Celestia had a problem. Somepony wrote a novel about Nightmare Moon's rebellion. This made Luna quite unhappy, and unfortunately for her sister, Luna has not yet gotten the hang of modern traditions like freedom of speech, the abolition of the death penalty, and not bothering Princess Celestia when she's trying to sleep.
Fortunately, Celestia also had a faithful student, one who is now a Princess with an ill-defined portfolio and perfectly capable of dispensing justice by the laws of both today and one thousand years ago.
Now Twilight Sparkle has a problem.
(Title image hacked together from vectors by Martinnus1, Hawk9mm, and Paulie15.)
Chapters (4)
Okay... this should be interesting.
Ah, Twilight. You were so not prepared for becoming a princess. *Devilish grin* ;) faved.
Well... This can only end... Well?
Ooh, this looks interesting.
Instant favourite when I saw this pop up in my feed and looked up the author's previous story.
The blessing given out at Twilight’s first court was just wonderful to read. I suspect that in giving that kiss Twilight accidentally stumbled upon the technique used by most if not all of her peers.
Apparently the book buck stops at Twilight.
Great start!
Damn you and your scapegoating Celestia.
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Nothing could possibly go wrong.
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Some of the things you mention will be dealt with in Part Two.
Thanks everyone for the comments, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
LOL @ Fluttershy stonewalling Luna. You go mare!
I think I remember reading a short fic where the end result was Twilight getting a ridiculous domain. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like not enough was made out of that fact, even though that's not what this story is focused on. Either way, interesting start, and Murphy's going to have a field day with this one.
This looks like it's gonna be fun.
You're already off to a great start, anowack. I like your take on the Mane Six and Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle's Golden Oaks Court (TM). The interactions and dialogue feel natural and true to the canon characterizations, and I look forward to seeing what comes next! Keep up the good work!
Perfect response; confident Twilight is fun. Looks like she's got the hang of not putting the other Princesses on a pedestal now that she is one.
Fluttershy's moment was truly awesome. Good ol' Shy.
I think I'm going to have fun reading this story. :)
This story better have a thousand likes by the end of this week.
On a side note, three cheers for the new Equestrian Princess. The Princess of Higher Learning...
Booklight Spinekle!
Ok, this is grand. Will anxiously await more.
Now Twilight gets to see what being a princess is really about. Muhahaha!
Now, why do I get the feeling this is going to wind up being more complicated than it looks?
I'd go with a formal pronouncement of her portfolio as "Knowledge"...whereby books fall under her domain. Just a thought since Twi seems tweaked about the whole "Princess of Books" thing.
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Glad you folks liked it; that bit is one of my favorite parts also.
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I snickered all day when I came up with that last line.
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One thousand likes might be a little much to expect, but I wouldn't say no.
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Would I do that?
Yeah, because Liberal Policies like 'the abolition of the death penalty' have worked out SO WELL for the California Penal System...OH WAIT!
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Yeah, sure is a wasteland out in all those other countries with no Death Penalty.
Are you seriously implying that Luna should be allowed to put the writer to death for an insulting book? Because that's the only context the death penalty has in this story.
I always like the idea of an angry Luna, so i'll keep this under my 'read later'
Of all things twilight could rule over, books was probable the funniest and most believable at the same time.
Props to you, good ser.
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"Yeah, sure is a wasteland out in all those other countries with no Death Penalty."
You're right. The cost on the tax payer is quite the tidy sum.
"Are you seriously implying that Luna should be allowed to put the writer to death for an insulting book? Because that's the only context the death penalty has in this story."
No, I'm implying that abolishing the death penalty in its entirety in any and all circumstances (the only context the line "the abolition of the death penalty" gives me, since, when something is abolished, it tends to be no longer in use in any functioning capacity) is a stupid policy as it pertains to convicted killers and rapists (if Luna was insulted with the book, well tough cupcakes because Monarchs (read dictators) and those in power deserve it and them killing people because of words shows how tyrannical they are). Assuming this is a darker and less awesome version of the show, which it seems to be, why Equestria would allow its convicted killers and rapists to stew in jail and leech off of the taxes of law abiding citizens is stupid, unless they have a Phantom Zone-esque solution.
