>Lero being the better human than i'll ever be I'm okay with that. >Berry's chi and willpower next thing you'll say she ate some devil fruit. >Wonderbolts have group sexytimes with team members so stealing this if i even get to writing it down >Luna getting it on with Caddy&(probably)Shiny
I am curious about how the Wonderbolts see Dash and her herd.
Spitfire "Seems if we want Rainbow Dash on our team we need to deal with this...Lero." Fleetfoot "But what can we do about it? According to the report, he is bent." Spitfire "It is time for the secret weapon. Soarin, I need you to go down to Ponyville and seduce Lero." Soarin "I love these kinds of missions, and I get to live out my dream of seducing a hot alien." Spitfire "Good luck soldier."
6421079 You really want a chapter of a stallion using cheesy pick-up lines on an uncomfortable human? Who would want to read that? Well maybe a few folks would now that I think about it. Don't forget that Rainbow is also pretty bent, so I highly doubt a steamy scene with Spitfire and her would happen. Unless she is Wonderbolt-sexual.
This is it, Soarin thought. He took one last slug of his cider, and approached Lero at the other end of the bar. Lero, however, saw him coming and stood up to greet him.
Soarin, mouth agape, took in the tall biped. "You're a big guy."
You really want a chapter of a stallion using cheesy pick-up lines on an uncomfortable human?
Not that specifically, but I think a little comedic relief wouldn't go unappreciated after these last few chapters, all of which have been pretty damn heavy. Watching Soarin crash and burn in one chapter, then bringing him back every once in a while to try again (and maybe succeed at one point, who knows) would provide a nice way to break the tension between serious events like the last three chapters, without breaking the overall flow of the story, and keep readers onboard. If everything was always that heavy and serious, some people will bail, because no one wants to be serious all the time, or deal with the feelings evoked by reading about other people's serious experiences all the time.
6420751 A big part of Lyra's style is being able to read and anticipate the opponent (I believe the Japanese term for this is yomi). It's a part of balance. Berry Punch, considering her art strives to be unbalanced, and her high level at it, is unreadable. So, Lyra has a hard time fighting against her.
A lot of this had to do with warpd's and TheKhopesh's comments on chapter five, where they believed Berry could defeat Lyra (though she couldn't defeat Rainbow Dash; a sort of paper-rock-sissors between the three).
Personally speaking, I can't reconsile a harem/herd structure in my mind. Now, don't get me wrong, it's hot, but if I was to mentally commit to the idea of a relationship long term, it wouldn't be with multiple individuals. I see the love shared between two dedicated individuals as sacred.
I know some might say that love is inheritly a good thing, so more of it can't be bad. While that statement isn't wrong in and of itself, with the nature of that kind of love, it only weakens when spread over more than one individual.
Now, in a story, it is entirely within the author's control on wether or not a polyamorus relationship would work, but in a real-world scenario, the corrupt nature of humans is to gravitate to a favorite (whatever the context). That's why, with that kind of love, you can't have better love just because you have more people involved.
I believe that the smaller the number of people involved in a committed relationship (preferably two) is inversely proportional to the more love you have in that kind of relationship.
(Don't take this comment out of context. I enjoy this story immensely.)
6421157 Bulk Biceps was not so discouraged by size. "You know, I had a thing for minotaurs for a long time now." Lero "You are going to be the bane of my existence now."
This makes sense to me, how they handle the issue. Rather than ripping the herd apart with a hostile takeover or some kind of thing, like I've seen elsewhere, they do what they can to keep things running smoothly for everybody.
Look up Polyamory. There are human beings that make it work super-well for them. It's a thing. Maybe their brains are set up a little different, maybe they have a different culture, who knows?
“I asked him why he was out in the street instead of in the bedroom or fields,” Berry Punch said.
...Okay what?! Where the fuck did this come from? I'm honestly curious if she was lying or not, and if so, was she simply trying to provoke them? Berry just seriously doesn't seem like the kind of mare to do this! Unless she seriously IS just mentally disturbed.
“I wanted a big herd to prove… to prove we could be happy,” and what showed itself in Lyra’s and Dash’s minds were the unspoken trauma of Twilight’s parent herd, and the problems she had with them. Instinctive insight into each other came from their shared history, and they both knew she wanted to prove her childhood experiences wrong.
