This story is a sequel to Twilight's Escort Service
Ratchette runs a one-pony fix-it shop for enchanted conveniences and devices, the only such facility in Ponyville. Some of her services are limited ones, and there are things she has to refer elsewhere -- but on the whole, she puts the majority of the repair traffic in order and in the two years since she first moved to the settled zone, Ponyville's become used to her. But strangers in town can still have a little trouble with her qualifications. Because her mark says she's perfectly suited for her occupation --
-- while her body claims exactly the opposite.
(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. While this story is technically a sequel, the earlier one just has the main character's first appearance, and this piece can be read as a stand-alone.)
Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.
Cover art by EquesTRON.
Clever, film and flam, but not clever enough it seems.
Ah, the joy of writing a character with a cutie mark that doesn't match their tribe. I'm familiar with the difficulty, although your character can't just wear a hat
Looking forward to more.
I simultaneously applaud Ratchet for being the bigger mare and holding to higher moral values while I wish that Cimarron had been given his just desserts.
How do you keep creating works of art like this?
Yes, call the Bearer in front of you a freak and insult the local Princess' little brother. That's the best plan.
This was amazing! I can't wait for more to come. The counter was betrayed vey good and I can almost believe that She is part of the show and that they are almost there .you are very good author and I hope that we shall see more stories with her in it.
Transfomers Prime
Puff The Magic Dragon
Some minor errors in the text
But overall this was a rather good read.
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This is set before Twilight's ascension. There is no local Princess, yet.
Though on the whole, I suspect that Twilight's close connection to "the" Princess would hold more weight in his mind than her wings would, if she had them. (And if he was the sort of pony to think about who he was talking to at all.) Cimarron strikes me as the sort of pony who wouldn't care to acknowledge Luna as a Princess, let alone Twilight "can't even get a cab" Sparkle.
It sounds like Twilight had noble titles before ascension. Now I am contemplating a story where a unicorn Twilight decided to vent some frustration on an annoying noble the Traditional way: duel to the death (or first blood (or better yet: The Pain (yes, that was a Princess Bride refrence))).
[the steamstack vented]*smokestack
me gusta
subsequent chapters/sequels?
FAN SERVICE WOOOOO
I actually don't mind that you're writing a story about Ratchette. She's a fun character.
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I'm sure she fixes fans, too
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Actually, I would say they are clever enough. Think of how many they could have sold. How many secrets they could have found. Even if they get sent to jail, someone important will get them out because Flim and Flam have copies somewhere of something bad. And the nobles probably have tons of dirty laundry.
I have to say Ratchet has strong moral fiber. I would have given up earlier.
Yes! Atta girl!
Awesome characterization. Blows away most of what I see on this site. I'd like to see more of Ratchette!
5028816 They'll be carrying the copies with them when they're arrested, so it all depends on how well they thought this through.
Thoughts after reading:
This was great.
It's late. I don't have the steam for more thorough reviewing. Good work.
I absolutely adore Ratchette. She's a great character and I'd love to see her show up again, maybe the next time Twilight needs something fixed around the basement.
I feel like she's the kind of pony that post-ascension Twilight would commiserate with about the idiocy and arrogance of the nobility, if they ever managed to avoid shop-talk for ten minutes.
Hmm… I could see somepony mistaking their easy manner and long talks for something else--something a bit more intimate--and attempting to take a hoof in the matter; perhaps a staged double date? Or completely "coincidental" scheduling mixups? Hijinks and shenanigans ensue. Just a thought.
An interesting contrast to Celestia.
When did this happen? I'm sure I've never noticed that before . . .
Of course this guy would shop at Barneigh's. Now if only he were to run into Rarity.
Ah, the deliciousness of someone who can't see the connections between the sentence he's saying now an the one he spoke five seconds ago.
In fairness, Spike has on occasion demonstrated why fire-breathing creatures and libraries aren't exactly peanut butter and chocolate.
Huh, I guess the stature of houses must be directly based on present wealth or influence; otherwise, a duke as a member of a minor house?
There must be a lot of princes and specialty titles . . .
Is Ms. Wonderment new, or at least new as a focal point? Because if so, I could see there being basically a series of short slice of life stories where in each a minor/background character is the protagonist/viewpoint, and meets another new background/minor character, who is the protagonist of the next.
Tasteless AND idiotic. What a pony.
