Pericilitate
“Well that was boring…”
Broken Shield shook himself as he stepped to the ground; Twilight and Pip followed closely after him, Pip leaving the outer deck of the Town Hall in a single step. Twilight shook her head as they walked down the road.
“We needed to do it, though. Princess Celestia wanted Mayor Mare and the local guards to at least have an idea of what they were dealing with with you other than ‘crazy violent pony’.”
“And yet that sums me up so well…” Broken snickered. “I don’t get the need for a two-hour sitdown, though. I could have just told them ‘Hey, I’m a crazy violent pony and I’m from another time-universe-dimension and I happen to be the former Ponyvillian-Princess’ brother’. What’s the problem with that?”
“For one, we can’t just tell them that you’re from another timeline, then they’d think that you really are crazy.” When Broken raised an eyebrow, she coughed. “You’re traumatized, not necessarily delusional, and you’re certainly well aware of your actual surroundings. That’s a different kind of crazy from dementia or whatever else they’d think if we told them the truth.”
“And what you came up with was better? I know nothing about this Gryphonia, Twilight, why the buck did you say I was an experienced Gryphonic negotiator and historian?”
“You did have a cover story going with the Cakes and the CMC earlier. We’re simply expanding on it.” Twilight gave a small smirk as Broken’s eye twitched. “Besides, this gives me a chance to educate you on all of this world’s history. Maybe you’ll see some key differences there.”
The stallion stared at her for a few moments before scoffing. “Of course you did that just so we could look at books. I’m pretty sure my Twilight was an honest-to-Faust bibliophile, so I’m presuming they’re at least a fetish of yours?” Twilight blushed and Pip’s mouth twitched. Broken blinked, then slammed his hoof into his forehead. “Didn’t need that mental image, thanks a lot mouth.”
“I should remind you that such speech could be counted as ‘abuse’, Broken Shield.”
“It was a joke, and I’m suffering it more than she is.” Broken shuddered melodramatically, but he gained a somewhat manic grin as the group walked over the river. He opened his mouth, and Twilight’s voice came out. “’Oh, Encyclopedia of Equestrian Economics Edition Four, your spine is so… rigid…’ Ack, ack, kill me now…” He hit himself several more times as Twilight’s blush deepened.
“One would think that you would drop the subject if it was so traumatic for you to wish your death, Broken.” Pip replied, a small edge under his voice. Twilight’s ears perked.
“Okay, okay, everypony needs to calm down.” She said, stepping between the two. Broken leaned around her.
“Trust me, colt, if you had a sister and the image of her seducing a paperback slid into your brain…” He shuddered.
“Broken!”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your socks tied together.” Broken sighed, then his ears perked as a bird sang in a nearby tree. “I’m hungry.”
Twilight took a few seconds to make the connection he’d made between the sound and his stomach – Pip, fortunately, had recognized it almost instantly, and stepped into the tree at the same time that Broken finished his teleportation. The latter stallion was apparently caught off guard, which made Pip’s brief grapple with him almost comedic; a quick shove and Broken was falling, caught in Twilight’s not halfway to the ground.
Twilight glared at the stallion as she brought him down, his face wearing the closest to a sheepish look she’d seen on him. She cut the magic about a metre from the ground, making him land with a wince. Pip appeared beside him seconds later, the tree shaking heavily as he left it. Everypony glanced at the ground beneath the branches until the tree settled. Twilight glanced at Pip.
“There did not appear to be any damaged or missing eggs or birds, Milady.”
“Thank you, Pip.” Twilight nodded at the one before turning to the other. “Now, Broken, we talked about this earlier...”
“I was going for the eggs! You eat eggs all the time, they’re just mixed in with flour and milk and other things. I wasn’t going to eat the birds.” He coughed. “They’re too bony.”
Twilight slowly raised a hoof to her face. “They’re too bony and…?”
“…and I’m not supposed to kill things?”
“Because?”
“Because when I kill things, I get reinforcement of the ‘bad’ power-obsessed aspect of my brain?”
“Right.” Twilight nodded. Broken had only been down for two or three weeks before the Discord-Everfree event occurred; in that time, he’d fluctuated between actively ignoring her orders and almost sarcastically going along with them, which she’d managed to deal with somewhat. With the newer rules placed on him, he had begun acting almost like a foal; he had several times disappeared only to be pointed out or dragged back by Pip, sullen and pouting some of the time and laughing under his breath the others. She hadn’t had any complaints (likely due to Pip’s expedient retrieval of the wayward stallion) but she still wasn’t used to his casually vanishing to somewhere that was within the confines of “with Twilight or Pip” without being easily visible.
