• Member Since 4th May, 2013
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Estee


On the Sliding Scale Of Cynicism Vs. Idealism, I like to think of myself as being idyllically cynical. (Patreon, Ko-Fi.)

Sequels1

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Cadance isn't Sombra. But Sombra's leadership is all the crystal ponies remember, a ruler they had to love at all costs, with the final payment being their own lives. And as they gradually come to see their new Princess as leader instead of savior, too much of that residual fear is being transferred to her. They praise her, adore her, refuse to correct her no matter what she does -- because they live in terror of the consequences for doing anything else. They have yet to find their own voices, and may go on repeating hers until Celestia and Luna switch shifts. So how can she make them tell her when she's wrong, see that there's nothing to be afraid of, and take the next step in coming back to themselves once and for all?

Forbidding them to do anything other than criticize her should do the trick, right?

...right?


(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group -- but can be read as a stand-alone, and no knowledge of the other stories is required. New members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Chapters (4)
Comments ( 501 )

I am so tempted to downvote this and call you mean names . . .

This story su- No, I can't do it! I tried, but I just can't post negative comments! I'm sorry for even considering being mean. You're awesome! Please forgive me!:fluttercry::fluttershysad::fluttershbad::fluttershyouch:

I like your work Estee! I cannot post a purely negative comment. I will post constructive criticism, written solely to assist in improving the technical proficiency of your stories.

Currently, \the contest would go to the first crystal pony with the courage

First paragraph. The '\' should not be there.

This can only end well.

Or was that "in tears"? I can never keep those two straight...

Next you'll be... uhh... doing whatever the opposite of deleting comments is. Copying them?

You suck so much for actually doing this. The fact that you actually cranked out 7000+ words on this in two days is incredibly lame. I heard you were allergic to the color green, so I made sure to upvote this because I want you to suffer and die, you hack.

I'm starting to get the distinct feeling that I could have just posted the title plus a thousand quasi-random words of story space filler material, then let the Comments do the actual writing.

I also sort of figured that out going in, but I wasn't quite ready for the reality of it.

Estee writes too much and portrays the characters too realistically.

(Did I do it right?)

This is going to end in hilarious, hilarious tears.
And, Princess Cadence definitely did learn from the Twilight Sparkle School of Not Thinking Things Through...I mean, you should start out light, only one hour a day to begin with! Doing multiple hours is going to cause a massive cognitive sprain and you'll get brain hernias.
Caught a typo-

(She had done most of her initial surveys from overhead, and had kept right on doing so until she noticed that most of those below reacted to her shadow crossing them as a mouse whose Sn-lit body had just been dimmed by a passing hawk.)

Presume you meant "Sun-lit".

",,,it's because they're afraid of me,"

This one is somewhere in Cadence and Shining Armor's talk. The ',,,' should be '...'

5061767 Okay, you want a criticism? Here it is-

Because you're writing another superb story, full of world building, little details, great humor, and hilarious tears, you're delaying all of your other stories. You are especially delaying A Horse Called Sunbutt, Triptych, and A Mark Of Appeal, which makes me very irritated and makes me want to do something horrible to you. Such as compliment you more on your superb stories and toss you into the Mirror Pool until we get enough copies of you to either coherently finish the aforementioned stories or write the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Or understand the local neighbors that barely understand The English.

Your slow turnaround time on this is unacceptable. You should be ashamed.
Hack.

Cadence, Princess of the Crystal Sheep Empire. They just all happen to look like ponies. And why don't you have an update out already! This is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. I'm forced to give you a downvote... Oh, wait. That darned green button is too close to the red button! It needs fixed! (I've created a monster. Oh, no. And in your title, you spelled Twilight with two 'i' in the middle.)

The author is a hamster and the story smells of elderberries... :trollestia:

Why is this Cadance not openly dominating her ponies? She owns them all. It's literally her own little playset! Epic fail.

Cadace is the crappiest princess. Why didn't you use Diamond Tiara? She knows how to control and LEAD a bunch of mindless ponies into ushering in an age of prosperity and awesomeness, you know as long as you don't piss her off. Canade is worst pink horse! Diamond Tiara and Chancellor Pinkie Pie for Office! DOWN WITH PRINCESS CADANCE!

Why only seven-thousand words? That's, like, six-thousand too many!

This story sucks. There's no Iron Will x Shinning Armor. DO YOU WRITERS UNDERSTAND JUST HOW MUCH THOSE TWO WANT EACH OTHER?! The tension is so thick you can't even BREATH without seeing them jump into each others' longing embrace!

Ugh, you're grammies are bad. i can bee leave how you make me weight sentence after sentence before reading other ponies! JUST PUT ALL SPEAKERS IN ONE PARAGIRAFFE!
Make eastier to understand instead of using words with out quotation marks! Those aren't even speaking ponies! and why you put so many spaces?! there its like too much spaces like every 5 sentences your doing

this! who does this when writing? Your not good fiction writer. I downvote because you jealous of my stories grammies bee in better then you're's!
seriously why have those tags? not even funny story. no Luna. No Diamond Tiara. No Wanderer D as Latias either. best pokemon. you need Sweetie Belle of his in this. then I upboat!