I want to huggle Rachette and ship her with Quick Fix.
images6.fanpop.com/image/polls/1176000/1176035_1359779540657_full.png
Actually I'm curious how those two feel about eachother, cause if Rachette is the only repair pony that what is QF? QF as Rachette's assistant/aprentice would be amusing as everyone would think the Lady reair pony to be the unicorn, and the (misguided) assistant to be the Pegasus.
I kept reading "Mrs. Wonderment" as Dr. Wondertainment the contrast between her causious nature and his Discordian creations (along with the fact that I didnt see that she was a she til you wrote "she") made me smile.
Another triumph! The characters are particularly excellent. On the whole, a highly superior story.
Right on sister!
Ratchette=Best OC ever!
5028629 Oh. Sorry. Sometimes I lose track.
Isn't it Triptych Continuum canon that no one outside Ponyville really knows who the Bearers are, thanks to Celestia keeping it more or less quiet for their sakes?
Man, how do you manage to write characters I so dearly want to bodily hurt?
You don't have to awaken ancient artifacts to have an adventure. I absolutely loved this story. I just want to give Ratchette a hug and tell her that she may be pretty weird, but she's also pretty awesome. (And then I'd need to throw away that shirt because of all the grease stains, but it'd be worth it.)
The twists were well foreshadowed, but I only figured out one, and that was during the scene with Twilight. The interactions with others were great. Dash's ferocious loyalty, Stile's professional camaraderie, Twilight's complementary expertise (and the aggravation of minimal overlap,) Spike acting as Discord's advocate, and Mrs. Wonderment... well, just Mrs. Wonderment. She was a delight, at least from this side of the fourth wall.
How Rachette experiences her talent was especially well done, and while it's a shame she never shares her experiences, I certainly understand why. She is unique, or nearly so. Who could understand feeling magic currents as she does? Makes me wonder how an earth pony with that mark would be treated. At least most ponies recognize that pegasi have some kind of magic...
In any case, an excellent story. Thank you for it.
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I might never have noticed it if you hadn't
Brilliant comment, noticing the sacroiliac joke
Also, excellent story, I really enjoyed it and Ratchet seems like such a kind and compassionate mare, not to mention intelligent. Who says Pegasi can't do something requiring finesse?
Yet again, the Triptych-verse delivers! Estee is best author.
And damn, Flim and Flam just do not know when to stop, do they?
Also, that "my noble title trumps your noble title" moment
Wouldn't mind seeing more of Ratchette in the future.
5028890 Actually, he is not a Duke. He is lying because he thinks that a bunch of earth ponies would never know the real status of his house: i.e. a lesser house with all the influence of a Baron. At least that is what I understood from what was said.
Ratchet said that the things he says in privacy are probably really compromising based on what he says in public. The biggest thing that he said was that he was a duke. In real life, any Duke would be a major house. It is probably the same in Estee's world. She specifically mentioned that he needs to wipe the device of all the times he has called himself a duke. This implies that the lie could get him in big trouble.
So, was Cinarest's mark an eye staring raptly at a navel?
Ratchette is a really good OC, and a very nice addition to the general weirdness of Ponyville. And I'm always amused by your take of enchanted gadgetry: gimmicky, unreliable, expensive, unstable, and occasionally explosive.
And of course Rainbow would want an air turbine powered head-camera. Maybe Ratchette should try a ramjet version for when she gets going really fast?
Rachette, what a nice girl. she really should meet up with a nice stable Earth Pony blacksmith, maybe someone called, Paul.
Rainbow Dashs camera is an intresting device. The fan, yep, in aircraft terms its called an emergancy Ram Air Turbine, and the spring storage is energy smoothing like what variable Wind turbines dont have, then the venting on overheat, finally, someone who realises, and bothers to implement it. Thing is, Dash flies too quickly for fans, propellers, not just the supersonic flow over the blades, or even rainbow foam, but the drag, power varies so wildly. If my tech, delivery, ideas character was in teh area, he would think a while, then suggest. Dash coldnt really be classed as a pegasus due to her extreme speed, so consider a design that wont work for normal pegasi? A Solid state Flutterwave camera? It uses the vibrations of the ultra high speed air passing over to cause deformations, vibrations, which are damped by energy absorbing and transformation mechanisms. If the surface is formed just right, then the energy passing into the device increases far less than the energy available. Being solid means it can also survive impacting the ground, though it would therefore be better to be a near helmet, solid pieces to distribute energies, hold mechanisms, and breakable joints that are easily replaceable, impact absorbing?
