I really can't decide what would be more thematically fulfilling by the end of this story: Scotch "getting the girl", as it were; or the pair of them forever remaining star-crossed (zing!) lovers whose love isn't meant to be because, sometimes, you just don't get what you want...

Either way, it's always a good day when I get to read about Scotch and her friends continuing on their journey! Thanks, Somber!

Damn, if we can get an update out of Dead Tree and Speak, all the biggest foe fics still living will have updated before the first half of the year. Maybe we can get even luckier and and Commonwealth and Morality of Property will step up to the plate, too. Maybe even Wasteland Economics.

Why do you always make these stories so long?

I absolutely love reading this magnificent story! I honestly always have this feeling of hoping it never ends- Thanks a lot for the update!!!!

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What I don't get is, how did you read 2,238,237 words and not realize this is just his style and that you shouldn't expect otherwise...
I hope it's just a case of short stories/chapters being your preference but FoE:PH and FoE:H have/are just exceptions to your preference.

Remind me who the person at the end is? It's written like a dramatic reveal, but it loses its impact a bit if you don't know why it's dramatic.

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I think it should be said that Starlight Nova, politely and respectfully, responded to my comment in a private message.

Though they did not state the following word for word, it seems they have not yet read either stories and were simply curious to somber's 16000~ish average worded chapters.

Nice work, worth the wait! Youre doing a good job, Scotch tape

Christ, Scotch has it bad for Pythia. It's do adorable to read!

THE KING IS BACK!!!!

Welcome back, Somber. Might be 2 months late, but better late than never being updated at all.

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Errukine is from chapter 7. Among other things, she was Galen's mentor, is Majina's aunt, and is supposedly a long distant decendant of Celestia.

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Is it Py's curse?

She is what, 50 centuries old?

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Ah yes. The sun stripe. Thanks for the reminder!

as always, well worth the wait

Worth the wait. Im glad to see the story continue.

I know I stated this before, but I’ll state it again.
There really needs to be more homelands art.

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Couldn't agree more.

All this time I thought Amadi was actually that zebra hunter Orion from Sekashi's story. Turns out he's some ancient Roaman philosopher or something. Interesting chapter but I felt like that entire segment with the Ceasar and his penis dragged a bit.

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Amadi is Orion from Sekashi’s story. At this flashback, probably to 10,000 years into the past, Amadi already cut out his heart and replaced it by bounding a spirit to a stone to gain immortality, at the Eater’s direction. He is also one of the ancient philosophers. Two things can be true at once.

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I don't think so. The other zebras talk like Amadi just recently infused himself with the Eater. Remember that the Orion from legend slaughtered his tribe and their blood forever marked him to be a proditor, cursed to wander equus and be shunned by all zebras, sort of like the biblical Cain. Most likely the story is just a distorted myth of what Amadi will eventually end up doing to his tribe

Wow. Checked for updates and low and behold. There is one. First time commenting at all so Hello! Jist wanted to also let you know Somber you inspired me to start writing my own FOE story so thank you! Keep up the good work man

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That’s because in the black book flashback (if it is to be believed) Amadi hasn’t committed an atrocity yet. At that point he’s trying to convince his fellow zebras to revive the Eater. Considering pretty much none of them are going for it, the next thing he does is obvious. Sacrificing his fellow Starkatteri in an attempt to revive the Eater. It fails. Thus, he becomes proditori and is shunned. That’s why it takes him 10,000 years to successfully revive the Eater before it’s destroyed by Blackjack (and Tom).
Also remember, Sekashi is Zencori. They’re known to juice up their stories from time to time, and Sekashi’s retelling probably isn’t that far off from historical events.

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Thank you, you have allowed me to confirm a hunch that Amadi was the Legate in FoE:PH.

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The Legate’s true identity being revealed as Amadi took place in PH chapter 65.

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Oh yeah, I forgot about that, thanks.

I think I accidentally turned my notification off. Only now I noticed that the Chapter has been uploaded. Well, time to start reading again. 😉

Also why is it titled FoE:HL Ch26 instead of Chapter 26: Blocked? Was this a mistake?

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I really can't decide what would be more thematically fulfilling by the end of this story: Scotch "getting the girl", as it were; or the pair of them forever remaining star-crossed (zing!) lovers whose love isn't meant to be because, sometimes, you just don't get what you want...

Or maybe Scotch get’s the girl but then Pythia tragically dies in her arms hooves at some point later in the story. Although that would be pretty cruel and I’m sure Somber never would do anything like that.

