The One and Only Chapter
“Sweetie, will you go out with me?” Rumble scuffed the door mat. “No, that sounds stupid. Maybe gruffer.” He cleared his throat. “Hey Sweetie, ‘sup?” He hung his head. Hoof, meet face. “That’s worse.”
“What’s worse than what?”
“Sweetie Belle!” He smiled at her beauty, framed by the doorway like artwork. “It’s me! Rumble!”
“I know, Rumble. We’ve gone to school together for years.”
Frozen, he kicked himself mentally. “I uh…”
Sweetie peered, leaning forward.
“Will you go out with me tomorrow?”
She jerked back, shocked. “Me?”
He nodded, smile faltering.
“You want to go out with me?”
His heart sank, drowning the smile with a sigh. He watched it drift to the inky depths. There it lay, never to surface again. Why did I bother? She’s out of my league. He urged himself to leave, but his hooves were stuck in the mire of the ocean depths.
“Nopony ever wants to go out with me.”
Looking up, Rumble scrunched his face, confused. “Why not? You’re so cute.” Stop staring at her. ”Err… funny… nice. You help ponies get their cutie marks. And you’re already working at the Friendship School with—”
“No, back up. You called me cute.”
“You have a great personality! I don’t just like you for how you look.”
“No, seriously. You think I’m cute?”
Rumble bobbed his head, smiling, “Yeah…”
Sweetie closed her eyes, breathing deeply as bliss spread across her face.
“Is that okay?”
She opened her eyes, and that smile filled his soul. She laughed, and he joined, not sure why. “Oh, Rumble.” She leaned forward and embraced him. “Thank you.” She stepped back into the doorway. “But I can’t.”
Smile, erased.
“I’m going to the pride parade tomorrow.”
“Uh… what about after?”
“My support group is celebrating down at Sugar Cube Corner afterwards.”
Rumble sighed. “Maybe…” The gears turned. He looked up. “Could I come with you to the parade?”
Incredulity raised her face and words. “Seriously?”
“Why not?”
A smile crept back onto her face, more sublime. “Yes. You can come with me.”
Rarity’s voice carried from inside. “Is that a customer?”
Sweetie turned, hollering back with her sweet, sing-song voice. “It’s just a friend.” She turned back. “I need to help Rarity sew a million things tonight. Meet me at the park at one? I’m hanging with Silver Spoon before the parade.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “See you at one.”
Stepping back, she swung the door, but paused, biting her lip. Again, she darted forward to plant a quick hug before disappearing inside, leaving Rumble to his heart palpitations.
Walking away, he pumped a hoof in the air. “Yes!” A few steps on, he stopped. “What’s pride?”
———
Rumble stared out at the crowd in the park. Half of Ponyville must be here. Banners flapped in the breeze and ponies waved striped flags of various shades. Mayor Mare’s voice blasted through a bullhorn. Rumble couldn’t make out the words at this distance, but the crowd suddenly surged, moving towards the street. “Sweetie Belle!” he yelled aimlessly, still not seeing her. Cutting across at a perpendicular to motion of the crowd, he walked to the other side of the park, hollering.
Nothing.
With a trot and a leap, he took wing, climbing above the crowd as he scanned. There. Right at the corner where the crowd was compacting as they lined up to march. Circling above the rooftops and trees, Rumble searched for a nearby spot to land, but the crowd was too dense.
Landing in the emptying park, Rumble trotted back into the crowd until the density of ponies and waving flags forced him to slow. Bobbing his head as he stood on his tippy-hooves, he strained to catch another glimpse of Sweetie as the crowd slowly filed into a column.
“Hey, watch it,” said a tall mare.
He blinked, nonplussed.
“Foals.” She rolled her eyes, turning back to the parade. “So eager. You have your whole life to show us who you are, honey. Relax. Have fun.”
“I’m not a foal any more,” he muttered, fur bristling. He huffed, releasing his anger with his breath before turning back to search. Jumping up, he caught another glimpse: Sweetie laughing at something Silver Spoon said or did beside her, both wearing neckties of pink, white, and blue stripes.
