After what happened the first time around, the planning committees for the Grand Galloping Gala were understandably reluctant to invite Twilight & Co. back once more. Two years down the road, however, it has become impossible to continue following this doctrine, as refusing an invitation to a sitting Princess is something that simply is not done.
But there are many things which will be different this year. And either Twilight Sparkle will need to come to terms with what society expects from a Princess, or else society will need to come to terms with the sort of Princess that Twilight Sparkle will be.
Of course, that's not to say that this night won't be one to remember anyway. At the very least, the Treasury will once again be left with a memorable bill.
[Set in the interim between Seasons 3 and 4]
Ahhh, I can't wait for more! (Although it sounds like I'll have to.) Go, Twilight, go!
Hmm, seems interesting enough. You have my attention
Well written, and engaging. You've got my favorite, and i'm looking forward to more.
The Crystal Empire as a home for the mint? Interesting.
I love it.
Trust Rarity to be thinking ahead like that with the dresses.
Is twilight going to be forced to date blueblood? Just wondering because of the tags. Also, is Blueblood trying to go out with her, or is he in love with her?
3360713
If there was any love going on, even if it was only one-sided and purely for comedic purposes, I still would have thrown on the "Romance" tag, so you can rest assured that Blueblood's contributions to this plot will be strictly business.
3362409
Good, because when I write my doctor whooves story, he is brother of mine and he shall die. ish
Bows, made from the hair of three Alicorns. Now that's a treasure like no other.
I will be interesting to see how this auction progresses. Though, it would be more interesting to hear them being used to play an instrument.
A reference to Octavia's role back in Season 1 of the Lunaverse?
Nice job with the details about making a cellist's bow. It was well played in that it: informed the audience of customs, showed how significant the bows would be, and did not hinder the story's flow like an infodump would (at least to me).
Those bows must be part of the National Treasures of Equestria.
Ooh. I like Celestia's ploy. Too bad Twilight doesn't have a bow too, although considering the way she dances, it might just play horrible music.. And she doesn't have the glowy mane, alas!
Maybe they can sing 'You'll find your place (as a cello bow)' to her?
Now, I do wonder-- The old string instruments before the modern synthetics were made of catgut and such. What are pony cello strings made of? (And were they made with gryphon guts a thousand years ago?)
Dang, those are some really impressive bows. I cannot really imagine how much they should cost.
Awesome update, Celestia sure loves stringing ponies along XD
Very interesting idea, but I'd want a Princess Twilight Sparkle bow to complete the set
5475170 Eh, she doesn't have a long enough mane. Or tail, for that matter.
LOL LOVE IT
hope to read more soon
but i got to know how come twilight hair is not one of them is it that celestia is a bit protective with twilight or didn't even think of her or think that pones wouldn't want one of the new princess because i would think that once twilight finds out about this she is going to wonder until celestia gives her an answer
Now that's a centerpiece. Intriguing to see how this will proceed, especially considering that contrary to the description Twilight has barely been in this so far....
Shoot, I accidentally deleted a comment, so I'm going to try to put it back as best as I can:
From shardfff
Is this story dead? That would suck. I was really looking forward to seeing what would happen.
Updates have been roughly annual - is this a trend that will continue?
So Octavia never saw fit to mention in her letters that she was helping to set up the Gala that she loves so much (and Vinyl never thought that might be the obvious thing going on in Canterlot)? I mean, she did express a bit of regret at being away for so long, but she never actually even mentioned Vinyl....
It may be a logical extension of Rarity's character in this situation, but it kind of feels like she's being railroaded into seriously screwing things up with her tunnel vision of making everything properly regal and decorous. But, eh, we'll see where things go....
7121318
Believe me, no.
Now that I have nothing else occupying my attention (at least not in the way of other stories being concurrently written), you can expect much more frequent updates. Still irregular unfortunately, but much more frequent.
Yes, she is. The Princess of Friendship. Helping to mend relationships and solving other friendship problems is her job, the whole reason she's even a princess in the first place. The kind of takes precedence over meeting nobles that she might see, at most, once a year.
Get with it, Rarity!