All jokes aside I share your feelings. On the one hand grumpy Pythia falling in love with Scotch sounds super adorable. On the other hand, them not ending up together is a nice subversionof the “hero always gets the girls” trope and it would be interesting to see Scotch how comes to terms with the fact Pythia isn’t sharing her feelings. As I said a long time ago in another post: As long as she doesn’t end up with Vicious I’m happy.

Well ain't that a cliffhanger. You did it again, Somber, another great chapter! Thanks

Great to have you back :-)

Fantastic chapter, I love visiting this world and all its depths.
Take care!

This is brutally fantastic. I love the images you conjurer in my mind. I thought I would have to reread the previous chapter but you helped with a small recap to get me thinking of the previous goings on. Please, if you take time between chapters, keep adding subtle references to what what happened last.

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I am so waiting for Commonwealth to continue. It is so good however that I am considering rereading it.

Man, I love this story and all, but it's getting harder to keep names and characters together.

Also, you are aware that this chapter lacks a fancy title, right?

A new chapter brimming with new questions. And a callback to Amadi's origins. Always great times.

Speaking of questions... Is the book saying it's those who discovered the star in The Hoof (excluding Amadi, of course), or was it merely showing one of its many souls faces?

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Until we don't have all this info on the wiki, this spreadsheet might help a bit (spoilers) (not created by me)

Every five blocks, they’d carve out a camp, bring in water and supplies, and use them to keep from being overwhelmed or worn down by Roam. It’d worked. For five months they’d crawled down Azimuth, making forays deep into the ruin. Pyre had been so impressed by their progress that he’d had other Fire Legion emulate their technique.

Funny how the one legion whose sole purpose has been to prevent the fire's of Roam from spreading beyond the city years never came up with something simple like setting up supply camps, in the last 200 years while Scotch and Co. figured this out in a few months.

Xema didn’t even look up. “Bastion has pre-negotiated all prices and exchanges with salvage teams, Miss Tape. If you want twelve units of RadAway, you’ll need to pay for it in advance.”

Spoken like a true business mare.

Immediately she launched herself into a back flip as two metallic tendrils lashed out at her. The murderballs buzzed softly as they rolled into view en masse. To her credit, Majina didn’t scream as she twisted in midair and came down on all four hooves, racing back towards Scotch.

Not bad, not bad at all. Something tells me we’re going to see how Majina is slowly turning into a badass fighter over the course of the next twenty chapters.

“It’s the principle of the thing! Like not looking at the explosions as they go off behind you,” she said with a huff, her mane frizzing out above her skill.

Zencori being Zencori.

“Yeah, you’d miss seeing an awesome explosion that way too. Why blow it up if you’re not going to watch it?” Precious agreed.

Huh, that’s actually a pretty good point. Never thought of it that way. If I ever have to blow up a bunch of murder robots I’ll make sure to look at the explosion. Thank you Precious.

But Majina hopped atop it, holding a length of rebar in her mouth. She balanced nimbly on the struggling sphere, dancing as she held the pole between her forehooves. With a cry, she slammed in down between the buzz saws, putting all her weight on it. Something inside the robot gave a pop and whine as smoke started to issue out. The hissing rain led to more pops and crackles, and finally the bot went still again. One polar spike kept feebly expanding and retracting, like a twitching leg.

I was wrong . She’s already a badass fight.
Also, this was the perfect moment for another cool one-liner Majina.

The strip of concrete snapped under the weight, and she and everyone else was running as fast as possible away from the intersection as the overpass swung to dangle for just a moment, and then dropped right into the intersection. As the dust and ash settled, Scotch stared at the hundred foot high wall that had manifested directly in her path.

Luck Level: Blackjack

“Yeah,” she said, glancing over at a heavy, dangling brown sack. “But not right now. I need to talk to Pyre. Someone shot at us today and fucked everything up. I’d like to know who.”

Just a hutch but maaaaaybe it has something to do with this New Empire guys who wanted you death even before you set a hoof on the continent. Your group sticks out among the locals and you have gained a reputation as the infamous Green Menace, the one pony who supposedly can talk to spirits like a shaman. Wouldn’t be hard for the Empire to figure out where you are and send a bunch of hired goons, Shadow Legionaries or Colonel Moron’s troops after you for an ambush.

Granted it may be smarter to wait and hope that Roam will eventually take care of their Scotch Tape problem, but if her reaching the heart of Roam could be a huge problem for their plan it's best not to take any chances.

