Tolerance

by MJP

Diffrences

Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy sat at a table at Sugarcube Corner, waiting for their 5 other friends to arrive.

“You really haven’t told anyone about being bisexual yet?” Sunset Shimmer looked at Fluttershy, sipping her coffee and looking a little shocked.

Fluttershy shuffled in her seat, looking a little uncomfortable. “No, not many.”

“What about your family, like, your parents?”

“Well, I told mom and dad more than a few times, I don’t think they really noticed.” Fluttershy hung her head and sighed.

“Well, what about your brother?”

Fluttershy shot up in her seat as her eyes shrank into pinpricks. “Oh god, no, please, no!” she shook her head trying not to think about what her brother might do to her if he found out. Once she was sure she had gotten her mind of her admittedly horrible brother, she decided it was her turn to ask Sunset the same question.

“So what about you?”

Sunset set her coffee down. “What about me?” Though Sunset probably knew what she was getting at, she was still a little curious.

“Have you told anyone that, you know, you’re into girls?”

Sunset looked up at the ceiling. “Well, only a few…”

“Bu-but you seemed so casual when you told me and Pinkie. I mean, what’s this like for you?”

“Well, to put it bluntly sexual orientation in Equestria has not been scrutinized for as long as it has been here.”

“That explains why you were so casual about telling me.”

“Yeah, I mean, while I was a little too passionate and driven in bettering my magic to pursue a lifelong commitment, but I have always had a little bit ‘into girls’ so to speak, and I have flirted with a couple of girls my age, before my passions REALLY took over.”

Fluttershy had an idea where this was going, but she was still a little curious. “But when you came here…”

“Well, I obviously didn’t know at first, but gradually I gathered that people here are still struggling to accept people of other sexuality. Actually at one point, Snips and Snails convinced me to use a couple’s sexuality to lower their standing, and while I never ended up doing that, I still had to lie about my own.”

“Oh, I forgot to ask you about that.”

“Well, don’t worry, people weren’t exactly asking me where I stood. My general train of thought was ‘hanging around a popular nice guy will increase my standing and other’s respect for me.’ Besides, I think he figured it out eventually.”

Fluttershy sighed worrying about how her friend would react if“Sunset, I-I know you’re trying to move past all the things you did and all, but do you still feel...uncomfortable….with having to...lie about it.”

“To be honest yes, i-it does, v-very much,” Sunset tugged at her jacket “then again, there isn’t much about my past to look fondly upon. To this day I try to be a lot more open about it now that I’m not trying to uphold that whole ‘queen bee’ status, but then…” Sunset sighed as she stared into her half-empty coffee cup, thinking back to what she saw often happen to people who ‘come out of the closet’, so to speak, before looking back at her friend “...but then I see the conflict Pinkie has been having with one of her sisters, I think her name is Key Li-.”

“Limestone.”

Sunset and Fluttershy turned around to see Pinkie Pie entering the coffee shop, her usual happy and energetic demeanor was replaced by a look of distraught.

“Hey, Pinkie.”

“Hey, Sunset.” Pinkie made her way to Sunset and Fluttershy’s table and slumped in the chair across from them.

On closer inspection, Sunset noticed that Pinkie’s hair was beginning to deflate, as well as her skin tone starting to darken, and Sunset had hung around her long enough to know it meant something was definitely up.

“Hey.” Sunset put a hand on the party girl’s shoulder. “Did something happen?”

Pinkie looked up at her friends. And sighed “got in another fight with Limey.”

“I-I take it she still has a hard time dealing with the fact her sister is a….it’s bisexual, right?” Fluttershy had only recently figured out all the terminology and was hoping she hadn’t offended her in some way.

“Well, in my case the term is ‘Pansexual’, but yeah.”

Sunset took another sip from her coffee. “That must be very hard...”

“Yeah, I didn’t think my family would react the way they did, Maud took it fairly well, but other than that, Marble has a hard time facing me, my parents say they are fine with it, but I think they still have a hard time accepting it, and Limey...well, let’s be glad she doesn’t know about my school troubles.” Pinkie took a sugar packet from her table and tore it open. “So, what were you talking about?”