Geez, what's so bad about it? It's not like it's Caligula Reincarnated As Nightmare Moon, right?
Right?
Very elegant introduction.
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Is what you're saying related to the story Yes or No?
No, it isn't.
If you have to say 'yeah but!' or 'I was only just' it doesn't belong here and this excellent author doesn't deserve your excess baggage. This isn't the place for it.
I would be more than happy to debate this with you in the IRC, citing many European examples, but so long as it isn't here.
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Luna's 1000 years behind the times. She's still getting info.
I think it's pretty much established in most story canons that the very worst offenders get the stone statue treatment. Whether that encompasses run-of-the-mill murderers (as opposed to full on genocidal maniacs) hasn't been spelled out. But considering as well that the MLP universe is a tad nicer than ours, due to all that harmony and magic and spontaneous group singing going on, there shouldn't be too many candidates for the petrification party anywho.
Can't wait to see where this goes.
You got me on princess of books.
Going to keep following this one.
The Golden Oaks Court session was lovely, and Luna's reaction is quite believable, considering her somewhat macabre tastes, mercurial personality, self-esteem issues and being a thousand years out of date.
Extremely promising start!
Oh yes, the whole "I'm sorry" and "You'd better be" thing had me in stitches. There's a certain art to introducing a joke in two halves like that (TVTropes: Brick Joke), and I'm a sucker for perfect finishers to a chapter to begin with. Bravo. I shall be following this.
I've seen this a lot recently, and it kind of bothers me. Twilight does not get stage fright. Even in season one she is shown being excited to speak to large crowds (Applebuck Season). She might fret over the decisions she is asked to make and worry that she is not qualified, but that is not the same thing.
Still, I'm looking forward to see where this goes.
Oh man, just look at how few grammatical errors there are! He grasps English AND he seems to grasps narrative!
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Discord's status could easily be a rare occurrence. It is perfectly possible that they just couldn't find a way to kill him, since he is spirit of chaos and his body parts can be removed harmlessly. He once took out his eyes and a whole new body formed around them. It is possible that he had to become a statue because change, like cutting or burning, can't destroy him, and they had to chose to flood him with harmony until he was forced into a harmonic, unchanging state, which just happened to mean a grey, dense, hard substance in his shape.
My point is that the cannon of fanfiction does not effect the cannon of mlp. That kind of attitude prevents any original, outside the box interpretation and is generally harmful. The result is a singular fanfiction cannon which no one can deviate from. It's not ok to complain at an author because their cannon didn't line up with another authors.
If that wasn't what you were doing.....sorry but what were you doing?
The scholar in me wonders how you would ever learn a gesture like that in a society without thumbs.
However, the reader in me enjoyed this tale greatly and is looking forward to more.
fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/316/e/5/666_by_fonypan-d6tyykh.bmp
This needs to be a real episode. It just does.
This makes me smile
Why? Um, no reason
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She's not afraid of public speaking, no, but she has a well-documented fear of failure, which many authors will bring into play when she's challenged with responsibility. I can't say that's the intention here, but I tried to get that through in my own story.
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I believe the comment in question was in response to the rightfully downvoted ones complaining about the "abolishment of the death penalty."
Edit: "Rightfully downvoted" because the issue is irrelevant to a light-hearted comedy in line with the series.
3477906 What am I doing? I'm not entirely certain now. I thought I was just adding to the comments field of a fun story, but apparently I'm advocating for restrictive fanfiction canon with no deviations.
The fact that we have "Dark" and "Gore" tags, or "Alternate Universe", or even "Human in Equestria" tags, means that we already have accepted that neither the show's canon nor any one set of fanfiction canon have absolute control over what we write and read, and I don't think anybody has a problem with that. Certainly not me, and I fail to see where what I wrote says that, either.