Her glyph was a circle with a sideways 8 across it, looking like a snake biting its own tail, over a four pointed star.

An Ouroboros. Possibly a reference to her never-ending cycle of rebirth. And the star is probably a reference to the curse/gift she received when the first Pythia acted against the other Starkatteri and foiled the ritual.

“I just… when we set off from the Hoof, I never thought it’d take this long,” Pythia replied.

Neither did Somber.

As Scotch looked west, towards Seaside and a high row of charred residential highrises that were all that saved the academy from suffering a similar fate as the overpass, she thought Blackjack had it easy.

I know you’re frustrated, but Blackjack NEVER had it easy. Sure she wasn’t stuck in the same place for several months but is rushing from one forsaken hellhole full of things ponykind wasn’t meant to know into another really better?

Before we had to force people to come here. Now we actually have to turn away volunteers because the survivors going home don’t talk about the cremorians, the Beast, or the fires. They talk about the market or getting some sweet tail at Heat. Of actually getting paid for that sweet loot they found. The general’s looking to start a second location in the west half of the city, if we can find a place as intact as this.” He jabbed a hoof at her. “You did this. You and your friends.”

Again, 200 years and these guys never thought about actually improving their living conditions. It had to be Scotch and Co. who actually told them: “Hey maybe setting up a functioning economy and pay people will actually increase the number of volunteers and money you get?” I guess the Flame Legion suffers from some serious tunnel vision being so focused on preventing the fires from spreading beyond Roam that they never realized that they could get tons of volunteers by simply paying them.

I know mine does Flare. Asshole is stuck at a shitty airport shuffling supplies to us rather than having the pick of the loot like before.

That’s worrisome. Flare (and his underlings) getting less loot means they don’t like the new Status Quo. And as we’ve seen in the last chapter with the Bone Legion, this could quickly escalate into a full-blown munity.

When economic centers move, it’s a big deal. Big Bro had his pick of the loot. Now all the good stuff is going straight to Bastion, which cuts him out. He’s just getting shitty village loot. It’s huge, and neither you nor Pyre know how to leverage it!

Yeah, there’s going to be a betrayal in the near future. Or maybe it already happened and the Zebras who ambushed Scotch were actually on Flare’s payroll?

Vicious… there was a part of her that really wanted to see her again and a part that really, really didn’t. Not till she’d was sure her thing with Pythia was as dead as she feared it was.

The next meeting between Scotch and Evil Blackjack is going to be interesting. I’m looking forward to it. Although, I do hope part of Scotch’s character development will result in her realizing that she shouldn’t have sexwith ponies who are doing pretty terrible things. No matter how nice they are to here. Granted the last few scenes with Vicious implied that she’s trying to be nicer, but only time will tells if it sticks.

Carnico might be shits, but the stuff they made was super vital to other cities too. Sanctuary imported fertilizer. Bastion needs synthetics. Even Roam needs flamer fuel. Nothing’s getting made, and no one has the capacity to make up for the difference. In six months, we could have mass famine and tech failures. If Carnico gets destroyed… Scotch, this place is barely hanging on with the trade it’s got. I don’t want to see it in an absolute dark age. I mean, even more of one.

So, by foiling the New Empire’s plot to take over Carnico she actually made things worse. Because as bad as the Blood Legion is, at least the factory would still supply the rest of the continent with products. But with the current stalemate neither side can maintain the trade, slowly destroying what remains of the continents economy.

Not that I blame Scotch. She just stumbled into the Empire’s secret operation and tried to save the city. And considering what we know about the Bloods, them being in control of the largest (and maybe only) still functional agricultural plant can’t be a good thing.

“The news from Equestria’s better. Or not horrible, anyway. Apparently back home is getting back on their hooves. Over.”

“Last week there were only twenty murders and five rapes in Hoofington. And not a single case of cannibalism. Civilization at last!”

Scotch glanced in the direction of the harbor. “Can the bad things here… get there? Over,”

There doesn’t seem to be much trade between Zebrica and Equestria. What happens in Rice River should only have minimal effects on Equestria. Now if the New Empire wins and one of their still unknown goals is to defeat Equestria “for real this time”, things could get nasty. But the really worrisome thing is this whole "The Eye of the World is closed" part. We’ve seen that it's effects already killed some creatures on the border of Equestria. So, if nothing is done about it, it may result in an end of the world as we know it scenario.

a dark underground chamber with a singular table in a shaft of light, surrounded by cloaked equines, their face hidden in hoods. Or maybe a stable like atrium with concerned shamans and their acolytes rushing about trying to figure out how to undo the Beast. In her most romantic visions, it was a school where shamans presented lore and knowledge to newer generations.
Not a burned-out diner with four… four!… shamans.

