Birthday Bios: Merry Maykin · 2:23pm Dec 18th, 2016
I think we can all agree that out of the mom characters I’ve come up with, Merry Maykin (Party Favor’s mother) is the prettiest. Heck, I’m kind of fond of the ringlet style she has going on there (looks really good with dark hair, yanno?). That’s discounting the fancy stuff she’s wearing, of course.
Anyway…
Merry Maykin was born in Canterlot, being the youngest daughter of the May family headed by mother Sunlight Rose and father Baton Symphony. Having three older siblings, she was naturally doted on as a little baby, and she delighted them with her happy attitude, befitting her name. The only time that she wasn’t happy (aside from usual baby needs) was when somepony tried to tame her crazy curls.
She kept on being a little ball of sunshine throughout her fillyhood. Indulging in girlish delights with her older sister, or watching her brothers play their sports, she was very easily entertained. She also unfortunately had a tendency to wander off and skip around town without a care in the world—which was a bigger problem if they were attending the Magic Expo in Las Pegasus. Her parents had been scolded by many a stranger for not controlling their daughter.
She sometimes accompanied either one of her parents in work or social matters. She was often witness to her father practicing with the orchestra he conducted, and was ready to give them applause at the end of each session. The orchestra members found her adorable, and they often asked Baton if they could bring her home.
Then there were the times that Sunlight Rose would bring Merry to a get-together. Typically, she’d be playing with the child of the host, which amounted to her practicing her fledgling magic with them, which led to various games, such as practice with toy crossbows and puppet shows.
The house that she ended up at the most was the Rune manor, where she interacted with the reserved colt named Quasar Rune and his sister Dreamspell. While Quasar mostly either read or kept the girls out of trouble (his family has rules, after all!), he was able to keep Merry’s bubbliness at bay by talking magic and their respective dreams involving it. Merry often talked about how she wanted to amaze ponies like the Great Hoofdini did long ago, while Quasar wanted to be a great wizard like Star Swirl the Bearded.
One day, she invited her family and all her friends from all those get-togethers in order to show them new tricks she came up with. It included both foal and adult, and they were all sufficiently entertained by her creativity in her magic show. Jumping through hoops of stars, creating a glowing snowfall, and making images of light by blowing kisses were just a few of the tricks she came up with. When she was applauded for the tricks, her cute mark appeared.
And so it was that she spent her adolescence being an apprentice to a professional magician, her father’s friend Sparkletta Delight. She packed her bags and said her goodbyes to her friends and family, promising to keep in touch. She made sure to offer encouragement to Quasar Rune, and expressed her excitement in seeing him be a great mage. Quasar just chuckled and responded with his own low-key excitement on seeing her achieve her dream, though he’ll miss her.
Her years with Sparkletta were quite exciting and allowed her to learn more about magic and the world. She has played as an assistant to Sparkletta in the first several shows, but was soon relegated to her own acts, which brought as much delight from the audience as the main act did. She got to meet plenty of famous faces, her favorite admittedly being Ponyacci, Equestria’s Greatest Clown. She admired the fact that his main mission was to spread joy and see others with genuine smiles on their faces—a goal very similar to Merry’s own. And sure enough, even after going off on her own after finishing her lessons with Sparkletta, she continued to do just that.
One day as a young mare, she was horrified to learn about her dear friend Quasar Rune having tampered with dark magic and gone on a rampage. Knowing how dark magic was, she immediately dropped any plans she had and rushed home to Canterlot to see if he was okay. While Quasar was shaken by the incident and had some effects to his health, he was going to be fine, much to her relief. Quasar himself was grateful that she was so concerned for him to rush on over.
After that, she made sure to visit him often, which didn’t go unnoticed by both Merry’s and Quasar’s families. Both families watched gleefully as love had bloomed over a few years, and sure enough, it was cause for celebration when the couple wed.
Two years later, their first son was born. Taking Quasar’s family tradition of naming the firstborn some variation of “Rune” and a phrase that Merry often used in shows, the colt was named Kazam Rune. He was legendary in both the family and the neighborhood for tantrums combined with powerful magic surges. Merry hated using the inhibitor ring, but it had to be done so that Baby Kaz didn’t blow up the nanny whenever she and Quasar had to leave the house for any reason.
Four years after Kazam, Merry gave birth to a daughter, which she and her husband named Silk Shimmer. For the first few months, they had to keep Kazam from getting rid of his sister, forcing him to eventually accept it. Once that tension had died down, Merry was happily doting on her little doll of a baby girl, dressing her up like she couldn’t do with Kazam without embarrassing him. Silkie was sweet, and Merry liked it that way, though there were still magical surges to worry about.
A third foal arrived three years later, and the little colt was named Party Favor, as Merry had wanted to name her son that since meeting Ponyacci, and there were no family traditions in the way this time. Quasar didn’t have any better ideas anyway. Party Favor was easily the most easygoing of their foals, never even once having a magic surge like his siblings did. The problems with him were more of the wandering off to wherever kind, but like his mother, he just wanted ponies to be happy.
Due to wanting to remain close to her family, Merry kept her shows in Canterlot and entertained both resident and guest at whatever venue would take her. She even performed at birthday parties, especially for little foals. While she preferred to amaze others, she liked a good laugh every now and again. She even made a couple of gags out of her pregnancies, though that one time at Nightmare Night was a big mistake on her part. Making a bunch of foals cry and vomit is not very good for business.
