• Member Since 22nd Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen January 10th

A Hoof-ful of Dust


You can't see the forest...

Comments ( 16 )

I honestly have no clue what the hell I just read.

The view through a glass onion can be either meaningless or profound. The truth is ultimately up to the viewer. Though I suspect that in both your case and Lennon's, there's more than a little of "analyze this, suckers!" :trollestia:

In any case, a nice bit of character exploration for Spike that doesn't involve him nearly destabilizing a nation's government. Desire blending with awareness of the constraints of an alien society and the fear of what would happen were he to violate those constraints.

6130455
6130458
I'll give you a hint: pay attention to what Luna says. Dreams are rarely literal. It's not about eating gems.

It's about sex. When something's unnecessarily symbolic, nine times out of ten it's about sex.

6130469
Yeah, I always saw Glass Onion as a kind of sequel to I Am the Walrus, that that they're intentionally trying to sound like there's more meaning there when really it's all gibberish. I was just trying to put a bunch of symbolism into an everyone-rated story that isn't really appropriate for everyone; I've been watching a lot of Adventure Time lately, that might have been a bit of an influence.

I hadn't thought of the angle that Spike's an outsider to how pony society works in lots of ways, but like you say, interpretation is personal, and that's a pretty valid way of interpreting it. He doesn't have anyone to guide him while he's growing up. he's just got to stumble through it all and figure it out on his own. Which I guess is what we all do, to some degree.

6130591
Way less literal than that. Eating gems is a stand-in for sex, or for Spike's sexual thoughts about others (in the beginning of It's About Time, Spike is having an "ice cream dream" involving Rarity, which is pretty obviously able to be read as something a little less innocent and a decent jumping-off point for saying that, somewhere in Spike's mind, food and sex are linked); he doesn't have much of an understanding of them yet, so it's confusing and frightening and sudden and gets out of hand pretty swiftly. There's also an element of worrying that he might hurt his friends, either through the physical differences of him being a dragon and any potential partner probably being a pony, or through just the general taboo of having fantasies about people you're close to.

:moustache: I ate Rarity!
:twilightoops: Spit her out right now!
:rainbowhuh: Dude scaley that ain't cool
:fluttercry::pinkiegasp::ajsleepy: Dang Spike!
:raritystarry: It was grand experience my precious scales! MORE!
:facehoof::trollestia: brain bleach?

:pinkiegasp:Yes!

Was it because of Twilight's passing, that one little death?

Clever line :moustache:

The innuendo was certainly clearest in the second dream. I wasn't a fan of openly declaring the third one a dream at the onset as it broke the rhythm. Most readers are clever enough to gather these were dreams it and would have been just fine with the reveal of Luna at the end I think. Also, I did find the actions of Spike towards Twilight rather creepy given the behavior of his other two partners towards him and vice-versa. It's certainly clear why that one would disturb him the most.

6130521 I got the sex part, but this story is so out there, reading it is just strange

6131014

Clever line

I have my moments.

I see what you mean about openly mentioning that they're dreams; I did it to make it clear it was three separate dreams rather than one continuous sequence. It's also a little bit of acknowledging that figuring out Spike is dreaming isn't the only thing you're supposed to be figuring out.

The scene with Twilight is kinda dark, huh? They have a very multi-faceted relationship (when Spike is written well, anyway), and this just violates all kinds of boundaries.

6132184
Well, if one takes the sexual view of the story, as was your intent, and looks at the power dynamics between Spike and his three ladies over the course of the dreams, Twilight's does have the darkest undertones to it. Cadance gives him all he could want and more. Rarity encourages him to have his way. He takes what he wants (literally everything) with Twilight. Is that just a natural escalation of his dragon nature or something else? Up to him and the reader I suppose.

On a tangential note, I like the cover picture. But what IS it? Some sort of quartz crystal or what?

6132474
It's one of these things. The crystals fall apart if you breathe on them, and it's obviously not a real tree -- it seemed right for a story about dreams.

Very interesting and introspective.

I see yourself and others brought up the sexual angle. I confess at first I was thinking more of the whole dragon as outsider thing. If there is more than gems to an older dragons diet... Well. That's unsettling, especially to a creature raised among herbivores. I thought of his dreams as a sort of... Resistance. Othering of the self. This is the part of him that does those things, but the REAL spike of course would never do such a thing. A defense mechanism, which dreams sometimes are. The sexual angle is actually pretty compatible with that.


As always, a delight.

Very nicely done. n_n

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