133 - On the Market
Comforting knocked on the wood door, but pushed it open afterwards. It was a business, and it was open. "Hello?" She poked her head in and looked around.
"Howdy," called a mare behind a desk. "Come on in!" She could see only Comforting's pony face, and her expression turned to surprise when Comforting fully entered. "Oh! You're... Hugs, no, Comforting, right?"
Comforting smiled at the mare, brushing the door shut behind herself with her tail. "That's me, Comforting. And you are good at finding the perfect home for a pony, right?"
"It's what I do," sang the mare with a happy smile. "And if you came here for that, you came to the right place!" She considered Comforting with all proper intensity. "Do... creatures of your sort have any preferences different from ponies? I admit, you're the first... of your kind I've helped." She hopped to her hooves, circling the counter. "Also, please don't take this the wrong way, but are you a foal, adult, or...?"
"That's a long story..." Comforting chuckled nervously. "But I am ready to get a house. I want one here, in Ponyville. If it can be near Fluttershy's cottage, bonus. She's my mom."
"I heard of that." The mare came in to sit right in front of Comforting. "Nice to meet you. Now... There certainly is room by Fluttershy's cottage, but that's half the problem. There aren't many buildings near Fluttershy's cottage. I'm fairly certain she picked the spot for that exact reason. She had it built when she moved into town. Speaking of that, are you hoping for an existing home, or are we building one for you too?"
It was at that moment that Comforting realized she could just... make a house, in theory. "I'm new to how land ownership works. If I can own some land, and put what I want on it, then everything's fine, really."
"You're new, but you sound like you know how it works." The mare curled a hoof up under Comforting's chin. "Are you just new to how it works in Ponyville?"
"Exactly!" Comforting snapped her fingers sharply. "What are the rules, here in Ponyville?"
"Well, thankfully, they're not all that bad." The mare rose back to her hooves and went to the large windows in front to point out at the town hall. "Assuming nopony else has dibs on the parcel you're interested in, you have to go there, tell them what portion of land you want, and they'll decide on the price. You pay it, and it's yours, minus any yearly taxes. Now, before you panic, there are a mountain of exemptions a pony could apply for! Many of the ponies in this town don't pay any taxes."
Comforting lifted a few inches, hovering after her. "What, mostly, decides if a pony pays taxes or not?"
"Good question!" She turned back to Comforting. "Celestia, long may she reign, has a very progressive tax policy, which trickles down to all the towns and cities in our lovely nation. If you don't make many bits, she doesn't want your last, and forbids local managers from reaching for them either. The more you make, the higher a bracket you reach." She lifted her hoof from the ground at different levels. "The higher the bracket, the more taxes, both property and income and most everything else. Do you have a job?"
"Not... one that pays?" Helping Amity didn't reap cash dividends, nor did being a student. "I'm a student."
"Oh! Well, students? They don't pay taxes," the real estate agent assured firmly. "So, all you need to do is cover the price of the parcel you've set your eyes on. Now, I don't want to be rude, but are you sure you want to just buy a parcel? Somepony has to actually build a house on it. You... don't..." She trailed off, just noticing Comforting was floating. "Can you?"
Comforting colored with a nervous giggle. "Sorry! Sorry." She landed, coming down a few inches. "But, yes. I think I can. Thank you for being so helpful."
"That's my job!" She pointed back at her cutie mark, where a house lived with a curl of smoke rising from its chimney. "By the way, doing what your cutie mark tells you to do? That lowers your bracket. Following my destiny nets me a tax break. Pretty sweet, huh?"
"That's nice." Comforting glanced back at her rump, where no mark could be found. "What about creatures that don't have a mark to follow? Are we just... out of luck?"
She hummed softly. "To be honest, I don't know. Real estate is my specialty, not tax codes, even if I know more than the average pony." She raised a hoof at the town hall. "But! If you're going there anyway, they'd be the perfect ponies to ask. They are the ones that collect it. I'd hope they'd know, or we're all in trouble. But, before you gallop over there, let's talk about your plans."
"Plans?"
"Plans!" She reached up and pulled down a map of the town. "You want to know where you hope to get a parcel, if you're so sure you don't want a house that's already built."
