This story is a sequel to She Drives Me Batty
A family of one is as good as a family of none. Each voice it holds adds yet more richness and echoes to the depths of the cave, and it's often best to take a step back and listen to the song a family makes as a whole.
This is an anthology of one shots running parallel with She Drives Me Batty. Each and every one of them are going to be from PoVs outside of Night's to better look into the lives of her family in ways I can't or don't want to explore in the main story. Each one shot will be marked with it's narrator and any additional tags.
A Batty-verse Story Reading Just a Little Batty and She Drives Me Batty first is highly recommended to avoid any confusion.
Cover Art Artist is KatChan
Prereaders and Editors:
Dreams of Ponies
jowijo
Level Dasher
Ticks, mosquitoes, botflies......the less the better.
That filly sounds familiar. I wonder if she has any plans on studying manticores or becoming a professor.
The amount of "Awwww..." Coming off that cover image is indescribable.
Oy... if Princess Luna gets involved with Mercy's situation...
Maybe she lets slip to Pinkie that the manor is all mopey and needs a big surprise party set up. And the household staff and guards are just playing tag and hide and seek.
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Heh, I just couldn't resist the reference. All the other names I was coming up with were really bad and I do so love that fic.
Fjdjskkdjgdj the pegasus on the left of the cover art looks so much like my main OC (the one in my pfp) that I was very confused for a sec
Tempered might need to be a bit more careful with Red’s diet. I remember an episode of Survivorman with Les Stroud where he said that you should never eat grasshoppers or crickets without cooking them thoroughly first because they are commonly infested with parasitic worms that are just as happy to live in mammal guts. Bat Ponies as dedicated insectivores might have adaptations in their stomachs to help with that but Pegasuses almost certainly don’t.
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And treating worms might be troublesome, since those selfish silly creatures on the other side of Princess Twilight's mirror are hoarding all the medicine.
Wait, Rarity's a mom? Who's the other parent?
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Rarity was shown to be a Mom in She Drives Me Batty during the Razing the Battlements Arc when Night convinced Mercy to get the magic suppressing ring she sneaks off in this one shot. I have no plans on revealing the father as he's frankly not important to the story in the slightest for now.
The puns tho, the puns!
So ponies keep saying :P
the theme of butts is getting out of hand
Night should introduce Echo and Calculated. If they get along their mutual love of craft might be a good foundation for a friendship.
Oh, really?
Tease
a visualisation would be awesome .. painters, to your stations !
Diamond is a Brat, in the BDSM sense. I ADORE that idea !!
Never bet on the intelligence of the enemy when them being stupid would cause you more harm, Tempered ....
Not necessarily a bad concept, except for the inevitable question of "if the supposed 'crime' was so horrible, why did you wait so long to act on it?"
Ah, I wasn't sure this version of Equestria had that ... unfortunately it serves Bitter more than Mercy in this case.
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Statute of limitations does normally protect the one at fault rather than the victim, but in this case, at least, there is an easy option they are allowed to take at any time during it, namely, simply declaring schattenkrieg and dueling Bitter Bite to the death. Interestingly, a quick google search claims there is no statute of limitations on kidnapping or murder, which in hindsight makes sense as there are cold cases that eventually get solved, but I imagine Equestria taking a different road with its few cases of attempted kidnapping or attempted murder as they are fond enough of reformation that the idea that somepony may change in the years after attempting such crimes would appeal to the Celestia, and thus accusations beyond a statute of limitations might spark an investigation into more current crimes, but only more current crimes would be brought to bear.
The fact is, even if attempted kidnapping has a statute, it's likely to be a few years given the severity of the crime. In a certain sense, that gives Mercy time to recover and ready herself, and it gives those around her time to plan in secret on really socking things to Bitter Bite and the nobles. They have a deadline, essentially, and knowing said deadline is that far out means that they know their case has to be considered up to that far out. Without statute of limitations to set a standard, ponies might look at a case and wonder why they took their sweet time. With a statute in place, waiting can be easily portrayed to anypony else as a tactical decision to go over legal options.
