Spanner Wrench is a quiet sort. Everypony in town knows his name and where he lives, but none of them have ever been inside his home. He lives alone, as far as they can tell, and doesn't seem to have any friends. They all know, though, that if they need something fixed he's the stallion to see.
For Spanner Wrench, this is a cage of his own design. A waking nightmare he secretly longs to desperately escape. At a loss as to what he should do, he pays a visit to the local orphanage, Small Steps Home for Orphaned Ponies. There, he hopes to find the young pony who will save him from himself.
A story set in the Who We Become universe, which is the creative property of Krickis. Self-described by her as a "horse soap opera", WWB is a long-running series focused around realistic depictions of the drama of everyday life. It is not necessary to read any WWB stories to understand this one, but there will be references to events and characters from WWB, most notably the story Acts of Love.
Created 5/16/2021. Finished 6/11/2021. Cover art is courtesy of the talented ApplejackOfAllTrades on Twitter.
This is a take strong opening. Leaves me with many questions, which is great because it leaves me wanting to know more. I'm very excited to read on and learn more about who Spanner is and see what becomes of him in this fic!
It makes me so happy to see these characters again, and Spanner Wrench proves to be an interesting one I very much want to learn more about. I like your take on Spring Blossom a lot; very excitable and a little naive, she's super endearing.
Current theory is that Spanner was an orphan. His comment about it's sad to see them go seemed like he knew a bit about that. Of course it could be that he had something else in mind (he's definitely lost some friends) but it would explain why he's here is he was also adopted. Whether I'm right or wrong though, definitely eager for more!
I like this alot. Especially the concept. I have been looking for a story about fatherhood.
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I'm glad you like the concept, and I hope you enjoy the story!
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Say, that's a good theory! It might be true. It might not be true
I'm glad you like how the story started, and I think you'll really enjoy it. I think there's a few moments that you'll really appreciate; little touches and things here and there that I can't wait to see your reaction to.
I remember doing a similar thing with an animal show and a giant snake as a kid in elementary school. That bit made me smile because of it. Noticing a recurring theme with Spanner trying to change his habits but struggling to do so. I suspect this will come into play when he has a foal to look after, that's sure to be a catalyst for a lot of changes.
Whoops, I completely forgot I had given Spring Blossom a color
Sorry about that.
Loving the cutie mark headers, and looking forward to the biweekly updates!
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A child is definitely cause for big changes in one's life, but I feel like this is especially so in Spring and Spanner's case, since their personalities are such opposites!
I love the header art, too. Now I feel like the story is as close to a true WWB experience as possible!
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I can only agree. I meant to include in my comment but forgot until I saw yours, I think one issue we're going to see is that Spanner's house isn't really set up for kids, and I'm not sure he himself is either. There's not enough stimulation for a filly like Spring Blossom here, so he'll have to learn how to handle that, I think.
Cant wait for next chapter. Also what war did Spanner fight in again. Sorry I seemed to forgot. Thanks for writing.
One thing that's bothering me a bit is I don't feel like I understand Spanner's motivation to adopt a kid at this point in time, which seems like something that would need to come up during the whole adoption process. I can see that he's lonely and isolated, but it's not particularly clear to me why he thinks jumping into a huge commitment like becoming a father will help him with that. If anything I'm a little worried for him with all of that trauma from whatever events he was involved in before (assuming he was in a war based on the cover art.) This seems like a commitment that could easily backfire on him and on Spring Blossom if he hasn't really thought through why he's doing this.
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An important question, to be sure! Definitely something that will be addressed later on in the story.
Nice to see the projector making an appearance lol, that's certainly going to be a good bonding thing. Like if
Skyward, I'm eager to learn more about his motivations. He's doing well so far (made it through the first day) but he doesn't exactly come across as the parenting type.
Interesting mirroring between this and the opening chapter. Maybe shows there's a bit more in common between these two than meets the eye, since they have the same sorta mentality when seeking.
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I liked act one, and expect great things from the following acts of the story.
The overall storytelling can be rather direct and fast at times.
That said it's still managing to be very interesting and cute.
(Don't tell Krickis, but I actually listened to the end of act music in the authors notes, and I've never done that for any other WWB story)
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I'm glad you liked the first act! Don't worry, I'll keep your secret
Aww how sweet
This was very nice, and the coin explanations were interesting. I'm out donating plasma now, so I can't listen to the end of act music, but I appreciate it being there and will check it out when I'm home
Rather explosive temper he has, though of course it was an extremely rude remark that set it off. Still, it's interesting, and interesting how quickly he moved on from his anger. Curious. And set get some more hints about his past, so we'll probably get more details on that in this act I think.
And caught up! Was a good chapter, Spanner is doing a good job as a father. And on that note, it's nice that Spring feels ready to call him dad. I suspect someone might be getting a cutie mark in gardening or botany by the end of this
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Big ups for the comments, and big ups on the plasma donation! When setting out to write this story, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to convincingly write a 9-year-old character, but honestly writing their interactions was the most fun I had. It just felt so wholesome and enjoyable!
Still very sweet.
Kinda craving some drama though.
Hopefully they are both able to deal with his past when it inevitably comes back to get him.
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Oh, don't worry.
Don't worry at aaaaall.
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A nice chapter
in very fond of golden orb weavers, actually. They're my favorite spiders, and I generally like spiders quite a bit. We're seeing a little more of Spanner's history here as well, very curious where that will go!
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Spiders are awesome tbh! Pretty lucky that I happened to include a segment with your favorite species, too.
And here it is, the past coming back to haunt Spanner. I was expecting something like this but was surprised by the changeling appearance. Quite the graphic thing for a little filly to see
Pfft the VES article got a laugh out of me. I loved that and the inclusion of Morning's interview prompting Spring to action. Very interested to see what Spring does from here, but clearly Spanner is in good hooves!
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Yeah, 9-years-old, doesn't know much about the world, but Celestia help whoever tries to stop her from helping someone in need!
Damn, right when we're about to learn something I get caught up on this story! Looking forward to Spanner's explanation here, and I'm glad Spring is talking to him.
I'm glad Spanner finally opened up to Spring, and that they finally said they love each other. Was expecting it would be harder to get him to talk since he was so adamant that she should be protected from this, but I guess Spring is just too powerful
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She already saw everything, so there was no getting out of it for Spanner, that's for sure! The two of them exchanging those Big Three Words is one of my fav moments, too, because they definitely needed to hear it from each other.
Truth be told I almost did a whole rewrite of this chapter the day it was posted, to have more dialogue from Spring about Spanner's experiences but that's like The Writer's Curse; if the story's finished, it's finished, and giving it the George Lucas treatment will probably make it worse. Plus she's nine, so how much insight could she really have?
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Ohno
I agree writing this ending was a good move. I had wondered at the previous chapter if the next thing to come would be an epilogue, but a final wind down chapter was absolutely the way to go.
Thoughts before reading the epilogue, this was a good story. I don't read much these days, I confess, but I'm glad I read this. It was a very nice story, and the ending makes me very happy for these characters. Well done
Aww, this was a really nice epilogue
I was actually hoping we'd see Spring getting her cutie mark, so I'm very glad that it was torched on here. It's a wonderful cap to a very nice story. Thank you so much for writing it, I've enjoyed it very much!
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I'm very glad you liked the story so much! Thank you again for letting me write for Who We Become, it was a treat!