Which makes sense, given that he’s only been back a day… give yourself a break.
“I still don’t understand how you can be so casual, about eating meat.” Twilight began walking down the path again, followed by her two (willing or otherwise) companions. Broken snorted.
“Ponies can live on meat, we just don’t get as many nutrients out of it. When your choice is between killing and eating something and starving to death, well…” He rubbed his snout. “It’s easier to think about when you’re surrounded by death on a daily basis.”
“I guess…” Twilight shook her head. “But shouldn’t you have been able to subsist on a regular diet? Even if the majority of earth ponies stopped you from obtaining crops from them, couldn’t you have grown your own, or gotten something from the Everfree?”
Broken started shaking his head, then stopped and glanced at the mare. “Growing the crops would’ve taken too long, especially in the Everfree in winter, which is when we were faced with the… the ‘choice’, I guess, in the first place. And we had to spend most of our time underground anyways, figuratively and literally, because Dawn was rather insistent about finding us that first year she was in power.”
Pip coughed. “Lady Dawn sent regular patrols out into the Everfree in an attempt to root out Loyalist bases. After losing approximately a dozen pegasi and thirty unicorns and earth ponies to the environmental threats, she pulled back and ordered a constant watch kept on the borders.”
Broken laughed. “’Environmental’ threats? We shot their wings off and you know it. Honestly, Twilight, you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to hit a flying pegasus without killing it.” When he saw her look, the smirk slid off of his face. “Not that it’s a ‘good’ thing, it’s just bloody impressive, is all.”
“The skill required doesn’t make it okay to be proud of doing it, Broken.” Twilight stated. Broken blinked.
“Oh, come on! We were aiming for the wings so that the pegasi didn’t die!”
“So then they either fell to the ground and died from that, got eaten by the Everfree creatures, or lived the rest of their lives without the ability to fly, destroying ninety percent of what makes them pegasi.” Twilight raised her eyebrow at Broken accusingly.
“…it wasn’t just for that…”
Pip cleared his throat. “While I do not wish to interrupt Broken’s continued description of horrific actions he perpetrated against the citizens of Equestria, I must warn Milady that the Cutie Mark Crusaders are approaching from the direction that we are travelling.”
Broken blinked, but Twilight nodded. Applejack had been very clear on exactly the amount of contact Broken was allowed to have with Apple Bloom, and Rarity, while less forceful, was no less adamant that Sweetie Belle be protected from Broken’s influence. Twilight had negotiated them into supervised conversation, but not for very long unless both she and one of them were present. Already she could see the shape of the scooter and riding pony, buzzing towards them at a high speed.
“Broken, you can’t do anything stupid, okay?” Twilight said. Broken snorted, but she spoke before he could reply. “I mean it. Applejack was really angry with you for talking with Apple Bloom, especially with what you suggested they do.”
“I told them ‘get permission’, ‘be safe’, and ‘don’t do anything dangerous’. Not my fault if they ignore me.”
“But they did, and Applejack blames you for the idea in the first place. Just let me lead the talking, alright?” When Broken gave her a look, she dropped her voice, letting a small amount of the thought processes that had led to the ‘Cadance’ comment guide her speech. “Imagine what might happen if Applejack joins up with Dawn just because you pissed her off too much.”
Broken’s eye widened, his entire body tensing. Pip reacted, almost casually positioning himself further between the mare and Broken, his eye fixed on the other stallion. Broken opened his mouth, a few small gurgles coming out before any of the actual words.
“She wouldn’t.” His voice cracked, becoming very close to what Twilight suspected was his natural, nearly-identical-to-Shining-Armor voice. “She’s not that stupid, not that petty. What Dawn did-“
“Is what your Dawn did. What happens if Dawn doesn’t use necromancy here? If she never needs to use it?” Twilight took in a breath. “Applejack would have a choice between one of her best friends and the pony who nearly got her sister severely injured. Not a very tough competition.”
