“Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.”
- Dante Alighieri
Vinyl stumbled back to the record shop in a state of shock. There was a sense of betrayal that coursed through her head. Vinyl’s mind was yelling at her that this whole thing had been a ruse, everything. Part of her wanted to be convinced that Shining Armor and Cadance had been manipulating her from the get-go. The look in Shining’s eyes, though. It shot down that idea.
The worst part was Intrepid. Vinyl had felt such a real connection with the stallion, or at least what she assumed was real. That was all a sham, though. An illusion put up by a jealous marefriend who just wanted Vinyl out of the picture.
Vinyl had an anger boiling deep within her. It was justified and it was starting to burn her up. She had put up with a guard meddling in her personal life, but now she had to deal with royalty messing with her love life? No. That wasn’t going to fly.
The unicorn threw the door to the record shop open. As she expected, Uncle B was standing behind the counter. His ever-present cigar casting a glow across his face. It illuminated the scowl across his face perfectly.
“You’re late, Scratchy.” The older unicorn took the cigar out of his mouth and tapped it on the nearby ashtray. “I thought I told ya, one hour.” Now she had to deal with this as well, great.
“Can you stay off of my case for like five minutes? I just started having a really bad day.” Vinyl moved her way across the shop and took her place behind the counter.
“Ya know what? No.” Vinyl didn’t look at him, but she saw Uncle B’s scowl deepen. “I’ve been stayin’ off yer case for seven bucking years, and I’m done.” Vinyl shook her head and kept looking at the grain of the counter. “For seven years I’ve let ya do whatever ya wanted, and look where that’s got ya.”
“What?” Vinyl stood up fully and turned to her uncle. “I think I’m doing pretty alright. I have an apartment, I have friends.” The stallion laughed at her. It was bitter and demeaning. The tone alone made Vinyl feel small.
“Ya only have that apartment because I pay for it, Scratchy. Ya think yer doin’ alright? Nah, not with that guard followin’ ya around. Ya think that’s alright?” Uncle B raised a hoof and pushed it into her chest. “I thought that guard was the wake up call ya needed, but I guess ya need one from me too.”
“That guard?” Vinyl removed her glasses from her face so she could stare down Uncle B face to face. She leveled the same glare he had right back at him. “That guard is nothing, alright? He’s here until I can convince him he isn’t needed anymore and that’s it.” She wanted to turn around and walk away, but she stopped herself halfway into the action. “Today, he just made it pretty damn clear that he isn’t needed.”
“Listen, Scratchy-” Vinyl put her hoof up, stopping the stallion mid-sentence.
“-Quit calling me that. It’s not my name.”
“Fine. Vinyl. I don’t give a flyin’ feather what happened today. I don’t care what ya think ya need, cuz I know exactly what you need.” Vinyl was going to give him a venomous response, but he started back before she could retort. “Ya need to accept some responsibility for yer own actions. Everythin’ ya do, ya think it’s somepony else’s fault when it goes wrong.”
“You don’t know what I’ve been through!” Vinyl screamed at her Uncle. “I’ve been alone since mom and dad died, alright!” Vinyl felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Today her emotions were boiling over into a tumultuous maelstrom, and she had to relieve the pressure somehow.
“Because ya pushed Glory away!” Uncle B roared back, genuine anger in his voice. “They were her parents too, Vinyl. She was just as broken as you were,and when she made a mistake ya left her! The one time ya needed to stay with somepony, and ya throw her out and leave yerself alone” Uncle B took a deep breath and stuffed the cigar that was in his mouth, which was but a stub now, into the ashtray. “It’s all my fault…I shoulda been there for ya. I shoulda made ya talk to Glory, shoulda done a lot of things. But I thought it best to give ya time to grieve.”
“What Glory did was wrong!” Vinyl had been pushing this for so long, that the words were becoming heavy. Every time she had to yell it at someone, Shining, Cadance, herself...every time it took a bit more effort.
“She was young, Vinyl. My parents, your grandparents, did the same thing. Ya know they gave me up for adoption because they were young and stupid. For a long time, I hated ‘em for it. I hated ‘em almost as much as you hate Glory for it.” His hoof found it’s way to her shoulder. “I know yer pain better than anypony else in this city, alright? Ya lost yer mom and dad, I lost my Brother and Sister-In-Law. Ya saw Glory give up her foal, I saw another me bein’ made.” A moment of silence followed, one that was filled to the brim with sadness from both parties. “So ya can quit acting like yer the only one who was affected. I’m sick of it.”
