After waddling up the stairs, Sumac huffed and puffed his way down the hall to the Princess Suite. A trip to the outhouse had done nothing to ease his discomfort and the little colt was both ecstatic and miserable at the same time. Halfway down the hall, he saw Pebble, which made breathing just a little more difficult.
He stopped and tried not to think about his distended stomach.
“Sumac.” Pebble sounded as though she was having some trouble breathing.
“Pebble.” Lifting his left front hoof, Sumac waved, feeling all dorky and not knowing why.
“I was just heading out back…” Pebble’s confession trailed off when she realised that colts didn’t want to think about fillies pooping. Or maybe they did. It was just too disgusting for her to think about. Colts could be so gross, but there was something intriguing to Pebble about letting Sumac watch her poop and now, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“And I just came back in,” Sumac replied as he thought about what sort of interesting faces Pebble might make when she was pooping. He felt his ears grow warm and unable to stop himself, he grinned. “Number two.”
“You’re so mature… it keeps me infatuated with you, but I keep having lengthy discussions with my mother as to why we both love dopes.”
“No, Pebble, we’re number two.”
“Now is not the time to be calling me Pebby Poops, Spunkpuddle.”
“Pebble”—when she blinked her eyes at him and he saw mischief, Sumac relaxed a little but continued with his words—“we scored second place. We should be proud. I really hope you won’t mope over this.”
“We were destroyed by Fluttershy. My feelings on this subject are confusing. On one hoof, I wanted to win. On the other hoof, it’s Fluttershy. She cried because she won.” Pebble shuffled around and made little hoofy kicks as her tail swished from side to side.
Stepping forwards, Sumac thought about what Applejack had said, about making Pebble feel special. She was looking at him right now with wide, but sleepy looking eyes, and she reminded him of her mother. Another step closer and Pebble’s muzzle was now inches away from his. Tilting his head, Sumac realised that at some point, Pebble had reached almost equal height with him, but that was okay because fillies matured faster than colts and he had plenty of time to get taller, but he got to enjoy the fruits of Pebble’s rapid maturity now.
“Are you about to kiss me?” Pebble asked.
“I was thinking about it,” Sumac replied. “I want to kiss you passionately on the lips… and then, when I’m done, I’m gonna move up and kiss your belly button.”
Pebble’s nostrils widened and her sides bellowed outwards as she made a sharp inhale. It was obvious to anypony that knew her well that she was struggling to maintain her mother’s deadpan expression. “Fantastic. I have to go and pinch a loaf and my pervy coltfriend wants to kiss me.”
“I could come and hold your hoof,” Sumac offered.
Snorting, Pebble shoved him away and the corners of her mouth kept being tugged upwards. “You just want to see my cutie mark, you cad.”
“Well, duh.” Sumac closed the distance once more and gave Pebble his best rakish grin. “We’ve raised a dragon together, we’ve been the best of friends for the longest time, I have a little piece of your soul that you gave me after most of mine got stolen by my mother, and I played a game of poker with Pale to free you from the realm of the dead. I think it’s about time I saw your cutie mark. I’m owed.”
“Hah, no.” Then, with predatory half-open eyes, Pebble leaned in, pressed her muzzle against Sumac’s, and kissed him with all of the savage, clumsy, awkward ferocity that a horny adolescent filly besieged by hormones could muster. Being an earth pony, Pebble could muster quite a bit.
The colt returned the kiss with slobbery enthusiasm and he let out a nervous squeal of surprise when Pebble’s tongue slipped between his slurping lips. It remained for only a second, a stealthy, well-muscled invader that shocked and surprised him by licking the roof of his mouth, then it was gone. Pebble pulled away with a moist slurp and Sumac saw that she had a coy, almost nonexistent smile.
“I’m gonna go drop a deuce. Don’t wait for me…” And with that, Pebble trotted away with her tail hiked high in the air. “‘Cause I love to see you smile, smile, smile… yes I do…”
Sumac watched her go, feeling a peculiar feeling, and wanting to follow her.
