21. Book Club
Twilight took stock of the scene in front of her, her hands resting on her hips as she smiled proudly to herself.
Four blankets laid on the library floor, with three cushions sitting on top of them; in front of the cushions sat three old plates with a dozen cookies on each, all neatly compiled into orderly stacks of three different flavors, so that no one felt like they were getting less cookies than anyone else.
Three glasses of milk, not to mention a pitcher containing refills, also sat by the scene, and it was all tied together nicely by a small pile of books, mostly Daring Do but also some of Twilight’s favorites that she wanted to share, some that Spike had picked out, and a few recommendations for Rainbow Dash, who wanted to branch out.
And last but not least, sitting on the reception desk was a small pegasus colt, writing on a scroll with a very pronounced frown because he was just so tired of writing down checklists.
“I think that’s everything we need for tonight’s book club!” Twilight said with a huge smile. “What do you think, Spike? Think we’ll have a grand old time?”
“As long as I don’t have to take anymore notes,” Spike stuck his tongue out at his mom, who returned the gesture with a giggle and a playful roll of her eyes.
Twilight sat down on one of the blankets and gazed longingly at the plate of cookies in front of her. She really, really wanted to try just one, but she knew it would be very rude to start eating before everyone was present.
“Things sure have changed,” Twilight said idly, mostly just to distract herself from the cookies, “since Rainbow started coming to the library. Two weeks doesn’t seem like it should be much time, and yet everything can change in a heartbeat.”
After a moment of silence in which Twilight had expected Spike to reply, she looked over to see the young pegasus with a mouth full of several cookies, looking very guiltily at Twilight as soon as she locked eyes with him.
Spike let the cookies fall out of his mouth and his mother gave him a very unimpressed stare. She had half a mind to scold him, but instead she simply laughed.
“Wow, you’re right. Things really have changed,” Spike’s comment only made Twilight snort in her laughter.
“They really have,” Twilight said happily.
While the Golden Oaks Library was never completely without patronage, it was rare to see more than a dozen ponies within its walls in a given week. Thanks to donations and Twilight selling off some of her old trinkets she no longer wanted, she made enough money for her and her son to live off of, but just barely. But that was enough for Twilight.
At least until Rainbow Dash started coming, and soon enough Rainbow was telling every pony in Canterlot how ‘awesome’ the library was, and just like that, not a day went by when at least three or four ponies didn’t stop by the library to check out new books or return old ones, even donating some from their personal collections!
“I’ve even gotten pretty good at the art of small talk!” Twilight exclaimed proudly, finishing her train of thought out loud.
“Well, you were always good at book recommendations,” Spike said, “though I’m not sure a lecture about magic thermodynamics can really be qualified as ‘small talk’. Or ‘good’, for that matter.”
“Hey!” Twilight said indignantly, puffing up her flushing cheeks. “That Sea Swirl pony was really interested in my lectu—er, I mean small talk!”
“Right,” Spike rolled his eyes with a mischievous smirk, “and what about Roseluck? Or her sisters? Or Spring Showers? Or Amethyst Star?”
“Alright, I get it,” Twilight crossed her arms and tried to pretend she wasn’t bothered by the heat in her cheeks. “So maybe I need my small talk to be a bit—”
“Smaller?” Spike finished his mother’s sentence for her with another self-satisfied grin. Twilight looked at him with vague annoyance, which only made his grin wider, before she playfully ruffled his mane.
Twilight couldn’t help herself and decided just one bite of a cookie wouldn’t hurt, and four cookies later she decided she had been wrong. She looked over at Spike, expecting him to be happily chowing down on his cookies, but again her expectations were subverted when she saw him simply staring down and off into space.
“Spike?” Twilight asked, a twinge of apprehension in her voice. “Is something wrong?”
“Twilight?” was all he replied with, looking up at Twilight with eyes that sparkled with unshed tears.
“Yes?” Twilight scooched closer, and so too did Spike, leaning against his mother as she put her arm around him.
“Are we gonna leave again?” Spike looked up at Twilight and his tears could no long be called ‘unshed’.
“No,” Twilight replied firmly and quickly. “Not this time.”
Twilight had no idea if that was a promise she could keep. But she couldn’t ruin the hope of her son, not again. She couldn’t darken the days spent with Rainbow Dash, or talking to the other library patrons, or their book club, with fears and doubts.
And she resolved to make sure that she did keep that promise. That somehow, she would find a way to give Spike the peaceful life he deserved, and not run from their new home with her tail between her legs as she had done too many times before.
