4: The Crossroads
Through might, magic, and opposable thumbs, Trixie and Walker helped the old stallion get his wagon the last three miles towards the Neighvarro trading post. The stallion hobbled along, his hind leg in a makeshift splint of Walker’s own design. As the creaky cart came to a rest outside the general store, the stallion let out a sigh of relief. “I can’t thank you enough Trixie and your….” He circled his hoof at Walker.
“Minotaur,” Trixie offered helpfully, telekinetically wiping the sweat off her brow with her hat. Before she met Walker she would have resolutely refused such a manually intensive task. But Walker, ever eager to help, roped her into such shenanigans often enough that she didn’t think twice of it, save for some muttering under her breath.
“...Your minotaur friend, Caleb. What a helpful bunch. I swear if you two hadn’t come along and heard me hollering up a storm, that might have been the end of old Stock Shelf here.”
Stock Shelf was happy to throw them a few bits and some extra supplies while they took a moment’s pause. In the shade of late afternoon, they caught their breath against the side of the trading post. Panting, Walker unlaced the leather cuff he kept on his left arm, and traced the marking that covered the length of his wrist to elbow.
“Still there, huh?” Trixie asked, not even looking, as she beat the dust out of her cape.
“Yeah,” Walker replied.
“What, did Luna say it would disappear when you are ‘officially redeemed’?”
“Not really, there’s still a lot she’s researching. I mean, she’s the one that gave it to me, but still she doesn’t understand how it gets me back home.”
“So I take it you’re not going to be raptured away anytime soon.”
“No, not soon.”
Trixie let out a soft chuckle. “Good. I’d hate to be left all alone in this dump.”
“I figured if helping ponies with broken-down wagons was my ticket out of here, I would have noticed some change after the fifth one.”
“Ooh, maybe just a couple more fixed water spigots, or finding more lost foals at amusement parks?”
Walker frowned. “Maybe menial repair work isn’t racking up enough good samaritan points.”
Trixie rubbed her chin in parody of deep thought “Have you considered pro-bono legal work?”
They both laughed.
“Well, I feel like I could do some good if we just were in one place for long enough. You know, to actually see what’s going on.”
“And what, fix friendship problems, Twilight style?”
“What? No. I don’t know. It’s just that whatever we’re doing now, it isn’t getting me any closer to home. I know I have to do something to redeem myself but.. after what I did to my brother, to Pokey, all of this isn’t anywhere close. Even if I could get home, I—”
“Y’all want to stick around and crack open some ice-cold sarsaparillas?” Shelf Stock hollered towards them, poking his head around the side of the building.
Walker demurely took off his hat and had that I-don’t-want-to-be-a-burden-so-I-refuse-hospitality kind of look he got, so Trixie chimed in, “Yes, we’d love some. thank you so much.” She was far too dehydrated to deal with his humility.
After days of living off of stream water, soda was sweet ambrosia to her. She quaffed it all in moments, and let out a small belch.
“Thirsty one, aren’t ya?” Shelf Stock quipped.
“Much appreciated, friend,” Walker said.
“Some of the boys are curious about our new mysterious strangers. Well, between you and me, they wanna see this skinny minotaur fella. We’re having ourselves a bit of a cookout in a couple hours at sunset, care to join in, Trixie, Caleb?”
“Well, we should actually be going—” Walker began.
“Whatever happened to sticking around in one place?” Trixie asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Whatever happened to keeping a low profile?” he returned under his breath. Even though he’d long since fell out of the news cycle, the two of them had habitually avoided larger settlements, drifting from crossroad to crossroad. Though he wouldn’t admit it, Trixie suspected he was wary of large crowds of ponies. Given his experience, she didn’t blame him.
“Well, it’d be trying something new, right? Maybe there’s more to redemption than being a stranger of few words who does roadside repairs.”
He faltered with his words for a moment. “Fine, we’ll give it a shot, but we leave at the first sign of trouble.”
Trixie rolled her eyes.
“Deal?”
“Deal.” She turned to Shelf Stock. “Sure, We’ll stick around.”
