Today Cadance Learned
Cadance could only blink in response. What else could properly convey her confusion? It was instinctual to do so when she was dumbfounded. Somepony might as well ask her to stop breathing if they thought she could find any other perfect response for any level of being flabbergasted.
"Is there something wrong?" Luna asked, cocking her head to the side and staring at the younger mare with a look that made Cadance think of the owls in the woods surrounding Wispgrove.
"Kinda...?" she finally managed, her breathing calmed with the wave of her pink forehoof and an outstretched foreleg — an old trick of hers. "But could you repeat yourself? Please, Luna?"
"Why?" Luna had a thoughtful, but concerned frown on her face.
"I wasn't sure I heard you right, that's all." If her words were not convincing enough, Cadance hoped her smile was.
Luna's frown deepened slightly, bearing subtle traces of skepticism. "Very well then. All I said to you was that I did not find spiders to be frightening. In fact, I think them to be very adorable and have kept thousands over the years. The smallest were only slightly bigger than my hoof you see — and that was just their body. When you factor in their legs, they were much, much bigger — and all the more delightful! The Everfree Forest was filled with numerous spiders located nowhere else on the planet. Some of the ones that Tia and I had there were as big as the average filly. I loved to play with them and pet their fuzzy bodies — they were just the sweetest things!" She grinned at the thought. "And there might still be some there, ones descended from the dear ones that we kept at the castle."
Cadance made a faint 'meep' of fear at the thought of there being spiders the size of children - which she did find adorable. "Hey, Luna?" she whispered.
"Oh, yes?" Luna looked at her innocently, a faint smile still adorning her muzzle. If Cadance looked down, she could see a distorted reflection of Luna's form in the marmalade that coated the bread in front of the night goddess.
"You're weird."
Luna's expression did not waver. "You are most observant. However, Tia says that creatures who are weird in the ways that I am weird have a special name now."
"Wait, really?" Cadance dimmed her horn as she set her teacup down on the picnic table.
"Indeed," Luna said, looking down at her lunch. She idly stirred the straw in her root beer glass, perking her ears as she heard it rattle and clink. "Tia took me to see somepony who said that I am not simply 'weird' but that I have 'the autism' as modern civilization puts it. 'Tis nice to know, I suppose. Now, why don't we do something more exciting?"
Cadance could still taste tea in her throat when she saw Luna light her horn up with turquoise magic. "Wait, like what? Isn't lunch fun?" She pointed her hooves to her garden salad and Luna's veggie-packed hero sandwich.
"We must see some spiders!" Luna cheered, giving Cadance a manic grin.
"Wait, wait—!"
...
Luna reached out a forehoof while Cadance balked and quickly shuffled behind the night goddess. Though the spider lumbered over to greet them, there was something about the sound that it made that defied all reason. Leg hairs brushed against crinkly leaves and all eight limbs were in motion as the creature approached the two princesses. However, the amount of shuffling sounds produced by the spider was closer to what an animal the size of a puppy would produce. Fallen leaves crinkled and snapped under the weight of the creature, and yet for something almost the size of the two full-grown equines, something was so much quieter about what was actually heard.
When the spider was close enough, they extended their mouth and gently nudged Luna's outstretched forehooves. In reply, the goddess smiled quietly, as though this were no different than letting a curious pet sniff a stranger. She stood by, unflinching, while her flowing mane gave a mindful twinkle. The wild, raw serenity she exhibited next to what would be considered barbaric and grotesque was something unmatched by the primped politeness of Princess Celestia. Once they were done with the initial 'sniff' test, the giant tarantula nudged at Luna with a gentle headbutt.
Finally, the goddess gave the creature a proper scratch. She smiled gleefully as she tickled the thick, coarse hair that made up the spider's fur. Brown and orange stripes met deep blue as Luna buried her forehoof in the spider's coat, giving it hearty scratches as she broke out into a mischievous grin. She moved her hoof back and forth, watching as the creature's eight red eyes become creased with joy. Their pinchers clicked with contentedness, and the merry sound bled into the din of the Everfree Forest. For a moment, Cadance was able to feel a flicker of ease in being in a place that was devoid of normal elements of Equestrian nature, like birdsong.
Slowly, the spider began to warm up to Luna's affection even more. Merry clicks began to spill into the forest and the thumps of eight great spider legs dancing with delight filled the clearing. The spider was stretching up to meet Luna's hoof gliding down their body, eager to have one itch after another scratched.
"See?" Luna said, her tone bright with joy. "There is no reason to fear these creatures. This one says their name is She-Who-Dances-When-Hugged, or G'rahrg in the language of the spiderfolk."
"Listen," Cadance squeaked, her ears still nervously swiveled to the side. "Luna, I love you, but that spider is still big enough to gobble up the little sisters of Twilight's friends."
