• Published 8th Dec 2021
  • 2,521 Views, 46 Comments

Do Ponies Like Me? Or Am I Just Lucky? - redandready45



After learning of the torments her human self endured, Twilight fears that ponies only put up with her for her power and connections. Starlight gives her a very complicated answer.

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Pinkie Pie Spreads Love and Tolerance To Neighsay

Author's Note:

A little bonus chapter for those who wanted Neighsay to get his lesson.

Chancellor Neighsay sat reviewing the applications for Canterlot University. As the head of Equestrian Educational Administration, it was his job to ensure only the best and brightest could enjoy higher education.

But he also had a more discreet duty that few ponies were aware of: ensuring that only creatures of a particular "disposition" could be allowed to enter, as well as the proper class and background, all to ensure that Equestria remained a harmonious and balanced society. He fastidiously looked through all the applicants, marking all rejections with a quill dipped in red ink.

"HEY!" The white unicorn looked up and saw a pink Earth pony glaring at him with light blue eyes.

Chancellor Neighsay, seeing that the pony looked familiar, regarded the intruder defensively, not wanting ponies to see his work. "How did you get in here?" He hadn't noticed any hoof-steps, and the door itself wasn't even open. "If you wish to meet with me," he said, while covertly slipping his rejection letters inside a drawer, "you must make an appointment like everypony-"

"Apologize!" The intruder screeched.

Neighsay was even more confused. "Apologize for what?"

The pony pointed at him in an accusatory manner. "Apologize for being a big mean, meany pants to Starlight Glimmer!"

Neighsay's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Who-," Neighsay paused, but then his eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh, the Madmare of Equality." A contemptuous gaze came upon Neighsay as he recollected that thorn in his flank.

The pink mare became even more incensed. "It's your fault Starlight became an evil meany who tried to take over Equestria!"

The bearded stallion's gaze became harder. "I did not force that mare into villainy. Glimmer's horrible actions are her own doing. Or do you think she is too feeble to accept responsibility for her actions?"

The pink mare's glare faltered for a bit. "Well," Pinkie's eyes darted back and forth. "Yeah. I guess." The pony's hardened gaze returned. "But you were still mean to her. Now say your sorry!"

"I did nothing wrong," Neighsay said with utter calmness and certainty that it raised the pink pony's temper even higher. "Ms. Glimmer was a disobedient student who always misbehaved. Her little spectacle is clearly why those of common background should pursue careers more suiting of their status." A sneer formed on the administrator's face. "Her little outburst is proof that I was not hard enough on the brat. A decent society would've been locked her in Tartarus like Equestria's worst criminals." It annoyed the middle-aged unicorn how soft the Princesses were on miscreants.

The mare was deeply offended by Neighsay's words. "Princess Luna was an evil Queen Meany who tried to destroy the sun. Should she have been locked up in Tartarus?!"

Neighsay glared at the pony. "Princess Luna is an alicorn of high-breeding and heritage. Ms. Glimmer is a young strumpet who sought to disrupt the social order."

The pink mare's expression became one of desperation and pleading. "Starlight said sorry for the mean things she did. Princess Luna said sorry." She put on puppy dog eyes and started weeping. "Why can't you be a nice pony and say sorry?"

Having dealt with cheeky foals, Heighsay was immune to such histrionics. "I have done nothing but preserve Harmony by ensuring that the common ponies remain in their station. Harmony is a concept a pony such as yourself doesn't understand." The mare's lips pursed angrily at his use of the word "Harmony." "Now I've had enough of this...dispute." He pointed with his hoof toward the door. "Now, I must ask you to observe the door and step right through it, or I will have you removed for trespassing and making a scene."

The mare gave a cold expression before smiling at him oddly. "Don't worry, Mr. Neighsay," the pink pony chirped while removing her saddlebags. "I won't get angry." She started emptying the bag. "I have somebody else to do that for me."

"What are you-," Neighsay paused in amazement as several massive objects fell out of the bag: talon guards, a boulder bigger than the bag itself, and most astonishingly, a grey Earth pony mare and a griffin. "How did you fit all of that into a bag?"

"Pinkie, you dweeb!" The griffin yelled in anger. "You need to clean the bag! It stank in there!"

"No, that was you, Ms. I-Don't-Clean-My-Feathers!" The grey mare yelled in annoyance.

The griffin immediately got into the pony's face. "I told you, I need a special soap for my feathers, you rock head!"

The grey mare's face got even more threatening. "Why don't we step outside. I'll give you a good scrub!" The fight ended with a polite cough from the pink mare. The pony and griffin remembered their goals and turned back to glare at the white stallion.