The creeping thoughts spoiled Trixie’s mirth, much in the way that vinegar curdles milk. She bit her lip, pantomiming the warm smiles and guffaws of all the ponies around the campfire.
Here he was a stranger in a strange land, a fugitive hated, and reviled by scores of ponies, the scourge of Ponyville, a damned murderer. And he delighted all the ponies with a mundane story of how he and his brothers got scared when they found a bear’s paw print camping. There were no heroics, and no prestidigitation to enhance the story. No real danger in the tale. Still, the performance held the ponies rapt.
Her own story was on the tip of her tongue, a far better bear story. How somepony sent an Ursa Minor after her with the express purpose of humiliating her, and how it marred her career, how she ended up here, huddled around Appleloosan hicks behind a general store. Next to the fugitive human who somehow was more loved than she.
She directed herself to be happy for her friend, who finally let his guard down and began talking to ponies. Frankly, she should be happy for herself too, not having to answer every question on his behalf.
But now, given his own voice, his own story, Trixie’s normally commanding presence was diminished to a whisper. Trixie the Great and Powerful was reduced to half-ignored comments and interjections in a group conversation. It was maddening.
You aren’t worthy of their notice, the creeping thoughts told her. You can’t even compete with the infamous human, even though she decided herself she would never think of attention as a competition again. Look at you, a waste of your parent’s time, of everyone’s time whoever you helped you. You had potential, and you squander it, faffing about the backwaters of Equestria, because you humiliated yourself out of a career. Your only friend is the most unwanted, most hated thing in the land, and look at that! Everypony likes him more than you. You—
Trixie excused herself. Nopony seemed to register her withdrawal. A year ago she might have demanded their notice through magicks and theatrics. She almost conjured a cloud of colored smoke right then and there. Trixie restrained herself, seething, wounded.
“You alright miss?” the general store clerk asked as she walked in.
“I need to send a letter. Get Trixie an envelope,” she barked, as though the tone in her voice was answer enough to his question. She tossed two bits onto the counter, part of their earnings from when her and Walker helped repair a bridge a couple towns over.
Leery, the mustachioed clerk fetched her a quill and paper. She drafted her message.
Hi Flannel Fleece,
Hope all is well. Everything is going fantastic here! Going from town to town, always drawing a crowd! Just mastered a new trick where I can make three ponies disappear at once. You wouldn’t believe the ponies I’m meeting either. Looks like all my magic practice paid off in the long run after all! In spite of a certain sister always interrupting, haha.
Don’t know where I’ll be off to next! My manager has a bad habit of booking things moment to moment.
Send my love to mom and dad, and all the others.
I miss you.
Lots of love,
Trixie Lulamoon
On second thought, she buried the last three lines in the broad strokes of a calligraphic signature that took up the last third of the page.
Signed,
The Great and Powerful Trixie
She read it again and felt deflated, suddenly aware of her outburst. Sheepishly she hoofed over the letter, avoiding his gaze.
.
“Miss, is everything alright?”
“Yes… I’m sorry.” With that, she slunk back outside.
She took a deep breath and willed herself back into the present moment. Walker was still telling his story as twilight faded, showing Luna’s speckled skies. The moon was peeking above a distant hill. Glowing fire motes jumped out of the fire and into the clear frontier night. Here she was, surrounded by company, warmth, each pony resting on a barrel or bench behind the one gathering spot in the whole outpost. And it was great to see Walker with the spark of a smile on his lips. It was a sight that was becoming more and more familiar to her, glimpses of a Walker who didn’t always have his guard up, her constant travel companion and friend for the last eight months.
And yet, there it was again, a lingering guilt, a lingering jealousy. She attempted to drive the treacherous caprice out of her mind in a rout, as though it were a beast that could be shooed out of a house. But like a bogart, the more she tried to banish it, the larger it grew.
Why didn’t she tell her sister about Walker and their travels? Why wasn’t she proud of everyone who she and Walker helped? She scolded herself, and then scolded herself for scolding herself.
