Epilogue
Epilogue
Foxberry watched the stallion gallop up the bank, shedding spiders as he went. A few splashed down in the bog and began swimming towards her or other farmhooves; the rest held on until they were over dry land before bailing.
“Hmph.” She turned back to the waiting raft of cranberries. The spiders on her own back shuffled around to let a few more climb aboard.
“I didn’t think he would last,” one of her farmhooves muttered.
“Just can’t find good help these days.” Foxberry waded through the water to retrieve the abandoned net. “Anypony win any bits?”
A hoof was raised.
“Well, at least somepony got something good out of it.” She tossed the net on the bank around the field—it could be retrieved later—and looked off in the direction he’d gone. Shame he’d run off; he was kind of cute. She’d already been tempted to make a move, but had learned to not get involved with a stallion until she knew how he’d act when he was covered in spiders.
She shrugged and moved back towards the cranberries. There was a lot of work yet to do—the cranberries wouldn’t harvest themselves, after all.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Admiral Biscuit · 3k words · 139 3 · 1.4k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 1k words · 171 4 · 1.7k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 12k words · 69 1 · 809 views
- Admiral Biscuit · 12k words · 171 4 · 2.2k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 4k words · 108 8 · 1.2k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 2.4k words · 185 3 · 1.9k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 1000 words · 117 3 · 1.5k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 6.7k words · 136 7 · 2.2k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.222 seconds
Total duration
864 users online
1,283,431 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Celestia's Shiny Hiney, I can't blame the poor sap.
As an arachnophobe, I have only one thing to say to this:
NOPE!
The moment I saw the title I thought, "This is gonna get dark, the spiders are gonna devour the poor guy at the end aren't they?" But there's no Dark tag so it can't be that and it wasn't, it was just...….eesh. Here's a question, remember in Raiders at the beginning when the guy had all those tarantulas on his back? Which would you rather have, 30-40 tarantulas on your back or 1000 wolf spiders? Personally, I'm leaning towards the tarantulas.
I personally don't have anything against spiders, I do not fear them, I don't necessarily like when I walk into a web unintentionally, but yeah, Foxberry sounds like a nice mare, but even I don't think I could handle having that many spiders on me all at once. That being said, perhaps it's one of those things like when I had to take a live-drawing course in college, I thought I'd be too distracted but when you are in the zone, things don't bother you as much as you think they would.
Do Equestrian wolf spiders howl at the full moon?
On apple farms, stallions are tested by hard work from dawn till dusk. On cranberry farms, it's wolf spiders.
In the palace courtyards, it's the tone and length of the meep when Celestia glomps her prey.
Sometimes, it's not easy being a stallion.
More Spiders than Spiderses.
Spiders/10.
Given that this is Equestria we're talking about, I have to ask: Do you mean wolf spiders or wolf spiders?
In any case, an appropriately sour-sweet tale given the fruit in question. (I'd hardly call schadenfreude bitter.
) Thank you for it.
You gotta stop sometimes, look at a statement like that and gaze in wonder at how dang weird the world is to make that rational and reasonable advice.
10330458
And to make things even crazier, the bits of the world that make it reasonable are bits of our world.
The spiders are a package deal. Want some fun? Deal with the spiders colt.
This was adorable, enjoyable, and quite satisfying to read in all the right places! How your genius and creative brain is able to conjure up great stories is a mystery to me, but it's something truly to behold! Dang this is all so good! Hope ya didn't mind that I made a reading on this story! I couldn't resist!
Audio Linky!: https://youtu.be/b1twS4yILk0
(I don't mean to offend anyone with this comment in any way!)
10331163
Funny that you say that. My parents recently moved into a home with a saltwater in-ground pool, and we've had to keep moving spiders out of the pool. They love riding the water, and as much as we don't like the spiders in our water, their webs scattered around the property are doing a great job.
10329899
One day, Foxberry’s gonna find the one, the stallion who’s actually cool with being covered with spiders.
10329928
10329958
All the spiders wanted was a ride to dry land . . . which I guess he did provide, if unwillingly.
I’d rather have no spiders on me, but if I was going to have spiders, might as well go big and have a thousand wolf spiders.
10329994
I think that most people would feel like that. You gotta be one with the spiders, ‘cause the spiders are your co-workers.
Yeah, I think as long as you got past the initial shock/weirdness of it, it would sort of fade into the background (for most people; obviously, not someone with a deep-seated terror). While I haven’t done any live-drawing classes, I have done other things that are awkward, let’s say. Like helping adults bathe and dress, for example.
10330167
You know, I hadn’t thought about that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
10330281
It’s true! All the things that they have to put up with.
