Damn Good Times
Fluttershy thought about flamingos.
They gather in giant, colorful, chaotic mobs, filling up lagoons with their wild, loud chaos. Each individual is so pretty and dainty, but at the same time, they squawk and flap around and are just... silly. Beautiful, lithe ballerinas, squishing around in the mud.
She thought about flamingos because... well...
"Just turn the sheet in, Twilight," Starlight said. "We're destroying the other teams. It's not even mathematically possible for them to win. That one question won't make a difference."
"Trivia is very serious!" Twilight responded, legitimately offended. "I know this, I'm just blanking on the donkey's name. It's something like... Mailbox Head? Moon Dancer, does that sound right?"
Moon Dancer just sipped her beer and smirked. "Maybe, maybe not."
Starlight grunted, grabbing the paper and quill with a blob of magic. "Oh, for... Just let Moon Dancer answer it, Twilight." Despite the alicorn's protests, Starlight placed the paper in front of Moon Dancer, who wrote a name on the parchment, literally feigning a yawn as she did so.
Twilight glared. Starlight rolled her eyes. "Oh no, Moon Dancer knows fifty things, and you only know forty-nine things. It's a catastrophe." She picked up the parchment and toted it off to the triviamaster for scoring.
"I know the answer!" Twilight called after her. "I just can't exactly remember the name!" Moon Dancer's smirk got bigger.
Fluttershy reached over and put her hoof on top of Twilight's. "I believe you, Twilight. I know it's frustrating to not be able to remember something."
Twilight sighed. Starlight returned to the table, and soon after, the fifth member of their team came back from chatting with an acquaintance near the bar. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry to let myself get pulled away," Rarity greeted, politely and calmly. "Are we still doing the little trivia thing?"
"We just turned in the sheet for the last round," Moon Dancer replied. "I'm pretty sure we got all the answers right. Thanks to... some of us, more than others."
Twilight huffed.
Rarity nodded, almost certainly no longer listening.
Moon Dancer leaned closer. "Twilight."
Twilight ignored her.
"Twilight."
"What."
"I have to tell you something."
Despite herself, Twilight looked dryly at her friend.
Moon Dancer grinned slyly. "His name really was Mailbox Head."
"What??" Laughing, Twilight pounced on Moon Dancer, poking her with her hooves. "You made me think I didn't know it!"
"I had to seize the opportunity!"
As they playfully wrestled, the other three members of the team watched with vaguely amused tolerance. Rarity glanced at the other two. "I admit that I didn't think this could be so exciting for anypony."
Futtershy smiled to herself, noting that Rarity and Starlight were fully able to maintain eye contact with one another, again. "Moon Dancer always gets this excited. I thought you two wouldn't be so interested in trivia, but when Bon Bon and Lyra said they couldn't make it this week, I kind of needed to find some more ponies who didn't care much."
"Indeed, I can't get into the game, but it's so lovely to spend an evening with friends, no matter what," Rarity agreed, tipping her glass of wine slightly. "And... please don't think your gesture has gone unnoticed. Of inviting us to your trivia night, which was the regular outing with your..." She coughed lightly. "...Your friends who are of a particular orientation and lifestyle."
Fluttershy blinked innocently, tilting her head in confusion. "I'm sorry?"
"Thanks for inviting us to your gay thing," Starlight answered brusquely, though she was blushing. "And thanks for inviting Twilight too, so it wouldn't feel like a double date." Rarity nodded at that enthusiastically.
Fluttershy smiled genuinely. "Oh! Of course, we just wanted to support you both."
Rarity took a deep breath, relaxing her body slightly. "And we appreciate it, darling. I'm trying to be less bashful about it, but it's difficult."
At that moment, the triviamaster spoke through his magical microphone again: "Okay, everypony, I've finished scoring the answers to the final round. And the winners, once again with a perfect ten out of ten..." He paused awkwardly as he had habitually done just before speaking their team's name all night. "...'Four Queer Ponies And Twilight.'"
"Yes!!" Rarity shrieked, rearing up and stomping both of her front hooves onto their table. "Take that, you heteronormative boors!"
After a moment of aggressive panting, she opened her eyes and seemed to realize where she was. She emitted a nervous titter, daintily stepped down from the table, and took a gentle sip from her wine glass.