Vinyl dropped her head. She had never given a thought to Uncle B and how losing her dad had affected him. Uncle B had been so quiet when it came to Vinyl’s parents. He had showed up to their funeral, but she saw no tears. Vinyl had never seen that stallion cry, and it occurred to her that there was probably a reason for that. He wanted to seem strong for her and Glory.
“I…can I leave?” Vinyl didn’t want to be here at the moment. She wanted to be home with a bottle nearby to drown her sorrows.
“Ya can leave when yer shift’s over.” Uncle B turned tail and went back to his office, leaving Vinyl alone again.
----
Celestia was having a pretty good day, all things considered. Court had gone rather well, the nobles seemed content for once, and there had been no emergencies today. A relatively normal day if there ever was one for Princess Celestia.
Now she supposed would be a good time to have a study session with her pupil. The more free time she had to give to young Twilight, there was less of a chance for her to end up like Celestia’s last pupil. If there was one thing Celestia would try with all her might, it was preventing another Sunset Shimmer.
But what to study today was the question? Perhaps some more of Starswirl’s scrolls? Twilight did always like the old unicorn’s lessons. She seemed to have a bit of a fascination with him, which was fine with Celestia. If her dreams were correct, Twilight would need to study as much Starswirl as possible to prepare for the future.
Lost in her thoughts, Celestia almost didn’t catch the faint sound coming from one of the doors she was passing. It was crying, very faint and pitiful. Even worse, it was coming from Cadance’s door.
“How long has she been crying?” Celestia addressed the guard that stood beside the door. She didn’t like to admit it, but there was a reason why a guard was always posted outside of certain doors. Celestia liked to have her little birds to talk to.
“About half an hour.” The guard answered. “When she ran in, she was saying something about Shining Armor, Your Majesty.” Oh dear. Crying, plus a stallion. This could only mean one, very ugly thing.
“Stahlhelm.” Celestia addressed the guard calmly and quietly. “I need you to go down to the kitchen and get the two biggest bowls we have.” The guard nodded. “Fill them with ice cream, and bring them back here. Leave them at the door and knock. Do not, under any circumstances, come in.” The guard nodded and scurried off, leaving Celestia alone before the door. She was going to knock, but it was her castle. Plus she didn’t want to give Cadance any time to prepare. So, the monarch simply pushed the door open.
“I told you not to come in!” The angry cry was sent Celestia’s way, along with an oversized pillow. Celestia caught the pillow easily and tossed it aside. “O-oh, I-I’m sorry Aunt Tia...I thought you were Stahlhelm.”
Cadance did not look good. Her mane was ragged and stuck to her face in some places, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and...well, crying looked good on nopony. As Celestia made her way over to the younger alicorn, she took stock of the room. Cadance’s royal vestments were strewn across the floor, along with the sheets from her bed. Celestia could not spot her crown though, which was a worrying sign. The royal jewelers did not like it when a crown was lost, she knew that personally.
“What’s happened, Cadance?” Celestia sat on the bed beside the pink princess. She spoke softly, with the warmth that she had heard from her own mother in youth.
“I-I messed up.” Cadance sniffled out, using a hoof to wipe the tears out of her eyes. “I-I tried so hard to help and I just hurt them even more.” It was one of those. Celestia knew that well enough. It was a trap that those with power tended to end up in, using their power to further what they saw as a noble cause and paying for it.
“It’s alright, sweetie.” Celestia stretched out one of her wings and pulled Cadance close. “Just talk to me, tell me what’s happened.” The young pony rested her head against Celestia’s chest, sniffling quietly.
“I-I misused my powers…” The younger alicorn blubbered out. Celestia knew that this moment was coming, it happened to everypony with the amount of power that the alicorns possessed. “I used them on Shining Armor.” Oh dear. Celestia was not expecting that.
“How…” Celestia was trying to find a way to phrase this question without upsetting Cadance further. “What exactly…” No, that wouldn’t do either. “Why?” Probably the best one so far. Simple and able to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Not perfect, but it was a start.
“I-I just hated it when we argued. I thought that if I could just remind him how much we love each other…” Cadance trailed off, more tears starting to fall from her eyes. “I never meant to hurt him…”
Now it was Celestia’s turn to go full mentor. It was something she had not done in a while, and hoped she was still good at it. On the bright side, it would be good practice for when Twilight eventually stumbled and needed kind words.
