that I started to consider how Lily would react to knowing Sam had been in our garden and house.
To her credit, her flowers actually came before personal safety; she took a deep breath and I thought she was about to tear a strip off my hide, then she shot into the backyard like her tail was on fire.
Both Daisy and I flinched as the back door slammed open hard enough to rattle the windows. Daisy’s ears perked right back up, no doubt expecting a scream of anguish. I had no doubt that once she saw that nothing obvious had been destroyed, Lily would examine every one of her flowers before coming back inside to yell at me, so I turned to Daisy instead. “Tea?”
It took her a moment, and then she nodded.
Once I got the kettle on, she suggested I make enough for Lily, too, who might need it to calm down.
“Maybe if I spike it with brandy,” I muttered. “A lot of brandy.”
“Just brandy with the tea infuser in it,” Daisy said. “That might help. Her flowers are okay, aren’t they?”
“I didn’t let Sam touch them, nor any weeds that were around them.”
“How about mine?”
“Sam handled some, but not until I could see she knew what she was doing.”
“It must have been scary.”
“At first.” I sat down across from Daisy and traced my hoof across the table. “When she was at the door . . . I knew she was seeking jobs on the board, but didn’t think when I put it up. And then I didn’t want to be rude and turn her away, plus I needed the help.” Daisy was pro-Sam generally, but that didn’t mean she really wanted her in the house or garden. “Everypony says she’s a good worker.”
“Is she?”
“We ran out of starter trays,” I said. “Once she was taught what to do, she was quick.”
“You don’t think Lily will smell her on the trays, do you? She might dump them out.”
“She’s not that paranoid.” If she did, I was going to make her replant every single seed, no matter how long it took.
“I hope not.”
•••
It was easier to gossip with mugs of tea in front of us. Lily was still out back inspecting her flowers; we’d taken turns looking through the window at her to make sure she was okay. It was hard to tell if she was frustrated or relieved that all of her flowers were unharmed. Sometimes a pony is upset and wants a reason to justify her anger, but Lily wasn’t going to find that out in the garden.
Maybe I should have let Sam use her towel, that would be something she could be angry about that didn’t matter at all.
Lily didn’t need to know that I’d made three meals for Sam and paid her extra for her work. Lily didn’t need to know that I’d let Sam spend the night, nor that I’d let her share my bed.
But I was still turning some of that over in my mind, and I could tell Daisy. That was what I told myself, but it was easier to think about it than to say it aloud.
“I kinda lost track of time,” I said. “We were in the greenhouse planting starters and had a rhythm going, and then it was late and raining, so I decided that I ought to offer dinner.”
Daisy nodded.
“And a bath, since she got dirty.”
“Did you treat her to the spa?”
I shook my head. “I could have, I suppose, but just offered our bath. Do you think she’d like the spa? I’ve heard from some ponies she’s visited before but only once or twice, and they said she didn’t seem to like it.”
“I heard that, too. And that she wore under-shorts into the soaking tub and in the shower so that nobody could see what her cutie mark was.”
“She doesn’t have one.”
“I heard that, too.” Daisy’s magic flashed, and she lifted her teacup and took a sip. “So it’s true?”
“Both things, she has under-pants that Rarity made and she doesn’t have a cutie mark. She does have a crotch coat, though, it’s just like the fur under her arms and it goes down to her vulva.”
“I wonder why?”
“She said that’s how humans were, which isn’t much of an explanation. Why only have a little fur, have you ever heard of anything like that? I thought maybe some mage cast a spell on her and burned most of it off, and she’s just embarrassed to say so.”
“That could happen,” Daisy said. “If a spell misfired or something. Mom says that I singed all the fur on my foreleg off when I was a little filly and cast a wild spell. Maybe it’s for the best that I don’t have a horn, I could have burned myself bald. If I did it to myself as an adult, I’d be embarrassed to admit how it happened.”
“I don’t think she can do casting magic, she used her paws—hands—for everything.”
“What about her back paws? I heard that under her boots those are paw-like, too.”
“Her talons were stumpy, so I don’t know how much she could do with them. She didn’t wear her boots while she was working, not until she left, so I don’t know if she could for sure.”
•••
Talking with Daisy helped get some things clear in my mind, but it was only an interlude before Lily finally came back in from the garden, now assured that her plants were all unharmed. Her mane was frazzled, the flower behind her ear was missing, and her coat was glistening with a faint sheen of sweat.
She did stop long enough to scrape her hooves clean on the mat and I thought about mentioning that Sam had used it, too, but it wasn’t smart to poke an angry bear.
