The Writing of The Bonds of Love (Epilogue: Love), part two

And we’re back with the second half of this chapter’s discussion, so let’s not waste any more time and get right into it!

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~ The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same ~

If this section’s title didn’t already give it away, not much has changed at all in the lovely town of Ponyville.

You’ve “The Last Problem” to thank for that. Even now, I wanted to stick to the show’s canon as best I could, so everycreature had to be where they were shown to be in that episode.

This doesn’t mean too much yet since the Graduated Six arrive later, and the Griffs don’t appear in “The Last Problem,” so I had free reign to do whatever I wanted with them. But what about everyone else?

Ponyville itself was first on the docket, and I was anxious regarding its description. Basically the usual writer jitters:

“What should I say changed or didn’t? It’d only be realistic to say there’d be something new about the town, but would it be better to say nothing changed at all? How do I explain all this without it being awkwardly stilted?” and yada-yada.

Ultimately, I moved past these concerns and bluntly stated Ponyville at its core remained the same, hand-waving away possible changes as “Other stuff had come and gone.” The only significant change I made sure to highlight was how non-ponies had moved into the town too.

My description skills still sucked though. At least we end the Ponyville description nonsense early since it’s not the focus. Instead, that focus returns to Gallus-Stream, taking a second to simply acknowledge and rejoice over the fact they’ve made their home in Ponyville, are happily married, and have a daughter.

Their Glorious Pearl.

Why, yes, I was proud of that line despite its simplicity. Also, yes, summarizingGallus-Stream’s marital history as “Enjoying the good times and working through the bad times” pained me as much as it likely did you. Sadly, that line was the most I could spare the topic.

We do have time to spare Luster Dawn a background cameo though, alongside one of the friends she was shown to make. It was mostly to further reinforce we’re technically post-“The Last Problem” timeline-wise, but it’s also to finish returning the focus to the lovebirds via Glory.

Speaking of, Glory wasn’t originally going to recognize Luster, but since both her parents know the mare, that didn’t make sense. So to compromise,Glory only vaguely recognizes her—thanks to the distance between the two—but focuses primarily on the Friendship School and how upset she is she can’t go there instead. Why is that, anyway?

Plot. Well? Partly plot. Referencing Cheerilee earlier forced my hand on the matter, and although I could have swapped out Cheerilee’s name for the other Graduated Six’s names, I didn’t want to. There was another, proper reason I thought it’d be more fitting for Glory to attend her school: Her age.

This circles us back to something Dreadlight commented on: Cozy Glow attended the school despite being a filly, so why couldn’t Glory?

The in-universe answer is Glory is far younger than Cozy was. In fact, Glory is even younger than the CMC were at the start of the series, and as far as I’m aware, Cozy was as old as the CMC were by Season Eight. So yeah, Cozy was way older than Glory. And if we were to follow the show’s logic, the CMC sure weren’t allowed to attend the Friendship School either. Giving them a proper scholastic education was more important than re-teaching them friendship stuff they already knew. Same principle applies to Glory here, as we’re about to discuss.

Although, if Glory ever did find out kids as young as Cozy attended there, she’d confront her parents and pout at them about it for a while before they explain the same thing I just did.

How to handle this situation in-universe was a relatively simple matter: Have Glory act that same age which keeps her from attending the School and pout.

Thankfully, her parents are awesome enough to validate her pouting by reassuring she willattend the Friendship School one day. They even go the extra mile, explaining she needs to learn how to read, write, and understand the basic operations of the world before she can attend a high school-college hybrid that teaches the intricacies of managing interpersonal relationships.

I really do love how I handled this particular string of interactions. No matter how much of a smarty-pants she is, Glory is still a child with a very limited understanding of the world, so of course she won’t truly understand why she can’t choose the school she goes to.

The real highlight is Gallus-Stream’s parenting over the matter. They could just go “You need to learn more stuff” and leave it at that, and while that is something they say, they respect their daughter’s intelligence enough to further explain she needs a more thorough basic education. But as if I’d ever settle for just that.

No, Gallus-Stream goes above and beyond, allowing Glory to make argument after argument for why she should go the Friendship School—even being proud that Glory can make arguments of that caliber, despite their exasperation at her stubbornness—and responding maturely: With counterarguments of their own, including Gallus’ math question.

Some of this dialogue got shuffled, however.

Glory benefited from this, acquiring her “But the Friendship School is a school!” argument which further showed off her intelligence, gave her one final hurrah before ultimately conceding defeat, and allowed Gallus-Stream to sneakily “Share the same proud-yet-exasperated smile” which screams “We love our kid, but man is she annoying sometimes! ”

Silver, unfortunately, got screwed over because of the shuffle. “The Last Problem” mandated she be a Friendship School professor despite T.B.O.L. never planting the seeds for it—For that, you can thank Gallus’ future hogging the necessary spotlight.

To rectify this, I wanted to give Silver some time to gush about how much she adores the world and everything in it—An element I’ve already mentioned Silverquill inspired, and one I had hoped to imply was the basis for why Silver became a teacher: She loves the world and wants other creatures to love the world as much as she does, so she does everything she can to instill in her students that same love.

It was an excellent way to further confirm Silverstream’s bubbly nature was genuinely back in full, while evolving it through its influence upon her own future career. But best of all: It reflected on her development in T.B.O.L. Despite her fear the world itself would relentlessly torment her and Gallus, not only did she overcome that fear, she also regained her love for the world in the process.

Unfortunately, the scene in question was…clunky. It felt simultaneously too stuffed with nonsense, yet too short for the issue it was trying to resolve. Like two different paragraphs fighting for the space of one. Thus, it was cut.

Some of it was kept, mostly in Silverstream’s interactions with Glory. Her “This world has so many more wonderful things about it, and in school, you’ll learn about them all” speech in particular is a line that genuinely remained almost word-for-word. Then there’s the “Professor Mommy” joke, and Silverstream getting so swept up in her own excitement, she instinctively hovers into the air—though this lost some punch with the loss of the “I love the world because…” aspect. Ah well.

I wish I could say I compensated Silverstream for this by giving her the line mentioning Glory needs to make friends her own age at Cheerliee’s school, but that line exists more to further Glory’s subplot, and explain(Yes, again) why she can’t attend the Friendship School.

Speaking of Glory’s subplot:

“I guess…” Glory sighed, looking away and hugging her father tightly.

There’s your first major clue something’s wrong. And best of all, Gallus-Stream catch it too, even if they merely chalk it up to Glory’s disappointment over the school situation.

But hey. Glory’s gonna have a “Professor Mommy” eventually, sooo… She has that to look forward to at least. Sooner rather than later too, since you justknow Glory started calling Silverstream that once she got back home.

Unfortunately, this is all rather moot. Glory was never going to attend the Friendship School no matter how much she pouted; the forces of plot are too strong for her to circumvent with adorable dialogue. At least she concedes defeat honorably.

Yeah, a kid her age would be extremely upset to not get her way, but it’d also be annoying to you, the audience, to waste time having her throw a tantrum. So to balance the issue, we have this line:

It was at that point Glory realized she wasn’t going to win the argument, and she absolutely despised it. “I still wanna go to the Friendship School,” she pouted, disappointed.

Glory’s smart enough to recognize she’s not gonna get her way, mature enough to not blow up about it—thank you Gallus-Stream for raising your kid right!—but childish enough to still be mad and thus, whine one last time.

At least the “Professor Mommy” skit helped cheer her up. Even better, it put the breaks on this plot point so we could resume playing the “Where are they now?” game! No better place to start than by finally addressing Gallus-Stream’s own positions within the world.

Silverstream’s a teacher, as we’ve already discussed, but she’s also had to endure Twilight’s newest pupil pulling her own “Lesson Zero.” Why? Because I couldn’t resist. And while I was tempted to imply Silverstream’s love for Gallus was strong enough for her to resist the effects of “Want It, Need It,” realism and comedy both begged to differ. Thus, Silver was brain-jacked too, much to her chagrin.

Poor Luster Dawn though, reduced to Ponyville’s latest source of terror.

Also poor Ditzy, reduced to a wordless cameo via a casual talon-wave. Wish I could have done more for her, but we had a word count to not over-inflate, and besides, she didn’t deserve much more anyway, considering she had no true significance past Ch.1(Transition) and the muffin matter.

At least November and Patty got a proper send-off. I may not have been able to include their background romance in the story proper, but with the time-skip, I had free reign to at least confirm it happened, resulting in the duo getting married and having a baby of their own!

Nice to also see November score himself a proper win after everything Vellum and life in general put him through. He may not be a meteorologist in the traditional sense, but he does still get to live his dream of working with the weather, leading the Weather Bureau. Even nicer to see Gallus double-check November isn’t getting overwhelmed by the workload like he might have in his younger years.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows where these two are concerned, however; they accidentally created a timeline inconsistency.

So, um? Remember how I specified Gallus-Stream popping out Glory “Had taken far longer than either of them would have preferred”? Now, factor that into how long Gallus-Stream would have waited to get married after graduating—Five years, for clarification. Then, consider how Patty-Vember only just had their baby a few months ago, how Shimmy-Hoof only just began their honeymoon, and Yona-Bar are only just about to adopt.

