Story Notes: 16 (Ploomette Part 1) · 4:09am Nov 5th, 2020
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/lustrous-dreams/art/Ploomette-279039169
Ploomette's chapter is so jam-packed I had to break it into multiple parts. I apologize for this! I briefly considered pushing the last part of her chapter to Act II, but then we wouldn't get to see her interacting at the Mareiott, and that just won't do.
So as the United States deals with what may be the messiest election in history, I offer an escape in the form of a chapter starring a politician who will never need to worry about elections and has a nearly 90% approval rating.
In Cloudsdale, she's treated similarly to how the princesses are treated around Equestria. Everypony knows her and her family, and they'll bend over backwards for her, whether that be because they adore the Duchess or because they're kissing flank to get on her good side.
Outside of Cloudsdale, it's a different story. Most pegasi will do almost anything for her, but she could trot down the street in Fillydelphia and be just another pegasus to 90% of the population. Well, if those ponies don't notice her honor guard, anyway. Of course in Manehattan, they don't even stop the cabs for Princess Celestia, so being second in line for the pegasus duchy isn't even worth extra sprinkles on a doughnut in that metropolis.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/34424
Pony amusement parks:
HorseyPark/HersheyPark
Pony Island/Coney Island
Palimonosades Park/the gone but not forgotten Palisades Park
Six Nags/Six Flags
Mareowinds/Carowinds
Trot's Berry Farms/Knott's Berry Farms
Sunshine Smiles is an OC who can be found in a previous fic of mine (a much more in depth look at pegasus demolition derbies): https://www.fimfiction.net/story/253901/crash-and-burn
One of the hard things to believe is that demolition derby is actually canon to MLP. Seriously, in the comics demo derbies have been mentioned a couple of times, though nothing is ever shown of it. Since it's challenging to have a demolition derby in a world where cars aren't exactly canon, I had to explore that in more detail.
https://derpibooru.org/images/1273053
Yes, I know the show also featured a character with the same name. While the above was published in 2018, it was started in 2014... I'd already picked the name and I wasn't renaming the character.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/archidraca/art/Ploomette-GiggleCard-408951921
Somepony's ticklish!
Ploomette's also got a bit of a sweet tooth.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/781753
Not going to lie, I've used the above image as a desktop background previously. Star Catcher & Skywishes! I think most people who know these two ship them. I don't do a whole lot of shipping, but even I support this one.
Oddly enough, the biggest challenge with this chapter had nothing to do with Ploomette, but rather her sister. 16 isn't the first time I've touched on the pegasi having a duchy.
Star Catcher (no relation to Snowcatcher) is a G3 pegasus. The leader of the pegasi, she had magic and could grant wishes (you have to catch a kite first; I'd love to say it makes sense in context... but it really doesn't). She also had magic butterflies.
Longtime readers may remember a story by the name of If Wishes Came True in my back catalog where she and Skywishes grant wishes. Catch a kite, catch a wish. I bring this up because while there are some similarities (Star Catcher is the duchess, she & Ploomette are sisters, etc.) this story (and sequels) are not canon to 16. There are some fundamental differences between them, not the least of which is the timeline. In those stories, Star Catcher acquired her cutie mark not long before the Mane 6 did. In this timeline, she gets her mark after they do. She can't do magic, and her wish-granting abilities have been reimagined as a charity in the style of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. For those of you who've read those stories, we finally get to meet the often-mentioned, but never seen, Ploomette.
What these stories share in common is this:
Cloudsdale is considered a duchy, controlled by the House of Hurricane (Commander Hurricane's descendants). Their role in Equestrian politics is similar to Prince Blueblood's, heir to the House of Platinum (and hence in charge of Canterlot; suffice it to say he does a lot of delegating). Pegasi tend to come to the duchess to solve issues, while unicorns... well, they just go to Celestia because she's just as conveniently located, and far more competent than Blueblood. Shifting him to an ambassador position removes dead weight from the system and puts him a position that's hard to mess up. Chancellor Puddinghead's lineage has died out, and there are currently no earth pony nobles. Instead, they're represented by an elected council (every town sends a delegate).
