Safe
• • • •
White lines swirled in the bathroom sink as Joe scrubbed his mane clear of the last lingering streaks of sugar. He let the faucet run for a bit as he placed his brush aside, basking in the warmth of the steam as it curled across his muzzle and wrapped around his horn. A long, indulgent moment passed before Joe pressed shut the lever with the back of his hoof, staring distantly into the cloudy whirlpool of the sink. It felt good. It felt very, very good.
Quite slowly, Joe brought his gaze to his reflection in the mirror, and the long, jagged crack that ran the length of his horn. The fracture had grown another half-inch since the ordeal in the castle, winding further down the bone to disappear under his fur. He kept waiting for the throbbing pain to finally fade. It had been hours now.
Only once had Joe had felt pain as deep and bracing as that he'd endured in the royal palace that night. He’d been a colt, bandaged from hoof to horn in an overlarge hospital bed, staring at the wall as the throbbing headache consumed him like a storm. It colored every thought and want and feeling he had for weeks, letting nothing through. Long, pounding, miserable weeks.
A younger, angrier part of Joe stirred at the memory. Even after all this time, he was still forced to suffer for the tiniest, most pathetic sputter of magic. It wasn’t fair. He wanted to feel cheated for what the world had done to him. He wanted to resent the very elements for driving him mad, and leaving him broken. The thought took him someplace old, and ugly.
Joe met his eyes in the mirror, catching the faintest wisp of light drift along his peripherals. It was a small, invisibly dim little thing, but it was there, hanging listlessly in the air without weight or reflection. Words. Tiny little words, written flat across the face of reality. Joe blinked, half-expecting them to vanish, but there they stayed, patiently waiting for his attention.
Wasn’t fair.
Joe’s ears fell flat against his head. It couldn’t be. It had to be a trick of the light, or some exhaustion-fueled hallucination, or… or naked insanity, brought on by his superconscious frolic through Princess Pinkie's mind-bakery. Anything else. A dozen frenzied explanations ran through Joe’s head, and a dozen coiling words wound themselves to life before his eyes.
Trick of the light.
Imagining things.
Going nuts.
Joe's jaw clenched as a wave of dread washed across his stomach. The words were real. He wasn’t imaging that. He could literally see his own self-delusion stamped across the air, plain as Celestia’s sun. Just like in the old days. Just like little White Lie used to see.
Joe dipped his head, staring at the floor as he struggled to process the very possibility. There was no precedent for what White Lie had gone through. You weren’t supposed to survive a shattered horn, much less live with one. He shouldn’t have made it a day, but he’d made it a life, holding on to that little flicker until it was a flame, until he’d built something real and wonderful with ponies he trusted and cared for. He couldn’t lose that. He couldn’t go back to how it was.
The frazzled stallion glanced back into the mirror, then to the words, watching as each unraveled at his attention. Little White Lie had learned early that self-delusion wouldn't last when you could see it for what it was. It needed you blind, and ignorant. He watched with heart-wrenching clarity as the words faded, one after the other, washed away by the truth. Only the first remained.
Wasn’t fair.
Joe sighed, staring back into the sink. There was a will behind those words, he had learned. An impossible, invisible something that could pluck ideas out of the air and make them real. It ran through the dirt and the magic and the sky, beneath every one and every thing. Little White Lie had seen one, tiny, useless, insignificant little sliver of that living Harmony, every minute of every day. It had wants. It needed things done, and the world would tie itself in knots to make those wants a reality.
Joe stared at the words that hung in the air before him, feeling an old, familiar helplessness. The world wanted one thing from him, and he was built to give it up.
The truth.
The truth was that Joe didn’t feel cheated, or angry, or wronged by the world, he felt relieved. He felt blessed. He felt unbelievably, overwhelmingly, infuriatingly grateful toward the elemental will he'd spent his entire adult life resenting.
Sunny would have died if magic had not set aside the impossible to answer his desperate plea, back there in the castle. She would have fallen to her death, and Joe wouldn't have been able to do a single thing about it. For all the baker prided himself on living free of the guiding hoof of Harmony, he’d needed a miracle back in that castle. And he’d been given one.
