Question: How do you write Marble Pie? · 10:29pm Aug 23rd, 2022
Hello everyone! It's been a while, but I'm stopping in because I have a question that keeps on bothering me.
Real-life has made it harder for me to keep up with my writing as much as I would like, but even so: I keep on coming back to that Marblemac not-actually-incest nextgen story idea. The problem is, the show portrays her as functionally mute (IIRC, it's been a while since I've seen her episodes), which makes it difficult to come up with a voice for her, and she's going to have a rather large speaking role in the story.
In the story, I plan for Marble to be a single mom (b/c reasons) to a very talkative, very curious filly who she loves very much. Additionally, Marble has had some time to work on her own confidence and self-esteem, but she still remains rather soft-spoken. I keep on trying to come up with ways for her to answer her daughter's questions, to show that she loves and cares for her, and to dump exposition without turning her into a chatterbox herself, but I'm not sure how to do so.
Like, I could easily make her respond primarily in monosyllables and grunts, which would fit with her depiction in the show (again, IIRC), but I feel like she would come off as either cold or dismissive, especially when her daughter gets going (responding to every question with an "I don't know" grunt will do that, regardless of the physical affection she shows). I also have a scene plotted out where her daughter asks the wrong question and Marble responds by getting very angry--and very eloquent!--but I don't think I can keep that going for very long ("Mom, since my dad was Big Mac, doesn't that mean that I'm an incest baby?" "Damn it all, NO. My stupid-ass sister has no goddamn idea how to read a family tree." [Dialogue pending]).
So: any ideas on how to write Marble as a character who prefers to keep quiet and let others do the talking, but has learned to handle her inquisitive daughter and stand up for herself?
(Because I'm self-concious about this aspect of the story: Marble will make it extremely clear that, outside of Pinkie's fantasies, the Apples and the Pies aren't related in the slightest. Pinkie says that, according to the one set of records she saw, the Apples and Pies are "fourth cousins twice removed by a fifth cousin." That phrase means nothing, genealogically speaking, and, even if it did, the relation is so distant they would functionally be almost complete genetic strangers. In either case, Pinkie, who grew up with a large family, was so excited to have cousins she could hang out with that she wasn't too concerned with the details, and most of her friends, the Pies in particular, have learned to just let her do her thing when she gets in one of these moods. During one of their mutual family visits, Marble and Mac got bored and had a quick, non-commital roll in the hay; Marble was going to tell him about her pregnancy over Hearth's Warming, but that happened to be the holiday when he brought Sugar Belle to visit.)
The good news is that Marble does talk in the comics. And that issue has a very interesting portrayal of her. Marble shows Pinkie's emotional extremes without her emotional resilience. When she's happy, she's ecstatic. When she's nervous, she's at Twilight levels of panic and overthinking. When she's sad, deploys fulll ocular gushers. No indication of what she's like when she's angry, but I doubt it's pretty.
Basically, while Marble's shy and closed off around strangers, with her family, it seems she just doesn't have emotional middle gears... much like Pinkie and Limestone, honestly. Feel free to adjust this as needed for the story, but I hope it helps.
(Alternatively, a different issue shows her a bit more laid back, but it doesn't offer quite as many notable moments, since half of it is focused on Cheesepie shipping.)
5681381
I like this approach. I feel like I could easily frame her quiet nature as a trust thing, rather than simply being mute--that is, she'll be open and emotionally available with her daughter, and perhaps Big Mac, but with other ponies she doesn't know well, she's much more curt. New folks in her small town may think that she's mean / distant, but people who know her well know how much she cares.
I admittedly have yet ever to write her, but I figured offering something was better than nothing.
I feel like a strongly realistic way to write her that avoids unnecessary angst or hanging questions about her basic functions would be to write her as a select mute. Multiple prevalent conditions have it, like autism, and the Pie family has multiple characters that show behaviors that can be interpreted as autistic. There is a story that showcases this really well with Limestone I'll link it here, it's a sequel to another story. Other than that, Maud tends to be depicted as autistic more than any of the Pie sisters.
5681595
I quite like this idea as well, though I am definitely going to have to do some research. In my current idea, Marble is a functional, though quiet, adult. Depending on how her mutism manifests (e.g,, she cannot speak to adults outside of her immediate family), that could make things difficult for her.
(though I suppose she could carry a notepad and write out requests, etc. ... though she still needs to talk to Mac, even though he would probably count as an "Adult" for these purposes...)
In either case, thanks for the tip!
5681613
She might slowly acclimate to extended family and honorary/found family, especially some that are as frequently present as the other Mane Six.
I don’t know. I think it’d be interesting to write a silent Marble.
I imagine she’d be used to a hyperactive pony thanks to her sister.
"Mom, since my dad was Big Mac, doesn't that mean that I'm an incest baby?"
Marble’s eyes widened, and then she let her head fall back. She knew exactly where she’d gotten that idea. “Mm-mm,” she growled irritably.
“But Pinkie Pie said-”
Marble gave her a flat look. “Mm-mm,” she said firmly.
“She said we were fourth cousins twice removed by a fifth cousin, which makes us... wait.”
Marble set her hooves on the table and drew out an approximation of what that family tree would look like, and her barrel nearly rested on the table with how far apart her hooves ended up.
“Wow. We’re, like, nothing after that far.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Pinkie’s the kind of pony who just makes family out of any place she can, huh.”
Marble expelled a little air out her nose. That was Pinkie, alright. “Mm-hm.”
“I bet I’m more closely related to Twilight than the Apples. Hey! I could be a princess!”
Marble chuckled softly and shook her head. “Mm-hm,” she said, pulling her daughter in close and kissing her on the forehead. She was already a little princess in her eyes.