“We never do.” Celestia started, nuzzling the smaller alicorn. “We can try all we want to be gentle, to not hurt others, but we do. It’s not an alicorn problem, it’s a pony problem. We do our best, or at least what we think is best, and we hurt those that mean the most to us.” Celestia gazed wistfully towards the ceiling, memories overtaking her. “It lets us know that at least we’re still equine.”
“B-but we’re princesses…”
“That just means we’re under more scrutiny, not that we’re perfect. It means we must put up a front of perfection, not actually practice it.” Celestia pushed away certain thoughts that were slowly encroaching on her mind, those that wanted to remind her of imperfections and blemishes upon herself. “We…we must be crafty with our failures. We must not let them consume us. We have to rise above them, accept them gracefully, and move on.”
“Y-you think I should move on from Shining Armor?” Celestia saw the grief on Cadance’s face and immediately realized she screwed up. It was the wrong choice of words for the time. The monarch had just been too caught up in her own experiences to tailor the conversation.
“No.” She started, a small smile crossing her face. “I think you need to accept that it was a mistake...and then ask for forgiveness.” Celestia knew that asking wasn’t the hard part, it was accepting the answer from those you were asking. It was in their hooves where your happiness and your guilt were. “If you hurt somepony, no matter how you’ve done it, they deserve an apology in the least.”
The pink pony sat for a minute, sniffling and quietly thinking to herself. Celestia was not going to push her, this had to be thought about on Cadance’s own time. This kind of thing required patience.
“B-but what about Vinyl?” Celestia wondered what Vinyl Scratch had to do with this. Yes, she was under the care of Shining Armor but she should not be affected by this. “She’s so upset, and I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me…”
“What happened with Vinyl Scratch?” It was possible that the unicorn had just been upset with Cadance’s deception of Shining Armor as well. If that was the case, then it was at least a good thing for Vinyl’s rehabilitation. It meant Vinyl had some sort of kinship with the guard.
“I-I was using my magic to push her and another pony together.” Cadance lowered her head once more, a deep sham overtaking her words.
“And…?” Celestia asked.
“A-and it was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have been interfering.” Cadance took her head off of Celestia’s chest. “I-I thought you would be upset with me…”
“For doing your job?” Celestia chuckled and gave her little pony a soft smile. “Would you be mad at me if I told you I raised the sun this morning?” Cadance shook her head. “Of course not, it’s my duty. Just as it is yours to spread love to ponies who need it most, and Vinyl Scratch is certainly one of those ponies.”
“She was so mad with me though. She wouldn’t even speak to me…” Celestia sighed. The younger alicorn was going to have to learn this lesson one way or the other. It was best for Celestia to teach it to her.
“Ponies...ponies like to think that they control their world, Cadance. They like to think that nothing anypony else does can affect their lives. Call it hubris or willful ignorance.” Celestia waved at the thought. “It’s false. There will always be another pony pulling at the strings...and most likely it will be one of us. It is so hard for ponies to accept the truth when they find out that they tend to lash out. The best we can do is not be found out.” Celestia smiled. “I was once told that ‘you know you’re doing a good job when nopony thinks you’re doing anything at all.”
“But what if you do it for the wrong reasons…?” Cadance’s eyes seemed to glaze over with an inexorable sadness. Even the young alicorn’s mere presence seemed to dim. “What if I did it because I was jealous…?”
“Hmm…” Celestia was capable of taking things in stride. Very capable. This revelation, no matter how shocking it was, she couldn’t show it bothered her. It might upset Cadance even further. “We are not perfect, Cadance. A travesty to learn, I know. At the end of the day, you and I, we’re still ponies. We do pony things like give into vices and do things against our better judgement. I think it’s best to know that and learn to forgive yourself, then seek forgiveness from those you’ve wronged.”
“So I should go ask them both to forgive me…?” Cadance asked. There was a knock at the door, causing the pink princess to get up. Celestia gently pushed her back down with a wing.
“Perhaps not tonight. For right now, why don’t we enjoy some nice ice cream together?” Celestia smiled and got up to fetch their delicious dessert. “Perhaps I’ll tell you of some of my failed relationships. Trust me, this is nothing compared to almost burning the planet after a breakup.”
----
Vinyl kicked her front door open as gently as her boiling temper would allow her, which was to say not gently at all. It wasn’t her fault that the door was in between her and where she wanted to be. It should’ve moved out of her way.
The first thing she noticed in the apartment was her personal guard, Shining Armor, sitting on the couch and staring intently at a small bottle of alcohol on the table in front of him. Vinyl was going to admonish him for drinking without her, but then she noticed that the bottle itself was full and unopened.
