Emotions
“They're such bright, incredibly creative foals,” Cold Canter's voice said. “All of them. Though, when I say 'foals,' it's really just a relative term. Many of them are quite old, even beyond Desert Light's age.”
“Heh...” Rainbow Dash swallowed another bite of lettuce and huddled beside her campfire in the middle of the desert plain. The purple haze of night lingered overhead, like a glass window overlooking a forest of fireflies. “And you haven't seen them in forever?”
“It's going on twelve years since I last spoke with any of my children face to face.”
“I'm so sorry to hear that, guy,” Rainbow Dash said, took another bite, and murmured. “May I ask if there's some reason?”
“Not a reason. A mare.”
“Ohhhhhh.” Rainbow Dash nodded slowly to the shadows beyond the flickering fire. “You and the Missus don't see eye to eye?”
“We hardly see eye to flank.”
“Yeowch.”
“I can't rightly blame her.”
“Why not?”
Cold Canter's voice lingered before eventually muttering through the sound stone, “She is, without a doubt, the most loyal, honorable, and law-abiding citizen Darkstine could ever hope for.”
“In other words, she talks like a brick and has the emotional scope of an oak tree,” Rainbow Dash said. She immediately blushed in the firelight. “Erm... No offense.”
“Heh, none taken, filly.” Cold Canter chuckled through the leylines. “If anything, I've always been something of... anomaly among those of my culture.”
“Jee,” Rainbow Dash droned. “You don't say?”
“Mind you, I spoke and lived much like my fellow Darkstinians for years. But slowly, as the years grew by, I couldn't stand to function in the same manner they did. I couldn't allow myself to be totally disconnected from my emotions?”
“What changed?”
“My wife foaled. Again and again and again. Soon, we had nearly five kids. That's when I started to change.”
“How so?”
“I don't suppose you have any children of your own?”
“Uhhhh...” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. “Not this mare.”
“I didn't think so. Bringing a new life in this world is a divine, even spiritual experience. Darkstinians are the kind of unicorns to invest all spirits in industry. Our families function as parts of a machine, and the children we produce are meant to add to the locomotion of such a system.”
“I'm guessing you weren't all that happy with being the center gear to a whole bunch of cogs...”
“I wanted more. Perhaps it was selfish of me. But is it asking too much to want to love and cherish your own offspring? With each child that we raised, they reached the age of ascension, and I could no longer appeal to their emotion. I had to accept that the system conditioned them into an unemotional element. With each son and daughter we had, this grew harder and harder. My wife had the necessary persistence of a good Darkstinian citizen. I, however, did not?”
“What happened?”
“I started to buckle under the pressure, both interior and exterior. I was seen as having a deficiency, and many ponies 'caim to my aid,' in hopes that I could be brought back to the surface of the systematic way of thinking. So long as I was letting my emotions get the best of me, I was a defect to the industry.”
“Yeowch. I kind of find that hard to believe...”
“How so?”
“Well, uhh....” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “To be perfectly honest, CC, I don't exactly find you to be gushing with emotion.”
“By Darkstinian standards, I am a drama queen.”
“Hah!” Rainbow Dash munched one final bite of her lettuce and rolled the rest of the supply up in her saddlebag. “Mmmmff—hmmff...” She gulped and chuckled. “Heheh... Well, I'll buy the 'drama' part. I'm a bit brainfuddled on 'queen.'”
“Eventually, it got to the point where my wife and I couldn't agree on the simplest of things. When a Darkstinian household is imbalanced, it affects all who are related.”
“So... uh... how did you get way out here?”
“Simple. I was always working for the military, as a guard and a protector of the peace. I felt that the best thing to do for my wife and my offspring was to move out to the furthest reaches of the kingdom.”
“What the hay for?”
“Divorce may be allowed in some cultures, but it doesn't have a place in the Darkstinian dictionary. My wife and I are still bonded. By moving the defective element—myself—far away, I maintain that our marriage still stands, and all members and products of the union continue to have their function in industry.”
“Wow... Uh... that really, really sucks,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “That sucks more than sand.”
“Truly?”