With all that in mind, I ask you: How the peck did Gallus-Stream marry and have a kid before all the other couples, despite Gallus-Stream being specifically highlighted to have problems conceiving?

Yeaaahhh… The implication Gallus-Stream had difficulties there was purely for realism’s sake. Meanwhile, Patty-Vember only had a kid in recent times to give Gallus a more specific excuse to ask about them. And when you put those two issues together, it leaves the timeline feeling wonky.

Then again? That might just be me. I do still have plenty of those future story ideas rattling around in my head, and they sorta conflict with this particular issue. As it stands now, it’s not particularly egregious, just something curious to note.

On the plus side, through Patty-Vember’s conclusion, we also get Scoop’s. Turns out, she’s doing pretty well for herself.

Initially, I had wanted to have her working in a completely different job—Maybe even be helping run Sugarcube Corner or a brand new candy/ice cream store to better relate to her name and cutie mark. Then I thought about it some more, and I realized it’d be more appropriate for her to do something with acting. She was the most passionate about it and the Club after Vellum.

But Vellum got his big break, and I still wanted to avoid implying the two work together in the industry, thus implying a romance blossomed. So I had Scoop’s acting gig play more into her particular personality. Of the two, she was always the more socially adept and personable, so it made sense for her to take the gig that would see her help other burgeoning actors find and refine their talents.

That said? The idea to have Scoop do other non-acting related stuff stuck around, so I included it too through her babysitting for Patty-Vember—and yes, she does babysit Glory sometimes too—and Silverstream commenting on her having a surprising degree of available free time.

Something I considered implying but opted not to was that Scoop’s acting coach career included overseeing the current Drama Club. Scoop wouldn’t be a proper teacher at the Friendship School per se—maybe a substitute?—but Starlight and Co. had worked out an arrangement to have her oversee the Club for them, sparing the other teachers the responsibility.

I… Don’t know why I didn’t do this. I think it was a combination of:

#1) Not wanting to bog down the pacing to explain the setup.

#2) Not wanting to imply Scoop wasn’t a legitimate acting coach but was rather just a part-time Drama Club teacher.

And #3) Not having a clue why Silverstream wouldn’t be the new Drama Club teacher instead since she also partook in the Club and became a proper Friendship School teacher.

Either way, I think I’ll leave it to your interpretation if Scoop genuinely does oversee the Drama Club every so often, in addition to her ordinary acting coach career.

Anywho, we bring this totally natural and absolutely not forced at all game of “Where are they now?” to a close with Gallus-Stream hankering for a family and friends grill-off, using it to pivot the conversation onto the main protagonist himself.

Turns out being the Captain of the Royal Guard is harder than it seems, and you’ve realism to thank for that. But since the actual responsibilities of a Captain are completely alien to me, I kept things simple:

Training new recruits SUCKS!—Something partly inspired by the fandom’s overall displeasure with how useless the entire Royal Guard were presented as in the show.

And the paperwork is only a brief reprieve—There’s your closure on Gallus’ secret love of the activity.

Thankfully, Silverstream is there to help Gallus overcome his own “Being an adult is haarrrddd!” stint, through her comforting touch—because if Gallus can calm her down through physical contact/proximity, she can do the same for him—and some filler dialogue simple encouragement.

And wow is it nice to see Silverstream try to help Gallus feel happy despite his work-related woes, and not only succeed, but do so without the overwhelming paranoia to succeed weighing upon her.

Also nice to see End Zone get his cameo too. He almost didn’t; I struggled significantly to determine how to naturally bring him up. First thought was to use the news report—maybe have that finish talking about Vellum, then begin a sports segment regarding Zone? That didn’t work since it’d bloat the scene, so I thought of something different.

I recycled the idea of having Scoop choose a radically different career path than the Drama Club implied she go for, and used it for Zone. End Zone was consistently established to be into sports—no duh with his name and cutie mark—but here he’s in the Royal Guard.

I needed someone more specific to name as Gallus’ current reigning source of migraines than just “The newbie recruits” anyway, so it worked out splendidly.

Not like I was entirely satisfied with that; thus, we get an implicit explanation for Zone’s career choice later. Silverstream then acknowledges how he was always physically fit as a kid so surely he’d do well in the training, spurring Gallus into agreeing—Both to clarify Zone is indeed not failing uncharacteristically because the plot demanded he do, and to assure you all, “No, don’t worry, Gallus is doing his job well, and the recruits aren’t that bad, just ludicrously tedious in whipping into shape.”

Because this is a happy ending, and I didn’t want to leave room for implicit drama regarding the next batch of Royal Guards being idiots and Gallus’ frustration over it.

And now, we bring this game of “Where are they now?” to a close with:

“It’s okay. I know it’s tough being the Captain,” Silver said, giving him a comforting nuzzle.

“All the challenges are worth it so long as I can come home to you,” Gallus replied, gracing her blushing cheek with a loving kiss. “And you,” he added, shooting Glory a wink.

Glory had grown bored of the conversation a while ago, but she instantly snapped her attention back to her father upon being addressed by him. “We love you too, Daddy,” she squealed, hugging him.

“We really do,” Silver agreed, kissing his cheek as well.

“I love you both too,” Gallus sang, his tail wagging happily.

It feels so amazing seeing Gallus, Silverstream, and their Glorious Pearl all be so happy!

…

Shame I have to ruin that.

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~ All in the Family, Take Two ~

Before I discuss these next scenes properly, I want to talk about how absolutely proud I am of them.

Twelve characters.

Gallus, Silverstream, Glory, Gavin, Sky Beak, Ocean Flow, Terramar, Novo, Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus, and Smolder.

I wrote twelve entire characters, all with their own unique personalities and dialogue styles, all speaking to each other and catching up, while giving them their own moment in the spotlight and acknowledging how they are and how far they’ve come, while continuing the build-up to Glory’s breakdown.

And I did all of this confined to the limited expanse of mere words, in spite of my own authorial inexperience, lack of descriptiveness, and issues with dialogue tagging.

And I succeeded brilliantly!

The conversations flow so smoothly and naturally from character to character, without anyone—save one—feeling trapped in the background and condemned to arbitrary silence just ‘cause! And you can bet I was worried about failing at this.

This is why instead of everyone being present for Glory, it’s only the Griffs at first. Not that Glory minds; she’s just happy to go hug her grandparents again.

Though she does express concern for her seapony grandma being out of her chosen habitat, but that’s to show how empathetic she is and draw attention to the fact in question.

Yep, Ocean’s back on land again, and managing far better than she was last chapter—A subtle implication she’s been donning her hippogriff form more frequently since then as a nice showing of her character development. She does still prefer the water though, but if it’s for family—especially her granddaughter—then she’ll gladly journey across the land.

Terramar, meanwhile, didn’t change much in personality since his teenage years, but he did—much to his family’s collective relief—find himself a sweetie. Even better: She’s pregnant!

Let’s just ignore how this only worsens the timeline screw-up implied by Gallus and Silverstream’s pregnancy difficulties.

FanficReader920 was a touch peeved to know I left Terramar’s sweetie a complete mystery. The reason why is the same thing I complained ceaselessly about during the Mount Aris arc: A distinct lack of canon hippogriff/seapony names.

Yes, Glorious Pearl existed now, so randomly creating another off-screen OC to be Terramar’s sweetie might have been acceptable, but it was still a big no-no for me.

However…? Heh-heh. I did have a plan for Terramar’s sweetie; in fact, they were going to appear here—though they wouldn’t be pregnant. Just who was this twist sweetie of his?

Griselda.

Yep. Good ole Grissy was going to be Terramar’s wife. Why?

#1) Another of those possible sequel concepts involved Grissy meeting Terry.

#2) Another Griff-Griff relationship was nice to see, and subtly implied an additional benefit to Twilight bringing all the nations together.

#3) They were both side characters, so sticking them together felt at natural enough.

And above all else: #4) I thought it’d be nice for Terry to meet his own soulmate through Gallus—That his sister finding her sweetie being what allowed Terry to find his own was cute.

It stopped being cute when I remembered the age difference.

Remember, Griselda is meant to be older than Gallus, who is around the same age as Silverstream, who is older than Terramar. And in fact, Griselda is old enough to run the Griffonstone Library by herself when Terramar is still young enough to have his “Ew, romance is icky-wicky!” attitude.

Sure, I didn’t specify any numbers—not that that would/should even matter—but it was still…eugh. And Gabby was even older, so she was out too.

Thus, Terramar has a sweetie, but she goes unnamed. Sorry, FanficReader920.

As for Griselda and Gabby themselves? I still wanted them to cameo here, but well? Twelve characters, all with their own different personalities and dialogue styles. Bumping that up to fourteen would bloat the scene and word count, to everyone’s detriment. That’s why Gilda and Greta were never intended to show at all—explained away as them meeting with [Insert generic royalty here].

Gabby was cut first and trapped in the confines of the Griffonstone Library for what Gavin specifies in-story: To keep it operating while its head librarians are out.