She had to fight the insane urge to smile at him from around Pip; even a hint of possible enjoyment at cornering him would probably set him attacking her, Oath be damned. Worse, she’d said ‘joins’, and ‘doesn’t’, and ‘needs’. All of which presumed that Dawn’s rise was a definite event, and that idea coming from Twilight…
“Gah! Out of the road!” A small, scratchy voice called. Pip moved, shoving Broken off of the road before grabbing Twilight and leaping to where Broken had fallen. An orange blur shot past their former location a few seconds later, small puffs of dust and gravel flying up as Scootaloo dug in to slow down. Given her position, she couldn’t see them, but the sound of crashing metal and small groans indicated that the stop hadn’t taken.
“Are you alright?” Twilight called, climbing back to the road. Pip shadowed her, leaving Broken to stumble after them; he was holding a leg up, but didn’t seem to be in pain. Twilight turned her head, watching as the three fillies climbed out from under their transportation.
“Yeah, ‘m fine.” Scootaloo called back, shaking herself off. She blinked a few times as she noticed who she’d nearly collided with. “Sorry, I was-“
“Going a bit fast for a dirt road, lass!” Scootaloo’s eyes shot to Twilight’s left as Broken came from around her. He held a grin, and tapped at his remaining eye. “Nearly put this one out doing something like that.”
“Yeah, sorry, Mr. Shield.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had extricated themselves from the cart they rode in, and were staring at Broken warily; the contrast between them and Scootaloo’s obvious mix of awe and enthusiasm was a little odd. Broken noticed it as well, and his eye softened.
“Just call me Broken, Scootaloo.” When she nodded, he turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. “And what’s the matter with you two? Cat got your tongues? Chimera catch your tracheas?”
“Broken!” Twilight hissed. He sighed.
“Right. Your sisters.” He overemphasized the word, getting a small smile from the two. “I’ll admit, I gave you guys a bad idea.”
“It wasn’t bad!” Scootaloo interjected.
“Yeah, it was. Encouraging minors to try to destroy things? I was inviting the wrath of Faust upon us all.” He gave a laugh, but he didn’t smile again when his mouth closed. “Listen, you two. I’m gonna bet that your sisters said I was dangerous, that I wasn’t to be trusted and that you should always be really careful around me?”
“Yeah.” Sweetie admitted.
“Sis said you were a tribalist too.” Apple Bloom added. Broken blinked.
“Well, they’re right. I am dangerous, I am untrustworthy, and, buck it, I have this absolutely wrong idea that us pinheads are somehow better than the flatheads or airheads.” Apple Bloom’s eyebrows rose, Sweetie Belle’s jaw came loose, and Scootaloo looked like she’d been hit by a train. Broken sighed. “But I’m working on fixing all of that. This guy here’s supposed to ‘help’ me,” Broken gestured to Pip, “as is Twilight. I have a lot of things wrong with my head, girls, and I don’t want you to risk being near me unless one of these two is with me. In fact, if you don’t see me with either of them, run and get a guard or Twilight. I have… bad days, sometimes.”
“And who’s ‘that guy there’?” Apple Bloom asked. Twilight opened her mouth, but Broken spoke faster.
“That’s Pip. He’s crazy.” When the three stared at him, he laughed. “I was in a mental hospital for several days when I was recovered from my assignment. When I came down here to work with my niece on my ‘experiencing a peaceful life’, Princess Celestia had the great idea to send a ‘patient assistant’ with me, a kind of a joint acclimation program. Hence Pip.”
Twilight gave a sideways glance at Broken; what he was saying worked. It was close enough to the truth – it was the truth, for the most part – and somehow Broken was coming across as if he’d decided all of it.
“Princess Celestia needs Broken, as something of an advisor.” Twilight spoke, pulling the attention to her. “But with the condition he’s been in, he needs to get acclimated to Equestrian society again first. I’m helping him overcome his ‘bad thoughts’, like the tribalism. As he said, he’s not supposed to be out without me and Pip with him.”
“An’ is Pip as dangerous as Broken?” Apple Bloom asked. Twilight thought for a moment.
“Pip is very singleminded, and somewhat detached from his surroundings. He has a… a condition, where he’s blindly loyal to authority, which means me right now. We’re working to help him become independent again, but mentally, he’s very similar to a young foal. He just has a big body, and he uses big words.” In response to this blatant assault on his own claims and the certain-point-of-view truths Twilight had just told, Pip blinked.
“Is he autistic?” Sweetie asked. She was watching him, more than the other two. Twilight blinked in surprise.
“Er-“
“No.” Broken spoke again. His voice was rough, angry. Twilight gave him a glare, but he shot one right back, not stopping his speech. “He used to be a pony just like you or- well, like you. Somepony made him like this.”
