Silver held up a hoof. "Let me go check on him." He trotted in the direction of where Tumble had dashed off, leaving Samantha and Nefertari to themselves.
Nefertari glanced sidelong at the smiling scientist and her 'cute' nurse outfit. "While we are alone, we have matters to discuss."
Samantha turned to the taller female. "Hmm? Are you enjoying yourself?"
"I'm doing just fine." Nefer crouched before Samantha. "You are now a member of this herd. If you do not wish me there, you become another impediment to my--"
"Don't be absurd." Samantha grinned. "You're one of my best subjects, of course I want you close by."
Nefer frowned a little, perhaps caught by surprise by how easily Samantha's support was obtained. "Then you will support my bid to join this?"
Samantha bobbed her head. "If you wish. I'm surprised you want to at all, to be honest." A pad of paper appeared beside her head. "Could you tell me why?"
Nefertari brushed the pad aside. "I am honor bound to offer myself to the one whom I have challenged thrice to no avail."
Samantha tilted her head a little. "What if he says no?"
Nefer tensed at the very notion. "Then I would look an utter fool."
Samantha raised a brow. "To who?"
"To everyone!" Nefertari was louder than she meant, and she quieted as curious eyes turned on them. After a moment they returned to their activities. "To... everyone."
Samantha lifted her shoulders. "You're not home. Ponies here think everything you do is out of sync with their usual customs. Marrying Silver is just as strange to them as not marrying him. If you don't want to do it, nopony would be aware of anything out of place."
Nefertari reached to stroke over Samantha's scalp. "My delirious doctor, are you saying this to keep me away from this?"
Samantha frowned a little. "I just said you being close is a significant advantage to my studies. That wouldn't be logical." She clopped a hoof on the ground. "But I want you to be healthy and happy as well. We will be great friends whether or not you join the herd."
Nefer started faintly. "Friends?"
Samantha blinked up at Nefertari. "Isn't that what we are?"
Nefer became quiet for a time. Were they?
Silver emerged from the crowd. It was becoming far less occupied as he ventured into darker alleys and twists and turns. Feeling nervous, he conjured his refined shield, just in case, but pressed onwards. "Rough Tumble? Are you there? Everything's alright?"
He heard the sound of retching and turned towards it. Around the next corner he saw Tumble hunched over, upending the alcoholic contents of his belly out onto the street in a mixture of vomiting and little sniffling cries. He was a mess, and Silver approached with a little smile. "It's alright, Tumble."
"Get away!" He waved a hoof and turned away from Silver. "Don't look at me."
"It's alright." Silver sat down rather than chase the upset stallion. "I'll wait here until you're feeling a little better. You're safe."
"I'm never safe..."
"I'll protect you."
Tumble looked up at Silver with a wide-eyed blink. "W-would you?"
Silver reached out a hoof. "I'm sorry I was such a lousy friend, and a terrible stallion for you. Can we be friends now?"
Tumble snorted up loudly as he ran a leg over his snout. "You don't wanna hug me right now. I stink."
"I want to help you, and if that means inviting you to ride on my back, well, by gum, I'll do that to get you somewhere better than this alleyway." Silver turned away from him. "Come on."
Tumble approached, but to stand at his side. "I can walk..."
Silver smiled at him. "Good, but I'm here either way. Did you have some fun tonight?"
Tumble snorted softly and began to walk. "Not really."
"No?" Silver kept pace with him. "Not even seeing Nefertari get startled for a change? I thought that was kind of funny."
Tumble's face contorted in a brief smile. "She had that comin'... Look, uh, Silver, you're obviously kinda, you know, taken."
Silver turned to him suddenly. "I'm asking to be your friend, not your stallion."
Tumble suddenly pressed forward, delivering a kiss that tasted of upset bellies and smelled of drying alcohol. Silver wanted to escape, but fighting Tumble felt incredibly wrong.