“You’re home late…” The guard commented in a very dead tone. His eyes were glazed over as they were still fixed on the bottle in front of him.
“Yeah. Uncle B made me stay late to sweep the entire store and organize his office…” Vinyl responded with no small amount of venom in her words. There was no more sun streaming in through the windows, instead it was replaced by the pale moonlight. Cleaning that place had taken up her entire night. “What’s up with you?”
“Been thinking whether or not I should open this for awhile.” Vinyl took a seat on the couch next to Twinkle. “I’m technically on duty still, so I shouldn’t drink.” Vinyl was impressed at the amount of restraint the guard was showing. If it was her, that bottle would probably be gone by now.
“What, you want to drink out of sadness for me, Twinkle? I’m touched.” Vinyl picked the bottle up in her magic, looking over the various labels that obscured the dark liquor within. It was whiskey, the top shelf stuff but in a rather small bottle. It probably cost him a pretty bit nonetheless.
“Turns out you and Intrepid weren’t the only ones Cadance was using her magic on.” That pulled Vinyl from the bottle’s details. “Apparently she’s been using it during our arguments...y’know, to remind me of how much I love her.” Vinyl just realized not how dead Shining sounded, but how sad. There was true sorrow in his voice, the kind that wouldn’t go away with any of her usual sarcasm or wit.
“You know what, Twinkle?” Vinyl concentrated on one of the cupboards in the kitchen that she could see. She opened it with her magic and pulled out two shot glasses. “Right now I don’t think a guard needs to share a drink with me.” Vinyl brought the two glasses over to the table and gently sat them down. “I think my friend needs to share a drink with me.”
As she opened the bottle of whiskey, she realized that it was the first time she had actually called Twinkle her friend. Then again, she was just trying to be nice. She had the distinct feeling that Shining needed somepony to be nice to him at the moment.
“Thanks, Scratch.” Shining said with a small smile. After she had finished pouring their shots, he took one of them in his own magic and then held it out towards her. Taking the cue, Vinyl clinked her glass against his. “Prost”
“Cheers.”
They both slammed their shots back at the same time. Vinyl closed her eyes as the liquid hit the back of her throat, sending a slight burning sensation throughout her entire mouth. It was so refreshing to her. Apparently not to Shining, though, as he was currently coughing up a lung and trying keep the tears from coming from his eyes.
“Are you a lightweight, Twinkle?” Vinyl said with a laugh as she took off her tinted glasses and sat the glass down on the table. “Oh man, I thought you guards were made of some tougher stuff.”
“Sh-shut up, Scratch,” Twinkle said, coughing just a few more times before stopping. “That stuff is a lot stronger than I’m used to.” The guard took a deep breath and picked up the bottle in his magic, studying it intently.
“Oh, I’m sorry Princess. Would you like something a bit easier?” A cruel smile played across her features. Now it was time to have a little fun. “A Mimosa, perhaps? Sex On The Beach?”
“Shut up, Scratch. I could drink you under the table if I wanted to. I just wasn’t expecting that strong of a drink.” To Vinyl, that sounded like an excuse. But it also sounded like he thought he was a better drinker than Vinyl. Nopony was a better drinker than Vinyl.
“Oh? Is that a threat or a promise, Twinkle?” Vinyl poured two more shots, holding up one to her new drinking buddy. He took it from her magical grasp, a little fire in his eyes.
“Both.”
--One bottle of whiskey later--
Shining was trying to focus on Vinyl as she poured the last of the alcohol into the shot glasses, but his eyes wouldn’t let him. The similarly colored unicorn was gently swaying back in forth in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if that was just because he was drunk, or if it was because they both were.
“Last ones…” Vinyl said sluggishly as she held out a glass to him. He took it, his magic grip nearly faltering for a second. Vinyl gave him a devilish smirk because of it, but he wasn’t going to let her have this victory. No sir.
They had stopped saying cheers Celestia knows how many shots ago, so without another word they both slammed back their drinks. Shining was used to the burning by now, so it went down smooth and warm. Every shot he could feel it affecting him less and less, so he knew he was far past drunk at this point. Drunk was something he wished he was.
“Told you...told you I could keep up,” he said, stumbling over his words. That’s what this little game had turned into about halfway through. Not him drinking her under the table, but him trying to keep up. It was obvious that Vinyl could hold her liquor much better than he could. At least she was maybe drunk.