5433314 iirc horse tail hair ... but google and wikipedia might be smarter than me
7121667 Fantastic! I really enjoyed the first three chapters, and I'm looking forward to the next ones. :)
And here we see a common misconception; royalty do not serve the nobility, the nobility serve royalty. The nobility exist because the royalty allows them to exist. For some reason people always tend to either drastically over -or underestimate the level of power a system of nobles wields.
So no acknowledgement of the Bearers of the Elements and Champions of Equestria?
Well, at least Twilight hasn't done too badly for herself. Ever more curious where this is all going....
Public funding for the arts wasn't much of a thing back when government broke down into peerage groups and wealthy individuals hired artists on a regular basis. This is the sort of society where you encourage the artists to seek out wealthy patrons, of which Celestia herself would certainly be one.
All things considering they may have excluded the element bearers names to avoid panic. I imagine a good amount of the nobility will be surprised and/or horrified to find out they have returned.
Trollestia strikes again.
She's going to accidentally win isn't she?
There is something rather morbid about trying to buy one's own hair; regardless of form.
As strange as this may sound, I've been particularly enjoying the titles. It's neat to see Shining as a full on knight in a knightly order.
Oh Dash. Well, they're probably used to pegasi being excitable.
Ooo, a gryphon king. Neat.
Nice.
Even cool, diplomatic Shining is still kind of a dork.
Oh, this is the story with the bow auction. It's been a while, I had forgotten.
And that explains more of what Celestia is up to, not to mention Octavia.
Two updates on this recently? My, you spoil us!
Still, good story. Perhaps if you want to see bidding driven up more, have Octavia preform a piece with each of the bows, something to highlight the personality of their respective donors (and I still don't see why Twilight didn't get one).
All this subtle socialization is as confusing to me as it is to Twilight
- good work immersing us in her POV.
FINALLY I find someone who gets it right! It's a contraction, not a word. Most people use "till", which is either a cash register or churning up dirt. Sadly, this misconception is so widespread that it's virtually guaranteed to become correct someday.
Interesting. Baseless rumors perhaps? Though it might explain why Celestia was trying to rig the auction against him.
I sense potential conflict between Applejack and Rarity involving Caesura later in the story.
Because the nobles are paragons of honesty and truth.
Those is one heck of a story, I want to read how it end and how thing went for twilight and rarity.
Will she learn another friendship lesson or just keep listing to the elite talk and how they want thing to end up my bet is one the first. Twilight is still not to cofendent about her roll yet, thought ihopeit goes well . I want to read what will happen to vinyl and her girlfreind, i hope they get back to gater
Please keep up the alwsomw work and I will read more ch & story you make
Yay for machinations and for this story continuing forward!
7671747
Sorry to take the wind out of your rant, but I just looked it up, and apparently you and I are the ones who have it backwards. "Till" as a colloquial form of "until" has roots going back to Old English. Funnily enough, it didn't even originate as a shortened form of "until", but rather as a separate term which happened to share the same meaning.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/till
'til, the abbreviated form, is considered by purists to be incorrect (as noted in the usage notes on that page), and it is by far the newer usage. Advanced English lesson for the day, I guess.
Oh dear...
But Best Pony (Rarity) couldn't be as wicked as some of the nobles and high status ponies here tonight, right? I mean, it's RARITY!
Friendship breached! Will the breach be repaired?
Best pony (Twilight) cares more for honesty and truth than for fame and for playing the uptight society's game. But restablishing the truth won't be quick nor easy.
7957425
Oh, I'm sure that they'll patch things up, but likely only after Twilight manages to roast the collected nobility for their complicity in destroying Caesura's reputation and publicly declaring her contempt for High Society and its rules, and after a tearful explanation and apology from Rares.
Aside from that, I eagerly await Celestia realizing just how badly Luna wants to find her, and more so the conversation they'll have once they're together outside of the main party.
Interesting to see the politics of the Equestria and how exactly a nation is governed when your monarchs are nigh immortal.
Sadly Rarity is right and after 15yrs correcting it will be hard and some ponies will NEVER accept it.