Comforting's thoughts went to the other Comforting, the one that was an agent of Harmony. They wouldn't have gotten a free house, lacking chaos powers. They probably had to buy a house. Was that why they weren't right near Fluttershy? "I still want one near mom's house. I'll check with her, make sure it's not messing up her area, or scaring the animals, but near her, close as I can."
"Well." She leaned in on the far edge of the map, where the road worked its way past Fluttershy's house and into the forest. "Plenty of room there, as I mentioned. It sounds to me like you should talk to her and figure out what will work for both of you. No parcels around there are claimed, that I can see." She tapped at the bare part of the map, just with Fluttershy's cottage. "So pick a spot, and head to town hall."
"That's... easy." She let it out like a sigh of relief. Pony world was so much simpler about that than the human world she had come from. "Thank you, again. You've been nothing but helpful."
"I do my best," sang the mare. "And if you happen to change your mind, let me know. We have some lovely houses already built and waiting for an owner."
"I will! Um, if I change my mind. Actually..." She hopped towards the agent. "I may want to look at them later, just to get a good idea of what I might want to build. Is that alright?"
"Yes... but also maybe?" She wobbled a hoof. "I'm writing that off as a charitable donation. That's still work, for me, but you won't be giving me any bits, but the writeoff.... Yeah, sure, I'm open for that." Her tax musings complete, she nodded firmly. "Just tell me when you're ready and we'll set an appointment."
"Great!" She paused in her retreat. "Oh. Is it alright if I bring a friend or two along?"
The real estate mare inclined her head. "There shouldn't be a problem with that. It's pretty common, especially with married ponies, but even the ones that aren't may bring a second set of eyes. Now, you have a great day."
"Already doing it." Comforting burst out onto the road with a smile. "That went well..." All she had to do was pick a spot! Oh, and visit town hall. That shouldn't be so hard? She lifted from the ground and zipped rapidly back home. It was still her home. Fluttershy had made it clear that it would always be her home, and she could live there while she got things in order.
Fluttershy was on her lawn, feeding some birds with flecks of seeds that sent them gladly searching and pecking. Comforting touched down some distance from the scene, smiling at all the cute birds getting their lunch.
A duck landed on one of Comforting's arms, peering at her.
"Hello there." Comforting reached into a pocket to grab some seeds and offer them to the bird perched on her. "Having fun?"
It quacked in an... amiable sort of way and pecked at the offered seeds, apparently accepting Comforting as a safe thing to be around. Comforting gently rubbed the duck over the head, stroking it as it enjoyed the meal. "What a nice duck you are." Birds of Equestria, nicer than the old Earth models. "I hope Cracked isn't bothering you."
The bird touched its beak to her snout and hopped down. Was that an answer? Not one in any language Comforting knew. Still, it was still there, and not avoiding the area, so... It couldn't be too bad?
"Welcome back," called Fluttershy, her task complete. "Did you already find something? Or did something come up?"
"I talked with a very nice pony." Comforting closed, not scared of scaring the birds. "She told me what I had to do. I want to be here." She spread her hands. "But I don't want to be in the way. Where would you want me to be, near here, where I won't be bothering things."
Fluttershy curled her neck, looking about slowly. "You really want to live all the way out here? I... like my space, but you seem to get along with others quite well. You could be a lot closer to a lot of ponies." She pointed into the town. "Wouldn't that be nice?"
Comforting lifted from the ground, propelling herself up a foot and letting gravity draw her back down. "I could live halfway across the world and still get back in time for lunch, mom. If I have to pick where I feel safe and happy, that'd be near you. Um, unless that's a bother?"
"Hm." Fluttershy curled a hoof to her chin. "Well..." She pointed at the river that ran in front of her cottage. "Just on the other side?" She walked out and tapped a hoof on the ground at the river's edge. "This is where my little slice of land ends."
Comforting clapped her hands. "Great! But I wanted to be sure I was putting it in a place that wouldn't bother you. No point moving out just to set up where you don't want."
"How large?" She raised that hoof high above her. "How tall? If it isn't very tall, I don't think I'll mind... You were never that loud. And you don't scare the animals."
Comforting jumped. Something had hit her! Looking down, she saw Angel Bunny glaring at her. "What?"