Neighsay was spooked by the glare of a griffin, remembering the stories he learned about their innate barbarity. "A foul beast come to devour my flesh!" Neighsay attempted to break the exit, only to be blocked by the gray mare.

"Sorry, teach," the mare said with a nasty look. "We have to...talk. Of course, you can try and get through me if you want?" The grey Earth pony gave him a silent challenge with her green eyes, but Neighsay realized it would be hazardous to his health. Based on her pose and build, the mare looked quite formidable, and his combat magic was lacking. Neighsay imagined it would be like going through a brick wall.

"Professor Meany Pants, meet Gilda and my sister Limestone. Gilda and Limestone, this was the meany-weany pants I was telling you about."

"So you're the pathetic piece of roadkill?" The griffin said, looking at the stallion like he was an insect.

"Pathetic? I have three degrees!" Neighsay said defensively.

The griffin gave him a scornful smile through her beak. "You know I'm not really into that Love and Tolerance junk, but you ponies are supposed to be living up to that." Gilda's glare hardened. "If there's anything I don't like, and that's a lot of things, it's a lying hypocrite."

The grey-colored mare also glared at the educator. "What I don't like is pretentious snobs who look down on ponies like me; hard-working mares who bust their flanks on a rock farm fifty hours a week so ponies like you can live large."

Neighsay's anxiety grew. "What is your business?"

"Our business is nailing you for the classist creep you are," Gilda snarled. "And then nailing you, you know, physically." A brief pause ensued. "We're gonna beat you up."

Neighsay's sneer returned. "Oh really. Who are you going to tell? It's your word against mine." The smiles of the two Earth ponies and the griffin widened.

"No, it's your word against the Element of Laughter." Limestone sneered. Neighsay's eyes widened as he realized why the pink mare was so familiar. The rock farmer chuckled mockingly while the griffin and the other. "You didn't know my little sis was an Elemental Bearer," Lime said, a small amount of pride and joy for her younger sibling entering my voice. "For a teacher, you act like you've got nothing but granite for brains." She snickered some more. "You even said you know more about harmony than her."

Neighsay felt cold sweat run down his muzzle. "Elemental Bearer!"

"Aside from Ponko The Lame here being a famous hero with tons of credibility," Gilda said with a bit of pride in her voice," her rank affords her the powers of law enforcement, meaning 'you're doomed."

Neighsay was gritting his teeth in a rage. "Under what-,"

"Section 274 of Equestria's Criminal Code prohibits discrimination based on class and creature In all public fields," Limestone Pie said, reciting the Criminal Code by heart. Neighsay was stunned. "What, you thought I was just some dumb dirt pony?" She snorted. "I did have to take business and law courses, so I can help Ma and Pa run their rock farm."

"And if nopony believes me," Pinkie smiled, pulling out some rectangular object from out of nowhere.

Neighsay was confused. "What is-," Pinkie pushed a button on the device, playing back Neighsay's voice. Including the classist and racist statements, he made to Pinkie. Neighsay's face turned pale with fear. "What," he stammered, "is that-,"

"Tape recorder!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "It was invented...someplace far away." Her expression became shifty.

"Also," Limestone said, holding up the rejection letters which she was able to acquire from his desk without him noticing, "there is an obvious racial and class bias that the nature of your letters can determine. Since I'm acting on behalf of a Bearer, it means that I can collect these documents as evidence."

"And as a Bearer with law enforcement powers," Pinkie said, taking the letters and stuffing them into her mane, "I can reveal to Princess Celestia herself," Neighsay said nothing, staring dumbly at the wall, knowing his professional career was about to collapse.

"Not to mention you called me a foul beast for being a griffin, which is discriminatory," Gilda said, sounding more amused than annoyed. "I mean, I am a foul beast, but not because I'm a griffin."

Limestone rolled her eyes. "It's because you don't shower," Gilda gave a side-eye to Limestone before turning back to glare at the soon-to-be-redlined prosecuted administrator. "Anyways, we're going to leave-,'

"OK, leave," Neighsay muttered in a broken voice.

"OK," Pinkie chirped before giving the bearded pony a cold smile. "But first...Limey-Wimey and Gilda-Wilda-,"

"I told you not to call me that!" Gilda groaned. Limestone gave the irate griffin a silent look, showing she was also annoyed with her younger sister's antics.

"-want to teach you some Love and Tolerance." The voice was kind, but the pink mare's blue eyes were icy and merciless.

