Interlude 12 - To Fly or Not to Fly
I had to be about three thousand feet up at this point. From what I understand, that is pretty good without oxygen. Even with my current pegasus body, I have to be careful how high I go, or else I may pass out. I was currently though, descending rather than climbing, and at a steep angle too. The ground was rushing up toward me a breakneck speed. My plan was to dive down fairly low and the use the speed I’d gained to save energy on the return trip upward. As the top of Town Hall began to draw near, I tilted my wings back a few degrees. It sort of felt as if I was leaning back, pushing my upper body higher. Just before I drew level with the highest point of the building, I began to climb again; the energy gained from the dive now propelled me skyward again.
Going at a very fast speed (I could almost hear the jet like noise other pegasi make when they reach high speeds) I began to adjust my course toward my target, a very large raincloud. It had gotten loose from its main body sometime last night and had begun to drift over Ponyville that morning. Seeing as we were expecting clear skies until tomorrow night, the Weather Patrol had been dispatched to clear it up. As it wasn’t that much, Dash had ignored normal protocol and asked me to come and help her.
I knew what I had to do, a cloud this big couldn’t simply be kicked out of existence like the one I’d tried in Cloudsdale, it needed far more force, such as a pegasus going at full tilt slamming into it, hence my current mission. I had gotten as much speed as I could in what my brother would probably call a ‘wire-screaming’ dive and was now barrelling towards the unsightly grey mass. Off to my right, and with a fair bit of distance between her and the cloud, Rainbow was watching my progress and offering advice.
“You’re doing great, Lizzie,” she called out encouragingly. “Now when you get near to it, remember to tuck your wings into your side, it’ll lessen the crash for you. Just hold on and you’ll be fine.”
I didn’t respond, but I did prepare to tuck my wings in. Dash had warned me about this; if you hit a cloud, which is a semi-solid object if you’re a pegasus, you need to hit it as one mass. If your wings stick out there is a risk of injury. One of my first safety lessons with Dash was that if I ever thought I was going to hit a cloud, to make myself as aerodynamic as possible to reduce the impact area. With the ground of course, that’s another story.
I was now only a few hundred yards away from my target. My wings had been beating furiously to keep up my speed. I now tucked them into my side, allowing my momentum to carry me forward. As the cloud filled my vision, I shut my eyes.
“Banzai!” I shouted. Fitting considering what I was doing.
A moment later, I felt the impact. In spite of my speed, it wasn’t that bad, kind of like crashing into a marshmallow. I felt the cloud rock with the impact and for a moment, I thought I’d made a mess of it and just wedged myself in the cloud. A few moments later though, the cloud shook, then promptly broke up, mainly poofing out of existence. Thus, I was reunited with my old friend gravity.
I quickly went into freefall but I remembered the last part of the exercise; the recovery. Sometimes you can crash into a cloud and come to a full stop before it breaks, in which case you drop from the sky. First things first, don’t panic. Secondly, orientate yourself; it’s no good flapping your wings if you’ve no idea which way is up. I quickly looked around and found the horizon. I then did my best to point myself downward toward the ground. Finally, I opened my wings, and the natural lift generated by my speed allowed me to recover. I climbed back up again and re-joined Rainbow, who had been watching me just in case. My teacher was quite pleased with my performance.
“Great job, Lizzie. You took out that cloud and you recovered pretty well too. I know a few flyers on the team who panic when that happens; you were pretty cool headed.” I smiled happily, I’d really been getting into this whole Weather Patrol stuff over the past couple days.
Still, today was my last day, in fact, in another hour or so, Dash said I had to be back on the ground for safety. As we didn’t know exactly when Discord had pulled his prank, as well as how unstable his magic was, it was decided that I stay on the ground after mid-morning, lest I change in mid-air. I turned to Dash.
“Thanks, Rainbow. But I just followed your instructions and remembered what you told me,” I answered. Rainbow shook her head.
“Seriously, kid. You’ve got a real gift for weather work. Hay, if I had to guess, I’d say that cutie mark represents your love of flying.” I turned as we hovered, to look at the whimsical winged heart that was permanently marked on my rear end.
“Come on, Dash, how could that be? I never even did any flying until this week. Not like you, I mean you’ve been flying since you were little.”
“Yeah, but I only got my cutie mark when I did a sonic rainboom for the first time. Until then I kind of sucked at flying,” she countered.
“Still not buying it,” I replied. A smile played over Rainbow’s face.
