This story is a sequel to Harsh Light
Sometimes, even if two people share a language, what they're getting out of a conversation is completely different. What seems like a friendly, idle chat to one may be an important, serious or risky exchange to the other. Two history professors in Canterlot University, professors Cooke and Astra, are about to have such a discussion.
(This story can be read stand-alone, but is also part of a larger continuity of fics. Click here for a full breakdown.)
Chapters (1)
Heh. Their theories part got seriously meta
Astra is totally a changeling, isn't she?
Ohhh. Of course! This is the other side of the couple in Harsh Light!
It's kinda confusing how this is called "Infusions 2" while it's actually the sequel to "Harsh Light"
5527833 The sequence name is based on common themes, rather than on narrative continuity. I'll probably make a group for the Iqqel-verse just to help people sort stuff out.
And yeah, the meta-ish theories were actually the inspiration for this chapter. I finished moving, so I'll be uploading more stuff again.
These are all great, but this one I especially like. Astra and Stargazer are really sweet, too.
Damn... damn damn damn. Shit... Poor changeling.
A fascinating debate, all the more so since it seems to break from your usual perspective conventions; the story spends some time behind each character's eyes. The various theories were entertaining, and Cooke's concerns really do make sense. In the wake of an invasion, the apparent one-eighty only engenders further uncertainty about the changelings. Celestia's opacity isn't helping matters at all. Exposure seems to be the best remedy, but as A Door Opens demonstrated, the nobles have no reason to allow that exposure to take place. The very prejudices that interaction with changelings would dispel preclude that interaction. It's a pernicious catch-22. The only remedy left seems to be sweeping away dissent with the tide of culture, which is by no means guaranteed.
A lot to think about in this one.
Eugh, the worst was that with math (differential equations), with a heavy Russian accent, and as the first class the guy taught coming out of his Ph.D., possibly ever.
Bearing in mind our talk at the con, definitely, even as a thought experiment.
Okay, I love the pair of names Astra and Stargazer as a married couple.
This was unusually meta, heh. Still, thinking through some of the strengths and weaknesses of different theories in the context of this 'verse is interesting. That said, I don't think this one works as well as a free-standing story as some of the others I've read so far, like "Fidanity" or "Harsh Light," to say nothing of TQ&I 1 (not that it's a bad thing in itself, more that I'm iffy on its asterisk on the breakdown post). There is an independent thread here with Astra's situation, but with it being kind of in the background, it does leave this feeling more like a pillar than an obelisk. (Seeing it now mentioned as being the prologue to TQ&I 2, this makes a lot of sense.)
The first half of the second to last paragraph is unusually telly for you, from what I've seen, and the placement (or perhaps presence) of the information is odd. I get that it shouldn't come before the talk of the faculty group protesting the exchange or the fact that he was a founder--it's needed at the end to not too heavily telegraph that fact so the impact of the announcement is maintained; but right at the end it doesn't really recontextualize anything and can't inform about the conversation as it happens because it's already over. Unless it's needed for another part in the sequence, I'm not sure why it's necessary.
Damn this Ponys are extreamly Xenophob
Huh, I guess it makes a lot of sense that ponies might think caste society = slavery and project it onto their buggo peers. Nice work!