The moment the pressure eased, Silver took a step back, panting for breath. "Tumble..."
"You weren't scared." Tumble frowned a little. "Not like last time."
"I'm not scared of love." Silver smiled a little and gestured back where they had left the others. "I just have so many to help protect, but I'd make room for one stallion, one special, wonderful stallion that has so much potential bouncing around inside of him that he doesn't even know."
"Who?" Tumble blinked owlishly at Silver.
Silver prodded him in the chest. "You, of course. You're not living at home anymore, right?" Tumble shook his head. "Great. What do you say to undoing one little harm they did so long ago?"
"Whattaya mean?" Tumble looked curious.
"I mean it's time to get you that truck you always wanted, but I need a promise first."
Tumble raised a brow. "Here comes the catch."
"Always. One, the truck is not a toy. You're to use it to make yourself into the pony you want to be and to support yourself."
"Alright?" Tumble tilted his head. "I mean, of course."
"Two, no more of this." Silver gestured over Tumble's messy front. "Now come on, we both need to clean up. Let tonight be the last night you spend trying to forget."
He led the way back towards the light and smiled, realizing there was some Equestrian Symbology at work. He was guiding his friend towards the light, or so he hoped. He was guiding him towards ponies, and belonging, and away from dark forgotten places where he would die miserable and alone. Tumble deserved so much better than that.
Tumble moved back up beside Silver. "So, uh, you don't mind kissing colts no more?"
"You're hardly a colt, Tumble. We're both stallions. Heck, you were a stallion before I was by a few years."
"You're still barely a stallion..." Tumble licked his lips as he went. "Why do you talk like you're so old?"
Silver laughed gently. "I just like to pretend I have something wise to say. Ignore it. I'm just winging it, like most everypony else."
"Don't say that." Tumble bumped into him, sending him staggering. "You say plenty of smart things."
Silver quirked a little smile. "If that's true, prove it." He found his stance and emerged onto the central lane. "Take this gift I'll give and run with it. Make all of Equestria see how great you are. You put your all into it, and I'll be happy, rain or shine."
"What are you two talking about with such serious faces?" Night landed before the two of them. "Silver! What've you done to your costume? Have you been drinking?" She scowled. "I thought you didn't even like the stuff."
Tumble thrust a hoof in the way. "No no! It was my fault, sorry... I'll just... clean up."
Night flipped her ears back. "No wait, sorry. I shouldn't have come storming in like that." She flicked a tongue over her lips. "It's been an... interesting evening. You alright?"
Tumble nodded. "Yeah... I really think I am." He looked like a weight had been removed from his shoulders. "I am going to clean up though. I'm a mess. See you later, Silvs, Night." He turned away.
Night turned back to Silver after a parting wave. "Where'd everypony else go running off to?"
Silver called out to Tumble, "Come on by the office tomorrow!" He turned to Night and leaned in for a nuzzle, only to be gentle rebuffed. "Do I smell that bad?" She nodded and he sighed. "Let's go clean up then. I should have learned a cleaning spell."
"You can't solve everything with magic." Night rolled her eyes as they walked off. "Seriously though, where's Samantha and Nefertari, and did you pop the question on Samantha?"
Silver glanced towards where he had left them. "They're probably having some fun together, and I did. She accepted."
"That it?" Night raised an eye. "Was she happy?"
"Deliriously." Silver chuckled softly. "She remembered we hadn't dated properly and wanted to fix that, but mostly she's just really... happy." He thought of the Samantha of his dreams, full of manic drive and utterly zero empathy. The waking Samantha had become so much better. "Are you happy about it? I mean, you nominated her, but are you happy with her, really?"
Night twitched a tufted ear softly. "I had to think about it, but... yes. I think I could get used to having her around. I think she likes both of us deeply. It's not... not the same as Fast, what could be, but she is ready to learn what love is, and she already gets along so well." She tilted her head faintly. "She gets along with the foals quite well, and I feel safe when they're with her. She genuinely cares about us. That genuineness... It's deceptively rare."