Sweetie and Scootaloo both gasped. Apple Bloom swallowed and spat on the ground. Pip’s mouth thinned, but he said nothing.
Staying quiet, doesn’t want to override my story-
“Sweetie…” Broken said, warning. Twilight glanced at the filly, saw her slowly walking towards Pip. The stallion seemed slightly tense.
“It’s okay, Pip.” She said. He shifted, very slightly, enough that she could tell he was less likely to bolt away. Sweetie kept walking, stopping about one-and-a-half metres away.
“Pip?” She asked. He blinked, and she continued. “I’m Sweetie Belle, Pip. My friends are Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.” She raised a hoof, wagging it at him. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
Pip glanced at Twilight. She took a second before nodding, and then he took a step forward and met Sweetie’s hoof with his own.
“Hello, Sweetie Belle.” He glanced over her head, nodding at the other two. “Apple Bloom. Scootaloo. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Sweetie smiled at him, lowering her hoof. Pip glanced back at her before stepping back. She watched him for a few seconds before speaking again.
“Where are you from, Pip?”
“Ponyville.”
“Really?”
“I have no reason to lie, young Miss.”
Sweetie blinked at the title. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“I was with her Ladyship Rising Dawn for eight years prior to my placement here. Given your age, it makes sense that you would not have noticed my presence or absence.”
“Oh, yeah…” There was silence for several seconds. “Who’s ‘Rising Dawn’?”
“He-“
“Pip, I’ll answer this one, okay?” Twilight asked. Pip nodded, and she took in a breath. “Rising Dawn is the pony who… er, she was the pony that made Pip like he is.” Sweetie’s eyes widened, but Twilight pressed on. “She was a very mentally unstable pony, and claimed that she was going to overthrow the Princesses and take over Equestria.”
“Like Nightmare Moon.” Apple Bloom supplied.
“Or the Changeling Queen.” Scootaloo added.
“Yes, like them. Fortunately, we found out about her before she could do too much, and she shouldn’t be any danger to anypony now. Unfortunately…” She glanced at Pip. He blinked at her.
“She still did that to Pip.” Sweetie finished. Twilight nodded, then sighed.
“Girls, you should know that this is still very secret information. I need you to not tell anypony about it.”
“Even our sisters?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Or Rainbow Dash?”
“Oh, um, they know, already. But I think they’d rather fill you in themselves, when they’re ready to. Okay?”
The three fillies nodded, and Twilight had to supress a smile. Sweetie put her eyes back on Pip.
“Why were you with Dawn, Pip?”
Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. “P-“
“My parents were killed. Lady Dawn took me in.” His voice was flat, more emotionless than usual. Twilight eyed him warily, and Broken set his hooves, keeping his eye locked on Pip.
“Oh.” Sweetie blinked, then took several steps forward, keeping her eyes on the stallion. “I’m so sorry, Pip.”
“There is nothing to apologize for.” Pip was standing stiff, again. Sweetie seemed to notice, stepping back slightly. She glanced at her friends, turning back to Pip after a few seconds.
“I need to go talk to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, okay, Pip?”
“I have no objections.”
Sweetie’s eyes moved as she turned, focussing on something behind him. They widened, and shot to Twilight. The older mare looked at Pip, trying to find what Sweetie-
Oh.
“We think it was a side effect of what happened to him.” Twilight said. Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo approached, glancing around to try to locate what had caught Sweetie off-guard. Broken backed away, his brows furrowed and his mouth frowning.
“He doesn’t have a cutie mark!” Scootaloo shouted, rather tactlessly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle simultaneously swatted her upside the head, though both of them stared at Pip with wide eyes.
“I fail to see why my lack of a cutie mark is as horrifying as you appear to believe it is.” Pip said blandly. As the three fillies’ eyes widened further, Broken slowly raised a hoof and put it to his face.
“You don’t have a cutie mark, Pip! That’s the worst poss- er, it’s the worst thing that could happen to somepony!”
“Again, I fail to see why. I have lived for fifteen years without a cutie mark, eight years past the average age for obtaining one. Never have I felt saddened or angered by the lack of a mark on my flank.”
“But how are you supposed to know what your special talent is?” Scootaloo stomped her hoof on the ground. “Without a cutie mark, you’re never going to know what you’re supposed to do!”
