• Member Since 23rd Sep, 2012
  • offline last seen Apr 27th, 2018

Cranberry Muffin


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It's Hearth's Warming Eve, the most festive, joyful time of the year! Everypony is busy merry-making, getting ready for another grand Hearth's Warming Celebration, or just reveling in the spirit of the season.

Everypony, that is, except for Gusty, who's more full of bah-humbug than goodwill.

All she wanted was a quiet Hearth's Warming at home with Gingerbread. What she's got instead is an impromptu trip to Canterlot, an overactive, bratty filly on her hooves, a snobby brother-in-law, a special somepony who's too busy prepping for the holiday festivities to spend any quality time with her, and -worst of all!- a whole host of her own personal ghosts chasing her.

With everything suddenly beyond her control, it's going to take everything Gusty's got to find the true magic of Hearth's Warming Eve in the world around her and in her own heart.


Notes: This takes place shortly after the events of Currents. It will definitely make more sense if you read that first!

The vast majority of the characters in this story are imported from G1, with a few OCs tossed in to the mix.

Chapters (15)
Comments ( 149 )

Good so far. You get a score of A/10.

Oh! This is a cool intro! I'm really digging the comical yet serious letters! Please do keep it up as this could turn out rather interesting.

1699457

That's some fancy math! Is A/10 good? :applejackconfused:

1699513

Thank you! The rest of the story (save for the epilogue) won't be written as letters, but I am going to try to keep the same light-ish air about it, even with some of the more depressing themes I'll be playing with. I really wish this site had a tag for angst!

Interesting. I will be watching this.

I like the intro here; unique way of doing things, what with the letters. :twilightsmile: This looks like it'll be good!

1703949

I try to keep things fresh!

And there's more to come soon...I hope you continue to enjoy it.

1703963

I can't wait. And I expect I will enjoy! :twilightsmile:

1704041

I hope so! Given that you're the founder of the G1 group, I'm assuming you know G1...My FiM incarnations of Fizzy and a teenaged "baby" Lofty will be appearing later in this as well :3

1704121

:twilightsheepish: Ah, heh heh... um. :unsuresweetie: I haven't seen anything but Rescue From Midnight Castle yet, though I've been meaning to watch the others; been busy. Most of my knowledge comes secondhand, I started the group anyway because of the reasons stated on said group's main page. :twilightoops:

1704162

:rainbowderp:

You need to watch more! It's just as dorky, all of it, but so worth the watch! I currently have the special with the Princess Ponies from the library and I've watched pretty much all the rest of it. The characters are so lame, but still...It's good fun (like any classic 80s cartoon)!

In any case, there will be more G1 characters showing up! My Cupcake is going to be slightly different from the original version; she's a little more posh and a little less motherly, but still loveable. Fizzy will definitely still be a ditzy dork and Lofty is kind of a wildcard right now, but she will have some problems flying, just like her baby self from G1 :pinkiehappy:

1704196 I concur. And that seems to be the general consensus; the storylines and setting were good but the characters were a bit on the flat side? Still worthwhile. :pinkiesmile:

Alright, sounds good! :pinkiehappy:

1704264

The ponies were so helpless! Every little thing and they were running to Megan for help! But two-dimensional characters were totally a thing in the 80s.

1704306 Yeah, I noticed that myself in Midnight Castle.

That they were; it's somewhat amusing that the biggest time for pop culture was full of flatness in terms of characterization. :shrug:

1704319

That's part of what makes working with them fun, though! I'm able to look at one teeny bit of their personality and flesh them out to something more. It's very rewarding!

your cousin Rarity

Wow, wasn't expecting that!!

1713934

Yeah, it's kind of random, but I was like "hmm...Gusty is a white unicorn. Rarity is a white unicorn. I WANT THEM TO BE RELATED!!" and went with it. I think they would drive each other mad at family gatherings and that made me smile -- They're kind of polar opposites, what with Gusty being brash and tomboy-ish and Rarity being froofy and polite. I also think it would annoy Rarity to no end, knowing that Gusty grew up in Canterlot :raritydespair:

1715114 Well that's two family gatherings I do and do not want to see.
Although Rarity getting flustered by all the little things is always funny!!