Twilight, sprawled on the bed, watched as several ponies darted away from the door. They had stood with their ears pressed to the door, but now, the door was about to open. Feeling bloated and full, Twilight watched the door open and Sumac stood in the doorway, looking around with one suspicious raised eyebrow.
“HAH HAH! YOU GOT WRECKED!” Within a split second of uttering these words, Fluttershy covered her mouth with her front hooves and looked mortified. She let out an alarmed squeal and her body posture became that of extreme submissiveness.
“Way to go, ‘Shy. You’ve successfully dominated a foal and then gloated about it.” Applejack, now laying on the bed beside Twilight, had been standing with her ear pressed to the door just a few seconds before. “Are you proud?”
“Yes!” Looking shocked by her own admission, Fluttershy stood there with wide eyes, then wiggle-waddled over to give Sumac a hug. She sat down on the floor, hugging him, somehow looking both apologetic and dominant. “Oh, Sumac, I’m so sorry, I’m not used to winning anything.”
“All of you were standing at the door, eavesdropping,” Sumac said as he allowed himself to be hugged.
“No,” Applejack replied, which was technically true. Not at all of them had been standing at the door, just some of them. Her muzzle crinkled as she turned to Twilight, just daring her to say something.
As for Twilight, she didn’t say anything, she didn’t feel the need. She was still experiencing the afterglow of her cheese-gasm. She had only eaten one quesadilla, yes, just one, and then she had been overcome with emotion. What a glorious experience it had been though, and now, she was free to experience the cheesy indulgence at any time.
Turning her head, Twilight glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was sleeping on a cot in the corner, with two cuddly little dragons. The lithe little pegasus had become a fuel reactor, and was now converting biomass into a high octane gas. Sighing, Twilight admired the adorable sight of Rainbow snuggling with Spike and Boomer.
She came, she saw, she had conquered the cheese quesadilla.
“I really liked the ones with those paper thin slices of green apple and that Fancy white cheese,” Applejack said as she rolled over onto her side. “Those is perfect and I’m gonna make ‘em at home.”
Nodding, Twilight half-listened, but her attention was focused on Fluttershy and Sumac. It was obvious that Sumac didn’t want to be hugged or cuddled, but was bearing it for Fluttershy’s sake. Fluttershy looked somewhat distressed because of her competitive nature surfacing. The bed creaked and Twilight felt herself being pulled into the depression caused by Applejack, who had rolled over against her. Looking over her withers, she smiled at the pony snuggling up against her side.
“Twi, this was just what we needed,” Applejack said in a low voice as both she and Twilight watched Pinkie Pie join Fluttershy and Sumac. “We all just get so caught up in our own lives now… some of us more than others. I don’t want this trip to end. We’re all gonna go home and go our separate ways. Rarity has to be in Manehattan or somewhere in just a few days. Rainbow Dash is planning some trip with Daring Do. And you, you’ve got to do your princessing stuff.”
“I plan to have Spike clear my schedule so I can stay home for a bit,” Twilight confessed to her friend in a soft whisper. “Lady Lulamoon can run Ponyville for just a little bit longer. There’s some things I need to do for myself, Applejack.”
“Twi…”
“Yes, Applejack?”
“If’n you can forgive me for stickin’ my snoot where it don’t belong, Twi—”
“Forgiven,” Twilight said to her dear friend.
“Be careful with Pinkie,” Applejack said in a very low whisper after she pressed her muzzle close to Twilight’s ear. “She’s on the rebound and she’s gonna hold all of this hurt inside of her and pretend like everything is fine. And then one day, at some point in the future, it’s all gonna come out. The best thing you can do for her right now is just be her friend. Give her a shoulder to cry on. If’n something comes from that, so much the better. But don’t try to organise no relationship and start setting up checklists of things you need to do for progress.”
“Okay, Applejack.” Twilight was surprised by how subdued her own voice sounded.