He squeaked and pointed off, glaring at her twice as hard.
"He says... Do you really think so?"
Angel nodded at Fluttershy firmly.
"If you say so... He says you should put it right there." She joined his pointing, but also took flight to flap over to the exact spot across the river, right by the road that led up to her cottage. "Here," she called out, barely audible in her soft cry.
Comforting joined her, landing beside her. "This is a nice spot." She could see Fluttershy's cottage, barely a minute's hike away. "If you like it, then I like it." She flopped over onto her back, feeling the grass of the spot. "Next stop, town hall!"
"Hm?" Fluttershy turned to Comforting. "Why there?"
"I have to buy this." Comforting patted the ground around herself, sitting up. "Then I can put a house on it. I'm going to take my friends to see houses to pick the kind of house I want."
Fluttershy smiled at the idea. "That sounds wonderful. Hm... Do you need bits? I have a few, to help." She produced a bag of jingling coins. "This may be far enough from town that they won't charge you anything. I didn't pay for my cottage's land. But I did tell them, um, well, Rainbow did... So nopony else would take it later. That'd be awkward..."
Entirely fee free land? She wasn't on Earth... "I'll check with them. If not, I can at least tell them I'm taking it."
Comforting picks a spot with Fluttershy's help. Next stop, some red tape, than grab some friends to go house style shopping!
Join the special community of folks who like my stories, get updates early, and/or get your own here at 
atreon!
Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could 
Join my discord to chat!
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
679 users online
636,432 hits today, 1,960,719 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.®
I'm surprised comforting isn't just going along even though everyone in the readers can see she doesn't want this and fluttershy reasons are dumb. So what if she doesn't need as much because her powers allow her to do more than before. Home is where the heart is and plus the only rules about adult children living at home is don't be a burden on your family. Comforting has that down easily enough. Besides they haven't been together even a year and you want to kick her out.
Kicking your children out is kinda American cultural thing. I mean, there are a bunch of reasons for that that are more widespread, like education in other place, getting married, having existential incompatibility with family, traveling and seeing the world; but this "you're of age so please remove yourself from property" thing is mostly American : )
I think I agree with the other comments here. Comforting is already plenty independent, as a tiny chaos god who sometimes hops realities just for the experience. And Fluttershy isn't the kind of controlling parent she'd need to be independent from anyway. I bet there's some Doyalist justification for why the story makes more sense if Comforting has a house, but the Watsonian perspective is: no she doesn't need a new house, why would she need a new house? What would she even do with a house?
Like, the only reason she uses Fluttershy's house is because that's where Fluttershy lives and she likes being around Fluttershy. She doesn't need it for shelter or anything. If she has a sentimental reason to keep things and/or stuff instead of poofing it into existence when necessary, she can just store it in a pocket dimension. I'm not even sure she uses her bed. Does Comforting need to sleep? Or does she just skip ahead to the next chapter like we do?
If Fluttershy wants Comforting to not use her house anymore, for... reasons I guess, why does she need to have a house at all?
Why not stay with Discord? Or Amity? Or any/all of her friends? Why not go couch surfing, while bringing your own couch and the room to put it in? Bet you wouldn't wear out your welcome nearly as fast if you never used up the hot water and also poofed up breakfast for everyone.
It just seems kinda strange, you know?
Fluttershy: "I need you to move out."
Comforting: "Okay" <sets up 10 feet away>
Comforting: "This technically counts as out, right?"
11611758
You asked a lot of questions, though I'm unsure if you want the responses or not?
11611817
Those were mostly examples, though the main question from all of that was, why does Comforting think she ought to get a house? I guess on top of that, more reasoning on why is Fluttershy is trying to get her to leave in the first place?
Comforting seems perfectly able to be an adult when she needs too. It doesn't seem like being made to do more adulting is going to make her more any more mature than she already is. So I'm not really seeing a point to Fluttershy kicking her out, from her perspective (unless she actually just wants space from Comforting, but I also trust her not to be lying about that). I feel like I'm really not understanding Fluttershy's perspective here.
11612113
Nocreature was kicked out.
11612116
Asked in no uncertain terms to leave, then.
11612127
Quote?
11612128
That certainly appears to be how Comforting took it.
