Ask Sunflower (and the ponies of the Wide)

[Sunflower]

[OOC Thread info, backstory]

Spoiler

This will be a slightly different type of ask thread, in that questions will come not only from you ponies, but also from Sunflower's friends/family. You can also ask her friends questions.

The story of Sunflower begins with the story of her mother, her friends, and her enemies...

A long time before Sunflower was born, when Rose (large shire horse brown/white fur and mane, blazing blue eyes, red-tinted hooves), Sunflower's mother, was a young mare all the ponies of the Wide Fields (their home) were reigned over, not free like almost all ponies are today.

The original bringers of the reins were the humans. Some humans were wise and kind and spared the ponies the whip but many did not. Eventually, Rose's impetuous pegasus friend Fire-feather (blue fur, golden wings, fire red eyes, white hooves) bucked her human rider and called to her friends to break their reins. Fire-feather was eventually successful and most of the humans were chased off - even the nicer ones. However, some ponies were unhappy after the loss of their humans and some of these disaffected ponies fell prey to new beings - the powerful centaurs.

Fire-feather could only look on in horror as her friends, unused to freedom, were taken in by the manipulative centaurs who - despite pledging kindness at first - made ever greater demands of the ponies. It was not long before the ponies of the Wide were once more beaten and whipped, often more brutally than under even the worst of the humans. A few centaurs emerged as more powerful than the rest and laid waste to the Wide with their battles, driving off the weaker centaurs and enslaving almost all the free ponies (even, briefly, Fire-feather herself!) in their bid to destroy one another.

Now in the large river next to the Wide fields, lived a fey and imperious sea-pony-unicorn: Queen Sunset (snow white scales, golden horn and mane, two intersecting red stripes on her golden tail). Queen Sunset and Fire-feather had long been enemies due to an ancient dispute over who was most respected by the ponies of the Wide.

Queen Sunset claimed that the ponies of the Wide admired her best because she brought the ponies many stories of the distant lands which she had swum to which bordered her river. Fire-feather claimed that the ponies of the Wide were more impressed by her martial prowess - nopony dared to stand up to her in a scuffle.

Even though Queen Sunset had often fought with Fire-feather she could not bear to see the reining in of her once proud foe along with the other ponies of the Wide, so she swore to put aside her enmity in order to oppose the centaurs (whose strength and cunning she also feared). Sunset swam down her river and called on ponies young and old, far and wide to help her drive off the mighty centaurs. Many of these ponies were wary of Sunset, who was known as a bit of a trickster, but once they heard her tale of the subjugation of the Wide they agreed to help. Sunset's family came to her aid: foremost of whom was the imposing hippogriff/sea pony Starry Skies (blue scales/fur, white tail with red-tip, large fins with a starry cutie mark). Sunset's friends also came to her aid - foremost of whom was the tough mule Broken Wheel (old, brown fur, orange mane, white hooves with green edge). With these allies Sunset was able to prevail against the centaurs and the ponies of the Wide – she was able to take control of the mainstay of the Wide and broke the reins from the grateful Wide-ponies. The victory was not complete, however, as the most powerful of the centaurs controlled the strongest pony of the Wide - Sunflower's mother, Rose – and nopony, not Sunset nor any of her allies, could stand up to her. 

The centaur who held Rose's reins was called Stain (centaurs always called themselves ugly names). Stain was a cowardly centaur, despite his power, and he eschewed open conflict - preferring to threaten the other centaurs and free ponies from Rose's fields in the Eastern Wide. Eventually one of the foulest centaurs, a youngling called Sewer, whose ruthlessness had cowed even Fire-feather, forced the ponies under his control (then most of the ponies of the Wide) to charge Stain and capture Rose, whom he coveted most of the Wide-ponies. A weakened Rose was almost overcome, but once her fighting spirit was roused nopony could contain her and with a mighty below she scattered them all, driving Sewer and the ponies of the Wide back to the Western Wide, where they were ultimately defeated by Queen Sunset and her allies.