“Can’t beat me, though.” That sly grin came back. It was really starting to piss Shining off. It was always there on her smug face when she had the upper hoof. Which had been the entire night at this point. “But you gave it your best shot, Twinkle.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Shining grumbled out. The stallion closed his eyes, focusing on nothing in particular. That’s when he realized just how tired he was. The entire day had been kind of emotionally draining to a severe degree. He hadn’t been able to slow down enough to feel it until now, though. “I really need to go to bed,” was his final conclusion.
“Yeah, I got work in the morning.” Vinyl stood up, wavering on her hooves slightly, but ultimately staying upright. “Might as well try to get a little sleep.” She started to move away from the couch.
Shining stood up, intending to follow her. However, his balance had some other ideas. The stallion didn’t just waver on his hooves, he started to fall over. He never fell over, though. Before he could capsize, Vinyl was standing at his side, placing herself firmly against his side.
“Y’allright?” she managed to get out, seemingly supporting the much larger stallion without too much difficulty. “Last thing we need is you getting hurt. They’ll probably blame it on me.”
Shining righted himself, still leaning a little on his companion. He blinked a few times and tried to compose himself as best he could. He hadn’t actually been this smashed since he graduated from guard school, and he didn’t remember a damn thing about that night.
“Yeah, I just….sorry. Guess I’m a little more drunk than I thought…”
“It’s alright, Twinkle. I’ll escort you to bed. Least I could do after drinking you under the table.” For what it was worth, Vinyl was being as non-Vinyl as possible at the moment. Sure the grin was pretty much omnipresent at the moment, but there were no sharp quips at his expense. It was a welcome change of pace.
Slowly, the duo made their way to the spare bedroom that Shining was now using as his room. When he had first suggested the idea to Vinyl yesterday, she had been against it. But he had convinced her to let him stay in her parents’ old room as long as he didn’t mess with anything.
They staggered through the doorway and neared the bed. At this point he was close enough to flop onto the bed on his stomach. He groaned happily into the soft comforter, allowing himself a brief respite. Another form flopped beside him. He lifted his head to see Vinyl laying on her back next to him.
“Ignore me, Twinkle. I don’t think I can make it to my room.” The unicorn started to laugh. “Y-you were helping me just as much as I was helping you.” She rolled over onto her side to face him. He wasn’t going to fight her on that. If she couldn’t walk safely, then he wasn’t going to make her leave.
“Y’know, you’ve been really nice to me tonight, what’s up with that?” The malfunctioning filter between his mind and mouth let that slip through. He momentarily regretted that, before deciding there was nothing he could do to stop it now.
“Nopony with a broken heart should be alone, Twinkle. Not even you.” It seemed that Vinyl’s filter wasn’t working either, because she would never say that. “Plus, I needed a drink or a dozen just as much as you.” Fair enough.
“What’s...what’s your opinion on this whole Cadance thing?” During their drinking session, he had explained to Vinyl the entire situation. Every feeling of betrayal and hurt, and what he had said to her.
“Buck her. She hurt you, man.” Vinyl sighed and rolled back onto her back. “If a pony does something like that, you can’t forgive ‘em. You just can’t.” There was a slight pause of thought, or was it sadness? “You can’t let ponies get away with that stuff. You gotta let ‘em know it’s not okay. You have to send a message, Twinkle.”
He should’ve expected that from Vinyl. It’s exactly what she had done with Glory. It had left them both estranged and Vinyl brooding with anger. But was that so bad? It let Vinyl live a bit more, left her a bit harder to get to. Made it so she didn’t get hurt as easily. Shining didn’t like this feeling, this empty-heartedness. So if doing what Vinyl was talking about made it so he wouldn’t feel it again, would it be so bad?
“Hey Twinkle…?” He was snapped out of his thoughts by Vinyl, who was now facing him once again. She was looking at him in a way he had never seen before, a mix of a kind smile and soft eyes.
Before he could respond, he felt a pair of soft lips pressed against his own. Alcohol soaked breath mingled between the two. Vinyl was kissing him...and he wasn’t mad. He wasn’t surprised….he actually kind of liked it.
"Ponies are puppets. We pull their strings, and it's fine as long as we aren't caught. Even magical mindrape is acceptable if it's done for the greater good. It's our job, after all"
"Sometimes you make mistakes. It's inevitable, so the best course of action it's to move and forget about them (taking about Sunset Shimmer)"
Am I the only one who feels deeply disturbed about Celestia's lessons?
7254765
Power + Time = some kinda warped but true advice
7254823
That is how I see the exchange between Celestia and Cadence.
7255003
Fair enough.
Other than that, what did you think of the chapter?
