Suggested Fic and Progress Update - Monster/Diplomacy/EqD Weekly Writing Event · 2:29am Jan 21st, 2014
I'll try to keep it short this time (for a change)
Suggested Fics:
Cheerilee's Thousand by xjuggernaughtx - Our favorite teacher learns just how difficult it is to find true love. Or even rent it.
Of Lilies and Chestnuts by Prane - Fancy Pants and Fleur adopt a Batpony. Chaos ensues. Happy chaos.
Twilight Sparkle vs The Equestrian Library Association by Fedora Mask - Twilight discovers a horrible fact of life - Libraries are supposed to loan books out! And it only gets better. Five star recommendation, read it, read it, read it.
Vee for Vendetta by Melon Hunter - A Canterlot Bureaucrat in Ponyville to encourage healthy eating. What could possibly go wrong?
Small-Town Charm by Cold in Gardez - Ponyville is overrun by spiders. And this is a good thing. (Read everything by Cold. Fantastic author.)
Jake and the Kid by Peter - Human in Equestria done right.
My Harshwhinial by Horizon - The fic by which all other fics are measured (every ruler needs a zero point). A truly unique (we hope) story of triumph, conflict, and misspelling.
News : I'm currently editing Monster in the Twilight for its EqD submission by fixing comma splices, misspelled names (like Applebloom), and incorrect magic colors (I could have sworn Cadence had pink magic). If you want to drop by and point out any of my egregious errors, feel free (which incidentally is how much the job pays :)
Letters From a Little Princess Monster is coming along nicely, and I should have another chapter to publish in a week or so. I'm trying to concentrate any free time on the fight scene in Diplomacy by Other Means and it's going slowly. On the plus side, once I get done with the two chapters in the fight, the next two are written and I'm done. On the minus side, I'm trying to finish up getting Monster edited before the EqD team reaches it, so I'm focusing on it.
Preview: I just got done writing this week's entry into the EqD weekly Writers Training Ground story, and I'm very happy. It covers one of the first days Pumpernickel was training Laminia how to fly, with his own special flair to the lessons. You can find it here, or read the teaser below.
Short description: Luna’s Hoofmaiden Laminia has never flown before. Fortunately she has a teacher. Unfortunately it’s Pumpernickel.
Graceful Ponies of the Night
A side-story to Genealogy (or the Mating Habits of Nocturnes Pegasi)
“I swear on Luna’s name that if you’re doing this just to make me look stupid, I’m going to make your life miserable until the day you die.”
“What, are you going to marry me?” grumbled Pumpernickel while tying the last ribbon into the tail of Princess Luna’s Hoofmaiden.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.” Pumpernickel moved around to the front edge of the Ponyville library balcony and regarded his grouchy charge, as well as the dozen long ribbons he had just finished tying into her tail. He was one of Luna’s Night Guards, sworn to her service until death, but guarding this particular charge was making him consider that last option with a bit more enthusiasm than he liked. After all, Hoofmaiden Laminia was a Very Important Nocturne Pony in Equestrian society now, assigned to the side of his Dread Sovereign, Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, Princess of the Moon and Night, Keeper of the Stars and Planets, Matriarch of Dreams and Ruler of Shadows and most probably Watcher of Stupid Guards From Afar. With her title, Laminia should have been the perfect model of a Nocturne mare, filled with grace and decorum, a pony of class and politeness much like the other seamstress she had been partnered with.
Not quite.
Rarity had gone beyond simple politeness when the two Nocturne had been assigned to her, one for assistance with their little ‘sewing project’ for Princess Luna, and one for security, although he was starting to believe his real role was punching bag. After all, Laminia seemed to have equal amounts of sweetness and bile, and if she was being all sweetness and light to Rarity while they were working on their project, she needed a second pony to vent her spleen against.
Avoiding whispering “Only twenty-nine years until retirement” by the smallest margin, Pumpernickel gestured to the beautiful night that encompassed Ponyville, lit only by the twinkling stars and moon above. The library was the tallest building in town to practice this maneuver from, and Twilight Sparkle had approved the use of the building for training with only a few caveats.
No screaming, no crashing, no breaking in through the windows. We already have a pony for that.
“For training tonight, what we’re going to practice is the swooping takeoff. You’ve already mastered flapping in place and flying over reasonably short distances—” with more flapping than a pegasus towing an anvil “—so tonight we’re going to try swooping. You’ll love it.
“I hate it already.” Laminia peeked over the edge of the balcony while keeping all four shod feet firmly on the balcony floor. “That’s awfully hard ground down there. Shouldn’t we practice this over a lake or something?”
“Only if you want to drown when you’re caught in a downdraft.” What a wonderful idea. No, think about Luna. She actually likes her hoofmaiden, and she would be awfully upset to have to train another one.
Magic colors? Honestly, MLP never had magic colors before, all shared the same. It was only ever done to make them feel different, but I very much doubt that levitation magic is stuff is even visible to ponies.
Now, maybe casting a spell would cause one to shimmer I guess, but it feels silly. Getting called out on the Cadance thing was rather cute xD She has blue on the show but I could care less about which color you make it. Rest of the stuff seems cool.
Are you still working on that adorable DT fic btw? That was adorable.
Already following the first four! Ha! Take that!
Well, those first 4 recommendations were good, great even...but number 5 is the most brilliant thing ever put to digital paper!
New chapter and new story? Looking forward to them!