“I can’t believe you,” she began, then turned to Daisy. “And you, encouraging her, drinking tea like it was normal to invite a monster over to touch our flowers and do who knows what to them? Put a curse on them, or something, just because everything looks okay doesn’t mean that it is, and you’re just pretending. Everypony is just pretending; the mayor never should have let her in town and any sensible pony should have run her back out.”
“She’s not a monster,” I said. I was suddenly feeling very tired. “If she was a monster, she would have done something monster-y by now.”
“Why doesn’t she have fur, then? Why does she have paws? Why does she live in the woods and stay away from other ponies?”
Daisy and I exchanged a look—we both knew why she stayed away from certain ponies, at least.
“She does live in town,” Daisy said. “She rented that house over on—”
“Now she does because nopony’s smart enough to stop her. She’s got everypony under an enchantment, but I can see through it, I read it in the newspaper and everypony says so and they can’t print it if it isn’t true.” Lily snorted. “And now the house smells like her and the flowers are all cursed and neither of you care, neither of you will do anything. I can’t trust you alone, next thing you’ll be inviting the manticore or a diamond dog into our house.”
I thought about telling Lily that she hadn’t said not to hire Sam, but that wasn’t going to be a winning argument.
“Maybe you’re the one who’s wrong,” I said. “If you’re not willing to get close to her, if you’re not willing to talk to her, how do you know? Has anypony in your newspaper ever talked to her?”
“They’ve seen her, and that’s enough.”
“You could ask Ginger,” Daisy said. “If you think that Rose is under a spell. Ginger wouldn’t let anypony put a spell on her, wouldn’t let anypony get close enough to try.”
“How about Teff and Einkorn?”
“Or the miller?”
Lily stomped on the floor. “How about how Twilight got caught by the cockatrice? She’s a smart pony, isn’t she?”
That was true, even if it hadn’t been in a newspaper. Little fillies made up stories all the time, but those three hadn’t been lying, even Fluttershy had been distant for a few weeks afterwards.
I didn’t have an answer and doubt crept in. Everypony knew that cocaktrices were sneaky and they’d hold your gaze even when you wanted to look away.
I had to trust what I knew to be true. If Sam had been trying to lure me in, she would have done something, she wouldn’t have behaved almost like a pony, and she wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to get me while I was sleeping.
“Everypony makes mistakes,” Daisy said. “Remember what happened when Big Mac got hurt, and Applejack was trying to run the farm herself because she was too proud to get any help. Even though anypony would have helped her if she’d asked.”
“What about Pinkie Pie?”
The two of them both turned to look at me.
“She hasn’t—” Daisy began, but I cut her off.
“If anypony’s a good judge of character in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie is. I know for a fact that Sam has gotten treats from Sugarcube Corner before. Ask her what she thinks.”
“She’s not always right.”
“No?”
Lily’s eyes darted back and forth and her ears flattened. “What about, she was wrong about—”
“Zecora?” Daisy finished. “Who isn’t a monster.”
“So she could be wrong about Sam, too.”
“She knew Zecora wasn’t a monster as soon as she actually talked to her,” I said. “Everypony did once they got over being scared.”
“You were scared, too.”
“And I shouldn’t have been, I was jumping at shadows and listening too much to what everypony said, and not seeing the evidence in front of my eyes. Monsters are always monsters, they don’t pretend not to be long enough to work chopping wood or moving flour or weeding flowers, and maybe if you stop worrying about her and just talk to her like she was any other pony, you’d see that, too.” I pushed my teacup away and stood up. “She got a lot of work done, she earned her bits, and I’m sorry you don’t want to see that. There’s more work to do. I’m going to go do it, and you should, too. Arguing gets us nowhere, and your flowers won’t weed themselves.”
•••
I knew that Lily wasn’t going to stay mad at me forever. None of her flowers had been harmed, after all, and I understood that it took time to get used to a new thing. Lily had had a thing or two to say about Sam getting a house in town, then she’d stopped talking about it. And when Sam had pushed our wagon out of the mud, she hadn’t been upset—she’d grown to accept Sam in town, at least, and she could get used to the idea of Sam working in the flowerbeds, too.
Eventually.
Until then, I had to put up with her sulking around the house and being snippy whenever she talked to me, but she’d get over it.
We were tending to Lily’s plants, they’d mostly gotten overlooked on purpose, and I knew she had mixed feelings about that. On the one hoof, the idea of Sam touching them offended her; on another, the fact that my plants and Daisy’s plants were almost all weeded and watered and hers weren’t felt like an insult, and I couldn’t blame her for thinking that. If I hadn’t had to teach Sam as much, I could have had Lily’s flowers all tended to. Next time, Sam would remember what she’d learned and be quicker, need less supervision, and I could make quick work of the other plants.
