Silver never made it to the castle. She veered off and oriented herself towards the large groves of apple trees. She soon found Big Macintosh laboring busily and came down not far from him. "Hey Big Mac. Is your sister around?"
He pointed towards the barn. "Yup."
"Thanks." Silver trotted off, leaving Big Mac to work. He seemed to appreciate the brief conversation. She arrived in time to see Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway. RD spotted her instantly and said something too quietly to hear before dashing off into the sky.
Silver frowned but proceeded forward anyway. Applejack emerged as she approached, and the two came together. Applejack looked resigned. "Well, howdy."
Silver shrugged a little. "I want to put things right. I know Rainbow's upset, and I have a suspicion you're upset too."
Applejack pointed at Silver. "Ah doubt ya can rightly do that, but ah appreciate the thought."
Silver sat on the grass. "Applejack, you're the one that put us together. If it wasn't for you, I would have just moved on to Canterlot by now. You're a friend, and I obviously hurt you. Please tell me how, and how I can fix it."
Applejack looked skywards a moment before gesturing into the barn. Silver followed her inside and the Applejack was quick to slide the door shut. "How much have ya already done figured out?"
Silver perched on a hay bale. "I'm mostly guessing here, but I'm pretty sure you and Rainbow are a thing, which is alright by me. I'm also guessing you might have had your eyes on Twilight before I rolled into town. You asked to see my, er, parts, and so did Rainbow." She rolled a hoof. "If I had to keep on guessing, I'd say you were curious about it because you want to experience the foal thing on one level or another? The part I haven't figured out is why you didn't ask Twilight."
Applejack snorted softly. "Ah figured you were clever enough to figure that part out. Ya don't just march up to Twilight and ask her that kinda question." She pointed at Silver. "You, on the other hoof, have been around. You've mothered and fathered a foal. You've been married and divorced. Heck, ya been a few different species by now. Ah reckon ya got a lot less ya get worked up about."
Silver tilted her head in thought. "I've been called a slut before, but when you say it, it's almost a compliment."
Applejack raised a brow. "Ahm gonna guess what 'slut' means. Ah don't mean no insult. Yer obviously a good pony, ya just done been around." She clopped two hooves together then rubbed them lightly against one another. "Let's get down ta business, since ya seem so keen on being honest about it." She smiled. "Ah appreciate that, by the way."
Silver returned the smile. "I really want to see this through, as responsible adults and friends."
"Good, good." Applejack settled on her belly. "Now, correct me if ahm wrong. In yer herd, yer the only one really interested in Twilight, right?"
Silver considered that with a frown. "Well... I suppose that's true. Fast and Night like her, but aren't wildly in love."
Applejack raised a hoof. "Good. Second, yer bonded to Twilight with that 'circle of princesses' right?"
Silver nodded.
Applejack pointed at Silver. "Then it's easy. Tell Twilight ya don't intend to bring her into that herd of yers."
Silver's expression went to thoughtful, then realization. "Oh! Then you two can make your own move?"
Applejack nodded slowly. "Ah figured you'd get it. Now, ah don't want to get between two ponies in love, but we ain't really gettin' between, now are we?"
Silver shook her head. "No... That's a very elegant solution, Applejack. I will let her join your herd." She smiled. "If you ever get around to inviting her. Have you even told her you and Rainbow are together?"
Applejack colored quickly. "Not all of us are so eager ta share... Just let her go, then we can decide what we wanna do, alright?"
A crash came from upstairs and Rainbow Dash suddenly came into view, looking down from the loft. "Don't you dare..." she trailed off, looking at Applejack and Silver conversing civilly. "Uh... Is everything OK?"
Applejack waved up at Rainbow. "Better than OK. Come down here." Rainbow quickly joined the other two, looking skeptical. "Silver here done figured most of it out, and she's gonna let Twilight go."
Rainbow brightened quickly. "Really? What's the catch?"
Silver pointed at herself. "I still want to be friends afterwards? You've both been great to me, and you're wonderful ponies. I don't want this coming between us, and I want you both happy."