Tragically, Grissy had to get cut too, which doubly sucks because she’s the one I wanted to cameo most! Not for the Gris-Mar situation, but to show off her own character development!

Gilda, Greta, and Gabby didn’t necessarily need to appear since what they were up to could easily be inferred from their own well-established personalities and careers, to say nothing of the in-story explanations I gave for their non-appearances.

Griselda, however, was an open book, thanks to her personality being entirely constructed by yours truly. She was at the mere beginning of her own character arc when we first met her—Still too shy and embarrassed to admit she willingly asked to run the library, yet having matured enough to apologize for bullying Gallus in their youth and be genuinely kind-yet-teasing toward Gavin.

Naturally, I wanted to show where that arc ended. Finding genuine, unapologetic pride in being a librarian was obvious, but what would be a natural evolution of that particular career path? It’s not as if Griselda would be only a librarian for the rest of her life, no matter how passionate she was to be one.

A professor seemed the most natural development—Perhaps a teacher at some off-screen reconstructed Griffonstone University or something, to further show off the Restoration Project’s success? This idea didn’t last too long, however, because I reached an even better version of it.

Now, Griselda was a legit member of the EEA itself, complete with funky burgundy robes, teleportation medallion, implied friendship with Neighsay—so there’s your conclusion to him—and oversight for the development of all of Griffonstone’s schooling!

Yep, Grissy wouldn’t just be a single teacher in a single school; girl was now making darn sure every teacher and every school in Griffonstone were teaching the next generation to not fall for the same crap that brought their home to ruin in the first place!

BUT! But…! She would have been the thirteenth character in this scene. All of that cool stuff I had hoped to do with her would take several lines to properly establish and even more time to refine into natural-sounding dialogue. And that was in addition to the banter she’d have with her son.

I’d been planning Grissy’s adoption of Gavin since their introduction, and they’d finally gone through with it. Unlike the show writers who were too scared to do so with Twilight and Spike.

I was ecstatic when writing this section for this reveal alone, and I was just as eager to see everyone celebrating Gallus’ #1 Fan finally getting his own momma.

…

As usual whenever I predicted people would comment on one specific detail: No one really commented on Griselda adopting Gavin. I’m not disappointed though; I trust you were all as happy for them as I was.

None of this, however, was enough to save Griselda from the chopping block. And because of that, I had to determine a proper reason she couldn’t show, but that was easy—simply have her be too busy with being an EEA councilor.

Except? That felt too convenient—Feeling more like “Hand of the Author” was deliberately keeping her out of the plot, especially since Gallus’ own scheduling issues were acknowledged earlier. Surely, Councilor Griselda would have been able to free her schedule for today long before now, so why was she miraculously too busy to come see her friend’s daughter attend school?

Thus, I changed the context to feel more like something Griselda absolutely could not re-schedule or ignore, and that became her being accepted into the EEA, rather than her already being a member of it. This even had the additional advantage of showing—in a matter of speaking—Griselda achieving her dreams instead of already living them.

Shame it had to come at the cost of her cameo, but at least Gallus is understanding.

Speaking of Gallus, I considered having him be responsible for getting the EEA to interview Griselda in the first place. Being the Captain of the Royal Guard and all, of course he’d be able to do that for her, and it’d reflect greatly on how much more amicable their relationship had become over the years.

Except this would also downplay Griselda’s own success by being more an example of nepotism via Gallus “abusing” his position to guarantee she’d acquire her own. And since I absolutely despised that, the only remnant of this idea is Gallus knowing the EEA would be interviewing her which can easily be interpreted as Grissy and Gavin telling him earlier.

On that note, I want to clarify something: The EEA showing up earlier than everyone expected was not meant to be interpreted as antagonistic or more “Hand of the Author” shenanigans. Instead, they arrived early deliberately to catch Griselda off-guard in order to see how well she’d be able perform under that pressure—an additional layer to their examination if she’s qualified for the job.

Needless to say, Gallus and Gavin are entirely correct in assuming she aced that interview. Because even though I rewound her arc’s progress for the purpose of kicking her out of this scene, everything I said about it remains true. She succeeded in joining the EEA and went on to become Griffonstone’s educational figurehead.

And as Gallus says—Because of course I couldn’t help but have him seriously answer Gavin’s “How do you think Mom feels?” question—Griselda felt absolutely thrilled, utterly terrified, but unquestionably proud of her accomplishments. And so were her son, friends, and familyall proud of her too.

So there’s your conclusion to Gallus’ half of the family…except for one.

We’ll talk about him later, however; for now, we have Silver’s side of the family to acknowledge, and what better way to shift the conversation onto them than by:

“Hey, you two!” Silverstream suddenly shouted, acquiring the griffons’ attention. She then beckoned with her wing, demanding, “Family hug.”

Both griffons smiled serenely and trotted over to join the hippogriff hug pile.

Sky Beak certainly can’t think of any better way, that’s for sure, as proven by how he and Ocean immediately snuggle closer to their favorite son-in-law. Gallus was always super fluffy and huggable, and that remains true even now.

But you know what else is true now? Gallus finally has parents.

“It’s good to see you, Dad.”

Ocean Flow coughed politely.

“It’s good to see you too, Mom,” he chortled, shooting her a wink.

“It’s good to see you too, Son!” Sky and Ocean both mirthfully sang.

I shouldn’t need to say anything about this; this moment is beautiful enough to not need any further explanation. Yet, this moment wouldn’t have happened were it not for a certain cut concept.

I considered referring to Gallus as Sky and Ocean’s “Son” rather than “Son-in-law” even in the dialogue tags. It felt more impactful if even the text itself called Gallus their son proper, rather than always restrict it with the “In-law” specification.

However? As Gallus told Ocean last chapter: It’s still different. And I felt compelled to acknowledge that, however flimsy it might be in Gallus’ case, so the “In-law” was kept. But as if I were going to settle for that! Thus, I took a moment to have Gallus openly call them both his “Dad” and “Mom”—funny how Glory also follows that “Father first, mother second” order—and have them call him “Son.”

Because, again, it’s beautiful!

Though not nearly as beautiful as Glory “forgetting” Terramar’s name. I admit, I only made that joke to give Terramar his own moment of emphasis so he wouldn’t melt into the background as a glorified “Hi, I’m here” decoration. Honestly, he might have preferred that fate over his brother-in-law and niece’s little prank, but at least his sister amends it with the promise of apology cakes.

One detail I adore is how Silver tried giving Gallus the infamous “That look” only to give up since he wasn’t paying a lick of attention, and even if he were, she enjoyed the joke too much to keep making him endure “That look” anyway. Doesn’t mean she’ll let Glory get away with the prank. Gallus can be a naughty dad all he wants, but like Tartarus will Silverstream let such horrid influence impact their daughter for years to come, especially when she already had to accept Gallus successfully turned their daughter against chocolate pancakes.

Cue more “Everygriff tickles Glory” shenanigans to momentarily keep them out of the conversation so Terry and Silver can have their own exchange. Once that’s done, Stern Silverstream makes a brief return to end the shenanigans early, to Glory’s immense relief.

Much to my delight, however, I had finally been afforded a chance to rectify my sin against Great White Prime.

You might have noticed how I specified five creatures had been waiting for Glory, yet only four have spoken so far. So! Guess who wasn’t spared the fate of melting into the background as a glorified “Hi, I’m here” decoration.

“Oh, hey, Auntie Novo,” she said cordially, drawing attention to the hippogriff. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Oh? You didn’t see me here, did you?” Queen Novo groused, frowning deeply at Silverstream. “Well, I suppose that’s fine. It’s not like I’ve been standing here, expecting to be greeted and hugged like the rest of my family, only to be completely and utterly ignored.”

Yep! It’s Novo, baby!

Confession time: I don’t like Novo. At. All.

I’ll spare you the rant since my opinions on Novo aren’t the topic of this discussion; however, you can still see how my dislike influenced how I wrote her.

Girl’s a pompous jacka who, after all these years, still bullies Gallus for not being a noble and immaturely obsesses over being treated like the “Queen” she is. And of course, literally everyone around her has no hesitation in bullying her back, not giving her an ounce of respect at all.

Having said that? I knew my disdain for Novo would influence my writing, so I made sure to turn it into a proper personality trait.

Novo is the walking embodiment of every antagonistic, bloodline-obsessed noble stereotype you can think of, but that is simply a reflection of her personality, not her virtues.

As her sister makes sure to acknowledge in-universe: Novo is indeed the “Queen” of drama because she’s legitimatelythat melodramatic—a spoiled, pampered, pompous brat who’s implied to have become so thanks to having all the royal perks of being the elder sister.

But beneath the attitude and disgust for all things “beneath” her, Novo is a genuinely good person who deeply loves her family and kingdom. And that’s shown predominantly in how—as mentioned—no one takes her seriously at all.

She takes a potshot at Gallus every chance she can, even threatening to ban him from Mount Aris, but Gallus ribs her back in equal measure, and it’s glorious.

“Ughhh, fine! If you wish to hug me, then by all means…” she permitted, adamantly refusing to make the first move.

Gallus, of course, wasn’t about to let her get off that easily. “That’s funny. I thought you were the one who wanted to hug me?”