I still called it. Just keeeeeeeep going this ship way, it's not as generic.
7255021 True, there is always something or someone influancing us, but there is advice and infuence and then there is forcing you to react a certain way.
There is a small nuance to be made and Celestia isn't doing it. It is creating an uneasy feeling to the scene.
It didn't feel great, this chapter and the previous one just gave me that impression of being a set up for the final scene.
Still, none of it was incoherent, the character were true to themselves, so yeah, why not?
And you keep making me like Uncle B more and more.
That couldn't have ended any better.
Also, damn, Celestia it's no wonder you end up creating super villains lol but at least you have ice cream, maybe Sunset wouldn't have turned out as bad if you had given her more ice cream heart to heart talks.
inb4 poor Vinyl gets a miscarriage thanks to a jealous Cadance who accidentally knocks Vinyl over some stairs.
I am kidding by the way, but damn I'd ship this Vinyl with Twinkle for sure.
Good chapter, most fun, especially that adorable end. Cadance will be most pleased. Lol
7255161
I won't lie, the story is coming to a close. Less than 10 chapters less I feel.
I'm sorry if the pacing feels off. Paying off all of these plot lines is taking some maneuvering on my part, and I'll admit it's not my strong suit.
I'm going to try and end this to the best of my ability and I hope you and all of my other readers stick it out with me. I still have a lot to learn and I want you guys to help me grow as a writer.
So please, please leave feedback whenever possible. Even if it's about something you don't like.
7255490
I'm glad you like it.
7255135
I'm torn. I really am. On one hand, keeping this 'canon' would be a feat for me. Getting Shining and Cadance back together would really satisfy me, but it would also leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
Shipping them is also something I am hesitant to do. It's too often we see stories that make you believe two individuals of the opposite sex must become lovers. I don't wanna fall into that trap. But that would also be extremely satisfying.
So I'm going to do what I always do. I'm going to sit down and write. Whatever comes out, whatever flows, that's what I'm going with. It has to be, and is going to be, organic.
7255736
I really had fun with the puns. Polar Primates is my favorite.
7255750
Celestia has some amazing nerve to speak of hubris there. I'm genuinely kind of shocked to hear that from her. It's an amazingly contemptuous thing to say, the way she casually dismisses her people's choices and desires there. "What people want does not matter. We run their lives for them and we make the decisions. If they don't like it, then they can shut up and go get fucked, because they can't do anything about it anyway." That's what this boils down to.
That's the kind of thing that gets you Lucifers.
7255863
When you're a god, arrogance comes easy
7255869
There are no gods. Just people who should know better.
7255601 Eh, just do what you do best, I'm sure most if not all of us would be happy with your direction, but uh, *Cough* ShiningScratch *Cough* Oh excuse me, something caught in my throat!
7255601 And, as always, Amazing job. (If that wasn't already obvious)
7255601
The problem of getting Shining and Cadence together is the first would never be sure how much of his "love" for his marefriend is genuine and how much is the result of her care bear stare. Such paranoia would destroy any relationship.
And don't get me started with the Royal Wedding. I can imagine Chrysalis saying "I don't know why are you so upset with me, dear Shining, I only did to you what your bride-to-be has done every single day you spent together ".
And this is where I catch up to the story.
7256875
What did you think of it so far?
7256840
I am hyper-aware of the problems facing a reunification of the couple. It's not something I am looking forward to doing, but if it does happen I will make sure it takes time.
Personally I think I'd prefer to stick with the canon route of Shining and Cadence getting back together and both of them having a good enough relationship with Vinyl to ask her to DJ their wedding reception.
7257732
That was the original plan. But the original plan did not include Cadance using her powers on Shining or Vinyl, so it's all kind of up in the air at the moment.
7257616 It was good, however running out of story to read wasn't as pleasant.
Oh boy this is gonna get awkward...
7256840 That Chrysalis thing could explain why he let himself get so caught up in her spell. Because there is no way he wasn't a little aware of what's going on.
7255872 If there were gods in MLP then Celestia and Luna would be the prime candidates. Yes she could be caught up in her own hubris but can anyone blame her? Celestia has acted time and again in other ponies' best interests and has only taken credit for banishing Nightmare Moon. It's only later that we see Celestia being imperfect, when Chrysalis blasts her at the wedding, and even then she keeps meddling and causes Twilight to grow wings. It might be dangerous thoughts but she is the chessmaster here and she's planned out the entire game.