"There you go," the triviamaster said dryly. "It's not a hot night at the Pub Palomino until somepony calls somepony else a heteronormative boor. Well, let's please give a round of applause to our winners, and remember to tip your waitstaff and bartenders generously. I'll see you here next week." He magicked down his microphone as ponies around the bar stomped dutifully for the victors.
Fluttershy smiled at Moon Dancer who, as always, was at the mercy of some kind of adrenaline high from expressing so much knowledge. But before she could say anything, Rarity walked over and nudged Twilight. "What about him, darling?"
Twilight blinked. She glanced where Rarity was indicating, then looked back blankly. "The trivia guy? What about him?"
"Do you think he's handsome?"
Twilight blushed. "Are we really doing this?"
"You said you'd point out at least one pony who caught your eye, and the night's almost over! We have to build up your confidence." She grinned. "I admit, if I wasn't currently more interested in... exploring other arenas, I might want to pursue him, myself."
Twilight looked at the trivia guy chatting with the bartender. She considered his tight, button-up shirt, fashionable glasses, curly brown mane, and simultaneously carefully styled and bushy beard. "I mean... I guess he has kind of a... Trenderhoofy appeal." She shrugged. "Okay. Yes. I think he's handsome. " A very slight blush colored her cheeks. "He's probably read a lot. We'd be able to have good conversations."
"He reminds me of Moon Dancer!" Starlight chirped, which was perhaps the single worst thing she could possibly have said.
But Moon Dancer was able to be a bit graceful; she laughed and nodded. "Yeah, kind of."
Twilight tilted her head at Rarity. "How is that going for you? The, um, other arenas."
A slight dusting of color tinged Rarity's cheeks. "Truthfully, I'm mostly just disappointed in myself for not accepting things earlier," she admitted. "Looking back, I can see opportunities I missed for no good reason. It's a terrible waste."
"I get that too," Starlight added, leaning in. "I was scared to even think about... anything, really. So scared to think about it, I didn't even think about it enough to know I was scared!" She grinned proudly. "But I'll have you know, I talked to a cute mare when I just brought the sheet up to the trivia guy!"
"What was her name?" Fluttershy asked.
"No idea," Starlight answered, tittering nervously. "Um, actually, 'talked' might have kind of been an exaggeration. Do you have to actually open your mouth and speak to count as 'talking with somepony?'"
"Not if you think they're very pretty and you're still getting used to everything," Fluttershy replied. Starlight softly blushed and nodded.
As if summoned, the triviamaster strode directly over to their table. "Congratulations!" he greeted, levitating a piece of paper down onto the table. "Here's your fifty-bit gift certificate."
"Thank you!" Fluttershy replied cheerfully. They almost always won, so this was a typical occurrence: congratulations, thanks, smile, and goodbye.
But this time, he hesitated. "Hey," he said. "You're the team that... left the note for me a couple of weeks ago, right? About never having questions about non-ponies?"
Moon Dancer nodded, but Fluttershy couldn't help but feel embarrassed about such a blunt thing. "We're sorry if that was rude," she said.
To her surprise, the triviamaster just laughed. "No, no! I looked back at my questions, and you're totally right! I didn't even notice until you pointed it out." He shook his head, grinning. "I probably would have been really defensive about that kind of thing a few years ago, but I'm trying to be more chill, now. Besides, the best thing about this job is, every week I have an excuse to do a bunch of new research. This just gives me a whole new set of stuff to learn about."
Rarity had been looking back and forth between him and Twilight gleefully. She leaned forward. "You enjoy learning things? Goodness, that's so much like you, Twilight!" She grinned almost maniacally at her friend, then winked at the trivia guy. "Twilight, if you'll recall from our team name, is not a queer pony."
Twilight's terrified grin appeared to be the only contribution she was able to make to the conversation.
The trivia guy, for his part, just nodded warmly. "I remember when it first occurred to me that I would never run out of new things to learn. But that can suck you in, you know? So the other thing I love about this job, I always get to meet new ponies who love facts as much as I do. Forces me to keep ponies other than myself in mind."
"My!" Rarity bellowed. "So, it seems, if I may put it in my own words, that your two main interests are learning and friendship!"
He laughed. "I guess you could say that." He beamed at Twilight. "You, too? I live in Canterlot, but I make it down here to Ponyville a lot. Would you want to meet up sometime to talk about it over a drink?"
Twilight's terrified grin was now accompanied by a huge blush. "This is actually really working on me, Rarity!" she barked. "But please tell him it is far too early for me to feel comfortable going on any date with anypony!"