“Without a cutie mark, I have not been pigeonholed into pursuing a certain profession simply because the area above my stifle determined that I would be ‘best’ at pursuing that occupation.” Pip blinked, as did the three fillies. “I have thus been able to pursue my own interests, those being the protection of Lady Dawn up until several weeks ago and the protection of her Ladyship Twilight Sparkle from several weeks ago up to the current point in time.
“My cutie mark has not appeared during my tenure as her personal bodyguard, and thus I can likely say that my ‘special talent’ is not related to protecting ponies. Nonetheless, I have no desire to do anything else with my life but protect ponies, namely her Ladyship. Were I to be told that I should pursue another occupation due to a cutie mark, I would ignore that claim unless it was an order from her Ladyship herself. Even then, I would go off to perform my predetermined occupation with severe sadness and irritation, as every second I wasted performing whatever task I was determined to be best at was a second more that I was unable to protect those closest to me.”
Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all stared at Pip with slack jaws and eyes wider than a pegasus’ wingspan. Twilight was staring at him in surprise as well. When the three fillies retreated several paces and huddled together to discuss something in secret, Twilight spoke to the stallion.
“Pip, are you okay?”
“I am unsure as to what would be causing me injury, Milady.”
“Do you really feel that way? About cutie marks, choosing what you want to do with your life?”
“Of course, Milady. Her Ladyship Rising Dawn spoke at length about allowing higher powers license to force us into predetermined roles; she was working on a spell that could be cast over Equestria in order to dampen or eliminate cutie mark magic.”
Broken chose that point to enter the conversation. “Dawn was obsessed with that idea later on, said that cutie marks were remnants of a time where ponies were enslaved to the tasks that the powerful assigned them. She didn’t get pissed at you for having one, but she encouraged ponies to try as many things as they could in order to find something they enjoyed, rather than something they were really good at.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Twilight admitted. Broken shook his head.
“She had some good ideas, like I told her right before she went back to Ponyville and everything went wrong. She was a bucking psychopath nonetheless. Right after she gave one of those speeches, she had twenty rebels publicly executed for ‘subversion of the chosen leadership’. You can damn bet that any talk she had about everypony being equal and free didn’t apply if you were working against her own powerful assignments.” He scoffed. “Plus, so many earth ponies decided to avoid farming and pursue other interests that there ended up being food shortages. That pissed the pegasi off even more at her.”
Twilight gave the two a glance. “You weren’t required to have a job in your cutie mark’s field, were you?”
Pip shrugged. Broken answered.
“Dr. Shelter comes from a family of architects and interior designers, or at least he did in my timeline. Last I checked his cutie mark was a hammer and a roof, so it was less ‘you can’t’ and more ‘it’s very very hard’.”
“Twilight?”
A filly’s voice broke them from their circle. All three turned to see Sweetie facing them, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom very close behind her.
“Yes, Sweetie?”
“Well, we were talking, and we were wondering if it would be okay for Pip to come crusading with us.” Twilight must have gotten a look, because Sweetie spoke quickly. “I mean, if something happened to him like Broken said, and it made him like this, without a cutie mark at his age and stuff, then maybe if we helped him find his special talent he’d get better! He’d be happier, I mean, maybe what Dawn did to him would go away!”
Twilight blinked, biting her lip at the filly’s hopeful stance. She glanced at Broken, who gave her a mix of a warning, worried, and very-close-to-threatening look, then at Pip, who regarded her the same as he always had.
“Would you want to play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Pip?”
“I would be perfectly fine with doing so, so long as you wished me to.”
Sighing, Twilight turned back to Sweetie.
“I’m going to have to say no. I know that you mean well, Sweetie, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, but Pip needs to stay with me and Broken for a little while, for reasons that affect both him and Broken. If he goes with you, something could go wrong, he could have a bad reaction to something that happens, and I don’t want to risk anypony getting hurt. I’m still not sure on all of his boundaries, what we can and can’t risk him doing, so it would be best if he just stayed with me.”
Sweetie’s face dropped, but she nodded. “Sorry, Twilight…”
“What? Why are you apologizing? You had a good idea, it’s just that this is a very special case.” Twilight blinked. “Tell you what, girls. I’ll talk it over with Applejack and Rarity, and if they’re okay with Pip going with you, I’ll let him go crusading with you…”
Sweetie immediately perked up. “Really?!”
“…but I need to come along as well. Just to make sure he’s not getting worked up.”
Sweetie’s eyebrows raised, but she nodded vigorously. “Okay! We don’t have a problem with that, do we, girls?”