With a target, he stepped forward, only to almost run into a tray of striped fabric bracelets suspended around the neck of younger filly.
“Need a bracelet, mister?” She waved one with rainbow colors towards him. “One bit.”
“Mister?” Rumble’s eyes drifted to the tray’s other bracelets. Reaching out, he took one with the same colors as Sweetie’s scarf. He slipped it on his wrist and dropped a coin in the tray. “Thanks, kid.”
Stepping around her, he didn’t hear the response. With the press and flow of the crowd, he made no headway, limited to the pace of the crowd. Pivoting, he locked on to the empty space behind.
He pushed against the crowd, breaking free and alighting once more into the sky. He sailed towards the front of the crowd, past Sweetie Belle—noting the ponies around her—past the head of the parade, and landed at the next intersection.
As the crowd approached, he waved, wristband visible for all as he watched the diverse ponies and myriad other species march by, some smiling and waving, others blowing kisses.
Then, she appeared.
“Sweetie!”
She turned. “Rumble, you made it!” She waved him over as she marched on, unable to stop in the crowd.
Rushing over, he joined the throng, standing beside Sweetie while Silver Spoon flanked her.
“We thought you wouldn’t make it. I should have had you meet me earlier. Sorry.”
“Hey, I’m here now.” He waved at the ponies in doorways and windows.
“Umm…” Sweetie, regaining Rumble’s attention, shared a glance with Silver. “Rumble, why are you wearing a trans flag?”
He looked at it. “This?” He shrugged. “A kid was selling them. Everypony else had one. I didn’t want to look out of place.”
“It’s just… you’re not trans, right?”
“Trans?”
“I thought you knew. Now I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.” She sighed, marching in silence as Rumble waited for an explanation. “A transgender person is a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.”
“Huh?”
Sweetie bit her lip. “They thought I was a colt when I was born, but being a colt never felt right to me, like wearing a too-tight dress and constantly chafing, but I was the dress. I was uncomfortable in my own skin.”
“But you’re a fi… a mare.”
“Well yeah. Turns out I always was. My body just didn’t match who I am. You’ve always been a colt, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve always been a filly. Or I guess a mare now. We just didn’t realize it at first. Now, if you wanna leave, I promise I won’t cry. I just figured everypony at school knew.”
“Why would I leave?”
“Oh Celestia, this sun. Making my eyes water.” Sweetie wiped the moisture away. “No reason, Rumble. Anyway, that bracelet?”
He lifted it, comparing it to the stripes on her cheeks.
“It’s for people who are trans.”
“Oh.”
“Why don’t we let Silver hold it.” Sweetie accepted it from Rumble and passed it along. “If you want something to hold, I wouldn’t mind if you held my hoof.”
“You don’t mind?”
“No, you doofus. I’d love to hold your hoof.”
As they approached the next intersection, he reached out. Hoof in hoof, they stepped into the sun.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Pastelglitches · 2.1k words · 70 56 · 1.2k views
- themoontonite · 1.4k words · 141 32 · 1.6k views
- TheDeflator · 2.5k words · 37 8 · 1.1k views
- Blackyoshi · 4.2k words · 151 78 · 1.9k views
- Dashie04 · 1.1k words · 72 45 · 1.2k views
- Mystic Mind · 9.9k words · 97 52 · 2k views
- mushroompone · 4.5k words · 60 12 · 1.1k views
- Duskwingmoth · 17k words · 85 16 · 1.2k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.112 seconds
Total duration
943 users online
109,491 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.®
Short but hood! Loved it!
wild clapping
You did it, Lofty. Brilliant story, truly. I loved the characterization you demonstrated here, with the interaction between Sweetie Belle and Rumble flawlessly capturing the many aspects of their characters. The conversation was top-notch, and excellently showed the character dynamics between Sweetie Belle and Rumble, as well as the trans aspect. Good work!
Hoof-holding?? Goodness, truly obscene!
Cute!
