Some Things Never Change
“Oh by Celestia! It feels like we’ve been on that thing for years.” You hear Rarity exclaim as she daintily works her way down the final step leading off of the train , her hooves coming into harsh contact with the hard concrete of the floor below. The mare stretches, loosening the stiff joints and muscles that had been plaguing her for the better part of the last hour or so. When that is finished, she gives her head a flick, the luscious purple locks of her mane flowing elegantly behind her as she touches up her coiffure, ever mindful of her personal appearance.
You feel a smile overcome you as you follow her down, coming to a stop beside her, admiring her out of the side of your one good eye.
There she is, your Rarity, looking as lovely as ever.
Her numerous bags and bits of luggage lay scattered haphazardly on a dolly to her right, something you’d had the foresight to ask one of the attendants on the train to prepare before getting off yourself, much to his chagrin. Still, better him than you. For as much as you loved Rarity, you’d had your fill of hauling bags and suitcases around when helping Sweetie Belle pack up back in Ponyville. And, really, the last thing you needed right now was another crick in your neck.
“Come on.” You march up and give her a peck, eliciting a cheeky squeal from the mare in response. “It wasn’t thatlong.” You shoot her an impish smile. “Besides, we found a way to pass the time. A lot of it.”
Rarity blushes and returns your smirk with one of her own. “That we did, darling. And might I say, I am quite impressed with your performance.”
You feel a slight swell of pride in your chest as a result of that remark. Sexual prowess was never something you’d considered yourself particularly spectacular at, but Rarity never failed to sing your praises when she could get away with it. Maybe she was just being kind about it, but judging from how wonderfully vocal she got during the act, you find that doubtful.
“Well, I aim to please.”
“And please you do.” Rarity plants a soft kiss on your cheek, her tail intertwining with yours as she pulls you close and snuggles up to your side. A more public display of affection there could never really be. The touch warms your heart, and helps melt away some of the trepidation of the trials soon to come.
“Well...” You scan the area in front of you, your one good eye sifting through the thick growth of ponies hustling throughout the station in an attempt to pick out the distinct visages of your mother and father. After a few minutes of hunting, you fail to spot them. “Looks like my mom and dad went ahead of us. We’d better get after ‘em.” You look over Rarity’s shoulder, eyeballing the stack of luggage occupying the dolly resting idle beside her. “Think you can carry that?”
The fashionista’s horn lights up with a faint blue glow as the dull and clouded silver metal of the dolly is enshrouded in a cloud of similarly colored telekinetic magic. The rubber wheels beneath the metal tray squeak as she begins to roll it forward with relative ease.
“Not a problem dear. Shall we?”
Really, you just had to be born an Earth Pony...
You nod and walk hip to hip with Rarity through the bustling Manehattan train station. You cast your gaze about, somewhat overwhelmed by all of the familiar, yet at the same time unfamiliar, commotion. All around you crowds of ponies gather and shuffle about, hastily marching towards trains, family members, or one of the numerous shops or rest areas that dotted the interior of the station. That was to say nothing of all the shouting, the tidal wave of voices that seemed to crash over you as soon as you and Rarity descended into the twisted innards of the station itself, hundreds of ponies all fighting to have their voices heard over the suffocating cacophony that permeated the building.
It takes you a few moments to adjust to the newfound barrage of sound and sensations. After having spent so much time in a small country town like Ponyville you find it surprisingly overwhelming to be thrust back into such a chaotic and busy environment. Out of curiosity you steal a glance towards Rarity, who, outside of some mild confusion as she looks around and tries to gather her bearings, seems less bothered by the commotion than you are. Perhaps she’s more of a mind for crowds than you do, what with all the fashion shows she attends and the routine trips to Canterlot.
Out of the corner of her eye she seems to notice you looking, she cocks her head to the side and shoots you a curious look. “Something the matter dear!?” She inquires, voice raised in an attempt to be heard.
You shake your head and lean down closer to her ear, so you don’t have to shout. “Just a little loud is all!”
The fashionista nods her head. “Agreed! Let’s find your parents and find somewhere just a touch quieter, shall we?”
You share her sentiment, and the pair of you quicken your pace, moving from a slow walk to a gentle gallop, both of you eager to quit this place as soon as you’re able in exchange for an infinitely less obnoxious environment.
…………………………
“There you two are!” You hear your mother say as you and Rarity trot up behind her. It took a while, but you finally managed to locate your parents towards the far end of the station, near the entrance/exit of the building. “I was starting to wonder if the pair of you had gotten lost.”
It had taken you and Rarity a little longer to catch up than you’d anticipated. Trying to worm your way through a literal horde of bodies was difficult enough on it’s own, and only proved to be infinitely more so when you needed to drag around three tons or so of luggage.