“And Twi…” Applejack’s whisper was halting and hesitant. “Twilight, sometimes, sometimes the things we hold most near and dear to our hearts are the things we don’t understand. And if’n we try to understand them, if’n we unravel the mystery, they stop being special to us. Once you find out a music box is just a collection of cogs, springs, and gears, it stops being so magical and just becomes something mundane. If you pull it apart, it stops making music. What I’m sayin is, Twilight, is that you shouldn’t try too hard to understand Pinkie, or else you’ll ruin what makes her special.”
“Thanks, Applejack.”
“Don’t mention it, Twi.”
It would be time to go soon. There was a sleeper car reserved for them that would be leaving on the evening train. There was all the usual frantic going about and getting everything packed up. Twilight wasn’t worried too much, as she hadn’t brought much. She had brought two dragons and one nephew, all of which were accounted for.
“Play kitty with me!” Boomer begged as she rubbed up against Sumac.
“No! I’m too big to play kitty with you.”
“Meow?”
“No!”
Twilight smiled and wondered if perhaps, she should have played more games with Spike. She moved over to where Spike was, sat down beside him, and pulled him close with her wing. He was marking off a checklist of accomplishments, things that had been achieved here in Appleloosa. The list was long and had quite a few checkmarks.
“Hey, Spike, got a moment?”
“For you, always.”
“Spike… how would you feel about me going on a few dates with Seville and Pinkie Pie?”
Looking up from his checklist, Spike looked Twilight right in the eye. “Are you asking me for my permission or something?”
“No.” Twilight reconsidered. “Maybe?” After a bit more consideration, she shrugged. “I don’t know, Spike.” She gave thought to Spike’s feelings and how all of this might impact him. “I just want to make sure that you’re okay with it. I know that you are very close with both Seville and Pinkie—”
“And you plan to marry them?” Spike asked.
“What? No!” Twilight began to sputter and she turned away from Spike’s solemn, penetrating stare. “Gah, Spike… no… I mean, not right away, it’s just… just… I sorta figured that it was time for me to grow up a bit and learn how to date, and I needed a safe space with ponies I trust to do that, and Seville and I are close friends, and Pinkie Pie and I are close friends, and Spike… I’m not even one hundred percent certain of my sexual orientation.”
“Oh.” Spike blinked.
“I’m gonna need you, Spike. You know all of my warning signs. All of my triggers. You know how to keep me safe from myself. You proved that with the, uh, Smarty Pants Incident. I have some anxiety issues, and while I trust Seville and Pinkie Pie, I trust you most of all.”
“I understand.” Reaching up, Spike grabbed Twilight’s ear and gave it a tug. He then stroked her cheek and gave it an affectionate pat. “I can run interference if I need to.”
“Thanks, Spike.” Twilight paused and and her expression became one of pain. She swallowed, lowered her head down a bit, and whispered, “You know, Spike, without you, I think I might have been a mentally stunted shut-in. You’ve always been the one that has pulled me out of my comfort zone and then kept me going while I panicked and acclimatised to uncomfortable surroundings.”
Not knowing what to say or how to respond, Spike put his arms around Twilight’s neck and hugged her. The pair of them sat there and watched as Boomer followed Sumac around and acted like a kitty. Both of them began to remember simpler times, when Spike was a baby dragon without complications and Twilight was a little filly that so desperately wanted to understand the world.
Boomer belched, and because her tummy was still far too full, she set Sumac on fire. The colt didn’t panic, not in the slightest, and he was quick to use an extinguishing spell before real harm befell him. Then, while Spike and Twilight watched, Sumac—still smouldering—pulled Boomer into a hug to comfort her before she started crying.
“Hey Spike… if you’ve ever wondered what friendship looks like in action…” Twilight Sparkle pointed with her hoof at Sumac and Boomer. “That’s us. That’s how the world sees you and I.”
“One dragon, one pony, best friends.” Spike gave Twilight’s neck a squeeze. “You know, Twilight, it might be nice to have Seville around in the mornings. He can cook and he makes the best orange juice.”
“Spike…”
“Just saying, you have the ways and the means to make him stay till breakfast—”
“Spike!”