If there was a next time, if Lily ever trusted me to be left home alone.
What if I had to choose between them? What if Lily didn’t get over being mad, and gave an ultimatum? Who would I pick? The logical answer was the friend I’d known longer, the pony I lived with, but my heart had a different answer.
I honestly feel sorry for Lilly, that sort of paranoia sounds exhausting, to say nothing of what it does to one's emotional stability.
I'm imagining a future scene where Sam casually picks something up off the floor with her feet and Rose asks "Why don't you do that all the time?"
I hope Lilly at least meets Sam with an open mind. I do agree Pinkie is an outlier when it comes to ponies. It makes me wonder how the Apple family would utilize Sam if they needed help?
11108039
Isn't that considered a subset of BASE Jumping?
11130258
For different reasons I’ve been reading up on the effects of long-term stress on the body, being stuck in a constant state of fight or flight, and you’re right, it’s not good. She very much needs to learn some ways to manage her hair-trigger or else she’s going to have all sorts of issues.
11130273
Assuming Sam’s got halfway decent toe-control, she potentially could. I could probably pick up a pencil or something with bare feet, I’m not sure how much toe control I actually have.
11130255
Whose aura, again? From the new chapter I see that Daisy is no unicorn even in this, so… I guess I need to go back and see in context.
Okay. I can see no unicorns in this scene. Just the 3 flower sisters, who are all earth ponies.
11130274
Hah! Lily? Not much chance of that, she’s too reactionary and too tightly-wound.
She really is. For better or worse, that’s up to the jury to decide.
I feel like the Apple family believes that if you do what you say you’re gonna do, you’re okay, and in that regard Sam would be respected. She might not be their first choice when it comes to hiring someone to help out, but they would absolutely respect somepony or someperson who learns quick and works hard.
11130304
I don’t know . . . without doing a lot of digging, I know that normal balloons fly high enough that it’s above the normal BASE jumping heights. I would think that jumping out of a hot air balloon at 3,000 feet (1,000m) and parachuting down isn’t really challenging, but there’s a lot I don’t know about parachuting or BASE jumping; neither are my thing.
11130331
I know, right?
11130333
She’s not a unicorn, she’s an earth pony with a unicorn parent.
As for the in canon:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/10/13/121462.gif
Potato-cam quality, but an animation error proves she can levitate sticks, at least. You want the headcanon dump?
<deep breath>
Given that there are three tribes of ponies and the Apple Family Reunion group shots proves that ponies aren’t always picky when it comes to who they hook up with, as well as the Cakes producing a unicorn and a pegasus, it’s reasonable to assume that some pony offspring appear as one tribe but have at least some magical characteristics of a different tribe. Take, for example, Cherry Berry, an earth pony who in canon really likes flying. I would argue, and an animation error backs me up, that there are some Earth ponies with unicorns in their family tree who can do casting magic. Likely not as well as an actual unicorn, but to a degree a purebred earth pony couldn’t.
Daisy (in my headcanon) is a earth pony/unicorn hybrid, and while she does have some casting (horn) magic abilities, she’s also scrawnier than most earth pony mares. She’s got the skills to use her magic to stack firewood, but she’s not the mare you’d want to hire to pull a wagon.
11130295
I agree to a point, but what I was thinking was, since they have had time to get acquainted with each other, at some point surely they could just talk about it.
Even if it is a potentially sore subject, there are still ways to ask with at least significantly reduced risk of offending.
Rose has already asked questions she herself thought should be offensive (why pubic hair, why no cutie mark, etc.) and Sam demonstrated a willingness to answer, so I think it stands to reason that, if it bugs her that much, she would just suck it up and ask, even if she did so tactfully.
Again, I don't mean to be too harshly critical, because I am really enjoying the story. I just want some advancement in the plot.
(that being said, this newest chapter was nice, because Rose was at least discussing the situation with Daisy, instead of just *thinking* about it.)
I still just want them to be adults and talk about it.
As long as that happens eventually, it's fine
11130333
it's a reference to an animation error. I don't remember exactly, but either she is depicted as a unicorn at one point, or she is shown using magic, but still being an Earth Pony.
In the fic, she is still an Earth Pony, but she's like 1/4 unicorn so she has some magic, just not much
11130258
11130274
Well, from the other Sam and Rose stories she does get better around Sam.
So... Rose's fallout shelter would be Sam's house, then.