This time would be different. This time had to be different. For his sake.
Twilight’s troubled thoughts were interrupted by the creak of the library door, and Spike nearly jumped up to the ceiling as Rainbow Dash walked into the lobby.
“Rainbow!” Spike called as he ran toward her, his arms open wide.
“Heya, squirt!” Rainbow said teasingly, grabbing the younger pegasus in a hug before lifting him into the air and spinning around, much to the giggly pleasure of Spike, a gesture which made Twilight’s heart sing. Rainbow put Spike down and flashed a grin at Twilight, and she in turn gave Rainbow a soft and welcoming smile.
“Welcome back to the library, Rainbow Dash,” she said, in awe of just how happy she was to see her one Equestrian friend.
When Twilight first came to Canterlot, she was terrified of other people, and she still remembered the fear that gripped her heart the first time Rainbow entered the library on that stormy night.
But now that fear almost seemed silly; Rainbow wasn’t just some pony or a terrifying Slayer, she was Twilight’s friend, and knowing her made Twilight’s life a little brighter and she was just so happy to meet her.
Of course, Rainbow being a trans gal like Twilight definitely didn’t hurt either. Twilight had never really been friends with another trans woman, and it was nice to finally meet someone Twilight could connect with that understood where she was coming from with all the gender crap.
“You punks ready for book club!?” Rainbow cheered as she and Spike headed over to the blankets and pillows splayed across the floor, eliciting a cheer of confirmation from Spike as he followed her.
“Glad you could join us,” Twilight said with a grin of her own as Rainbow sat down.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Rainbow replied, running her hand through her short mane.
“Glad to hear that,” Twilight chuckled, “because you’re our only other member! It’d be a bit lonely without you!”
“Yeah!” Spike added, his mouth absolutely full to bursting with cookies, spraying crumbs everywhere as he opened it.
“Funny you bring that up,” Rainbow smirked mischievously, which made Twilight slightly wary as she arched an eyebrow at her.
“How so?” Twilight asked.
“I was thinking about how I haven’t had any luck getting my friends to visit the library—”
“Just every other pony in Canterlot, that’s all,” Spike interrupted, getting a small chuckle out of Twilight and a playful eye roll and hair ruffle from Rainbow.
“Point is,” Rainbow smiled ear to ear, “I thought of the next best thing!” Twilight absentmindedly took a sip of her milk as Rainbow talked, not wanting the drink to get warm just sitting there. “Instead of getting my friends to come here, you should come with me outside the library!”
And at that, the milk came spurting out of Twilight’s mouth and all over Rainbow’s face, Rainbow just staring with wide eyes, mouth agape, as Twilight bashfully wiped her mouth with a blanket.
“Maybe we should focus on one step at a time,” Spike helpfully suggested, his comment filling the library with the echoing laughter of three good friends who were simply happy to have found each other.
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In regards to the trans thing spoilers cause we're 20 chapters in, I would just say "I'm glad she's like me" then you can try and find a natural time in the story for them to reveal it. Like maybe Rainbow Dash reveals it as a secret late at a stay at the Library, depending on how Rainbow views it, I think it could be really cool to build up through the story, and give them something in common. Even if Rainbow/Twilight or the rest of the group views it as the complete opposite of a secret I still think it could be cool to have them open up about it after we've already gotten to know them in the story.
I do wonder when Rarity meets Twilight. I see that Twilight and Spike always seem to be running away from something. And from the show, we know Spike's a dragon... and then we have Rarity's 'tragic' story about dragons.
My calculations include: 11/10 Drama. 100/100 worth the read.
Rainbow, Twi, and Spike Book Club= 20%cooler
i kinda agree with Author Name in the comments. Like, I'm all for any of the characters being LGBT+ but you could definitely have worked it in more naturally. Apart from that, still looking forward to that raritwi and rainbowjack fluff! Or whatever the pairings are going to be, I'm not sure yet.
Okay, so I see I’m not alone here. This is fine, but . . . it kinda came outta nowhere. This wasn’t mentioned, ever, or brought up, or even hinted at up until this point. That needs some work, in the future, man. Just pointing it out.
For myself, the only ones I ever saw as possibly being trans or hermaphroditic (they have magic, they can make that work) were Rarity and Trixie. I think there's some good evidence that canon Rarity is trans and is either physically male or has already transitioned before the show started. The revelation that Twilight and Rainbow here both are does come a bit out of left field, though. There had not been, up to this point, any hint of that.