Luna rolled her eyes and continued to give G'rahrg strong head pats. "Aye, perhaps so. Still, she would not, for none of the spider-folk prefers the flesh of ponies, whether they are descendants of my old pets or the subjects of Emperor Ahgg in Maretonia's rain forests. The spiderfolk of the Everfree are mere pygmies compared to his Great Spider Tribe."
"Oh g-gods," murmured Cadance with a shaky gulp. She raised her wings as if to hide behind the purple-tipped feathers. "So what do they eat?"
In response, Luna chuckled with a boisterous warmth not found in Princess Celestia's controlled, well-timed noblemare's laughs. While the sound was unexpected, Cadance knew that she should probably have anticipated an unconventional response from Luna.
"Dear Cady, the diet of Everfree spider-folk is no different than that of tarantulas, for the most part. They have become accustomed to the fauna of the Everfree, which includes a lack of birds and other non-thinking creatures specific to these woods. They will also feast on more raccoons and other common creatures, but never enough to want to venture near ponies. We often frighten them."
Cadance blinked again, shyly poking her head out and re-folding her wings. "We frighten them?"
"Indeed! Have you not considered that even spiders have fears?" Luna leaned down to rub her cheek along the top of the spider's bristly head. "Tia dismissed the idea of growing close to them, as the first runts gifted to us by the Empress Shelob, Ahgg's foremother, were afraid of our species. I took the time to befriend them when an Alicorn and ponies alike shunned the precious sweethearts. Soon, they understood that my divinity was not to be feared, for I wished to protect them. However, they remain afraid of ponies, and the ways that they tame, make war, and settle places. To them, you are close enough to a predator that they will reject consuming pets, for your smell lingers upon them and they wish not to lure your kind to their homes."
G'rahrg shuffled about with a strange deliberateness and followed the motion with a few twitches of her mouth.
"Oh, how interesting," Luna murmured. "G'rahrg has said that pony-smell and your magics make most companion animals taste terrible and that they already did not like the taste of most domesticated companions."
"Whaaa?" Cadance shook her head, utterly baffled. Her mane flopped with the motion, and one of her ears remained swiveled to the side as she pawed at the ground. "How can ponies be anything like predators? We're nothing like dragons, qilin, bears, yeti, lions, or—"
"Ahem," Luna cut in. The goddess was standing tall again, and there was a kind, albeit hard to decipher look in her eyes. "Think of the relationship that you ponies have with the chicken. You dictate the structure of their world, where they may go, and who they live with. In return, you claim their unfertilized offspring. That does not mean that they live without fear when you consider what their world is like."
"We don't have a symbiotic relationship with spider folk, though," piped Cadance. She trotted out from behind Luna and gingerly extended a forehoof to G'rahrg while her body trembled.
"Ah, yes," Luna noted, shooting Cadance a delighted smile as she watched the scene unfold in front of her with intense interest. "'Tis not an exact comparison, yet I do hope it illustrates my point well — just how might your crystal ponies relate to the Arctic now that the Empire has returned? Can you think of any creatures that would fear your subjects? What of the pastures that your ponies build for crystal sheep? Something completely innocent can be quite fearsome to the non-sapients that share the world with us, and they are not dark magic or foes leaping from myth."
"Huh, I never thought about things that way before," Cadance admitted, blinking nervously.
Eventually, G'rahrg deemed Cadance's forehoof acceptable and gave the pink pony an approving headbutt, to which Luna gave her own dance of jubilee in response. Her eyes shone brightly and Luna let loose a laugh of delight. Cadance had made a new friend.
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First. Also
second :(
How dare you write those spiders as if they were alike dogs! Making them seem almost, dare I say, cute.
Great short story apart from this betrayal of arachnophobes everywhere
I think it's an interesting and novel idea.
Both that Luna is different (since that explains why it is so difficult for her to relate to the ponies and why she was treated so badly in her time), and the point of view of the apparent monsters.
As a huge and long-hyperfixated enjoyer of Bugs, Arachnids, and Myriapods alike, Luna's interactions with the big ol' spider makes me very happy!
Most tarantulas have thousands of extremely fine stinging spiny hairs that are distributed over the top, back, and sides of their abdomen.
WARNING: Under no circumstances should you pet or rub your cheeks on a pet tarantula.
I love autistic Luna living her life!
Shelob! As in Tolkien Shelob. Also, spiders are cool and fun to observe
This quite adorable of Luna here.
I am kind of uncomfortable with spiders irl but here you made them cute
Wait until Luna shows Cadence the giant Manti she's befriended.
The autism 👍
11904160
This is news to me. I've seen videos of tarantula handlers and owners petting them with their bare hands without consequence. Most media featuring giant spiders also doesn't include any mention of touching them on top of the head being a bad thing. While I'm not a spider expert (more of just a casual fan) I've never seen a mention of these. Has spider media just been lying to me my whole life?
Any advice on how to make it more spider-accurate?
11903931
You will love and cherish the spiders.
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11904161
I have so many story ideas focusing on Luna being autistic much more explicitly; I don't know if I'll get around to writing them. Until then, I have over a million words of her being implicitly autistic written by a Certified Autist™ so there is that.
