Horseapples!

Yesterday threw me off. I can't even seem to stick to a normal schedule, can I? But let's see what I can think about to talk about to... oh, yes. This is a fun one.
Swearing in writing.
Yes, it has a point. Yes, it's very possible to go completely overboard. No, because there are 'naughty words' doesn't automatically make it bad writing. Yes, sometimes it can make you uncomfortable. Yes, sometimes it's supposed to make you uncomfortable. No, that doesn't make it bad writing. Sometimes the entire point is actually that it's supposed to make it hard to read, but I don't want to get into that. That's really better saved for another post.
Swearing and nasty language and Luna-words can be classified under several different things. The most common categories are 'I'm trying to look edgy or cool or tough and I think adding a swear every two words helps that image' and 'aggressive rhetoric.' I'm going to stick with aggressive rhetoric for this post. But I could really easily do the later. You don't goddamn think I couldn't frigging do the motherbucking latter if I wanted to? Well apparently I can't because it hurts my head just to read that mangled sentence. Balls.
Balls is not a swear, by the way.
Anyway. Aggressive rhetoric. That's when you use language meant to be interpreted as aggressive or to make people uncomfortable. Don't mix it up with violent rhetoric, although they're pretty close, since in both cases you're trying to say something that's going to stick in people's minds: the difference is that swearing is usually part of a method used to propel a smaller audience into doing something. I would not scream "Get out of the motherbucking way" at a platoon of Royal Guard. Luna would, but then she'd follow up with actual violence.
Violent rhetoric also often uses inflammatory messages, condemnations, 'slave hooves are worthless, and they'll kill our economy if we don't make them serve us!' kinds of things. Aggressive rhetoric features tactlessness, bluntness, cursive dialogue, such as 'listen to me, you son of a bitch, move your goddamn ass before I move it for you.'
See how it's so much more personal and one-on-one? It's also focusing less on actual 'rhetoric' and more on actual intimidation tactics. Which are. Actually still rhetoric, by the way. It doesn't seem like it, but it's still a form of speech, and it's actually very articulate, direct speech: you're threatening violence and you're using an explosive form of confrontational dialogue, but as long as you haven't acted on it, you're still using rhetoric. It's very base and crude, but sometimes that's also the most effective strategy: I mean, let's compare.

"Sir, the consequences of refusing to move from your current position could result in physical harm done upon your person if you fail to comply with this simple demand to relocate yourself to a less-intrusive angle."

"Get the buck away from me or I'll hurt you."

Average Pony is going to scratch his head at the first, take a few moments to process, probably have to ask for a repeat in simpler language. And then,when given choice number two, will probably choose to move. Let's not all stand up now and brag about how tough we are, by the way. Let's just assume that we are the average pony and the threatener is the average dragon.
But it has a lot more uses than that. For example, a character who speaks in a sudden burst of very aggressive rhetoric after a calm period, or in the seeming middle of an otherwise almost-dry argument, can tell you a world about that character you've been developing, drop a lot on the table... as well as their emotional reaction afterwards. Say a bunch of friends are making lighthearted jokes, and then one says: "yeah, except for you, because we all know you actually like other stallions," and then Average Pony just explodes with anger, maybe something as simple as "Buck you, take that back!" or something as verbose as: "I ain't no bucking faggot, don't you ever say something like that about me again, ever, crowbait, you got that?"
Replacing f's with b's isn't cute when it ruins alliteration.
Buck.
Anyway. Then the reaction afterwards, but I've played through emotions... haven't I? I think I've done a post on that. If I haven't, I should. Should I? Well, either way, it'll really affect the presentation of his character. Is he a homophobe? Is he scared of his own attractions? Was he molested by some other stallions and now has an aggressive and compulsive need to disassociate himself with male sexuality? Of course, his wording itself would differ too, based on those choices, but. I wanna get into one more example instead of explaining all that.
The "guess what" example, we'll call it. What comes to mind is an old story I read. Happy, brightish story. Foal's story, mystery kind of book. It's a little dreary because it's post war, and the kid's big brother has just come home, but it's only semi-focused on. Then there's this one scene.
Kid goes to try and talk to his big brother. Tries to get him to open up. Starts talking about what a hero he sees him as, and then about how cool the war must have been. He's just a kid, right? And after only a few sentences the brother just rounds on him, and you get a full out: "You think it was fun? Fun, watching my friends die, getting shot at by other guys who are just as scared as me with guns, hoping like hell when I shoot back I'm gonna kill another of these guys no older than me who probably don't even know any more than I do why we're even fighting, until some dude in a suit who's never seen a day's work tells us kindly we can all stop and go home now?"
It was a lot better than that, but that's the basis. But even with my mediocre retelling, you can see how it would just flump, change the tone of the story. And I only used 'hell,' too, and that's not even a swear. You see how much emotion can be portrayed through that? And you see how that could stick in your mind? And I didn't even have the chance to really build up to it with this fairly-plain, relatively happy story from a kid's point of view beforehoof. It was brilliant. It got the point across, and it wounds the kid... but it also opens a window that was fantastically used to show him picking himself up, learning from the experience, and reaching out again to his brother anyway. Which you realize at the very end is really the whole point of the story: even though the brother only seems to get mentions, he's pretty much the biggest figure in this colt's life and... the whole time he was playing, he was happy, but he was alone.
Anyway, anyway, anyway. That's enough of that for now. Luna just called me a really nasty word so I have to go insult her in return, and she won't stop poking me with her stupid horn until I do.
Hey, I didn't say all swearing was good, any more than I said it all was bad. This isn't that bad. It's just Luna and I having a little fun with each other. We're both grown adults who can... who... can...

...oh Horses of Heaven, where did you even learn that word?

~Scrivener Blooms