Learn to write what people tell you! Good day!

5061962

PARAGIRAFFE!

upboat

I agree with whatever you just said based purely on the presence of those words.

I love your portrayal of Iron Will here. Poor guy has no idea what he's unleashed. :facehoof:

The joke is how everyone is going to obey it anyway. What an unoriginal and obvious plot device! I can't believe I actually upvoted and favorited this story. God.

I've always been bad at following instructions.

Have a positive comment!

EDIT: Actually, how on earth did Shining come up with the pet name "Katydid" for Cadence? There! Criticism! Take that!

Looking forward to the sequel, "Hurry up and downvote this story to oblivion because I am a negative attention whore."

The story is bad and you should feel bad!


Wait... What are you doing mouse? Mouse. What are you doing! Stop going over to the like button mouse!
Stahp!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

After reading through this I can see that nopony got dunked on in this story and that's a serious emotional issue for me. I'm going to upvote this merely to spite you.

Ha, can't wait to see how this disaster turns out! :pinkiehappy:
Who knows, it may even be a fun train wreck to watch!

Wait, people are commenting about how good AND horrible the story is? We're so confused. :derpyderp2:

Why am I not allowed to downvote this TWICE?! Even just ONE time is not working out!

Tch, have that upvote since it's the only thing I can give. But don't think it means I like the story and cannot wait to see how badly it will backfire on Cadence, AH! You would like to think I think that! It's like you expect me to grin widely while reading about the Crystal sheep-lemming citizens of Cadencepolis.

Also, I'm very disappointed by the sweet and cuddly interaction between Cadence and her husband. And I was NOT pleasantly surprised to see Iron Will in this story because I started to read just with your name on this fic. Gah! Why don't you just call yourself Great and Powerful while you're at it?!

:moustache:

What is this sappy, sentimental claptrap between Shining and Cadence?

And as for the crystal ponies in general and the "I'll have kids if you want me to" and "don't worry about the gender, I'm sure you know better than I" one in particular, Simpsons did it:

Well, listen to me Mr. Bigshot, if you’re looking for the kind of employee who takes abuse and never sticks up for himself, I’m your man! You can treat me like dirt and I’ll still kiss your butt and call it ice cream! And if you don’t like it, I can change! – Homer Simpson

Second-worst fic I've read today.

There's only one chapter. It would be better if there were more.

I really feel like Cadence should have talked out her idea with Iron Will first. This is really more of a criticism of the character. If characters always did the smart thing, there'd be no story. I have no idea if this would improve the story, but I think it's what she should have done.

Hate means there's something in the world you want to change. Vis (warning, commercial):

[youtube=VwRCBHhyrAA]

I want to change there not being a next chapter full of delicious consequences.

You used too many ellipsis. Both Cadance and Shining Armor are sympathetic characters in this story, and that ruins my head canon.

And you made me favourite it, just so I can see how awful future chapters are.

(Sorry, I can't keep it up. I love this story...)

This reminds me of the story Spike-centric story "Eyes Wide Shut" in that it is such a simple and obvious concept for a story... yet NO ONE till now thought to put it to horse words!

Have an upvote, though I reserve the right to remove it should ya pull a Mass Effec 3 (aka give a half assed ending ). Keeping my peepers out for the next chapter. :twilightsmile:

You're short, your belly button sticks out too far, and you're a terrible burden on your poor mother! :flutterrage:

This is amasing

Jk
Or am I

P.s someone make something that looks like a positive comment but is actually a negative comment

This is the most banal piece of crap fanfic i've ever had the misfortune to lay my accursed eyes upon.

Upvoted.

Cadance is a pretty pony. I wish I was married to her.

Your mother is a hamster and your father smelt of elderberrys

You fool! Now you have too many "incomplete" stories! Show some discipline and finish a few.

I... I don't know what to say...:derpyderp2:

The pacing dragged a bit and while the gags got a chuckle out of me there wasn't enough going on to truly leave me wanting more.

I will admire your talent for writing a compelling tale but I have to downvote this to oblivion for all of the grammatical errors I have found.:twilightangry2:

Why isn't the downvote working?:rainbowhuh: Well I have to show my displeasure somehow so have a sarcastic upvote instead! Take that!

You are a anus arse arsehole ass ass-hat ass-jabber ass-pirate assbag assbandit assbanger assbite assclown asscock asscracker asses assface assfuck assfucker assgoblin asshat asshead asshole asshopper assjacker asslick asslicker assmonkey assmunch assmuncher assnigger asspirate assshit assshole asssucker asswad asswipe axwound and your fat

This is the worst story I read all day.

It's also the only story I read today, but still.

This concept would be perfect...but you put Cadence and the Empire instead of Twilight and Ponyville...

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