“Yeah, Auntie Novo,” Silverstream weighed in slyly. “Shouldn’t you be the one to hug him? After all, you were the one throwing a hissy fit over not being hugged.”

“…Why are you all so mean to me?” Novo mewled, trying and failing to hide a smile as she pulled her laughing niece and nephew-in-law into a hug.

“We’re not mean to you,” Silver protested.

“Yes, you are.”

“Well, we’re sorry then,” Gallus apologized. “You know we love you, Auntie Novo.”

“And I love you both too,”

Which says all you need to know about how seriously I took Novo’s behavior here.

Gruff put Gallus through all his nonsense but couldn’t care less how it hurt Gallus until he was hit squarely in the beak with it.

Novo may be a douche to Gallus, but she’d rather see the Storm King return than dare genuinely hurt her nephew-in-law, and whatever poor fool did wish harm upon him would first have to survive being ripped limb from limb by Novo herself. And that goes double for her Glorious little princess.

Glory giggled and booped Novo’s beak back. “I love you too, Grandauntie Novo.”

I love this moment; it’s so adorable. Especially since it shows Glory’s the only creature present who neither bullies nor gets bullied by Novo, for obvious reasons.

Even better, it steals the story’s attention away from Novo and returns it back to our Glorious Pearl.

Took forever to figure out which order to have the characters speak in for the conversation to feel the most natural, but I’ve already discussed how well I succeeded at that.

Something I don’t think I succeeded quite so well at was the “Big words” debacle. So far, any time a character tried to explain something complicated to Glory, I managed to do so without feeling too condescending or cringe-y, but not so with the “Big words” thing.

Not that Glory minds having something obviously dumbed down for her, given she has word-for-word the same reaction Gavin had upon first learning how many books the Library of Magic held.

Another point in Glory’s favor is how she immediately hugs Terramar, thanking him for encouraging her to be a smarty-pants. Terramar deserved some extra prominence before he was overshadowed by the Graduated Six, and I wanted Glory to make it up to Terramar for “forgetting” him. Both to show Glory being super-sweet, and further highlight how Gallus-Stream were raising their fledgling.

Unfortunately, this is where the good times briefly end, in order to resume stoking the fires of Glory’s friendship insecurities! Thus, everygriff gets a chance to do exactly that.

Sky and Ocean by reminding Glory of the monumental task before her, Terramar and Gavin by referencing the Friendship Journal, and Novo by being all “No family of mine will be left friendless because a bunch of fools couldn’t teach their children how to recognize and respect royalty.”

That last one in particular definitely would have sparked some serious panic in Glory were it not for the fact her panic was due later; thus, Ocean interjects with sister banter, snatching everyone’s attention from Glory so she can quietly begin panicking without anyone noticing.

Except her dad does notice. And even though Glory—bless her heart—tries putting on a brave face so he won’t worry, she said the one thing which will always cause her parents to worry.

“I-I’m fine.”

Unfortunately, the second half of the scene is due, so we get the arrival of the Graduated Six, and Glory doesn’t hesitate to beeline toward them to avoid talking about her fears. And because she’s adorable and wouldn’t dare call out to only her favorite of her aunties and uncle, I make sure she calls out all their names and have Smolder joke about it in-story.

With the Graduated Six now entering the fray, it was time to resume playing “Where are they now?”

Smolder’s a teacher at the school too ‘cause that’s canon, even if we don’t get a proper backstory for the decision—not counting her love of stars as background explanation for her becoming an astronomy teacher.

Yona’s working at the Carousel Boutique ‘cause that’s canon, but all her seamstress activities throughout T.B.O.L. are more than enough setup for this development.

Sandbar’s working at the aquarium, which is especially fitting since he recommended it as a good dating location for Gallus-Stream.

I didn’t consider any alternate possibilities beyond this for him. His Science Fair project didn’t feel prominent enough to be setup for him being a florist, and I highly doubted he’d get into needlework himself, even if “The Last Problem” did show him with Yona at the Carousel Boutique. Though that particular shot was enough for me to confirm they did indeed marry—as if them being the only canon couple of the Student Six weren’t enough confirmation of that.

Plus, I found a picture of Sandbar in a wetsuit once, and bro was rocking it! Hence why he acknowledges that same fact when talking to Gavin later.

Ocellus, meanwhile, did indeed become a professor. In fact, she went a step beyond that and became a published author too! And while I left her book’s subject matter ambiguous, the Science Fair subplot more than proves it’s totally about magic.

Of course Griselda and Gavin love it, and to give her at least some extra personality, so does Terramar’s sweetie. Regarding the latter, I didn’t exactly imply it properly, but I like to imagine she first began reading Ocellus’ book when stuck at home, resting from the pregnancy.

Nice to see Ocellus be the only one of the group to refer to Sky, Ocean, and Novo by their ranks, much to the third’s glee; it makes for a nice contrast when Smolder starts her rivalry antics later.

Speaking of Ocellus and Smolder though, you might have noticed they’re the only two of the Graduated Six who aren’t married. That was deliberate.

Yona-Bar was canon, and this whole story was about Gallus-Stream becoming canon too. But? It didn’t feel right making Smol-Us canon too; it’d feel more like I was forcing the “spares” together just so all the Student Six would have romanced one another. And that felt too superficial.

So I went the opposite route, and addressed as such in-story with Ocean and Sky asking about their relationship statuses. Politely, of course. Wouldn’t want to imply they arbitrarily needed to be married/parents, so even though Ocean and Sky are disappointed, they’re more than understanding.

Ocellus is currently focusing more on her career than her love life, and Smolder’s still too cocky to be anything more than a bachelorette for life. Plus, she was there when Shimmy Shake had a foal, and was deeply traumatized by the event.

Not to mention how uncomfortable she’d feel dating someone she’d outlive by default, but considering the mood of the scene, I didn’t feel it was appropriate mentioning, or even hinting at that.

Regarding Shimmy Shake, however…? Heh-heh. Funny story.

Shimmy was originally going to end up with End Zone, and I had already sprinkled plenty of background setup for this: Shimmy amicably discussing Zone back in Ch.3(Expression), later placating Zone when Vellum irked him on the train in Ch.5(Normality), and even reportedly intending to make a move on him in Ch.14(Family, Part One).

Furthermore, like with Smol-Us, I wasn’t entirely confident with having her end up with Lighthoof, unsure if it’d feel—for lack of a better word—“pander-y.” Like, two girls can be best friends without romantic feelings, ya know.

Except…? That same conversation where Shimmy possibly liking Zone was revealed featured Silver confessing both she and Scoop expected Shimmy liked Lighthoof, not Zone.

I could have easily hand-waved that away as Silver and Scoop simply being wrong. But well? That would then feel misleading. As if I were setting up for some proper representation, only to backtrack immediately. And do I even need to explain why I didn’t want to do that?

I suppose I could have edited that moment in the conversation out before publishing, thus, rendering this entire concern moot. However, um? I had already published that chapter by this point, and I’ve already noted how against ret-cons I am, so that option was out. Meaning I had to resolve this here.

So, I decided to take the issue and turn it into a plot point: Shimmy did date Zone for a while, but it didn’t work out.

For a story where all the romantic couples get together and reach their happy endings, having a relationship pointedly not work out was a breath of fresh air. Even if it did mean unintentionally, arbitrarily pairing her up with Lighthoof because of the accidental setup.

And of course it worsens the timeline problem because why wouldn’t it? Because somehow Gallus-Stream, Yona-Bar, and Patty-Vember are already married, two of whom have children, yet Shimmy-Hoof are only just now on their honeymoon…with a kid, yes, but still.

On the plus side, it retroactively added to Zone’s character by implying he joined the Royal Guard in part because he and Shimmy broke up—The event caused him to rethink his life and priorities, culminating in him deciding protecting the citizens of Equestria was a greater purpose for him than being some B-List quarterback.

So congrats, End Zone, you may have started out as a boring, unnecessary filler character, but in the end, you found your true calling and are living your best life. Good job, dude.

And congrats to Shimmy-Hoof for being representation! Accidental representation, sure, but representation nonetheless!

While we’re discussing relationships though, there’s one I’ve left ambiguous: Sky and Ocean’s. We know they split up, yes, but so far, they’re functioning as a duo, are perfectly cordial with one another, and Sky even offers to take a swim through Saddle Lake with her later.

Furthermore, Ocean has amended her relationship with Silverstream, and has had years to further overcome her paranoia of returning to land, to the point she can come out as far as Ponyville in her hippogriff form and feel only slightly jittery. All of these were significant contributors to the two splitting up, so now that Ocean’s dealt with them… And I did confirm they still carried a torch for one another during the Mount Aris discussion, so…?

Sadly, no. Sky and Ocean didn’t get back together.

They love each other; that’ll never change. And of course they’re always going to be there for each other, support each other, and act exactly like a happily married couple would… But no. They are indeed still divorced, I’m sad to say.

If it helps? I’ll also say they talked about possibly getting back together themselves—another micro-story I concocted—but the mutual answer was still no. The hurt ran too deep, and time only ensured the scar remained.