It seemed that the more Walker came out of his shell, the greater Shelf Stock’s hospitality became. As the moon rose to its zenith, and the ponies shuffled off, Shelf Stock offered them lodging down the dusty trail. He arranged with the owner of the saloon to get two beds fixed up for the weary travelers on his dime. With profuse thanks, Trixie and Walker bid Shelf Stock goodnight and retired to their rooms. Trixie noted that she was never offered lodging unsolicited until she had started tagging along with Walker.
The washroom was little more than a bar of soap, pitcher, water pump and basin. Walker washed up first, then Trixie, both surprised to remember what each other looked like without a layer of dust and grime. Had she really fallen so far from grace?
They climbed into separate beds on either side of the room and Walker blew out the gas lantern on the nightstand, once again leaving Trixie alone with her thoughts. She wrapped the covers around herself and her dour mood half-dissolved amongst the sheer creature comfort of it. It occurred to her that this was the first time they’d slept indoors in at least a month. She glanced over to Walker as his legs dangled over the end of the bedframe, ill-suited for his taller, lanky body. Trixie always found it funny how he’d start the night with feet over the edge of the bed, only for him to give up fifteen minutes in and sleep curled.
“Someone’s popular with the frontier ponies,” Trixie offered cautiously.
If there was bitterness in her voice, Walker did not notice. “That was nice actually. I felt like I could talk to someone for the first time in a while. I mean aside from you obviously. It’s been so long since I just sat down and had a conversation, without trying to tell a lie, or hide something.”
“You still like talking to me though, right?” Trixie asked.
“Without a doubt. Like it or not, you’re my number one confidante.”
“And you would still travel with me, even if you didn’t need me to talk to ponies, right?”
“I think we have too much blackmail material on each other to part ways at this point,” he said with a grin.
Trixie ignored the cheeky remark.
Walker had told her the whole story in bits in pieces, and she told him hers.
She was cursed with potential, her parents nurtured and fed what they saw as a way to restore their family name to former glory: Lulamoon the sorcerers. Their fall from grace and time spent wallowing among common folk would end with this generation, as Bellatrix Lulamoon would achieve greatness, and restore prestige. the attention and training had given her finesses, ability, and an ego that was large and brittle. When she left home, she made little friends and many enemies.
She knew he had slain his own brother, and in some cosmic twist of fate, ended up lost in the Everfree forest that same night, and like her, ended up shunned and rejected by the lot of Ponyville. But where Trixie would have left, Walker’s guilt drove him to stay in a town that loathed him. He suffered abuse after abuse, and deep down, he knew he deserved it. The hysteria culminated in a bloody riot, leaving ponies dead and the town in shambles. It was in the long aftermath of his escape when they found one another and began their travels.
She could not imagine what compelled someone to such levels of self-inflicted suffering. Then, she chuckled. In her adult life, she rarely traveled with anypony for long. It was easy to dismiss all the failed assistants and co-stars as petty and ill-suited for life on the road, ill-suited for the life of a magician. But deep down, she knew she was abrasive.
“Walker, you’re a glutton for punishment, you know that?”
In the darkness, he thought on this for a couple of silent moments. “I do.”
“First off, you put up with my shit.” She left the more unpleasant example unmentioned.
He laughed. “I don’t. believe it or not, I try pretty hard to keep you in check.”
“But that’s what I mean. Every time I find myself slipping back into… well, I guess I’d call her ‘Stage Trixie’, you know, insufferable, vain, needing attention, you’re there to snap me back. As much as I’d hate to admit it, I’m a better pony around you. You keep me helping others, and giving to the world. You keep me humble.”
“And you keep me, well… safe, I guess.”
Trixie pondered this. “Safe from ponies?”
“Yes, well not quite. You help me feel safe. You help me walk around this world without fear. I’m… starting to feel like I can be around ponies again. And when I’m in danger of giving up, you’re always there to throw me a rope. I know I’ve done a lot of wrong, and I know what we’re doing right now isn’t working but with you around, I have the strength to try something new.
Trixie felt the faintest smile growing on her. “You mean that?”
“Of course. I don’t know where I’d be without you guiding the way. ”
“You big sap.”
“Fine, I’ll keep my sincerity to myself.”