You really got me story. I was expecting the underground chamber with the cloaked figures.

The magazine seemed to be comprised purely of gay stallion porn.

He’s no doubt preparing himself to summon a sperm spirit for a very important ritual.

A flushing toilet was her answer, and a moment later the door to a small bathroom opened emitting a zebra with golden Mendi stripes, and a horn.

A Zony AND a Sunstripe. Interesting.

“And what is today’s thrilling point of discussion?” Scotch asked Cato, forcing as much cheer as she could.
“Does the Beast have a cock or vagina?” he replied placidly.

Cato is blunt and has no tact. I like this guy.

Inform the green, spirit-touched anomaly that we discuss whether the Beast is the great Caesar himself censured into an abomination, as I have posited for months, or the megaspell infused essence of Pyrotessa, the spirit of fire which was housed in the lighthouse at the mouth of the bay!”

The later seems more likely to me. Powerful fire spirit getting effected by a mega spell that turned into a flaming beast that sets Roam on fire sounds logical. That said, my money is still on the The Beast somehow being Jetstream.

“I’m telling you that those are birthing hips,” Epona countered, wagging her rump at him.

I don’t think spirits have birthing hips. Or genitals.

Master’s got me looking for images of the Caesar erect so he can compare ‘spur’ heights to the size of the Caesar,” Cato said with a plaintive smile.

Project Horizons Ending spoiler below:

The striped filly wiped her eyes and then stared ahead of us, where Equus loomed. The land was greener, the seas bluer, the mountains and deserts more defined. The zebra lands no longer burned with megaspells.

Except for one really big fire, so bright that it could be seen even from space.

“What’s that?” asked the stripped filly.
"That’s Roam.” replied the star-touched mare.
“It’s still on fire?”
“Yes.”
“Even after all this time?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because for hundreds of years the Shaman Council has done nothing but arguing about the gender of the giant spirit that set the whole place on fire.”

I really share Scotch disappointment in the Shaman council.

“Well have you thought that maybe the Beast is a hermaphrodite?” Scotch challenged. “Maybe it’s got both a cock and a vagina? I mean, it’s buried up to its waist in molten rock, but maybe if we can get it laid it’ll stop being such a pain in the ass!”

Now you’re thinking like Blackjack!
Never expected in a million years that Homelands would have a debat about the genitals of a giant rock-fire monster.

“I don’t know. The Caesar was never really set on an orientation. There were rumors he was lovers with both Ignatia and Claudio,” Epona commented lightly.

I’m sure you could find Zebra fanfiction that ship him with Celestia, Luna, each member of the Tremendous Twelve and his evil twin brother from the future.

And Rainbow Dash. Because Rainbow Dash gets shipped with everyone.

Scotch shook her head and turned towards the exit, trotting out. It was impossible. One pony couldn’t apologize for the world. She’d once known a mare who had tried. She’d even wanted to be her, once upon a time. Then she got a taste of what that was like. No one could save the world. Nopony could apologize for millions of deaths. Not Blackjack. And definitely not her.

While she’s not responsible for what her ancestors 200 years ago did, she could still try to make an apology. It can’t hurt to show the spirts of Roam that at least some ponies feel bad about what happened.

“I am not,” the mare replied. “The war was bad, and the megaspells terrible, but it was only because of them that I met you.” She leaned down and kissed Scotch’s brow, making her smile.

She’s good! A prostitute that makes her customers feel special, is a prostitute that has gained a long-time customer. I’m sure she likes Scotch, but doesn’t think of her as friend and more of a good customer you need to keep happy because she pays well and doesn’t want anything weird.

“Was Lammy wearing a cloak?” her friend asked with a smirk. Scotch snorted, kicking the bag one last time to vent her disapproval of the question, nearly breaking it right off its chain and into the smirking dragonpony’s face.

You know, I’m not entirely sure that Precious has gotten over Scotch already. Maybe she’s still hoping that things with Pythia won’t work out and Scotch will fall in love with her. Just like Scotch is still hoping that Pythia will reciprocate her feelings.

We loved her too.

Great, now the book of unspeakable evils is also involved in this love triangle.

“Morningstar! How wonderful for you to have finally arrived.

When someone named Morningstar appears in a story it’s usually a bad sign. And since this is Hoofington it’s a super-bad sign.