11904132
I'm only okay with certain types of bugs (part of why I like spiders is because they eat those bugs), but it's good to know my story is reaching creepy-crawler lovers of all kinds.
11904197
The one and only!
11904442
I can make anything seem cute. Probably.
11904705
Delighted to have been able to share a small piece of pertinent information about this family of arachnids.
Obviously I cannot speak for the media regarding spiders that you have consumed, but the fact that this detail has never been mentioned on their part seems to me an oversight.
And the best advice I can give you, that doesn't involve dictating how to write your stories, is to expand your knowledge on any topic you want to write about. In the worst case, you will end up knowing more about the topic even if you consider that the knowledge acquired will not affect your story; In the best of cases it will allow you to make your story much better.
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11904705
Yeah as you say, most tarantulas, not all, these are referred to as urticating hairs and are the tarantulas defense mechanism, if you see a spider rubbing its leg against its butt when threatened, thats it kicking up hairs, Most old world tarantulas lack urticating hairs, and the worst part about the hairs is they cause a lot of irritation for breathing and itching of the skin. It's all about knowing the specific species of tarantula, if you aren't using a specific species and a fantasy one it can be without the hairs
rather than mouth, the little mandibles at the front of a spider are called pedipalps which spiders use for many things, wolf spiders will tap them to the ground as sensory organs for vibrations, typically for tarantulas they are for touching and moving prey
Spiders can actually hiss and make noise with a method called stridulating which varies between species, some make the sound by rubbing legs together, some do it by rubbing their chelicerae together (chelicerae are the mouth parts where the fangs and other bits are)
This was a cute story.
11904613
so true, fimfiction user Stellar Underscore
I love spiders btw
11905754
Stellar without the underscore was taken 😔
I love autistic Luna, she reminds me of that girl on TikTok I can't remember her handle right now but if you're on the autistic or bug side of TikTok you probably know of her anyway this story and her and Lucas again me ever so closer to not being afraid of spiders anymore i still am but a little less thanks to the story
11904197
Indeed
11904804
Thank you kindly. I'll be sure to do more spider research in the future. Though, it's good to hear that enjoying the story wasn't diminished in any way.
11904849
That's fascinating! I think I've seen them do that before, but I've also seen it occur in videos where people without gloves handle them... which probably isn't wise.
I didn't use a specific one when writing the story, especially since the spiders Ahgg and Shelob don't appear to reference any one kind of spider. For some of the descriptions, I referred to pictures of the Goliath bird eater because of certain features being prominent and how recognizable they are. Usually for wildlife in central and northern Equestria, I tend to use European-inspired wildlife when I don't have canon examples. Though, the country that Maretonia is based on is this country is in Africa, if I remember correctly. I have no idea if they have any taruntulas.
11904862
I love it when my comments educate me on something. I was vaguely aware of this term but I didn't know which exact part it referred to or if it was used informally or not.
...I wanna write more about spiders acting like that now. Especially because I also love cats, and cats like that.
11905101
Thank you! I try to write stories that are suitable for a variety of audiences, and I think that people sometimes forget that I do write stories that can be suitable for/geared towards kids too.
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Y'know what can never be taken? Autism.
11906481
Her autism wasn't based on any specific person. The main reason I've headcanoned her as autistic is because of how I've written her over the years -- autism recognizes autism.
Glad my cousin could get featured in this 💕
Quite enjoyable, despite my arachnophobia
And on my birthday no less!
11909760
Happy Birthday!
I’ve always thought it odd that while most arachnids and insects are utterly terrifying, every now and again you get one that looks weirdly cute in the right light. Like tarantulas.
11909760
Happy belated birthday!
11909993
I wish I could pet them.
Eight legs good, six legs bad! (as I always tell the Shower Spiders when I rescue them).
One poor long-legged one lost 5 of her legs in the process of being rescued. I thought she was a goner but left her on the bathroom counter with a little water. Over the next few days she eventually figured out how to walk, and eventually disappeared. I hope she molted and got her legs back!
I’ll freely admit to having next to no clue about autism, but Luna feeling a sense of kinship with spiders as another kind of creature that ponies at large just don’t appreciate enough makes perfect sense to me all the same -- and doubly so in a magical land like Equestria.
(Not being much of an arachnophobe myself helps, of course. I don’t really feel much of an urge to outright pet spiders and would probably just scare most of them half to death if I tried anyway, but it’s really not that hard to simply leave them in peace.)
Ok this was cute
11911606 Thank you for being kind to the little fellas.
I never knew that spiders could regrow legs! This is really proving to be an educational comment section. Is it certain types of spiders or just all spiders?
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Some forget that I am indeed quite capable of writing cuteness.
11913222
I am not sure if it's all spiders, but certainly many - see e.g. this Scientific American blog, with a link to a paper on the subject: https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/evo-eco-lab/missing-legs-not-much-of-a-problem-for-spiders/
11913699
Thank you kindly!