“—and you know how hungry you get when you stay up all night reading.”
Squinting, Twilight wasn’t certain how innocent Spike was. Her brows furrowed, but she took him at his word and gave him a nod. She felt an odd sense of relief knowing that Spike was still innocent.
“We’re gonna need an early warning system though, like Starlight Glimmer’s ribbon hung on the door when Sunburst visits. I don’t want to walk in on you and Seville or Pinkie—”
“SPIKE!”
“Just sayin’!”
Hehehehrhe.
This chapter made me smile so much.
INTERESTING so Starlight has gotten together with Sunburst. Why do I get the idea maybe one or both Spike and Twilight have accidentally walked in on the pair at least once if not multiple times
Oh, Spike. "I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying."
Now you are just taunting us.
Oh, it's never good when the Author calls out the peanuts in the gallery by name.
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Naw, it's good. I just wanted somebody to be happy.
"I have a little piece of your soul that you gave me after most of mine got stolen by my mother, and I played a game of poker with Pale to free you from the realm of the dead."
wait, *where* are these plot points? I missed a story somewhere in the 'verse, I think...
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It hasn't been written, yet.
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Truly, I'm somewhat glad that that's the case. There have been some moments recently in the other tales in this cycle that I only made it through because I knew that in five years, they were all going to be eating quesadillas. I look forward to every blank filled in.
I am intrigued by this. when will this story be told?
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Think they are unwritten. Spoilers!
7963391
This is the reason I do time jumps. Some people don't like them, other people require them.
So, Spike didn't mind getting crushed under Rarity that much but getting crushed under Twilight is icky? Is this some sort of bizarre dragon mating ritual that he instinctively knows about?
When a mare starts giving birth in public, is it normal for everyone to stop and stare at her filly flute? Is it a pony thing or an Earth Pony thing? Either way, small cultural touches make this feel a bit more fleshed out.
Oh, Spike, you continue to be an enigma to even those closest to you. And I don't think that anyone involved would want it to be different. He may not understand lust, but he at least understands the mechanics well enough to tease others about. Although, with his dragon memory, I can understand why he wouldn't want to walk in on anything.
Someone make fanart of this. It deserves it.
...You know, I try not to judge peoples' kinks, but can we go back to Sumac liking being watched? Ugh...
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With Spike's dragon memory, he can never forget the faces that Glim Glam and Sunburst were making while they played Twister.
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s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/40/cf/be/40cfbeb6cd43ccf6527b1486251ddcc4.jpg
Rainbow Dash is watching you poop.
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......And the worst part is, I deserve this.
On a semi-unrelated note, is it weird that I think Dashie is the most adorable of the six?
Given what Twilight did over the course of this story, this line is terrible. Hilarious, but terrible!
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It's the colour blue.
It's part of the reason that people dress little baby boys in blue, triggering the subconscious and making them more appealing, but little girls aren't dressed in blue, to decrease their visual value. There is a quarter of a semester of psychology at work here and explaining it all would be difficult.
Human beings have an intrinsic reaction to soft shades of blue, it causes us to feel more comfortable, relaxed, and calm. Blue objects make us more protective and we're more attracted to them. In public spaces, such as hospitals, to direct people from one area to another, blue cues are added to hallways and such to make them more appealing, luring people along, while pale puke green and sickly yellows are used to herd people away from certain halls and passages where hospital staff are more prone to go. It keeps the traffic down for easier patient transport and such.
Pink used to be a masculine colour a long time ago, but then we started to understand colour psychology, and that changed. Men started wearing blue shirts, blue jackets, blue jeans, etc, making men more visually valuable than women. This is also the reason why women in power, like CEOs and such, wear blue pantsuits.
You find Dash adorable because she has been carefully formulated to have increased visual value. However, she has only a three syllable name, so your brain will naturally associate her as being somewhat lesser. Four syllable names denote importance. Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer, Shining Armor... and if you think about it, all of Twilight's friends have three syllable names. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, compared to Twilight Sparkle's perfect four. Spike got screwed, because, Spike. A one syllable name with hard Germanic consonants. Ouch. Formula for dislike.
