Full title: Anchor Foal II: Return of the Cringe.
It's been over a year and when it comes to the little routines of labor and love, Fleur still hasn't managed to fully adjust. She needs to find some means of making it all last. And one thing she can definitely try to do is screen out anything which threatens to make her mate unhappy. Such as, just by way of very unwelcome example, the brother. Because Zephyr wants to be part of Fluttershy's life. He claims to have changed. But Fleur doesn't know whether change is truly possible.
Or if she's really changed at all.
Written by Estee as a sequel to Anchor Foal and Daily Equestria Life with Monster Girl. Read it here
. It was started in July 2022 and is still ongoing.
Tropes found in this story include:
- Anime Hair: Zephyr's mane is held up partially through massive amounts of gel, and mostly through continuous pressure from his ears.
- Caramel, after his last hairstyle was vetoed by Fleur, seems to be going through a rotating series of these.
- Big Little Brother: Deconstructed. Because Zephyr is naturally taller than Fluttershy, ponies that met them when they were kids tended to assume he was the older sibling, looking after his timid younger sister. This, combined with her lack of aptitude for most things pegasus-related, led to him internalizing the idea that he has to look after her, or else who knows what kind of trouble she'll get into.
- Born Winner: Zephyr was born with high field strength and hit his growth spurt early. This was enough for most ponies to decide that he was the one in charge of the Phyllia siblings, despite his utter incompetence at seemingly every aspect of life.
- Boxed Crook: Fleur is a registered asset of Equestria and has been called to attempt to locate pedophiles twice in the past, and once during the story.
- Curtain Camouflage: Fleur is summoned to the pegasus town of Windicity to help the local police catch a pedophile who's been targeting foals at a playground. She eventually finds one of the culprits (who works with a partner, as Fleur realizes to her horror) hiding under a layer of cloud near the merry-go-round.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Joyous has acquired a husky as a pet, with all that entails. It's a really bad idea to try to trim her nails in any confined space where the sound might echo. Notably, said husky is named Shaddap.
- Don't Think, Feel: Rainbow's philosophy in life also extends to her sex life, much to the horror of anypony unfortunate enough to experience it.Rainbow's goal in sex was to be memorable. She wanted to ruin her stallions (or mares, because reciprosexual) for all other partners and in both cases, she frequently succeeded. Her partners would recite every terrifying detail from the center of the hospital's emergency room, followed by not risking anypony else for a year. She improvised. She treated sex as a stunt, and made up new maneuvers on the fly ... She was spontaneously experimental, liked to add pegasus techniques into her actions, and felt that explaining whatever she'd just come up with would take too long: it was time to come along for the ride! Pinkie, as the group's trysexual, talked everything over with her partners first and refused to proceed unless everypony had both agreed on what would take place and was fully happy about the prospects. Rainbow thought 'consent' worked out 'You entered my bedroom: you knew what you were getting into.'
- Fearless Fool: Zephyr seems completely oblivious to Fleur's increasingly threatening comments as if he weren't sure exactly what she said, and doesn't seem to notice the gathering of many very unhappy animals around her.
- Get Out!: Fluttershy is not happy in the least to see her brother again.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Fleur's gone along on two Bearer missions. So far, we know the first one had her serving as a social expertise consultant, and resulted in somepony having to post extra bail.
- Hated by All: At least when it comes to the cottage denizens. Anyone who's been around long enough to remember Zephyr seems to loathe him: the older birds react to his presence with an 'intruder' call, and at least one tries to take a dump in his mane.
- Homosexual Reproduction: Fleur and Fluttershy, both mares, are trying to have a biological child together. This is made possible through a regulated spell generally nicknamed "The Most Special Spell", which allows two mares to have a biological daughter. Unfortunately for them, the spell isn't a guaranteed success, so the emphasis is on the "trying" part.
- It's mentioned in passing that Bonbon and Lyra have already had a daughter thanks to the same spell.
- The implications are also heavily deconstructed: The government has a legal monopoly on the spell because of con artists, Back Alley Doctors, and impulsive pregnancies, and it is distributed only as special one-use items issued once per moon by licensed physicians. They are meticulously tracked, and a couple receiving a supply must return all of them (whether used or not) at the next moon's appointment in order to get a refill, under suspicion of diversion to the Black Market.
- Hope Is Scary: Fleur... isn't used to feeling happy.
- Ignored Expert: A real problem in griffon society. If an expert can't claim the link above the one they're trying to advise, things can go very wrong.
- Lazy Bum: Zephyr feels that the world owes him a living — but why should he have to make any effort to collect it?
- As Fleur notes, this even applies to sex. Why should he be active when he can just lie there and let his partner do all the work?
- Original Character: Dr. Tria Lorem, Fleur's psychologist. A griffon (harpy eagle and black panther) with experience in treating patients with the minds (but not the bodies) of griffons.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: Fleur and Fluttershy are trying, but they haven't succeeded yet.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Exaggerated. Zephyr literally slept through Nightmare Moon's return, vaguely remembers Discord from history textbooks, assumes Changelings have something to do with currency exchange, and his reaction to being told what a centaur is is to ask if the female one is single.
- Statute of Limitations: About a year after Fluttershy moved into her cottage, Zephyr came for a visit and robbed the place while she was out. Miranda Rights can't arrest him for it because the statute has expired, but she promises Fleur that she'll check with other settled zones to see if he has any outstanding warrants.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. Fleur is required to see Dr. Tria Lorem regularly, and she's always scheduled after a mission.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Zephyr's reaction to being attacked by a swarm of biting flies? Create a powerful expanding sphere of wind that blows the flies away... as well as the merchandise on the market tables around him.
- This seems to be a running theme with Zephyr. He also tried (and failed) to place roofing shingles using wind and implied some form of offscreen disaster involving hail.
- Triple Shifter: Examined. Rainbow is currently trying to serve as a Bearer (which means going on every possible mission), along with remaining Ponyville's weather coordinator and being on the Wonderbolts reservist list. Neither of the latter two can do anything about the missions — but the Weather Bureau is getting tired of having other team members take over while Rainbow tries to work with the troupe, and the Wonderbolts can't build a routine around somepony who has to keep going back. Loyalty is being pulled in too many directions, and the Bureau just sent Rainbow a request: commit, or step down. At the start of the story, she has just a few weeks to give them her decision.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Zephyr has high field strength, but is almost uniquely incompetent at actually using that strength. His flight is lurching and irregular due to his lack of fine control, he can summon massive gusts of wind but either can't or simply doesn't try to direct that wind, tries to bust clouds without dispersing the underlying humidity (which would cause the clouds to reform in a few hours), and so forth.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: The Phylia family originates from Stratuston, with accent to match. Fluttershy's has been nearly obliterated through years in Ponyville. Zephyr, on the other hoof, seems to have deliberately replaced it with something more attractive (and also made up from the whole cloth).