The other one is in another fic I am reading, where Braeburn asks AB if she's hit estrus yet. If front of her potential coltfriend....and her family!!

1715156

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get around to writing something like that, because I don't think I could write Rarity, like, at all. If inspiration ever strikes, I may get around to it, though. I have it in my head that when she first arrived in Ponyville, Gusty was staying with Rarity and haaaaaated it.

And that other story...Sounds really special ^^a

1715173 You may have noticed it in the feature box a few times, Cutie Mark Catastrophes. It's not as bad as you think, each of the CMC get put in embarrassing situations...although the author does seem to have it in for AB at the moment!!!

Well worth a read it you got the time, but I'd suggest starting at story number one otherwise you'll just think
"who the buck is this??" with some of the characters

Well Gusty, if there are any ponies there that remember you, and start being horrible to you, just use you magic to blow them away, literally!!

1716051

Oh, there will be ponies that remember Gusty. Whether or not that will be a good or bad thing is yet to be seen~ :raritywink:

I really want to know what happened that makes Gutsy so reluctant to return to Canterlot.

My money is either on peer abuse, or her parents doing something unintended but caused her to run away.

1716219

Unlike Derpy, Gusty's parents are actually pretty supportive. Her mom (as you will later see) is just kind of cheerfully oblivious to most things and her dad is science-minded.

With Gusty, the impression she's giving me is that she just didn't fit in with fancy ponies. She's reluctant to go back because she hated life there since she was so different from almost everypony else she knew (except for a couple characters who'll show up later!).

1716252
ahh, from the way you described her reaction from arriving back into the city, I thought that the reason for her leaving would have been a bit more traumatic.

I do want to 'meet' her parents though.

1716298

When you're an adolescent, anything has potential to be traumatic. There WAS teasing involved; her magic is severely outdated and not really useful. And she hasn't harnessed her full potential, so she struggled a lot with school. But she's also not a dormat either; Gusty is pretty tough and didn't take bullying like a certain pegasus did -- I bet she actually picked fights with other unicorns when they made fun of her.

I don't know if her dad will show later, but her mom DEFINITELY will.

1716310
Makes sense I suppose. I dont remember too much of my adolescent years (probably for the better), so I may not have been the best judge.

And I figured that her mom would be fairly prominent based on her letters in the first chapter.

Well, this should be fun for Gusty. [/sarcasm]

Not much happening in this chapter, yet a whole lot going on. Setting up Gusty's dread for Canterlot, expounding a bit more on her and Gingerbread, both individually and together, and all-in-all rather satisfying.

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Sad gutsy makes me sad. Between her social problems and Gingerbread being forced to cover for her, the awkward levels in this chapter are off the chart.

I like it. :pinkiecrazy:

1742145

Gusty is painfully awkward. It's part of what I (and Gingerbread!) like about her. She's going to eventually wind up kind of snappish, but for now...She's just so stressed about being in Canterlot that she doesn't have it in her to be grouchy.

Poor Gusty. I'm starting to really dislike Graham Cracker, and we've just met him. Lemon doesn't seem too bad, insensitive rather than actually rude, though that may change. Cupcake seems nice as well, though she could really stand to pay more attention.

:twilightsmile: Another great chapter here; it will be interesting to watch how this all unfolds.

1742946

Graham is meant to kind of be the 'villain' in this story; he's the epitome of the kind of unicorn Gusty dislikes. He's not all bad, though, just ignorant. Lemon isn't really mature enough to know that she's being hurtful. I'm really hoping to build her up a bit and have some...devious plans for her in later parts of the story :trixieshiftright:

And Cupcake is Cupcake -- Warm, loving, excited, and totally clueless!