Star Catcher and Ploomette are sisters, with Starry being the older of the two, and hence next in the line of succession.
Star Catcher still loves eating at Tira Mi Su's. Tira Mi Su (like Star Catcher and Skywishes) is a G3 pony. Skywishes was the only one of the three to get toys in G4. Sadly, this means I don't have a Star Catcher in my collection. My G4 Skywishes is destined to die an old maid...
Where they differ:
Star Catcher has not yet taken over. Her mother is still in charge.
Star Catcher lacks magic. No wish-granting, and no butterflies. This isn't her story, and it would be very easy for her to steal the spotlight from her sister if she had these abilities (in a way she already does, as the heir apparent; and Ploomette's impression that her sister is perfect). While I'd love to use her butterflies as a plot point, I've covered that ground already in If Wishes Came True and see no reason to repeat myself.
Star Catcher & Skywishes run a charity called 'Catch-A-Wish Foundation' that we saw founded in this chapter. It's basically the Make-A-Wish Foundation ponified.
While Starry no longer has her magical butterflies to keep tabs on everypony, she has instead picked up the ability to remember names and faces. If she's been introduced to you, she'll still remember you twenty years later even if you only met for five minutes.
Spoiler for those of you who might wish to read If Wishes Came True but have yet to do so. At no point in this story or its sequel will Star Catcher be corrupted by chaos magic. She won't turn into an antagonist in this series.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/raikohillust/art/Commission-Swoop-and-Dash-781315015
I know I've talked about my Royal Guard naming scheme before. We were introduced to Searchlight (Throttlebot that turns into a Ford RS200) in Lulu Luck's chapter. Swoop is far better known, as one of the Dinobots (Pteranodon). Like his fellow Dinobots, Swoop has a verbal tick that involves using third person, and prefacing most sentences with 'Me Swoop' (the other Dinobots substitute their own names, obviously; in one episode where Grimlock becomes super-intelligent, he prefaces his sentences with 'I Grimlock' instead; no one ever said G1 Transformers was the best-written show, but it's still pretty entertaining nonetheless). Our ponified Swoop is a female (as are all of her guards; her parents are making sure that her honor guard keeps her honor instead of surrounding her with temptation) and while she may not be the brightest guard, she's very strong, and good at what she does (and what she does best is break things; usually they're things that need breaking). The rest of Ploomette's honor guard that's gone to Earth:
Searchlight (thestral)
Skydive (pegasus)
Skyfire (pegasus)
Swoop (pegasus)
Cloudraker (pegasus)
Mirage (pegasus)
I actually ran out of flying Autobots with names that could pass as pony names, so I added Mirage (Formula 1 car) to the list. I might've gotten away with Airazor from Beast Wars, if not for those meddling kids and that dog but I don't really find that name very pony-ish.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2187343
Because Cozyheart/Cozy Glow is a pegasus, technically she falls under the duchy's jurisdiction. And while they're not happy to see a pegasus criminal, they're even more irate that one of their subjects was refused due process. Considering the normal situation in Equestria is to plead, "I'm sorry and I'll never do it again" which results in being sentenced to rehabilitation, something is seriously messed up. Cozy was unapologetic, but even that doesn't result in being thrown in Tartarus, in the cell right next to the centaur who was mentoring her. Under normal circumstances, she would've been thrown in a dungeon (adult) or a juvenile detention facility (child). No attempt was made at redemption, and Duchess Royal Rose is understandably furious.
Considering she just got a bonus chapter, I'm not planning on bringing up Cozyheart/Cozy Glow much for the remainder of Act I. She's an important plot point, but most of that comes in Act III. Sunny Rays will bring her up on the bus (as seen in Flitterheart's chapter), and there's a possibility we may see Snowcatcher's version of events from the day the Legion of Doom invaded Canterlot. Aside from that, she's been put on a bus sealed in stone for a while.
It's also why that conversation between Ploomette and her mother (Royal Rose) is short. It's important, it needs to be there, but it's verging on overkill after Cozy's chapter (remember, this chapter will fall before the bonus chapter once the story catches up; Ploomette's chapter 10 and Cozyheart's chapter 17).