Joe wiped his mane dry with a large dish towel and hung it over the doorknob, stepping quietly out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. He turned to climb a small set of stairs beside the trot-in freezer, hearing the loud saw of Gilda’s snoring as he popped his head into the tiny attic that sat atop the building. The cramped little space was more of a decorative touch to the Canterlot skyline than a proper room, but it was quiet, and warm, and just about the only part of the diner that didn’t smell of grease and donuts. With his apartment in spell-singed tatters, it would have to do for a place to sleep.
Across the floor lay every blanket and towel Joe had been able scare up from the storage basement, each set across the other in a muddled patchwork of bedding. Gilda lay just beyond the top of the staircase, draped in a tablecloth as her sizable body rose and fell with each heavy breath. Just opposite was Sunny, her side pressed tight against a rain-cooled window that ran the length of the inclined roof. There was room enough for one more, just between the two.
As quietly and delicately as the lumbering stallion could manage, Joe stepped between Gilda’s wing and her head, briefly rearing onto his forehooves to swivel his bulk over her body. He gently dropped his hind legs to the ground with nothing but a slight creak of the floorboard, turning an uneasy look to the slim space beneath his barrel. It would be tight.
With the grace of a blind, exhausted horse, Joe lowered himself onto his knees and dropped his big begobbled flank to the warm, inviting bedding below. He felt the soft blankets pull close against his chest, chasing away the chill of his fur in the most wonderful way. He reveled in the heavenly sensation with a wide grin, letting himself relax.
He felt his right hip press ever-so-slightly into Gilda’s side. With a lazy bat from her bushy lion tail, Gilda rolled from her side to flop onto her stomach, closing shut her beak with a loud smack. Joe held his breath and his gaze as she settled, her snoring grumbling into a low, rhythmic purring. He sighed with relief, turning his head forward and quietly lowering his chin to the floor.
Joe closed his eyes, letting his attention drift and wander until it stuck on the persistent discomfort of his side. If he had just the slightest bit of room between his flank and Gilda’s rump, he'd actually be comfortable. Joe scooched a half-hoof to the left.
Right into Sunny’s hip.
• • • •
Sunny’s eyes flew open with a sharp and sudden gasp, a flood of alarm washing across her body. For a single, heart-stopping moment, she was back in that frigid room, buried deep in a void of black. Something had her. Something was right here and it had her leg.
She jolted away from the sensation as quickly as she could, slamming her flank into the wall and banging her horn against the glass of the window. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried and failed to retreat further, finding only wood and glass and blinding black. There was nowhere else to go!
Panic gripped the minute mare’s heart as she frantically scanned the dark, her tail locking with tension and her fur standing on end. There was nothing, all around her. Then that nothing moved.
Sunny yelped as a large, looming figure drifted to life just beside her. It raised a limb, quite suddenly. Sunny tensed, frozen with shock.
“Oh goddess, Sunny, I’m sorry.”
She held her breath, not daring to blink as sharp panic crashed into scattered confusion. There was something familiar in that rough, weary voice. Something simple, and strong, and safe.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think.”
She felt it come back to her, bit by bit. The party, the moon, the sealed room. This tiny little body.
His hold. His kiss.
Joe.
Sunny let out her breath, feeling her heart pound as she lowered herself onto her flank. She laid her cheek against the glass, feeling the push and pull of air steady her racing pulse. Her eyes began to adjust to the dim moonlight, bringing his features into view.
It’s just Joe.
The looming stallion put down his hoof, a mortified look set across his face. “I… look, I-I’m going to sleep downstairs. I thought I could squeeze between everypony and...” He turned to place a strategic step between Gilda’s wing and her head. “...I-I just forgot.”
Sunny moved as he rose his left leg, grasping his tail between her teeth to hold him in place. Joe jostled as a firm resistance halted his forward motion. He turned his head, hoof still in the air, bringing a confused look to Sunny. She let his tail fall from her mouth, looking to the floor. “Joe, I… didn’t mean anything by it. I was just startled. Really.” Her mane fell over her left eye, curling against the soft bedding below. “It’s just… I...” She looked away. “...It’s been a very long time since I’ve let somepony quite this close.”
