Cut Content · 12:37am Aug 27th, 2019
Have a bit of cut content. Not sure if it will ever appear anywhere. If it does it will be fleshed out and put into the anthology. A little behind the scenes talk with Triss.
"As shall I, but let me continue my story." Triss stared at the image of the two searching for several seconds before resuming. "One day, I found something that changed the course of my life."
All were focused on the image. The young Triss had her whole front of her body in one of the compartments of the ruins. With an excited hiss the young creature came out of the compartment grasping something. "Joss, Come quick! I've found something, something special!"
The salmon colored one, Joss hurried over to her. "What is it, Triss? Did you find a multistash?"
Triss shook her head and held up her prize. It was a small statue, of what looked like one of their kind. It glowed with a pale blue light from somewhere within. Joss's eyes lit up when he saw it. "Ranfor...I have never seen anything like that in the ruins. That will keep your family fed for a year, and get them nice furniture and bedding. You'll be the talk of everyone back home."
Triss held it close to herself. "It's warm. I think it is full of magic. I've never heard of anything with magic being found in the ruins."
Joss shook his head. "I haven't either, or any statue."
Triss looked at the statue intently. "I'm not sure I want to trade it. It seems too special to trade. We have nothing like this for ourselves."
"You must!" Joss exclaimed in disbelief. "Your brothers and sisters have found nothing in cycles, and the traders are coming soon. If your family has nothing to trade they will go hungry."
Triss sat the statue down and bent down to stare at it. "You're right. It's just so pretty and warm. Food is more important."
The two departed with the statue and the scene shifted. Triss sat among those that had previously been identified as her family, and a great fat one of their kind with yellow ivory scales was hissing at her parents. "What is this? Have none of you found anything in the past many moons? Have you all gone lazy? It is good that you starve, because there is no value in a lazy junk peddler!"
One of the parents held up the statue in offering. "Triss has found this, surely it is worth a year's ration of food, if not more."
The trader's eyes flicked to the statue, and despite the difference in species Luna could see greed in those eyes. His eyes flicked back to the parents. "What? This thing? This is clearly not something of the ancients. They made no such images. This must be some valuable you stole from an honorable trader! You should be branded as thieves if junk peddlers were not already well known to be thieves."
"We didn't steal it!" The young Triss protested. "I found it in the ruins."
The trader snatched the statue from the parent's claws. "Liar and thief. I shall take this from you, and to be generous I shall provide enough food for a clawful of cycles. It is more than what you deserve, but I wish to return this to its rightful owners without a fight."
Joss rushed into the scene. "I was there. I saw her find it. Triss is no thief. You are trying to cheat them from what she earned!"
"What is this noise?" A new voice rang out. Another of their race walked forward, this one with a slight green tint to his scales and wearing a round silver talisman on a silver chain. He had a noble bearing that marked him as no common trader.
The trader's eyes focus on the talisman and went wide. "Teacher, these junk peddlers have stolen this item from someone and are trying to pass it off as something found in the ruins. You can see that it isn't like any object found there before."
The teacher extended a clawed hand. "Let me see it. I'm familiar with the craftsmanship of all the great artists, and familiar with the objects from the ancients."
The trader seemed to hesitate before reluctantly handing over the statue. The teacher turned it over in his hands several times while studying it. "You said you found this in the ruins?"
"Yes, teacher," Triss said respectfully, dropping to all fours in some sort of gesture of respect.
The teacher continued to study the statue then looked up at the trader. "This is made of redum, the entire thing. While some have broken down redum with great effort and forged the pieces together into other things, none has been able to craft such a detailed work from it in one piece. The only source of redum is the ruins, and a piece such as this, though unheard of, could only come from there. I judge them telling the truth."
The trader went down on all fours. "I beg your forgiveness, teacher. I am but a honorable trader, I know nothing of such learned things. I will trade for the object at a much higher offer."
The teacher shook his head. "There is no need. I will take the statue and the Hall shall give a fair ration of food and more for it. Such a thing should be taken to the Hall of Teachers."
"We trust in the generosity of the teachers," the parents said in seeming reverence.
Young Triss said nothing more in this whole exchange, but stared at the statue with a hunger in her eyes.
The scene shifted. There was a vehicle that vaguely resembled one of the humans' jets. It was being loaded with cargo, and the teacher was watching the loading. Young Triss was also there, hiding behind a rock.
"Triss, what are you doing?" Joss said as he snuck up beside her.
Triss looked longingly at the cargo being loaded. "I need to hold it again."
"Have you lost your senses?" Joss said with bewilderment. "Perhaps there is truth to the ruins being cursed, because that statue has possessed you."