Silver rubbed along her side gently. "I think I know what you mean." They passed into the castle and got to their room, where Silver shucked off his disguise and hopped into the shower to regain a pleasing aroma.
While he washed himself, Night took the soiled clothes and got to washing them, perhaps to use the next year.
It had been an eventful Nightmare Night and one they would not soon forget.
Night gazed out the window where some fireworks were playing in the sky to celebrate the evening and she let out a happy sigh. It had been a good holiday, nay, perhaps the best Nightmare Night she had ever experienced.
yay
Dammit Tumble! Bad pony! Bad, bad Pony! That goes in the bathroom!
Samantha gives Nefertari a possible out. But does she really want an out?
And Silver, I know you want to cheer up your big gay buddy, but you just promised to buy a truck for a big gay beligerent drunk. I think you may have invented pony rednecks (the Apples were just a pick-up truck away from being the first too).
cool, i wish i had first comment but i needed to stitch my arm
7186607 Um, from a cut? I hope someone other than you did the stitching. Stitching yourself sounds painful and risky.
7186608 Im an eagle scout. i had cut my self on a broken nail (like the one you use on a wall) when i fell over, it did not hit any artery's (or i would be dead) and or anything so i though, why pay a few hundred dollars on the bill than stitch it up, so i sterilized it and made sure their was no serious damage and than i took so subscription strength pain pills i had gotten when i broke my arm and started on the work, i can tell it wont scar badly. at most it will leave a very faint line.
7186608 trust me, it was painful, it will always be painful, luckily it was a clean cut as in it was strait and not curved.
Nah don't think it's a typo, but whatever it is needs a damn good flogging in the vertical hydro agitation machine to get the technicolour yawn & fermented ethanol mixture cleaned off the front of it. Two separate occasions of inebriation on new years eve's with the following couple of days of unwell recovery were not worth the short term false bliss of intoxication. Vow never to do that again!
Nightmare Night comes to an end, apparently the end of the end? I'm presuming that title is in reference to Tumble, but if so I'm not sure. But we'll get to that shortly.
Samantha and Nefertari had a talk about what's next for the two of them, and I don't think that scene quite went the way it was supposed to. My takeaway is that Samantha's pointing out that Nefertari isn't in her homeland was meant to be one of those "guilelessly stumbling into wisdom" moments, in this case a "when in Rome..." idea. The problem with that idea is that, despite Nefertari's outburst, the problem she's having isn't that she'd look foolish to "everyone," it's that she'd be transgressing the cultural values that she holds dear, and uses to define herself. Not marrying Silver wouldn't make her look foolish to anypony in Equestria, that's true, but she'd look foolish to herself, and that's just as bad. Moreover, this isn't an area where she can just adjust/change her expectations. It's true that there's merit to be had in discarding cultural norms, values, and practices that you don't want to fulfill, but when you do want to honor them - even when it's difficult to do so - then that's something else again.
That's why I really hope that this particular plot point isn't going to end with Nefertari just shrugging off her obligation to marry Silver. This isn't a question of her needing to change her values. There's nothing inherently wrong with them that requires them to be changed in the first place; she quite clearly believes in the system of practices that she's following, and throwing that away just because she's having trouble fulfilling them would imply that she really doesn't value them very much at all, which we know isn't true. It's one thing to preach cooperation with other cultures, but it's another thing to abandon the traditions from your own, especially due to matters of personal convenience.
(By the by, Samantha's explanation of "there's only ponies here, and they're not judging you by your homeland's values" ignores that Nefertari is still being watched and judged by the spirits. It's not Samantha's fault that she didn't realize that - I doubt she thinks of Nefertari's "spirits" as anything more than superstition - but it's very relevant to Nefertari.)