Joe placed his hoof to the floor, cautiously backing into the middle of the room to sit beside Sunny. A healthy distance stood between them as he slowly offered his foreleg. She smiled, reaching out to grasp it with her own, and guide it to her cheek. Just as she had in the rain. She felt him stroke her fur, as gently as he could.
"Very very?"
She closed her eyes, pressing back against his soft touch. "Very very."
Joe made a quiet sound. An abrupt end to an abrupt start to a question he couldn't bring himself to ask. He broke his gaze, falling silent.
Sunny's ears fell flat against her head. She knew she should be smart, and watch what she said, but it felt a lie. Joe had taken more on faith than she had any right to ask, and still he refused to push. How she must seem to him; a mess of nerves and fears and secrets.
“...Longer than I ever meant.” She felt the words tumble out of her mouth without a thought, but made no effort to stop them. “A century, at first. Then two." She drifted away, just the tiniest bit, breaking the touch. “I just… I didn’t feel like I had it in me to start it all over again. It didn't feel like I could make it new again.” She looked away. “There were days I wondered if I'd loved it all away, a thousand times over.”
Joe said nothing.
Sunny fixed her eyes on her hooves, not daring to sneak a glance. “...I don’t believe I’d ever felt quite so alone.”
Joe’s voice was almost a whisper. “What changed?”
She closed her eyes and smiled, calling to mind the beaming eyes of a small, eager purple unicorn. “A friend. A little filly.” Her eyes drifted open. “She needed guidance, from somepony strong and warm and kind. Somepony far better than I had become.” She distantly rubbed her bandage with her hoof. “I don’t believe she realizes what a wonderful thing that was for me.”
She saw Joe’s hoof edge beside her own. “I’d like to meet that little filly, one day.”
Sunny felt a knot in her throat. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t make a sound. How many nights had her little student spent at Donut Joe’s Diner, sharing dandelions and donuts with her little baby brother? How many cups of coffee had she brought to the rising of a new dawn, eager to share a grown-up drink with a grown-up friend?
Sunny brought her gaze slowly to Joe’s hoof, then to his leg, then to his chest. Her resolve wavered at his jaw. “Joe… please believe that I want to tell you everything, and… a-and I will, I promise I will. It’s just…” She pressed shut her eyes. “...There would be such a dreadful distance between us.”
Her voice faltered as she felt his fur brush along her jaw, light as a breeze. His touch trailed to the tip of her chin, gently lifting her head with the tip of his hoof. She felt his warm breath against her lips. He lingered, for a moment, breathing in, and out. In, and out. Letting her know he was there. Showing her where he wanted to be.
She heard the blankets rustle as he leaned forward, in rhythm of his breathing, to press his lips against hers. That scared, startled part of her mind was silent as she lost herself in a soft and expected touch. She opened her eyes, watching as he gently broke the kiss and lowered her chin. He grinned, staring at her with those big, smiling, emerald eyes. “Hundreds of years to choose, and you pick the shlub who runs the donut shop.” He shook his head. “You’ve gotta get out more, Sunbeam.”
She smiled, brushing her mane behind her ear as she lowered her gaze. “...They’re very good donuts.”
Joe’s grin grew wider, and wider. Sunny couldn’t help but do the same. She watched with growing calm as the rough-hewn stallion wiggled his flank against the back wall and laid on his side, facing the window. He glanced up at Sunny. “I’ll be careful, don’t worry.”
She looked to her hooves, feeling more than a little guilty for the trouble.
“I wasn’t thinking before.” He gently leaned his back against Gilda’s side, pushing up the blankets with his hooves to form a small barrier of bunched cloth between his spot and Sunny’s.
She stepped away from the window, looking to the blankets, then to Joe. She watched in silence as he tucked his legs under his barrel and let out a long, booming yawn. He laid his head to the ground, closed his eyes, and relaxed. Sunny wondered if he was always so still when he laid to rest, or if this was for her sake.
Sunny quietly settled into the bedding, turning her head to watch the rain patter against the glass. She listened for a time, letting the soft hum of white noise ease the tension from her body. There was one thing she wanted more than the world, at that moment. One thing she feared and needed with equal intensity. Experience told her that such things were rare, and precious, but she was afraid.