Rainbow moved up to Silver and prodded her in the ribs. "Don't ever touch me like that again."
Applejack raised a brow. "Touch her like what?"
Silver colored quickly, "I might have tried to distract Rainbow with a little wing massage."
Rainbow's wings went out. "Little? I... I never felt like that before." She scowled. "You raped me."
Applejack rose to her hooves. "Woah now! That there's a mighty powerful word, Dash. Do you mean it?"
Rainbow stiffened. "Uh... no, I guess not. Still, don't do that again. Uncool." She turned away from Silver. "Only a mate should be touching me like that, and only if I give the OK first."
Applejack smiled gently at Rainbow. "I'll ask her how she did it, and we'll go over just the specifics together, later."
Rainbow went dark and looked away. "Oh, uh, yeah... I should get back to work." She vanished in a trail of colors.
Applejack looked back to Silver. "Ya heard her. You touch her like that without her permission and Ah'll..." She sighed softly. "Ah don't want ta hurt you, but ah will ta protect Rainbow."
Silver shook her head. "I won't, I swear." She rose up to her hooves and stretched out. "I'm sorry for being such a pain in the flank. We cool?"
Applejack nodded quickly. "We're cool." She reached out and poked Silver on a wingbase. "Haven't ya been told how sensitive a pegasus' wing joints are?"
Silver squirmed a little at Applejack's firm press. "Yes, I've... felt it before. I'm sorry. It was a stupid thing to do."
Applejack brought her hoof back and gave a thoughtful hmm. "Ah get tha idea ya done been raised by ponies with less sense ah personal space."
Silver perked a tufted ear. "I've been beaten up a fair number of times, almost raped, shapeshifted more times than I have hooves, forcefully ascended, and strongly propositioned a few times. I guess that's not very normal."
"Nope." Applejack snorted softly. "But yer heart's in the right place. Ah'll call ya out if ya go over tha line."
Silver held out a hoof to Applejack. "I'll take a good offer when it's given. I hope you tell Twilight soon, and she understands how wonderful you are."
Applejack met the hoof lightly, turning red. "Ah... Every time ah think ah have the courage, she just looked at me with those big ole' innocent eyes of hers and ah fall apart."
Silver considered the situation a moment. "Well, first thing, I have to talk to her. Second thing, have you tried a letter? She might even appreciate that approach, all things considered."
Applejack frowned with thought. "Mighty interesting thought there. Ah'll discuss it with Rainbow when she comes back from where she's hiding."
Silver moved towards the door, feeling much better then when she entered. "If something else comes up, please just talk to me. I don't offend easily." She rolled her eyes. "I've been told I'm far too quick to forgive. I don't think wanting people to be happy is a flaw."
Applejack shook her head. "Reckon not. Who's anypony getting upset at ya for forgivin'?"
"Starlight Glimmer? Do you know her?"
Applejack's frown was instant. "Ah take back what ah said. Ya can save your forgiveness for a pony that deserves it."
Silver sagged in frustration. "She apologized, and she came right up to me and gave something important back to me. I could have caught her, or zapped her, or anything. She took the first step. Why isn't she worth the same forgiveness anyone else is?"
Applejack flopped onto her haunches. "Ya look serious. Do ya know what she was doin' when we found her?"
Silver shook her head. "No, what? Twilight doesn't like talking about it."
Applejack tapped the ground. "Sit, and ah'll tell ya. Nopony should be told ta be angry at somepony else without knowing why."
Silver settled and Applejack began telling the tale of Our Town, and Starlight's part in it. "Ya see, she's not only a bad pony, but a manipulator, and a corruptor. Everything Celestia said you were, but, ya know, true. What'd she tell ya?"
Silver gave her story of their meeting on that cool evening. Applejack held up a hoof. "Woah, hold on there. The way ya say it, it sounds like she was hot ta trot with ya. The Starlight ah knew was friendly, but not that kinda friendly, ya know?" She pointed the hoof at Silver. "She was playing ya, like a galdurn fiddle. How'd you feel when she was putting the works on ya?"
