This story is a sequel to Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals
The Gift of Gab is recommended reading.
School may be out, but lessons continue for Sumac Apple. Life in Ponyville slows down as the snow grows deeper, and with winter comes a much needed respite for everypony. With two families joining together to double the fun, Sumac Apple will have an almost perfect holiday.
Of course, families of any sort tend to have their own moments of excitement, and then there is the matter of Megara...
An entry in the Weedverse.
Chapters (50)
♫ School's out for... um... winter! ♫
8086655
♫ School's been blown to pieces! ♫
This marks 36 stories in my Weedverse Bookshelf. Holy smokes! Three dozen and still going strong! Thank goodness Tia doesn't have as many children yet. Those first three sound like a handful.
8086679
I think there are more than that.
Anansi, that name rings a bell.
Time for a google search.
...
*Yawn*
After bed, it's like 4am
I really like these slice-of-life stories.
Very pleasant to read, and always a clue (or ten) about the rest of the Weedverse.
Oh no, mistah, it won´t be short ! I need happy and I DEMAND happy for a while ! Don´t you even dare lemme down on that !
8086687
African spider god of trickery if I recall right. At least that's the real-world reference.
Back to a simpler time!
I am disappointed in Ponyville's collective reaction to Moondancer... I'd expect some difficulty trusting her, and some broad awkwardness, but not anger...
At least Sumac is pretty awesome, sticking up for someone he has never technically met on the grounds that he liked her doppleganger.
8086719 Think Loki with a tan and more legs.
Yay! I feel warm and fuzzy. I needed this for today.
Meanwhile at Twilights castle
It's so nice to have dragon fire for the holidays
Yeah Cutie Marked Crusaders marsh mellows toasters!
girls be careful I don't want to see a mess 
I have a nice self cleaning spell,
no problemo Ah ah ah Sporkle!
what was that?
I stifled a sneeze
8086681 Then I have missed some and this needs to be rectified! TO THE GROUP PAGE!
Edit: There was ONE story I missed. M.F.D. Whoops!
Not to diminish your ability to write other things, but I believe that you are one of the best authors that I have ever read for writing things from the child's point of view. Combine that with your slice-of-life skills, and you have something like sitting in front of a fireplace with your family.
It begins~! Huzzah!
Is Hitut based on an existing book?
8086967
It is based off of actual folklore, yes.
8086976
Sweet, things to track down!
8086939
Good luck explaining to your younglings concepts like poli-marriage and herd family.
No, really, good luck and, please, send the video to us later. For laughs.
8087055
Just one of many reasons why all of my "youngling" experience is vicarious.
What becomes important is the meanings you assign otherwise we lose the track of the story. In its own way this was an important chapter we got to see more of Twinkleshine's recovery along with a little of Trixie's. We got to see what motivated Sumac what was important to him
More on the family dynamic.. I'm glad you didn't cut this. It's very serious, and expands upon certain problems brilliantly. Such as a relationship with an asexual. And a looksie into Sumac's head.
It's showing Sumac is trying to help his mothers as best he can, in his limited knowledge of families that he wants so much for himself. Although It's Trixie, I think, still needs more couch time coming to grips with the overall situation than anyone else it seems. No quick fix, too much too fast will overcome her.
8087055 Does a wall mounted, reverse cycle air conditioner count as a fireplace? Fireplace means collecting firewood, which is a little hard for me to do anymore.
On a lighter note, reasons to keep Trixie away from Fluttercup.....and--and me, Maud please, quick, put me back in your pocket, I'm scared!
31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5cmq4inP81rwcc6bo1_500.gif
8086727
I can understand anger. It's still irrational, but... because she was a weak link enough to be replaced, all the hard work they did, all the sacrifices, everything they did to ensure safety, was next to useless from the word go. And they did a LOT of hard work, and sacrificed a LOT.
I mean, if you work hard on making something, and someone trips into it or gets pushed into it, wrecking it, you get mad at them, even if you're quick enough not to take it out on them. So, you can at least understand that feeling.
Essentially, things could have been much, much worse due to Moondancer not being strong enough or aware enough to prevent getting replaced like that. Equestria quite literally could have fallen if a few deals had been made with different entities and such, making use of that mole in Twilight's own home, privy to many of her secrets and practically in charge of security. So while it's not fair to Moonie to be angry at her, and her whinging about it is a little annoying, I can completely understand why people who value the hard work for their security are angry at someone putting all of them and their loved ones at risk due to not being on the ball. Can't you see it? They'll simmer eventually and let it go, this is more just the knee-jerk at this point.