"Erm. I think he can hear you, darling."
"Yes, I am speaking very loudly! Will he be mad? I hope he isn't mad!"
The triviamaster chuckled, blushing very slightly himself. "No, of course I'm not mad. I'll tell you what. If you change your mind, or if you just want to hang out as friends, you know where I'll be. Otherwise, I hope you'll come enjoy trivia night, okay?"
He flashed a charming grin and Twilight nodded. He looked around at the rest of them and said, "I'll try to make the questions harder for you guys next week!" and then he walked on to another table to chat with the patrons there.
Twilight glared at Rarity as if suddenly realizing she was annoyed with her. "Ack! What was that?"
"What was what?"
"You totally put me on the spot, there! I revert to some sort of filly-like state when dating is on the table, you know that!"
Rarity sipped her wine. "But that's why I did it. Experience is the only way for it to get easier. He was very nice about you turning him down, right?"
"Yes, but..." Twilight suddenly squinted at her friend. "Hey, where was all your gratitude when I was making you go talk to that cello pony with the bowtie, huh?"
Rarity blushed (and Fluttershy felt her own cheeks warming slightly). "Ahh. Indeed. We're all learning every day."
Fluttershy felt her foreleg being nudged. She looked over at her special somepony, who was gaping at the triviamaster. "Psst. Hey. Hey."
Fluttershy leaned closer. "Um, yes?"
Moon Dancer kept poking her. "Fluttershy. Look. At his. Cutie mark."
Fluttershy looked. It was normally blocked by his hip shirt, but standing the way he was, chatting with the ponies at the other table, it was visible.
His cutie mark was a tree. It rose narrowly as a dark brown line and then spread out, dangling green tendrils, stark on his light beige coat. It was unmistakable. A weeping willow.
Fluttershy's mouth fell open; luckily the others were still talking and hadn't noticed. She leaned even closer. "Let's not tell Twilight, okay?"
Moon Dancer chuckled. "Agreed."
They leaned against one another as all three of the others shared mutual congratulations at their flirtation bravery.
Moon Dancer spoke up. "You guys are the best."
They looked at her, confused. "Uh, what?" Starlight asked.
"I mean it," Moon Dancer emphasized. "This stuff is really hard, and you're all just crushing it. You're the best."
Twilight frowned. "There can't be more than one 'best,' by definition."
"Um, maybe most of the time," Fluttershy said. "But actually? I think she's right. You're all the best."
They blinked at her, looking confused but flattered. "Well, okay," Starlight said. "You're the best, too."
Fluttershy gave a full-face smile, her eyes squeezed shut, her teeth gleaming. "Mm hmm." And she felt Moon Dancer give her a kiss on the forehead.
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Complete?
Oh, most joyous of days!
I know what I'll be doing over the holidays!
I don’t... it’s been a while, I don’t remember anything about trees?
9360222
Weeping Willow was Fluttershy’s crazy beard on the other side of the mirror. This one sounds a lot more put together but he kinda hinted that he wasn’t until recently. It’ll probably be fine. At least he’s not going after gay chicks now.
9360245
Ohhhh. Right.
How'd you come up with the story name?
9360494
I was trying to think of some way to express, like, Hey sometimes you imagine something is a big deal and you think should totally worry about it but actually it was never really all that important! So every chapter title is a reminder of "Yo, worry about this, it might be important!" and then the overall title is saying, "No, chill, it doesn't matter."
Supposed to kind of reflect what all the characters are going through, learning what they don't need to spend energy worrying about.
It's nice when you catch up on a story and then it completes a few days later. What a lovely story... and there's something so cosy and familiar about it, too, in a way that makes it so easy to read and get wrapped into. I appreciate how candid it is about queerness; while I do appreciate stories where being gay is basically invisible, this feels very real in how they talk about being gay and the struggles of coming out especially when you're young, and even to yourself. And I actually really didn't see Rarity coming... though as always with her I'd kinda hoped. Thank you for writing this and the preceding story, and I look forward to following whatever you may write in the future.
(Also, TMBG are my favourite band of all time and I am super gay so seeing both those things in a pony fic gave me a big goofy smile.)
