#Scootaloo out here like “BE MY SISTER MOM PLEASE”

[dapper-lil-arts]

If Rainbow Dash had whatsapp 🤣🤣🤣

[ask-de-writer]

A QUIET EVENING WITH THE CMC : MLP Fan Fiction

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A QUIET EVENING WITH THE CMC

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

1208 words

© 2019 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 10/01/19

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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Prompt #3 “Now? Now you listen to me?”

Possible triggers:  graveyard with real ghosts and such.  CMC

As they caught sight of Bonnie, poking her head through the door of her family crypt, the three began to back slowly away.  Sweetie Belle whispering to the other two, “Now?  Now you listen to me?  I told you that coming here was a bad idea.”

Scootaloo replied, “It is not like we are even breaking any sort of rule.  It is still daytime.  The cemetery gate isn't locked yet or anything.”

Bonnie, her cloudy white fur and black mane contrasting well with the aged oak of the crypt door actually agreed.  “You don't need to act frightened.  The orange filly is right.  You have not broken any sort of rules by being here in the daytime, even on the eve of Nightmare Night.  I'm afraid that we don't have any sort of treats for you, though.”

Cautiously, Apple Bloom pointed out, “We might not be quite so cautious if you weren't about half out of that door while it's still closed.  Are you some kind of ghost?”

Bonnie looked back in confusion while she stepped free of the crypt.  “No, I'm not a ghost or anything like that.  The ones here are my friends but I'm not one of them.  I am as alive as you are.  Why would anypony need to open a door?  What does that have to do with going through it?”

The CMC looked at each other blankly.  Apple Bloom pointed, “Are you SURE that you are alive?  See those hinges and lock?  Normal ponies need to unfasten the lock and then they can push the door open, swinging it on those hinges to go in or out.”

Comprehension dawning on her face, Bonnie observed, “So that's what those things are for!  I always wondered.  Before I learned to use a door properly, Zom or Junea always let me out.  I was little then and did not really pay attention.”

The CMC looked at each other in mild consternation.  “Who did you say taught you about using doors?”

Bonnie shrugged, “You know, just the ghosts and my other playmates.  Who else would?”

Pausing, she gave the CMC the old steely eye.  “Exactly what are you doing here?”

Scootaloo looked down and scuffed the grass before she replied, “We heard that Morgripe and his buddies were planning to mess up some graves. That's wrong.  We kinda planned to set them up a sort of “haunted graveyard.”  We got springs and sheets to do fake ghosts that could jump out from behind gravestones.  You know, stuff like that.  Don't want to hurt them, just scare them off so that they don't damage anything.”

Bonnie perked right up!  “Oh, that will be so much fun!  I would love to help you!  I have some friends that would like to help too!  The Nightmare Moon is already up, so they can come out to join us!”

Sweetie Bell looked up at the gibbous moon lurking high in the sky and at the nearly set sun.  “Doesn't the sun have to be down before, um, your buddies can come out?”

“No, silly!  They all follow the Night Mare.  As long as she is up, we can play!  They just usually wait until her sister goes down, that's all.”

Bonnie bounced happily over to a big mausoleum, and stuck her head through the door!  The CMC could not hear anything through the heavy stone and solid door.  

Bonnie cheerfully came back and told them, “Wait here!  I am going to see if Flowering Ash or any of the other Ancient Ones want to help!”

She galloped off towards the back of the cemetery, where it faced the Everfree forest.

Apple Bloom watched her go.  She wondered in a soft voice, “Are Ma and Pa here?  Will they be helping us?”

Sweetie Belle was watching critically and replied, “I don't know, Apple Bloom, but Bonnie just jumped past the wall and it is sort of tumbldown and moss grown.  I have been here before and the back wall was not like that.”

In only a few moments Bonnie came floating serenely back, her legs folded neatly under her as if she were resting on something invisible.  She alighted in front of them and exulted, “We are getting two unicorn litches and Flowering Ash to come help!  We are getting some ghosts too!

“When Flowering Ash gets here, show us how to help and where to set your “haunts!”  The whole graveyard thinks that this is hilarious!”

It was only a few moments before they saw the head of a beautiful gray mare across the moss grown wall.  She reared up, forelegs folded and crossed the wall, her forelegs remaining folded as her huge snakelike body slithered across the stones and undulated swiftly to them.