8087492
Or, you know, the living reminder that they were duped and fell for it.
The whole replacement therapy thing. I spent a lot of time reading psychology journals, trying to build up an idea of how something like this might be treated. I paralleled identity theft from our own world and built on that from there.
People tend to be angry with the victim, usually because of how much it impact or other influence their own life. It is a powerful inconvenience. It is a bizarre circumstance, to say the very least.
This was a good chapter. One of my little sisters is an ace. I'm pan, the wife is demi. I'd say you did it a fair amount of justice for not having to deal with the issues firsthand, Kudz. As always, you do your homework so you don't wind up disrespecting the people who live their lives with the issues you portray, and so that you don't misrepresent the people who live in your worlds.
Good on you.
So Trixie is Asexual but not Aromantic?
8087562
Intentional ambiguity was intentional.
People spend their entire lives trying to figure this stuff out for themselves... so I don't feel the need to nail down anything too specific at the moment.
As someone who is a-spec myself, I think you handled it well!
8087492
Yeah, I can understand.
Especially since they're not about to start blaming themselves for not being able to notice that Moondancer was replaced.
Raisin jokes, how dry.
Has not read. Faves and marks anyways.
I don't mean to vine but that really graped my cheese.
Ba-dum-tss
derpicdn.net/img/2013/3/30/283131/full.gif
I was promised Tarnished and Starlight in this fic (yeah I didn't forget) and can't wait for that
to kick in.
On this, it is amazing what a young child will blurt out at a table. Oh some of the stuff my sisters once said...
And yeah, that one, that one is VERY FUN. My sister, in front of everyone
"Hey Raul, are you gay?"
Oh lord. That night had much talk.
Of Course the Spider Trickster God Exists in the Weedverse? Has Tarnished killed him like he has other spider?
8088140
Nah. It's cool.
8087568 That's what I took away from what you wrote, I'm pretty confident I'm demi, so the conversation piqued my curiosity more than usual, and from looking into it I've encountered a wide range of experiences, the definitions that encompass the labels are ambiguous even when the labels themselves are already in flux. People who identify as demi experience things that I don't and vice versa. it makes sense that Trixie is struggling to work through this when even among like minds it can be unclear where the lines are.
The use of the word "broken" when talking about Trixie can be problematic, but when everyone's working through it in moment and you're talking about it with an intelligent five year old, it's an appropriate term for the characters, even if the connotations aren't very pleasant.
8088398
It has taken me a long, long time to figure this out, (and maybe a little college education) but I am sapiosexual. And I suppose all of the theoreticals that go along with that. While I can be physically attracted to another human being, that attraction can come and go on a whim, according to my mood. I get off on intellectual discourse. It's been super weird for me, discovering this, making the connections, and sorting all of this out.
The worst part? I figured all of this out and now I am at a point in my life where, in all honesty, I will probably never have a relationship ever again. I am a fucked up cripple, with a broken, busted up body. My health issues have greatly shortened my life. Heck, at the moment, I don't even have a car. Acceptance of all of this has been quite grim, and to be honest, just another layer of depression.
But I deal with it. Somehow.
8088414
And I didn't know there was a specific term for that until now. I empathize with the attraction coming and going part, with the added bit of that attraction not translating into a desire for physical intimacy prior to any emotional intimacy. Otherwise intellectual conversation gets me excited, but not quite like that.
I sympathize there, friend. I'll say a little prayer to Cadance for you, in hope. And Luna too. Maybe for both of us.
"Suck" is bad language? Geez Lemon, tyrant much?
8087841 Have to granite to you, that was rather gouda.
I think you're free to write the story in any way you like. Psychology and sexuality of any non human species need not conform to anything we know as humans. The ponies of Equestria might behave like us most of the time, but they are not humans.
8088677
Yeah, because teaching somepony with magic words how to control himself is such a terrible, terrible act of tyranny. He should be able to say anything he wants, when he wants, right? With no fear of consequences! Mwahahahahahah!
And my first question is what Twilight's proposed ideas were, and what happened when Celestia tried them.
8089256
When someone has lived so long she has had plenty of time to experiment with various solutions for what ever issues she finds. Sadly for Twilight she doesn't realize or accept Celestia has had many many failures over the years
That's Chronos, isn't it?