I love the idea of seeing a parade like this from the perspective of an ally. Rumble comes off as earnest, honest, and hapless, and I love it. Well done.
I haven't read this yet, but judging by the comments I'm surprised by the ratio. Are users downvoting it just because of the content?
10665571
Yes. It's about as innocent and wholesome as a short slice of life story can be, and with just about any other content, it would do just fine. People are just being petty.
10665571
I agree this is a good story the dislikes are probably from terfs or homophobes
Very sweet. Why all the dislikes?
Cute!
10665607
It's an unabashedly pro-Trans fic that includes a link to BLM in its description. I'm sorry to say that it was bound to ruffle certain people's feathers. A similar fic got downvote-bombed last night, as a matter of fact.
It's quite a shame — this was a very solid slice-of-life story. My compliments to the author!
:)
10665625
There are also those who flat out don't like alternate characterizations. Or shipping that isn't hard canon. I doubt they're the majority of dislikes here though.
Anyway, the story was sweet and cute! Rumble was adorable with how completely oblivious he was to everything, heh.
The himbo energy is strong with this one.
When I was a boy, I knew a guy who asked someone out by texting “so r u down with a relationship?”
Rambler here is doing just fine.
anyway, I give this eleven held hoofs out of two.
!! this is so cute!!!
10665625
What fic, so I can counter-upvote?
Here's my question. This is months too late for the Pride event. Unless I'm missing something? I took part in it myself, so I am curious.
The hate is most likely coming from the groups you linked in the description. They haven't been positive for a very long time now. Maybe at the very beginning. But no more.
You at least have a solid reason for bringing Trans ponies into this. Which is more than the last story that did it can say.
10665735
I'm pretty sure it's still on the New Column,but seeing as you asked:- MLP: FiM
- Comedy
- Drama
- Slice of Life
"You see, Shining Armor, I called you here for a reason. There’s been rumors that you’re going to ask Cadence…” Suddenly, Celestia's smile pulled itself back. “... for her hoof in marriage. As I’m sure you know, I can’t let you do that."Personally, it's not the best thing I've ever read, but I certainly didn't think it was that bad.
10665739
I wrote it in June for the event. It did spend a little bit of time waiting in my editing queue. Mea culpa.
This was super sweet! Nice little Slice of Life featuring a ship I haven't seen in... No idea how long. Ignore the downvotes; this was great.
10665739 Hey, I’ve been meaning to point this out for a while. There’s a typo in your username. That letter “I.” Should probably edit it out.
Absolutely adorable. Thank you for blessing us all with this good and pure Sweetie Belle content.
What a charming fic! It was cute, short and sweet, and just left me with a warm feeling once it was over! Well done!
Don't you pay any mind to the obvious cretins down voting this because they're too cowardly to say out loud that they're transphobic trash stains! You did a good job! It's very easy to tell when people are being genuinely critical (mostly because they leave comments that explain what they disliked) and when they just have some ugly personal grudge (they don't say anything, smack their heads on the keyboard to leave a downvote, then retreat back to their Duck Dynasty caves before they can be found out) and it's only the real critics you should spend time looking at.
Have a good one, buddy! Thanks for the good read!
Utterly adorable, Rumble is such a loveable doofus.
10665801
I think you might be seeing things. My name is spelled correctly. Not sure how you got I can't spell my own name.
It feels good to be the 69th upvote.
This is a really nice, succinct way to explain being trans that sounds like something a kid like Sweetie would reasonably be able to say. Especially to one of her peers. That she is able to follow-up with a nice little metaphor about the dress works super well too! This was really cute and some excellent little wholesome romance. You have a good sense of pacing and scene breaks. I hope you write more! Ally perspectives are hard to find on this site, and you have a sweet style that conveys emotions most poggersly.
Though, my one nitpick is that 'people' always feels out of place in a pony setting. I personally find that 'creatures' works really good for a species-neutral word. I'm well aware that 'people' generally just refers to a population by its origin, but the issue is that it is so coded in Extremely Human Vocabulary that's worth hanging at the door when it comes to writing ponies. This is much like how when you say a character 'hands' something to another, it is best just to say 'passes' or 'gives' because of the nature of what 'hands' means to us vs. magical horses.