While the CMC, their eyes bugged out, were watching the lamia, two mostly skeletal unicorn litches leaped gracefully over the wall as well.

With all gathered, Flowering Ash wrapped her long body about the CMC, providing them with a comfortable resting place.  Bonnie, with absolute confidence, joined them in her coils.

Flowering Ash, smiled and suggested, “Please tell us what we need to know to help you set up this trap of frights for those vile vandals.”

Eagerly, Scootaloo dug into a big saddlebag and pulled out parts!  As she set a spring mounted to a cross stick, Apple Bloom pulled out a sheet, bound around soft straw with big googly eyes stuck on!  Sweetie Belle attached trigger strings and set stakes to hold them where hooves would trip them!

Giggling, Bonnie stomped one of the demonstration “ghost's” trigger strings!  The false haunt leaped up, driven by the spring!  It fluttered down flat, except for the bulbous head.  Suddenly it lifted up and floated about, flapping a little.

The CMC clapped hooves in delight!  “A real ghost in our fake one! That is so perfect!”  

They guided the whole group to the area where they had overheard Morgripe and his buddies plotting to cross the cemetery wall.  Choosing tombstones and other grave markers with care, the whole group planted the phony ghosts to provide the best scares.

Thoughtfully, they planted some near the graveyard gate, too.  While they were doing that, Sweetie Belle noticed, “I guess that we are stuck here for the night.  They have locked the gate already.”

Apple Bloom felt the softest of hugs and a gentle neck kiss.  Almost like a breeze, her mane got ruffled.  Her eyes misted up.  “That you, Mom? Dad?  Thanks.”

Flowering Ash pointed out, “If you are here when things happen, it will spoil the effect.  Here, let me help.”

One by one, she held the CMC and lifted them over the wall, setting them gently on their hooves and pulling back to her massive coils for the next.

The next morning, all of Ponyville was abuzz with the story!  Morgripe and his friends had done it again!  They came running over their ladder screaming about ghosts and monsters in the graveyard! Constables opening the gate had got a bit of a fright too, as spring trap “ghosts” jumped out at them!

Morgripe and Co. were in trouble again!  And the CMC, giggling behind their hooves could not say anything about their Nightmare Night adventure that actually worked like it was supposed to!

~THE END~

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[marvelandponder]

Celebrating 150 Episodes!

In television, 150 isn’t typically a huge milestone. Historically speaking, 100 used to be the number ideal for syndication, so that’s usually a much more sought after number to measure the success of a series. 

But that’s from a network perspective. As a fan, 150 episodes of my favourite show is absolutely something worth celebrating! We’ve come quite a long way, and that’s awesome.

Speaking of which, this time ‘round it’s a Dash episode, featuring the Dash family for the first time ever! Can’t get more awesome than that (unless, of course, you add Scootaloo into the mix).

Rainbow Dash’s Family

I once did a very long write-up on how awesome the families are in MLP at explaining why a character turned out the way they did. Often times, we don’t even need flashbacks to figure out how the character developed the way they did. It’s just easy to see from the personalities they grew up around.

Depending on the family, you can even see a mix of nature and nurture---both the traits they inherited, and the ones they developed as a result of their environment.

Taking Rainbow for example, we see how she grew to be so egotistical: she was constantly praised from the time she was in diapers for every little thing she did. Plus, her dad seems a bit proud himself, so there might be some heritability there.

But more than that, we also see that even though Rainbow grew to be embarrassed and annoyed by her parents’ over-enthusiasm, that’s ironically where she herself got her passion. Every time we’ve seen her dork out over the Wonderbolts or Daring Do, we now know where she got that from.

And, I really have to applaud the likable balance writer Josh Hamilton struck for all four starring characters here. You can understand everyone. 

Rainbow’s parents are over-the-top, but you can see the love and support from a mile away. Rainbow Dash herself snaps at them, but at the same time, you can understand why growing up surrounded by that much coddling would be hard. Scootaloo gets fed up with Rainbow’s unappreciative actions, but (in addition to Rainbow’s shouting being understandably shocking for a kid) she flat out says she would’ve killed for that kind of support growing up. 

Everyone is sympathetic, even when they’re misguided or frustrated, and it makes the narrative that much more heartwarming.

On top of that, Rainbow Dash’s parents are both really fun, endearing characters. We’ll mostly remember them for their incredible enthusiasm which provides plenty of great gags and passionate line deliveries, but there’s also little moments that just make them super likable ponies.

