What's Been Happening in Stories Lately. · 11:57pm Oct 5th, 2020

Just giving a rundown of what's been happening in ongoing stories lately:

In Silver Spoon Adopts a Naga, they went to see a play, and ran into Dinky and her family.

"Silver!" Dinky said with enthusiasm; she had one of those fancy new cameras around her neck that didn't make a big flash. Dinky's husband and mother were with her as well, and waved. "Great to see you. Have you come out to support the foals?"
Silver let herself get pulled into a hug by the former teacher turned principal. "I'm embarrassed to admit. I didn't even know about this production until a few minutes ago. Where's little Dabble?"
The principal released the hug and beamed. "My baby is performing in the play, and you'll never guess who she's playing!"
Twist chuckled. "Let me guess, you?"
Dinky looked shocked. "How'd you guess?"
"Maybe because she's the spitting image of you as a foal," Silver replied with a chuckle for her wife.
Dinky looked smug about it. "It's just a background role, I don't think she even has any lines, but she's still in the play. Most of the cast are students from our school. It's shocking you just heard about it."
"Well, I have been caught up dealing with Candy Apple all year long, and right now am focused on Sisstet, so I've been a little out of it on the extracurricular activities, " Silver confessed. "Plus, if I'm portrayed in the play like I was as a foal, then some of the students might have conspicuously failed to mention the play as a result."
Dinky had turned her attention to Sisstet upon mention of him, and Silver could see the question on the principal's mind. Dinky was a fairly perceptive mare, and that had been one of the reasons that she'd been installed as principal when Cheerilee had abruptly retired early in the school year.
"We'll talk about him later, in private," Silver whispered.
Dinky nodded and then gave Sisstet a grin. "Good afternoon, Sisstet. I rarely see you away from school. I don't think you've met my husband or my mom." She gestured to the stallion standing by her. "This is my husband Button Mash; he has a very cool job. He helps design arcade games."
Button held at a hoof to Sisstet. "Nice to meet you, Sisstet." The young naga stayed quiet, but reached out a claw and gave an awkward hoofshake with the earth pony.
Dinky gestured to the older pegasus beside her. "And this is my mom. Say hi to Sisstet, Mom."
Derpy blinked and then tried to focus her eyes on Sisstet, which didn't work out, but she still smiled at him happily. "Hi, there! Some ponies call me Derpy, some ponies call me Ditzy, some ponies call me Muffins, and some ponies call me Bubbles." Derpy frowned and seemed to start getting distressed. "But I seem to have forgotten what my actual name is."
Dinky gave her mother a sad look and touched a hoof to Derpy's shoulder. "It's okay, Mom. We all know who you are."
Derpy started smiling again and instantly seemed to get distracted by a poster advertising the play.

In Marshmallow Dreams, Rebecca had a run-in with a little pegasus filly that might be familiar to Starting Over readers:

The vendors and clubs were still setting up their stands all around the green areas, and there weren't a lot of other people about yet. The four of us decided to walk around the pond, keeping our distance from the geese. After walking down one side, we stopped at a bench with a nearby tree to admire the view. I sat on the edge of the concrete border of the pond and gazed out at the fountain.
Something small, possibly small goose-sized, came up and touched me, and I did a startled jump away from it.
SPLASH!
"Hi, I'm Drizzle, and you're wet!"
Water dripped from my soaked mane into my eyes as I looked at who had scared me. To my surprise, it was a little pegasus filly, maybe somewhere between five and seven years old. She had blue fur and a black mane, and reminded me a lot of Lántiān.
"You okay, Rebecca?" Julie called out from the bench.
I climbed out of the pond and shook myself off. "I'm fine!" I then turned my attention to the little filly who was still smiling at me. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."
She didn't seem perturbed by being chastised. "Okay. Look at the bug I found!" She then bent down and used her mouth pick to up the most gigantic roach I had ever seen in my life by one of its wings. It was still alive, and squirming to try to get away.
"Qīng Yǔ! I told you to stay by the table." Lántiān came up and glared down at the filly. "And put that thing down. It's dirty."
The filly dropped the bug and pouted. "Call me, Drizzle, Mama!"
Lántiān huffed. "Of course, my mistake, Drizzle. You still need to stay by the table, as I told you. You can't go wandering every time I turn my head."
Drizzle pointed a wing across the pond. "Can we go look at the big birds? I wanna see the big birds."
"No, you may not," Lántiān said firmly. "Those birds are mean, and will peck at you. Stay by the table, or I'll take you home, and you won't get any cake."
The filly looked put out, but turned and started walking. "Okay, Mama."