7257745 Either way this goes I want to see where it ends up. Going the canon route makes some things easier (as you have plenty of material already written to cover it) but going off the rails feels like it could be fun. Plus it opens up a lot of loose plot threads. How would Chrysalis try to invade Canterlot now? Would Cadence find another lover? Would Shining make it to Captain of the Guard?
Does Twilight ever stop being so adorable?7257982
No. There are no gods here. Power doesn't make you divine and neither does immortality. The attitude she's displaying here is called "might makes right." She believes she has the right to do this just because she can and because nobody can stop her. It's a despicable attitude and below any thinking being that has even a shred of decency in themselves.
And besides, under that reasoning? Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Sombra and Discord had as much of a right to do as she does, because they were stronger than her and she couldn't stop them. Some moral superiority.
7257996
The moral highground is what does it here. Celestia believes what she is doing is right, not just because that's what her subjects are telling her, but because she's sees it as well. Remember, Celestia is basically horse Dumbledore. She does a lot of seemingly stupid things because she's seen what she has to do and where it leads.
That's her vindication. She knows it's going to be the best action in the end.
7258000
I never really bought into that whole "omniscient morality license" thing. She fucks up too often for that. And besides, doing things to people "for their own good" is what all tyrants claim they do. It's not what's good for people that matters, it's what they want. That's the difference between a free society and one that's just peaceful for its own sake.
7258024
I'm just telling you my interpretation.
7258030
I know, I'm just arguing with the character vicariously.
7258035
Is it because you think I wrote her out of character?
7258037
No, no, it's your story, you get to decide who and what the character is. I just don't like her attitude on a personal level. It's patronizing, condescending and, for lack of a better word, dehumanizing. When you start deciding what is best for people behind their backs, you are reducing them to the level of pets or property, so I felt like venting about it a bit. I grew up in East Germany when it was still one of those Soviet puppet dictatorships, so I kind of have strong feelings on the value of freedom and self-determination.
7257996 Like it or not that is how Celestia acts. So saying that it's wrong is arguing that the character is wrong, but how can the character be wrong if that is exactly how she was portrayed by the writers of the show and...
Oh my goodness I've gone cross-eyed!
I get the feeling that you more-or-less disagree with Celestia and not with her characterisation. Really it's a lesson she never gets to learn in canon and one where we have to ask if she should. Personally I feel Twilight could step into the mentor role for this one but that's a long way off.
7258000
ronpaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/cs-lewis-tyranny.jpg
7258562
I never said its a good thing, just that it's her motivation.
7258062
I think this is pretty close to why I haven't said anything on this so far.
What Celestia said is something that can be easily interpreted as "We control the people of this world and people who think they control the world are just unreasonably angry that we are the one controlling them instead."
It is a statement that seems to indicate arrogance and callousness.
But Celestia wants to do what's best by everyone, and we've never seen her actually not take someone else's feelings into consideration.
As a very simple example, see Sunburst. Sunburst was a very smart person with very little magical power. Setting aside the tragedy of that, when he was younger he left Celestia's school, I forget if he graduated or not, but Celestia didn't stop him from not pursuing magic further. Did she open the path for him to move to the Crystal Empire, or let him go on his own? I don't know, but the final thing she says about him is that perhaps his magical career isn't as failed as he hoped, indicating that perhaps she had seen something of this in him, but did not intervene because she is not running his life for him.
And see Vinyl and Shining's partnership. Shining was deliberately assigned in order to try to help Vinyl. But this was hardly in the shadows. This was explicitly and obviously a government action that Vinyl had a lot of problems with, but has so far... helped. Probably. We'll see.
The examples we have are of Celestia not abusing her authority... but what she said sounds like she's arrogant and contemptuous, especially that it sounds like she doesn't understand why people don't like it, and appears to justify it partially on other's inability to stop them.
But the chapter was interesting. Vinyl gets chewed out, Shining and Vinyl do something of dubious goodness.
7258581
Also this is nice. Right or wrong, Celestia honestly believes that what she said accurately describes a good system. And it's believable, considering her position.
7259213
You said it better than I ever could.
Wait, is this a shipfic about ShiningxScratch? Huh, I never noticed. Fascinating.
Poor Cadence though, I hope she gets relatively happy ending even if they don't get back together.
7260520
That's the funny thing. It's not. Well, that's not how it started out at least. I don't even know if that's where it's going to keep going.
If you see a romance tag pop up, then you know my decision. Until then, this is not a shipfic.
An interesting chapter. Celestia's speech is horrifying, but well-written and I can certainly see her giving it in private under certain circumstances. Vinyl and Shining having a drunken fling certainly flows from the last chapter as well.