Silver darkened, but spoke truthfully. "Flattered? Good... I liked being attractive that way, even if it was a little unexpected."
Applejack tipped her hat forward. "She done played ya good. She said what ya wanted ta hear ta warm ya up. Once she had ya rolled over, her sweet nothings would have turned ta a laugh and she'd run off with yer cutie mark. And good luck catching up to her then."
Silver huffed softly. "What if she really is sorry?"
Applejack raised a hoof. "Now, ah won't say it's impossible she mighta changed her mind, but the chances are mighty high against it. Ya just watch yerself around her. Better yet, don't be around her. She has crimes ta pay fer. Take her to tha guards if she's so eager to say sorry."
Silver gave a stiff little nod. "Alright... I appreciate you taking the time to actually tell me about her. All this dancing around the subject was infuriating. Heck, it made me want to know more about her!"
Applejack chuckled softly. "Yer not that different than my little sister sometimes. Figured ah should just tell ya straight and put that outta yer head. Now go on, git. Ah got work to do, real work, not hiding from you work."
Silver pulled the door open and stepped out into the sun. "If you need anything, AJ, call me." She spread her wings wide. "Be well." They shared a final wave and Silver was off, soaring back towards the castle once more.
5956875 Fixed, thoughts on the chapter?
Good to see someone willing to be straight and honest with Silver. Yay, Applejack. :)
Interesting to see the circle/herd dynamic reshaping. Though in a sense I feel like this takes a bit of the 'cover' away from Luna when it comes to Night and Fast. It's funny to think that AJ never thought to try a letter. :P
I am slightly disappointed though, but only because I had hoped this somehow involved the newcomer's laptop still having an internet connection to consult the other side with. :P But this makes more sense.
5956892 Sometimes the most obvious answer...
I do hope this chapter dispels some of the confusion that apparently cropped up in the last one.
This is sooo messed up....I don't even know what's going on anymore...with Silver's life
ok technically the princess are all in there for lack of a better word own click or bonded to each other.
so Silver not letting Twilight in to her (Silvers) herd frees Twilight to join AJ's herd but at the same time Twilight is still bonded to Silver with the princess herd.
my head is starting to heart.
need more coffee.
so much to think about.
Silver and Twilight still have a foal to rescue and Twilight offered her own oven to Silver I think? this week has ben a bade week for me trying to remember things.
I know princess Celestia offered Twilight a chance at some point.
I love this chapter it really has me thinking.
Harts Fire
5957210 The shipping chart for this story is quite a cobweb indeed.
I just realized that with all the herd/shipping drama, the plot has barely moved in the last several (Like ten or so) chapters.
-Crystalline Electrostatic-
5957961 Is this a bad or good thing?
Applejack was quick to "slide the door shut."
Put a comma between those goods.
There are two spaces between "again" and "uncool."
5958042 Fixed!
5957964 A little bit of both actually. I do like romantic drama, but I like plot progression as well...
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5958147 What makes romantic drama not part of the plot?
5958153 Never said it wasn't, I just prefer my romantic drama to not be the entirety of the plot. Not saying this fic is bad or anything, it is just that the romantic drama feels like it is just too much. I am kinda wanting to see more of Starlight Glimmer and some other plot progression type stuff. Like why hasn't anything been done about the (failed) assassination attempt at Silver's coronation? I mean I know that it was more of sending a message than trying to kill them, but still. that happened how many chapters ago, and it was practically forgotten. Why haven't they tried to research more about Silver's foal? Are we ever going to see that one Changeling Silver met in the city again? Ect...