This was the end of the conversation as Walker drifted off. However, the words kept on bouncing around Trixie’s head. Two roaming souls, hoping their travels take them back onto the right path, whatever that may be. In all her time, she sought admiration for her skill and finesse. It was a new sensation to be needed.
When morning came, they went to the main area of the lodge to gather their breakfast. Something was wrong. The few scattered patrons kept their eyes locked on Walker, whose good cheer withered under their gaze.
“What are you looking at, slackjaw?” Trixie said, snapping at a stallion by the entrance. seeing a newspaper underneath his hooves, she telekinetically yanked it away and read the headlines. Front and center, a surprisingly accurate woodblock print of Walker was on the front page, showing a sulky, sullen man, furtively glancing over his shoulder. The resemblance was unmistakable by proportion and by face. she read the title with a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Ponyville Reports on the Fugitive Human Jeremiah Walker.
She met the stares of everypony in the quiet frontier inn. All stayed in tense stillness. Only the sound of the breeze was audible. Something told Trixie the “skinny minotaur” bit wasn’t going to play anymore.
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It lives? IT LIIIIVES?!
Ah oh, so it seems someone harbors a deep grudge since the Rapport should have circulated by now, showing the truth.
Thank you for the update!
Oh wow, I didn't expect to see this updated! Thank you for continuing the story!
welcome back
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Scary headlines are the father of clickbait titles. And they really do sell more papers than the truth or even genuinely good news, unfortunately.
Well this wasnt something I thought i see updated
Time for a re-read.
Damn! I didn’t expect to see this updated in my feed! Congrats on getting back into it!
I hope Spike, or someone in his group, realizes they have a very powerful group of creatures that could aid them in their arguments: Cows.
We know cows in Equestria are just as sapient as any other creature, and we know they are one of Equestria's prime suppliers of milk. If, in this Equestria, they are being denied citizenship and all rights that come with citizenship, then Equestria's continued employment of cows for their milk would be skirting the edges of slave labour.
Holy crap, I was just thinking about this story the other day. Either I'm psychic or it's just damn good luck. (I'm going with the former, personally.)
It lives! Man just when you think he’s found a good place to let his guard down, Ponyville finds a way to come back and bite him on the ass. My guess they are still bitter about being exposed as the racist capital of Equestria, it’s probably hurt them a bit economically as well. Especially Applejack who lost part of her farm because of her own fears and lies, if I remember right she purposely scared off a pony he was talking with on the farm. Saying something along the lines that chicken wings aren’t that far from pegasus wings, while I don’t think it was the direct cause of him being run off the farm, it was still like dumping oily tags near a fire danger zone.. I do like that we have more information about why he put up with such abuse, it explains a lot more now.
Holy shit! It lives! It really, really, really lives!
I was not expecting to see that show up in the updates section but lo and behold, there was a brand new chapter to a story I thought had been abandoned. I’m really looking forward to seeing where are you plan on taking the rest of the story. From the look of things it seems as though Walker’s troubles will soon be catching up to him.
This is continuing? That's great! Though how things were left off during your lengthy hiatus certainly doesn't feel right at all.
Personally I've grown to hate both Celestia and Luna for their inaction and lack of compassion. Celestia foes nothing and allows a racist pony citizen majority to dictate that non-ponies are not considered neither people or citizens when she kniws that is wrong. Luna is dragging her feet and refusing to punish those responsible allowingcthem to get away with it when perpetrators have outright xonfessed to the crown that Jeremiah did nothing wrong. In fact it seems to me the only one punished was the human, and Luna took it upon herself to deliver this for something completely unrelated. Instead of being given shelter and succour she brands him with the fucking Mark of Cain, and tosses him out into the world. In fact him killing bis brother doesn't deserve all of this being done to him as punishment nor does he deserved to be made a pariah, as he has been regretful and repentant of what he has done for the longest time, and has only spent his time in equestria trying to survive. His brother should have nothing to do with how he is treated in equestria but it seems people (including Luna) are using it as justification for more mistreatment. What has been done to him is nothing more than hollow justification to torment him for something he has repented for, and to not allow him aid in his time of need. I hope they princesses actually do something about all this, and release Jeremiah from the curse cruelly laid upon him.