...Am I going to have to read an entirely different story to understand what's going on here?
Am I going to have to read an entirely different story to understand what's going on here?
Well... it's referring to Archonix's Star Sparkle character, the birth mother for Twilight Sparkle in his Xenophilia stories. You don't have to read them.
“I asked him why he was out in the street instead of in the bedroom or fields,” Berry Punch said.
...Okay what?! Where the fuck did this come from?
This is a reference to the Lunch with Friends chapter of Xenophilia. In the original the mare who spoke it isn't named, Goat Licker decided to give the line to Berry.
6433494 Chapter 5, when the diarchs are talking to Berry Punch about her petition concerning the Runner in the Woods, Luna says, "We have dealt with these archons before".
I don't know why, but I always pitied the members of orgies, and thus have never been particularly fond of the idea of them, even if it is placed under the guise of "team building exercises". I've heard tell of the orgies conducted by Olympian athletes before contests as stress relieving activities, but they always seemed so whorishly unnecessary. I've been on several sports teams in my life, including (American) fooball, swimming, fencing, and weight lifting (the former two being in high school and the latter two at the college level and thus coed) and not once did the concept "team building orgies" even cross our minds. I feel pity for those who decide to partake in them because they always seemed like pure mechanical sex for the sake of getting each other off (the friends with benefits route - which always ends badly for somebody) and denies the participants from engaging in actual romantic relationships (romance is usually what causes bad things in a friends with benefits relationship). The latter of which is what prevents Rainbow Dash from pursuing her dream. I know I'd feel awful if wasn't able to pursue the career I'm dreaming of pursuing because I know I'd be expectd to sleep with my coworkers. It just seems like team building orgies aren't very beneficial to anybody who doesn't expect to remain single the entire duration of their career, or who isn't in an open or polyamorous relationship. Believe me, I'm no prude (I think the fact that I'm reading this wonderfully crafted story is evidence enough), in fact I go to a fine arts school and people look at you funny if something sexual isn't being brought up at least once a week, but IDK. The concept of orgies outside of polyamorous relationships such as the "herd" concept seems unromantic to me. And as a writer, I'm a romantic at heart (Hey! Kinda like Princess Celestia!)
6454485 The Wonderbolts engaging in herd sex I borrowed from The Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of 300 homosexual men who were lovers and great warriors (They defeated the Spartans at the battle of Leuctra), though at least one historian disputes all this.
While I don't necessarily disagree with you, the Ponies, despite being sapient mammals and thus fairly similar to humans, are still an alien race (not just an alien culture), and so their views and practice (and aftermath) of sex would be different from ours (at least, that's how I'm writing it). The problem, of course, is that Lero clashed against these alien ways and mores, and fortunately his herd was loving enough to accommodate his feelings.
I understood the reference to the Thebes warriors, but I still kinda imagined the basic ideas behind love the same. Dopamine, Seratonin, Oxytocin, sexual hormones, etc combining in the brain to create a emotional bond between two (or more) individuals. Even in the LeroVerse, this idea seemed consistent to me. The basic idea behind sexual intercourse en masse stretches these love chemicals rather thin in the brain, especially if the body is trying to engage multiple partners at the same time. There's a reason many historians categorize massive poligamist circles from ancient times as concubines amassed as a show of one's wealth or power, leaving only a select handful of partners as what could be considered true romantic relationships. Not to say I'm knocking the idea, but I just always found the idea of sex in large groups such as with sports teams to be a tad unrealistic. Even the initial news reports of the Olympian orgies turned out to be more or less exaggerated after the facts all came out. The idea was more "two young adults getting togther for a good time" and less masses of sex in team tents. The reports were further exaggerated due to the media taking the idea of handing out condoms to everybody and running with it when in reality it was just that free condoms were available to anybody who chose to use them.
I hadn't considered the idea of sex being a cultural understanding, basically an extension of the extra affection that was common in LeroVerse pony culture, but I still thought that the orignal Xenophilia implied that sex was a much more private affair, and more prudish in modern Equestrian standards compared to the "Ye Ol Days". You even kept that idea, and expanded upon it in this very fic, so I guess I'm more surprised by the inclusion of the idea of a sexual culture within sports teams than anything else.