At first, Stain was relieved when Sewer was defeated, but as the ponies of the Wide were freed from the centaurs, many of their multihued eyes looked East once more and Stain grew nervous. In their gaze was something more threatening to his power than all the false hatred inspired by Sewer, as he felt Rose - normally so loyal - stir restlessly in response to them. While the Wide ponies looked longingly to their friend, they dared not challenge Stain while he controlled Rose. They knew that only Rose could throw Stain - nopony could force Rose to do anything.

It was around the time of this unrest, when Rose sometimes shared hay with Rust-feather (a large golden pegasus stallion, with white hooves tipped with red) that Sunflower was born. Sunflower had her father's pride and her mother's strength and bthparents were enormously proud of her. However, as little Sunflower grew, she was coveted by Stain - who saw the foal's qualities - and he sought to gain her by his wiles and power over Rose. Stain quickly brought Sunflower to the rein but Sunflower hated it - her pride chafed against the constraint and she was frequently disobedient. Stain would punish these disobediences severely. Encouraged by the compassion in the eyes of the watching Wide ponies,  and in response to a particularly savage punishment, Rose finally snapped - in one powerful movement she turned on Stain and chased him away from her foal. The ponies of the Wide were naturally delighted by this and swarmed to congratulate Rose and Sunflower.

Sunflower adored the attention of all the free ponies and played happily in the Wide for many months. However, all was not well with Rose. She was so much larger than the other ponies and having lived her life under the rein was unused to playing and felt clumsy and alien around them. She took to wondering away from the Wide to pastures East of her field. It was here that she found a tiny centaur, Nipper. Nipper pretended to be afraid of her at first - he had heard of the news of Stain's rout - and affected gentleness, especially with Sunflower. The other ponies of the Wide were of course deeply suspicious of the little centaur, but Rose was deaf to their concerns. Nipper began to add little restraints to Rose - always claiming they were for her benefit - until these restraints were a rein in all but name. Once Rose was once more reined, Nipper abandoned the pretence of gentleness and went after Sunflower - rein in hand - to capture her too. This time, however, Sunflower's friends in the Wide rallied round her, and Nipper was fought off, retreating to behind Rose's bulk, as Stain had before him.

Sunflower is today a proud free pony. She vows never to take the rein and desires nothing more than to break Nipper's hold over her mother, but she is frustrated by the timidity of her friends who still insist that only Rose can break her reins...

Family:

Mother: Rose 

Father: Rust Feather 

Little Sister: Rose jnr (earth pony foal, pink fur with green mane)

Sister: Woolly (shaggy furred earth pony, blue eyes, yellow face-fur, white woolly body with red ends)

Sister: Cornflower (cornflower blue furred, white maned, black hooved earth pony – best friend of Sunflower)

"Hello ponies! My name is Sunflower. I'm a gardener and love nothing more than tending to my patch of the Wide fields which I call home and playing with the many other ponies who live in the Wide with me, especially my sister Cornflower. When I was a foal an evil centaur captured me and Cornflower and forced us into reins, but we are free now, and someday soon I hope my mom Rose will be too!"

 Cornflower (cornflower blue furred, white maned, black hooved earth pony mare – best friend of Sunflower): "Yes, hello ponies. I am a gardener too and I enjoy visiting my sister's garden, when Yucky - that's the centaur who lives next to me - gives me some peace anyway. I prefer to hide away from him in my field, but Sunflower has her father's temper and doesn't let him bully her even though she lives next to him too."

Woolly (shaggy furred earth pony stallion, blue eyes, yellow face-fur, white woolly body with red ends) "Mmmff mmff! Ack - sorry, my mouth was full of fur... nopony knows why my fur grows so long. Anyway my name is Woolly and I'm Sunflower's neighbour. I don't really know the other ponies of the Wide very well... because, well I'm pretty shy, but I can tell you Sunflower is the warmest friend a pony could ever hope for." 

Scorch (white-furred pegasus stallion with red streaks along each wing) "Hey guys! You know, ponies say I'm proud, but little Sunflower here puts me to shame. She may have only just grown into her adult horse-shoes but she's already an example to all the ponies in the Wide! I have heard that even old Fire-feather is impressed... and nothing impresses her. You know, Fire-feather is the pony who freed all the ponies of the Wide in the first place! She's kinda our idol, and if I wasn't so awesome I'd almost be jealous of Sunflower here. Fortunately, I am awesome."