Sunny turned to look at Joe. His face was slack with the exhausted resignation of a long and trying day at an end. She watched his powerful chest rise and fall with a steady rhythm, his brown mane tussled over his horn and his cheek. She could feel the slightest hint of warm air against her ear with each breath he took.
She scooched to the right.
Her side pressed lightly against Joe's chest, rousing him from near sleep. The rugged stallion opened his eyes a bit, looking down at her with surprise, then, slowly, contented delight. He didn’t budge. He just watched.
Sunny closed her eyes, leaning against the firm muscle of his chest. She felt the warmth of his soft fur flush across her body, chasing away the chill of the night and drawing her closer. She was smiling. She hadn’t noticed that until now. She was smiling ear to ear, more at peace than she’d been for a very long time.
She felt Joe’s jaw brush slightly against the base of her horn. That small, cross-shaped scar buzzed with sensitivity as his fur tickled across the tender skin. Her thoughts drifted as she watched the rain sleek down the glass, water gleaming against the moonlight. It brought to mind an image she'd been avoiding since first she saw it: shimmering blood, trickling slowly across the palace floor.
The strange, unsettling dream from Luna’s bedroom stuck in Sunny’s mind. It had been the first time in a thousand years she had seen her own blood. On any other day, she would have thought it some senseless abstraction of the mind. On any other day it would have been impossible. Today she’d learned to be cautious of that word.
“That dream, back in Luna’s room…” Sunny kept her eyes forward, staring through the window to the distant Canterlot castle. A thin arcing barrier of rainbow magic shimmered against the rainfall, keeping dry the roofless castle. She glanced upward, to the amber muzzle resting above her horn. “...have you had it before?”
Joe’s mouth flattened, then curved into a shaky smile. She felt him heat with a blush. “Hah… i-it was just the one time, I swear. I don’t... you know, think about you and the princess, like that, all the time...”
Sunny turned a little red as the mortifying scene flickered across her mind. “...Not that one.”
Joe’s smile faded, very slowly. He met her eyes, but couldn’t hold the look for long before glancing away. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened once more. “...Every now and again.” A little too quickly, his smile redoubled with a disarming look. “It’s just a dream, Sunny.”
Sunny’s ears flattened at the sight. She knew a practised smile when she saw one. Joe was far better at putting on a face than most, but the eyes gave him away. She felt a tinge of disappointment at the deception. “You’re a good liar.”
Joe’s smile dropped, inch by inch, until it was well and truly gone. He was quiet for a time, just laying still, listening to the rain. Long moments passed in silence before he spoke again. “Dad told me nopony had ever seen the princess bleed, before that night. Not ever.” His gaze set forward, staring through the window. She could see his eyes tracking streaks of glimmering rainwater as they wound down the glass. “I’m the first to ever really hurt her, in all the history there is. In all the wars she’s won and all the monsters she's fought, I’m the one that hurt her.” He turned his cheek into the blanket, covering his eye with stands of his mane. “When I’m dead and gone and nopony can remember a thing about me, she'll still have the scar I gave her.” His voice was steady, like he’d said it a thousand times before. "It's all she'll have to show for everything she’s given us.”
Sunny gently reached her hoof up to brush back his hair. His eyes were heavy and wet. She closed her eyes, nuzzling his jaw with her nose. "That was a long time ago. You would never hurt somepony like that." Her voice was almost a whisper. “Things change.”
She felt him take in a deep, steeling breath, pulling away just a bit. “Not her.”
She lowered her head against his neck, closing the distance once more. Not letting him retreat. “You think her so delicate.”
Joe was silent.
“Do you pity her?”
Joe’s chest rumbled with a low sigh. “Of course not. She’s a goddess.” His eyes closed. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”
Sunny could feel the warmth radiating from his fur. “You matter.” She pressed her cheek against his neck. “You matter very much.”
Joe said nothing.
“Hold me.”
She felt a steady warmth against her shoulder as he exhaled, drawing his leg gently against her side. The touch was slow and expected, replacing the heat of his breath with the brush of his fur. She brought her hoof to lay atop his, hugging it snugly against her chest.
