Now that her village is full of chatter and cheer, now that one of the Kirin is in Friendship School, Rain Shine decides that she's going to visit Ponyville for Hearth's Warming.
Unfortunately, she doesn't understand trains as well as she should.
On the plus side, she makes a new friend along the way. Sometimes the best friends are the ones you've just met.
Written for Comma Typer for Jinglemas 2022
Pre-read by AlwaysDressesInStyle
Although I'd suspect a well-motivated nirik could make decent work of them, too.
Ha!
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Try the song "Grandma's Killer Fruitcake" (from Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer)
To Whom It May Concern
How about "Grannie Got Run Over By a Rainbow" for a story idea?
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Almost certainly. That brings up the question of how much snow a Nirik could melt before she cooled down.
The fruitcakes survived. The road, on the other hoof. . .
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Hmm, never heard that one.
Wasn't that a subplot in Grannies Gone Wild?
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Isn't that Fluttershy and Rarity, respectively?
This is a nice story:
It contains a warning about understand TrainSchedules. It has new friends found along the way. It has EasterEggs.
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Thank you!
It does!
As far as I know, Amtrak doesn't have whistle stop stations any more, but they very much used to be a thing.
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Hayseed might be a little bit biased here.
Uh oh. Queen Rain Shine on a train. What's the world coming to?!
She missed a train, and you missed a ?.
Kirin must be pretty warm with latent nirik hanging around inside them. Otherwise I'd expect her to freeze.
B-b-but... what was her present? Biscuit, you fiend! Bringing in Chekov's Wrapped Gift and then not even opening it!
Also, the (mostly) low key trek from nowheresville to somewheresville was strangely soothing. I mean... I wouldn't want to walk it, but it was awful nice to read it.
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How else is she going to get to Ponyville? She hasn't got a car to drive there.
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Correction made, thank you!
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That's my thought, too. I think that they've naturally got a higher than normal (for ponies) body temperature. Plus they've got a lot of floof around their heads and necks which would help keep them warm, too.
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There is something soothing about journeys. I also wouldn't want to walk it, not unless I had plenty of warm clothes, but it's soothing to think about.
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Actually, it might not be such a bad walk if I had a nirik-powered some-warmbody to walk it with. Hmmmm...
Now that's a weird thought exercise. We all agree ponies are warmer than humans, but kirin being even warmer than ponies? Snuggle dynamics would need reassessing.
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Right? And a good defense against timberwolves, too, as Hayseed discovered.
I think it's safe to say that snuggling in the summer would be right out--just too hot. In the wintertime, though, just imagine.
Gives me flashbacks to walking home in winter as a kid.
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Ooh, I wasn't really channeling that (at least not consciously), but now I'm having flashbacks to walking home in the winter, too.
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To quote the great artist Spearhead, "Art is so evocative. I wasn't even going for that memory. Score!"
Aww, that was pretty cool! I do understand that the list of possible characters was... eccentric, to say the least, but it's nice to see some warm (mostly metaphorically, sometimes literally) friendship moments between kirin and pony. To see a tide of benign misunderstandings, assumptions, and so on slowly melt away between the two was a treat, especially with the little details (like kirin usually not carrying things around their barrel or wearing much in the way of clothes since... well, nirik). And while I sort of expected that Rain Shine would burn the timberwolves away, it was intriguing to see that she... doubted that it would work, even for just a second. Saying "come and get him" to the timberwolves is one thing, but knowing she might've failed and gotten seriously injured or worse... didn't expect that for a slice-of-life. It's a nice surprise. This friendship is probably stronger than either of them think.
Oh, the only movie reference I recognized was Frozen (not being bothered by snow). I've been way behind on my movie quota! (Someone in the blog post mentioned Lord of the Rings... I didn't even watch any of it!)
Anyway, this was a great Jinglemas present, and I wish I got to reading it much sooner! Thanks for it, Biscuit!
Fiend indeed, I was wondering about those presents all their trek : )
HTT is the GOAT.
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He really is.
Shame there are only two or three stories with him tagged.
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Spearhead's not wrong about that. I know as a reader I sometimes read something into a story that the author never intended, and I am well aware that that happens as a writer, too. I like to leave some things open to interpretation by my readers, let the story evoke what it will
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It was a bit of a challenge, to be sure, but all the more rewarding for it, I think. I did have some ideas with some other pairings, but they didn't seem to make as interesting a story--maybe I wasn't thinking the right way.
I do think that the Kirin especially have a lot to learn about interspecies relationships, mistaken assumptions, and so on. We don't know how long they've been isolated, but it's surely been for a while. Hayseed also doesn't have that much experience in the wider world, but at least he's got a good heart and an open mind.
As for the timberwolves, I feel like Rain Shine would have to try something, even if she wasn't sure it would work.
There's a bunch of them, the audience only got two. The "If you want him, come and get him" is a line from Lord of the Rings, where an elf is protecting a hobbit against a group of wraiths.
The really obscure one that I didn't expect anyone to find was a rephrased quote from the movie Excaliber, after King Arthur drinks from the Holy Grail: "I didn't know how empty was my soul until it was filled."
You're welcome!
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The kind of thing you'd get for ponies who saved you and your village and asked for nothing in return.
Maybe it's not about what's in the box at all. Maybe nothing was in the box, or nothing important.
Maybe Rain Shine sang them a heartsong.
I mean changelings never lie, right?
Why? What's wrong with Forelle?
I suspect Celestia (somewhat) knew about this village and as such had ordered to maintain the station, even if none of the train ponies understood why.
Is she gets very angry at the snow she might be able to just walk through it.
Pleasant and cozy - I do find it a bit odd that the story ended abruptly on reaching Applejack, given the mysterious present and complex emotions Rain Shine brings with her. Certainly Applejack would have questions for her unexpected, alicorn-sized guest! But this was a good story regardless, and a neat bit o worldbuilding for rural Equestria. Nice job.~
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Thank you!
The abrupt ending might be to leave readers to speculate just what Rain Shine brought as a present, or it might be due to an author who didn't plan his time wisely. I leave the readers to judge.
I do think that we don't get enough fics about rural Equestria, and that's a shame. It's a whole big world to explore, plenty of places that the show never took us, and as authors we can do our part to expand upon that.
A lost hot mare needing a place to get her bearings? Hayseed is unintentionally the best player or hella lucky! 😏
Kinda like route 66,there are consequences to everything.
His face when he discovers his to-be fillyfriend is leadership will be epic!
Good old actual slice of life.
Now, off to headcanon central, shipping district!
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Thank you!
I honestly don't see Rain Shine and Hayseed being a couple, but who knows?
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lol
"Wait, you're a princess?"
. . . actually, now that I think of it, I don't remember what title the kirin give for Rain Shine.
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Yeah--the price of progress, I suppose. Depending on circumstance, they're either an improvement or a disaster.
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Being a friendly, outgoing pony gets results.
Foosh!
That was fun and cute.
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Thank you!
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Never go at a kirin, it won't end well.
That line gave me (literal) chills.
Simp.
That kind of resolve makes Rain Shine deserving of her title as ruler.
Good jolly story.
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Thank you!
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Being leader isn't all rainbows and sunshine; she's got to know when to stand her ground and fight for those she cares for.
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He's not wrong, though; she's got the legs for it.