“Oh I do apologize Miss Petal.” Rarity speaks up, a touch of bashfulness coloring her voice. “We didn’t mean to hold you up. I wasn’t expecting it to be so, well, crowded.” Rarity steals a glance to her left and right, towards the throngs of ponies moving about, surprise written evident on her face.
“Yeah, you never really get used to it.” Your father pipes up, smiling at her. “More ponies in Manehattan than you can shake a stick at. Pretty big difference from what you’re used to I expect.”
“Well, I’m not necessarily a stranger to crowds.” Rarity returns your father’s smile with one of her own. “But yes, I’ve never quite seen so many ponies in one place before. Not since I’ve lived in Ponyville, anyway.” The fashionista shoots you a playful grin. “I don’t know how you citydwellers keep up.”
You playfully snort at her assertion. “Please Rarity. I can barely keep up with Sweetie Belle and her friends, and that’s just three foals, you think I ever actually learned how to deal with all this?”
The mare giggles. “Point taken my dear.”
You open your mouth to say something else when you spot a familiar looking visage off in the distance. The haggard look, the fancy three piece suit, the magnificent moustache, and how on Equestria could you forget that swagger?
“GAH! Witherspoon!” Your mother practically leapt out her skin when she felt the mature stallion tap on her shoulder, the faintest hint of a wry smile touching at the corner of his lip.
“Good evening Madam Petal.” He said, apparently unphased by her outburst.
Your mother shot him a menacing glare, her face contorting into as much a snarl as her mottled flesh would allow. “You are definitely doing that on purpose.”
The older stallion’s eyes widened, just a touch, as if to feign surprise. “Am I?” Was the only response he gave to your mother before turning his eyes to you. “My, my, isn’t this quite the surprise. It’s a pleasure to see the young master back with his family again after all this time.”
You chuckle at the stallion and shoot him a warm smile. “And in one piece… er, mostly.”
“Not for lack of trying to wind up in several, I’m sure.” You feel a hint of shame color your cheeks as you glance towards the floor, he wasn't wrong, that's for sure. Judging from the amount of accidents you've been in since leaving you're lucky you've still got four legs to stand on. Witherspoon’s eyes fall upon your marefriend. “And in the company of such a fine looking young mare as well.” The stallion bows his head low. “Witherspoon. Pleasure to make your acquaintance young lady.”
“Oh!” Rarity presses a dainty hoof to her lips in pleasant surprise. “The pleasure’s all mine, sir.”
“Easy there hound dog.” Your father jokingly warns. “This one’s taken. Isn’t that right?”
You chuckle. “That’s right.” You beam, no matter how many times you get to say it, you doubt the joy will ever actually wear off. Rarity’s a catch by pretty much any standard, the fact that you can openly admit to loving one another is something you’ll never tire of being able to do. “And I am most certainly not keen on sharing.”
Witherspoon holds up a disarming hoof. “Rest assured. I shall respect you and your marefriend’s intimacy. I’m much too old to be engaging in such acts anyhow.” He lowers his hoof back to the ground. “Back to the matter at hoof, however. I’m pleased to inform you all that the chariot is here to take you home. The young mistress Aquaris has come along as well.”
You perk up at that. Aquaris, your sister, your mind had been so preoccupied with thoughts of finally coming clean about your past to Rarity that you’d almost forgotten about her. As shameful as that is to admit. You feel a slight edge of happiness break out over the restless unease plaguing your heart. You really wanted to see her, now that she’s come to mind, you want to try and build up some of that brother/sister bond that you’d never really managed to build in the first place now that the opportunity had presented itself.
Having spent so much time with Rarity, and getting to play the audience watching her and Sweetie Belle’s relationship bloom as siblings who truly care about one another has really made you feel guilty about not even trying to establish a bond in the first place.
Just one more regret to remedy while here, you guess, trying to stay confident about the whole ordeal.
You see your father sigh. “I thought she had swim practice today. Don’t tell me she skipped.”
Witherspoon turns to the stallion, his expression akin to stone. “I argued that the young mistress should attend but she was… adamant she be present for your return. I found it difficult to refuse.”
“Yeah. That’s Aquaris alright.” Your mother heaves a sigh to match your father’s. “I suppose a day off won’t do her any harm.”
“I suppose not.” Your father grudgingly admits, before he turns his attention to you and Rarity. “Well, you two, shall we be off? I don’t know about you but I’ve had just about enough of trains, train stations, and the ponies who occupy both.”
“Agreed.”
“Agreed.”
Both you and Rarity raise an eyebrow at one another.
