Sparkle-Twi's Dragon Speaker · 11:21am Oct 15th, 2019
I should probably do a piece on the show’s impact on my life at some point; all the cool kids are doing one. For right now, though, I’m playing with the new data available. Here are some discarded ideas for why Spike isn’t available in an upcoming story, tentatively titled Momento Morerunt. (If someone can confirm the correct Latin conjugation for “Remember they will die,” it will be less tentative. 
)
Spike was trying to defuse tensions between the stormfolk and the Everfree deer, which was tricky when no one knew how the two reclusive races had even established enough diplomatic contact to denounce one another.
Spike was still trying to disentangle the political boondoggle that was Dimondia. The grudge of the month was that of the Equestrian Postal Service. Twilight didn’t envy him; Dinky Doo surprised ponies at the bargaining table the same way her mother surprised them when walking down the street.
Spike was investigating an attempt to destroy the forum atop Mount Metazoa, though that was looking more like a cry for help than an effort to disrupt global harmony.
Spike was acting on behalf of both Twilight and Pinkie Pie, tracking down Luster Dawn’s mother to get her RSVP for Luster’s birthday party. Given Sunset’s tendency to move between universes without telling anyone, that could take a while.
Spike was in the Dragonlands, refusing another one of Ember’s marriage demands—the Dragonlord did not propose—as tactfully as possible. Her matrimonial orders came so regularly, they were in danger of becoming a tradition. Twilight made a mental note to keep an eye on that.
Spike was in the middle of a quantumantic livestream with diplomats in the human Manehattan. Everyone involved agreed that a roughly humanoid dragon made for a better face of Equestrian concerns than an enormous, scaly Trottweiler.
Spike was unraveling a situation that was best described as “wormhole shenanigans.” The Capric Empire hadn’t existed last week, but it still had centuries-old grudges against nations that did.
Spike was in the lands of the Scale Collectors, who actually did exist outside of Sludge’s loathsome imagination. The Collectors were happy to extend diplomatic immunity to the Equestrian high ambassador, but Twilight still sent a two-pony honor guard with him. Those ponies being Celestia and Luna.
Spike was overseeing negotiations between three multiversal corporations that had chosen this world as neutral ground: The Infinite Carousel, Weyland-Yutani-Umbrella, and Hasbro.
Carabas, what did you do?
I understood those references, and am appropriately alarmed. I can't imagine how they'd be that much worse than the two were individually, and that's why I don't write survival horror.
5139875
I think the question is, what did the Crown do?
#8. Twiggles calling up the sisters on occasion sounds great.
I'd go with the Diamond Dogs / Abyssinian negotiations for simplicity's sake, but Ember's matrimonial demands amuses me, especially since I still kind of ship them.
CP: Not my fault! Not my fault! ...Probably not my fault...?
-GM, master of oh boy.
I'm gonna say Ember or Sunset (maybe both at once?)
Luster being Sunset's daughter is a great idea! I wonder how much of her childhood was spent as a human.
Now that would be some high stakes negotiating!
So, if she wasn't proposing -- and that's assuming she wasn't and this isn't a tsundere style denial -- what precisely is she doing?
Plugging into Google translate:
'remember they will die' spits out 'memento ipsi peribunt' not the best, seeing as that translates back as 'they will remember'.
Trying some other suggestions gets us 'memento illi ibique moriemini' which sounds nice, but wouldn't make the best title.
But, if we begin with the above in latin, we arrive at the rather pompous 'Remember unto him, and there you shall die"!
'Memento mori-erunt' however, which is the best way my spellcheck would let me render it, comes back as 'remember-be'.
Trying alternates of that gets us the improved 'remember to die-there will be' which I think works best for what you are trying.
In short, I have no idea, go with your gut, but I prefer 'Memento mori-erunt".
Weyland-Yutani-Umbrella made me actually flinch. That sounds absolutely terrifying. And considering both corparations track records with containment, there's about a 75% percent chance of those "negotiations" ending with Equestria having to deal with a Xeno-Virus outbreak, or something along those lines.
Anything that gives the Sisters something to do.
Also, on of the show writers (Josh Something) says that Luster Dawn is Starlight and Sunburt's kid.
Mo' Mentos, Mo' Runts? :B
5139903
Yelling that he's going to marry her and that's that.
Spike could be doing all that, with clones. Somehow.
Interesting thoughts!
5139945
"Somehow?" The Mirror Pool never stopped being a thing. >_>
5139946
Right. First Iteration Clones are usually sorta stable, and with some refinement, it could be even better.
Here’s one: Spike is babysitting Pinkie and Cheese’s kid, who of course has some pretty terrifying powers and not much control over them.
5139942
Doesn't really allow for plausible deniability though.
5139983
I don't think Ember knows what that is. Or cares.
I like the idea of Sunset being a multiversal wanderer and hero, maybe palling around with Megan Williams Savior Of Worlds, but I like to think she keeps on better touch with her friends than that :p
The Crown is a reliable source of schenanigans.
Ember and Spike is perfect on a number of levels, starting with the fact they the marriage demands started as a joke and then, as Spike grew up and got handsome, became secretly not.
The negotiations with Weyland-Yutani became significantly more complicated when Fluttershy met the Xenomorphs and instantly made friends. Scary? She lives with Discord!
Latin: the dead language everyone needs to know.
You are very close on your translation. (From what I can tell, my degree is not in Latin)
Well... “Remember” conjugated as a present command to an individual, is “Memento,” most commonly recognized from when Roman generals would have a servant follow them everywhere repeating the phrase “memento mori” (remember death) so that they would not entertain delusions of overthrowing the Caesar.