9361413
Oh, thank you! I was a little worried about all the coming-out stories... that's so easy to be trite with, and it's easy to project... everyone's experience is so different. I felt pretty okay about Fluttershy, Human Dancer, and even Starlight, who's a pretty ridiculous character no matter what. (I felt like Fluttershy's hypnotism metaphor did a decent job of communicating what that denial-but-not-denial is like.) But I'm not 100% sure how to finesse Rarity, because yeah, it's a joke how she's so staunchly asserting her straightness, but that's some people's experience and don't want to make fun of it, y'know?
Honestly, I had to just commit to it because I got a sequel idea in my head of Rarity, Starlight, and Trixie trying to get laid at Pride and that just felt like so much damn fun to write I couldn't end this story any other way. Uh, spoilers for the end of the trilogy, I guess, everyone.
9361745
Oooooh now I'm excited, that sounds great
Like the previous story, I adored the character interactions here. Both the comedic asides, and the intense drama that felt very real, and pretty close to feelings I've had in the past, particularly with Pony Twilight. You did a great job showing multiple facets to the characters, making all of them charming and flawed in their own rights. With Rarity, I was a bit concerned about bi-erasure when you revealed she is into mares, but the dialogue in this last chapter seems to show you aren't doing that.
However, I do think all the focus on Weeping Willow was a mistake, particularly making him a big threat. While it did help when you went into his backstory, he was an annoying character to read about. Similarly, in I Am Awkward (Yellow), Rainbow was pretty annoying when she acted as an antagonist. I think these stories just don't need villains like this.
In any case, I only checked out your first story because of how unusual the ship was, and I was pleasantly surprised by your writing. Keep up the good work!
9365683
Oh, thank you! I'm especially relieved to hear your comment about Rarity's bisexuality. It's always a challenge to make it explicitly clear a character is bi (specifically to avoid bi erasure) but not to just be totally artificial with it. "Hello have I told you that I ran into my ex-girlfriend at the movie theater and also I ran into my ex-boyfriend at the movie theater beep boop"
9375373
I almost called the second chapter "We're the Replacements" but that seemed mean.
This took me longer to read than normal, because every other paragraph was so funny I had to find somepony to show it to. The story was interesting, the characters were either perfectly captured, perfectly fleshed out, or somehow both. Not to mention some of the punchiest humour I've read on this site. All that tied up with a queer coming-of-age story bow? Absolutely magnificent.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Fun, cute, and sweet, just like Fluttershy and Moon Dancer!
P.s that sequel sounds amaaaazing I can't wait to read it!
Oh my god, Rarity.
Oh my god, Twilight. XD
I am incredibly pleased with myself for figuring out there was only one person trivia guy could be. :3
And now I'm in the awkward position of liking I Am Awkward more because it was more consistently, but recognizing this as a superior story. So I'm gonna go reread Awkward to make my final determination. And I want to drive home that I never reread stories that I did not write myself. <.<
Also, you'd better write another installment of this series or I will have to put you under fanfiction arrest. :B
Magnificent stuff from start to finish. It really says something how you can balance the romance, comedy, and drama so well. Weeping Willow did come of as possibly too insufferable in the earlier chapters, but overall, this was a great read. Thank you for it.
9365683
9380950
A couple of thoughts about story balance:
It seems the biggest issue with the plotting and pacing of the story might be Weeping's characterization. I actually didn't expect this, but in retrospect, it makes total sense: way back from the planning stage, I put way more effort into his eventual redemption than into his teapot-addled character at the start. I dunno how easily I could edit it, but it's got me thinking generally about how to handle things like this. How do you write a deliberately annoying character?
A couple of things occur to me... I think there's plenty of comedy and pathos that can come from a sexist internet nerd dick villain, but I played up the sexism early instead of more mundane irritations, like his fallacy-obsession, and my own privilege may have kept me from recognizing how everpresent this kind of sexist toxicity might be in some of my readers' lives.
Also, due to my desire to have a mystery, I may have made him seem just like a romantic obstacle villain rather than what he is: An Equestria Girls Villain who has magic awfulness and then gets redeemed, per tradition. Now that I think about it, it might be an easy minor fix to add another short scene with Human Dancer early to establish the EQG friendship themes and to make it clear early that it's natural for him to respect girls, even as he has a darker side that can be sexist as hell.
Honestly, the main thing? If I was able to make his early character FUNNIER, it'd probably just fix a lot of this on its own. But how do you make an annoying character funny? Hm. Anyone got the number of whoever originally developed the character of Pinkie Pie?