“Well... eh... almost.” Rainbow Dash gulped and laid her chin down on her hooves. “It must be really, really lonely for you, C-Squared. I mean... to have discovered so many of your own emotions and to have been treated like crap for it.”
“I hold a great deal of respect and credibility in the Darkstinian border patrol. I am hardly without my fair share of connections.”
“Still...” She took a deep breath and smiled thinly. “I'm very... y'know... happy that I've gotten a chance to know you.”
The voice on the other end was silent for a bit. A few shooting stars streamed overhead. Rainbow Dash's eyes were getting heavy, but then the sound stone fluctuated again.
“It has been very nice getting to know you too, filly.”
Rainbow Dash smiled. Calmly, she shut her eyes to the shimmering heavens. “So...” Her voice wafted over the desert. “Tell me more about your kids...”
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First!!!
Challenge completed: 30 CC's of Life Story
Cold's not giving you the cold shoulder, but then again, maybe he just likes to talk.
Listen to Cold's life story: 1/1
+500 EXP, +5 perminent speech bonus
THIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great stuff man! Keep it up...even though you probably never read these comments...oh well maybe some day we will be able to speak to the great and powerful Imploding Colon... 
Poor Canter...
These one-liners. I swear.
Objective Completed: Listen to Cold Canter's depressing tale
This chapter has many feels, and I enjoyed all of them.
And now it's time to play, Typo Or Reference!
Yes, the premier internet comment section game show where you, the reader, tries to figure out if there's an obscure reference to lore or a simple typo missed in editing!
Christian demons, this videogame or just an I before an E?
Alternate Chapter Title: "Character Development, Exposition and Feels, Oh My!"
1305629
Imploding Colon reads all the comments.
New chapters often reference things said in the comments of the chapter before them. Like the Darkstinians going on about unlocking achievements and gaining titles? That didn't just naturally pop up in the storyline, he added it as a shout-out to those of us here in the comments who were giving Dash achievements and titles and stuff.
I see. He woke up and saw the light.
I've been thinking about the connection between c-squared and dash, since they actually have a fair bit in common with each other, namely in the counter-culture attitude of each. Dash is someone who, pun intended, bucks trends and is consistently trying to retain a fierce independent demeanor almost to a fault. She can be brash and unforgiving, but only does so if it does not compromise her basic nature of loyalty. In fact, it could be argued that her independence and her loyalty - though seemingly contradictory traits - are one and the same; Dash is loyal to herself and to be loyal to one's self one must never bow to compromising cultural pressures (I fully admit this is a brash way to expand on what are essentially very subtle traits, their personalities are intricate things but for the sake of brevity I'm not going to dive too deep). To that end, however, Dash is fiercely loyal to her culture, anyway. Each encounter she's had along the journey has been an exercise in mutual culture shock that has Dash talking up the merits of Equestrian culture and readily pointing out all the similarities she finds while confounding the differences. Her trip through sanctity of industry had her literally rebelling and rejecting culture because it comes so easily to her, and she ultimately decided to save the very things she was rebelling against. I am fully aware that children were involved in that decision, but consider that she could have just as easily sparked a cultural revolution when returning the obelisk, instead she solidified the existing one.
Canter, while perhaps not as devoutly loyal, exudes these same traits through withered old eyes and the slow compromise that comes with trying to have your cake and eat it, too. He is fiercely loyal to his family, his culture and his self to the point where when those things conflicted, he found a way to make it work even if it meant sacrificing. He spends his time defending the institution, even though he dislikes it and he puts his family first by removing himself from the picture in a way that keeps the culture and the wife happy and proud at the risk of his own emotional state.
Moreover, both of them are taking two routes up the same mountain. Both take independence to a new extreme but are rooted deeply in their respective cultures to the point that they make deep sacrifices for them. This is what makes the conversation they're having here so poignant, and explains why each are being oddly affectionate: I posit they both are picking up on the cue that they are more similar than dissimilar in their worldview. This also explains the high magnitude of feels, in another time they could be great friends but their respective situations, I suppose Dash's more than Canter's, prevents that from happening. As a tangent, this fits somewhat with the Elements theme I mentioned before, in one way or another Dash is not just entering situations that evoke an elemental trait, but she's making friends with ponies who evoke said traits.
