Forget not that I am a derp.
Ever since Sombra's defeat, the Crystal Empire has revered "the Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious" as a hero and a savior. When he (and guests) are invited to the first Crystal Ball in over a millennium, Twilight expects to hear that endearingly overblown title all night.
She's half-right.
A refined entry in the November 2014 Writeoff Competition. Prompt: "Title Drop." Takes place between Seasons 4 and 5.
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Refreshed Fimfic and saw a fic named "Appellation Mountains" and thought it would be worth reading for the pun alone. Checked the short description and saw gold there, too. And then, to confirm a suspicion, I checked the author name.
Checking my phone at the perfect time to find a new FoME story. Some things in life are just that wonderful.
And now to actually read the blessed thing!
FOME... you are really testing my love for you right now.
*sighs and begins to read*
This had better be worth that pun, or I swear, I'm going to tie you to a chair, duct tape your eyes open, and make you watch the newer versions of the Star Wars trilogy—with Greedo shooting first on instant replay.
And now I've read it, and it was fun.
The return of the Wingshrug: With a Vengeance! That is a word that I haven't read nearly enough since CardsLafter put TtEoAP on indefinite hiatus.
This was good.
Noticed a couple dropped words/letters, but nothing major.
So, the thing that stands out to me is that at no point does Spike act jealous of Twilight's longer title. Is it because he's grown more mature or simply because he'd be the first to sing Twilight's praises himself? Not important, really. I only mention it because it would be far too easy to turn this into a standard jealousy plot. Thanks for making things more interesting.
Apart from that, I really enjoyed this. Fun titles were had, interesting conversations with valid arguments took place.
You paint Luna with a wonderful brush of words.
Part of that is simple distance, part is that it turns out having a crush on somepony's simian analogue isn't the strongest foundation for a relationship.
As much as I love Flash, I wish more people would realize this. There's a fic I need to rework about Twilight working through that with The Chewtoy Of The Fandom.
Ah, Istallion is Italian!
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Do you approve of the representation of Luna's form of guile?
6745394 Of course. FOME hits it perfectly. The Princesses of both Diurnus strike me as the kind of ponies you can talk to, and then six months later be walking down the street, only to stop and say, "Oh!"
Having read it, well done, sir.
You may live :P
I took one look at the title and I instantly remembered that this was from the Title Drop writeoff. Apparently it made more of an impression than I thought, since there's only one other story that I associate with that writeoff straight away (and it's not really the story so much as "oh yeah, that was the writeoff where horizon did that thing"). I don't really remember this being anything special in the writeoff, but I like it quite a lot now. I'm not sure how much of that is due to actual improvement in the story and how much is due to horizon's stunt overshadowing everything else in that writeoff (now that I look back, All the Mortal Remains was there, and I had no idea). Either way, this is a lovely little story now.
This was a great story, and it had a lot of fun character interaction, but since I came in expecting focus on Spike, the fact that it didn't kind of bums me out. Despite my disappointment, this was still an interesting work about titles and rank, so I'll definitely give it a thumbs up.
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Hmm. That may be where I got it. *humanshrug*
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To be honest, I'd never considered a jealous Spike angle. If there's anyone of whom he isn't going to be jealous, it's Twilight. He's her biggest fan, dearest confidante, and quite possibly the reason she managed to survive as long as she did in Canterlot without going mad with power. Much as with Twilight's human analogue, Spike was the anchor that tied her to mundane concerns and reminded her that there was more to life than absorbing new data. Getting jealous or angry because of Twilight's success just doesn't occur to Spike. It'd be like being jealous of your favorite sports team when they win the championship.
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Coming from someone who excels at showing the diarchs at their best and most devious, that means a lot.
6745364
Yeah, that's a key part of probability space etiquette you've touched on in your own work: Remember that each instance of a given personality is an individual person. Conflating them in your mind is rude at best.
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Glad to hear it.
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Yeah, that was a trip. I can't say I blame you for having any other memorable stories crowded out of your mind by it. The fact that mine made an impression against it is quite flattering.