“Tell you what, let’s have a game on aerial tag before you head back to Fluttershy’s,” she suggested. “You can do all sorts of stunts and I’ll try and catch you. I guarantee you’ll have fun.” After a moment’s hesitation I agreed and she gave me a ten second head start.
Aerial tag is somewhat like a dogfight; each player attempts to pursue the other and tag them, making it a game where you have to get very close to your opponent. And just as Dash said, that meant a load of different stunts, from jinking, loops, sharp turns and sudden changes of speed and direction.
As soon as she said ‘go’, I took off at top speed. I knew Dash was faster than me, but it wouldn’t hurt to build up some ground. I forced myself to my fastest pace and the world seemed to shoot backwards. A few seconds later though, I could hear Rainbow drawing up behind me. Turning my head I saw her closing with me faster than a bullet from a gun. There were no clouds in the sky so there was little up here to be used as obstacles to weave through.
I then thought back to some of those films my brother liked to watch, that one ‘Top Gun’ was about exactly this sort of thing. Tom Cruise’s character did a trick at one point when he was being chased. What was it? After a few moments, and Dash drawing ever nearer and actually reaching out to tag me, I remembered.
“We’ll hit the brakes and she’ll fly right by,” I said to myself.
In an instant I pitched up as high as I could, almost ninety degrees, and flared my wings out as much as I could. Instantly, I began to climb and I felt immense pressure on my wings as they hit the air full force. The effect of this was that I climbed a few feet before being forced to drop and I also slowed to a near dead stop. Dash meanwhile, who was just behind me, couldn’t slow herself down in time and had to break hard to avoid slamming into me. That left me doing the chasing.
“Let’s see what you got now, RD!” I called as I began to pursue the pegasus.
Rainbow began a quick dive and constantly weaved to avoid me catching her. Before long we were zooming toward the ground and I was getting a little concerned. I’d done low level flying before, but not at these speeds! I called to Rainbow.
“Dash, at this speed will we be able to pull out in time?” I asked. After all, we were now getting perilously close to the ground and pulling up too late would mean our momentum would cause us to crash. Laughing to herself, Dash called back to me.
“Relax, Lizzie; it’ll be just like Ghastly Gorge back home!”
We began to whiz past tree tops and frightened birds leapt out of our way as we sped past their homes. We were coming up on Sweet Apple Acres, its orchards would be tricky to navigate through, but Dash showed no signs of slowing down. Taking that as her believing it was safe; I kept hard on her heels. With the lower altitude, thicker air and various obstacles, Dash couldn’t rely on straight line speed to get away and she was stunting like crazy. I was actually able to close on her.
I reached out with a hoof, mere inches away from catching her. Unfortunately, I was so focussed on catching Dash, just as she was focussed on not being caught, that we may or may not have seen the farmhouse in good time. At the last moment Dash called out a warning.
“Horseapples! Lizzie, pull up!” Both of us braked as hard as we could and tried to peel off to avoid the large wooden barn that the Apples lived in, but due to our speed, we had no hope of stopping in time. I braced myself for a collision with something a great deal harder than a cloud.
The impact however, never came. A moment after closing my eyes and bracing, I realised that I could no longer feel the air rushing past me, nor could I hear it. Tentatively opening my eyes again, I realised I had stopped, completely. My wings weren’t flapping but I was still somehow in the air, which seemed to be shimmering. All of a sudden though, I began to move again; down this time and at a very slow speed, it was almost as if I was in zero gravity. I looked down toward the ground and quickly found an explanation.
Directly below us was Blade Star, my older brother. His horn was glowing a dark blue colour, indicating he was using his magic. His eyes were closed and he was gritting his teeth. I quickly understood the reason for my sudden stop. He must have spotted us and somehow managed to catch me with his magic and stop me from ploughing into the barn. Eventually, he set me down on the ground and his horn stopped glowing. He then opened his eyes, and he didn’t look too pleased.
“Ya know how fast ya were goin’ there, Lizzie?” he asked calmly, not breaking eye contact. He always does that when he wants to tell me off; he forgets sometimes that he’s only two years older than me.
“We were only having a bit of fun,” I offered.
“Ya should consider yourself lucky Ah was able to catch ya ‘fore ya ploughed into the side of the house. Honestly Sis, what were ya thinkin’?” His tone wasn’t angry, more like disappointed, he really cares about me, only sometimes he has trouble showing it.
