Hearth's Warming is a wonderful time of year for most ponies. Getting together, singing, eating traditional foods, seeing old friends… and family.
But when that family is broken, or trying to heal, sometimes things can be a little harder.
Written for Admiral Biscuit, who requested some slice of life flavored with secondary background pones, as his Jinglemas 2023 gift! These may not be the most obscure, but theirs is a burgeoning family dynamic that I appreciated seeing. Cover art by mlplary6, source in image.
CW: Divorce, brief discussion of toxic relationships
Chapters (1)
This is an enjoyable read. I really liked Quibble Pants comforting Wind Sprint while explaining to her that, yeah Wind Rider has done bad things but on the other hoof he does love her. He just needs to put his ego aside stop trying to impress Clear Sky with stunts like the custom made pendant.
Speaking of which...
This is a great summary of Wind Rider being his own worst enemy. He's so obsessed with being the top dog he's torpedoed his marriage, his career and his reputation through pulling underhanded crap like what he did to Dash in Rarity Investigates. He does care about Wind Sprint which is commendable. He has to recognize that his and Clear Sky's relationship is over and despite all the damage he's done to his rep, Wind Sprint still loves him and doesn't want to choose between him and Quibble Pants.
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I'm glad that all came across - though to be fair, Rider has a kind of twisted idea of what loving somepony means, in here.
I've seen what a narcissistic a-hole in the family can do to everyone, and honestly it's confusing on most levels. That's what I was kind of trying to get at with Sprint - she loves her Dad, he *can* be a great guy, but she knows he can be a jerk too, and that he does things that hurt without even thinking about them. And then he starts weaponizing nice gestures, and it's even more confusing. On some level, she knows there's something wrong with him, but she can't put a word to it yet.
I like to think that, one of these days, he'll find the point where he can moderate his own worst behavior, and not push away the pony who loves him most despite seeing him at his worst. It'd be best for all involved, but he also just isn't at that point here, but it would also take realizing that he's not the victim in all this.
This is really good, and also addresses a dynamic around the holidays I've fortunately never had to deal with. Lots of kids do, of course. (Heck, everyone in the immediate family has very similar political views, so we don't even have to deal with that, which I'm quite grateful for.)
While the story doesn't focus on Wind Spirit's perspective about the whole thing--not directly anyway--you really got through how good of a parent Clear Sky is, and how good Quibble Pants is trying to be. Wind Rider . . . well, he sucks at parenting. Clear Sky made the right choice to divorce him, I'd say.
Plus the conflict of Wind Spirit recognizing that Wind Rider isn't a good pony, and it's pretty obvious in the story that this isn't the first time she's thought about that or been the unwilling participant in his little games. She's really conflicted about that, and I can't blame her.
Also an aside, they never said in the show who Wind Spirit's father was, did they? Because if they didn't, this is a brilliant choice, a straightup 'headcanon accepted' moment.
I do love that they flew in at the beginning, and not only is that a very pegasus thing to do, it's also a nice bit of bonding between Wind Rider and Wind Spirit--the kind of thing I'm sure she loves, and also the kind of thing he probably didn't do with her as much as he should have when he and Clear Sky were together. Actually, if he was really trying to score good parent points, that'd be the way to do it.
Also the detail that she could hide in the walls of a Cloudsdale home, that's something I'd never thought of before. Also the little details of "Oublicon" and "Dragon Pit." That, and Clear Sky swearing at Wind Rider felt so genuine--there's a lot of really good background worldbuilding you put in that makes everything feel so authentic.
Something I am curious about: Spirit says that she almost made it from Stratusburg to Las Pegasus, I assume flying. How did she make it the rest of the way? Did she hold out her wings and have Wind Rider tow her, or did he carry her? Or put her on a cloud and tow her? Or did they land and get a ride the rest of the way?
Or I suppose they could have landed and let Wind Spirit rest up, and then fly the rest of the way.
I guess it sort of edges into drama territory, but that's no problem--it's very slice-of-lifey
This is so good, I'm gonna be reading it a few more times to pick up on all the tiny things I surely missed. Thank you so much!
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Eee! As the person this was meant for, and given your own output, grateful for the positive review.
And I was trying to keep most of the development background, rather than data dumping, so to answer a few things....
1: They never did say who Sprint's Dad was, beyond him being a big athlete and, I believe, Wonderbolt. The commonly accepted fanon seems to be that he's dead, indicated by the line "he's not gonna make me forget about Dad!" in Common Ground, but I take it very much as a line that could go either way - he could be dead, or he could be separated, but Sprint feels like she's been under some pressure to "forget about him" - a feeling that's very easy to imagine a kid getting out of a split in a toxic couple.
2: I imagined that he slowed down to let her "dock" on his back, similar to what we've seen Scootaloo do with Rainbow from time to time. Since his record was in an endurance flight, it seemed like tha would probably be where he'd have focused her training.
I was trying to establish the aftermath of a split in a couple that was this close to being abusive, rather than just unhealthy. A lot of pro athletes have problems with narcissistic tendencies (gee, wonder why?) and are in a position where all of that is reinforced. My personal headcanon is that he latched onto Clear Sky when she was much younger, but he was still more or less in his prime (say, equivalent of a college kid being picked up by a 30 year old alumni who went pro and made it big).
While there were probably moments here and there that Clear felt there were problems in the relationship, that's where the gaslighting and manipulation come in that she recognizes as red rlags now. Later - probably a little while after Sprint was born, and only getting worse after he was blacklisted by tue Bolts - would be when things started getting bad enough that she saw how unhealthy things were and managed to get away from him.
Of course, rhat leaves Sprint in an uncomfortable position either way. Loves both her parents, realizes that one of them is objectively a better pony than the other, has some resentment for whatever poor treatment she recognizes... but the good times were really, really good, and she was shielded from the bad.
It's a rough place to be in, and one that can really feed into feelings of guilt and conflict as you deal with them. Which isn't made any easier when you realize that you get used as an access point from time to time.
Of course, I also tried to make it clear that none of the adults are angels here. Rider's a jerk, but Quibble can be just as smug as he is, and Clear isn't nearly as good at keeping control as she wants to be.
The difference is, they recognize these things and want to be better ponies for various reasons. Rider needs to have his nose rubbed in it to care about the damage he does.
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