The dream realm stretched out in every direction but I just relaxed, tightening my wings slightly around myself as I hung from my tail from a piece of stardust.
I could just as easily have bundled up a bit to make it soft and squishy to lay on, but this really was relaxing.
"I spoke with my sister," a voice said, drifting in from in front of me.
Opening my eyes, I looked at Princess Luna, "Princess Luna," I said in greeting, "Good evening."
"Good evening, Prince Page," she greeted me in turn with a nod, "I spoke with my sister," she repeated.
"So you know that peace has been restored," I said, "Harmony once more in Equestria."
As long as you don't look too deeply beneath the surface anyway.
"You trust Chrysalis so hold to her word?" Luna asked, one eyebrow raising, "We thought you were saner than this."
I smiled faintly, "No, I trust Chrysalis to do whatever is best for Chrysalis. Free defense against opponents, free food security, free travel... a deal that's hard to give up. I have no doubt she'd break it in a second if there was a better deal to be found, but who could give that?"
Luna looked thoughtful, "Perhaps the Griffons..."
"No," I said and shook my head, "Not in their character. A griffin will stab you in the back, sure, but if they do, it's while you're facing them and armed."
Luna looked puzzled for a second before she smiled, looking almost like My Sky for a split second, "That is a very good description."
"Thank you," I said and sighed, "The point is that as long as the deal is better than whatever the cuddlebugs can find elsewhere, they will stick to it."
Luna frowned slightly.
"Don't get me wrong," I said and sighed, "She's still Chrysalis. She will plan and plot and push you. She may threaten and manipulate. She'll keep you on your hooves," I said with a small smile, "But she'll stick to the deal."
Luna regarded me for several seconds, "...You admire her."
I grinned briefly, "I'm not sure I'd go that far. But she is one of the brightest people I know. Underhooved and manipulative yes, but in raw bright intelligence? I'm not sure if she or your sister is the smartest in Equestria."
That earned me a raised eyebrow, "My self or Princess Twilight is not in the running?"
I smiled slightly at her, "Not the same thing. Intelligence is one thing, brightness is another. Nopony I know beats Midnight or Sparks in intelligence, given time they'll outthink anypony. But being realistic, they don't have that... snap."
"Snap?"
"The ability to change their plans in a split second," I said and held my wings a bit tighter around myself, "Look at Chrysalis. Her plan was to capture everypony important as hostages and take what she needed. Things changed and instead of trying to keep things on plan like somepony like Midnight would have, she twisted and let it change her plans to something completely different."
Luna scraped a hoof against the floor with a thoughtful look on her face, "That does sound like my sister," she admitted.
I nodded and sighed, "One of the reasons I suspect your and my wife's rebellion didn't succeed that long ago. You're a smart pony, as smart as your sister."
Luna frowned slightly, "But I can't do that..." she said quietly.
I smiled, "Wrong. You definitely can, I saw it in my wife. But you're also too damn stubborn to take advantage of it a lot of the time."
That drew a smile from her and she sighed, "A fair point."
"Not a lot of ponies have that," I said and held my wings around myself.
"Do you?"
I grinned, "Me? No."
As demonstrated by me always ending up doing what Celestia wants me to. Somehow. It has to be trickery of some sort. Not that she's really pretty, has really nice wings and were difficult to say no to.
Luna watched me for a second before glancing up at my tail, "That can not be comfortable."
"Oh, it most definitely is," I argued, "Nightvision, hearing, silent flight... the real pro of being a batpony is the ability to sleep like this."
Luna looked slightly dubious, one eyebrow raised before she shook her head, "You really think this treaty will succeed?"
I sighed and looked at her, "...I don't know..." I admitted, "I know it can work. It has at home. But I also know it has been a lot of hard work on all sides to make sure it does. It's going to be difficult. There will be moments you want to throw them all out. But it's worth it."
Luna looked down, thoughtful before she nodded, "Very well. we shall try."
"Do or do not. There is no try."
Luna frowned in thought as she looked at me again, "That makes very little sense."
"Try is something you do when you expect to fail."
YAY cover image!!
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Ye, seems like somepony has gotten his hooves on an artbot. I've been testing ideas on crAIon, myself, but it's not good at faces.
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say wa? are you referring to my avatar or the cover image for the story?
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The story description was just updated to say the cover art was made with DALL-E. So i'm talking about the cover art.
Beautifuel new Cover and an amazing Chapter as always.
I wish somebody had bothered to spell that last part out for me as a kid.
Yoda himself sure didn't bother to.
I'd only ever had it used to condemn whatever failure I'd committed at any given time.
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with the way Yoda talks i suspect his spelling is atrocious
Judge: the word is, Bee
Yoda: E B E ... Bee that is
Judge:...
Oooh, judging by the new cover art, we be working with portals soon.
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I saw the name DALL E in reference to the cover and just figured it was someone that was a WALL E fan...
Nice
I wonder now that his moment to shine has come and been over with, will page be stuck floating around hoping for a breakthrough. this situation was an emergency one that only he could resolve and only did so by basically dumb luck as Chrissy could have easily rejected his initial advance, but the more he gets stuck into this world's politics the more he gets rooted to this world when he has to go home, almost like Midnight's dilema of not being able to give up on Page's equestria
Page: Luna...what are you doing?
*Luna flying up to the stardust and tying her tail to it*
Luna: If I'm going to reconnect with the thestrals, I need to understand their ways.
*Luna now hanging upside down*
Page: True but you don't have to literally do it...you ok?
Luna: YEP! L-ovely! Very..comfy?? *face turning red from the blood rush*
Page: Please stop. You're going to hu--
*Luna falls to the dream ground*
Page: -rt yourself.
Luna: MY EFFORTS WILL BE DOUBLED!
Page:
Thanks for chapter!
Have a good day!
More tasty tasty cake of life, yum!
One spelling jackboot today:
A griffon will stab you in the back
the griffon part vaguely reminded me of the Adeptus Rediculous chat about the 4 chaos gods where Khorne embodies rage and anger but also honor, and will never stab you in the back, just in your face, over and over again.
Got to love windy_prance comments
No of course not
Luna frowned in thought as she looked at me again, "That makes very little sense."
"Spend a few decades hiding in a swamp from your enemies, and it will eventually make sense. Just ask Yoda. It worked for him."
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https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/defense
Well, about that letter difference? X)
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I was annoyed that she was expecting the changelings to change overnight and rewrite history to not ruin the wedding. They did what they thought was right for their species and change takes time. The changelings for the first time are looking at a new road in life and although it not going to be easy the queen is offering her life for her people. What more can you ask.
to
We
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God dammit... take my like and get out!
Finaly someone made sence of Yodas line...
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They're not that difficult to interpret, really.
No. I think what the Author is doing here, is painting a contrast between Sky and Luna. Sky would've understood that and seen its wisdom right away; Luna did not.
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I always said it means you either do it or you don't. You don't get any points for "trying" to do anything.