“Come on, it was my last flight before I change back; me and Dash wanted to have some fun.”
“Dash?!” he replied, suddenly sounding worried.
Above us, we heard a muffled groan of pain. Obviously, my brother had only been able to catch me and missed Rainbow. Luckily it seemed that she’d gone through a window rather than hitting a wall. As we both looked up, the cyan pegasus emerged, a few cuts here and there on her.
“Dammit, Rainbow, y’all better pay for that!” Blade Star called as she appeared in the window. My teacher was no stranger to taking a crash, more than once she’d been known to crash into the library. I was just thankful she’d gone into a window. Waving a hoof to signal her understanding, Dash retreated and my brother turned back to me.
“Come on; let’s get the two of you checked over, just to be safe.” He then led me into the house and had me sit down at the kitchen table. After a quick trip upstairs, he returned with a still dazed Rainbow Dash in tow. He gave the both of us a drink of water and an apple to eat and then announced he was going to get the first aid kit from the bathroom upstairs. That left me alone with Dash. We sat in silence for a moment, letting the crash sink in, but eventually, she spoke.
“Not exactly the best way to end your flying career eh, Lizzie,” she said, wincing a little due to the small cuts on her face.
“It wasn’t your fault, Dash,” I countered. “Besides, no harm done. And they always say you have to either crash or fall off to really say you’ve done something.” This made Dash chuckle to herself.
“I gotta say though, that was a pretty fun flight. You’ve got some serious moves for a newbie. Where’d you learn that whole sudden stop thing you used?” I explained about Top Gun. “Huh, kinda sounds like the Wonderbolt Academy. Maybe I’ll show Spitfire that move next time I see her. That kind of stunt might’ve helped stop me crashing, and a few others too. Anyway, how long have you got now?” I looked at the clock on the kitchen wall.
“I think it’s about another two hours. Once were done here, we’ll have to walk to Fluttershy’s I guess.” Dash waved her hoof dismissively.
“Hey, it’s no biggie. I’d rather walk all the way than have you drop from the sky like Rarity did.” At that point my brother returned.
Held in his magic was a typical looking first aid box. Setting it down on the table, he opened it and picked out a bottle of disinfectant, some cotton wool and some bandages and plasters. He then turned his attention to Dash.
“Alright, Rainbow, it looks like you got off lucky. As far as Ah can tell ya ain’t got no glass in any of those cuts. Ah’ll put some disinfectant on though, so don’t mind the stingin’.”
“No worries, Blade Star. I’ve done this to myself a dozen times. I’m used to it.” He began to apply the disinfectant. In spite of her bold claims, Dash still winced and hissed as the stuff touched the various cuts.
“Maybe ya ought to think ‘bout slowin’ it down every once in a while. ‘Specially this low to the ground. Ah’m gonna hold you to the cost of repairs to Granny’s bedroom window.”
“I have had this little song and dance before you know,” Dash replied, a little irritated. My brother relented.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to be such a hard-ass,” he smiled kindly as he began to carefully clean the wounds. “Just had me worried ‘cause Lizzie was with ya. That’s my baby sister you’re with after all.” I rolled my eyes in annoyance, which made him chuckle in response. Still, if he was joking, it meant he wasn’t mad. Eventually, he finished up. Dash had a couple of cuts on her face but had come away pretty much unscathed; she’d had the sense to cover her face before she hit. My brother said that they’d be healed in a day or two.
As he moved to check me over, we were joined by somepony else; Applejack had returned from her work, judging by the basket of eggs she held in her mouth, she’d been feeding the chickens and collecting their eggs. She happily trotted through the open back door.
“Howdy, Bones. Listen, Ah don’t suppose ya could…” her statement died in her throat as she saw me and the slightly beat up Rainbow. “What the hay happened here?”
“RD and Lizzie were doin’ some flyin’ practice ‘round the farm, went too fast an’ nearly went into the house. Ah caught Lizzie and Rainbow went through Granny Smith’s bedroom window. Ah’ll get the glass up in a minute. Damn lucky Granny was out nappin’ down here, still is.”
Applejack joined my brother in checking us over; the other two Apples were not on the farm at present apparently. Applejack said Big Mac was looking after the market and Apple Bloom was naturally at school. Granny Smith meanwhile, completely oblivious to all that had happened, remained in the next room in her rocking chair, fast asleep.