1744083 Ah, that makes sense. It'll be interesting to see his more positive traits later on; yay for multidimensionality!
That's what I figured; my brother is the exact same way.
Ooh, sounds fun! :pinkiehappy: I love devious plans!

Eeyup. :eeyup:

JAG

Starting things off with an exchange of letters was a good idea. It gets across a lot of information, and sets up the characters and their relationships without feeling like a retread of what we already read in Currents. Nice. On to the next chapter...

JAG

^ That sums my thoughts up pretty well, too.

JAG

Poor Gusty. She reminds me a lot of myself: anti-social, godawful at small talk, and not overly fond of annoying kids. So... yeah. I get, to some extent, what she's going through with all this. Good thing she at least has Gingerbread as a conversational bodyguard.

Cupcake seems okay, so far. I was kind of expecting more of a Canterlot snob, but she comes across as more clueless than anything. Graham, though... this guy looks like he's going to be a problem. And Lemon is hilarious. I don't know what I was expecting, but tearing apart Gusty's fashion sense as an introduction wasn't it. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her.

Thumbs-upped and Tracked.

1745421

Some of the stuff I've got planned for Lemon almost makes wonder if I should have the humor tag, but I don't really know how humorous it will actually turn out to be :rainbowhuh:

1745725

Gingerbread is Gusty's buffer for, well, pretty much everything. She doesn't really like much! Except, of course, for a few choice friends who we shall meet later :raritywink:

Cupcake isn't too snobby because she's originally from Ponyville -- And you can take the mare out of Ponyville, but you can't take Ponyville out of the mare! She's...kind of a wannabe snob. Graham is a jerk; he's meant to be the problem. He has some of the same odd ideas about a unicorn's place in the world that Gusty has and there may be some interesting words later.

And Lemon better hope Sweetie Bell never finds out she made fun of the scarf! I don't know if any one caught the implication, but Sweetie labored over that scarf for a long time! It was made with LOVE. :unsuresweetie:

1746989 I guess we can wait and see, and if needed, add the humor tag later. :shrug: Either way, sounds like it will be interesting!

1747020

"Interesting" is definitely the right word :yay:

1747031

Because I'm awesome!

I'll be working on more soon; I'm debating over whether or not I want to do some writing or start baking Christmas cookies. I AM going to do tonight's G1 pony pic first, though...Would you rather see Lofty or Fizzy today?

1747063 Indeed!

Ah, cool. :twilightsmile: And I guess it's not really my place to say... :applejackconfused:
Uh, why not Fizzy, just 'cause?

1747174

Fizzy it is! I shall color her up and get her little post done.

At the Beginning: Yay! Cuddling for the win!

The middle: Gutsy is still trying to find where she fits in in the house.

The end: *cue dramatic music*

1771613

I haven't even written a single bit with Gusty's mom yet and I already love her :3

JAG

DUN dun dun... and there you go with the cliffhanger routine again. :fluttershbad:

But it was a perfect place to end the chapter, so I probably would've done the same. Anyway, this chapter was cute. Not a whole lot really happened, but we got a little bit of introspection on Gusty's day-to-day life, and a setup for bigger events to come. Looking forward to those.

Oh, and we got a possibly interesting tidbit of information: Lemon's magic is still developing, so unlike adult unicorns she's used to doing things by hoof. A common ground she and Gusty can bond over, maybe?

1771945

I'm good at that kind of cliffhanger :raritywink:

A normal day for Gusty is usually a lot more complicated, if she's working. This is more like a glimpse of her downtime, except with two additional members of Gingerbread's family.

Once Lemon realizes that Gusty is kind of cool (she's an adult who does what she wants, not what other ponies think she should -- She's pretty cool, to Lemon), she's going to want to hang out with her tons. There definitely is potential for them to bond over a common use of their hooves, but Lemon's kind of obnoxious, so...She'll have to work hard to not screw things up with Gusty!

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