Also of note, Trixie also did nothing wrong. Ponyville hated her for no good reason and ruined her by blaming her on what was publically known to have been done without her knowledge.
you figure luna would have exhonerated him given the report and started having specific ponies arrested. *cough* applejack *cough*
What. The fuck.
So I guess you can bring things back from the dead.
Glad to see this is back.
Holy sheeeeiiittt, I've gotta reread everything! Lol
Holy shit it's been so long I might have to go back and read the first one again.
Well...
There goes the clean slate.
Gandalf-IHaveNoMemoryOfThisPlace.jpg
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In defence of Luna, she had asked him to stay put in the farm where he had found some shelter was at least relatively safe. It was Jeremiah's own choice to venture back out into the world, against Luna's advice.
And at least Luna is doing something. Celestia's complete absence in anything aside from the very recent scolding of Twilight has led to other ponies putting words in her mouth, like when they demanded Luna put Jeremiah to death and claiming that "Celestia would have killed him on the spot!" When there are ponies actively using your name and claiming to work in your name, a ruler should know it's time to put the hoof down.
I'm ecstatic to hear that this has returned...
now if you'll excuse me while I binge-read the first story and this one. 
Welp, time to go back to chapter 1 of story 1 it seems -- glad to see something update after so long.
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Fimfiction tells me I have but it's been a while.
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Ah, the infamous "Did I read this? I don't remember reading this. Why are you telling me I read this?"
Best solution is to read it again, just to be sure!
It's always good to see stories come back from the dead, especially when the new chapter nails it like this. You did an absolutely fantastic job with Trixie in this chapter and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her in the future.
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In Luna's defense, it's too early for her to drop the hammer on the town. Without that report she didn't have the information for a fair trial, and she has to give the town the chance to deal with the problems themselves first. We'll have to wait and see what happens with Spike's organization since we've really only seen one side of that situation so far, but if the pattern continues and they can't bring the perpetrators to justice that will be when it's time for Luna to drop the hammer. My memory of the legal situation is fuzzy, but Luna should have the power to deal with this one way or another, even if that means dissolving the town government, declaring martial law, and judging cases herself.
As for Celestia, I very much agree that she's dropping the ball here. I can understand her desire to let Luna handle this situation to establish independent authority, but she needs to make that crystal clear to the public which she has very clearly failed to do.
I think the comma should be after ‘one’, rather than before it.
‘‘It was in the (moment) did they find one another’’
Not sure if that is correct or not.
Lowercase B should be uppercase.
Uppercase Y should be lowercase.
Uppercase W should be lowercase.
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"More loved than she" is actually correct, though not often used in modern-day English. It is an archaic way to say "than her" in a formal voice.
Damn, I actually forgot this existed! Glad to see it's continuing.
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Okay, then I will remove that part.
Excellent Chapter.
It updated, but I dunno if I want to read this.
The racism is infuriatingly stupid. I really don’t want to read about it, especially nowadays. Additionally, Luna and celestia have not taken any action. They’ve instead harmed his reputation and have not punished those responsible, and Luna even branded him with what someone else thoughtfully called a damned Mark of Cain.
Forgive me for not wanting to read what is turning into a fic about a guy getting beat up over and over.
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Honestly? That is why I keep coming back. This is one of the few stories that take a more realistic look at what one would face as a non-native being to a place that has existed in a status quo for so long that even the thought of disrupting it brings hostility.
What was the saying? “You have to reach rock bottom before you can start climbing back up”? He is, as the title suggests, at a crossroads. He has four options: he can move forward, give up, fight back or die but that choice is his in the end.
Celestia can’t DO much, she is slotted between a literal rock and a hard place in the form of Action and public consequence and has to walk a very fine line. Luna can’t do anything PUBLIC and we don’t yet know if she is doing anything from the shadows.
Honestly, the next chapter will tell if the ponies have learned anything. He has spent a day with them and has done nothing to warrant his biased reputation. But with their Herd Mentality I am not expecting much.
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To be fair, there’s no way he would have received such a horrid reputation if his first act wasn’t to try and butcher a chicken. I understand hunger can blind you, but didn’t he literally enter the house to butcher it? Just open the fridge, dude.