And that really is what's going on here. Tempered, Mistwing (Mercy's Mom), and maybe even Princess Luna if Tempered gets her involved are going to be looking for something they can use to not just serve justice to Bitter Bite when schattenkrieg is declared, but to make a more wide-sweeping change and put all scuzzy nobles that find this sort of thing permissible in their place. If they can't find something, they'll fall back on simply taking care of Bitter Bite, but they are looking to get something more out of it.
You sneak! Another Threstral story without letting me know...
Why doesn't Nightmom go down there and straighten the foals out? After her first Einbruch der Dunkelheit, I think a whisper from her would have the weight of doom and The Spell That Should Not Be Cast on the Undercity Nobles!
Nice to know that Spoiled Rich, (nee Milk), packed her ass and went 'somewhere else'. I hope it's a seedy rooming house in Manehattan where there's only one bathroom. Serves the old nag right...
Watch out for Tiara, Night! I'm getting the old court courtesan vibes off that one, knowing the right things to whisper in the right ears...
And she has combat training as well, to know exactly where to put the dagger...
I have this one locked in. Try to escape now!!!!
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Heh, I am pretty sure this one was mentioned both in an old blog and in the authors notes of She Drives Me Batty after I released it.
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My fault...I didn't read you notes until yesterday...
I usually go to my bookshelf and go author to author looking for something new, but in your case, I came up against the old stories, and needed my heart squeezed again when Best Princess went to the Undercity for the celebration post-abeyance...
That one still impacts...like most of my bookshelf. It's not just to escape all the red-bar stories...
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Which fic was Topaz from? I swear the name sounds familiar but maybe I'm thinking of something completely different.
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The name Topaz is a tribute and reference to Topaz from Changeling of the Guard
Um...wow.
I had a feeling there was something more to what happened between Mercy and her father, Bitter Bite. Never would have guessed that he tried to take Mercy's daughter away from her (and if a succession conflict was his concern, it sounds like he also wanted to kill Pushing). Quite a bit that I remember reading in 'She Drives Me Batty' are making a lot more sense. I can see why Pushing was always apprehensive to be separated from her mother and always teleported to her. It also explains why Mercy kept mentioning the surges 'protecting her', even though said surges also had a bit of a safety concern. I always wondered when reading that just what she expected Pushing would need protecting from, and I guess the answer to that is 'her grandfather'.
It was a bit heartbreaking to see her just lose the mask and break down when Tempered asked her to verify what Mercy's mom told him. And yet, it was nice seeing that she had support, even if they aren't sure about her becoming a second wife yet.
This was nice
It does doesn't it
Hah, nice
Ohhh, I am really starting to doubt that
I fear it was
Yeah, knew it was bad the moment Mercy said that Pushing needed her magic to protect herself
Oh yeah, she is definitely Mercy's mother
Too true
"bloodthirsty", Tempered buddy if she was being honest with you then she's after blood, bone and marrow
Tempered, if you talk to Luna about this you won't have to "drag" her anywhere, you might actually have to pull to keep her from ripping some doors of their hinges
This was fun
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Changing of the Guard is nape of the fic.
The character is Topaz Showers aka 'the bug mare'
she studies insects.
Always nice to see a wonderful story come back from the dead. GG, no RE.
That is so true
...what?
Damn, Twilight just being casually awsome is pretty cool
I suspect she could still get out of that if she really wanted too
"ferociadorable might"
It's quite funny how Pinkie seems to be the natural predator of thestrals
Welcome to Ponyville Cobra, we have cookies
So, random question that popped into my head as I read the latest chapter.
"Are alicorns able to use thestral magic, or some variation of it?"
Like I said, random question and not one that needs an answer.
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There is a short and a long answer to that. The short answer is theoretically, yes, but there are rules behind it that make which alicorns are good at what types of pony magic a sort of case by case basis thing. General rule of thumb is alicorns have the Hooves of an Earth Pony, Horn of a Unicorn, Wings of a Pegasus, Shadow of a Thestral, and Heart of a Crystal Pony. Those are the five basic tribes of ponies.
I see Kirin and Hippogriffs as Hybrids that became their own species. Changelings are either their own thing or the result of a curse. Umbra I'm not entirely sure of...
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Nice
So if I understand it right, it's something along the lines of that they can use the magic of all the original pony tribes.