“I… don’t know?” Scotch asked as she looked around. “Are you the black book?”
“Black? Whatever do you mean?” he asked in bafflement.

Intelligence Level: Blackjack.

Due to the egg-like shape, the voices were conveyed to the seats arranged around the pair, filled with dozens of zebras who were listening raptly to the discussion.

Oh, is this a Logos’ debate? Let’s see if this ends with the ancient tradition of beating each other with a stick when one side runs out of arguments.

“Forgive me if I am skeptical of the promises of a dead being promising me unlimited power with no price attached.”

That guy’s right. This sounds far to good to be true and there’s certainly a price that has to be paid. There’s always a price when dealing with spirits.

With that the old zebra stepped down. Amadi continued to shout insults, but the crowd broke as well, and his diatribe was lost in the sounds of dozens of conversations starting.

No beating? How disappointing! What kind of Proto-Logos are you?

“Wait! Wait! What was that? Who was she?” Scotch asked as she beat on the pages. “Why’d you stop?”

Pretty sure that was the first incarnation of Pythia. Would explain why Scotch is somehow immediately smitten by her.
Also do you really want to beg the book of unspeakable evil to show you more? There’s a good chance it’s just waiting for you to put your guard down and do something really nasty again.

“Scotch Tape,” Errukine murred softly down at her. “How nice to see you again.”

I didn’t remember the name but I was sure she was the Sun Stripe Scotch met in Rice River. And yeah, it’s here. I wonder what brought her to Roam. Likewise, I’m still unsure whether or not she’s an ally or a foe.

----------

Scotch has spent several moths in Rice River, followed by weeks (or months) crossing the continent and now she’s been stuck in Roam for months again. This is another stark contrast to Blackjack in PH. Now I could go back to PH and count the days that have passed since Blackjack left her Stable, but I would rather not. But it's probably fair to assume that most of the events of PH happened within a month. Blackjack went through a lot in a short amount of time.

Scotch journey is a lot slower. In PH we followed Blackjack through every single day of her live after the prologue, In Homelands we are only seeing the spotlights. We haven’t seen every day of Scotch adjusting to live in Rice River or the whole trip through the Empty. Only the parts where interesting stuff happens. So, Scotch had many slow days which is probably one of the reasons why her mental health is so much better than Blackjack's. Yet, ironically, she wishes that her adventure would be more like Blackjack’s, rushing from one place to another instead of having to spent months trying to reach her next destination.

I’m also curious how the shaman council works. Cato is Pomprey’s student who was Elphabia’s student. So I would presume that Elphabia was the student of Osmen who is the oldest of the four. Therefore the council is basically a lineage of mentors and students and not a group of diverse Zebras who gained a set via election. Notably they are also from different tribes. So how does one actually become a member of this council? My best theory is that whenever the youngest member of the Council has finished his education he choses a student of his own. Presumably young shamans from all across the continent would travel to the city and hope to be accepted. Or maybe nobody cares and only the most idealistic/desperate shamans would ever try to join the council so that they have to pick whoever shows up at their doorstep as long as he or she isn’t completely incompetent.

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Hee, love reading your responses. Also glad Lamia's a little better presented than Stygius. I can learn!

So it's not that the flame legion never thought of supply camps. It's that they didn't see any point in 'wasting resources' to create them. Conscripts were cannon fodder searching for specific. It wasn't that different from Fillydelphia under red eye. Charity, and Scotch, demonstrated that by snaking camps deeper into the city, they could get better loot, and that by making a more habitable camp, they wouldn't need to spend as much time trying to keep conscripts in and collecting more. By making salvage a job rather than a death sentence, you could get more, faster. Charity basically just instructed Scotch on how to build Chapel: find a safe, distinct location, add goods and amenities, and it becomes a profit generating center. Macroecomics. Know the system, make good systems.

BTW, I was going to have like 4 chapters of Scotch helping to make the settlement, but it would have been tons of filler. See! I can learn to summarize.

As to the shamans, it's more like most Shamans have written off Roam. The last real push to try and deal with the beast was almost a century ago and, honestly, most shamans don't care about the 'prestige' of being the first mask of Roam. "I am the shaman of this dumpster fire!" "...Good for you?"

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Also glad Lamia's a little better presented than Stygius. I can learn!

It’s a bit hard for me to compare Lamia to Stygius I don’t know what future plans you have for her, but currently she’s a minor character that appeared in one scene. Stygius played an important role in a whole chapter, appeared in several more chapters and is now tied to Psychoshy, probably one of the most important recurring character who's not part of Blackjack's group.