Silly filly Lily needs Sam to give her a serious application of raspberries to the soft underbelly. Followed by ear scritches. It's the only way! Or at least, that's my desired solution to Lily's massive fear issues, and I'm sticking to it!
11130330
if it can fit between my toes, i can pick it up with my feet in most cases. I do it all the time with small items like paper, pencils, phone chargers etc. Rarely, i'll get a slightly heavier object like a small 1lb bag.
So far, you haven't given Sam a reason why she couldn't do that. I don't think you need a lot of toe control since all you're doing is just pinching them against whatever you want to hold. They don't have the same dexterity as fingers.
My ad is "ProFlowers" with a picture of Roses.
This should be:
Daisy calmed pretty quickly, but is seems like Lily freaked out for over an hour.
11130329
She will be lucky if she does not drop dead from the stress:
Lily. Sweetie. Darling. SHUT. YOUR FING. FACE. You have ISSUES.
11130348
Ah yes, a fellow advocate of hybrids. A headcanoneer of culture. I too subscribe to the notion of pony genetics and potential appearace of physical or magical hybridization. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy being prime candidates as example.
11130273
I do this in pools all the time... I don't think I've done it outside of water very often.
I'll be honest. I feel like the different racial magic would be seen as a birth defect. Sure Lily gets off mostly ok but poor Scoots with likely Earth Pony magic gets kept from the sky. (it would explain how that filly has the speed, endurance and durability of an earth pony)
Lily's quite soundly covered all her bases, hasn't she? Sam's an antisocial hermit who they never should have let charm her way into town. A horrible monster who has to be a monster despite all evidence to the contrary because ponies said so in a newspaper, and it's not like they'll give just anypony a printing press. Sam has to be a monster, because otherwise Lily would be scared for no good reason, and admitting that would be much worse than something nasty in their midst.
In all seriousness, I do hope this resolves itself positively before Lily ends up chasing out one of her friends. That seems all too possible right now.
11130630
yeah I do it whenever i can't be bothered to bend over and pick something up.
Ah yes. A compromise to irrational fear
Boy, I could sell some bridges to this mare. All it takes is a printing press.
Oh hey, an argument exactly against irrational xenophobia
Lily, you can't both complain about her being "weird and not living in town", and about her moving into town. One invalidates the other
11130371
Maybe she has a retractable horn?
11130443
no, "who should I pick" is correct, by virtue of "whom" in general being phased out of basically all use.
No one except the most stuck up of pedants give a single shit about who vs whom
11130883
Yes, semiliterate ponies cannot tell the difference, but grammarians agree that we should speak correctly. ¿Whom do you trust? I trust the grammarians.
11130893
as a grammarian myself (I got my degree in communications), I disagree. The only reason for any grammatical rules are to facilitate communication and reduce ambiguity.
If there is no ambiguity, then there is no mistake. For this reason, dangling participles are unacceptable because they change the meaning of the sentence.
But using "who" instead of "whom" does not affect the meaning of the sentence in any way.
Besides that, dialogue does not necessarily adhere to the rules as rigidly as more formal written works do.
I GUARANTEE you, if you (personally, not just generally) are talking to a friend, you say "who are you going with?" If you actually want to tell me you say, out loud, "with whom are you going," then you're either an insufferable prick, or just lying to me.
So, yeah, for formal writing, it's best to use the "correct" version, but not only is this NOT formal writing, the instance in question was dialogue, which is more or less exempt from normal grammar rules anyway.
11130975
One should always try to speak properly. A good model is "On the Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin. It is both conversational and grammatically correct. It is such an easy read that only Flat/Young-Earth Geocentric Creationists cannot understand it.
As for pronunciation, I cannot escape my regional dialect. When I was younger, I wanted Received Pronunciation, but now I want a Mid-Atlantic Accent (¿Canadian Dainty?) Like Miẞ Rarity.
English could use reforms like inverted punctuation and spelling reforms for brevity (Maẞ for Mass, fül for fuel, et cetera).
11130989
oh, great, you're a prescriptionist.
I've already explained why speaking "properly" is only relevant in formal settings, but also, what is "proper" varies based on region, dialect, etc.
Sorry, but you're just wrong. Grammar isn't a weapon to use for correcting people and making yourself feel superior. It's a tool to enable communication.
And as long as communication isn't being hindered, there is no benefit to enforcing arbitrary rules just *because.* No one is confused when you use "who" instead of "whom." It doesn't matter. Especially not in dialogue, and ESPECIALLY within a borderline-softcore-pornographic fanfiction about fucking magical talking horses.
There's a time and place for enforcing "proper" grammar, and this is SUPER not it.