Your mother blanches. “Oh no… They’re spending so much time wrapped together that they’re literally fusing into the same pony.” She turns around and stops marching towards the stairwell that lead out of the train station. “Let’s get out of here before it happens and they destroy us all in the process.”
Your father rolls his eye and motions for the pair of you to follow him with a flick of his head. “Think we’d better go before your mother goes completely insane.”
“Halfway there already dear!” Your mother shouts at him over her shoulder.
“Oh that’s fine! Partial insanity I can deal with!” Your father quickly moves to follow her, hooves clacking against the cold grey concrete pavement below as he speeds up, trotting in an attempt to close the distance between them.
You, despite yourself, manage a snicker. “I guess some things never change.”
Yes, yes, I know. It's short and a little rough. But rest assured when I tell you that this is only a tiny portion of the chapter I'm working on right this moment, the likes of which should be significantly longer, or at least have more stuff actually happen in it.
This is more or less just to bring the fic back to life from dead as fuk status. So people can see that the fic isn't rotting in the grave anymore, let them all bear witness as I work my black magic and bring this fic BACK FROM THE GRAAAAAVE!
*ahem* So yeah, this is essentially just a 'look I'm keeping my promise!' update. Expect more chapters within a few days to a week.
Also I apologize if things seem a little off. I'm kind of getting back into the swing of things in terms of both pony and writing in general. It's kind of hard to jump back into writing the last chunk of something after two years of leaving it be.
So, yeah, enjoy. Expect more soon.
Stats
Page generated in 0.041 seconds
Total duration
990 users online
437,207 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh man, I need to read this through again to remember what's going on
6863847
Well, can't really blame anyone for needing to do that. Hopefully by the time you're done I'll have more chapters up.
That thing you did, I see it.
It's awesome to see it risen from the dead. Strangely i can actually remember what's going on so at least you now know that the plot is memorable enough to fight off hiatus driven amnesia.
I went and checked the previous chapter, and yep. 81 weeks. Long time to be on a train.
Read all the chapters again in preparation for the return. And what a return it is! Really love the name Witherspoon as well. Totally fits him.
6863927
It's painfully obvious, I know.
6863998
Well I'm glad to hear that, thanks for reading
6864278
Ehh it was a long ride y'know?
6865014
Glad to hear it. Witherspoon is fun, I like him.
Nice to see this return to the land of the non-dead.
Jesus... Forgot about this... Super happy to see it alive again none the less!
I could never try to understand the trials of fanfic writing and how it loses its spark for a time until it's found again, but as soon as a new chapter comes up with intention to reignite that spark, there ends up being hope again I'm sure.
Wow, takes a moment to sink in that the chapter before this one was posted two years ago, well, in any case, I'm glad I found this as it came off hiatus, this honestly is one of the best stories I've read on this site, and it saddens me that I've read all the chapters up to this point, so I have to wait for the others
How do I wrap this note up... Oh yeah!
Potato
6869905
You're gonna see a lot of that shit early on. And this goes for anyone jumping on the fic now after I've brought it back from a two year hiatus, I wouldn't even bother pointing out errors if I was you. Doing so is going to drive you mad. It gets considerably better the deeper in you get quality wise.
I still appreciate it, but I won't be fixing them anytime soon, and I'm well aware of pretty much every single one that could be pointed out.
Keep in mind I started writing this when I was like... fourteen? It was one of the first things I'd ever actually tried to write, so I was pretty new and pretty shit at the craft. (This is of course implying I'm not still shit, which I totally am.)
I may go back and fix it all up one of these days, but not anytime soon.
Nice to see this fic awaken from its two year slumber. Re-read everything until now and I am looking forward for more. See you again in two years. ;-)
6866541
Glad to see it back myself, thanks.
6867181
Thanks!
6867441
It's weird, I just sort of lost all motivation to even consider finishing it, then the mood struck again.
6868033
Glad you found it too! I appreciate the kind words, they always do wonders for the motivation.
6879596
Well, hopefully it won't be quite as long of a wait this time. I've been busy the past couple days but now that I've got most of my schedule clear you can expect a new chapter a little sooner than that.
6880985 Don't worry. Real Life always come first.
Was just a little friendly jab. As long as you have fun writing the story everything is fine.
6880985 hmm yeah does seem unusual
Oh my gosh it's alive.
Oh wait a second, Ha, I see what you did there, very clever.
However, if you think about it, two years on a train and they found a way to pass a lot of that time. I'd be pretty impressed with his performance as well, spending the good part of 2 years doing that is pretty good XD.
Yes I finally have time to read this fanfic. YES. I can't wait to read the next chapter. Which I will be reading it much later today sense I need to go to be right now. its 4 a.m.