“Nope!”
“I’m cool with it!”
“Right! So you just talk to our sisters and then we can help Pip get back to normal! Thanks, Twilight!” Sweetie ran back to the other two, and the trio was soon speeding off down the road.
“Broken Shield.” Pip said, apparently in warning. Twilight turned, facing the angered stallion.
“I know that you think I’m putting them at risk, Broken, but-“
“No excuses.” Broken took in a few breaths, trying and failing to calm himself down. “I can’t stop you. You do it on a day that I’m not here. You keep a hawk’s eye on him. You keep them safe.”
“I have no reason to harm them, Broken.” Pip said. Broken rounded on him.
“If Sweetie doesn’t die, Dawn loses her bargaining chip with Rarity. You could easily kill her and make it look… like an accident.” Broken’s voice broke on the last three words, drowning under a current of white-hot fury, and his entire body seemed to tense, as if he was fighting the urge to pounce on the stallion. Twilight watched him warily, knowing that that he probably was.
“By that logic, you should ensure that either I or her Ladyship kill Apple Bloom, so that Applejack can be secured to your side against us.” When Broken froze, his eye twitching, Pip continued in his monotone. “I can assure you, Broken Shield, that I would not harm those fillies unless ordered to by her Ladyship. As she has given no indication of wishing them harm, I can only presume that she wishes for them to be protected. Thus, any fear of my harming them is unnecessary and unfounded.”
Broken seemed to struggle with a few words before letting out a teeth-clenched growl. He took a few more breaths, calming himself enough to look at Twilight again instead of trying to bore a hole into Pip’s head with his gaze.
“I’ll keep a very close watch on him, Broken. You have my word.”
Broken nodded stiffly.
“I need to go k-“ He cut himself off, taking a breath. “I need to go break something. Can we head to the Everfree?”
“I think it would be best if-“
“It’s going to be a tree or a rock or something, I’m not killing it, just let me go.” Broken brought a hoof to his face, pressing it into his closed eye. Twilight watched him for a few seconds.
“You’ll stay in my sight? Directly?”
“Yes, yes, you can have Pip shadow me if you want-“
Twilight’s horn glowed. The three moved, from the park to the edge of the Everfree. Broken raised his head, blinking and looking around.
“Get it out of your system. Don’t hurt anything.” Twilight gave him what she hoped was a smile. He grimaced back, but nodded. Turning, he walked to the nearest gnarled tree, glancing it up and down before placing his horn on it.
The back of the tree exploded, brown and yellow flecks of wood shooting into the foliage behind it. Broken stepped back, watching as the tree slowly tipped back before suddenly snapping and falling. He shook himself, breathing somewhat heavily. He turned to look at Twilight and Pip, his eye holding a small amount of glee.
“Just making sure I could still do that.”
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Pip is best Crusader! Loved the interaction between him and the Crusaders. And I loved how Pip just shot back Broken's accusation like it was nothing. Two sides of the same coin, those two.
Kind of odd how a character who is supposed to be dull and complient becomes so interesting, don't you think?
Also, how many fancy words starting with a 'P' do you have left?
Great chapter, looking forward to the next one!
Know how you feel Broken, anger is a unwelcome friend to us all, some of us more than others.
3342190
I've been getting them from here but I'll admit that I'm running out.
I've wanted Pip to do something with the CMC for a while, so I'm glad to be getting here. Broken obviously isn't happy about it, but he knows he can't really stop them.
When I was first writing this I was aware of the common fascination fandoms have with the stoic, silent characters. I bounced between possibilities for him before deciding on the one I'm using now. I'm hoping he gets more interesting when other things are revealed.
3342256
Thanks!
3342286
Yeah, he's been having trouble with his temper for a while, though he's not bothered trying to get it under control until recently. He's not so good at it.
I get that Broken is insane and going through the healing process, but it just seems like he's become... I don't want to say it, but I forgot the normal way to say it... it seem like he's become the *sigh* butt-monkey.
I'm already looking forward to Pip going crusading.
3342709
He's not really a butt monkey. He's an obnoxious, aggressive, violent, mentally unstable and knowingly (almost intentionally) all-around unpleasant jerk of a pony. Almost all of this can be blamed on his experiences (having your friends, family, etc. killed and such doesn't usually bode well for one's temperment) but, in Celestia's and most others' opinions, that explanation is not an excuse, and he's shown that he can act better than he usually does.