Feels more like an introductory pamphlet than a story, to be honest.
i won't downvote this
but i will say this
headcanoning nontrans characters as trans is utterly moronic
if you need trans rep that badly, make your own trans ocs
oh, and rumbloo is the superior ship, fight me
Awwww, little oblivious doofus. Gotta love him.
10666204
I didn't know you could see Sweeite Belle's chromosomes.
10666204
Congrats on exposing yourself as the hateful bigot you are.
10666204
No.
10666217
look
until it's stated that they're trans by show staff(preferrably the voice actor his/herself) they'll always be a filly
oh, that reminds me
this is a filly and a colt, not a mare and a stallion.
there's an age threshold for this sort of thing and neither of them are past it yet
my stance is not changing on this
10666218
ad-hom, cute
try coming back with an actual argument about it
10666204
10666218
it's not a new thing with this lad tbh, his apathetic edginess transcends all forms of conscious reality
10666223
god forbid people have an imagination - when did you lose yours?
10666220
if you're saying no to making your own trans ocs, congration, you have no rep now
10666226
pot kettle m8
also how many times have people tried to give you an "actual argument" but you never respond to them because you know they prove you wrong? how many threads have you bailed on after things didn't go your way?
I understand you're scared of new things, but burying them in bitter hatred and toxicity isn't the answer
10666227
a. i don't care if anyone asked, this needs to be said and resaid until it sticks in y'all's heads
b. i have a great imagination, actually
it just doesn't involve mangling canon like a fucking knuckle-dragging troglodyte
10666223
Show writers tend to be a better authority on the characters. Considering Sweetie Belle is only ever shown as a squeaky-voiced kid and later as an adult mare, there is no reason for someone to not be able to write a cute trans fic about her.
This same fallacy could apply to cisgender characters too. I could say that almost all the characters are trans until the writers explicitly confirm otherwise by using the logic of your butter-smooth brain.
Why don't you let folks have some fun for a change? 'I am mad the character is trans' isn't critique in the way 'you could have written trans themes' is, and you're very clearly in the first camp.
Bro, if hoof-holding offends your moral sensibilities I'm sure there's some diaper stuff on the site to suit your attitude. That seems way more your speed.
10666232
Then why do you have your OC banging Fluttershy?
10666232
this isn't the show m8, we're not writing for it - this is fanfiction, it can abide to canonicity if it wants to or not
if people want to headcanon characters as transgender, then let them, who is it hurting here? who cares? why does it matter so much to you how other people choose to use their imagination that doesn't involve a bizarre fetish or something illegal?
also you say you have a "great imagination"... can you prove that? write a story. do something. show us what your imagination is like.
10666236
hell, I could say that none of the characters in this show are ponies, they're actually aliens in immaculate equine suits kickstarting their own civilization and that everything was a lie - can the show prove me wrong? no? well there we go then
Cute little story. Nice little one shot slice of life. Though I will say there is nothing wrong wearing the flag/colors of someone close to you that you support. I have a trans flag to support my dad, though I am not trans. Of course if his girlfriend doesn't want him to wear it that is between them, so not a big deal.
10666242
we need more people like you in the world ✌
10666240
Don't remind him that Sweetie Belle has a bigger heart than he ever will.
Did you think I was going to say something else?
10666248
he lost his heart in the war
10666250
Was it because the show voice actors couldn’t confirm either as canon? 🤔
10666255
he wasn't confirmed to be canon so they stripped him of his heart, now he wanders the streets aimlessly, bitter and with a sense of apathetic misery that might never fade
call it PTSD if you'd like, but I call it Post Narcissistic Stress Disorder
10666226 Shipping Fluttershy with Trenderhoof, like in your profile picture, is non canon too.
10666268
media1.giphy.com/media/1FnPDkhFZDgoU/giphy.gif
he probably bailed again tbh, he saw too many negative variables