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
5958109 Okay, so let me see if I understand all of this. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are a couple, and apparently have been for a little while. Moreover, they're both apparently sweet of Twilight as well, but haven't figured out how to tell her that. So far so good. But now they're apparently still interested despite the fact that Twilight seems to be spoken for several times over. Moreover, they're interested in the whole "stallion bits" spell - apparently not knowing that that spell is also highly illegal now, for exactly this reason - and were trying to learn more about it from Silver, despite the fact that neither of them is a unicorn (unless they think Twilight can cast it on them?).
Now that Silver has figured out what's going on with the two of them, they've talked Silver into not having Twilight join her herd proper (which seems to formally consist of Silver, Night, and Fast), since Twilight is already "civil unionized" (for lack of a better term) to Twilight via their "circle," so that Rainbow and Applejack can ask Twilight to form a herd with them instead.
Does that about sum it up?
The very fact that things require this much effort to follow shows that the herd - or whatever you want to call this massive tangle of overlapping relationships - is rapidly exceeding what can be reasonably handled. Like a snowball rolling down the mountain, the expansion and subsequent balkanization of sub-groups denoting who is involved with who and in exactly what way is quickly becoming cumbersome. Silver and the others don't seem to have a problem with that largely because they're not focused on the big picture; that is, they're not trying to keep track of all of the intermingled relationships. Instead, they're just focused on themselves and the ones they're immediately connected to, at least insofar as romantic engagements go.
The problem, as I see it, is that all of this is rapidly going to lead to problems in the near future, on several fronts.
For one thing, despite what Silver said, the plan that she, AJ, and Rainbow have for Twilight is not at all "an elegant solution." In fact, it's a terrible idea now matter how you look at it. I'm firmly convinced that, no matter how they break the idea to Twilight, she's going to respond with a firm and unyielding "no." Why? Because too many changes are happening too quickly on too many fundamental levels. Twilight had a hard enough time becoming an alicorn, and then losing her home. She'd barely dealt with that, but now she's had to deal with repeatedly transgressing her gender identity and fathering a foal, being gently but firmly nudged into a polyamorous relationship, accidentally killing the mother of her unborn child, only to get them both back but in very different modes of existence, finding out that her mentor/surrogate mother-figure was in love with her and subsequently "marrying" her (and her sister, along with Silver) and then spending a night making love to her (and not even realizing that Celestia is already thinking about having children).
Now Twilight finds that two of her best friends - her islands of stability in a world that has increasingly gone mad - are not only dating, but want to date her as well? There's no way that this won't send her running to join Fluttershy in wanting to lock herself away and hide under a bed somewhere. Slightly more seriously, this isn't going to fly with Twilight. At all. Admittedly Rainbow and Applejack kept their feelings for each other very well hidden, but there's nothing to suggest that Twilight has been doing the same for any of her friends. Moreover, she's been hinting for a while now she's cisgendered and heterosexual - she can clearly learn to enjoy acting as a stallion or being with another mare as a mare, but somehow I don't see her leaning that way naturally.
That's all leaving aside the fact that Silver, AJ, and Rainbow are making decisions about Twilight's love life without talking to Twilight. Saying that they won't let Twilight join Silver's herd - or is it formally release her from the herd? It's hard to say, since what constitutes "joining" and "leaving" are so casual - overlooks the fact that Twilight has made (after quite a bit of effort on her part, I should add) emotional connections to Fast and Night. Remember that four-way date that they had? Silver casually saying "I've traded you away to Rainbow Dash and Applejack," is not only hideously patronizing, it completely overlooks the idea that Twilight might not want to leave.
Simply put, this is Silver at her worst, where she thinks that she can please everypony, which means that she's likely to end up pleasing none of them; Twilight is likely to be incredibly upset by Silver's treating her like a chess piece (reminiscent of how Luna treated Silver, ironically enough), as well as utterly unwilling to give Rainbow and AJ what they want, despite her sincere, but platonic, affection for them. Applejack and RD, in turn, are likely to be heartbroken, and probably angry at Silver for screwing things up (something which would have some degree of truth in it, even if Twilight rejecting them was probably inevitable). Between that and the fact that she did molest Rainbow (another instance of trying to please somepony, only for it to blow up in her face), Silver is probably never going to be RD's (good) friend in the future; you can't screw up somepony's life that badly, intended or not, and not have them resent you for it.