This is also the psychological reason as to why Princess Celestia isn't as popular as Princess Luna. Human beings aren't as keen on six syllable names, we really like four syllables, nothing more, nothing less. Children that have perfect four syllable names grow up to be more successful and have better lives than those that don't.
Hasbro was super smart with this generation of My Little Pony. It is almost impossible to dislike them, because it triggers all of the right buttons in your programming as a human being.
... You are very inconsiderate. I like to read while having my dinner, which you have now put me right off. I can't handle that sort of scatalogical material while trying to eat a bowl of mushroom stir fry.
7963369 Forget it. If there's anything I learned from reading his stories, is that he likes to mention MAJOR plot-points, that could be their own huge stories in and of themselves, in passing, and then never address them ever again. I'm pretty sure this soul-stealing and the poker game will never be mentioned again in this story or any new stories.
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Huh...well, I did not know any of that. I always figured it was just that her tough, competitive attitude made her few moments of softness seem more precious. Although, when I write it down, it sounds like a bad tsundere...I don't know how to feel about that. Given historical gender dynamics, this certainly seems to make more sense than I'm altogether comfortable with.
This also explains why I never cared that much for the morphing call in Power Rangers in Space. I mean, "Let's Rocket" is a really nice pun, but I always felt it needed an extra syllable somewhere.
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And you would be wrong. With patience, more will be revealed. I can only write so much so fast.
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At least until we find a way to put your brain into a computer.
Ah the glorious dichotomy of Fluttershy.
It occurs to me that Twilight and Applejack's quiet conversation is something of a callback to "Love is Never a Mistake", which was the first story of yours I've read. It has and continues to be a wonderful journey.
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That seems kind of mean. Especially since he recently started the story Skyreach, detailing an event first mentioned in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals.
This 'verse is huge, and the fact that he's updating as regularly as he does is rather impressive overall. Let's just be patient.
7963673 Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to make it sound mean or something. That was more of a sarcastic teasing.
Yeah, seems about accurate.
Pebble and Sumac have had some interesting adventures.
Well, horny teenagers do horny teenager things. And they're kind of gross, too.
Bwhahahahaha!
FREEDOOOOOOOM!
Hmn. Lady Lulamoon? Certain interesting implications there.
Good advice from Applejack.
Seville and Pinkie Pie? Like, at the same time?
Good thing Spike is available to continue to be the best assistant a purple pony princess could ask for.
Ehh, I ship it. Seems like a good arrangement.
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And you ARE going to write them, right? You sometimes have a habit of skipping the actiony stuff in favor of more slice of life. Or maybe the actiony stuff just ends up in the side stories I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but sometimes it feels like we're missing out. Early The Chase was like that though, as we missed out on pretty much the whole civil war plot, though we got Bucky vs. Lich for consolation.
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So... I read this back when it came out and I musta revised four whole comments all day while at work, in between compiles and running. So I finished work, came back, and gave it another read, deleting all my old shit and trying again.
I'm ambivalent on this chapter.
Starting with the positive: it is a positive interaction with Twilight and Spike. Twilight's appreciation of Spike shines through, and it details how she interacts with him. That is, on it's own, very good. Spike, if he doesn't get appreciation, needs it. And heaven knows I've complained when there were times in the Weedverse stories when Spike did something significant, only to completely disappear from the rest of the story for the foreseeable future.
And I'm also happy that you're thinking about this and I guess worried about how frustrated I am. I really am. I don't wanna throw that back in your face.
And, to be honest, I'm not actually worked up about this. I'm not moody or any other frustrated crappity crap. The scene, taken on it's own, is excellent.
... But it also appears to confirm my headcanon fears that Spike's relationship with Twilight is primarily defined by how useful he is to her. That he makes her life better and that's what matters most. In fact, almost every scene in the Weedverse with Spike in it is about how useful he is to someone, or why he is useful (dragon biology) or why he wants to be useful (also dragon biology, possibly a lot of other factors.)