As Sky and Ocean would tell you: It’s complicated, but they do love each other.

‘Tis not dourness’ end, tragically. For now, our attention must return to Glory’s subplot, and what better way to do so than another of Gallus-Stream’s “Talks”? So there’s your conclusion to that particular element of their relationship.

Funnily enough, we almost didn’t get it; I almost let Silverstream carry on without realizing how badly Glory was actually doing, thinking it’d be nice if—once Glory started freaking out—Silver then immediately trusted Gallus would figure it out, despite not knowing the details herself.

However? The idea didn’t feel fair—and ran the risk of making Gallus out to be the “better” parent—so I had Gallus hurry and talk to her before she could carry on, and also had Silver acknowledge she suspected something was amiss too. Because of course she would.

Interesting to see they’re so used to these “Talks” they can have one concerning their own daughter’s psyche and say everything they need to in a matter of seconds, but that’s the benefit of years of development for ya.

Gotta also appreciate that little touch of Silverstream being more afraid that Glory muttered “I’m fine” than Gallus. Goes to show, even now, there’s still a part of her that scares easily, but thankfully, her husband is there to reassure her and go do the same for their daughter.

Said daughter is busy being buried under her family playing the “Where are they now?” game themselves. Ah well, at least we learned Sandbar’s sis is doing well—Though since I kept the exact number of years that have passed ambiguous, I did the same regarding how old the tyke herself is.

Gavin got integrated into the matter so he wouldn’t fade into the background like Terramar kinda does.

Oh, and Yona-Bar are adopting! Why they never adopted before Glory happened is yet more of that timeline nonsense, but we’ve already discussed that.

As for the soon-to-be-adoptee, I deliberately kept everything vague about them—their species, their gender, their name, etc. The star of the Epilogue(Love) was Glory, not them, so we didn’t waste any more time discussing them than the necessary—and very much deserved—“Yona-Bar will be parents!” celebrations.

Shame the festivities have to conclude in place of yet more drama, but we’re on a schedule. And now that we’ve finished answering “Where are they now?” it was time to get back to that aforementioned star.

And well? We have to do it. The Griffs had their chance to make Glory’s fears worse, and now it was the other half of her family’s turn.

Sandbar Smolder kicks things off by getting us back onto the topic of the school, but at least she somewhat stalls it out by accepting Sky and Ocean’s challenge regarding who can out-dote whom.

And of course Gallus-Stream chimes in—Gallus to warn Smolder she’s fighting a losing game, and Silver to grab Glory and hold her as closely and protectively as she can while shutting down the challenge before it escalates.

Bizarrely, the Graduated Six actually help allay Glory’s fears! I know. I’m sad I didn’t get to do the same with the Griffs, but that would have been too repetitive, especially since Glory’s fears don’t stay allayed for long…

Sandbar casually remarked, “Plus? When that day comes, some of your classmates will probably go to the Friendship School with you.”

Sandbar…? Sandbar…

I really didn’t want to make Sandbar the one to say something stupid to suddenly make everything worse, especially when he already fretted over doing it during the Smolder Subplot—implying he was actively trying to stamp out that character flaw, even way-back-when. So to make him do exactly that now…? It felt like I was slapping the poor stallion in the face and going, “No! Your character development is irrelevant! You will screw everything up and make your precious niece cry because the plot demands you do! ”

Yeaaahhh…

But well? Someone had to send the poor kiddo spiraling again. It couldn’t be the Griffs; they already had their turn doing it, and I definitely couldn’t see Ocellus or Smolder doing it.

So… Sorry, Sandbar, you were my only option.

At least the blame’s not entirely on him, thanks to both his wife and Smolder. Ocellus, meanwhile, is a changeling and had an entire subplot dedicated to her discovering how to magically sense emotions, so it made more sense she’d notice Glory’s building concern, but plot had to happen, so she—as stated in-story—attributes it to simple nervousness, taking a softer, more reassuring approach of encouragement.

But, well, plot. So her encouragement only makes things worse, but it’s interesting how Glory almost voiced her concerns to Ocellus if her “But, Auntie Ocellus, I-I don’t— I mean, I…” line was any indication.

Unfortunately, Glory shares another of Gallus’ flaws: Claustrophobia. Well? Not quite that, but it is what helped inspire how terrified Glory was of everyone else surrounding her and watching her like a hawk. All that pressure, in addition to the pressure she placed upon herself… Is it any wonder she broke down?

And while I considered dragging this out—Either everyone would continue on as if Glory weren’t crying right before their eyes, or everyone would immediately rush to comfort the fledgling which would only make her feel more enclosed and pressured—but it wouldn’t work. Word count aside, it simply felt wrongto drag out Glory’s breakdown.

Thus, Gallus swoops in like the hero he is, and rescues her from the crowd, rushing off to give her a good, long “Dad talk.”

One of my personal favorite details is my word choice for Silver’s dialogue tag.

“I will,” she answered, knowing he’d calm Glory down.

At first, it was “Trusting” Gallus would calm Glory down. And while that was equally fitting, I believed “Knowing” meant more.

After her paranoia arc, it felt so…right! For Silverstream to take one look at what would once have been her worst nightmare, and not only react calmly, but know Gallus would help Glory feel better—not just “trust” he could, not just “expect” he could. She knew Gallus could help Glory. No doubt, no hesitation, no fear.

It’s unfortunate she had to surrender all agency here and let Gallus solve the conflict, but the fact she even could do that without halfheartedly suggesting coming along to help…? It perfectly shows how absolutely safe she feels now. How confident she is Gallus will help Glory feel better.

Plus, it’s not like she de-spawned from the world while Gallus gives their daughter a brief therapy session. Nope, Silver has an arguably more challenging task ahead of her: Staying behind with the family and convincing them not to run off and try helping either.

We, however, are not bound by such restrictions, so we get to witness Gallus overtake Sky Beak as “Father of the Year!” firsthand!

---

~ There’s Nothing Wrong With You ~

Here it is. This is the scene which made me commit to writing the Epilogue(Love). And it’s glorious, despite it being an homage to Gallus and Gavin’s conversations back in the Griffonstone arc.

Gallus even does the same thing with his wings here—blocking what scares Glory from sight so she’ll feel safer. Though I like to think he does that here specifically because he did for Gavin back then, so he knows for a fact it works.

Gotta also love how comforting he is here. Not just with the “Daddy’s here” line which was a retroactive addition for cuteness’ sake, but also the “All nice and quiet. Just you and me” line, thrown in to help Glory further feel well and truly safe. Oh, and there’s also:

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, honey,” he mollified. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Glory sniffled and pulled back, rubbing her eyes dry again. “I-I didn’t?”

“Nope. Not a thing.”

No you didn’t, Glory. You did absolutely nothing wrong; you felt overwhelmed and you cried, and both were perfectly okay. You don’t need to feel guilty for any of that, and it’s terrifying to know you thought you did!

Gallus thankfully stamps that outimmediately. Funny I say that though—At first, I struggled to figure out how to progress from this point, thinking maybe it’d be more natural to have Gallus silently let Glory cry herself out until she was willing to address everything first.

Basically we’d go from the quoted lines straight to her asking Gallus how to make friends with only a paragraph or something serving as the transition.

That felt simultaneously too quick and too slow. Too quick in that Glory currently would not be so willing to voice her issues unprompted. Too slow in that Gallus absolutely would not sit idly by while his and Silver’s daughter was so obviously pained by something.

So I addressed both those issues.

Firstly, Gallus does give Glory time to calm down, almost waiting for her to start, but once he sees she’s clearly still stressed, he—

ultimately cut to the chase. “Alright, Glory, come on. Tell me what’s the matter,” he calmly commanded.

Assertiveness in the command, paired with a “Calm” tone and genuine care for their daughter. Good Parenting 101, right there.

And secondly, Glory does try bottling up her feelings and pretending she’s okay so her father won’t worry about her… Buuut, Gallus scores a chance to use his own “Parent” voice, like Silver did earlier, and reminds Glory of the two rules:

“To always listen to you and Mommy.”

“And the second rule?”

“…To always tell you and Mommy when I’m upset,” she answered, looking away.

I considered the second rule being the first and only one Gallus asked about, but well? I had an inkling “Always listen to your parents” would/should be the first rule a parent teaches their kid by default, for obvious reasons.

The second rule, however, is definitely the more character-driven of the two. After everything they went through, of course Gallus-Stream prioritize teaching Glory not to fall into the same emotion-bottling pitfalls they once fell into.

Shame she still did, but that’s not due to Gallus-Stream being bad parents. Rather, Glory is so abundantly kind and super-sweet that she couldn’t bear the idea of upsetting her parents or failing to meet their expectations. So much so, she’d rather shut down and cry her heart out than dare admit she didn’t think she could make friends like everyone wanted her too.

Further proof of that is in how, once Gallus asks Glory to tell him what’s wrong, she almost breaks down again. Thankfully, Gallus noticed and employed the same “Take your time, I’m listening” technique he did with Gavin and Ocean Flow.

There is a little rush since school’s about to start, and I considered joking about that. But given the nature of this scene, it wouldn’t be appropriate.