Also, nice job with the felatio red herring, by the way. I totally thought that was what Lero wanted to talk to the herd about. Threw a real curve ball at me with the "another stallion" idea! Bravo, sir! I also loved the Honeydew arc! Some of the best written Honeydew out there! We'll see more of that, right?
6455983 I'm also thinking of the Wonderbolts as a military unit (since they attacked giant Spike in Secret of My Excess) instead of just a sports team.
Thank you for your comments, and Honeydew will show up again.
6456630 I also consider them a military team, but the show has been putting more emphasis on the entertainment aspect and less the military aspect, so it's been messing me up lately. I kinda consider them like a more militarized Blue Angels. They're a military entertainment team like the Blue Angels, but with more of a military presence than the Blue Angels. It's weird, because there's not really any kind of true analogue for them in our culture.
(There were no nerve endings there, but Twilight felt the pressure of his precise fingers, always so comforting and warm.)
what!? The toad of the horse's hoof is as if it were the palm of the horse's hand (yes the palm of the hand and not the finger) and the hoof is the nail. As such a hull of a horse and sensitive and they feel ticks when you wipe rub with your finger there Have you tried to swipe your finger in the palm of your hand? does tickled.
6457748 Not quite sure what you mean by 'more military presence' than the Blue Angels? To even be considered for the Blue Angels, you need a bare minimum of 1250 flight hours. Unless you mean they serve as a unit in a combat zone and then the Blue Angels still (might) qualify, as they were mobilized to Korea in 1950 as squadron VF-19 (Serving from Mar '50 to Oct '51) - though I will grant that hasn't happened since. IMO, what we've seen canonically makes them look like the Blue Angels/ Thunderbirds.
1. I changed Minuette's dialouge and actions in chapter five to better match the bubbly personality we met in Amending Fences.
2. Lyra's battle mantra is taken from this jisei, or death poem:
>Lero being the better human than i'll ever be
I'm okay with that.
>Berry's chi and willpower
next thing you'll say she ate some devil fruit.
>Wonderbolts have group sexytimes with team members
so stealing this if i even get to writing it down
>Luna getting it on with Caddy&(probably)Shiny
This was a good chapter. It took me places, enjoyable places. I liked it.
I am curious about how the Wonderbolts see Dash and her herd.
Spitfire "Seems if we want Rainbow Dash on our team we need to deal with this...Lero."
Fleetfoot "But what can we do about it? According to the report, he is bent."
Spitfire "It is time for the secret weapon. Soarin, I need you to go down to Ponyville and seduce Lero."
Soarin "I love these kinds of missions, and I get to live out my dream of seducing a hot alien."
Spitfire "Good luck soldier."
Looks like Lyra has got horribly sloppy in her fighting due to not having been against any descent competition, at least in dueling?
Maybe she needs to spend a few matches against Mistress?
Berry Punch style is reminiscent of Lero? How at this time could he possibly compare to a top tuned Earth Pony agility, strength, speed grand master?
True Chaos contains all, past, present future, hidden, pronounced, order.
6420136
Can you make 6420549 's idea a thing? I personally think it's a damn good one.
6421079
You really want a chapter of a stallion using cheesy pick-up lines on an uncomfortable human? Who would want to read that? Well maybe a few folks would now that I think about it. Don't forget that Rainbow is also pretty bent, so I highly doubt a steamy scene with Spitfire and her would happen. Unless she is Wonderbolt-sexual.
6421079
6421131
And now it's ruined for everyone.
6421131
6421157
Not that specifically, but I think a little comedic relief wouldn't go unappreciated after these last few chapters, all of which have been pretty damn heavy. Watching Soarin crash and burn in one chapter, then bringing him back every once in a while to try again (and maybe succeed at one point, who knows) would provide a nice way to break the tension between serious events like the last three chapters, without breaking the overall flow of the story, and keep readers onboard. If everything was always that heavy and serious, some people will bail, because no one wants to be serious all the time, or deal with the feelings evoked by reading about other people's serious experiences all the time.
6420751
A big part of Lyra's style is being able to read and anticipate the opponent (I believe the Japanese term for this is yomi). It's a part of balance. Berry Punch, considering her art strives to be unbalanced, and her high level at it, is unreadable. So, Lyra has a hard time fighting against her.