> Comforting backed a step, head down. "Which... means I have to go."
> "But she left home..." Comforting took a wooshing breath. "And I need to too... I... I get it... I don't like it... But I get it..."
And Fluttershy had plenty of opportunity to correct her if that wasn't what she meant. That the terms were named by Comforting does not mean that they were uncertain. The only valid interpretation of that conversation is that Comforting needs to leave.
Is this really the most important part of this to you? That Fluttershy danced around saying gtfo and didn't technically say it herself? This is Fluttershy were talking about. This is as aggressive as she's going to be without Comforting ignoring her for a literal week.
11612154
She presented an option. Comforting, who is an adult, filly minded or not, could stretch out and be her own thing with room of her own that is under her own control and not force-shared with her sister, her mother, and a huge zoo of random animals.
Comforting took the offer.
The rest of it, a lot of modern baggage being thrust upon our magic ponies just living their best life.
Fluttershy also noted it's pretty alright if Comforting remains filly-minded forever. She's not even the first, and quoted another example of another filly-minded pony who's also pretty mature and gets things done but is also a filly. See: Pinkie Pie.
11612161
When you say "a lot of modern baggage being thrust upon our magic ponies" are you referring to me, or to Comforting? Because, given the previous quotes, Comforting isn't interpreting this as an offer but more as a statement of fact.
Is this actually a case of Fluttershy being too surprised and quiet to just say "Yes" when Comforting offered to make the cottage bigger on the inside? Because if her concern is just that Comforting doesn't have her own room, it seems that would solve it pretty handedly. If so, that was in fact the perspective of Fluttershy's I was missing.
Pinky was brought up in the conversation because Comforting wanted to remain a filly, and I had taken the response of someone being an adult+filly as Fluttershy wanting Comforting to be more like that, in context implying that she ought to be more adult than she currently was, which didn't make sense to me.
One question still remains though, which is, what does Comforting think she needs a house for? Instead of like, a pocket dimension with a couch.
11612183
She likes the idea of having land that is hers, with a house that is hers. It's a point of pride. If she's not living at home, she wants her place to be her place.
11612192
I would definitely count that as being mine. But I guess I'm not her.
11612196
Count what as being yours?
11612198
A pocket dimension? With all the stuff you care to put in it?
11612216
That works for Discord. Comforting wants a place her dear friends can stop by. She wants to hear their knocks. She wants to host sleepovers.
She can't do that very well if she hides in a pocket dimension. No no, actual house. It'll have her name on it and everything. Come on by, get a free hug!
11612161
Considering fluttershy pressure her into leaving in the first place and didn't really ask about her feelings in this matter just decided that she was grown up enough not to need her and therefore had to leave. Comforting never asked for this and her feelings on the matter weren't considered at all. Sure she making the best of it but if she was asked she probably want to stay with her family. They are her home.
11612183
Because fluttershy says you can't live here anymore because you don't need me to look after you. So what is my opinion. Fluttershy love is what makes a home and although someone can live by themselves and be happy comforting wanted to stay. You are the things that she loves coming home to.
11612161
Fluttershy pretty much said you don't need me so you need to move out as soon as possible. She didn't present any options other than you can visit. That isn't exactly a choice.
11612261
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/619597724865527829/1119406840896290846/image.png
Just so everycreature is on the same page. Fluttershy is savagely ejecting her foal... not even like 5 yards. That's where she's going.
11612288
So what even if comforting is moving next door it's only because fluttershy is making her leave and there is no reason to do so expect for that fluttershy thinks that that since she isn't needed as much she should leave and stop being her little girl. Comforting never wanted this. This was all fluttershy idea.
11612288
I'm going to try to be as neutral and precise with this as I can be, because I think you are still missing the core point everyone is making here. I'm sorry that is so long.
As an audience, we're currently under the impression that Fluttershy is telling Comforting to leave her house because she thinks Comforting will self actualize better that way. And our reaction to that impression is that that isn't justified; that being told to leave your home has basically nothing to do with becoming more self actualized and it's possibly detrimental, and so this feels arbitrary to us.
Comforting does not appear to participate in the decision making, instead trying to justify the decision to herself. The decision has already been made by Fluttershy, and she does not acknowledge Comforting's obvious discomfort with the idea.
