Drawn In Memory
It was an hour after sunset on the following night, and they were back on the hilltop. Twilight had brought the picnic blanket and spread it out on the grass. She hadn't bothered with the telescope.
"I'm sorry." They were the only words she had, and they weren't enough.
Rainbow lay alongside, on her streamlined back, stretched out. She had been oddly silent while Twilight related the events, and seemed determined to stay that way for some time.
"Rainbow?"
"Just... thinking." The magenta eyes would not meet hers. "I think sometimes."
"I tried..."
Calmly, "I know you did. I'm not mad at you, Twilight. The only pony I'm mad at is... no, that's gonna be a lie. I hate that Ms. Asterismo, and I don't think I'm going to head into Canterlot for a while, just in case I find myself flying through the Tangle without really meaning to. But I'm mostly mad at me. Because I didn't think about what I was reading. Because I fell for it. Because I'm..." and the drop into whisper, the final word too soft to make out. The sleek body flopped to one side, facing away from Twilight, with the resulting wing compression ignored.
"Rainbow, talk to me... please..."
And in a burst of outwards-facing rage, "...stupid, all right? I'm stupid. I'm the dumbest pony in the group. You know it, I'm just barely smart enough to know it, everypony knows --"
This shout was of protest. "You're not!"
"Prove it!"
"All the stuff you've picked up so fast since we started? All the things you can think about in midair, the adjustments? How quickly you adapt during a fight? You're not stupid, Rainbow! You're just a different kind of smart!"
Her friend wouldn't look at her.
"You figure out things which I never could," Twilight softly told her. "Stuff none of us can get a mouth grip on. Lots of ponies have fallen for this con over the centuries, Rainbow. Some of them... needed to. Being tricked doesn't make you stupid. It just makes you... real."
The trim neck twisted towards her. "Real?"
"...maybe that was a bad word..."
But Rainbow was grinning. "Real? And what was the other option?"
"Blueblood?"
The single burst of laughter emerged as a fierce, grass-shifting snort. "Yeah. Okay, I'll take real..." And onto her back again.
They stared at the night sky for a while. Rainbow had cleared out the clouds again, and they were both waiting to get caught.
"Sorry you missed Founder's Day."
"Me too."
"You always miss Founder's Day."
"I know."
"What do you think Luna's going to do?"
Twilight sighed. "I don't know. I know she's... thinking. I know she'll talk to the Princess. But... they don't have an answer for everything, Rainbow. I always thought they would be the last resort for anything, but then there was the fight against Chrysalis and..."
she was down and the world was broken
"...last night."
Rainbow slowly nodded. "Yeah."
Back to looking at the sky.
"I was thinking about the ruins," the weather coordinator said. "Before I did it."
"Sent the voucher off?"
Rainbow nodded. Wouldn't look at her. "I was thinking about how they're just -- there. And nopony really remembers why, or how they got that way in the first place. Somepony may have called it the Castle Of The Two Sisters... but nopony's ever said those sisters were the Princesses. Nopony asks them about it. And... nopony remembers..."
Twilight, whose subconscious had been very careful in instructing her how not to ask certain questions, was silent.
"We've got the windows in the Hall Of Legends," Rainbow went on. "But... windows break, even rock crystal ones. I check the bookstore all the time now, and... nopony's telling our stories. Nothing's been written down. Sometimes I even think --" and a total midair braking to avoid collision with a forbidden secret.
"What?"
"Nothing. Maybe later."
And it was all Twilight was going to get out of her. "So you were thinking about the ruins."
She could hear how hard the words were for Rainbow to say, how every one had to be forced out with a push equivalent to a dozen Sonic Rainbooms. "And how... anything can get ruined. Books go out of print. Castles fall. Ponies... forget. Everything we did together, all the adventures, all the missions, even the silly stuff... it could get... lost. Like the castle. But the stars, Twilight... they're forever. So I paid for me, to see what kind of work they did... and then, after you helped me pick everypony else's places out... I was gonna save up. And have all of us up there together in time for Hearth's Warming Eve. Because..."
Eventually, Twilight realized Rainbow was waiting for her to finish it. "Because the stars remember."
"Yeah." A bitter laugh. "Except they don't. Anything. Ever."
"Maybe they do," Twilight said, and was surprised by the words.
"Prove it."
"I can't. Maybe... I just want to believe it."
They lay side by side in silence for a while. The grass rustled around them.
"Rainbow?"
"What?"
"It really was a great idea for a gift."
"Whatever. It's not real."
"Maybe it's as real as it has to be. We can pick out the stars, and I can draw the charts up. We can even get somepony to frame them, for a lot less than two hundred bits each."