To me, there is nothing wrong with Ratchettes ability, in fact, that you state her flying ability isnt average only reinforces the idea. Unicorns sense and manipulate magic flows using their horns, A mention elsewhere was an array, with possible micromusculature manipulation, Id prefer on certain crystaline structures. Pegasi manipulate the air magic, weather, etc by the flow through their feathers. Ratchette was born with the Unicorn variation of magic analysis, matched to her Pegasi ability. She is a Unicorn with a pair of Wing horns, instead of a head horn.
Its intresting, because it leads to the possibility that it implies my old character got his grandmothers unicorn abilities, mapped through his hooves, as an Earth Pony, which might also go to explaining Pinkie.
I thought with the duplicate spool thing that Flim Flam would have a return and swap policy, after all, the device works well enough to be used, and taking it in te back for a magazine change, factory reset, wouldve saved on complex enchantments etc. Then again, the standard spy satelite eject photos in reentry capsule is always a good fall back if you dont want to meet your marks again.
Maybe she should also meet up with a slow Guard with badly fitting armor, because its related to his ability. Call him.. Clank?
After all, if things get weird in Ponyville, why not the herd?
Just how much trouble would he be in for falsely claiming to be a duke? This is lese majesty or impersonating a noble, either of which could be severe enough to land him in prison in some cultures.
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According to the timeline, the press found out about the bearers after the wedding invasion. So that would have this story set sometime after the end of S2 and before the end of S3.
Okay... favorited because this is the most interesting character concept I have ever seen. I would love to see more, but I am satisfied with this story as it stands.
Bravo. I confess Ratchette at times didn't feel like she was the main character of the story, but it was still a beautiful read. Thank you.
5030432 OK. Thanks.
This was pretty damn terrific!!! Ten mustaches for you!!!
So, a pegasus with a feel for unicorn magical fields? Now I wonder who the midwife was at her birth.
You can haz cover art.
i.imgur.com/n0vnNVM.png
Oh wow, that was very entertaining. Interesting ideas wrapped up here, and a couple of interesting shops and proprietors. I would very much enjoy reading more about Ratchette.
Equestria seems to run by a social caste system, with race and cutie marks determine where and how the pony will spend the rest of your life.
congrats you managed to make a underdog character without massive angst, you are now better than 87% of this site
Great short story, you've made this character somepony that I want to read more of.
If only because she's unique and got moxie.
Well done! You just earned a fave, a follow, thumbs up, and a big HUG for Rachette.
I am pleased.
The plot and characters are quite good. The writing, however, needs a lot of work. At least half of the story could be edited out without losing anything. Every scene drags on for way too long, which makes reading this a real chore.
Interesting story, the noble stepped right out of central casting but I loved Ratchette as a character, and the Flim Flam Brothers Twist is quite a good one.
That reminds me: In the Triptych verse, Flim & Flam's cutie mark isn't actually apple slices, its a con cutie mark, right? I think that was in the Eclipse story. Does that mean they are the only creatures on the planet capable of changing cutie marks, or at least obscuring them? Or is their cutie mark actually just Apple Cider, and they've been branching out since the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 went bust.
I wonder which idea is sadder, that they are running cons because they can no longer exercise their special talent of making cider (which would be almost impossible after getting on the bad side of the entire Apple Family), or if they are two-bit constallions instead of becoming brilliant, legitimate inventors because that is their destiny.
I liked the idea of somepony learning to judge others not by their race, but by the content of their character, although in this case "character" is a multi-colored tattoo displayed on the flank, so its less about not judging a book by its cover, and more about "judge a book by its cover, just don't judge it based on whether it's a hardback or a paperback."
And I do want to say, I was really touched by the fact that Ratchette did the right thing, even when her friends were telling her to take the selfish option, she took the high road in dealing with a difficult (non)customer. That's usually not easy, and its all the more important to be the bigger person (or pony) in those circumstances.
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Nothing he said during this story was recorded. Okay, there was the test he made, but it was deleted, and was, I believe, just "Test." Anything he wanted kept secret on the recording, he probably didn't say with anyone else around, so calling himself a duke wouldn't be one of the things he'd record. And if the thing were continuously recording, it would have filled up and been corrupted in a matter of minutes. So while it's possible he's not a duke, it's almost certain that claiming to be one isn't what he wanted to hide.
I do like the themes of exploring the blurred edges of species subtypes. Ponies who look like one thing on the surface, but are more... mixed, underneath.
I really like this Ratchette.