Behind the story: The Strength Of Our Bond

Welcome to another Behind the Story blog. I've only been living in Buffalo for a few years now, but the people here, they are strong, resilent, and tough as nails. I knew that TCC56 aka Tempest wanted more stories with Little Strongheart and there was another silly story I had written following Dreams' initial prompt of Derpy and DInky, but it just still didn't feel right.

So, after the whole Jinglemas event was over, and I had no more Breezie things to write, I was like How can I make a story about Little Strongheart work? Well, I revisited the espiode "Over a Barrel" which I know is an espiode not a lot of people liked, but that really isn't important here. Little Strongheart says they respect dragons. And my brain was like IDEA!

I wanted to write about Young Torch meeting Thunderhooves before either of them were Lord or Chief respectfully, and how strong the Buffalo's heart was that it managed to melt the icy coldness of an dragon's greed. Torch saw something that day that he had never seen before, a strength unlike any other.

So connecting Torch/Thunderhooves I split the story into sections to indicate who's perspective we are in, because Little Strongheart (Present Future) is telling the story to the students of Friendship. I specifically chose Smolder to be the one not interested and very eager by the end.

I don't think anyone caught this but the AMBER gemstone is a nod to why he names his daughter Ember in the future.
Another reason he's so hard on her in the future is because he was weak back then, he had to rely on help from creatures he felt were lesser than him, but realized through the birth of Little Strongheart that his perspective was wrong, and it grounded him to ensure that someday his greatest treasure, Ember would be able to stand on her own two feet.

Here's some additional notes just for fun.
TCC56 loves it when others can connect future Season canon with earlier seasons and have it make sense. I played around with this, and I'm glad to see I can do it justice.
I live in Buffalo, and I have a strong heart. I am often outside in the freezing cold weather ensuring all the pathways are safe for not only the postal workers here, but for elderly and disabled as well.
Ember is awesome, and I'm hoping to someday write about her.
I feel like Torch is a throwaway character for canon, but perhaps there's a lot of untapped potential for fanfiction. And who knows what the future may hold.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for the likes, comments and favorites on this story. At the end of the day, the highest praise was having TCC56 enjoy my work. <3