What is Love?
“Baby, don’t hurt me,” Ocellus sang.
She had a really nice voice! But Sandbar wasn’t sure why she sang. Or what she sang. He tilted his head. “What? Are you okay? I didn’t step on your hooves or anything just now, did I? I don’t think I’ve even moved for the last ten minutes.”
“No, no! You’re fine. Sorry,” said Ocellus. “That question is...the title of an old changeling lullaby.”
“Oh.” Sandbar stuck his tongue out. “Well, what is it?”
“A lot of things,” said Ocellus. “The most basic definition is—why didn’t you ask Princess Cadance last time we went to the Crystal Empire?”
They were in the middle of a ring of fire right now. Some old volcano hydra had been awakened and taken them prisoner because he was mad that Gabby disturbed his sleeping grounds on her way to the Dragonlands to deliver a message. Their friends were on the way to rescue them. Probably.
“SCREAM, WHELPS!” roared the hydra. Sandbar had forgotten their name. It was really long and he had just woken up from an afternoon nap when the ceiling exploded and the giant, firey claw reached in and grabbed him out of his and Gallus’s shared dorm room.
He and Ocellus looked at each other and smiled, and then they raised their mouths to the sky and screamed bloody murder. The hydra clearly thought that his fire ring was giving them third degree burns or something, but he was old and confused, and probably didn’t understand how in the last five thousand years (or however long he was asleep) creatures’ ambient magic fields had evolved to give them basic protection against magical fire.
For a while, at least. There were at least seventeen minutes before their fields would be drained of juice and they would burn to death. Plenty of time for Gallus, Silverstream, Yona and Smolder to rally their ex-professors, realize that they were taking too long, and then rashly come by themselves to save him and Ocellus.
Back to the question though.
“I wasn’t wondering that, back then. I had the hottest two royals in Equestria blocking up all possible thought,” Sandbar said.
Ocellus squeaked happily, reaching out to give him a tight hug. “Ohmygoshohmygosh, right?! I thought that I was the only one who found them more attractive than the other three alicorns!”
Sandbar wheezed under her strength, but made no effort to push her away. It’d been a whole day since someone had hugged him. He really needed it. He pat her elytra gently, rubbing over the surface of them in little circles like he knew she liked. Now that he thought about it, him and Ocellus hadn’t hung out one on one in a long while, and he was grateful for the opportunity.
“Yeah, man,” Sandbar said. “Shining and Cadance are like, top tier.”
“Smolder always makes fun of me for gushing over them!” Ocellus pulled away, frowning. “She’s always like ‘Oh, but Luna’s right there’ and I’m like ‘Who cares? Have you seen Shining Armor?’. But anyway! I guess that makes sense. I turn into a space cadet whenever I’m around them.”
“So?” Sandbar asked.
“So what?”
“What is love?” Sandbar asked.
“Baby, don’t hurt me,” Ocellus sang, smugly this time. “Ah, that question brings back some good memories. Bad ones too. Lots of screaming ponies.”
“Cellyyyyyyy….”
“Sorry!” Ocellus chuckled, reaching out to pet his neck, making him whinny happily. Sandbar loved to be pet. How glad he was to have friends who liked to pet him! “Well,” Ocellus continued, “as I was going to say, the basic definition of love is strong affection for another.”
“Another what?” Sandbar asked.
“Another...something!” Ocellus said. “Just about anything.”
“But that doesn’t explain what changelings eat.”
“That’s true,” Ocellus said. “We feed off of the magical energy that gets created when love happens. Or when it’s directed towards something.”
“Does it have to be pointed at something?” Sandbar asked. “You can’t just feed off of someone...loving themselves?”
“Well, even then, love is directed,” Ocellus said. “If you meant to ask why we can’t just love ourselves...we just can’t. Not in a way that feeds us. We can have good self-esteem, obviously. Pharynx is proof of that.”
Sandbar hummed in polite agreement.“Where can you find love?” he asked. “Is it hard?”
“You know,” Ocellus said, “I used to think that it was. Back when we were...starving. But it’s a lot easier now.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Especially after moving to Equestria. Everyone here does everything with love.”
“So that’s not just a metaphor.”
“What is?”
Sandbar twirled his hoof. “You know, um, ‘cooking with love’, ‘working with love’, that sorta thing.”