Instead, Glory takes Gallus’ offer, though not without sneaking a glance toward “the many creatures that awaited her back at the schoolhouse.”—Whether that was her family or her soon-to-be fellow students, I left purposefully ambiguous.

How she did that despite Gallus flaring his swings specifically so she couldn’t see the schoolhouse and be triggered again? Well, after it worked with Gavin, I felt it necessary for it to not 100% work the second go around. Mostly for realism’s sake. You can’t expect this particular routine to work every time. Thus, Glory looked around Gallus’ wings and saw the schoolhouse, but Gallus simply blocked it from view again, prompting the discussion to begin proper.

“D-Dad?”

And wow, what a way to start it! The one and only time Glory ever callus Glory “Dad” rather than “Daddy”! Truly!—Whatever is causing her so much anxiety must be of utmost seriousness and—

“How… How do I make friends?”

Glory, you are the most precious fluffball ever!

I may joke about it now, but that’s ‘cause the question may seem a less serious concern to an adult. Case in point, Gallus is gobsmacked to learn this of all things was what troubled Glory, especially when—as he points out in-universe—she already knows how to make friends. As if he and Silver would ever skip out on teaching Glory that.

However? While an adult may find her question not too anxiety-inducing, Glory’s a child, so it’s nigh apocalyptic to her, and I obviously wanted to respect that.

Thus, Gallus treats her fears with respect too, immediately answering her question with nary a snippet of adult snark in sight.

But I didn’t spend the whole Epilogue(Love) constantly praising Glory for being a smarty-pants for nothing, so the fledgling responds with a truly amazing counterargument:

“But what about Generosity and Kindness? And— And Bravery and Strength? I don’t know anything about that stuff,” she puled. “I don’t— I-I-I don’t know anything about Friendship at all!”

Because in a show where “Friendship” is both literal magic and treated near religiously—to the distaste of some fans—it’s ridiculously easy to lose sight that “Friendship” is friendship first and magic second.

And as Gallus explains: The Elements of Harmony are important facets of friendship, but they’re not the end-all-be-all. Making a friend is as simple as being nice to someone and them being nice back.

Not to say Gallus isn’t over the moon that Glory fully understands the importance of the EoH, even referencing the Pillars’ version of them(Because they deserved to be referenced too). But as he also says, Glory will better understand those values later in life.

But while that’s at least one less burden weighing upon Glory, it doesn’t quite mollify her.

“But w-what if… What if the other foals don’t like me?”

A ludicrous fear to have, but a believable one nevertheless. Thankfully, Gallus immediately gives her the encouragement she needs to know she’s a well-designed OC she’s absolutely amazing and worthy of being liked by others.

I was always mixed on having Gallus praise her appearance so much, worrying he’d be accidentally sending the wrong message to Glory: That her looks are the reason others would love her. However, I got over that concern back then, understanding Gallus both was trying to make her feel better first and foremost and would later reaffirm she’s entirely deserving of love regardless.

The fact he makes sure she shows off her smile so she’ll feel extra proud of it too, rather than just her cute factor and tail bow, certainly helped.

However, that bow is connected, not to a pony’s tail, but a griffon’s, which spurs Glory into revealing she acquired another flaw from her father: His identity issues. Heck, she even stares at her talons when fretting over it, just like he did.

Luckily, Gallus’ development well and truly stuck and has developed even further over the years. So rather than immediately panic and feel guilty for his and Silver’s daughter possessing the same woes he once had, Gallus simply says:

“So?”

Goodness is it beautiful to see Gallus so easily bat away this particular fear. But since Glory’s a kid, she kinda needs more info to go on(And we need more dialogue for the scene to feel natural). Thus, he acknowledges how their entire family is one great big creature feature, yet the bonds of love—eyyy! —they share is everlasting.

But while Gallus tried saying his piece before Glory could sneak in a counterargument, he stopped talking just long enough for her to do exactly that.

“Yeah, but— But you’re not my friends,” Glory protested to her father’s utter shock. “You’re my family.

Because the concepts are technically different, yes, but this has nothing to do with that fact. This is merely a hyper-intelligent child taking the concepts far too literally.

It’s rather sad the only friend she claims to have is an imaginary one, but I figured it’d be the truth, considering she hasn’t even gone to school yet and is panicking over not knowing how to even try making proper friends.

But although a part of him recognizes friends and family are indeed different, Gallus has spent the past several years and this entire story accepting his friends are legitimately his family.

And if friends can be family, then family can be friends.”

A simple logic train, but one which blows Glory’s young mind sky-high. But then? If Glory’s family are her friends, what then does that make her parents?

We’re your best friends,” he confided, tittering.

“You are!?”

“Mhmm.”

“YAY!” Glory roared, flinging her talons around him as her tail wagged furiously. The moment she felt him hug her back, she squealed, “Thank you for being my best friend, Daddy!”

“Awww, I’m happy to be your best friend, Glory,” he replied, giving her cheek a smooch.

After smooching him back, Glory snuggled into his fluffy, huggable plumage.

No words are needed here; my intentions are made clear enough from the text.

But with the conflict effectively resolved, it was time for another round of plot-hole cleanup.

Question #1: Is Glory really okay?

“Ummm, I think so?” she said, her smile drooping slightly again.

Technically yes, but we’ve room for improvement which we’ll soon get to.

Question #2: Why didn’t Glory talk to her parents about her fears when she knows she should, especially when it’s her parents’ second most important rule?

“‘Cause I’m not supposed to be afraid.”

Uhhh, that doesn’t sound right. No way would any of Glory’s family, least of all her parents, ever teach her that! Which is exactly why Gallus nearly explodes upon hearing that.

I darn near exploded too, having no idea how to explain away why Glory thought that. Eventually, I settled for putting the blame on her childish naivety again.

“W-Well? The Power Ponies aren’t afraid of anything…”

Eyyy, the Power Ponies-related interview from earlier was now properly plot relevant!

Makes sense too. Yeah, Glory looks up to her family, but she’s also a kid and an information sponge. So if she sees her favorite superheroes constantly monologue about how “We’re not afraid of yooouuu!!!” at their villains, of course she’d emulate that to a degree. Or at least, feel like she should emulate it.

But as Gallus explains, Glory isn’t a cartoon, she’s a real, living creature—in-universe, anyway—and everything she feels or experiences is equally as real and valid as she is.

“Really?”

“Really,” he affirmed, nodding. “If you’re allowed to be brave, you’re allowed to be scared. And if you’re allowed to be happy, you’re allowed to be sad,” he declared wisely.

“But I don’t like feeling those things,” Glory mewled.

“And that’s okay too. Mommy doesn’t like feeling those things either,” Gallus revealed. “And neither do I. But we both know it’s okay to feel them. What matters is we don’t let our fear overshadow our love. Or our joy,” he concluded, smiling serenely.

Ey, “serenely” popped up again!

And there’s one last conclusion to Silverstream’s paranoia. Like she admitted during their 2^nd Date, she doesn’t like feeling afraid, worried, or angry, but she and Gallus both understand it’s okay to feel those things, so long as they don’t overshadow their every other emotion, especially their love and happiness.

I always did love that latter detail: How Gallus says to Glory what Silverstream said to Smolder way-back-when. Wonder how he came to learn about that particular quote.

As for the recipient of this lesson?

Although his words perplexed her somewhat, Glory fully understood their meaning.

She’s young and naive, but a total smarty-pants, and this line sums that up perfectly while clarifying she did indeed register the lesson. Which means now she understands it’s okay to be scared of making friends, and that leads us into:

Question #3: How should Gallus continue, now knowing Glory’s worries.

Answer: Gallus does still want Glory to make friends and fully encourages her to try. But? He also recognizes and empathizes with her fears, adding that if she genuinely doesn’t want to make friends yet, she doesn’t have to—taking that pressure off her.

Glory, of course, is completely confused. Everyone has been telling her she needs to make friends, yet here her father is telling she doesn’t? More importantly, there’s this line:

“…Why not? You and Mommy want me to make friends, so shouldn’t I try to?” she figured, remembering the first rule.

There goes Glory being an adorable smarty-pants again. To think Glory has spent most of this chapter panicking over not knowing how to make friends, but now that she’s told she doesn’t have to, she recognizes she should at least try anyway.

Yet another line spotlighting how mature a fledgling she is and proving Glory is already as brave as she thinks the Power Ponies are.

Thus, we take a moment for Gallus to clarify beyond any doubt that, although he does hope she’ll make friends, she doesn’t need to if she’s not comfortable doing so.That, if Glory doesn’t make any friends today, he, Silver, and everyone else will still love her regardless. That, no matter what, her family loves her unconditionally and forever.

And with that being said, Glory’s development shines through with her admitting she does want to make friends; she’s just afraid they won’t like her regardless.

And what else can Gallus possibly say to that other than:

“Oh, honey, they won’t just ‘like’ you. They’ll love you,” he swore. “You’re nice, smart, adorable, and super sweet!” Gallus then planted a loving kiss on her forehead and comforted, “Nothing is wrong with you, Glory. You’re wonderful.”