If somepony out there loves her, we’ll get a letter.
They never got a letter. Flitterheart's letters were mailed to Celestia, and never made it to Royal Rose. Unlike those missing letters, this one wasn't malicious, but rather an oversight. Flitterheart and the rest of the Hearts never thought to write to Royal Rose. There wasn't much time between Cozy's takeover of the School of Friendship and the Battle of the Bell, and after the latter, there was no point writing any further letters when they never heard back about getting custody of the statue. The Hearts think she's dead, and they want her body (statue) to give her a proper pegasus funeral (considering that involves a funeral pyre, it's a good thing they didn't get their wish, because they would've inadvertently slow roasted her in her own juices; the statue would've been singed but intact, but Cozy would've been barbequed inside). Most of Equestria thinks the villainous trio is dead.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/terryblas/art/Ploomette-MLP-commission-01-269422811
So, was there ever an Equestrian equivalent to Action Park?
You know what strikes me as a potential popular pegasi food? Fried pierogis.
"I apologize for this!"
No problem on my end. :D
...I'm confused. I don't remember Fancy Pants or Fleur showing up in this chapter at all? Did I miss or forget something? I didn't find their names in a search, in case there was a brief reference I missed. Is there another reason they're mentioned here?
And I'm guessing Daisy's chapter was mentioned because, looking back, they were in, or mentioned in, that one?
To be clear, when you say that Star Catcher lacks magic, do you just mean that she lacks wish-granting and butterflies and such, or that she's actually without normal pegasus magic too? From the chapter I'd guess the former, but given various factors I thought I'd check.
"remember, this chapter will fall before the bonus chapter once the story catches up; Ploomette's chapter 10 and Cozyheart's chapter 17"
Ah, you're planning to reorder them, but only after all the preceding ones are published?
"Flitterheart's letters were mailed to Celestia, and never made it to Royal Rose. Unlike those missing letters, this one wasn't malicious, but rather an oversight."
Which one wasn't malicious?
And thank you as usual for the additional information! :)
Entirely coincidentally, I had the Defunctland channel open in another tab while reading this.
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He mentioned that Ploomette’s chapter ended up bigger than planned and was split up. He probably just forgot which part Fancy Pants showed up in and gave a minor spoiler for the next chapter by mistake.
Hmm oven baked Cozy.
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This is accurate. Ploom's chapter will be three parts. I thought I took this out of the blog. My bad! We'll be seeing Fancy Pants in the next chapter (which is done and ready for pre-reading).
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I'd say Six Nags Cloudsdale is about as close as anything could be due to the extreme rides. Thankfully without the accidents, fatalities, & injuries.
Pierogi are always good! I can't argue that they'd be popular with ponies.
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What Spamotron said is accurate. Ploom's chapter ran long and will be broken into three parts. I thought I took this out of the blog. My bad! We'll be seeing Fancy Pants in the next chapter (which is done and ready for pre-reading).
It'll probably be posted when part 3 is ready for pre-reading.
And yes, Daisy's chapter featured Fleur.
Just the wish granting magic. She still has all her normal pegasus magic, but I didn't want her to steal the show from Ploomette so I powered her down a bit. This chapter was already long, I'd have to split it into four parts to give Starry her due.
Correct! Once the story catches up to that point Cozyheart's chapter will go at the end of Act I.
Flitterheart never mailed anything to the Duchess. So there was no maliciousness involved in Royal Rose not receiving a letter. Her letters that got mailed to Celestia were maliciously intercepted.
You're welcome as always!
Thank you for asking questions!
5392588
Kentucky Fried Pegasus! I don't think it'll ever catch on.
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Ah, thanks!
5392834
Thanks. :)
And thanks!
And thanks there too.
Ah! Well, it risks becoming repetitive, but thanks! :D
(I think the confusion may have come from me not knowing (remembering?) that the letters to Celestia had been maliciously intercepted.)
Thank you, and you're welcome. :D