Eventually, the pair pronounced us both healthy and let us on our way. It was kind of weird seeing my brother with Applejack; he behaved differently around her. Anyone could tell they really liked each other. Ah, young love. Rainbow, now sort of walking wounded headed out of the farmhouse on her hooves keeping her word to stay on the ground with me on the way back to the cottage.
“Y’all take care now. Ah’ll swing by and see ya after your back to normal, Lizzie. See ya!” The two ponies then retreated back inside the house.
‘Back to normal’, that phrase kept repeating over and over in my head as we wound our way through Sweet Apples Acres and up towards the cottage which I shared with Fluttershy and her many other house guests. In another hour or two, I would be human again; I would be normal again. Wouldn’t I? I’d only been a pegasus for about a week, but I’d gotten used to it, the flying in particular.
Back on April Fool’s Day, when Discord had pulled his stupid stunt, I had been pretty frightened by everything. I wasn’t me; it was as if I was trapped in someone else’s body; a distinctly alien feeling. I didn’t like it and I wanted out as fast as possible. That first day had been hard, I’d had to change a lot of things; how I walked being the most obvious. I felt as though I was missing a part of me and that night I’d gone to sleep still quite frightened.
But the next day though, Fluttershy and Rainbow had begun to teach me a little bit about flying. Princess Celestia had told me to try and treat this as a learning experience, so that is what I tried to do. I first began to learn to use my newly acquired wings, and then over the course of the day, I learnt to take off and hover, before landing safely.
From there, Dash had steadily taught me more and more about flying until, at this point, I was able to almost keep up with her and even help out with some weather work. Things also extended to Fluttershy; with my pegasus body, I could help her more easily with the birds and larger creatures. I was much faster than I had been and of course, I didn’t take up as much space in the small cottage as I previously had.
I’d enjoyed it all, but I still didn’t want to stay a pegasus, I was a human after all. But as we left Sweet Apple Acres it hit me. Looking at my brother with Applejack made me realise something; I would be here for the rest of my life. In all likelihood, I would not see another human besides my parents ever again. I’d had a boyfriend or two back on Earth but what of here? I wasn’t quite comfortable with the idea of asking a stallion out one night; even though I know its complete nonsense in this case, my mind refuses to let go of the idea of bestiality. As a pegasus though, I had no such problems; I’d even got chatting with a couple of guys from the Weather Patrol that Dash introduced me to.
When this spell wore off, I’d be human again, and I’d have those same stupid misconceptions hanging over me. Plus, I couldn’t really imagine any stallion wanting to go out with me. For ponies dating a griffon is something of a stretch. The long and short of it was I didn’t want to be alone. I had friends sure and I had my family, but I wanted to get married someday.
Aside from helping Fluttershy out and seeing my family and friends, I did little with my new life. Over the past week, I’d made a load of new friends that I got on great with, gained the promise of a paying job and had more fun than I’d had in ages. Now why the hell would I give that up? My decision was made; as soon as I could, I was going to get in touch with Discord and ask him to make this change permanent.
Dash and I came to the front door of the cottage; Fluttershy was waiting outside for us, along with a somewhat nervous looking Discord. I hadn’t seen the wily trickster since he’d first done this to me. And from what I’d heard, Princess Celestia had been pretty mad at him for what he’d done. At first I had been, but now, I might just thank him.
“Hello, Lizzie. Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy greeted warmly. She then spotted Dash’s slight injuries. “Rainbow, what happened to you?”
“You know me, Fluttershy. New trick, didn’t go too well. Applejack and Blade Star fixed me up.” Apparently satisfied with this, she turned to me and led us inside. Discord remained silent, but was subtly watching me. The four of us settled down in Fluttershy’s front room to wait for the chaotic magic to wear off. I began to think just how I could broach this topic. I hadn’t really told anypony, or my parents. As it turned out though, Fluttershy did that for me.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll be glad to get back to normal soon, Lizzie. Though I do hope you enjoyed your time as a pegasus. It reminds me of when Twilight turned us all into Breezies to help them all out,” she chuckled to herself. “That was pretty fun; sometimes I think it wouldn’t be too bad to have stayed as one.” I now threw in my curve ball.
“Actually, Fluttershy, I’ve been thinking, about being a pegasus and everything,” She tilted her head slightly to show her confusion, it was now or never. “And I think it really wouldn’t be too bad if I stayed like this.