He's been placed in this situation specifically because of his actions, not because the universe has it out for him. (or the author, I've tried very hard to not let him go to either extreme of the Sue-Suck spectrum)
3342764
I'm going to try to get it in with the chapter or two after the next one.
Which with my luck means that it's going to come in around Ch 40.
That's alot of chapters beginning with 'P'.
3342947
Eeyup. Check my comment to Evil.
That's... how Cutie Marks work. In the show. Are they different in Broken's world?
3344653
Take a glance at Rarity; her special talent is in finding gems, which she seems rather indifferent to, using it to fund and add flair to her clothing. She could just as easily have gone into business as a jeweler, where her cutie mark would be a direct benefit, but instead she chose to keep going with dressmaking, because that was what she was interested in and what she enjoyed.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not all ponies have cutie marks that are necessarily related to their interests or things they enjoy doing; there has to be, out there, some poor schlub who has a violin or fiddle for a cutie mark but deep down wants to be a hairdresser or something.
As Broken said, it's not that (in either universe) getting a cutie mark in a certain field forces one to pursue a related line of work. However, that flank-stamp is a highly visible notification that 'sure, they may want to do this or be fairly good at that, but their real talent is in this third thing'. Most ponies would likely gravitate towards a baker with a loaf of bread as a cutie mark, rather than the one with a parasol, simply because the bread-flank has a related cutie mark and thus is likely to be skilled at that line of work. No matter how hard the parasol-flanked pony tries, I'd be willing to bet that the bread-flanked pony gets more customers.
In this universe, such (subconscious) discrimination is downplayed, unlikely to seriously affect one's choices or opportunities. In Broken's, where everything we've seen is taken to a rather higher degree... yeah, not very easy to get past that picture on your plot.
For a long time, I wasn't sure whether I was going to be happy with having upvoted this, but I sure didn't want to be faced with the only alternative being to switch to a downvote instead of remaining neutral. So I held off. Then I probably just forgot or something.
The upshot is, it's time. I'm upvoting this after over 150,000 words and who knows how many months, which may be a personal record for how long it took me to decide.
3345225
Well, that's good to hear.
Might I ask what tipped the scales?
3344748
Rarity's Cutie Mark resembles an indication of gem-finding, but it's not what it signifies as her special talent. When all their Cutie Marks got swapped, Applejack didn't take up gem finding, and yet it was her Cutie Mark that was the chief indicator (according to the song, anyway) of the biographic shift.
We saw in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" (and "Magical Mystery Cure") that finding out who you are is just as much a prerequisite as finding out what you're good at. The whole reason the CMCs keep failing to get their cutie marks is that they don't realize that.
Maybe later in life somepony would wish to change occupations, but that's a whole different topic.
3345427 It wasn't anything like "up through Chapter 29 I couldn't upvote, but now in Chapter 30 I can". Maybe if I went back I could identify such a chapter, but maybe not; a lot of what was holding me back was "well I'm not sure that the fic won't take a downhill turn (in my eyes) and make me regret the upvote".
I just noticed that I hadn't yet voted, and it had been several updates—I really have no idea how many—since I had considered whether to upvote, and thought, "Oh. Well, I'm prepared to do something about that."
3345609
Ugh, yeah, I see what you're saying. I probably could have worded it a little better, but most of what I meant was that Twilight's agreement with the idea didn't preclude its activation in this Equestria; basically, what Dawn was saying is how things already work here. Like you said, it didn't work as much like that in Broken's Equestria, both because the requirements for obtaining a cutie mark are somewhat altered, and because what one was expected to do once obtained was somewhat different.
Sorry if I was acting confusing or anything.
3345694
Well it's good that I haven't done anything to jump the shark, then.
So is Pip ever going to meet Pipsqueak? Likewise, will Broken ever meet Cadence?
3356822
Both are planned for the future. That's about all I can say right now.
3357996
Hope the future is soon then, because I am just loving this.
3358004
Thanks!
(Pip's should be coming up rather quick, Broken's is going to be further down the line)
Just started the story off a couple of days ago, and it's been freaking awesome! Hopefully, you'll find the time to give us more...
3359221
Thanks!
I've been keeping to a fairly regular 2-week update schedule, so there should be another chapter up the Sunday after next. (The 27th.)
I was worried that he might think of the other type of "Play" and have a very awkward situation happen, which would end in Pip having a even worse situation....