9381381
I think a big issue is that for the longest time, we see no one who actually likes Weeping Willow. Everyone hates him from the start, and Fluttershy is presented as miserable around him. If everyone hates him, then the reader has no reason to think they should enjoy reading about him. I don't think making him funnier would help that. Maybe if we got hints earlier that he isn't normally like this (and not from Fluttershy, who we don't expect to be a good character witness in this case), it would help, but that would probably alter the story structure too much to be worthwhile.
For a character that's similar in many ways, you can look at Mudbriar. He was just annoying and not sexist, though.
EDIT: Plus, the center of the story is Fluttershy. Showing more of Weeping Willow would just distract from that. He's best served as an obstacle for Fluttershy coming out, and shouldn't be much more than that.
Hi, I haven't started reading this story yet, I totally had the idea to title the chapters in my story I'm working on after They Might Be Giants songs, and now I can't do it! Dammit!
This is what happens when you procrastinate on writing a story for like... a year I guess.
Eh I'll probably do it anyway. Not like there's any shortage.
I don’t know that I have ever heard heteronormative said aloud.
And that's two nights in a row I stayed up late reading about cute gay ponies, first for I am Awkward and now for this. Well done, send more.
I was so caught up in the more serious drama between the various characters that I will admit that the EQG villain situation felt a little jarring. I was kind of expecting it after realizing who had been writing in the journal but I guess I was here more for the relationships between Shy/Moonie/Twilight, as well as HumanShy's difficulties in accepting herself. That was tough to read at times, I really felt some of her pain and just how hard she was trying to bottle it all up. Awesome job!
I've never wanted to kill someone as much as I've wanted to kill Willow, but everything else is solid gold.
This was amazing in every way. About as moving a tri-genre piece of fiction I've ever read. I literally couldn't put it down: an entire afternoon well spent.
This was so well written! I loved it so much.
I actually loved Weeping Willow's characterization. He's a git, but he's a git that makes sense, and it's nice to think that he might turn out to be less of a git under and after sufficient circumstances. I also loved the way things played out between both universes. I think if this story had focused solely on the conflict in Equestria or solely on the conflict in the human world, it would still be interesting and relatable, but you managed to create a set of circumstances that actually added something to the story in the form of alternate perspectives and ways things could play out, rather than just being there for hijinks. Overall a wonderful and extremely enjoyable story that I've added to my favorites.
I just binged I Am Awkward and this in a single night. Sleep? What's that? Can't be any better than intensely adorable gay ponies.
3am is a good time to go to bed, right?Jokes aside, this is a very good series. The fact that I'm making this comment shows that. I haven't commented specifically to praise a story in a very long time. The characterization is great, some of the themes hit real close to home, and I was smiling and giggling like mad nearly the whole time I was reading. I do hope a sequel comes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go get my 3 hours of sleep.
I'll be honest, I only read this story because of the song chapter titles (as TMBG are one of the few bands I listen to regularly). I also read the previous story because I prefer to read things in order.
That being said, I considered this to be a very well-written couple of stories. Very engaging read.
I
Have to admit that this completing slipped my notice. Even though I binged I Am Awkward (Yellow) and then salivated over this until it was finished.
This was nice. I still feel like Weeping Willow is too much of a caricature at the beginning. I guess the reason that it bothered me so much (and maybe others as well) is that in a story overtly about acceptance, picking a character as the butt of the joke feel very much out of place. Still, the later parts of the story really help redeem that particular aspect of the fic. I particularly enjoy how well he fits as an EQG villain.
I enjoyed this story. Thanks for writing it.
This and I Am Awkward are really important and came at a good time for me, so thanks to Present Perfect for recommending this as part of the RCL Best Fic panel :V
It's been a really long time since I read ponyfic with weird kind-of tears in my eyes at 3 AM from how funny and relatable and real it felt, so thanks for making a really good story.
(On the critique-ier side of things both this and I Am Awkward could probably use an editing pass for adverb overuse (imo?) and some minor grammar/phrasing issues, but I mention this only in the spirit of utmost honesty and candor, those social norms which I so aspire to
)
Anyway, a resounding round of applause from me. It's been a very good 24 hours because of these stories and I think they'll stick with me. The shortlist of well-loved details, to show my work:
- Character voices super on point, a doubly impressive success given the more mature characterizations you've given them here
- God Moon Dancer I am also like that so relatable
- Always keeping every person's perspective in mind; I was basically on Soge's page earlier in this fic RE: Willow's characterization and how everyone was treating him but you really turned that around excellently
- Humor was great! I kept having to put my phone down and laugh at the tiny little character moments! Twilight is indeed like this! Showing characters behaving in ways they never would in source material but is nevertheless perfectly in character is the true power of the best fanfiction.