He drew her in, surrounding her tiny body completely. She could scarcely remember the last time she’d been held like this. When she was whole, there wasn’t a stallion in Equestria large enough to so envelop her. She wanted to stay there forever, wrapped tight in the safety of his strength.
It was the most ridiculous thing. She was as fragile and mortal as she’d ever been, run from her home and her city by an impossible god she couldn’t hope to defeat. In a single day, she’d faced true death twice. It had been the single most harrowing and vulnerable day of her three thousand year life, with the worst yet to come.
And she felt safe.
Wait, so she didn't have any love or care fun Sunset? *lip wobble*
Just kidding. Another amazing chapter, glad things are going to well for ya.
Joe, for someone who can literally see the writing on the wall, you can be kinda oblivious sometimes.
Ooh, another chapter.
...
Yep, that hit the spot.
Ahh... tender loving moments slowly driving me mad as my mind yearns for Sunny's disguise to be dropped. Good work and congratulations on the new job. Wish I could say I had a job that I was proud of.
Oh, I remember this one.
...It's gotten a bit longer since last time I read it, though.
Uwah!
No pushing my fic until I'm in a state to work on it again.
Still though, I do love this chapter. I loved it when pre-reading, even given my wretched state, and I love it now. It's a beautiful little chapter full of feel-good cuddles, nuzzling and happy shippy murmuring. As well as mild delusions and/or being toyed with by a higher power.
Also, Celestia 'scooched' in order to get some JoeSnuggles. There was squeeing. It was very embarrassing.
Honestly, the amount of sheer joy I get out of Celestia being a 'real person', with hang-ups and needs and insecurities, without having to resort to cliche, parody or zany comedy is uncanny.
Still, I am very much looking forward to next chapter too, as much as I'd love the shipping and handling to continue. I'm still riding on the high of re-reading last chapter, and I desperately want some more of your Gilda!
Even though the update was small, it was no less awesome
Let's see how long will it take Joe to figure it out
You're alive. Yeah. Thanks for the update, and for the big romantic scene. That was awesome. Great job.
So glad to see this update, hoping the next one will be a touch sooner. Question, since I don't think it's really been made clear, how big do you say gryhons are compared to ponies? Because unless Gilda's freaking huge, that room would have to be quite small for it to lack space with just three occupants.
Joe still doesn't get it... Even after the rather blatant and obvious hints dropped right in his lap.
Sheesh, I've seen dense before, but I don't think even gamma rays could penetrate into Joe's brain!
If I wasn't already aboard the HMS Sunny Donuts, I sure would be after this chapter.
*fist-pump*
I'm a little surprised they made it all the way through that moment without Gilda waking up to be grouchily sarcastic.
4888903 He probably never will, Celestia will have to tell him.
4889557
Nah, it's just a really small room.
I play up Gilda as being larger than the average pony, and a bit muscular for a girl her age, but she's more or less the size she is in the show. Gilda in Brush-Off was a little tall and thicker than Dash, so I stick with that size. It annoys her to no end that everything in Canterlot (her bed, her bath, doors, seats) is build for someone noticeably smaller than she is.
I had trouble conveying it, but Joe's attic-thing is one of those decorative little bulbs that sit on atop certain buildings and have that little flag at the top:
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/File:Canterlot_castle_close-up_S1E26.png
I considered having them use the diner basement instead, but I think everyone having to cram into a small space would make for some decent comedy when they're all a bit drunk and need to crash after party-hopping.
*Squee!* This chapter!
4889753 Ehehehe, I can totally see it happening like that.
I've come back to this update like three times just for the A+ cuddling.
I guess I got a bit lost though - what does Joe currently see Sunny as, if he knows she's been around for a century or two?
4889815
Alright, cool. That clears things up a bit. Second question, though. Where'd you get your Avatar from? It's making me think of Monogatari.
4891562
Not a coincidence! It's a sketch by Hajime Ueda, who did the end credit sequence for Monogatari. That sequence is one of THREE things he has ever done
Most people know him as the guy who drew the FLCL manga, which is how I found him and where I fell in love with his art style. It's so damn good.