7256840 I always figured that was the real reason Chrysalis was able to overpower Celestia. If the true love of one stallion was enough to make Chrysalis stronger than any alicorn, then the changlings could have conquered the world centuries ago. But if Chrysalis's power up really comes from a love spell cast on SA by the alicorn of love herself, it makes a lot more sense why Chrysalis's power boost is so rare and unexpected, even by her.
7265041
I'm going to take that thought about Chrysalis and hang onto it. It services what I'm thinking very well.
7259213
Thank you! And Celestia wonders why all her past pupils turn out so bad. Those very same ponies she assumed could not control their own destinies, let alone the world, without the say of an alicorn such as herself. She'll always be one step ahead, except when she's not. /)Twilight Sparkle, the Mold Breaker(\
One day twilight will challenge Celestia's manipulation over [ponies' free will. Discover how Celestia and Luna routed all those unicorns who ever knew the spells to control the Sun and Moon so they'd be the only ones capable of establishing their new united equin world.
The conspiracies shall unravel and Twilight will see that she wasn't given a gift... she was setup to fail, a unicorn to surpass them all. Bring freedom to the three tribes once more and fulfill the promise Celestia never kept: Restore the Natural Order by releasing the Sun and Moon from Celestia's control.
With who Luna would stand by in all this eventual revelation is any pony's guess.
(But seriously, well said. lol)
7267934
Shining and Vinyl are like the best buddy cop duo I couldve possibly winner. It's the whole focal point of the story, so I'm glad I did it well.
7272759
They're not guards. They're explorers. Glorified spies, really.
They're the remnants of a unit used to provide intelligence in war. They've never been soldiers, and they weren't prepared for that.
Well, at least Celestia is there for Cadance, she definitely needed a talking to.
Argh, really not what I was hoping for.
Aaand in one fell swoop I'm on the verge of losing interest in this. The possibility of a non-canon ending really throws me back a bit. As I reread and then caught up, Candace and Shining working together to help Vinyl while not holding idiot balls about what is going on was really interesting to read about, them breaking up (with or without a Shining Vinyl ship as a replacement) much less so.
I'm equally unenthused to find out that the tags have been changing, and may continue to depending on what comes out in the writing. That's just something that tends to really rub me wrong. If I start reading something that is tagged a certain way, it's because I wanted to read a story matching that general expectation, not something that is going to wander off on an unadvertised tangent.
7273146
To tell you the truth, I think I'm still aiming for a canon ending. It will be require some maneuvering, but I'm going to shoot for it.
7273183 That is a relief to hear, thank you for letting me know.
7265041 I am personally more of the mind that it isn't as much as Chrysalys overpowering Celestia as much as Celestia being overpowered. Regardless of her actual battle prowess, in the show it's been a long time since her last fight, she is probably out of shape. Additionaly, she may have not used all her strength by fear of causing collateral dammage, or simply underestimated Chrysalys.
And then there is the luck factor. The same attack from Chrysalys a few second later, a few centimeter to the left and she completely fail.
Battle are not decided like a chess game, or a tug-of-war, many many factor can decide the victor.
Prost, indeed.
The Sparkles are a German family.
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Nachtlicht
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/9/97/Night_Light_ID_S1E23.png/revision/latest?cb=20110823214942
It was great that Twi and Shining's dad got speaking lines in S6E02, but I kind of wish Andrew Francis gave him a slight German accent like Duke Leto, played by Jürgen Prochnow.
7273183
Are you going to come up with a reason for Vinyl to lose her voice? According to a tweet from the show staff, her not talking isn't a gag or an attempt to not piss off the fandom, she is, by Hasbro's request, fully incapable of talking.
7254765
Probably not, but I think you're taking it overboard. Clearly we disagree on what constitutes "mindrape" (a little suggestion and efforts to encourage relationship by pushing people together is perhaps inappropriate, but it's not a love potion or anything) and I agree that repairing this is going to take more than apologies, but I think you're overreacting nonetheless. Celestia is not calling everything fine and acceptable, but the fact is that Cadence is the Princess of Love and spreading it is her domain even if she acts carelessly and in a misguided fashion. It's not a job that she can quit or be fired from if something goes wrong, so she has to learn from her mistakes. Swearing never to use magic again or to ignore everypony with a possible future relationship and/or only deal with simple issues isn't a good plan here. Equestria is not earth and ponies are not humans. Also, she admitted it wasn't proper for her to do so, especially under the real motivations.