In Starting Over, Sunset Blessing gets her foalsitter for her night pony charge, and it is another familiar face.

The sound of knocking at the door stopped me from continuing.
"<Hit>!" Mèng said excitedly, and bounded towards the door. I hurried after him, and quickly passed him. I hoped he didn't intend to hit the foalsitter. Maybe that was just his way of describing a knock at a door?
I reached the door first and gently shoved him back away from it as I opened it. A night pony with midnight-blue fur and wings, a purple mane and tail, stood just outside the door. Her dark green eyes went wide as she looked at me.
"Holy sh-" She cut herself off as she noticed the foal. "You really are the Sunset Blessing! I thought it was just a joke."
I could see workers cleaning the yard and pool behind her. I couldn't get a good view of her cutie mark from where I stood. "You're Josie Woods? I was expecting a human after reading your name."
The younger mare, who I guessed was somewhere in her twenties, looked relieved for some reason. "Yeah, that's me. I never really saw the point in a pony name." Her eyes widened again as she realized again who she was speaking to. "Not that there's anything wrong with pony names."
I stepped aside. "Come on in, Miss Woods, and I'll introduce you to Mèng. No offense taken, by the way. To each their own. The Lord loves variety."
She stepped inside and looked down at Mèng with a big smile. "Hi, there! Are you Mèng? I'm Josie."
I shut the door as Mèng was staring blankly in response to her greeting. She turned and looked at me. "I'm guessing he's shy?"
"He doesn't know a lick of English," I explained. "The only thing he likely caught out of all that was his name."
Mèng blinked a few times, then sat down. Josie watched him and pursed her lips. "Oh… well, that's going to make this interesting." She then turned back to me. "I was a little shocked when I got your email. I don't get a lot of people emailing me out of the blue to foalsit. I'm great with kids, and I need the money, but I’m still a little baffled about how you found me."
"Your name was recommended to me by my daughter, the Warden of Fear, who had the name passed to her by the Warden of Peace. They gave me a list of names of potential foalsitters, and your name was the first name on the list."
Her ears flattened. "The Dreamwardens gave you my name?"
I raised an eyebrow. Typically night ponies took being noticed by a Dreamwarden as a badge of honor. She looked horrified. "Is that going to be a problem?"
She looked back and forth between Mèng and me, and started muttering to herself. "It's just a foalsitting job. You love foals. It pays well. You need the money."
"Is there a problem, Miss Woods? Is it Miss or Mrs, by the way?"
She shook her head. "Definitely Miss, no night pony stallion would- nevermind. Anyway, the Dreamwardens and I have a messy history, but it won't be a problem."
I looked her over. Her cutie mark was a stylized eye, which was as cryptic a mark as I'd ever seen. She had no tattoos on her wings, so that meant she wasn't a lesbian, as night pony lesbians always tattooed their wings. Her half-finished remark about stallions meant other night ponies scorned her for some reason, and having a messy history with the Dreamwardens indicated she'd done something at some point to run afoul of them. Was I letting a criminal watch over Mèng? She hadn't faced the worst punishment the Dreamwardens could do; otherwise, she wouldn't be here, but being scorned by night ponies didn't usually happen if justice had already been served or if she was just one of those unfortunate souls who made Sha'am Maut angry. Still, it was the Dreamwardens that gave me her name, and I wasn't someone with the right to judge other people's checkered pasts.

In other news, the upcoming story that was cushioned has been named Off Script. I am currently waiting for the cover art to finish before releasing it, hopefully within the next week.

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