(For those wondering, horizon's A Basilisk For One was a last minute entry that exploited a since-patched exploit in the Writeoff site code. This allowed him to preview all of the stories before the judging period officially began and thus write a Being John Malkovich-inspired metastory that directly referenced most of the other entrants, including mine. I got to experience the brain-melting sensation of Pinkie Pie commenting on a joke I wrote for her while she was in a story I didn't.)
First of all, I feel the need to express my delight at Flash here. I actually really love it when Flash gets, well, any character at all.
Heh, I wonder who will be tracking their title more now that they know. Rarity, or Rainbow Dash?
I like, I like!
Minor quibble:
"Or I would be one frozen body among many, just another victim of eternal night."
Ah, but that's now contradicted by canon, canon Twilight saw for herself, isn't it?
Fluttershy swallowed and shook her head. "Somepony who'd done all of that? She probably wouldn't have any time for somepony like me."
"also, some of those titles sound really scary."
I wonder how long Celestia's title might end up being.
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Congratulations, I think that may be the most perfect encapsulation of Spike's character I've ever read.
Now this was a fun read! Great characterization, as always; your treatment of Flash was good, and I loved your Luna. It's good to see that Celestia didn't hog all the sneakiness in the family!
One nitpick:
Luna's second sentence is missing its starting quote mark.
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This might have happened before the S5 finale. (Of course, Luna herself starts to say she would have taken steps to avoid that, so...)
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Rarity will only really be interested in where she sits on the ladder of noble ranks. Dash will track every honorific she earns and probably add a few of her own design.
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As the description states (admittedly in smaller text,) this is set between Seasons 4 and 5. I know that there doesn't seem to be much time between the two of them in canon, but the story was first written during that hiatus.
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She's tried to reset the darn thing several times. About thirty percent of it is truly lost, but historians have an infuriating habit of recording her deeds in places she doesn't think to look. She doesn't erase the records, mind you. She just attributes her deeds to long-dead mortals who may or may not have existed before her alterations. After all, you don't really think the quasi-Spartan Pegasopolitans coexisted with the medieval Unicornians and the Earth Republic, do you?
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Quotation mark fixed. And when it comes to pony Flash, we actually do have a bit to work with. Get past the stigma of his human analogue and you have a soldier in a position of honor, who was transferred to the Empire for some reason and who likely maintains some kind of connection with Twilight, going by the glance in "Three's a Crowd." It's just that most people can't seem to get past Brad the Waifu Stealer.
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Well, she (Rarity) has peerage now.
"Hmm, you know, Countess Rarity has a lovely ring to it. Or perhaps Contessa? Has a bit of flair, don't you think?"
Why are they only baronesses? Admittedly my unerstanding of feudal heirarchy only comes from reading the Status advantage in GURPS and Crusader Kings 2 but I thought it went something like. Freeman, Unlanded Knight, Landed Knight, Baron, Viscount, Count, Duke/Prince, Archduke, King, Emperor.
Assuming that the girls all started as Freemares they saved all of Equestria no less than 5 times but only had 3 jumps in rank. Then there's the whole "title awarded proportionate to their deeds," concept and Nightmare Moon, Discord and Tirek at least were saving the Entire World.
orig05.deviantart.net/2adf/f/2015/329/3/6/skate_date_by_hillbe-d9i1whq.jpg
I had to read because I'm from the Appalachia's. Not bad.
Princess Luna Diana Hecate Regina Nox Alicor, Princess of the Night, Avatar of the Moon, Doyenne of the Stars, Warden of the Great Void, Mistress of the Tides, Overseer of Dreams and Matron of the Thestrals.
I'll be honest here, when I looked up stories tagged with Spike in them, I expected him to play a significant part. You can remove him from this story, and still have no significant change on it.
It was a good story, don't get me wrong, it's just not what I was looking for. Please tag appropriately from now on.
I'll say this up-front: this story doesn't focus on Spike nearly enough. From the title alone he deserved and, in a rather ironic twist, yet again didn't get it.
I'm fond of rose quartz. It's my birth stone. Somewhat comical, I know.
Yes, yes you did. It's always nice to see a story acknowledge how Twilight just always seems to get that one little extra bonus cookie, when it comes to things. It's frustrating. It makes her feel like the winner by default, when she really didn't contribute that much more to anything than anyone else did.
