One night, before Hearth's Warming Eve, Princess Celestia goes to light a fire to keep warm.
A voice in the chimney asks her not to do so.
Chapters (1)
- Member Since 26th Feb, 2014
- offline last seen January 5th
kudzuhaiku
She's looking at you. Yes you. And she is judging you with her eyes. There is no escape.
kudzuhaiku
Joined 26th Feb, 2014 ·
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Ooh, I like this. You could easily have made Haypenny into a one-dimensional monster, and the colt likewise into a one-dimensional adorable little victim, but you struck an interesting balance instead. It seems like Haypenny might really be a decent pony who simply wound up losing sight of her limits and didn't realize she needed help. Likewise, Marshmallow really sounds like a foal who's gone off the rails and may have trouble getting back on. No easy answers here, but in the end it still worked out well because everyone *recognizes* that there are no easy answers. Good show.
My Dearest Cadence
Enclosed, please find my gift to you for this holiday season. Please feel free to hug, snuggle, adore, and spoil the heck out of him with all kinds of attention and food for the next week, but after that, I get him back.
Sincerely, your loving aunt,
Celestia
GOD PLEASE MOAR!!!
Also: Honorhall Orphanage much?
I likey. You captured Celestia's heartwarming motherly side quite well, while making it clear that she is no pushover. In fact, really, the characterization of this story was altogether pretty strong, especially with Haypenny. Nicely done.
Out of context quote of the century goes to:
The end? What?! No!
Moar! Moar! Moar! ... Nah, this is good. I really enjoyed the story.
There's something stuck up in the chimney
And I don't know what it is
And it's been there all night long.
I've been waiting up for Santa
All through the night
But he never came
And it doesn't seem right
...I forget the rest of the song...
6751547
Nannies, assemble?
Edit 1) No no, Nannies with Attitude
Just an average day in the life of Princess Celestia, Chimney sassing.
Nice job! :D
Orange eyes
The fire burns bright in this young foal
Unfortunately for Haypenny, "I only did it to one person," isn't really a mitigating factor when considering abuse. In our world, I don't think it would be warranted to allow her to be a lone caretaker after that, but as an assistant caretaker perhaps.
6751871
I actually gave this a lot of thought... in the story, she is removed from her position, but Celestia does wonder what would drive her to do what she did.
In this reality, with cutie marks... what if somepony was destined to do something but made a mistake? Would you take away the life, purpose, and destiny of one who was meant to do something because they made a mistake? How is that justified? It is a tough question and I've been thinking about it quite a bit.
6751886
I guess part of the answer depends on how much one believes in destiny. I always figured that cutie marks and special talents were open to some amount of interpretation, something that one realizes about themselves that they had already cultivated throughout their life, not something that is thrust upon them magically. And in either case, one might not be able to do exactly what they want to do, but that doesn't mean their talents are going to waste. At least, I would expect that someone who makes such a major mistake would have to demonstrate pretty clearly that they learned their lesson, and work to recover what they, apparently unknowingly, threw away.
If destiny ends in abuse, what good is destiny anyway? Getting people to believe that their abilities are innate is a good way to leave them feeling frustrated and helpless when faced with difficulties outside of their comfort zone.
If someone's life involves harming others, then something clearly needs to change.
LOOK THE POMPOUS ACTING! NO ARE ALLOWED TO SEE. THE STORY BE AMUSING. THE CHIMENY HOLDAY STORY FOR ALL. OBLIGITORY?
6751940
What if someone believed in their talent, their gift so strongly that they truly believed they could do no wrong?
Mmm, it's kind of hard to figure out where one wants to be positioned on this story.. I've seen some horrid children, that never seem to learn and do their best to cause harm to others regardless of how well they are treated, whether pampered or taken care of by love.
Though it amuses me that Celestia thinks herself above the common pony so "Perhaps an Alicorn can do better then the common pony" And what if she fails? What if Cadence fails and the kid is nothing more then a sociopath that cannot, indeed will not learn to become better? What backup plan does she have then?
I know some people believe in the goodness in the hearts of man/pony... but some seem to enjoy laughing at the concept of it and empathy, thinking it nothing more to be used to manipulate.
6751957
I think that might be the perfect example of what I'm talking about. Unless the task is something exceptionally mundane, like 2+2=4 mundane, chances are they are deluding themselves. There's even a popular saying about that, which involves roads, what sort of intentions they are paved with, and the quality of their destinations.
6751957 Well, if they succeeded, then they'd be me!
6751957 That was definitely the vibe I was getting here. Haypenny may be suffering from Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome - she has encountered a foal that is beyond her ability to care for, but she can't accept that and it's breaking her.