10330295
Thank you
10330420
I was thinking normal, earth-sized spiders. Bigger ones might not be as good at catching insects . . . although if properly trained, they might make excellent guard animals for the field.
You’re welcome!
10330458
Hey, when you’re a cranberry farmer, you gotta find a mate who’s all in on cranberry farming, y’know? That’s just a fact.
And like 10330497 said, that’s advice that applies on Earth, as well.
10330624
I know, right? And Foxberry isn’t the only one; the same general principle would apply to dating Fluttershy, for example.
10331168
Huh, I wouldn’t have thought of spiders as enjoying surfing, generally, although I don’t know all that much about spiders.
In terms of insect control, spiders do a fantastic job. I try to leave them alone as much as I can for that reason.
10330867
Thank you!
This one, I can state for a fact it was the discovery that real cranberry fields use wolf spiders to help control the insects, and when the fields are flooded and the workers start herding cranberries, the spiders climb on the workers to get out of the water.
Thank you! Looking forward to it!
10331184
Kinky
10331204
I mean, timberwolves are made out of timber... you'd think wolf spiders would have a little wolf in them.
Once you have braved the spiders and amassed your berries, how about some cranberry coffee cake?
You always think you're ok with spiders until you set foot in a cranberry bog on harvest week.
I've actually got a few wolf spiders in my basement. Does anybody know if they can take on a wasp nest?
10331179
Well, I assumed you knew: I was posting for the benefit (small as it may be) of other readers.
Learned something new today :)
Nicely done.
I live in the NJ Pine Barrens... and we have lots of cranberry bogs. And lots of wolf spiders... I have learned to command them, thanks to the instruction manual for commanding an army of arachnids which is entitled "The Spiderses".
Given how smart spiders in Equestria are. It seems kind of dickish to flood the fields without warning them.
10331240 It will not be Pony Ronald Weasley.
10332985
The poor guy would just go into vapor lock, followed by very bravely wetting himself.
10331240
10331289
That is a perfectly logical conclusion to draw, yes.
10331295
I have to make it myself? That’s a recipe for burning down the kitchen . . .
It sounds delicious, though!
10331327
I know, right? There’s spiders and then there’s spiders.
I did some googling, and it appears that wolf spiders and wasps are about an equal match (on a 1v1 scale, anyway)--sometimes the wasp wins, sometimes the spider does. That suggests that to take down a whole nest, you’d need an equivalent number of wolf spiders, ideally all bigger than the wasps just to be sure they have an unfair advantage.
Other options include badgers or the honey buzzard.
Which, I just found out that honey buzzards exist, and they’re badass.
10331446
Wolf spiders are cool, but I don’t know if I’d be okay with being covered in ‘em, even for delicious cranberries.
10332070
Yay!
10332334
Thank you!
10332677
That . . . seems legit, actually.
10332886
Maybe Foxberry puts up little signs to warn them, and the older, wiser spiders seek high ground before the bog’s flooded, but the young, rebellious spiders stay behind, probably mocking their elders until the floodwaters start to roll in. . . .
10333184
Woah. Well, the nest is only about a little bigger than a golf ball, and I've only ever seen one or 2 wasps on it at a time, so it's probably a good match if I mnage to catch some of the spiders.
I've heard that they cause necrosis if they bite you, do you know if that's true? Or what their general demenor is for the species? I'd be less startled by them when they crawl out of the walls if I knew.
I asked my friend at work today if he wanted to visit a cranberry bog with me. First he got on me about calling it a bog, then agreed, he seemed excited to "wade through the earth's most bitter fruit" after strapping on some rubber pants.
I then told him their method of pest control. He didn't believe me, said somebody was pulling my leg. I told him to google it. (He's a severe arachnophobe)
He now wants to permanently stay away from cranberry farms. Totally worth it.
10333333
Spiders are fun to watch when they catch something, too. I saw one fighting with a june bug for like an hour before he finally killed it--that was pretty cool.
According to Wikipedia, they don’t (at least in people; obviously their venom is bad for insects). There are like a bazillion different kinds, but in general they hide and pounce on insects.
Ooh, you’re a bastard. That’s awesome.
10333384
Me and my other co-worker in our 3 man department got him one of the Lucas the Spider plushies for christmas last year. We all had a good laugh about it.
Just because we understand his arachnophobia, doesn't mean we can't tease him about it.
10332886 my God that stallion thinks that experience was bad, the bearers have encountered damn driders or spiders about the size of driders.
10333478
Lucas looks adorable. I wouldn’t mind having a Lucas plushie.
You kinda got to, as long as you don’t cross the line.