from desert to resort pt. 1

No, this is not crackship for pride month or anything. All of these events in this post are canon, much to the dismay of everyone involved. LOL I never knew when the proper time was to introduce this element of Vendetta’s backstory. Or any elements of her backstory. Vendetta has the most backstory out of all my ponies, which is funny considering she herself says so little about her past to others lol. BUT HEY WE'RE HALFWAY THROUGH IT, SO BUCKLE UP! This takes place after Starlight but BEFORE Wonderworks!

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cw for implied sex work?

Saguara runs away from Cherry Jubilee’s stifling farm to live her dreams doing… well, she’s still figuring that out, but for now she’s waiting tables for rich men at Las Pegasus with the rest of Gladmane’s ragtag harem of outcast girls and has been meeting so many more ponies (good and bad) than she ever would have in Dodge City. Hilariously enough, the best money comes in when the resort is closed to the public… Who knew getting a *sugar daddy was so easy!

A few months into her new life, during a night on the town, the girls find a starved, disheveled unicorn collapsed in an alleyway and fear that it might be the work of Caballeron’s group moving in on their territory. So they bring her back to the hotel. When the unicorn comes to, Gladmane’s guys interrogate her, but she says she doesn’t know anything about a Caballeron… or a Gladmane. Or a Las Pegasus. Or anything, really.

It’s a bit perplexing… suspicious, even. But the girls all beg him not to put her down and insist that she’s probably an **amnesiac girl in need. So he resigns and leaves the rehabilitation to them.

During their time helping Vendetta adjust to her new room in the girls’ sector of the private hotel, Saguara notices that the other ladies are being very cautious and quiet whenever they’re around her, like they’re scared. Sure, Vendetta had the biggest horn and longest tail on a unicorn she had ever seen besides the princesses, but also couldn’t use any magic… Not to mention the gnarly scar and dead eyes.

Okay. Maybe they had a good reason to be scared. But Saguara thinks that the other girls are too busy trying to be a caretaker to Vendetta rather than trying to be a friend… so Saguara takes it upon herself to befriend the new girl and treat her normally like she isn’t a weird anomaly they found in an alley! And she soon finds that they have a lot in common, and that under Vendetta’s habit of rolling around in dirt, there is a very beautiful unicorn…

*Gladmane himself doesn’t engage with any of the girls, they’re more or less another facet of money making for him. The girls perform and seduce and then they get free housing, food, and protection at the Gladmane estate. Just... be loyal forever and make good money and everything will be fine!

**Vendetta does not have amnesia, at least not related to what was being asked of her. But because she failed to answer many basic knowledge questions about Equestria, everyone thinks that she does. She only seemed to have random encyclopedic knowledge on various animals for whatever reason!

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S: Noooo way, your mom was also a psycho bitch?

V: Yes, it’s why I ran away.

Cherry Jubilee: “You think you’re so grown up? After all I’ve done for you, you’re still going to run off? Fine. Have fun in the real world. See how it eats up lil’ girls like you!”

Starlight: “Go ahead and run. See how  far away from me you can get. But soon you’ll realize you can’t outrun your blood, your reflection. When you see you, you’ll only see me.”

S: Same here! When I told her, she almost killed me!

V: So did mine. Maybe it’s more common than I thought.

S: Right?! Moms can be such jerks! Did yours ever lock you in your room for the smallest things?

V: Yes. Every day.

Okay, so maybe Saguara and Vendetta don’t have as much in common as either of them thinks. Saguara thinks Vendetta exaggerates with hyperbole in the same way that she does, meanwhile Vendetta doesn’t think Saguara is exaggerating at all and seriously shares very similar experiences to her.

Vendetta has no reason to doubt what Saguara is saying. And Saguara sees Vendetta as a fellow lost *teenage girl with a bad family like hers, and thinks that at worst there was some physical abuse, but obviously nothing close to what Starlight was doing. Vendetta hardly ever clarifies things when she does talk, and Saguara hardly ever pushes her to elaborate (perhaps purposefully to avoid triggering topics), so they both live in ignorant bliss of their blatant miscommunication.

Who wants to talk about all that debbie downer stuff, anyway? Saguara wants to know Vendetta’s favorite colors, her hobbies, if she wants to get her hooves done, what card games she would like to play together… Normal girl stuff! She happily helps Vendetta become accustomed to these things, although it’s a bit alarming that the poor unicorn doesn’t know what a pedicure is… or a masseuse… or a makeover…also she’s scared of mirrors, so that doesn’t help.

She’s also scared of windows. And doors. And rooms. And outside. And being alone. And being with others. All of these and more were discovered in separate incidents over the course of a few stressful weeks. But it all makes sense, if this is the girl Saguara thinks she saw way back then...

To counter these fears, Saguara generously decides to start sleeping in Vendetta’s room to show she means no harm, and also to make sure she doesn’t harm herself trying to break the expensive windows again. She ends up waking up in the middle of the night to Vendetta hovering over her, staring at her and playing with her hair… and well, that probably would have scared most ponies, but it did quite the opposite for her.

*Saguara is freshly 18, but lied and said she was 21 to Gladmane so that she could work at his hotel LOL. Very stupid of her to do. Vendetta has no idea what age she is but it is around 18 at this time, although the others assume she’s like 30 because of her overall appearance lol. Saguara knows otherwise because she's probably one of the few ponies who even knows about Vendetta's existence

ALSO I WANT TO NOTE. IN THIS POST I MENTIONED VENDETTA WAS A SEX WORKER... this is not true. LMAO never was and never has been. she simply said this because the others she was with at the time called the girls she was with prostitutes, so she thought they were referring to her as well LOL. and nobody at Wonderworks' place questions anything that vendetta says so they're just like "yeah that checks out i guess"

Characters mentioned:

https://toyhou.se/25552732.saguara

https://toyhou.se/25957428.vendetta-current

https://toyhou.se/25552653.starlight-glimmer

https://toyhou.se/25548869.gladmane

https://toyhou.se/25548923.cherry-jubilee

Art (c) @@stimpower