A lot of this had to do with warpd's and TheKhopesh's comments on chapter five, where they believed Berry could defeat Lyra (though she couldn't defeat Rainbow Dash; a sort of paper-rock-sissors between the three).
6421182
Yes, it's been heavier a lot longer than I wanted it to be. Expect some sweetness and light soon.
6420549 Waaa..?!
That's just... Eww...
Personally speaking, I can't reconsile a harem/herd structure in my mind. Now, don't get me wrong, it's hot, but if I was to mentally commit to the idea of a relationship long term, it wouldn't be with multiple individuals. I see the love shared between two dedicated individuals as sacred.
I know some might say that love is inheritly a good thing, so more of it can't be bad. While that statement isn't wrong in and of itself, with the nature of that kind of love, it only weakens when spread over more than one individual.
Now, in a story, it is entirely within the author's control on wether or not a polyamorus relationship would work, but in a real-world scenario, the corrupt nature of humans is to gravitate to a favorite (whatever the context). That's why, with that kind of love, you can't have better love just because you have more people involved.
I believe that the smaller the number of people involved in a committed relationship (preferably two) is inversely proportional to the more love you have in that kind of relationship.
(Don't take this comment out of context. I enjoy this story immensely.)
6420136 Thats really thought provoking. Good on you!
6421157
Bulk Biceps was not so discouraged by size. "You know, I had a thing for minotaurs for a long time now."
Lero "You are going to be the bane of my existence now."
This makes sense to me, how they handle the issue. Rather than ripping the herd apart with a hostile takeover or some kind of thing, like I've seen elsewhere, they do what they can to keep things running smoothly for everybody.
I like prostables myself,”
What in everlasting heck is a prostable? Sounds like a vitamin supplement for prostate health.
6421769
I thought it was an obscure Equestrian political position.
6421215
Look up Polyamory. There are human beings that make it work super-well for them. It's a thing. Maybe their brains are set up a little different, maybe they have a different culture, who knows?
What was with that ending anyways?
6421157 fucking god damnit
6421857 Could be a cereal?
6421188
Oh look, someone mentioned me.
6420549
Awww, Soarin thinks Lero is hot.
6421857 You, sir, are an incredibly silly person.
I'm interested to see where this goes, if anywhere.
...Okay what?! Where the fuck did this come from? I'm honestly curious if she was lying or not, and if so, was she simply trying to provoke them? Berry just seriously doesn't seem like the kind of mare to do this! Unless she seriously IS just mentally disturbed.
...Am I going to have to read an entirely different story to understand what's going on here?
6423311
Well... it's referring to Archonix's Star Sparkle character, the birth mother for Twilight Sparkle in his Xenophilia stories. You don't have to read them.
6423325 Was it from "No room for regret"? I haven't read that, got scared away by Archonix removing "Xenophilia" from the title.
6424963
That's one of them, yes. She also appears in some of the Xenophile's Guide to Equestria chapters.
6423311
This is a reference to the Lunch with Friends chapter of Xenophilia. In the original the mare who spoke it isn't named, Goat Licker decided to give the line to Berry.
Have these Archons been mentioned previously?
6433494
Chapter 5, when the diarchs are talking to Berry Punch about her petition concerning the Runner in the Woods, Luna says, "We have dealt with these archons before".
That was quite an amazing fight!
I don't know why, but I always pitied the members of orgies, and thus have never been particularly fond of the idea of them, even if it is placed under the guise of "team building exercises". I've heard tell of the orgies conducted by Olympian athletes before contests as stress relieving activities, but they always seemed so whorishly unnecessary. I've been on several sports teams in my life, including (American) fooball, swimming, fencing, and weight lifting (the former two being in high school and the latter two at the college level and thus coed) and not once did the concept "team building orgies" even cross our minds. I feel pity for those who decide to partake in them because they always seemed like pure mechanical sex for the sake of getting each other off (the friends with benefits route - which always ends badly for somebody) and denies the participants from engaging in actual romantic relationships (romance is usually what causes bad things in a friends with benefits relationship). The latter of which is what prevents Rainbow Dash from pursuing her dream. I know I'd feel awful if wasn't able to pursue the career I'm dreaming of pursuing because I know I'd be expectd to sleep with my coworkers. It just seems like team building orgies aren't very beneficial to anybody who doesn't expect to remain single the entire duration of their career, or who isn't in an open or polyamorous relationship. Believe me, I'm no prude (I think the fact that I'm reading this wonderfully crafted story is evidence enough), in fact I go to a fine arts school and people look at you funny if something sexual isn't being brought up at least once a week, but IDK. The concept of orgies outside of polyamorous relationships such as the "herd" concept seems unromantic to me. And as a writer, I'm a romantic at heart (Hey! Kinda like Princess Celestia!)