Parallels, good writing.
I will tell all you need to know, my child...
1305918
You flatter me
1305722
Oh duhh haha, I knew that...but he still never replies to comments...makes me sad
1306015
I think that the special way he interacts with his views is greater than any number of comment posts/responses
What Phase Is The Moon????
1305918
Yay analysis!
1305918
Pretty solid analysis right there, although I would be very interested in hearing the much more in-depth one that you seem to have
Nothing can suck more than sand it gets everywhere and is extremely uncomfortable and get everywhere, did I mention it gets everywhere ?
Title Obtained: "Marriage Counselor"
-Minty
Aw, poor CC. And yeah, Pilate's whole thing with each hurdle representing an element is totally making sense. CC's even a drama queen! Onward!
Oh, I'm ahead of Dashie. Day 12 or some shit.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Ultimate Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!
So this chapter made me feel a bit sad for Canter. He's an outcast in his own civilization, and incredibly lonely because of it. At least, I think that he's lonely. It must be nice for him to be able to talk to another pony about his past. It almost seems like he's getting it off of his chest...now this is good writing. A lonely outcast is able to talk to another lonely outcast. Despite being slightly connected to others (Canter to Desert Light, Dash to Luna) both characters are essentially in the same boat. But they have different ways of overcoming the same problem. Canter decides to be still and to not let anything new enter his life. To be a rock resting in a riverbed, allowing the water to flow around him. Meditating in order to find peace. Dash chooses to keep moving forward. To never stay in any one place too long. To never become too connected with anything, anywhere, or anybody, lest she suffer because of it. (It's worth noting that an example of this is her running away from Gold Petals before their relationship could develop into something serious.) But through this encounter, both ponies will grow stronger. Canter will learn that in life, sometimes you just have to keep moving forward. That you have to face your fears. That you have to challenge the natural flow of the water around you. Dash, in turn, will learn that traveling all over the land and seeing all the sights there are to see doesn't guarantee a happy life. She needs to let the water flow around her more. She needs to let other ponies enter her life. It can be likened to the theory if the dreamer and the realist.
Without the realist, the dreamer's ideas would completely spiral out of control.
And without the dreamer, the realist wouldn't even get off the ground.
This has been philosophy with Dashie 101. I'm here all week.
These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. I'm putting email, notifications, and my YouTube channel all on hold. I'm actually trying to do this...
It has been many months since a man last tread these words.
I wonder if Dash has met CC's wife. Probably; yes.
That's sad.
I hate the emotionless speech of the Darkstinians. Just look at what it's done. 
This fic doesn't get this sappy very often, but that's precisely why it works so well here. In short: D'awwww.
This is certainly interesting. Dash wanting to talk emotions? Never! However, it fits. She's lonely and has a means to communicate, and even if the topic would seem mundane, it just reveals not only Canter's values, but a small peek at some of Rainbow's more hidden ones
3905216 I could say the same, were it not for DrEggnog
A perfect sentence in phrase, form and tone.
I do have to worry about Darkstine from these conversations, if it sees its ponies too much as machines, then it will start to see them as disposable.... and nothing good ever comes from a society that sees sapient beings as disposable.
03/29/2017 22:49 UTC
8059577
It's that line of thinking that caused the Duke to resort to what did.
So not only do teir eyes not meet, but she's also booacked passage to her backstage as well.
Her factory has closed! Ooooooohhhhhh!!!
I am phrasing this as a question, for some reason?
3905216
Not every traveller leaves tracks.
In response to the comment below, I leave my mark here as a late traveller in the year 2020.
I wonder if anyone else is still travelling through here, maybe in the past year? I hope they leave a message for me...
10931305
First time reading, how you doing?
10971158
First time reading too!
10987492
This is my third time through the whole series. I'm always super glad that there's new readers for this story, it's such a ride.
It's weird how just aging by five years since the first read has affected how much harder CC's story hits me.
11388845
100% feel you on that one. It's been 11 years since my initial read and... a lot has changed.