I cling to the scenes that aren't about that, like when I'm talking about his sarcasm or how Boomer might actually help Spike grow as a person rather than it being the other way around, but they are rare, and it is usually just implied. The explicit stuff is about his usefulness.
And not just with Twilight. His conversation with Rarity was all about how he used to be useful to her but now he's not, with this "withholding" of affection from Rarity because he no longer helps her (it's in a teasing way, but the conversation is still all about how useful he is to her). Twilight says he has a special relationship with Pinkie, but no scenes have Pinkie actually playing with Spike and the only ones in the whole Weedverse have Pinkie either expressing appreciation for Spike doing things for her or him doing things for her.
And none of these are bad on their own, each is their own sweet expression of how Spike feels for everyone else, or how they appreciate his actions, but it seems like it's the sum of who Spike is.
So... help me, kudz.
I see negative facets in Spike's life. I see the most important people in his life seem to mostly care about him for his servitude. Twilight doesn't appear to have familial unconditional love for him. Nobody is helping teach Spike for the future (as far as I know everybody expects Spike to just keep serving Twilight forever).
I told you before I compare Spike to Sumac, and all three of those are major parts of Sumac's life or character moments: Trixie loves Sumac unconditionally even though he's been very beneficial to her life and is explicit about it. Twilight cares about making sure Sumac isn't just used for his abilities and encouraged him to do what he wants. He seems to have a large number of mentors, finally settling on Vinyl, all of which care about his personal growth and future as someone greater than he is now.
But Spike has none of those. Why is it alright that he has such different outcomes than Sumac? Is stuff that makes this okay in Spike's past or offscreen and you just don't show it? Does Spike's life have a long way to go/grow before those kinds of things are important, and he and Twilight are slowly changing the way they interact? Is the fact that he's a dragon mean that none of this stuff actually matters in his development, and he'll be fine once he hits dragon puberty no matter how he's treated beforehand? Is Twilight just crap at expressing her deep care for Spike's well being so instead winds up mostly just focusing on how useful he is to her?
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That's been the implication all along.
Also, Spike is a baby dragon.
For all of his seeming maturity, he's still just a little guy who is forced into an early state of maturity by the rapidly growing mammals all around him. That's Spike in a nutshell, and it'll take a while before he blossoms into himself. But I have plans.
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Okay!
... That was even the best potential headcanon I had.
Thanks. I mean it. I know I had the sorta-answer but... I think in the long run understanding that will stop me from bein stupid and entertaining the other less-good headcanons.
Okay, I'm going to start getting all my lingering thoughts out now that this story is ending. And somehow, this relatively short story has left me with quite a lot of them. I'm going to do a series of shorter posts instead of a super-long one. It'll also help me focus on one thing at a time and not forget anything. This time, I want to focus on a single interaction in the story.
I thought a lot about Applejack telling Twilight not to try to understand Pinkie Pie too hard. While the sentiment is very sweet, one part gave me pause...probably a lot more than it should. Yes, I'm doing this again. ...Anyway, it's the part where AJ suggests that taking something apart takes away what makes it special. I first scratched my head at this, as there are a lot of people who love taking things apart and seeing how they work, and that only makes it more special to them. I infer that Sumac is such an individual.
Then I realized that it's probably just a perspective thing. Different people approach different situations differently. What's a glorious moment of discovery for one is simply turning something magical into the mundane for another. Probably nothing worth getting worked up about.
I find it interesting that Pinkie and Maud are so similar and yet so different. They both are nigh inscrutable in their own way, yet the approaches in dating them seem to be complete opposites. With Maud, Tarnish puts all his effort into understanding even a fraction of how she feels at any given time, and the effort is special to them both. With Pinkie, it seems that it would be better to be swept up in the whirlwind that is her life. Don't ask how, just embrace the now.
Or maybe AJ's full of crap. This is the Weedverse, where no character is 100% right about anything. Though I doubt AJ's wrong on this one. She does know Pinkie and Twilight pretty well by now.