Whelp! That settles it! Sky Beak has officially lost his crown as “Best Dad Ever!” That honor now belongs to Gallus!

But if you think I’m done; you’re a fool! Because, even after all that, we still haven’t gotten to the part of this conversation that convinced me to do the Epilogue(Love) to begin with!

No, that part comes next! And to lead into it, we have Gallus in-universe consider how he could further comfort Glory, settling on teaching her a two-part coping mechanism.

Part One: Cadence’s breathing technique.

And Part Two:

I want you to say to yourself, ‘Mommy and Daddy love me,’”

Naturally, Glory does the first part somewhatcomically with her puffed out cheeks—because I couldn’t resist. And afterward, she switches the parents again, saying instead “Daddy and Mommy love me.”—because I couldn’t resist.

And because Gallus can’t resist, as soon as Glory says that, he swoops her into a hug and immediately affirms how, yes, Daddy and Mommy absolutely love her. And she loves them too.

And now… We reach the moment. The scene I came up with halfway through a shift at work and later further plotted out that same night at home. The moment between father and daughter responsible for me committing to write the Epilogue(Love) rather than let the story end at the original epilogue.

And it’s majestic.

Gallus simply held her both lovingly and protectively, but the longer the hug went on for, the closer he came to crying. “Glory? C-Can you promise me something else too?” he requested, his voice shaky.

“Yeah, Daddy?”

“Promise me that no matter what happens… No matter how scared or worried you ever are… You’ll remember that I will always love you,” he pleaded, unable to hold his tears back any longer. “And I will always be proud of you. And I will always, always be here for you! Okay? I’m always going to be here for you,” Gallus promised again, sniffling. “And the same goes for Mommy. We’re always going to love you, Glory. And we’re always going to be here for you,” he reiterated adamantly, holding her even closer. “Can— Can you promise me you’ll remember that? Please?”

“I’ll always remember that, Daddy,” she promised, comfortingly patting his back the way both her parents often did for her.

You don’t just know—You feel that everything Gallus says to Glory is what he wished he were told growing up. And because of that, there’s nothing more for me to say regarding it.

Well? There is one thing. Glory patting Gallus back? Totally ripped off from how Jack-Jack does the same thing to Elastagirl in The Incredibles 2. Thank you to CinemaWins for pointing that moment out; it has since been permanently burned into my memory through sheer adorableness.

Can’t copy that moment beat-for-beat without adding my own little twist of course, so I make sure to acknowledge how Glory’s totally doing it since it always made her feel better when her parents did it to her. And even better, she thinks to ask if Gallus is okay too.

I considered having Gallus default to “Yeah, I’m okay; are you?” to skip past his current state in favor of speeding the plot along; however, that was entirely antithetical to everything T.B.O.L. stands for and everything Gallus-Stream has taught Glory.

Thus, he admits he’s scared—much to Glory’s shock since he’s her Daddy, so surely he’s invincible and fearless, right? I did, however, compromise a tad. So instead of explaining he’s totally crying because he told Glory everything he never was growing up, Gallus merely explains he’s worried she won’t make friends or have fun at school.

Of course, it’s Glory, so there’s no doubt she’ll have fun at school—that’s where she’ll learn stuff after all!. And furthermore, their little “Dad talk” has afforded her the character development necessary to bravely declare she will at least try to make friends. And again, since it’s Glory, she even drafts up her own supporting logic in that trying new things in general is fun, so trying to make friends will be fun by default.

Right?” she ended, looking to her father for confirmation.

“Heh-heh. That’s a pretty neat way of looking at things,” he said, hugging her again.

Eyyy, it’s that one line Starlight told Gallus once!

With this scene finally wrapping up, we double-check that Glory’s feeling better, which she is—after doing exactly as her parents raised her to do and thinking over her present feelings on the matter.

Doesn’t stop her from asking for one more hug because cute! And of course the griffons get in a minor “Nuh-uh!” match over whose hugs are the best because cuuuuuttttteeeee!!!!!

But with that comes the end of the “Dad talk,” heralding our return to the rest of the family.

And to lead into returning to them—and also to clarify they were not standing there doing nothing but T-Posing while they waited to spawn on-screen again—I make sure to specify in-story that “They were all deep in conversation about what Glory’s issues might have been.”

And to make it up to Silverstream for letting Gallus solve everything without her, Glory pounces her and immediately thanks her for being her best friend too. And though that declaration is rather bizarre out of context, Silver rolls with it.

Gallus then strolls in after Glory, and explains the situation in the most general manner he can, to save on words and spare the full breadth of Glory’s worries from being openly revealed. To also save on words, everyone’s shock is summarized as “As surprised as everycreature else was.”

A shame, that. Everyone deserved to have their own unique reaction to the issue, but doing so would have wasted time. Thus, Sandbar and Yona are the main duo of “Shock and concern.”

Ocellus, meanwhile, is a changeling. And has access to an emotion-reading spell. And was also the first after Gallus-Stream to realize Glory was getting upset. And she’s also the most intelligent of the group as a whole too.

Point is: These were the reasons why Ocellus was the first(And only) one to realize and acknowledge how literally everycreature accidentally contributed to Glory’s fears. Someone had to do it for fairness’ sake, and Ocellus was the most qualified.

Naturally, all is forgiven because Glory’s a sweetheart. She’s also a huge troll too.

“Daddy said that if I wasn’t ready to make friends, I didn’t have to. So I’m not going to make any friends at all!” she proclaimed, grinning widely.

“You are going to try to make friends though, right?” Gallus asked, not remotely amused. “You told me you would.”

“Well, duh. I’m obviously gonna try to make friends,” she giggled. In a heartbeat, Glorious Pearl dropped the smile in exchange for a grim frown and said, “But I make no promises,” in the most dead-serious voice she could possibly muster.

I loved writing this; Glory is adorable even when trying to be dark and brooding. What makes it even better is how she’s technically still following her parents’ advice on expressing her feelings. If she doesn’t want to make friends, you can be darn sure she ain’t gonna, and you gotta deal with it. Gallus did want her to be honest with them regarding her emotions, so he can’t exactly be mad.

The best part has to be Smolder’s deadpan “Okay.” Which was totally ripped off, not from the One Punch Man meme, but from how Lake says it in response to learning “Kick me!” toad’s name is Terrance.

Because of course we had to sneak in one last “How on earth does my brain work?” moment(And Infinity Train reference) before ending the story.

And now’s the moment where everyone else gets their turn to react to everything.

Smolder’s just glad to see Glory’s okay again, Sky’s confident she can make friends regardless, Gavin reaffirms she doesn’t have to make friends if the pressure’s too much for her, and Ocean reassures they’ll love her regardless of her friend count.

So basically, everything Gallus discussed with her in the “Dad talk” but now it’s everyone else’s turn because obviously they’d say much the same.

And of course Glory points out exactly this—both to make fun of myself for it, and to naturally lead into the next batch of dialogue.

Novo sneaks in another potshot at Gallus before copying her sister in confirming their love for Glory is unconditional—complete with mutual beak-boop to show a less “Queenly” side to her personality.

Terramar sneaks in a dig at the name forgetting incident, only to immediately get shut down by Gallus-Stream, but Glory—the absolute angel—promises not to repeat the incident on account of how cool Terramar’s name is—because it is cool —much to his absolute surprise and glee.

And with that, the reactions come to a close, so Silverstream gets a moment to meet her husband’s eye and wordlessly thank him for doing exactly what she knew he would do.

But now… With Glory’s character development set, and her subplot finally wrapped up, it was time. Time for Glory to finally go to school, and time to finally begin drawing this grand epic of mine to a close.

And after a quick group hug we go do exactly that. Or, we would, but somehow, discussing the epilogue took me just as long to do as discussing the 30k+ word chapter. Ah well. Tune in next week for the final wrap-up to this ludicrously long commentary!

Obligatory Google Doc Link.

Comments

[Summer Script]

~ Additional Tidbits ~

— 1) Regarding Gallus’ math question to Glory, I’ve a few things to note:

Gallus began, stopping and giving her his full attention.

The “Full attention” part I made sure to specify to further enrich Gallus’ parenting skills. Gallus could just give her the math problem while continuing to trot along without bothering to so much as glance at Glory, but this is Gallus we’re talking about, and he respects Glory far too much to disregard her that bluntly. Instead, he stops walking, looks Glory dead in the eye, agrees to take her to the Friendship School if she can prove she has the arithmetic skills to keep up there, then gives her the problem.

After “Shooting Silver a wink” to wordlessly assure he’s not being serious, of course.

As for the problem he gives? 16 x 29,194? Why that question? Well, because the answer is: 467,104. Why is that significant? Check out T.B.O.L.’s URL: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/467104/the-bonds-of-love

And would you lookie there: 467104 is the number in that URL. I have no idea what that number is, by the way; is T.B.O.L. the 467,104^th story on Fimfic, or is the number just a generic, randomly generated URL thing? Don’t know, but I sneaked it in there anyway.

Sooo, did anyone catch that Easter egg?