...which now means that Twilight has to deal with the fact that Silver has, intentionally or not, screwed up her friendships as well. Now things are awkward between her and Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the latter of whom is holding a grudge towards Silver. Fluttershy doesn't come around anymore. Princess Celestia wants her in ways Twilight never imagined. It's all too much. I don't think Twilight will leave Silver over any of this - that would not only be a political disaster, but it would create even more chaos for Twilight to navigate - but it's high time for her to put her hoof down and say "enough is enough!"
That's not even getting into the legal issues that are doubtlessly heading down the pipeline. The nobles of Canterlot seem to be the conservative type, and since they write the laws governing alicorns, you can bet that there's going to be a backlash coming very soon. This entire "circle" idea is a legal one, and it's the nobles who sign off of new legalities for alicorns, not the alicorns themselves. They can veto this entire idea if they want to, and the idea of Twilight sleeping around even more isn't something they're likely to view as acceptable princess behavior. There are any number of ways that this could blow up in her and Silver's faces, so starting even more new relationships is the epitome of a bad idea.
Having said all of that, a few other things to note: It was nice to see both AJ and Rainbow call Silver out, in their own ways. Rainbow flat-out told Silver that her touching her like that was unwelcome, to the point of calling it rape. While she might have retracted that label (presumably she doesn't know "molesting" as a term), the fact that she'd throw it around at all should rock Silver back on her hooves. Likewise, Silver was right to note that Applejack was very politely calling her a slut - because that's what she is - and she'll hopefully realize that what she should takeaway from this is that most other ponies aren't as sexually-open as Silver is, and she should stop treating them like they are.
It was also nice that Applejack didn't approve of the idea that Starlight deserved to be forgiven. That was Applejack showing her characteristic common sense. Hopefully Silver takes it to heart...along with quite a few other lessons she simply seems to refuse to learn.
5958174 I can only close up these threads so fast. You should like the next chapter.
5958176 Neither of them said they were trying to 'learn' a spell from Silver, unless I misplaced that part?
You underestimate the fact that several ponies are tired of the ever expanding web of contacts. Night wants the herd smaller, and wants more Silver and Fast time and less 'rest of Equestria' time. Twilight likely feels hedged in as well. Any offer that gets them both what they want isn't likely to be argued against.
Silver will not mention AJ or RD, that's their problem. How they choose to come out to Twilight, if they ever get up the courage, is their issue, and one she will not be involved in.
Ultimately it boils down to Silver wasn't wrong in the first place. Ponyville is not where Silver should be. Silver will move on, and leave Twilight and the Mane Six alone eventually, and they will find their happy places again without her around. Everypony will be better off for it, because any relationship Silver touches is doomed to drama and failure. At least Night and Fast love her, and that should be more than good enough.
Not sure I like this turn with AJ and RD wanting Twilight like this. AJ especially, with her traditional leanings, shouldn't want to break up a herd like this. And Silver should have pointed out that Twilight, thanks to magical plot convenience, is still technically a father.
Oh, wow, this chapter and the last one...
I wish I'd been here sooner, because there's so much to say. Given the way tones shifted between last chapter and this one, it seems like feedback has some effect. I really want to have some effect, given what I've just read (story and commentary), but I know it's too late now.
Exactly. Twilight gets no say in what Silver, AJ, and RD want for Twilight? What if Twilight loves Silver the same way Silver loves Twilight?
Wait... Silver loves Twilight. This story has spent a bunch of time drilling that into us. Why is Silver instantly okay with this idea?
Immaterial in-character, in my opinion, and a terrifying that this might be used as justification for certain plot happenings, and not others, in a completely arbitrary manner. My immediate emotional response is that the story needs to pick other justification, or Silver should also dump Fast and Night.
Dangit i loved the silver x twilight relationship that was the only reason i kept reading