"So?"
Half-prompting, half-teasing. "I see a cluster over there which could be the red edge of your bolt."
"And?"
"They're brighter stars than everypony else is going to get."
Rainbow looked. "Oh... yeah! And there's some yellows right next to them, and a few blues! Hooves sketched against the sky. "Yeah, that could totally work! So who's next?"
"Me." Twilight looked. "Okay, I see one there which--"
"-- ah, you're cheating." It wasn't unkind.
Twilight took mock offense. "And how am I cheating?"
"Your whole mark is stars. Everywhere you look, there you are..."
Twilight giggled, and they went to work. Sparklers for Rarity. Variables for Pinkie. It took forever to pick out Fluttershy's cluster, as those stars seemed to be hiding from them. Spike was comparably easy: Twilight knew a few which were noted for flares. The steadiest shines made up Applejack...
...or almost did.
"We can't use that last one. Shift left."
"Why? It's just about perfect."
"You're back in the Commander again."
"Oh. Yeah. That one's my favorite."
"You only learned about it two nights ago."
"So it's been my favorite for two nights. I learned to steer by stars when I had to in school, but nopony ever bothered with group names... at least, not that I can remember... So what's your favorite?"
"The Magician." Twilight gestured along the Barding, going to the leftmost edge before demonstrating the sketch. "I've always liked it."
"You would." A long pause. "Twilight?"
"What?"
Hope and despair in equal measure. "Do you really think anypony will remember us?"
Twilight's eyes moved right again, still fixed on the sky.
"The Princesses will."
And Rainbow smiled.
"Yeah, they will. Okay. New position for Applejack..."
Twilight listened, made suggestions, most of which were ignored. But she had been reminded, and so only half her attention was on the current sky. The rest had returned to the previous night. To being on all four knees in the gardens, getting her head up under the freshest of waning Moon-light and seeing...
...Luna.
Still on the bench.
Facing the exact position where the Commander was starting to phase into the new night sky. Staring at that place in a certain way.
And the single tear falling away from her left eye.
Stats
Page generated in 0.035 seconds
Total duration
919 users online
479,638 hits today, 1,943,222 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
You got my attention, I will read this after blessing.
Well, damn it, sort of saw it coming, but still painful. Some things just can't be taken away from people...
It's probably been mentioned before, but quite a few stars are actually long gone. We're only just seeing their light after it traveled light years to reach us. Which I guess adds a whole new layer of awful to the whole business. People are being conned into buying something that not only isn't for sale, but hasn't existed for ages.
This wasn't what I was expecting. That is by no means a bad thing. The end result is something beautiful and tragic on a number of levels. Luna as princess of what is not makes the best kind of sense, and the Moon-raising was incredible. As always, thank you for this.
Well, that was heartbreaking. As expected.
I must admit I was really hoping it wasn't going to have the, to describe it somewhat flippantly, 'that's life for you; nothing to be done' ending. The people who say that tend to be proven wrong in the end. There are generally things to be done. If nothing else, in real life they have to keep coming up with new cons because people get wise to the old ones or because legislation really does weaken their efficiency and increase the risk.
(ETA: I do remember that this is a real-world scam that still exists. Which is tragic. Still, many do not.)
I'm reminded of this quote I read a few years back:
That was The Economist magazine in 1848, criticizing proposals for making a sewer system in London.
Ideological issues aside... Great story, and I'm glad to have contributed to the idea process
Um, the opening chapter seems to have been unpublished again, which might prove very confusing to incoming readers. Perhaps you took it down for sudden rewrites, but in case not I just felt someone should let you know.
I came looking for your regular type of political satire sprinkled with eye-opening realisations, dipped in comedy and slathered in excellent world-building. Instead I had my heart crushed. Who gave you the right to crush my heart? Who has bestowed to you this power, and when shall the goverment stop your sinful hand?
Also, favorited and liked. But that's nearly automatic with your work.
PS: Just realised, all this stuff you've written about this particular Equestria, with all the world-building and so on that you've done, would make a pretty cool handbook. Or something similar anyway. Just saying.
Really great story all around. I love the way this resolved, too, with RD and Twi still ending up picking out stars...
That moment with Luna and the Commander was pretty fantastic as well.
6204268
Technically true, but most of the stars you can actually see without a telescope are a bit closer. Not that that absolves the con of any of its other sins....
The delightful thing about your stories my dear fellow, is that I never know what to expect from you. Sometimes it's a single innuendo dragged across multiple chapters, or searing political satire, or the most sliced up slices of life I've ever read. A heartbreaking con-artistry story is a fine addition to your bibliography. Quite... astronomical.
I think somepony just learned about the concept "victimless crime."