I suspect that is supposed to be "I opened my mouth", unless Twilight is getting overly personal with someone else's jaw.
Rainbow seems pretty full of herself here, even by Rainbow standards.
While an enjoyable story and a good point to make...
I have to say, I'm in full agreement with several commenters that, given how it's described, it needed more focus on Spike.
Pinkie has no respect for the Dewey Decimal, obviously. But on the other hand, Twilight sorted the entire fiction section under 813/823.
The long introduction for Twilight was all Cadence's idea.
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How much was enough participation in a given world salvation to qualify for elevation has been a point of contention between the royal sisters. Barony is the best Luna's been able to get out of Celestia, since Shining Armor and Cadence repelled Chrysalis, Spike and Twilight found the Crystal Heart, and technically speaking, the Tree of Harmony did the heavy lifting with the plundervines.
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Spike's relatively minor role was actually intentional for metafictional reasons. This was supposed to be Spike's story, but Twilight overshadowed him without meaning to. And she isn't happy about that.
6749642
Um... no. It was Luna's. I thought I made that rather clear.
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Huh. You know, now that you've spelled it out, that actually makes a lot of sense. I really should have picked up on that.
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Thanks. That's a relic of the earlier draft, which was written in third-person. I must have missed it in the last pre-submission overview
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Hey, this about the world properly recognizing her awesomeness and that of her friends. Her ego will not stand for this misrepresentation.
At least Luna didn't choose the lazy way out with the explanation. I know I would have.
"I just didn't want to make everyone hear the same titles six times over nor make Flash have to say them six times."
It was a good story. But i think most of the character are a little hostile... They dont seem friendly to anypony (even with pinkie), and some ponies seems out of character, like Applejack and Twilight.
But i must say that it was well wrote.
This is an interesting commentary on how Twilight always ends up getting most of the credit even though she wouldn't have gotten where she is today without Spike and the other Bearers. I guess my only quibble with this story is that it needs a Twilight tag, since she's the narrator and main focus. As it is, the tags, cover art, and summary are a bit misleading.
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Well, she did say the second part, just more tactfully.
6750772
...
There had been one, but I thought it would be redundant with the Mane Six tag. I'll go put it back on.
Blegh Flash. Interesting story, but dissapointed in terms of funny and lack of much Spike relevance except for use in setup.
The d'awws are real in this one. Nice little story to come back to, and congrats on the feature
Luna's case of her being marginalized is certainly interesting. She was insecure with how she thought other ponies viewed her so she overcompensated. However, that ened up intimidating ponies away and isolating herself more from them, ultimately setting up to the rise of Nightmare Moon. However, looking back it fits her personality. She wielded Honesty, Loyalty and Laughter. Being a princess probably changed her a bit. The Nightmare Moon transformation to me was not because ponies didn't respect the night, it was her own perception and insecurities of everypony viewing her as lesser than her sister and not her own pony. She cared about her subjects, but it was a more formal relationship than the motherly nature that Celestia has (notice her own elements are Kindness, Generosity and Magic a.k.a. Friendship.) So she didn't get the time to know them and focuses on them as a whole, so she really didn't understand them as individuals.
Very good fanfic
6750795 Your avatar is terrifying.
6751015 Don't you mean the daws are strong with this one. (insert yoda here)
6750795
It's also comedically appropriate to have a Twilight tag while everyone else only gets the implicit mention by mane six tag.
I did not expect it to go that way. I thought it would be a Spike story.
*squinting followed by a hurried golf clap*
A fairly good work marred by a glaring flaw: there's obviously so much more story to tell! I curse you for creating such an engaging read for such a quick punchline at the end. It's like waking up to the mouth-watering aroma of a cinnamon roll scented candle. False hopes quickly dashed by a nefarious villain!
Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.
So, once again Spike is overshadowed by Twilight, even in the empire that reveres him. Sounds right.
6754296 I wouldn't say so. The story was about Twi but look at the bit after Twi says she's there to give Spike adult supervision. He's surrounded by Crystal Ponies. That and Luna's guest excuses himself from talking to her to get see Spike as well. He wasn't overshadowed. It was just the story's focus wasn't him.