“What?!” they all shouted, even Discord seemed surprised. I began to explain my thoughts on the way over here. Dash nodded her head in understanding as I talked about how much I liked flying and how it enabled me to help out Fluttershy more. Fluttershy herself blushed bright red when I explained my other reason for wanting to retain my newfound equinity. But it was Discord’s reaction that was the most unusual.
“Yes!” he cried triumphantly. Jumping off the couch, he began to perform, in mid-air, some kind of victory dance, even going as far as to summon himself a t-shirt and pull the front over his head in the style of many footballers. “I was right! I was right!” In the end Dash could take his antics no longer.
“What the hay are you talking about, Discord?” The draconequus smiled, reverting back to the personality I recognised, his previous melancholy forgotten.
“Why Rainbow Dash, didn’t I tell you? I didn’t change your newest recruit into a pegasus just for fun, I knew she wanted this sort of thing. She all but told me she wasn’t happy with being human the night I met her.” Snapping his talons again, a small tape recorder appeared and began to play back a recorded version of the conversation I’d had with him last week; when I talked about how being human sometimes limited what I could do. I suddenly became very paranoid of other bugging devices.
“So, what, you did all of this, knowing that I’d eventually want to not change back?” Discord nodded.
“I actually thought it would take you longer to make up your mind. I expected you’d have a week or two being human again before realising just how much you loved being a pegasus. And then you’d come to me, I’d change you back, we’d hug and then you’d write dear Celestia a little letter telling her what you learned from this experience.” He then summoned himself a clarinet and began to play a piece of music on it.
“Yeah, or you could just leave me as a pegasus now. You know, do a good deed for once?” He huffed irritably.
“Fine, if you want it simple, so be it.” He snapped his talons and, well, nothing happened.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I just altered the spell a little bit. What were you expecting; you’re already a pegasus. It won’t degrade now, but I can change you back if needed,” he sighed to himself, grinning slightly. “I’m so going to get another telling off about this.” he then snapped his talons for a final time and vanished, leaving me alone with Rainbow and Fluttershy.
We sat and talked for a long while, naturally, they were both a little shocked by my apparently sudden choice, but Dash said she wasn’t completely surprised. After some coaxing, Fluttershy too admitted that she wouldn’t mind this new arrangement. We decided to head for my parents’ house in a little while to tell them, and then to visit Twilight so she could send a letter to the princess. Best of all though, Dash said that she would start on the paperwork to get me into the weather patrol as a reservist.
I felt as if I’d turned a corner in my new life here. I’d gone from being something of a shut in to a pegasus with a decent job and a lot of friends. I felt as if I was starting to become an adult at last, no longer acting and living like a kid. And all I had to do was let the spirit of chaos and disharmony swap my species for a week.
Proofread by Sidetrack.
Well, you said you wanted Lizzie to stay a pegasus, so here you go. 
Maverik, you better spot the Top Gun reference. 
Finally, I was looking at blogs the other day and saw this by SPark:
People who add a story to their favourites, but don't upvote it. Absent-minded? Or...what?
Got me thinking. How many of you guys and gals have faved but not upvoted stuff, and why?
See you all next week, by which time I'll be 21. 
Stats
Page generated in 0.048 seconds
Total duration
1,005 users online
384,206 hits today, 2,054,621 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.®
I forgot today was Friday, I was wondering why this was on the featured list. :P
EDIT: Just wondering, how old is Blade Star in this fic?
I was wondering when Lizzie would be making that change permanent-ish.
5483298 I made the feature box again?!
There really ought to be a notification for authors when that happens. Seriously though, what I am I doing that warrants a place there with all the clop one shots? 
To answer your question, Blade Star is at the start of the fic 20, but at this point is 21, he completed university shortly before arriving n Equestria. Lucky sod, not having to deal with stuff after college.
So it's your birthday sometime next week? Mine too! Hope it's a good one!
Hope you do a chapter about Lizzie getting her cutie mark.
5483507 Expect it to be on the list very time you update.
5485033 But Lizzie already has her cutie mark...
Blade Star, you silly Lad. You are late with your gift. I'll take it anyway
Lovely chapter, as ever. Nice to see Lizzie finding her niche in the town. A bit sad to see the human population drop by 33 percent. Should be fun in a few years when it comes around to introducing the foals to their grandparents.
Also; Scheming Discord is Scheming.