- Even though I need to listen to more TMBG I greatly enjoyed the cryptic chapter titles in both stories.
- Very dense character-focused world building! If you can call it that. You really managed to cram in a whole bunch of little things (trivia, Spike eating off the ground gag, the Salon, all the little politics around the side characters eg. Starlight, Rarity) and give them enough detail to feel real and natural while also paying an appropriate amount of attention to the plot.
- And you handled so many characters so deftly! Like Maud barely shows up and she's written perfectly. A++ on using the full cast to your fullest advantage. Also shows through with Discord's role in the I Am Awkward plot, which was pitch-perfect for him and kept the story moving without getting bogged down focusing too hard on Discord specifically.
- Your depiction of Twilight's (and others but her most of all) obsessive moralizing (can I get a "am I a bad pony?" for the folks in the back?) was almost alarmingly on point (oh yeah see previous point, the Shining Armor and Cadence scene was so good and effortless???)
- I Am Awkward: I actually really liked how most of the fic was spent on characters considering the new couple and watching their effects on the ponies around them rather than the couple themselves, that was really interesting and well-executed (though also all of the fluff was extremely powerful and good and I am very excited for the potential third fic).
- Anyway my shortlist has gotten long just wanted to put some stuff down.
EDIT:
- I came back because I remembered how important it was that at the climax of I Am Awkward, when Rainbow is doubting how well being friends will work with Moon Dancer and Fluttershy's relationship, that Moon Dancer just. Gives examples? "Oh we'll just make it work" is such a cheap and easy moral that I'm kind of sick of from too much shonen anime (ntm a little bit MLP itself), but you made it have weight here by actually having the characters say what they think that could look like. It was so much more valuable and impactful than just a well-meant but kind of trite sentiment.
Anyway, 10/10 made me want to tell my friends I love them.
This story and its prequel have some of the best dialog I've ever seen in a story on FiMFiction. Possibly ever. That was really good, and I had a blast reading them: thank you for writing them!
Man, this story really knocked it out of the park. Found myself in states of gut busting laughter several times throughout all while feeling like I was seeing romance treated in a unique and different but certainly fantastic way. I suppose the real next quest is to check these They Might Be Giants fellas out, the Drink! chapter was incredible and how I caught on to look up the notes and find out they'd been lyrics all along. These first two stories in the trilogy have really made my past few days so far, cheers!
I was so into this story I kept up a running commentary on chapters while reading it (and yes I did just sit down and read this in one several hour sitting) because I was just that excited by it. Too many things worth enjoying about the story to wrap up in just one comment on the final chapter. Hopefully it didn't come across as annoying.
I went back and read a lot of your own comments on the story, JCarp, regarding Weeping Willow, and I can see what you were trying to go for a bit better now than I did before things were resolved. However, I still feel like I don't care much for the character, redemption or no. Maybe because he reminds me a little of myself at that age, maybe because I took too much offense to some of his sexist comments. I don't know. I just don't like him very much.
As for the overall story itself, it was quite brilliant. A beautiful way to handle coming out that never, at any point, felt like it was mocking the subject it was describing. As a lady who very much likes ladies, it's good to read stories that handle the subject with a certain level of seriousness and maturity. Too often on this website the idea is used either for trite garbage or for the sake of fetish fuel.
Rarity's particular journey reminded me just a tad of the characterization of Rarity in Sleepless Brony's Romance Reports. This might be invoking a story so old (relatively speaking) no one knows what I'm talking about, but in both cases Rarity was convinced she was straight until something finally made her accept she wasn't. The difference here was some actual resolution in that, rather than continued denial. Also, I won't lie: when she said heteronormative boors I started laughing so hard I almost woke my entire apartment complex.
I'm eagerly looking forward to the third part of the trilogy, and just might get started on it right away.
9508503
well said!
This fic was absolutely wonderful and brilliantly characterized while also being completely hilarious and gay as a gumball machine. Also, you have very good taste in music :D
Is the title a reference to Don Quixote, by any chance?