Meanwhile, Glory’s “I-I don’t have enough talons for that!” line was a joke lifted from a Reddit Post compiled in Ailurus’ Kidsarefingstupid series on Youtube. Those videos crack me up, and I won’t deny parts of Glory’s more childlike behavior were inspired by some of the madness reported in them. This line here, Glory’s enthusiastic “Yeah!” to pancakes, the “Bathtub Phase,” etc.

— 2) Just to prove Gallus isn’t the only one who can validate Glory’s arguments, Silver gets this:

“And like a certain clever fledgling pointed out,” Silver said, tickling their daughter for a second and eliciting a surprised yelp. “I can teach you the basics just as well as Mrs. Cheerilee can.”

Playing with Glory a touch more, while not only praising the kiddo with the same compliment Luna hit Gallus with, but also confirming Glory was entirely correct in how Silver can teach Glory the basics. Meaning Glory has constant access to a tutor for whenever she legitimately needs help with her schoolwork, meaning she also has an endlessly recyclable excuse to spend time with her Mommy.

— 3) Regarding Luster Dawn’s own “Want It, Need It” incident? There’s some extra context regarding it which I couldn’t fit in, explaining why it was so, so much worse than when Twilight did it.

Twilight cast the spell on only Smarty-Pants. Luster cast it on the entire Friendship School! Everycreature fell victim to “Wanting” and “Needing” everything within the building. So for those wondering why Silver made goo-goo eyes at a tapestry of all things, that’s why; it was just one of the things she went goo-goo over.

What everycreature else, students and teachers alike, went crazy over, I’ll let you decide.

— 4) So, Gallus worked at the Weather Bureau for a while, huh? Well, of course he did! It was on his list of future plans, for one thing, and more importantly, realism mandated he had at least one job prior to the Royal Guard. Gotta pay them bills somehow.

And yes, this applied to Silverstream too: She worked at Spearhead’s Gallery before becoming a teacher. Sorry you didn’t get that information in the story proper, but at long last, there’s your closure regarding that particular Gallery.

Any other jobs they may have worked before their endgame careers, what those experiences were like and how long they worked there, I’ll leave entirely up to you.

— 5)

After blowing a raspberry, Glory sneered, “I don’t want patience; I want to go to school.”

Don’t mind me, I’m merely taking a moment to show Glory is still a kid despite her overall maturity.

— 6) Glory going out of her way to always mention “Daddy” before “Mommy” was, as I’ve already discussed, done to show Gallus was Glory’s favorite. But to further emphasize that detail, I decided to not do it when Glory cried out to Sky Beak and Ocean Flow.

“Grandma! Grandpa!” she shrieked ecstatically, running as fast as she could.

Of course, that implies Ocean’s her favorite grandparent… Certainly would further explain why Glory was so immediately concerned for Ocean being on dry land…

Don’t be sad, Sky Beak! If nothing else, you’ll always be my favorite.

— 7)

“You’ve been eating all your fruits and veggies, haven’t you?”

And there I go Sky Beak goes again, recycling old lines to make Glory feel happy.

— 8) Gotta appreciate how Gallus at the start of T.B.O.L. would have taken the girls’ absence as proof they didn’t care for him; whereas Gallus here is mature enough to be disappointed they were a no-show but accept it without warping it into some backwards confirmation of their disdain for him.

— 9)

“As if I’d ever turn down an excuse to visit my ‘hero.’”

“You could visit me a lot more if you worked at the Library of Magic.”

“Griffonstone is my home, Gallus; you know that,” Gavin laughed.

“Yes, I do,” Gallus replied, pulling Gavin in for another hug that he happily reciprocated.

Nice to see Gavin’s mature enough to be open about being Gallus’ #1 Fan. Even nicer to see the kiddo still recognizes Griffonstone as his home and Gallus fully understands and accepts that fact—so there’s your conclusion to the whole “Home” theme from earlier.

— 10)

It only feels like my heart is breaking into a hundred million pieces,”

Careful, Terramar, you almost sounded like Trixie from “No Second Prances” there for a moment, and the last thing anyone wants to do is channel that mare’s attitude.

— 11)

“After all these years, you guys are still weird,” Terramar groaned, rolling his eyes.

“No offense, Mr. Terramar,” Gavin interjected neutrally. “But you might be the weird one because I thought that whole thing was quite charming.”

“Suck-up,” Terramar mumbled to himself, receiving a light slap, courtesy of his sister’s wing.

Don’t mind me, I’m just taking a second to finally properly counterargue Terramar’s “I’m the only sane one in my family” attitude by having the closest thing to a stranger in this scene rebuke that same attitude—politely of course, because Gavin absolutely is family to Terramar and vice versa.

— 12) After subjecting Glory to a second round of tickling, despite her emphatic aversion to it, I felt it only right to respect her wishes and had Gallus promise to spare her a third round—proven by how I refrained from using any iteration of “Tickle” from thereon.

But it didn’t feel fair to suddenly cut off everyone’s “Tickle Glory” privileges so nonchalantly, so I made sure Gallus specifies, “At least, not for today anyway.”

— 13)

Every fiber of Queen Novo’s being wanted to contest her sister’s accusation, but she knew full-well she couldn’t. Plus, she didn’t really like lying to her family.

Another favorite line of mine. Even Novo herself can’t deny Gallus’ fluffiness and hugability, nor would she ever want to, given he’s family. And funnily enough, that second half of the line was a retroactive addition.

At first, I was satisfied with the first part only since it served its comedic purpose, but I wanted to add the second part to better emphasize Novo genuinely does love Gallus, despite her attitude.

Also gotta love how Gallus does apologize to Novo too later:

“Well, we’re sorry then,” Gallus apologized. “You know we love you, Auntie Novo.”

‘Cause if Novo had to apologize for bullying him, it was only fair Gallus had to apologize for bullying her back.

— 14)

“Ha! Nice to know my favorite prankster buddy hasn’t completely lost his touch,” Smolder jeered, grinning at the griffon in question.

After quickly hiding his renewed worry, Gallus laughed, “Show’s what you know, Smolder. I haven’t lost a thing in all these years. Only gained,” he ended, nuzzling Silver who returned the gesture joyously.

Smolder rolled her eyes and jokingly griped, “A whole lot of sappiness is what you gained.”

And there’s your closure to Gallus’ prankster character trait. Bluebird’s maturity eventually overrode it for the most part, much to Smolder’s disappointment. But it is still there, lurking deep within him, waiting patiently for the opportunity to strike.

More cuteness with the lovebirds too, to Smolder’s exasperation, but it’s also interesting to see Gallus seemingly bottle up his own worries concerning his and Silver’s daughter. Despite all the character development, you’d think he’d immediately drop everything and talk to Glory about—

Nope, nope, nope. That wouldn’t do, that certainly wouldn’t be realistic, and you guys know he did not bottle those worries up. No, he recognized it wasn’t an appropriate time to discuss Glory’s currently unknown woes in front of their entire family, so he shelves it momentarily to discuss things with his wife first before taking any more actions. Because Gallus is awesome like that.

— 15)

“Silverstream honey…?” Sky Beak murmured, staring after his son-in-law and granddaughter as well before returning his sights to his daughter.

“Was something wrong with Glory?” Ocean Flow asked for all of them.

I’m so glad I managed to get both Sky and Ocean to ask this. I juggled the idea around to have Smolder or even Novo try saying one of these lines, but it feels so much more appropriate for the grandparents to ask the question.

And hey, I slipped in the “Asked for all of them” dialogue tag, so that’s something at least.

— 16) So? About Gallus’ “And if friends can be family, then family can be friends.” line…?

Bizarrely, I think Sawtooth Waves might have helped me realize that particular word switcheroo was possible—In one of their videos, they acknowledge how “If Friendship = Magic, then Magic = Friendship.” Or…something like that anyway; I barely remember that video beyond that.

— 17)

Now, don’t get me wrong, kiddo,”

Behold! The one and only time I allow Gallus to refer to Glory as “kiddo”—the same moniker Grandpa Gruff used for him. Every other time, both Gallus and Silverstream refer to Glory as “honey”—Sky Beak and Ocean Flow’s moniker.

They obviously picked that habit up from Sky and Ocean, but for a time, I considered having Silver refer to Glory with “Kiddo” and Gallus with “Honey.” Mainly because it was an easy switch to make.

“Oh look! Silver’s using Gruff’s moniker and Gallus is using Sky and Ocean’s; that must subtly indicate whose parenting style they took after, proved by Gallus fully embracing Sky and Ocean’s constant love and adoration and Silver adopting Gruff’s more strict demeanor! This is totally an evolution on Gruff’s conversation with Silver before the 2^nd Date, and Sky and Ocean’s intimidation attempts toward Gallus, and yada-yada.”

And as cool a touch as that would’ve been? It’d mean Silverstream of all creatures took one look at Gruff’s parenting style and was all “Yup! I’mma totally be like that to my child, yepperooni! ” Which, um? No.

— 18)

“Whelp. That was nice while it lasted,” Silverstream grumbled.

“Eh, we’ll have another group hug later,” Gallus promised.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Hey, look! They said something similar to when they promised they’d finish “cuddling” each other earlier this chapter—yay, more lazy author copy/pasting narrative symmetry!