However they each individually develop a higher or lower affinity for the different types of magic.
Like Twilight for instance, who likely have a higher affinity for unicorn magic but a lower affinity for, say, earth pony magic.
And while training and knowledge will strengthen their ability to use the various races magic, an alicorn will still have one or two they personally have more affinity for.
Hope I'm understanding it right.
That would certainly be interesting
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Exactly, though Twilight having the talent of 'Magic' means she could learn just about all of the tribes magics pretty equally without specializing in anything. She might not have the sort of passive strength and stamina earth ponies are famous for, but I write with the idea that all ponies can be OP so earth pony magic is more than just that in Batty. If you remember the few mentions I've made on Earth Ponies having Domains, the way hers and Celestia's would manifest is that as princess's the land of Equestria is there's and thus the goals and philosophies they rule by manifest more easily through sheer chance and serendipity. Twilight's beliefs will help ponies form friendships and those friendships will lead to ponies seeking more friendships which then helps reinforce the magic of friendship. Celestia is a force of Harmony and so part of the reason the Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies live in such peace after 1000 years is that no matter what threats rose to challenge her, her unyielding belief in Harmony slowly won out until her ponies were even able to win Discord over.
Like... Earth Pony Domain magic is some of the craziest shit I've ever come up with, even if it is pretty much noncanon. That said, even with it never being explicitly called out in show, it's so weird and esoteric as I write it that it's the exact sort of thing that even if it existed, it would be hard to catch, quantify or know about--which is very earth pony to me. They don't need any fancy mathmatics or flashy active stuff. Anything they do should be as intuitive as breathing, and most of it should happen on a subconscious level so how and why their magic happens is meant to be anyponies guess. Humans in my original fiction have it too, and for centuries they were just thought to be plucky, lucky, and inventive, but ultimately magicless without years of intense study.
Sorry, getting off topic there. Celestia would be super good at Earth Pony magic because of the sun's connection to the land, while her unicorn magic would mostly be big heaven shaking stuff since she controls the heavens. She would definitely have power control issues. Her thestral magic, weirdly enough, would be split. She'd be really good at manipulating her shadow if she wanted to try since light casts shadows, but she would be awful at the deeper sorts of soul and dream manipulation thestrals are capable of.
Luna on the flipside has only slightly less power theoretically but infinitely higher control of her power because of her connection to dreams. I say theoretically because her unicorn magic might be powerful in it's own right, but a lot of her talent would manifest in things like illusions so real that they actually hurt you, or cold and gravity spells because of her ties to space, the moon, and the tides. It's completely different than how Celestia could easily vaporize anypony with the suns boundless energy or bind a group of ponies by growing a forest from underneath them. Luna is, of course, the unquestionable master of all magic thestral related, though other ponies might think she's casting with her horn if only because the number of ponies who throw around incredibly impressive active magic like Tempered did this chapter is very small overall. Most of the time, it's unicorns that throw magic that flashy and distinct around because as a tribe they are all about actively casting magic. The other tribes are much more passive in nature, so doing things like Mettle did here often takes intense training.
Not to say that unicorns don't need intense training for their big spells, but if they dedicate themselves to study, mastery of the bigger stuff comes easier to them at the cost of not having anything really passive as a tribe. A unicorn that doesn't study and just casually lives their lives however they want is about the same as any other pony that doesn't try to chase their magic and train, maybe even weaker than the other tribes depending on your definition of 'weak'.
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Love it
I wonder if Mercy pulling Pushing into her nightmares was due to how closely they were sniggled together or if that's also happened when there's some physical distance between them from the cot to the crib. Wouldn't be surprising that Pushing had similar nightmares of her own though; that moment was terrifying for both of them.
I suspect that, aside from her stated reasons, Luna was there to visit so Pushing would get used to her and trust her enough to stop subconsciously blocking her. Clever thinking, if true.
Because it matters
Huh, so did Tempered and Morning enchant the entire house, or has Pushing inherited some cloudwalking from Mercy?
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Entire house is enchanted. That was brought up in one of the early arcs I believe?
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)
Yeah, I thought that was what I remembered, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for the clarification. (Although, you got to admit, a cloudwalking little unicorn foal would have been damn cute