Fanfic-ception · 9:41pm Sep 28th, 2018
There's fanfic of my fanfic. How fun is that?
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This is a short, but quite different, and quite thoughtful take on Ember's, and what her existence might mean to a potential client.
It also ends up raising a point about the ethics of visiting an escort, and how that might make somebody hesitate, which is something I have not addressed myself until now.
Ember, doing what she does, with her abilities, with her needs, with the support of somebody like Far Gaze, and while living in the magical fantasy land of Equestria is in a very different situation from that of real life escorts. I'd visit Ember without hesitation, but I would very much hesitate to pay for sex in our world. Supporting sex work can all too easily end up supporting human trafficking, abuse, and other awful situations.
Is the idea of paying for sex fundamentally evil? I don't think so at all, or I wouldn't have written Ember's in the first place. But the ethical and moral issues around such things are quite the tangled heap, and there are no easy solutions.
So much as I've written Ember's as a way to address real life sexual problems, please don't take my endorsement of Ember as an endorsement of visiting brothels. I can't make that endorsement in good conscience, not while so many sex workers are being abused and taken advantage of.
I can, however, happily endorse Dust and Sand, so go and read it!
Ember is pretty much the ideal as far as a sec work situation goes. Enthusiastic consent all around.
I just had a troubling thought.
Strip away the whole "She does this willingly" and "She can be picky about her clients" and Ember is basically trading sexual favors to keep herself fed.
In theory, if it was just the food thing, Ember could have just as easily opened a roadside inn (or worked at one while saving up the bits to start her own) and feed passively off of the visitors with the occasional roll in the hay if a visitor was relevant to her interests.
That said, my headcanon for the state of sex work in Equestria is that there isn't really any stigma to that industry, either using or working within. It's basically another form of therapy, really. Those in the industry tend to have cutie marks that show a talent for mind-therapy. If anyone has a problem with escorts, it tends to be for personal reasons than any other.
Of the Mane Six, in order of "least to most likely to visit an escort";
Applejack (Doesn't hold much truck with therapy in general)
Fluttershy (Lacks the ovarian fortitude to gamble the stamp on the initial letter)
Rainbow Dash (Wakes up covered in mares/stallions enough to not feel the need to hire an escort)
Rarity (Has specific requirements. Is more likely to be a "talky" client than an "action" client)
Twilight Sparkle (Depending on how isolated you want to make her pre-ponyville life, Twilight either wants to have a good experience for busting her filly ribbon or finds it easier to pay for test subjects when she wants to try out some strange fetish she read about)
Pinkie Pie (Since she's so focused on making other people happy, Pinkie doesn't tend to bring up strange practices unless the other pony does so first. Since Cheese Sandwich (the only other pony who would be up for nearly ANYTHING Pinkie could come up with) is wandering the world, Pinkie hires escorts so she can try out all the things she wants to try out.)
The only prominent fan character I can think of in regards to hiring of escorts would be Cloud Kicker, who would hire them for the same reason as people hiring personal trainers. She may not need to hire them for the sex, she hires them to keep her skills sharp.
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Needing sex every single day to keep from going nuts is probably a bigger factor, as Far Gaze's love is very likely enough to at least let her survive without absolutely needing to do anything else.
Ember actually does this as much to deal with the "As a changeling queen with no offspring yet my body wants me to lay five million eggs and start a hive" super crazy sex drive she has as for the food.