I've often wondered why people resist having their minds or personalities explained through science and facts. Surely it really isn't that big a deal to know that our thoughts and feelings are likely the result of biological impulses, or however that works. Not a brain-ologist, people. And then, Kudzu, you go and completely deconstruct why I find Rainbow Dash adorable. Gonna be honest, felt a little weird there for a bit. Like so many things in Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash is a source of joy for me, at least when she's not being mindbogglingly stupid. Having so much of that be explained away in such clinical terms, along with the revelation of how easily I can be played like a fiddle was actually kind of unnerving. Almost like the simple joy of watching a rainbow pony was simply...sterilized. So in that respect, I do understand what Applejack was getting at.
I've had the day to think about it, and I realized it doesn't really matter. Rainbow Dash is an amazing character for so many reasons. Her drive. Her determination. Her being full of herself and being completely oblivious about it. The way she checks her surroundings before nuzzling Tank. The fact that she cares so much about her pet that she'll commit industrial sabotage just to spend the winter with him. That she can be incredibly insensitive, but still tries to be considerate to her friends from time to time. And yes, that she is incredibly adorable.
It doesn't matter how clinically my fondness for My Little Pony can be explained. That doesn't make the happiness this show brings me any less real.
I think I got off track at some point. This post got a little weird and possibly incoherent towards the end, there. It's 3 am, I probably shouldn't be trying to type things. Gonna stop now. You all have a good night.
The things between Sumac and Pebble seem to be developing into an outright romance compared to six years prior, and that's nice to see. I still didn't expect Pebble to try jumping his bones in the hot spring, but since it can be hard to read her sometimes, it's nice to see affection out of her. I was briefly willing to celebrate their 'union' until I quickly realized how young they were, at which point I quickly joined Pinkie's side of "No, stop!". I would most definitely support not letting that happen until they're at a more appropriate age. And then I got to thinking again.
Sumac, and to a lesser degree Pebble, live their lives with giant targets on their backs. Between the events of Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals (I will be really happy when I can stop typing that out. ), and whatever the hell Sumac was talking about in this last chapter, there is a very real chance that they will not live long enough to reach the 'appropriate' age. I imagine it must be hard to be patient in light of that. If they ever have to talk to their parents about this, I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of them bring this up. Of course, I also wouldn't be surprised if neither of them did. Can never really tell with these two.
And that raises the question of what the 'appropriate' age even is. The Weedverse shares many parallels with real life, but there are many cultural aspects unique to this fiction. Enlistment can happen as early as fourteen, if memory serves, and there seems to be less of a clear line between adolescence and adulthood. One could also argue that the hardships they've faced makes Sumac and Pebble much more mature than most ponies their age, and thus should be granted some leeway. Although it's clear that both have much maturing to do.
I'm not really sure I have a point or a conclusion to draw to. All I know is I'm glad they have such knowledgeable, reasonable, and understanding adults to learn from. Especially Rainbow Dash, who is The Best. Shoot, it'll only be a few years before Sumac is as old as Gosling was when he fought the Equalists on that train and killed several of them. Or when Tarnish was banished and faced off with many harrowing dangers. I'm still getting used to Sumac not being five anymore, and it feels like the specter of adulthood is already upon him. I think I actually understand a little of what it's like to be a parent because of reading this story, and it's terrifying. Kudzu, I'm not sure if that makes you brilliant or an asshole.
...
You're a brilliant asshole.
I wonder if Twilight will end up in a herd marriage with Pinkie and Seville. Could be interesting to see the three of them raise a family together, ESPECIALLY if Twilight happens upon a gender-switch spell.
By the gods, can you imagine a powerful party-alicorn running around?
Nice interactions and heart warming all around.
And I'll be damned. You paired Starlight and Sunburst together in this verse'.
7963499 What in the world are you?
Also:
Pretty sure that extra 'you' is not supposed to be there.
7963499 Hm never heard of this, do you have any link or books to get further information about that?
8446212
I am sorry, but what?
If you have something to say, do so with some clarity.