I imagine she'll need some therapy to reconcile that, and a bit more supervision - the story mentioned that the other staff at the orphanage recognized something seemed wrong but thought Haypenny was the expert and had it in hoof, but now everypony will hopefully be more willing to give (and receive) assistance when it's needed.
Marshmallow may have a harder time bouncing back from this than Haypenny since he was already having beahvioural problems going into the situation. Celestia has a thousand years or more of experience at manipulating ponies and guiding their development, hopefully she's able to work something out. She's pretty good at it.
6751940 Well, in Lauren's original vision, Cutie Marks were more open to interpretation. They were also not 'destined' but more akin to what a person feels when they find something that just 'clicks' for them. It was a mark which appeared when they found something they enjoyed and were talented at more than anything else. But at the same time, it didn't limit them solely to the talent they earned their mark for.
Just look at Pinkie Pie. Her mark was for parties... but look at how many OTHER things she can do. Same with Rarity. Her mark came not for finding gems, but for designing fashions... which has nothing to do with finding gems (something that'd be more akin to a prospector Cutie Mark).
There's Rainbow Dash, who's a natural at weather control... but got a mark for flying really fast.
And AJ who... uhm... apples... I got nuthin.
Anyway, that was how they used to work. Now, since MMC, they're brainwash marks that control ponies' minds.
6751957
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/12/25/192834__safe_applejack_foal_babyjack_holiday.png
And the Ghost of hearth's Warmings past muttered, "It's supposed t' be carrot an' stick--now look 'ere, she's gone an' forgot 'er carrot!"
6751617
Nannies with attitude? AKA Dominican Nuns... They're caretakers because it's a HABIT with them.
6751560
Considering the character's name is Marshmallow, shouldn't you be demanding S'more, S'more, S'more?
6752173
Said with a rebel yell?
6752154
No she hasn't. The carrot was lodged in a very inconvenient storage location.
6751984 I used to tutor for an autistic child with massive behavioral issues. (Imagine a prepubescent Christian Weston Chandler.) The moment he thought he would be punished for something, he would apologize, and he would seem sincere until the threat of punishment was over, at which point he would revert to previous behavior. If he didn't expect to be punished, he would never apologize for his actions, and he didn't seem to care about anyone other than himself. I have no idea how much he truly understood of the world outside his own mind.
Everyone who spent time around him grew cold and hostile towards him, even if they were warm and friendly to everyone else. It was shocking how rapidly the kindness would drain from someone's voice when they spoke to him. I didn't and couldn't like him, but at times when I felt like he truly didn't understand that he hurt other people's feelings, I wondered how much it hurt him that they would grow so mad at him without him understanding why.
At other times, I thought he was just a jerk who hurt other people's feelings on purpose.
Indeed a well balanced story very nicely done
More?
I would like to see a sequel to this.
And to see what happens to haypenny.
I'd like to know more of Marshmallow's story being raised by Celestia.
Expected Santa in the chimney, did not get.
However I was not disappointed at all.
6752203 While I never tutored, the ones I knew of enjoyed setting pets ablaze.
It's why I hope for a sequel, I would honestly love to see Celestia's "Inherent goodness" have to deal with an actual problem child. She only believes he needs a bit of love... but from the report, it shows that the other orphans felt quite loved and that they tried so hard with him to the point where they were bitter because he rebuked it all and acted horrid in response.
What? Judging from the title, I'd expect this to be "comedy."
...*cheats by peeking at comments*
Oh. It's not Santa... I feel almost cheated. >_>
This kind of reminds me "Problem Child" (only this isn't a comedy)
6752042
Or, perhaps, that lovely interpretation is correct, but the ponies themselves don't properly understand this and are pigeon-holing & undervaluing themselves without realizing.
Incidentally, this is does not at all appear to be the warm and fuzzy Santa in the Chimney story I came to expect. Feeling slightly mislead here.
6752187
behind the stick?
Came for Santa, stayed for Marshmellow.
Really hope to see a sequel, found this absolutely adorable and tugged on my feels quite a bit!
Thank you for the mental images of nanny ponies in SWAT suits storming a building and aggressively caring for and loving on heartwarming orphans.
Front page, well done dude.
Woah, this story is amazing! :D I would love to see a series, or at the very least, a sequel, sprouting from this little one-shot. Great job!
I must confess, it became a little difficult to read at times because of the increasing number of ellipses interrupting the dialogue.
Princess Celestia detectably doesn't desire distinctly detectable sass.
Ah, blatant hypocrisy, what can't you do? I'm not entirely sure who ends up looking worse in that exchange.
Semper Discordia.
We SO need a sequel to this!
Really by the description I had expected to fat-butt that made Buddha look anorexic and the bag of toys above him NOT helping his escape from the chimney.
Also, HOW can people not find this likeable? there are at this time four down votes!