As tends to be the case, he can't really pull together a coherent story when he needs to, but the art more than makes up for it. My avatar's one of the sketches he had on his blog, back when he had a blog. I'm pretty sure it's Haruko.
4891435
I'm gonna touch on this a bit later, in the chapter after this next one, when they go to the everparty. Just bear in mind that they live in a world where magic is real, time travel spells exist, shapeshifters are a thing, and living spirits can freeze cities if people argue too much.
4889753
4889624
Heh, it'll happen! I realize I'm pushing it a bit with Celestia's reveal.
4891800
Why do you think that's so often the case? People with unique style and vision so often struggle to grasp the basic tenets of characterization and story structure. The two traits aren't mutually exclusive, I can think of maybe one or two creators that have both, but so often it seems like a 'pick one 'cause you can't have both' type deal.
4891800 I can see the reveal now:
Celestia sighs, "In all my eons moving the Sun, I never found my one true love, for I was always too busy ruling over my ponies and saving the world from the likes of Discord, Sombra, and Nightmare Moon."
Joe nods, "Wow, that sounds like a hard life. You should talk to the Princess about it! I'm sure you could swap stories!"
Celestia's eye twitches. Urge to kill, rising... rising... fallings... RISING!!! "OH FOR ME'S SAKE!!! I'M CELESTIA YOU TWIT!!!"
Joe blinks and slowwwwwwly raises a hoof to his chin to tap it sagely, "I see, so you strongly identify with the Princess in a metaphorical sense."
"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Celestia explodes in a supernova, taking out the evil demon thingey!! ... And about half the planet along with it.
That was a beautiful chapter. Very heartwarming, especially to someone who can relate to Sunny in this sense. Can't wait for the next one.
4892373
Joe nods sagely, "Yes yes, quite right, we are all Celestia in a way, aren't we..."
4891875
I've never quite figured that out, but it's definitely A Thing. I love Evangelion, but they are very very clearly making up the story as they go along. Guillermo del Toro does amazing monster design, and draws inspiration from some of the coolest shit, but he struggles with characterization. Maybe it's something like, for some artists, the story is more a vehicle to introduce each new design and character and location than it is something particularly meaningful. Hard to say. Obviously, there are huge exceptions (Hiromu Arakawa, Edgar Wright come immediately to mind), but it is something I see pretty frequently.
4891435
I JUST realized you were talking about Joe's line where he's like, "thousands of years to choose, and you pick the donut guy."
Yeah, Joe first kinda got a sense that she has never aged in Little White Lies, when his sister showed up and accused Sunny of being a changeling, showing them a picture from the Archives that was 48 years old. Then in the last chapter, she let slip that she lived through the Age of Discord, which was 2,000 years ago.
The context suggests that you might have meant "With the grace of a blind...". It doesn't parse as-is.
4901483
Whoops, fixed.
This is a curiously awesome way of looking at Luna's Guard, with their way of wanting actual meat!!
Yay for new chapter! !
on a side note I can't help but think that joe sort of knows that sunny is celestia, but that he is in denial.
Needing comments? That's Future Wade's problem!
Gotta say, Joe's thick as the proverbial horse stuff if he can't figure out who the thousand-years-old-pony with the sunbutt is. Cute interactions, though. It irritates me how I actually prefer character moments to hoof-biting action scenes in my stories these days. Sigh. I'm getting old and boring.
If I might offer a critique (NOOOO ), quite a lot of your description is formed up of two actions linked by 'as', and it can get a bit repetitive:
(Oh god did I just actually write 'hoof-biting')
4905374
Huh, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, that kind of thing is helpful.
4888187
What I found amusing about those exchanges was that Sunny, without knowing that Joe has his talent back, has still by dumb luck chosen to use the one conversation strategy that can hold it off (telling accurate partial truths). Logical if you interpret Celestia as being a fundamentally honest person, and Fridge Brilliance when you realize that the Lie Detector and Honest Woman make a perfect couple.
Well done.
4891800
About that... this has been bothering me since the previous chapter. If I understand correctly, their plan is to use the party to recharge the pendants to a level that would normally take many years to accomplish, and then zap PinkThulhu with them.