Additionally, the actual impact of the decision only serves to make the whole situation more absurd, not more justified. Given our impression of Fluttershy's justification, she would probably feel like moving next door is undercutting the whole point of the moving out in the first place, and it seems strange to go along with it. It seems like the threshold for having enough conviction to tell her to leave her house would also require enough conviction to have her leave the house's immediate vicinity, but it apparently doesn't. Which feels like her commitment to her arbitrary seeming reasons is also arbitrary.
It feels to us as an audience that 1) Fluttershy decided that Comforting should leave. 2) Comforting was not given input into that decision. 3) Fluttershy doesn't seem to have a particularly strong reason for deciding that way, and 4) We have access to all relevant information as 3rd person observers of all the conversations involved.
And that's why everyone is so unhappy at Flutters. She unilaterally made an arbitrary decision with a disruptive impact on her child's life. That seems like the kind of thing we ought to be unhappy at.
(This is more meta feedback than summery)
Except we're not supposed to be unhappy at her? Which probably means we got some of those points wrong somehow. But which ones? Even with all our back and forth, the most justifiable possibility I have is still not very justifiable.
Only you, our dear author, know which bits we got wrong and how. And this is probably a bit hypocritical after how much of your time I've taken up down here, but the way to fix our unhappiness, probably isn't drawing us diagrams in the comments like we're semiliterate children.
Take our feedback or don't. Truly, it's bad for an artist to listen to their audience too much. But it seems like you've upset a bunch of people here or at best confused them with this part of your story. It seems like you are frustrated that we aren't interpreting your work the way you intended. That sucks and I'm sorry.
However, by and large, we are not too incompetent to comprehend the meaning of words on a page. We've all read up to this point after all. If there were only one person wondering about Flutters' parenting here, it would be reasonable to assume they had just missed some section or other. That isn't the case here.
If you want to know the nature of our general misunderstanding so that you can improve your story, then ask and we'll tell you. Have been telling you in fact. If you want to just write what you feel, and use this space for community and Q&A, that's fine too. We're here for that, I think. But you've passed that point here.
We are not here to argue with you. Particularly about if our feelings which come from reading your work are justified or not. So please cut it out. We'll be able to argue at each other just fine without you I expect.
You coming down here and explaining, to one person at a time, why no one was 'kicked out' and that Flutters has been a parent for longer than a week, is probably not a good use of their time, and definitely not the best use of yours. People exaggerate for effect, particularly to communicate feeling and particularly on points of shared knowledge. We were not confused about the literal facts, and even if we were, you can't argue every time someone is wrong on the internet.
I hope that this is actually helpful in some way, because otherwise I wasted like 3 hours.i really need to go to bed.
11612711
If the author has a good excuse for all of this not niceness towards comforting I certainly would like to hear it considering right now it looks like the author is having fluttershy make comforting do something she really doesn't want to do just because she says that comforting doesn't need her anymore. And from my point of view I say so what if she can take care of herself love and family doesn't require that especially as the children get older plus she had to expect this when she became like discord. Considering comforting is not a burden on fluttershy and could easily make the house twice as big if fluttershy wanted it. And the only explanation I heard so far is the author is having her move next door which doesn't change the original problem.
11613240
Yeah, no, I get it. The whole situation does seem pretty unjustified. I agree. I think though, that by this point the author understands how we feel about this about as much as he's going to, and that we should maybe give him some time to figure out how he's going to sort this or if he even will. And if he doesn't, then too bad, oh well. Ya know? This is still his story, or maybe ours collectively, but not yours or mine, and after a point it's not worth getting angry about. If at some point, you feel like you just can't enjoy the story anymore, then you should probably just stop reading it.
I told him we weren't here to argue with him. And I shouldn't have spoken for all of us, but I really don't think it's worth our time or his, especially now, after we've all had an opportunity to give our reactions but before he's had a chance to make something from them. I'd like it if we could just give him some space here in the comments for a minute, if that's alright. At least until the next update, okay?
11613440
My schedule is posted on my blog. See it? No surprises there.
11613440
I know it's just you kinda become attached to great characters and you end wanting to be happy. I know it's silly but good stories are like that.