Somehow some of the comments on a humour story about Luna's being out of step with modern laws and punishments and Twilight's exasperations dealing with the comedy fall-out from this after being dropped in it by Celestia, have generated discussions over death penalty solutions versus costs of life incarceration for rapists and murderers. I pointed out the cartoon and a lot of stories have provided alternatives. That was it. Heck, it wasn't even the MAJOR part of the comments, it was just the one little bit that prompted a contribution from me. That's all.
BTW, I like your reasoning behind why Discord was sealed in stone, it makes sense. For me, my personal head-canon has lots of pony statues in that garden as well, and I intend to play with that a bit some time in the near future.
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That's a better way to say the same thing. But I would go so far as to say that she would revel in the minutia of being a ruler(winter wrap up) and her anxiety would only come into play when faced with an unexpected situation(swarm of the century) or a decision with potentially serious consequences(lesson zero).
Or in other words, she wouldn't start worrying until ponies actually brought their problems to her, not before.
Or in story context, she'd be excited about holding court for the first time.
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Since you didn't quote the person that you responded too, your comment has to be taken in relation to the story it is commenting on. This is basically why I misunderstood you, since I didn't have the proper context.
"I fail to see where I did."
Your first sentence was "I think it's pretty much established in most story canons that the very worst offenders get the stone statue treatment."
In the context of the story, all that I could see was that you were pointing out that most stories do not involve a death penalty, even before luna was banished, since stoning existed when luna and celestia sealed discord. This is in conflict with the story and so I thought you were attempting to contradict the story using popular fannon, since you seemed to be disagreeing with something. This is a jump in logic, since you never confirmed your intent. So I asked you what you meant, and now I know.
"I thought I was just adding to the comments field of a fun story, but apparently I'm advocating for restrictive fanfiction canon with no deviations. "
Hey
Hey
it's ok
Someone who is expressing opinions is never just anything. What you were apparently doing was providing evidence that the removal of the death penalty for equestrian society in this fanfiction was reasonable, which is a perfectly relevant thing to do. There is no need to strike out.
I never strike out. I always get stuck with a 7-10 pin split. And do you think I can get enough spin on that damn ball?? NEVER.
Oh~! THIS is going to be good!!! *grabs the popcorn and the sodas*
I can't help but think that Luna might have better luck if she accused the author of slander, instead of treason.
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True, though it does bear observation that the Twilight in this story has no guidance in the matter. Twilight is not above being worried about unknown problems (It's About Time,) though some might dismiss it since she 'learned that lesson'. Similarly, she required Cadance's coaching for dealing with non-trivial minutia even before she became a princess (Games Ponies Play).
Basically, I feel that she would transition very easily into a role like mayor, wheras actual leadership—with ponies looking up to her, asking her for guidance and such—is a much more appropriate avenue to see her struggle with and grow.
I'm biased, though. Like I said, I have one such story, so I can't help but compare to it when discussing the topic.
3478067 If I might offer a suggestion for said possible future stories, don't have the Elements be involved in the stone-ification process unless it is a punishment that hasn't been used for a very long time. That idea comes up every once in a while, and it makes zero sense given that they were inactive for a thousand years.
3478181 That's a given. You don't use a bazooka to take out a mosquito.
Just for the record: this story is not an attempt to weigh in on either side of the death penalty debate in real life.
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Thanks for the thought. I'll freely admit, it's entirely possible I may have been influenced by fanon here. That said, doing "Princess stuff" is a whole different level from the kind of leadership roles we see Twilight take in canon so far, particularly since at least on a sub-conscious level she's going to see the job as "being Celestia." I don't think some self-doubt and panic before her first solo Princessing is out of character. And once she actually starts doing things, I have her get over it pretty well, I think.
Some tweaks might be in order, but I'll consider that once I have the entire story posted.
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Draconic genetic memory.
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Thank you. "Sharing The Night" is one of my very favorite pony stories, so I'm glad I'm able to repay some of the enjoyment you've given me.
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Luna, overwrought and over-dramatic? Perish the thought!
The actual crime would probably be lese-majeste. But that's not illegal in this modern Equestria either.
Oh this will be good
3478231 You'd think so, but I've seen way too many stories where stone-ification used as a punishment with the Bearers being called in to administer it. Usually to Trixie, for some reason.