It didn’t help that he said many dumb things over the course of the story, and the characters are their Season 1 personalities, inarguably the most suspicious and unfriendly ones out of any iteration in the show.
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It would have happened eventually regardless of him butchering the chicken or not, he is a Omnivore in a nation of Herbivores.
The thing about humans is that we need a certain amount of protein in our diet, can we get it from beans? Yes but it would be a short term solution and the returns would stop being worth it after round about Six Months (not to mention the continuous bouts of Horrid Gas and Diarrhea) at which point he would have to had resorted to hunting or admitting he eats meat.
When it comes right down to it? He was boned from the start. Could he have went at it a different way? Yes. Would it have mattered in the end once the public found out? No, not not really.
My main concern right now is how FUBAR this is going to go as from what I remember he is technically breaking Exile?
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i counter your him saying stupid things argument with the fact that most of those times he was lead into a trap. someone wanted him to say something they could use and he didn't think about it because for humans it wasn't an issue.
as for his thing with the chicken, equestria really has a blatant problem with beings with diets that are not like there own and needs to get thicker skin. you think gryphons don't eat meat? 2 parts super deadly predator doesn't create a single extra passive herbivore.
if minotaurs are anything related to there myths then they aren't herbivores either.
hell thestrals shouldn't pure herbivores eitehr given there biology.
maybe ponyville is just dumb and needs it pointed out to them?
Now that I've reread the first story I can catch back up to this one. Xd
It's great to see this story back!
...it is back right?
Bring on the AWESOME!
Great to have you back dude. 👍
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It was absolutely not inevitable. You get very different reactions to being hungry and literally trying to eat a chicken. Talk and talk about how they should expect other species to be different, they very clearly are an isolated and wary bunch (although very obviously far more racist then they are in the show). He should have been far more tactful then he was, but then again, he had the whole complex with killing his brother, so who knows if he even wanted to be tactful.
It is kind of funny how you contradict each other though. One guy is talking about the multiple species we see interact rather amiably (at least, no racism) with ponies and how they're carnivores or should be, and the other guy is saying it was inevitable they would hate him once they found out he could and would eat meat. Not putting you down, just noticed that.
Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that this story is literally just multiple characters beating this poor guy while he's down, while the only character who isn't doing that is beating herself up even more. It feels more like a torture fic, every other chapter just ends with him shunned. Messages and morals aside, I personally find it distasteful.
well, I'll be damned.
Nice, nice, nice. Time to make a re-read
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But was it to protect him, or ti hurt him? Him killing his brother has no connection to anything that happened in Ponyville and yet this confession was taken from him and he was branded for this crime. Luna marked him as a criminal and looked down on him instead of being protective or comforting, its logical he would flee entirely because to stay would likely mean being punished and his brother being used as proof of guilt.
There's also the dact that Luna has let everyone know about him killing his brother. This combined with the Mark of Cain only shows he has been branded a criminal outcast. If the truth of what happened in Ponyville is important, why go and give out information unrelated to it that would skew everything? It basically ends the entire report with something that says he is a monster. Plus this prevents him from ever being accepted in society, as well as negatively impacting the nonpony struggle for equality.
It's alive! Again! Four years in a coma, and IT LIVES!!! XD
Somehow I knew this story was worth to keep tracking on.
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Thank you, corrected those.
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TBH I didn't consider why Luna would include the whole, "btw he killed his brother". I guess we'll find out! (and I mean the the inclusive we, I have to come up with something plausible. the woes of a writer)
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berriart.com/blog/2016/09/its-alive/images/its-alive-og_hue59a81005f417dd23607580e311e0464_132040_900x0_resize_q75_box.jpg
I have emerged from my tomb of being too busy to work on fanfiction (state shelter in place orders and unemployment do wonders for your free time)
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Lol! I share your sympathy!
And here I thought this fic was dead and buried. But lord and behold it lives!
I waited years for this to update, but missed the update because your name changed and that confused me.
Jeremiah and Trixie make each other better sapient beings. The ponies are not nearly as nice as they believe they are. They do not see their privilege because they swim in it.