10101051
i think u and some of the other commenters might have the wrong idea about this. the girls being trans isn't a plot twist (or even a spoiler tbh), it's an aspect of their characters that gets established as it becomes relevant. it doesn't require foreshadowing or setup any more than rarity being left-handed or rainbow having short hair does. it only feels like a big deal to ppl who aren't used to seeing it in stories, and tbh that's a good reason for why it should be established almost off-handedly. cuz it's completely normal and frankly unremarkable, and i choose to treat it that way
Okay. I have nothing against anyone, least of all anyone of the LGBTQ+ community. A majority of my real friends are members.
That said, what you have done here is just poor writing. No part of a character should be "established" unless it is going to be important. The parts of a character that influence how they see others, and how others see them. Things that might come up later. Stuff like that. What you have done is set a Chekov's gun upon the wall, with no clear intent to fire it. What could have been introduced in an elegant manner has instead been hamfisted into the story. This is the exact reason people hate SJW preaching in literature, and media in general. The way it gets introduced is almost always done terribly.
In my head, I am picturing a medieval, perhaps early renaissance kingdom, with magic being somewhat common, something akin to the Witcher. It makes little sense for EVERY main character to be trans, given the setting. Now, if you had established the idea of gender changing as common practice beforehand, it would have been far less jarring. It came out of left field.
It upsets me when people think that their character's identity and/or sexuality need to be firmly established. It doesn't matter. If it does, it will come up naturally. If it doesn't matter, then it won't.
Now, I don't care that they are all trans. I wouldn't be reading a story about 6 polygamous lesbians if something that small bothered me, but for future reference, try to use good storytelling and exposition to make points like this. I am gonna keep reading, as I am enjoying the story, I just wanted to give voice to the main criticisms most people have to these sorts of things, because these points are not usually properly explained, and there are assumptions made to fill in gaps, and these conversations devolve into online yelling matches.
Anyways, keep on rockin'.
10299454
look i appreciate that ur comment is alot more polite than the kinds of comments i usually see about this issue. i have definitely seen worse online and even in this very comments section. so i'm going to attempt to be polite in return as i tear this comment to shreds
this is not a good way to start. no one who has ever said "i have friends who are [marginalized group]" has ever used it as anything more than a flimsy excuse to say ignorant shit
the fact that ur unironically using the term "sjw" like that means something is another huge red flag for me, but i digress
it makes perfect sense for every main character to be trans. especially since transphobia is a less constant pressing concern in this version of equestria (as is hinted several times by how openly characters speak about being trans, regardless of who they're speaking to), which would naturally lead to more people experimenting with gender and gender presentation.
and frankly, even if it doesn't make sense?? i don't care. i don't care if not every part of this story about pastel magical horses stands up to logical scrutiny. that is the farthest thing from my mind when i'm writing a story. some people do prioritize logical sense-making, and that is valid. i am not one of them, so this criticism is not something i take very seriously. if you don't like that about my story, that is also valid. but stylistic choice that u don't like is not the same thing as a flaw
most of this comment is just differences of opinion, and i can respect that, but this genuinely irks me. this statement is not only wrong, it's almost offensively ignorant. characters' gender and sexuality does matter. it matters alot. maybe it doesn't matter to you because you're used to seeing yourself represented in stories, but that's not a luxury afforded to everyone. i tell you what, when a trans person sees trans main characters in a story, it matters to them. and telling stories that reflect the identities of the people i care about matters to me.
the crux of this issue is not a matter of whether or not my storytelling is "good", it's merely a difference of opinion on what "good storytelling" is. i stand by what i wrote, and if i were to do it over, i'd do it the same way again, because that's the way i wanted to tell my story
true, and the absolute last thing i want in my comments section is another yelling match. hopefully we can leave it at a civil disagreement
Super late to the party in finding this fic but hot damn, I love it. Doing an Earthsong AU justice! (I found the link looking through some of earthsong's old blogs, for that matter.)
The comments make me a bit sad.. Anyone who thinks sexuality has to be within a certain ratio or 'worked in naturally' sure is missing the point. Too often it's been made the focal point of a character, as if they have been written to be the token different character who has an entire identity revolving around one aspect of life... which is frankly, a creative faux pas. Ye gods, people, it isn't like OH HI I'M TWILIGHT AND HAVE I TOLD YOU HOW TRANS I AM TODAY, what ho clever pop culture reference, criminy!
And even if you don't headcanon them the same way as the author, you're in someone else's mental playground the moment you read something they wrote. Personally I'm lovin' it. Nice part about coming late to a story is always the binge reading, mmm.