Fluttershy was the one to pipe up this time. “Coincidentally, We were talking about the differences in ‘sexual tolerance’ between here and where Sunset came from.”

“Meaning?”

“Well…”

Sunset put her hand on Fluttershy, “I think it’s best if I explain it to her.”

“Oh, ok sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Sunset smiled at her shy friend before turning back to Pinkie. “Anyway, like I told Fluttershy, homosexuality, bisexuality, that kind of stuff has not been oppressed for as long as it was here,. The only time it was looked upon that way was a time after the three pony tribes were united, but to put it simply, they realized their hypocrisy pretty quick.”

“Wow,” Pinkie rubbed her head. “Must make it a lot easier on them.”

“Not exactly, while ponies are pretty much fine with it, it puts us in a more...compromising position compared to other species. While races like the Griffons have never gone to full-blown war, they still have a hard time trusting and understanding our position.”

“T-then why do you have a hard time wrapping your head around the situation here?”

“Well, the way griffons see us may affect us diplomatically, but a normal pony never has to worry about their family abandoning them if they tell them their position, like what’s happening with you, Pinkie.”

Pinkie poured a sugar packet in her mouth, trying to be a little more energetic. “Well, she hasn’t exactly disowned me...yet, but that’s kinda the way Limey is. After I started going to normal school, it largely fell on her to protect the rock farm and retain our traditions. To her, me having a relationship with anyone other than a man is a blatant disregard of Pie family ideals. She might have convinced my parents to kick me out if Maud hadn’t stood up for me.”

“So, is sexuality some sort of ideal here?”

Fluttershy turned back towards Sunset. ‘It’s a little bigger than that, but, especially in pinkie’s case, yeah, I don’t know if it has worked that way in Equestria, but here for a long time it has been established that the men would go out and work while the women would stay home, cook, and make babies, especially here in North America. Basically, a ‘traditional’ marriage between a man and a woman was firmly established, to the point that merely having an interest in someone of the same sex meant that something was wrong with you.”

“Well, that probably explains why old textbooks classify ‘homosexuality’ as a mental disorder.” While Sunset didn’t agree with the old human views, especially since gender roles were always a bit loose in Equestria, it made sense when she thought about it. If she was raised on the ideals of “stallions work and mares clean” she’d have a bit of a hard time accepting a same-sex relationship. She chuckled. “For a long time I thought it was because humans were naturally judgemental.”

“Well, they still kinda are.” Fluttershy thought back to the way students trated Sunset after the fall formal, as well as her own suspicions nearly ruining their friendship at one point.

Pinkie sprang up from her seat. “Fluttershy, don’t say THAT.”

“Sorry.” Fluttershy hid behind her hair.

“Nah, she’s right. You’re not as bad as, say the Yaks, don’t even get me started on them, but you definitely have some...issues to work out.”

“To be honest, who doesn’t.” Sunset and Fluttershy turned around to see Pinkie taking a big sip from of coffee despite having never seen her order any, noticing that her hair was starting to spring back up.

“She has a point, Fluttershy.” She did, especially considering the dumb (and likely offensive) mule jokes her classmates in magic kindergarten used to tell. “And, sorry if I hadn’t said it before, sorry about your sister.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Limey might not be taking it super well, but it’s not like she’s trying to kill me. She loves me, and she’ll cool down eventually.”

“Well, I’m just glad to have friends that won’t turn their back on me because of my stance, at least, I hope they won’t.”

“I know they won’t if we can stay friends after the Anon-a-miss incident (once again I am sorry), I think we can stay friends no matter what.” Pinkie pulled out a canister of whipped cream from her jacket and sprayed a large tower of it on her cup of coffee. “Besiiiiides,” Pinkie rolled her eyes in her usual exaggerated fashion, “ with the way you’ve been getting tongue-tied around Sunset lately, I think they might have figured it out already.”

Fluttershy’s face turned to that of shock. “PINKIE!!!!!!”

“WHAAAAT?”

Author's Note:

Since it takes forever for me to write anything, I figured I would puublish this to tide you over until I get my next fully-fledged story done.

ok, so a little context, fist of all, this is not in continuity with ANY of my other stories, this is because this was written as a chapter for an entirley diffrent author's story. Highlord Langslock's Cultural Diffrences (which even diverges from EG continuity). This has been sitting in my drive for forever and I finally decided to publish it.