Still, it was nice to see Samantha volunteering that Nefertari is her friend. I wonder if that's Samantha's first time proactively offering friendship like that. Insofar as Nefertari goes, well, I wonder just how foreign the concept of friendship is to her. She's acting like she's surprised, and while it may be odd to think of her inferior (e.g. Samantha) that way, or even an inferior species (e.g. ponies) that way, I suspect that she's had something that resembles peers before.
Moving on from that, Silver did much better with Tumble this time around. Giving him that truck was a very sweet gesture the first time, and it's definitely going to be appreciated now. In fact, this conversation felt better in general. Silver didn't preach at Tumble, but instead made "I" statements and offering his help instead of pushing it at him. The one slightly discordant note was with regards to that kiss. Silver didn't say no, which is likely to be interpreted as a yes. Moreover, his statement about "making room for one special stallion" sounded ambiguously romantic. Silver said that he'd be Tumble's friend, but if Silver doesn't want or expect to be anything more, he needs to make that plain (albeit as kindly as he can). I can understand him being worried about rejecting a pony that's so unstable at the moment, but at the same time being overly permissive isn't any good either. Hopefully they'll talk about that the next time they meet up.
It was also sweet seeing Night and Silver talk about Samantha together. For all Night's praise about how open and honest Samantha is, she and Silver were also being very open about that, which is nice after how cagey Night has been about wanting to expand their herd. Hopefully this is the start to more sharing on that front.
7186667 You are correct in Nefertari's truest opposition is herself. Even her spirit overseers might bend if she had set her heart on a new path, but she is proud, of herself, and her culture. Giving up on it is not something she's likely to do. Still, Samantha's approach as a peer was confusing and a bit endearing. Samantha is no person of any true significance, huff, just a random scholar of no battle record. In some ways, Nefertari should be angered that she would dare to think she can offer advice.
And yet... There she is, smiling so guilelessly. Ponies... This is what she's gotten herself mixed up in?
So... I still believe Samantha is only one bar of Australium away from becoming The Medic.
7186667
Up until now Nefer seems to have been looking at her proposed marriage pretty strictly as an obligation. Even if Samantha's undercutting of that doesn't get her to drop the angle entirely, hopefully it forces her to consider other reasons, and ultimately come up with reasons she wants to be part of the herd, rather than simply feeling she must.
Though a less pleasant possibility is she will think down those lines, be unable to come up with positive reasons to want in, but yet still be unable to let go of her culture values and pursue it regardless. But I think that path is more likely to end up with her being ultimately rejected than if she finds some sincerely desire to be part of the herd.
While the ponies don't have direct insight into her heart, what is going on in her heart will spill out into her words and actions.
Haha, Silver totally ditched his potential future herdmates!
Good to see old friends indeed.
Keep going! ;)
kept pact - kept pace
*****
Beautifully done!
It feels like there was a lot of movement for all of the primary characters in this arc and I couldn't be happier!
Equestrian Symbology must be similar to the magic of Cinematik.
7186836
Samantha. Thats not a syringe.
Pulls out colorectal infusion syringe.
Thats a syringe.
Maybe Tumbler wouldnt have Twitched so fast or drunk so much he Facebooked.
7187313 I don't normally spend so much 'time' in so little narrative time. I'm glad it worked out.
DS this story ark is vary much needed as it shows back story and defiantly will pay off in the long run.
vary good work.
7186983 I have to wonder if devotion to tradition alone would get Nefertari rejected. While Night would certainly find that to be insufficient, Silver is such a bleeding heart that he'd push Night to let Nefertari in on the basis that not being admitted is causing her to be upset.
Throw in the political benefits of two ambassadors marrying, and the fact that Nefertari has boobs, and there's a strong argument to be made in that regard, love be damned.
7189306 Why'd they do it? Boobs.
How history is written.