"I'm curious what you intend as well," a new voice said.
Young Triss and Joss looked up and saw the teacher staring down at them. There was no hostility on his face, just simple curiosity.
Joss immediately went down on all fours. "We weren't going to try anything, honored teacher. My soul friend simply wished to see the statue one last time."
Triss did not plant herself on the ground like her companion did. Instead she stared up defiantly at the teacher. "I was going to try to board your ship and follow where the statue went."
The teacher took her defiant pose with mirth. "Is that so? Wouldn't your family miss you? Did you intend to steal the statue away? That would leave your family's trade in void, and would cause them hurt. I do not think you intend to hurt your family."
Triss didn't back down. "I just want to be where it is. I don't need to steal it away, only steal myself away."
The teacher laughed. "Such a bold young one you are. Did you intend to sit on the stones outside the Hall to be nearly near it? Why subject yourself to that kind of misery for the sake of an object?"
Triss seemed to lose a little of her confidence, and raised a clawed hand up. "It came to me. That ruin had been searched countless times for countless generations. Many pieces of junk had been found there in the past, but none of them were that. I found it. It was like the ancients were giving it to me."
The teacher considered her. "The ancients are long gone. They can give nothing. If you believe the ruins somehow sentient, then perhaps they were simply trying to assure that your family wss given something in order to trade."
"But it was warm for me, and glowed," Triss protested. "It didn't do that for anyone else." Luna frowned. She had overlooked that detail during the earlier exchange.
The teacher changed his stance at this. "It was warm and glowed, you say? Perhaps you were imagining it? A fantasy brought on by your excitement at finding such a prize."
Joss rose from the ground and now stood as defiant as Triss. "My soul friend does not lie! I saw it glow in her grasp! She is telling the truth."
The teacher turned to him and smiled. "You are a true soul friend, who defends her well being and her dignity." He turned to Triss. "The claim is easily proven or disproven. I shall bring the statue to you, and allow you to hold it once again. If it does not glow then it is mine by right of trade, and I shall take it to be displayed in the Hall and studied. If it glows as you say it does I shall not try to separate you from it, and I will double the promised trade to your family. I shall give an equal gift to your soul friend's family to honor his devotion to your soul. Do we have a deal, young one?"
Triss looked to Joss, and Joss gave her a look that begged her to agree. She then turned back to the teacher and went down on all fours. "I agree, honored teacher."
The statue was fetched and placed into young Triss's hands. As before it glowed with a soft light. Triss held it close to herself and smiled. "So warm."
The teacher stared for a moment and held a clown up to his mouth in consideration. "I see that you're telling the truth. Your soul friend earns great honor in his devotion. You shall wait here while I go to your families and see that my promise is fulfilled. Wait patiently, our business is not concluded."
Spinoff one-shot? You now have me extremely curious as to where this could've gone...
5112335
It is hard to place this as a one shot, as it simply doesn't really fly it into My Little Pony fan fiction as a stand alone. This is the story of Triss and Joss, and there are no ponies here, except maybe as the framing device of the 'audience'. Part of why this was cut from the MWM epilogue was that even in the abridged form this story could have been long, and it is far off course from what MWM's epilogue is about or even feeling like it fits with MWM at all.
I admit, that the full story would be a huge piece of pandemic universe lore; the origins of Triss and Joss, their rise and the downfall of everything. It could have been a massive story into itself, but it is just barely in the realm of MLP fan fiction as it doesn't deal with ponies or the show in any real way. Just the pandemic universe. The only other link is the use of Triss telling Luna this story as a framing device of the story, and Luna's reaction to it. There's just no real place for it, despite the lore and implications of it to the pandemic universe.
On a side note, the epilogue of MWM is actually done now, even though that is a way off. It will get little revisions here and there, but it is prepared to drop immediately after the final chapter of MWM is written. The epilogue without the cut Triss and Joss content is nearly 20,000 words.
5112361
Hmm... might actually be a question for the site mods with regards to fit, considering the fact that they might let you pull a God Empress of Ponykind, having a completely pony-less chapter/story for the purpose of massive world building. Alternatively, you could pull the Call of Duty: Black Ops approach where the story is framed within a story. But I digress, as it's your choice whether or not to pursue it, and I'll respect the decision not to do so.
Either way, looking forward to MWM updating. You and ASGeek got a good thing going here
If you're going to use a framing device for the anthology ( as Starscribe did, with PaP), then this would make an excellent 1st story.
Or elsewhere, depending on the device, and if you write the others. I'd suggest you do so; your one-shots are very tightly-plotted.