For the second part, “morierunt” is translation for ”die” (mori) and the conjugation of “they will, future tense multiple subjects” (erunt).
So, that would give you “Memento Morierunt” as a closest translation I can manage with only HS Latin under my belt.
And it looks like Spike is in for one Tartarus of a negotiation.
5139924
Josh Harber. Jim Miller was also asked about Dawn’s parentage and if she was related to Starlight and Sunburst. Paraphrased “Josh says she is I say she isn’t. So it’s up for each fan to decide.”
Source
Lol, Capra
Hey, multiverse, hello! Why chose just one? Maybe they're all equally true until Twilight looks at him.
You could always borrow Estee’s idea that dragons need to periodically visit volcanoes to breathe the fumes and bathe in the lava for their health.
5139875
Look, time magic is hard. Hiccups are to be expected.
5140002
I concur with "Memento" for Remember.
But I believe the second part should be "morient." Since mori has a consonant stem and the ending for simple future tense is -ent. (-erunt is perfect tense, so that would translate to Remember they have died.)
So your phrase should be "Memento Morient."
I don't get what "The Infinite Carousel" is supposed to be...
5139878
5139918
Reading that particular combination of three words and two dashes made me physically recoil from my computer in horror when my brain processed what it was.
Sheesh. Why not throw in Union Aerospace while you're at it, and make it even more of a bad ideas conglomerate? On the other hand, I'm sure there are plenty of less well known entities tucked under the greater umbrella that just didn't rate enough to go into the name.
5140208
It's an interdimensional clothes corporation run by a conglomerate of Rarities from different realities.
Is there a story actually about the infinite carousel yet?
5140208
The Infinite Carousel is a multiversal corporate hegemony consisting of any Rarities that choose to ally themselves with their counterparts in other realities.
5139875 5139882 5139890
I was going to blame a freak bit of higher dimensional weather blowing through this stretch of the multiverse, but apparently 5140059 has been doing some Glimmer-grade inadvisably applied magic.
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The bad news is that there will definitely be an acidophilic strain of the T-Virus specifically designed to infect xenomorphs. The good news is that the resulting bioweapon will look fabulous and have some awesome action figures.
In all seriousness, I can't claim original credit for WYU. I can't recall who first came up with it, but my first brush was in the Anime Addventure, a sadly defunct infinitely extensible CYOA that was my go-to fanfic site years before Friendship is Magic was a thing.
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"I cannot tell you how long I've waited to be the one to give you a seemingly impossible task."
"You're not the only one. There are only so many cabana colts you can flirt with before it gets old."
5139898
I can't claim credit for the idea; that goes to Phil Srobeighn, the fellow who does the FiCG card alters on Derpibooru. He also made this.
5139903
What 5139942 said. Fortunately for Spike, voluntarily giving Ember the Bloodstone Scepter means he's the one dragon exempt from her lordly authority. This, of course, only makes her desire him more.
5139910 5140002 5140181
Thanks to all of you for your efforts. I'll be going with Ranko's translation.
5139939
Mentos: The Runtmaker
Wait...
5139967
One could argue that many if not all of these could qualify as stories in their own right, but that right there? That definitely should be one. Dragon vs. party pony infant magical flare-ups...
Whoever wins, there will be cake.
5139998
It's hard to leave a forwarding address when your mail has to be delivered by another planeswalker. Assuming, of course, you haven't yet met a certain Ditzy Doo.
5140026
"Things haven't been the same since Twilight uncollapsed my wavefunction. Or have they?"
5140209
"Well, we sent the xenomorphs into Hell to clean out the demons, and now we have half-demon xenomorphs. But we're pretty sure this new strain of the T-Virus will fix everything! And if that doesn't work, we're negotiating with the nice folks at Black Mesa. They're very interested in Argent Energy."
5140284
It and it alone? Not yet. Some involving it, one obliquely about its origins, but nothing along the lines of a day in the life of a Rarity who's along for the unending ride.
5140414
That would explain Hasbro's presence: They're trying to negotiate merchandising rights. Nothing sells to kids more that horrifying genetically mutated aliens designed with the sole purpose of slaughter. They'll need something to fill the gap now that G4 is winding down.
5140414
>Sisters Errant
I mean, there was the one episode about them going around curbstomping all the problems, right? They don't have paperwork or official duties, so they actually have the time to go personally sit on the pony that keeps sending "Dear Cholestria" letters. Or tracking down the guy that makes that awful orange taffy and threatening him with bodily harm for associating it with nightmare night.
5140418
5140414
Eh, something to do, someone to do, tomato tamahto.
5140419
Somewhere, Cave Johnson feels an opportunity pass him by.
(Elsewhere, a yellow unicorn wakes up from a nightmare in which she named her filly Explosive Lemons.)
"... I don't care if your friend Saikawa wanted to ride a unicorn! Lyra's wife is worried sick about her!" "Oh, I think Bon-Bon can wait another fifteen minutes, Spike... brushie brushie brushie..." "Tohru, is this another of your friends?" "Never met him before."
5140419
And now it's starting to sound like a potential origin story of The Thing.
Unfortunately I missed this when it came up, and it may be too late now, but: "to die" in Latin is weird and nonstandard, and it's one of those things you just have to memorize. The form you want is "morientur", as seen here. (Look for future tense, third person plural.)
But of course, that's just how it is here on Earth. Maybe it conjugates differently in Old Pegasine, and "morient" is how ponies would say it after all.