“Yes!” Ocellus beamed. “Like I said, love is when you feel strong affection towards something. And all ponies have at least one thing that they do with all the love that they have.”
“Why are you staring at my butt?” Sandbar tilted his head.
“It’s very cute,” Ocellus said. “I’m more staring at your cutie mark than your whole butt, though.”
“Oh.” Sandbar said. Then his eyes widened. “Oh, I see. Special talents.”
“Special talents that are often connected to your life’s purpose,” Ocellus said. “And more often than not, you’re always so happy with them. That kind of contentment bleeds into everything else that you do. You know why Smolder and Gallus always complain about how fluffy ponies are? It’s because they’re jealous. I am, too. I imagine Silverstream and Yona feel the same. You have your greatest love tattooed on you. No other creatures in the world have that.”
Sandbar kicked a hoof, blushing a bit. He hadn’t heard too many positive things said to him about ponies from other creatures before. He had always just assumed that ponies were sort of like coral. Like, like how pretty coral is on the ocean floor but there was always some much cooler fish or shark or turtle swimming through them. Coral was pretty good, but the things that lived beside the coral were just so much better. He wanted to tell Ocellus that, but he felt like maybe it would sound patronizing after all that she just said.
So instead he asked, “Can little things have a lot of love?”
Ocellus didn’t look like she really understood what he meant.
He rephrased. “You ever read poetry?”
“Do you?” Ocellus asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Plenty!” Sandbar said. He stuck his tongue out at her. “We have to read it when we’re foals. It helps us with musical numbers.”
Ocellus’s other eyebrow raised. “Right.”
Sandbar nodded. “Okay, so: to me, the best poems ever are always about the small things in life. The smell of laundry being hung to dry. The ants on your favorite tree that you loved to climb as a kid. The way that your mom always made sure to pack your water bottle and your daffodil sandwich on opposite sides of your backpack because she knew that you hated soggy bread. How much love can be gleaned out of that kind of stuff?”
Ocellus put a hoof to her chin. “You know, I’m not too sure. I’ve never actually thought of it like that. When we consume love it’s always the bigger gestures. Hugs, kisses, holding hooves. Or, as I said, when you get really into doing something related to your cutie mark. Pinkie Pie could feed a good third of the hive with the love that she throws an extra special birthday party with.”
“Really?” Sandbar asked. “Not the Pinkie thing. I know that. I meant: only the big stuff, then?”
“I guess I can’t speak for all changelings, but yes. A little peck on the cheek can be a nice snack, but I don’t think that I’ve ever thought too hard about love in small gestures like what you just described.”
“You can sense it, right? Love?”
“Yes.”
The ring of fire flared up. They checked themselves. No burns yet, but it was definitely getting warmer.
“Does that volcano hydra feel love?” asked Sandbar.
“I don’t know. Probably,” Ocellus said. “I’m sure at least once in his life he’s felt love. I can’t say for sure. But I don’t get anything from him.”
“Do you?” Sandbar asked.
“Of course I do!” Ocellus frowned. “Why?”
“Do our friends?” Sandbar asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, can’t you feel love when they do their little things to show that they like us?”
“I’m not too sure what you mean.”
“You know,” Sandbar shrugged. “The stuff they never say out loud but they do anyway.”
Ocellus looked even more confused now. “What?”
“When the professors throw things at us and Smolder always catches them for you,” said Sandbar. “Or when she knocks you down accidentally and always, always makes sure to help you up with two claws and a smile, even if it’s in the middle of an intense game of buckball, or if she’s racing laps with Gallus around the gym. There’s no love there?”
“There’s—” Ocellus paused. “There is.”
“And when we’re out somewhere and my hooves start hurting because we’ve been walking so much and Gallus and Silverstream team up to fly me there so I don’t have to walk. Or when Yona doesn’t interject to tell us that yaks do it better whenever one of us is proud of something that we’ve accomplished. That’s not love?”
“It is,” Ocellus said. “It—it is! I think. I’ve never...I’ve never thought of eating that.”
Sandbar hummed. “They should be here soon.”
“They should. It’s getting really warm.”
Sandbar let his mind wander after that. His question hadn’t been answered, but he had a nice talk with his friend and that was enough. Now he could think about how he hadn’t had any food today. He wanted something sweet. From Sugarcube Corner. A pie. Was that a healthy thing to eat for breakfast? Was it still breakfast when it was the middle of the afternoon?