"Here's Love!" Limestone said, picking up the massive boulder with a cruel grin.

"Here's Tolerance!" Gilda said, putting on her talon guards and waving them menacingly at the white unicorn.

Neighsay's face contorted in terror. "I'll scream and tell everypony to your plans to assault me."

Pinkie smirked. "Well, it's a good thing we planned this during break time where there's nopony around to hear you." Neighsay again paled, realizing he had been played from the beginning.

"Besides," Limestone Pie chirped with a smug smile, "who would ever believe the sweet Element of Laughter was capable of hurting anypony? Some racist snob?" Neighsay began shaking, realizing his back was to the wall.

"Wait!" Neighsay screeched desperately to the pink mare, hoping for some mercy, "I thought you believed in friendship?" Neighsay hoped appealing to friendship could get the pink mare to give him mercy, but her nasty smile proved she wasn't fooled for a minute.

"Of course we do!" Limestone said nastily. "Gilda and I decided to share! I get to break your legs, and she gets to break your skull!"

"Where have you been all my life?" Gilda asked Limestone.

"On a bleak rock farm in the middle of nowhere. You?"

"Struggling to survive in a desolate town full of greedy jerks where you literally have to pay attention." The rock farmer and the griffin intensely gazed at each other for a moment.

"Want to grab a hay smoothie later?" Limestone said.

"Sure," Gilda said. "But after we deal with Professor Lame-O!" The rock farmer and griffin closed in on the quaking administrator and proceeded to punish him severely, even as he screamed for mercy.

Pinkie Pie would never forget his cries of agony. They were the cries of friendship.

"MY LEGS!"

And broken bones.

Comments ( 21 )

Perfect! So much seratonin!

11078587

This is set during the season 5 to season 6 transition, and the period between Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree.

Made those corrections.

11078587
Also worth mentioning that Equestria Girls in general has timeline issues if you try to integrate it into the show; she has both wings and the Element of Magic, and she lost the latter in the next episode after gaining the former.

11078760
I'm not sure I'm following your criticism there. If you view both series as part of the same canon, EG1 effectively is the next episode after Magical Mystery Cure, in terms of both the continuity of the main series and the release date of the movie. Is there some reason you think the first Equestria Girls movie doesn't fit well between seasons three and four?

11079081
EQ Girls never made any sense in terms of continuity. Sunset was already a grown up pony when she went to the human world. And considering Twilight never heard of her, at least 10 years had passed since then.

It never made any sense why Sunset was a 'teenager in school in the human world.

Then you get into the can of worms that are human Celestia and Luna, when you consider that the pony versions are at least a 1000 years old.

11078760
Huh? As HalflingPony pointed out, the first EqG takes place between Season 3 and Season 4, when she has both wings and the Element of Magic. The second is between seasons 4 and 5 (pre-map), third between 5 and 6 (time loop). Mirror Magic is sometime after the start of season 6 but I doubt any further based on Starlight's voice lines. The final instance of Spring Breakdown is after the movie.

11079132
If time works differently in the human world vs the pony world, it would explain why so little time passes for the humans while several years pass for the ponies, although that is mere speculation on my part. Thirty moons for ponies may only be fifteen moons for humans.

I have had a harder time putting together the main series timeline with the inconsistency of the winter-themed episodes. I put season 1 to 3 over the course of two years with 3 going into Year 3, Season 4 and first-half of five in Year 3. The second-half of season 5 makes things messy though... Long story short, Tanks For The Memories is drastically out-of-order and What About Discord? happens the next year (Year 4) along with the episodes following it. The next three seasons we can put over the course of two or three years easily enough.

Ultimately, from the beginning of Equestria Girls to the Movie, at minimum 3 years have passed for ponies. If the time dilation is applied at 50%, then only a year and a half has passed for humans. At the start of Equestria Girls, the Main-7 are in year 4 of high school. In ye olden days IRL, there was a fifth year to high school (giving reason for the remaining year in school). The EqG shorts are inconsistent enough to write some off as non-canon and others as out-of-order, so we won't need to worry about them.

The ages of characters in the two series can also be written-off as extra-dimensional shenanigans we don't know about happening behind the scenes (see also: It's About Time and The Cutie Re-Mark for examples of time travel with the latter actually having the Tree of Harmony acting as the correcting force). It's up to you what you think of this, I'm just explaining it how I see it.