But Sunny's already _tried_ that with full pendants, and was severely outmatched (it was at best a momentary inconvenience to Oni).
Celestia isn't stupid - she isn't going to try a bad plan twice and expect it to work the second time. I really hope that she has a different approach planned this time around. I look forward to seeing what she ends up doing, at any rate.
Wild speculation follows:
Best plan I've been able to come up with (which does not make it a _good_ plan): Using the magic in the amulets to power _herself_ back up again. Once she's in full Alicorn Goddess mode, she gets several more options back, and has much better defenses on top of that. Explaining things to Joe could get awkward.
Best preparation move I can think of: Finding Discord, and pumping him for information. He's likely hiding at Fluttershy's. Getting the group there will be easier as an alicorn, but everyone in Ponyville is compromised (including Twilight and the other bearers, though possibly not Fluttershy if Discord un-zapped her). This would likely involve a painful deal (Discord wanting permission to run amok in return, Celestia counter-offering with "take revenge on me as you see fit for a day but leave everyone else alone", etc).
Best direct confrontation approach I can think of: Tapping the magic of the Earth, the Sun, or both, as it'd take the magic of another entire world to face Oni in a direct throwdown. This is not likely to happen, as you're writing a romantic comedy and possibly a redemption story for Oni, not a war fic .
My best guess as to where you're actually taking this: Pinkie redeems Oni (finishing getting the idea that people matter into his head), and around the same time Celestia (and possibly Luna) find a way to divest him of control over most of his power. Celestia and Joe are on very awkward footing, but there's still hope for them as a couple. WAFF ensues.
4908169
You're in the ballpark with some of these, you clever minx. Others... a ways off.
The pendant is decently powerful, but there's a reason they weren't used after the Elements were discovered - they're just not as good. In Party Foul, there's this brief line:
Implying that what she hit Oni with wasn’t much. Conceivably, if they got it to full power, there'd be enough force to scatter Oni to bits. It's unknown if that would do a thing to stop a being who doesn't really need a body, though. Technically, there's a whole moon of him, just sitting in the sky.
Regarding Pinkie, I'm hoping to convey how BARELY in control of Oni Pinkie is right now. She has his interest, and he thinks she's a hoot, but it's enormously difficult for her to change his mind once he thinks of doing something fun.
Discord might be popping up sooner than you'd think. You're close thinking Fluttershy would be with him, but I actually went with somebody else, as they made a better match for later antics. Plus, I could not, for the life of me, work out a fun dynamic between Sunny and Flutters. I think they might be a bit too similar in some ways.
4908419
Now you have me picturing Twilight trying to babysit Discord. Twilight would not be terribly good at this, and her frustration would be entertaining .
Massive levels of awkward would occur if "Sunny" tried to interact with Twilight or steer her in particular directions without tipping her off as to her identity, too.
I should probably stop speculating and just wait for the next chapter .
On the subject of Twilight - how many alicorns are running around in this fic?
If Discord is around and non-hostile, that suggests late-S3 or later continuity, which means Cadence exists and Twilight might also be an alicorn, but the only people we've seen on-screen with alicorn-grade powers are Celestia and Luna.
Is Cadence busy elsewhere (and I just missed the reference), or is this an alternate-S2 continuity with Discord added back in? Is Twilight an alicorn? If so, how was she subverted so easily when Luna is only barely under Oni's control?
My default assumption is that we're in AU territory with Celestia, Luna, and Discord as the only major powers, but by all means correct me if I should be assuming something different.
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There’s this bit in Little White Lies when Joe first hears the title 'Princess Pinkie,' and responds with "what is that, five princesses now?"
It would be kind of extraneous to mention it in the story, at present, but the Crystal Empire, like all of Equestria, is under Oni's thrall. Same with Ponyville.
The excuse used in the story is that the more moon sugar you've eaten, the 'cozier' it is for Oni. Twilight tends to eat sugar all the time, so she's relatively easy to mind-control into blissful ignorance. With Cadence, it's a bit harder to swallow that they'd get some of their sugar imported from the farms affected by Oni/Luna, but she probably uses SOME sugar in her day to day.