“How about when I doze off,” he said, blinking his eyes slowly. It was warm, but it was making him sleepy more than it was scaring him. “How about when I get distracted by my own mind and we just sit here beside each other and do nothing together? Is there love there?”
Ocellus chuckled softly to herself. “You’re too sweet for your own good, sometimes.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“That’s a yes, Sandbar. I love you, too.”
She sidled up to him and put her head on his shoulder. They waited together until they heard somegriff call out, “Hey, lizardbrain! You’ve got our friends!”
There was a big battle. Some rainbows. Ocellus and Sandbar waited until the ring of fire that surrounded them suddenly died down, and there was a smoking, knocked out hydra some miles away and just meters from them were their friends. Gallus, Silverstream, Yona and Smolder all relieved and beaming and happy to see that they were okay.
“And how does the daring rescue taste?” Sandbar whispered to Ocellus as they got closer.
“It’s delicious,” she said, wonder in her voice. “It’s amazing.”
Sandbar smiled as they were pulled in for a group hug and whispered again. “I thought it might be.”
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i like how there's so many small shipping moments in this, but nothing too big
11/10 for hydras and buggos.
Once again you have given me a reason to smile :)
It’s gotta be great to be able to depend on your friends as completely as Sandbar and Ocellus do.
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Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring
Short, cute, funny and full of love. In one word, perfect. You might even say this is the platonic ideal of a fluff fic
This is so amazingly cute~ And I for one wouldn't mind a followup to this!
Aww this was a very nice story and to be honest with you the first time I saw them I actually wanted to ship sandbar and Ocellus so much I actually think they are cute together but anyway it looks like both of them got them self caught be a Hydra and basically they had to wait for their friends to come and get them and say so and I do like their conversation with each other it is pretty sweet to see that and very interesting about how love works I mean love can be in a different ways after a few minutes their friends finally got to them this was a cute story between these two keep up the good work
This comment is partly a general notice about what my prereading might be like if I was trading prereads with someone.
Edit: Yes, it is kind of funny that I walk up to a story in the Featured Box and start critiquing it.
> He pat her elytra gently
patted
> Sandbar loved to be pet.
pet vs. petted: are you trying for grammatical English, or trying to seem extra-cute by intentionally avoiding it here? :-)
So...not worrying about trying to use your seventeen minutes to TRY to see if you can find a way out? To me it seems more natural to try.
> “Plenty!” Sandbar said. He stuck his tongue out at her.
He seems to stick his tongue out a lot, maybe? Really, I think this seems, to me at this moment, more natural than it did to me he first time he did it, near the story's beginning.
> “Plenty!” Sandbar said. [...] “We have to read it when we’re foals. It helps us with musical numbers.”
I chuckled, and I am not sorry. :-)
I think I would find this conversation more natural if they were stuck somewhere with an expectation of NOT dying in a few minutes. Maybe at the bottom of a mine, or in a cave, waiting for a rescue with the expectiation that rescue WOULD come and they had plenty of air, water, etc.?
> Sandbar nodded. “Okay, so: to me, the best poems ever are always about the small things in life[...]
This is interesting to me, with only the obvious objection that the clock is ticking.
The ending is kind of funny, with the last paragraph but four. I like the last three paragraphs as the ending. Succinct AND they work.
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MERCI BEAUCOUP thanks for reading
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life's good when you've saved the world enough times to know how this song and dance goes
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catjam
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WOW OMG I DON'T KNOW IF I'D GO THAT FAR BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH
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Stay tuned! I'm not exactly planning on making a sequel but I have at least three more shorts like this planned for different members and pairs within the Young Six!
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First of all thanks for the read and the comment! To address a few of your questions...
Of course the meat of my prose+syntax is grammatically correct English but when I can, I always opt for informal vernacular to add a casual, conversational tone to my voice and dialogue. I enjoy using contractions that you usually wouldn't find in more rectified pieces (this'll, that'll, what'd, etc) as well as making choices like favoring pet vs. petted in certain situations. If a certain way of saying something can be understood in a spoken conversation without raising eyebrows I don't really mind including it in my writing.