The way Bow Hot Hoof lovingly refers to young kids as stuff like “little trotter” and Windy goes out of her way to tell the Wonderbolts they’re all doing great even though she’s so proud of Rainbow specifically. It’s just all really sweet. 

And that’s not even the most likable part. The way they immediately treat Scootaloo with kindness, encouraging her even in small ways all throughout the episode, it’s just about the sweetest thing you could ask for.

Please have these two show up at some point supporting Scootaloo again. Please let this be an on-going thing.

It looks like she’s got some honorary parents to go along with her honorary sister, and the fact that it was her maturity in handling the situation that won the day and mended that family is just... good. This is a pure, good story.

And I have to admit, I was a bit worried from the synopsis. The last Wonderbolts episode centered around Rainbow Dash getting embarrassed became my least favourite in the series. But, they certainly managed to do that story right this time, and I’m certainly glad for it.

Details, Thoughts, and Whatnot

Trying out this format for the smaller stuff I noticed, we’ll see if this works:

That slow progression of Derpy’s eye crossing is adorable (Gif courtesy of nygip on Derpibooru)

Although, one thing I’d like to point out is that even though it definitely affects her performance, she always at least places in the race

Speaking of, I guess she tried to get corrective surgery as a teenager; when I first saw Where the Apple Lies, I thought the implication was that she got in an accident, but if her eyes were already progressively doing that from when she was a filly, it must’ve been some kind of corrective measure that didn’t work

Also: Soarin is always so happy to place, he’s the sweetest one there (Spitfire never gets first, that’s cool, too, and Lightning’s pissed when she gets dethroned by Dash)

Nice lighting you got there. Makes the moment of the reveal that much more well-paced

A part of me wonders if Rainbow Dash was named after her dad. If she ever got the nickname Little Bow in the family, or if her dad’s full name is Rainbow Hot Hoof (because it is spelled that way). Just a thought. 

I also have to wonder if ‘hot hoof’ is referring to a sports career, or if it’s just one of those vague names that doesn’t really tie into his talent (I find it to be a pretty odd name).

What’s kinda neat is that because Rainbow takes after her mom so much, we have a pretty good guess as to what she’ll look like when she’s older: greyed coat, bags under the eyes. I’m the kind of person who find tiny things like that neat, makes the characters feel more real to me if I know they’re not always going to stay the same age.

Maybe Bow and this member of the family (who, by the way, was invited to Hearth’s Warming at Twilight’s castle last year) are twin brothers?

He could be a brother, but he seemed significantly older than Dash, so my guess is Uncle

So, it seems like Dash’s parents know she’s “saved Ponyville” but I wonder if Rainbow Dash underplayed some of the bigger events to keep them from going nuts at ceremonies and stuff (like the ceremony they had for defeating Discord, Twilight’s coronation---which they probably would’ve gone to because they seem to be royalists, but if they knew Dash had a part in that...---etc.)

We don’t know if Scootaloo’s parents are neglectful, dead, or just plain rotten, but it’s interesting to have a set of parents on this show that aren’t all that great [even if it’s probably best to keep them off-screen]

They kept it vague enough that you can say your orphan fanfics are canon! You clever writers, you...

“What’s wrong with a little support?” is a heartbreaking line when you remember she’s Dash’s number 1 fan and has been supporting her since they met

I absolutely adored seeing the Wonderbolts not be jerks, like, at all. It was glorious.

In fact, now that they’re past the hazing phase, you kind of even see them being supportive. Fleetfoot tries to tell Dash her parents’ cheering isn’t that bad (before they’re nearly shot out of the sky by fireworks)

Here’s a tiny insignificant detail that I LOVE: when they’re making the pyramid, they made sure to show you that Applebloom is stronger than Sweetie Belle, which makes perfect sense because of AB’s farm chores

Also, what up, my theory that the mane 6 were born in the equivalent of the 80s (same as the franchise) is alive and well

So, while this milestone may not have been a big one in a lot of people’s books, it was definitely well celebrated.

You want more pony? I’ve got you covered with reviews here and editorials here. Have the last three things I’ve done, just to be safe!:

Fluttershy Editorial, Starswirl Theory, and Special Dr. Wolf Reading of Starswirl Theory

Year of the Pony

Special Thanks to Millennial Dan on Deviantart, who made the Microphone vector for the logo!

See You in Season 9 for Episode 200