Finally back home from college for a few weeks. Fun fact: Not sleeping for three out of four days is actually a pretty terrible idea!

As far as fanon goes, here's a few that I hold to:
-Derpy is Dinky's mother. 'Nuff said.
-Neither of Scootaloo's parents are pegasi. She got her scooter from her father as a way to have something similar to flying they could share.
-AJ is terrible at economics, hence why every crop seems likely to ruin the farm. She's just not good at balancing the books.

And Thanqol? I believe you were promised a story:

Spoiler
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The Cork family had been in the bottled drink business for longer than most ponies cared to remember. The current head of the family, Pop Cork, was a virtuoso of juice; mixing and blending flavors into masterpieces of beverage came to him as easy as breathing. So sure was he that his son would follow in his hoofsteps, that he even named him for the peculiar bottle caps his drink bottles so often used. Crown Cork, as fate would have it, had other ideas. Ever since he could hold a brush, he'd always found a special sort of peace when he was putting paint to paper. And in terms of technical ability, he was a prodigy. Nopony could match his skill for painting exactly the picture he meant to paint. Just one thing kept him from the easel cutie mark he was so sure he deserved. His attention to detail was so meticulous, that he took days to finish what other artists could accomplish in minutes. Ages of practice, practice, and more practice, and he never could manage to improve enough. His flank was still blank.

His father took this failing as a sign from Celestia herself. Why else would his artistry fail, if not to drive the young colt to the family business where he belonged? Despondent from his lack of a cutie mark, Crown soon found himself believing his father's words and took up work putting on the very caps he was named for. The bottled drink business held none of the magic of a paintbrush, but he couldn't turn down the promise of discovering his talent. He likely would've kept on this miserable path, were he a little less clumsy. While forcing on a particularly stubborn cap, Crown managed to nearly bend it in two. He was about to throw it away, when something about about the plain metal cap caught his eye. The way the metal bent, the way it half-caught the sunlight, it ignited an inspiration in him he hadn't felt in ages. Immediately he tore upstairs and grabbed his leftover paints, only to remember he hadn't bought proper paper in months. With no other option, he plucked out his tiniest brush and set to work on the cap itself.

The next morning, when Pop Cork came to check on the latest batch of Sunrise Lemonade, he found an amazing sight. On each and every one of the caps, he saw a miniature portrait of the sun rising above a sparkling lake. And at the end of the hallway, he found his son, sleeping amidst a pile of spilled paints and bottle caps just like the ones adorning his flank.


It's a mite rough, but I figured I'd best get it out now before I completely buried it under a pile of excuses and delays.