7189306
Silver (by which I mean David) can certainly surprise me at times. However, I thought post-awakening Silver has been pretty consistent in not wanting to push Night to accept anyone into the herd, either in particular or in general. I also feel Nefer's upset is largely at being in limbo: her customs allow for her to be rejected, embarrassing as that may be, and if she is rejected she can start the process of getting over it. But right now she's in an ongoing contest to try to secure her spot, and worse she's being showed up by the likes of Samantha. Even setting aside the clear difference in combat potential, the difference in social awareness probably seems to Nefer like it ought to put Sam at a huge disadvantage for this kind of thing. And yet? Sam is in, rather quickly at that.
(Of course, we know both Night and Silver are fond of adorkability, and Samantha has put real effort into being less creepy. In general she is a very good fit for that specific family.)
Anyways, I didn't just mean Night would find that motive insufficient, I also meant that the motive would be insufficiently motivating for Nefer. She has a very difficult challenge gaining the affections and desire of Night in particular, and to a lesser degree Silver. (Silver at least has lust for her, at least when he allows his mind to go down that path. But I think she mostly makes him nervous otherwise. Even in dream-world, where she was sort of a wife it never seemed like he had much for her beyond lust, and even that he rarely pursued... were they ever even together after leaving her homeland?) While Nefer/Night don't necessarily have to get sexual, I don't think Night is sold yet on the 'sister' wife angle either. And since Night/Silver generally have far more firepower than they have legitimate reasons to expect to attract enemies, the idea of adding another warrior doesn't seem like an obvious selling point.
7189574 Silver hasn't been pushing Night, but that's because Silver doesn't get pushy when it's for something that he himself would want. He's almost pathologically averse to doing anything out of self-interest if he perceives that it would be received even slightly negatively by somepony else. However, this goes the opposite way when Silver perceives himself as acting on another's behalf. Then he becomes pushy, if not downright overbearing (albeit while being very nice about it).
That's why this situation is different. Silver didn't want to push Night Watch to expand the herd because he hated the thought of making her even a little unhappy for the sake of expanding on his own prurient desires. But this isn't that; if Silver realizes that Nefertari is very unhappy at being unable to fulfill her culture's traditions (which he, as an ambassador, could feel bound to help), and that he could assist her in doing that, then the question changes from "why should he?" to "why should he not?" This certainly won't mean that he'd pressure Night, but if he starts to advocate on Nefertari's behalf, then this changes things. He's not looking to get it on (though again, Nefertari is attractive to him in a way that no other female is), but rather looking to do his political and moral duty to help someone who needs help.
Insofar as Nefertari goes...you open your second paragraph by stating that you don't think that she has sufficient motivation, but then don't talk at all about her state of mind. It's self-evident that Nefertari does have sufficient motivation. Even if we leave aside that she does seem to have become infatuated with Silver, she made it clear that she would obey tradition, personal feelings be damned; that she's come around to genuinely like Silver is just the icing on the cake. Given that she respects Night Watch and seems fond of Samantha, I can't really see Nefertari as having any real reason not to keep pushing.
7189622
I am sure Nefer will try, regardless.
But if she can't find a motivation other than 'because my cultural rules say so', I don't think her heart will be in it, and if her heart isn't in it I don't think she will succeed.
If you're right that she's infatuated with Silver (I think this is likely, but unclear, and likely unclear to herself before the introspection Samantha seems to have triggered), then that is at least a personal motivation, and pushes her more toward being likely to succeed, even if it probably won't be easy or smooth. For one thing, I think she'll probably have to express to Silver and/or Night that she sincerely wants to be with Silver and convince them of her sincerity; she's not above guile to get what she wants, but I am dubious of her ability to sell that line if she doesn't believe it herself. Especially after already leading with 'I must because customs'.
So…Nefertari's courtin' (or about to) and Sllver's making ip with Rough Tumble and we've already had 'timeline fuckery imminent' signposted…seems like storyline tampering must be along soon, be it dream, timetravel, alternate universe…
gently