6454485
The Wonderbolts engaging in herd sex I borrowed from The Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of 300 homosexual men who were lovers and great warriors (They defeated the Spartans at the battle of Leuctra), though at least one historian disputes all this.
While I don't necessarily disagree with you, the Ponies, despite being sapient mammals and thus fairly similar to humans, are still an alien race (not just an alien culture), and so their views and practice (and aftermath) of sex would be different from ours (at least, that's how I'm writing it). The problem, of course, is that Lero clashed against these alien ways and mores, and fortunately his herd was loving enough to accommodate his feelings.
I understood the reference to the Thebes warriors, but I still kinda imagined the basic ideas behind love the same. Dopamine, Seratonin, Oxytocin, sexual hormones, etc combining in the brain to create a emotional bond between two (or more) individuals. Even in the LeroVerse, this idea seemed consistent to me. The basic idea behind sexual intercourse en masse stretches these love chemicals rather thin in the brain, especially if the body is trying to engage multiple partners at the same time. There's a reason many historians categorize massive poligamist circles from ancient times as concubines amassed as a show of one's wealth or power, leaving only a select handful of partners as what could be considered true romantic relationships. Not to say I'm knocking the idea, but I just always found the idea of sex in large groups such as with sports teams to be a tad unrealistic. Even the initial news reports of the Olympian orgies turned out to be more or less exaggerated after the facts all came out. The idea was more "two young adults getting togther for a good time" and less masses of sex in team tents. The reports were further exaggerated due to the media taking the idea of handing out condoms to everybody and running with it when in reality it was just that free condoms were available to anybody who chose to use them.
I hadn't considered the idea of sex being a cultural understanding, basically an extension of the extra affection that was common in LeroVerse pony culture, but I still thought that the orignal Xenophilia implied that sex was a much more private affair, and more prudish in modern Equestrian standards compared to the "Ye Ol Days". You even kept that idea, and expanded upon it in this very fic, so I guess I'm more surprised by the inclusion of the idea of a sexual culture within sports teams than anything else.
Also, nice job with the felatio red herring, by the way. I totally thought that was what Lero wanted to talk to the herd about. Threw a real curve ball at me with the "another stallion" idea! Bravo, sir! I also loved the Honeydew arc! Some of the best written Honeydew out there! We'll see more of that, right?
6455983
I'm also thinking of the Wonderbolts as a military unit (since they attacked giant Spike in Secret of My Excess) instead of just a sports team.
Thank you for your comments, and Honeydew will show up again.
6456630 I also consider them a military team, but the show has been putting more emphasis on the entertainment aspect and less the military aspect, so it's been messing me up lately. I kinda consider them like a more militarized Blue Angels. They're a military entertainment team like the Blue Angels, but with more of a military presence than the Blue Angels. It's weird, because there's not really any kind of true analogue for them in our culture.
Also: yaya Honeydew!
(There were no nerve endings there, but Twilight felt the pressure of his precise fingers, always so comforting and warm.)
what!? The toad of the horse's hoof is as if it were the palm of the horse's hand (yes the palm of the hand and not the finger) and the hoof is the nail. As such a hull of a horse and sensitive and they feel ticks when you wipe rub with your finger there
Have you tried to swipe your finger in the palm of your hand? does tickled.
Anyway good story
6457748
Not quite sure what you mean by 'more military presence' than the Blue Angels? To even be considered for the Blue Angels, you need a bare minimum of 1250 flight hours. Unless you mean they serve as a unit in a combat zone and then the Blue Angels still (might) qualify, as they were mobilized to Korea in 1950 as squadron VF-19 (Serving from Mar '50 to Oct '51) - though I will grant that hasn't happened since. IMO, what we've seen canonically makes them look like the Blue Angels/ Thunderbirds.