Snowflake (earth pony mare, pure white fur and mane and pale gold eyes) "Hello everypony, I'm Snowflake. I may be little but I'm not a foal - I'm actually older than Sunflower and just as old as Scorch. I live next to Cornflower and often accompany her when she visits her sister Sunflower."

Rose-mane (older-foal, pegasus, yellow fur with red streaked wings, blue ankle-splotches) "Heya ponies, good to see you talking to my gal pal Sunflower. We're the same age and she's loads of fun to be around. She never backs down from a challenge and when she gets the bit between her teeth she can be stubborn as a mule - and I love her all the more for it!"  

Swanny (hippogriff/seapony, pure white with blue streak along her back when she is a seapony, and along her wings when she is a hippogriff) "I know what you're thinking, 'what are those things on my claws' right... well I call them skis! Wearing them is like swimming across the ground. Sometimes I ski all the way to Sunflower's field - the Eastern Wide where we live is pretty snowy. In the summer though it blooms - Sunflower's field is covered in yellow and it's like swimming again!"

Tortoiseshell (deep tortoiseshell flecked brown, earth pony colt, cutie mark sports three mountains) "Hey! Hey you! Do you wanna play? Oh you're talking to Sunny? When she's not tending to her garden we play races together! Yesterday, I won this ribbon. It means I won! You can have it if you like? But you'll have to race me first."

Bite-size (green unicorn teen stallion with a red horn and scrawny teen-beard) "Oh, you're talking to Sunny. Most of the ponies of the Wide are lame in my opinion, but she's alright. Just don't bother her or you'll have me to answer to... and I'm pretty tough."

Goldenhoof (small pony-sized brown/white shire horse with one golden hoof) "Ho there! You're talking to the little ponies. Now Sunflower may just be a pony but she has the heart of a proper shire horse, like her mother Rose. Now there's a sad tail. Maybe for another time..."

[North Star 5,218]

Question from Broken Wheel (old, brown fur, orange mane, white hooves with green edge).

"What's your problem with Nipper? He seems nice for a centaur. He gave me a carrot."

[Sunflower]

"Ugh! Nipper only has carrots to give because he steals them from Rose! Broken Wheel you helped free the ponies of the Wide from Sewer, so you should know that no-creature who holds a pony's reins can be up to any good. You didn't like it when Queen Sunset's human, Victoria, held yours!

[North Star 5,218]

Fire-feather (blue fur, golden wings, fire red eyes, white hooves). "Little Sunflower. Grown tall now I see. I can never tire of the story of how you threw off Nipper. It reminds me so much of the pleasure of throwing my rider. Seeing his impudent pink hairiness fall to the ground and throwing his restraints from my glorious head was such a thrill. Please tell me again what it was like for you.

[Sunflower]

"Fire-feather! I can hardly believe that you were once reined... those wily humans trying to restrain a proud pony like you. As you know, it was a centaur, Stain, who first held my reins. He was horrible to me... so I bit him! He beat me but my sisters and friends came to my aid. With their help he was seen off. Being able to tend to my sunflowers in freedom was the most wonderful thing. All I can think about when I was under his iron hoof was how much I wanted to grow my lovely sunflowers."

[North Star 5,218]

Queen Sunset (sea-pony unicorn, snow white scales, golden horn and mane, two intersecting red stripes on her golden tail) "Sunflower dear, you should know that unlike the centaurs many humans are kind and gentle. My human, Victoria, took great care of me for years and even now she is old she still gives me sugar lumps. Don't you listen to Fire-feather - she's always been a hothead."

[Sunflower]

"Your human may be nice to you Queen Sunset, just like Bite-Size's human was good to him, but Firefeather's human wasn't, and Rose used to tell me that her human, Nicholas, was almost as bad as Stain! It's too risky to let any-creature put you in reins. Also, your human was mean to Broken Wheel - that's why he's so grumpy."