11130330
Have you never done it before? I thought it was fairly normal to pick stuff up with your feet on occasion
11130445 Not issues, SUBSCRIPTIONS.
11131197
Those Americans are heartless; they oppose providing cots in dry places above freezing. Some freezing homeless deliberately get themselves arrested for the shelter of jail.
11130366
They do discuss some of it here and there throughout the stories, but perhaps not as much as they should.
I dunno, it seems to me (and maybe I’m wrong) that when you ask someone something and they kind of give you a non-answer, maybe it’s best to not press that issue. Sam’s a bit more aggressive when it comes to getting answers.
As they get more comfortable with each other, they’d get a better sense of what each other’s boundaries are, although Sam might not ever be able to fully explain to Rose the necessity of clothes.
11130435
That’s a good place, yeah.
I have a feeling she’d faint from ‘the horror’ as soon as Sam got close to her soft underbelly and would never wind up appreciating any of the rest.
Maybe a good bonding exercise once Lily is over her immediate fear would be sit on the couch and give Rose ear scritches and then see if Lily gets bold enough to ask for some.
11130441
Hmm, I can’t recall the last thing I picked up with my toes, although I’m sure I must have picked up something with them in the past.
That’s true, there’s no reason she couldn’t.
11130443
Nice! I pay the money and don’t get the ads.
It’s internal monologue, it can be vernacular. And Rose commits far fewer sins against grammar than Silver Glow (and can read, unlike Ginger Gold).
Daisy already knows that Sam isn’t a monster.
This is true. The constant stress can’t be good for her.
11130445
I think that 11131145 summed up the reply better than I ever could have
11131241
Lily might just sit there and pretend to ignore it all, making accidental eye contact with Sam and then huffing as she turned away. {"Stay frosty! Do NOT ask for scritches. But wow, Rose sure likes that... NO! No...") At that point, Sam would need to just go for it when she's not looking and win her over completely with scritches. Well, mostly completely, because Lily.
11130596
It makes sense. I would think most earth pony/unicorn hybrids would never really learn to use their magic because they wouldn’t be taught, or in some cases because they wanted to hide it. Daisy does give some more explanations of it in a different story.
While I agree with Fluttershy, I’m kind of torn on Pinkie Pie. Arkensaw Pinkerton’s Three Magics postulated the different way the different tribes interact with magic, and in that story Pinkie Pie was the earth pony-est of the earth ponies, like she’s basically one with the Harmony which is why she can do all the weird things she does.
Here’s some food for thought, though: what if Rarity is part earth pony? In the early seasons anyway, she was often the first to start a fight, and she was almost always physical rather than magical (for example, she bucks the manticore). I always assumed Magnum was an earth pony and that was why, then Hasbro changed his name and made him a unicorn.
We do know from Apple Family Reunion that their extended family is not all Earth ponies.
11130630
Potentially it could, depending on the implications and how the parents/community reacted to it. Sure, Scootaloo has it rough (especially as a filly) but maybe she’ll grow up to build airships or pilot them or something. Or maybe there is some magical solution that could be found, some way to channel her earth pony magic into pegasus magic.
I think that Cherry Berry has pegasus genes in her, that’s why she’s got the balloon and the helicopter.
11130634
Yeah, pretty much. Thank heavens this is a work of fiction and real-life people don’t actually do this. . . .
Oh, wait.
For better or worse, she’s probably also scared of losing Rose and Daisy which might make her have to learn to live with Sam. And honestly, Rose isn’t entirely in the right here; while Lily might warm to Sam from seeing her around town, talking to her in passing, the idea that Sam was in the flowerbeds when Lily wasn’t even home is a bridge too far.
11130640
Most of the stuff I drop is at the shop, and I’d rather not take my shoes and socks off just to pick up a wrench I dropped. Maybe when it warms up enough that I can go sock-less at home, I’ll try picking things up with my feet.
11130682
That’s a reasonable one, too.
I know, right? And she’s probably blissfully unaware of how many times her conspiracy newspaper has been proven wrong.
It’s one of those ‘gotcha’ moments, but Lily’s currently too panicked to appreciate it (if she ever would).
That’s the beauty about irrational fears and xenophobia! You totally can object to both things.
11130773
It’s not retractable, she just doesn’t have one.
A retractable horn would be pretty cool, though.
11131102
I mean, I’m sure I have on some occasion, although I can’t think of one.
11131218
I agree.
11131276
Me neither lol. Now I'm imagining Rarity or someone inventing toe shoes for Sam.
Eeeeeeee updated!
11130773
... now I'm imagining one of thos collapsable cups but as a horn.