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Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- The first narrative look at Cerea's gap presents a rare softer moment between a younger Cerea and her mother.
- After having her first week on the receiving end of a magical kidnapping include being attacked by multiple monsters, a terror-based assault against her from the first town she found, and being imprisoned twice (with the second time for her own protection), Cerea is beginning to have some reasonable doubts as to whether it's possible for her to find any degree of acceptance in this new land — especially given what happened with the only other centaur. Even Nightwatch, the Guard who's been kindest to her, openly admits that she's scared of Cerea and has been using pegasus magic constantly to shift the smell of that fear away. And then she stops using that technique — allowing Cerea to scent that the terror is fading, because the pony has not only seen Cerea fight for them, she's read to her — and it's a little harder to be frightened of someone after you've read them a story.
"It won't ever be everypony," Nightwatch told her. "There's always going to be ponies who are afraid of you, and so it won't ever be everypony who accepts you. But... it also won't be everypony who's afraid of you. Not forever. And if there was somepony who tried to bring you here, on purpose, if they come to take you — I’ll fight for you."
- Celestia and Luna offer Cerea an honor that calls back to the deepest secrets of the Triptych Continuum."It's been a long time," the white horse softly said — something the magnifying magic precisely ignored, words spoken so softly that Cerea felt as if she had been the only other person to hear them, and just barely while under the enhancement of moonlight. "But before there were Guards, there was a protector..."The dark mare smiled."Someone with hands," she quietly told her sibling. "Yes. Shall we use that? His action, when he swore himself to her?""Yes," the white mare whispered. "I think we should. He would be honored."
- Cerea describing Papi to Nightwatch. You can hear the fondness dripping off every word.Cerea: "She's... not easy to get used to. She's enthusiastic, for starters. She wants to do everything, she wants to do it quickly, she wants to do it now and then if she can't do something else, she wants to do it all over again. And she doesn't understand why everyone else doesn't feel the same way, or can't keep up. And she has to eat more often than the rest of us, so she sees our food as something that we've just been holding until she needs it. When she plays, she has more fun than anyone. If she's tired, she's tired enough for three. Her body is small, but everything else about her is just — more. She's...hard to put up with," Cerea finished. "But she's easy to love."
- Emery Board isn't afraid of Cerea. Why?Emery: "Didn't meet him. Just you. And you're not him — You haven't been hearing that a lot. Or at all. But that's how it is. You're not him. The fear's there for others, and maybe there's ways we can use that. Right now, it's just not justified fear, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOTHING WORTH BEING AFRAID OF!"
- He shouldn't have reminded Cerea of her mother. He never did again.
Emery: "Better. You got better today. You'll be even better tomorrow." - It's a small moment, but it's mentioned that some of Celestia's favorite letters come from children.
- By Chapter 40 it's confirmed through her own perspective that Nightwatch is no longer afraid of Cerea, at all.
- In Chapter 56, attending the party that is trying to introduce her to wider pony society, Cerea accidentally lets slip about the existence of plastic. When discussing its use, the topic stumbles to game pieces, causing her to start lecturing about dice and board games from her home. As she talks about the rules for backgammon, go, shogi and similar games, interested ponies and other sapients start flocking to her, eager to listen and avidly following along as she shows them the boards, rules and pieces, to the point they start trying to play those games themselves. And as they listen, their fear of her palpably drains away: after all, everybody knows that monsters don't play. Even the chapter's final line notes that the party could have been a success, if only...
- Cerea's ongoing relationship with the smith Barding becomes all the sweeter if you put it in perspective. Over the course of the fic, Barding becomes one of Cerea's truest friends in Equestria, alongside Nightwatch, to the point that when Cerea is hospitalized, he repeatedly spends days sitting in her hospital room waiting for her to wake up. That'd be Heartwarming enough, but what really pushes it is that Barding is one of the Fallen — a pony who has succumbed to the Addictive Magic aspects of their Cutie Mark and now literally lives only to exercise their talent. Before he met Cerea, Barding's entire world consisted of his smithy, and all other creatures were just annoying momentary distractions from working — and yet in the end he cares about Cerea, more than he cares about work. Cerea manages to bring Barding back from his mark and more into the real world, and she has no idea what she's doing or how momentous that is.
- When Cerea takes a brief detour into the afterlife in Chapter 80, Lala is there to fill her in on how the rest of the girls have been doing since she disappeared. Many of them are understandably dejected (Papi crying in Cerea's room, Suu sulking as a puddle, etc.), but they also have their ways of remembering her. Mero gets called home by her parents, but escapes and returns to the house two months later. Kimihito hasn't let anyone new move in, and the girls decide to stay in Japan even after he tries to talk them into going home. They've kept Cerea's room ready for her and have joined forces to physically block any potential new arrivals from taking it. And while talking with Lala, Cerea finally lets slip that she thinks of Kimihito and the girls as family.
- Cerea's first meeting with Sizzler: he resents that Cerea refused to admit to being a meat-eater and avail herself of his skills as a chef... for all of ten seconds. Then all he cares about is getting to know Cerea and sharing his unappreciated wealth of knowledge on Equestria's carnivorous cuisine, happy to find some-creature else he can share his passions with, who can appreciate his work. In return, Cerea is happy to engage with him and forms a bond with him on the spot, never once even noticing the Uncanny Valley effect he has that alienates his fellow ponies.