11079239
The issue I had with it was because I didn't know when it took place. The author thankfully cleared that up.

11079081
Besides the stuff that 11079132 pointed out, Magical Mystery Cure and the Season 4 premiere were originally concepted collectively as a 3-parter. Adding a random trip to the Crystal Empire is somewhat straining even before you account for the fact that the Crystal Mirror was there for some reason and the Empire (probably) did not exist during Sunset's time. (See also the part of that link which points out that the only time we see it in its supposed position in the throne room has so many canonicity problems that it's actually kind of ridiculous.)

11079332
See my above comment. See especially the link, which points out that there are so many inconsistencies in Sunset's backstory that you can reasonably place her in Celestia's first century of life while actively resolving some of them by doing so.

Truly excellent character piece. 👌

And Neighsay getting the shit kicked out of him was the cherry on top.

11079347
The biggest problem always came from the fact that no matter how you look at it, Twilight would have heard about Sunset long before this, yet she never did. Somepony would have mentioned it, someone, like Cadance. You can't erase something like the fact that Celestia had a student before.

11079690

You can't erase something like the fact that Celestia had a student before.

But you can apparently erase the fact that Celestia had a sister before. :ajbemused:
And again, having Sunset be from the era where that happened somehow solves more problems than it raises because Hasbro cares that little about having a coherent timeline.

11079871
Or existence of Crystal Empire?

Tbh back then I assumed that Sunset was somehow trapped along with it (the location of mirror is another problem of consistency) and was from _that _ time.

"-want to teach you some Love and Tolerance." The voice was kind, but the pink mare's blue eyes were icy and merciless.

Never thought Pinkie dancing around the sadist line could be so hilarious.
And satisfying! Neighsay had it COMIN'

11081922
She is a communist. The episode was pretty much an allegory to communism. It even captured the hypocrisy of marxism. It's Marxism bro.

And as you've probably guessed, I wasn't a fan of Starlight's motivation for turning evil. A friend moving away is upsetting, but I think it wouldn't drive a pony to push for equality and spitefully destroy the life of another pony with time travel.

I agree with this.

A very good story, When is the next chapter of Vanishing Act coming out?

Great story! Really enjoyed reading it. :twilightsmile:

The rather nonsensical beatdown was fun.

The main part of the story is pretty good to.
Twilight indeed did have a fairly good hand dealt to her in life.Financial security, good schooling, remarkable connections, add then all of the stuff from the show like her "harmony castle" and I've probably seen an easy dozen of other fics where the villain points out this fact.

And yes sadly there would be pones that would only be polite/kind to Twi because they saw her as a stepping stone to Big C herself. I imagine that maybe in her early years the Princess actively shielded her from some of the nastier aspects of the nobility which in turn led her to becoming the studybug she was at show start.

As to Glimglam, I think she made a great villain, whereas most of the other big two-part seasonal baddies fit into some rather cliche nook (i.e.Tirek Brute, Sombra World Dom, etc.) Glimmy CHOSE to be bad, even if deep down she knew it. The disconnect then to her starting that all because of a childhood friend/sweetheart moving was just...lacking, or at best, mishandled. For the record I don't hate Glimmy even after her reformation but not all baddies can be fixed with a hug and a song.

There was an artist on DA that took a look at her mind and giving Equestria as a whole a darker edge made her a clinical psychopath with narcissist traits who was so utterly convinced that she deserved a happy ending that she pushed away any potential friends or loves because something would always crop up and in the end she nearly killed over it.

11079690
To be fair, Twilight also forgot about her Canterlot friends like Moondancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine until season 5 when Spike brought them up so the idea Twilight flat out didn't know who Sunset was isn't far fetched. Especially if Celestia deliberately avoided mentioning Sunset to anyone until the first EQG film.

Pretty solid story and modification on Starlight's backstory.

Got some questions though:

So, how do you explain the scene of Starlight clearly showing Twilight and Spike her past when time traveling in this story's context? Was that a fake illusion she showed them?

Are there any MLP redeemed villains who you think did have a good backstory (knowing you definitely aren't a fan of Starlight, Juniper, Wallflower, and Vignette's backstories)? Looking at a lot of the redemptions, Sunset never really had much backstory on why she became mean in the first place (even The Fall of Sunset Shimmer comic that is only ambiguous canon at best doesn't explain much since she's already mean even before she sees the mirror), Discord definitely didn't have a backstory (until season 7 brought up "if he isn't chaotic, he'll die" thing), Trixie, Garble, Ahuizotl, Dr. Caballeron, and Chancellor Neighsay had no backstory either, and dunno how Luna, Diamond Tiara, Gilda, Babs Seed, Changelings, Stygian, Gloriosa, and Post-Crush's backstories for their antagonistic actions fared for you.

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