Overall, Scotch having sex with a prostitute isn’t an issue for me. Feels both logical and natural in the context of the story. We even got a good explanation as for why there are now prostitutes in a city constantly on fire.

Charity basically just instructed Scotch on how to build Chapel: find a safe, distinct location, add goods and amenities, and it becomes a profit generating center. Macroecomics. Know the system, make good systems.

Shouldn’t surprise me. If there’s one pony who knows how to set up a profitable economy it’s bottlecap hoarding Unicorn. Although I assume the plumping was Scotch’s work.

BTW, I was going to have like 4 chapters of Scotch helping to make the settlement, but it would have been tons of filler. See! I can learn to summarize.

You are exaggerating, aren’t you? There’s no way you would write four chapters about Scotch and Co. building a settlement.
…
Okay I take it back, you totally would.

It was probably a good choice not do it. There's no doubt, that this would've been four very interesting chapters but the story is already huge. So cutting some non-essential parts and instead having a time skip isn’t a big deal. Although, I would’ve loved to read about Scotch recovering and fixing the Whiskey Express.

most shamans don't care about the 'prestige' of being the first mask of Roam. "I am the shaman of this dumpster fire!" "...Good for you?"

Make sense. So, I guess the council accepts any shaman that shows up at their doorstep as member because beggars can’t be choosers.

Nice to see the moss dusted off this boulder

2 chapters a year, if they write another the size of black jacks, then ill read this in 2030

is it just me, or does every famous FO:E fanfic have MCs that are gay or les?

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Well Scotch and Blackjack aren't lesbians. They are both Bi.

Still there’s a bit of a trend to make your MC a lesbian or bi mare. Maybe it’s because of Littlepip? Maybe people are just more interested in non-straight pairing? Maybe it’s just a coincidence? But does it really matter? As long as the story is good I don’t care about the sexual orientation of the MC.

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More opportunity for pairings I'd imagine. Girl on girl was the first fetish I was into, so it comes off as a kind of immature to choose lesbian as a character trait, especially after it's been done.

But BJ and scotch have a backstories that explain why they are bi. So at least it isn't a "lesbian horse is lesbian just because". LP is kind of this, but at least we get a sense of how she feels about stallions. So we know she just finds them repulsive as sexual partners.

I'm more interested in straight pairings, but I like the others just as well when they're done well.

11hmm. true. bastard, P-21

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But BJ and scotch have a backstories that explain why they are bi. So at least it isn't a "lesbian horse is lesbian just because".

“lesbian horse is lesbian just because” is a pretty valid explanation, too. Some people/ponies are just attracted to their own gender or both genders. There’s no need for some complicated backstory to justify why a certain character is either gay or bi.

LP is kind of this, but at least we get a sense of how she feels about stallions. So we know she just finds them repulsive as sexual partners.

Which is something I’m not really a fan of. Lesbians being repelled by male genitals feels like a bad cliché. I’m a straight guy and had no problem being in the gym’s shower room with a bunch of other naked dudes. Why should it be any different for lesbians?

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If it's like a secondary character I can accept no explanation. But a 600k+ story, you'd think it'd be touched on at least once. I've got a headcanon that the bullying LP suffered was mainly caused by colts.

It's played up for laughs having LP cringe or freak out. But yeah, that character trait would get boring quick if that's all it was.

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If it's like a secondary character I can accept no explanation. But a 600k+ story, you'd think it'd be touched on at least once. I've got a headcanon that the bullying LP suffered was mainly caused by colts.

I’m afraid I don’t get it. Why does a story need to explain why a MC is lesbian? People just happened to have different sexual orientations. There doesn’t need to be a tragic backstory behind it.

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Because exploring a character's deeper thoughts and feelings is more fun to read than accepting things at surface level. Especially if it's a MC that we've been following for the last several hundred thousand words.

That's part of what made glory/jack compelling. Because they explored and asked the question of why they are together. And BJ didn't have a good reason beyond "just because I do". So Glory broke up with her, because she realized she didn't love BJ at all either. They were just using each other to get by.

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Exploring a character’s deeper thoughts and feeling is defiantly a good thing. It’s part of what makes PH such a good story.

I don’t have any issue with that, I just don’t understand why a character being bi or lesbian has to be such a big deal. If it was a straight character, nobody would ask for a deep and complex explanation why said character likes the opposite gender.

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Blackjack was a 4 on the Kinsey scale. Scotch is a 5.