She supported her husband in teaching their kids magic, often coming to his side to help. She was the source of gentle encouragement as her foals learned and expanded on their magic abilities. She was there when Kazam exhibited great talent with an impressive pool of magic, when Silk Shimmer expressed her desire to be more like her mother, and when Quasar had to tell all three of them the story of his ancestor Wayer Rune, and how his descent into madness should be a warning.
However, Party Favor was a different story. Experiencing frequent migraines without so much as a single spark from his horn alarmed her and Quasar, and they took him to the doctor to find out what was wrong. As it turned out, anti-magic minerals were concentrated in his horn, preventing him from accessing the impressive pool of magic stored within him. Merry was quite shocked over hearing this, and took to comforting her husband and son as much as she could while she tried to come to terms with it. However, she was frustrated that Quasar started to avoid Party Favor out of shame, which she could see was hurting the little colt.
She was thankful that Party Favor was a determined little bugger, and after various mishaps that led to messes at school and home, he managed to find something he was good at. She was a bit confused and concerned when it was balloon modeling, which her husband and other son quickly dismissed as useless. But, she wanted to keep Party Favor’s spirits up, so she and Silk Shimmer encouraged him to be creative—and creativity was something that the little colt had in spades.
While Kazam and Silk went off for careers in high level magic shows when they were adults, which Merry approved of, teenage Party Favor was looking for ways to improve on his balloon talents. Sometimes Merry would allow him to assist in her shows with his balloons, and sometimes she assisted him in creating his art. Sometimes she did so to spite her husband for his doubts, after trying and failing to talk him out of being so distant and unimpressed.
Quasar’s doubts weren’t entirely unfounded, as Party Favor was mocked at an art show. Despite Merry’s attempts to comfort him, a discouraged Party Favor left home, hoping to find somewhere else he could belong.
Merry’s mental state wasn’t exactly the best for the next few years. They hadn’t heard from Party Favor since then, and she was upset when they didn’t hear from him. Her magic shows faltered for a bit before she squared up and held her anguish in until she was done with a show. And then she could cry about her baby. Quasar often tried to help her keep her emotions in check, even if she was really angry with him, and made sure that Kazam and Silk kept an eye out for him.
And sure enough, as Merry was coming to terms with Party Favor’s disappearance, another disaster struck—Kazam created a vampire spell with dark magic and attack Las Pegasus. Raw emotion hit Merry all over again, and she felt sick to her stomach over how Kaz had been going down that path without either her or Quasar (who was in denial for some time) knowing.
Silk Shimmer got tangled with conponies after her rough start in showbiz, but thankfully, she broke ties with them and was making amends with the family of the pony they nearly kidnapped. Merry wasn’t sure how that happened, but with everything else going on—with Kazam in jail and Party Favor missing—some good news would have been welcome.
Silk did pass on good news to them a couple weeks after Kazam’s crime: Party Favor was alive and well. In fact, he was the head of a small town’s welcome committee, with plenty of good friends to back him up. Of course, she was concerned when she realized that it was that cutie markless cult that had been liberated by Princess Twilight and co. some time ago, and was sad to think that her baby had been in enough despair to get tangled up in it. She was also miffed at Quasar wondering aloud why he did so.
Hearth’s Warming came around before Merry got to see Party Favor again. She was delighted to meet his friends, which she found delightful characters—especially that sweet Sugar Belle that she could tell her son had a thing for. She also made friends with rock climber Alta and masseuse Star Catcher, and eagerly learned about their talents and other interest.
Now, if only Quasar could take the hint that maybe, just maybe he contributed to Party Favor’s low self-esteem which got him ensnared in the cult in the first place. Just a thought.
Hey, I’m still working on finding a way to justify that telekinesis we saw PF using in the S6 finale while keeping the backstory intact. I know those scenes were brief, but I’m not one for ignoring show canon (comic canon, on the other hand, I pick and choose what I want for my ‘verse).
Also, sorry for being slow on writing Hearth’s Warming is Merry in Our Town. I know I promised I’d work on it this month (because Christmas spirit!), but, you know, getting sick means you gotta rest and drink fluids, and blah blah blah… 
I see Party Favor's blockage as something like having an allergy. My head cannon is that pony foals actually have to learn how to scale back on how much magic their bodies produce and express for their daily lives. In the past this allowed them to have a better chance to survive in harsh conditions sense they could have access to more magic to offset the poor conditions. The means to throttle the production was to calcify certain minerals in their horns, hooves, wings or spine ailcorn depending if they are a unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, or sea/bat pony. In Party Favor's case his body over compensated for his high natural magic and gentle living conditions; and thus he had migraines instead of healthy surges.
Becoming a Party pony and getting his cutie mark allowed his body to finally learn how much magic was safe to channel and store, but it was too late to stop in from choking his unicorn magic in his day to day life. However the equalization spell actually did him a solid. Like Tirek's magic stealing, it suppressed almost all of his natural magic to the point that his body started to cannibalize the excess crystal in his ailcorn, just like if he was in a very dangerous survival situation. By the time he got his mark and the rest of his magic back, his body now had a better ability to regulate his magic and thus he could use some of his unicorn magic. Of course he still might not be able to use all of his now unblocked ability for unicorn style magic sense he has been channeling in though his hooves and not his horn, but time will tell.