5485201 Discord is always scheming. We saw in 'Princess Twilight Sparkle' how he loves to play the long game. I honestly think he did the same with Tirek. His behaviour was inconsistent with just turning plain old traitor. I reckon he had his own plan from the start to aid Twilight, but toward the end it came unstuck.
well to me the favorite button is a bookmark. i use it for incomplete stories i am reading so i don't lose them. i have another shelf for stories that i haven't started to read or are slow to update. so for me if it in my favorites it a story this i am and want to cont to read. i don't up vote or down vote a story till the story is complete and i can judge the completed work
5491634 Thank you for taking a moment to answer.
For me, if it's been faved, it gets an upvote. I don't really use any bookshelves apart from favourites and read it later. Read it later has the potential to be good, but not yet sure so no upvote. Faved means I like this story and are probably reading it.
This fic suffers from one of the twin plagues which usually prey on the HiE fics, one is that nothing ever goes well when it comes to the protagonist, the other is that everything goes well no matter how stupid or even sometimes moronic it is.
For clarification this fic suffers from the later, which may or may not explain why some people may have problems with favoriting it, while still upvoting it as a show of goodwill/hope that it will grow, or viceversa some might favorite it while still downvoting it.
OH and dear Author i do not know if it is intentional or not, but after reading some of the fics in the featurebox, you would arrive(shortly) at the conclusion that just because you made it there is nothing important or even achievement worthy, granted there are some exceptions.
5491905 You do realize he meant that he wanted to know why people favorited the story but did not upvote it, right? You just answered the opposite of what he asked.
I had my laptop stolen. The financial aspect was bad enough but the worst part was loosing my games and downloads.
So now, instead of downloading stuff (no computer but my phone let's me read them) l put it in favorites. When I read it, I move it to new shelf. Read It Later is for stuff that hasn't updated in a year but hasn't been cancelled.
Half the time I hit the dislike button trying to use this tiny screen. That's not fair. I'd take it back if I could but the phone won't let me. So, if I notice, I hit the like button.
No, I'm not kidding. You don't want answers don't ask questions.
Still, to be fair, I do like the story enough I plan to download it someday.
Lizzie is nuts. I'll take hands over wings any day.
As for the stallion thing, equally nuts. If someone can't love you for WHO you are rather than WHAT you are they aren't worth your time in the first place.
So ya, all around silly she is. Of course though, this is realistic in the sense that Lizzie is a kid, and kids are dumb. So her choices in this chapter aren't surprising.
Once upon a time, I just downloaded stuff. Then I had my laptop stolen & lost all my books.
Some of the stuff, I remembered the title or the author & could download it again. But, I'm bad at names & couldn't always remember exactly (The Moonstone Cup, for instance) Some were in a series or a 'verse & I got them back. But, some were gone forever. So, now, I download it & it goes on the favorites list. Even if I never have my laptop stolen again, someday this thing will die & damned if I'll lose my stash again. 
As God is my witness, I'll never go without Ponies again!
As to up voting, my cellphone isn't really set up to let me put stuff in Favorites -my fingers are larger than the head of a pin. If I accidently hit down vote the system won't let me erase it even if I notice. So, if I notice I've accidently down voted, I up vote to erase it. Usually, if I don't like something I just don't read it. I've only ever deliberately down voted 3 stories (out of thousands read) & I feel if I'm down voting something I owe the author the courtesy of a note explaining why.
As to why no up vote for you? I like it OK, (I've read this far, haven't I?) but I can think of a number of better HIE. They didn't get an up vote, so why should you? (I'm kidding -sort of
) Seriously, I have trouble believing a total stranger really gives a rat's ass WHAT I think about them or their work. As long as they don't think I can be arrested for it, I never cared the least bit what strangers think of me. Does it really matter that much to you?
Actually, Favoriting a story without upvoting is the norm for me, for one simple reason: it allows me to put it in a bookshelf. The whole reason I have a Super Favorites bookshelf is to have the best ones in easy reach, so I can look through 50 titles instead of 500. LIKES, on the other hand, are given when I first REREAD the story in question.
Kind of means their significance is reversed from normal, but it works better than the alternatives.
7899597
There IS the whole "having kids" angle though... I doubt ponies and humans are capable of crossbreeding.
1:25
Star Wars reference
Wonder if fluttershy feels lonely when lizzie is with her other friends?
I don't generally upvote or downvote stories, because it's such a vague indIcator on how good a story is most of the time. Unless there's an overwhelming number of votes, that is. Stories on my favourites are stories I enjoy and want to keep track of, both finished and not. I also have a 'best of the best' bookshelf for those stories I truly love and reread all the time.