The thing that's keeping both under control is that they don't realize there's something wrong, so they aren't resisting. You'd think the moon would tip them off, but part of the mind control is that (like Seraph mentioned) they remember things as ALWAYS having been this way. It seems normal.
So, yeah, I'm trying to keep it all in-continuity and up-to-date. Twi has her castle and all that, and Discord's ambiguously helpful.
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I... actually considered that, like a week after I wrote that part (but well before I published). The idea of trying to shoehorn in her ambiguously-cannon history of raising Sunset completely obliterated the mood and the TWI CONNECTION, any way I tried it.
I actually kinda like that backstory for Sunset, but yeah... ended up playing it safe rather than muddle things.
4929629 I definitely can understand taking the safer route. This does still work really well for me, I was only teasing.
**Cracks open cryo tube.** Wha?
FFFFFFFF- Update!
Yeah, that 4888881 Luminary guy sure is swell. He's positively radiant! HAH! He helped me immensely on a one shot I published recently.
I'll echo his comment about the snuggles, though I can't really say I'm as drawn in by Celestia as he is. Not that your portrayal of her is lacking or uninteresting. It's perfectly fine. Tia just doesn't resonate with me, sadly. But I will say this is my favorite Celestia fic on the site, and it's one of my 'must read' on my profile. I'm much more interested in how the other characters bounce off of her, than Tia herself. I will wholeheartedly agree that with Luminary that I crave your Gilda. Gilda was such a jerk and so impatient before in your story, but Celestia worked with her and understood. Then when she tended to her wounds, that was great. Looking forward to more soon. Forget about comments putting wind in sails. I'm installing a motor.
Congrats on the EQD Feature!
You deserve it, in spades.
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Just because I can I'm only going to read this either very late at night or very early in the morning
Wish me luck because I NEED my sleep
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Do it do it do it
I'm curious as to how close we are to the 'end'. I haven't actually begun reading yet (since my own fic occupied an ENORMOUS quantity of my attention and I'm halfway through 'Trixie Vs Equestria' right now). I do prefer to read a finished fic, though.
I will say, this sounds EXACTLY like my kind of story. Is the end...oncoming? Like, this year?
-Chessie
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Well, I will finish it, for starters. Like the story itself is planned out, with an ending. As for how long, I have no idea. I want to say we're maybe 2/3rds of the way through, but on more than one occasion, I've sat down to write a brief scene and it's turned out much longer than I expected. Writing Sugarfree comes after work and life, both of which have been pretty demanding this summer. I'm getting good about setting aside time to write, though.
Start reading it now! Promise I won't leave you high and dry. Plus I really really want them comments.
Ok, this looks like a really interesting story, but I'm going to wait until it's finished, so I can read it all in one go.
So I just spend the last few days reading the whole thing so far. You've got a great thing going here! I'll admit that I'm REALLY not big on fanfiction. But the idea of Celestia disguising herself as a normal mare and falling for Donut Joe was just too appealing, I had to have a look - and was not dissapointed!
I'll admit that the initial intro of Oni and Princess Pinkie felt like a trip into bizarro-land and I was starting to question what I've got myself into... But I stayed because of the strong characterization you've got going. I just love Joe. As for Sunny Skies - you've totally captured my headcanon on how Celestia thinks and feels. I've always loved her for the potential she had for becoming a fascinating character and am glad to see a writer as skilled as yourself has capitalized on that.
Will definitely be coming back for more.
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Daww, thanks! That made me feel awesome.
The intro of Oni is definitely... sudden. I wanted to just GET to where the story is now, and I figured the sooner the better. One thing I wanted to do was, when they were at Joe’s party, everyone would become steadily more hyperactive and uninhibited, more and more, looser and looser, feeling the sugar's effects, until finally the moon falls, but it didn't come together. As a result, that part seems really sudden. :/
I'm really happy with the rest, though. Honestly, Joe's the one I'm always afraid will seem too boring. Glad to hear people seem to like him.
I'm a good 3/4ths through the next chapter, so hopefully soon.
Yay new chapter! And I finally got to catching up with all this text! Yaaaay!
Wow, this is a really great story. Good job with the characterization! Really. Wow.
Just powered my way through all the chapters to this point and all I can say it is an amazing ride so far.