Another reason this is not in my continuity because of character details I had in mind when I wrote this a year back have changed since then.

Frst of all: in my continuity most everybody is fully aware oF Pinkie Pie's sexual orientation, including Limestone.

Second: in my continuity, Sunset is straight. (For the record, I think that SunLight Is an overdone pairing, and I want to explore other partners for Sunset.)

And third: I originally was pushing a Sunset and Fluttershy paring when I wrote this, but I have since decided that Pinkie is a better partner for her, and that I prefer writing Sunset as straight anyway.

although the facts about the views of sexuality in Equestria, is still pretty much the same, along with Fluttershy's issues of coming out, which will be expanded on in a future stories that are in my continuity.

and if you are wondering, here is what everyone's sexual orientatrion is in my headcannon as of this writing.
Sunset: Straight
Twilight: Straight
Rainbow Dash: Straight with Asexual leanings (Lauren Faust said it best, implying RD is a leasbian because she's a tomboy is offensive to both lesbians and tomboys.)
Applejack: Questioning, though leaning towards Lesbian
Rarity: Straight
Fluttershy: Bisexual
Pinkie Pie: Bisexual

I know everyonbe just goes the "everyone is gay" route, but I always found that lazy, and just shipping all of the mane 6 with each other (rather than one mane 6 pairing) just ruins the dynamic.

Anyway, that's my two cents, MJP out.

Comments

[NicLove]

...discuss sexuality...

You for got the SEX tag !

[Harmony Pie]

8941091
It really didn’t need one

[Jordan179]

I'd say "criticized" or "villified" rather than "scrutinized," since obviously sexual orientation would exist (unless they are all bisexual) and Ponies would consider it a relevant fact about other Ponies (for one thing, when considering courting or matching them).

There is a mating system under which sexual orientation truly wouldn't matter. That would be heats so uncontrollably-intense that everypony just mated with the closest Pony of the opposite sex, or one of the same sex if none of the opposite sex was available, and actions during heat had no connection with friendship or love in the normal senses of the words. But that doesn't seem to be the Equestrian system: for one thing, they have romantic, companionate marriage.

[MJP]

8942670
as I have stated in the author's notes, this is one of my earlier stroies that I never published, and I may consider rewriting it

[Jordan179]

Actually at one point, Snips and Snails convinced me to use a couple’s sexuality to lower their standing, and while I never ended up doing that, I still had to lie about my own.”

Ironic given that some fans have Snails secretly be Glittershell. But then, Snips and Snails were both trying to be "evil minions" at the time.

Given that Pony Limestone's resentment seems to stem from the fact that both Pinkie and Maud are finding love and success in the big wide world while Limestone remains to run the farm for her ageing parents, I can see why Human Limestone might have even more intense feeligns and use the family's religious fundamentalism as an excuse to condemn Pinkie. Particularly if this is a Promiscuous Pinkie rather than a Chaste one: but even if this Pinkie is in a stable relationship and simply has pansexual feelings, the same logic would apply.

Pinkie's parents, on the other hand, seem to be the good kind of "religious," are are quite loving and accepting toward their extremely weird brood of offspring. None of the Pie Daughters are what I would call "normal," even though some of them are what I would call "heroic."

"... homosexuality, bisexuality, that kind of stuff has not been oppressed for as long as it was here,. The only time it was looked upon that way was a time after the three pony tribes were united, but to put it simply, they realized their hypocrisy pretty quick.”

Pretty much what I think too, with the advisory that this is "history as told by Celestia," who would have a bias in the telling. Given that the speaker is Sunset Shimmer, it's probably "history as told directly and personally by Celestia," too.

I think if Sunset was to fall for any female, it would be Sci-Twi, though there's an obvious problem with that in vanilla canon -- Sci-Twi loves Spruce.

[EnergeticRider]

She chuckled. “For a long time I thought it was because humans were naturally judgemental.”

Yes, totally agree:

Pinkie Pie: Bisexual (I dislike the term Pansexual.)

Humans are indeed naturally judgemental and hypocritical.