They know what's going on behind the scenes—they're in the middle of an an average happening in Equestria! Someone somewhere will come to get them. That's just how the world works :)
Honestly I forgot that I had him blep that first time hahaha
They know they're safe! Probably. What fun would an adventure be without a tiny bit of danger? But with or without that certainty I prefer dramatic juxtaposition to realism. Big ring of hellfire; cutesy bonding between a horse and his bug. It's a vibe.
Thank you! I quite like the last few bits.
This was a very good one-shot.
A lovely intersection between the two and a fun idea to explore for Changelings. Great work as always
Very nice story ! You had the question be the core of the story without it feeling too cheesy or forced. It felt like an authentic conversation those two were having, juxtaposed by all the goofy stuff going on around them.
As an aside, I'm definitely warming up (no pun intended) to Sandbar and Ocellus interactions. I'd love to see more of these two interact.
What is love?
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me
No more
A cute little story, prompting a good question about changelings' love-eating, and subtly referencing an '80s song I like. I liked this story, and hope to see more from you in the future.
Baby don't hurt me, no more!
Honestly though, this is so heart-warming! Loved the chemistry between the two!
I friendship ALL the things!
This was really good.
The random distractions in their conversation are especially realistic, adding just enough tension to the story. Some might say it's odd that the tension comes from that as opposed to the ring of fire they're stuck in, but their complete faith in their friends nullifies the danger.
Also...17 minutes. It didn't dawn on me until I started typing here, but 17 minutes was a nice little touch, as that about how long their plot armor lasts
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Well I'm just confused now - is love a Changeling Lullaby, a meme, a Johnny cash song, or a good feeling?
Lovely stuff. I love the quick little background details like the low-level heat protection (which explains casual trips to the Dragonlands) and mandatory poetry classes for ponies. Plus, it’s a great exploration of both characters, both individually and in their interactions with each other. Sandbar thinking in marine biology terms was a very nice touch.
Also, because of the game Hades, I choose to believe the hydra’s name is Lernie.
In all, thank you for this.
Loved it!
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THANK YOU!!!! I like to think of Sandbar and Ocellus having a wise big sister/curious little brother sort of dynamic. He'd bug her with all sorts of questions and she'd be all too happy to elaborate on things. Would love to do some classic Redeemed Changeling Angst with Ocellus and have Sandbar be an absolving presence for her sometime.
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I'M SO GLAD YOU NOTICED AHH
I am head over heels in love with the idea that the characters sometimes have a vague awareness that they're in the middle of an episode
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Oh, Lernie, the only boss who I never ever died to past my second run. I have a special place in my heart for him.
Thanks for the read FoME! I'm very happy with Sandbar's little marine biology metaphor.
That’s one way to put it.
Glad I found this story. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
This right here is a quality Sandy + Celly fluff piece you've written yourself, lad. You don't see a lot of these beauts anymore nowadays (least I'm aware of). Merci mon ami!
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thank YOU johne
I’m creating eighteen different alts to downvote-bomb this, because you had the perfect opportunity to reference “Ring of Fire,” and what did you pick instead? “What is Love.”
You are SO getting called out on TwimblrTok.
This was a pleasant little story. From the title and description, I was initially worried it would be one of those stories where the goofy premise and snappy dialogue are supposed to distract the audience from realizing that the characters are weird, sociopathic robots who understand what emotions are, in an abstract sense, but do not experience them.
But, no, this was really heartfelt and sweet. A nice interplay between two characters exploring what it means to love.
I’m still mad at you for not referencing Johnny Cash, though. You’re probably gonna write another story where Gallus shoots a man in Reno and call it, like.
Weird Science, or something.
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NOOOO NOT TWIMBLRTOK I'M SORRY
THAT WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY MADE A BETTER TITLE
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Thank you for the read and the kind words! I will remember to reference Johnny Cash next time I swear
Don't tempt me
Wholesome. My feelings for this fic would be a nice snack for Ocellus, too.
There is not much one on one interaction between the student in the show,especially Sandbar and Ocellus.
Thank for making this.
I came back to read this after catching up on Girl Talk and of course reading Petty Theft. I can't help but imagine these take place in continuity with each other and then squeal about how cute everyone is together interacting with each other one on one even when it's not their "favored pairing" that's set up between them all.
I love it.
Awwww
Dialogue's a bit hard to follow in some places (because they keep switching the topic they're talking about, not because of a lack of dialogue tags) but it's still very sweet and special!!