6204268
There's an extremely solid argument that those stars haven't died, for us, until we see their final flare, as until that moment we're not causally connected.
You know, I vaguely remember that blog post. And you did such a beautiful job of the conversion to a story, as the best ones are those that make us try to decide which way the story should break and get caught in the middle. So glad Luna didn't wind up playing the hammer in this. Far superior than any treatment I could have done to the concept. +1
A sad tale. Trouble is that in any "realistic" setting, this will eventually make it into the papers, which will not be so concerned about people's reactions. And of course, like with the real-world con, many will ignore what the papers reveal or just not read them: but some ponies will probably end up killing themselves.
Cons are rarely victimless, regardless of legality.
(Was RD suspecting that there is some sort of cover-up going on about their activities?)
Powerful stuff. I wonder if the other Bearers from the set that included Luna and Celestia number among the Ancients?
6204173
As the ECMCR is based on the ISR, their defense was always going to be the same as the original.
Parts of both Luna's reasoning and response to the situation were meant as a callback to A Mark Of Appeal: "So -- why do you believe I could ever hate you so much as to take away a dream?"
And yes, the one-line paragraph immediately above that one just turned into a time bomb.
6204278
6204391
With the Moon-raising... tropewise, this officially solidifies Luna's local hold on The Sacred Darkness, which may eventually wind up on a page. It's also the first real Badass Creed to appear -- and in the modern day, it's one of four: there's also a creed for Moon-lowering, and Celestia has two of her own. (A pair of Moon-related ones, created when Celestia was maintaining both parts of the cycle, are no longer used.)
There were several points during the writing where I was desperately wishing for more fonts.
(ETA: For CDA readers, it was also a hint as to why Bree was chosen as an agent.)
6204307
There is a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though I feed ‘em bonafide baloney
With no truth in it
Why you can bet I’ll find some rube to buy my corn.
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And I’m referrin’ to the minute you were born.
Each blessed hour brings sixty of ‘em
Each time the wooden cuckoo shows his face
Another sucker takes his place,
And plunks his quarter on the line
To buy my brand of genuine malarkey.
God bless and love ‘em!
But don’t feel sad or hoppin’ mad, or cause a scene
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
But Ma’am, you mighta been the minute in between.
If I allow that right here in my hands
The smallest living human man
The sight of that is surely worth a dime
If I present an educated pooch
Who’s trained to dance the hoochie-cooch
What better way to waste a bit of time?
If I import at monumental cost
A lady, fair, whose head was lost
While crossing railroad tracks to pick some zinnias
Who eats farina through a hose
And wears pink tights instead of clothes
If that ain’t worth a buck, my name ain’t Phineas!
Aw, you say that’s hog wash, well, who cares?
You’ll buy my hog wash long as...
There’s a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though my tale is bonafide baloney,
Just let me spin it,
And ain’t no man who can resist me, wait and see
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And friends, the biggest one, excluding none, is me!
6204388
It probably is about time for a new thread in the Group, though.
6204467
I wanted to mostly keep this on the low-key oppressive side of Sad, especially during that discussion. If the whole thing came off as melancholy, then I did my job. If it came across as Melon Collie, then I did my usual job.
6205395
She thought she had that supplier closed down!
6205957
And some of the local papers really don't care who gets hurt. The best protection there may be how widespread this is -- victims generally don't like admitting it, and if any among the Loyal Opposition was fooled... well, there are books. Lots of them. And they all record the names.
I've said that Celestia at least tried to keep the media off their tails for the first two years, but that fell apart after the wedding. This is more of a call-forward to when Rainbow starts writing it down herself, along with noting the running joke that most of S1-3 Equestria seems to respond to the presence of the Bearers with "...who?"
6206446
6208154
I'm a hopeless idealist, but at least I'm self-conscious about it
This was a great story, it went from funny to sad to rather poignant.
One thing that stood out to me is: Is the ECMCR actually a terrible group of con artists? It seems like they promise some pony a constellation based on their cutie mark, which just seems to be a fancy way of saying "We will give you a map with a pattern you can find on your own in the sky if you look for it." They make it semi-official by publishing an obscure book, so only the pony who buys a constellation and their friends and family will actually know about the constellation.
I guess the con is that the original, more widely recognized union of astronomers doesn't learn about the new pattern the ECMCR created, and it isn't actually taught to ponies on planetarium field trips, although it sounds like the planetarium actually gets a fair amount of its traffic from sad ponies picking out the constellations from their loved ones and drawing comfort from that.
I suppose ponies wouldn't pay 55 bits if they realized other ponies will get to claim the same pattern if they have the same cutie mark (although that 145 extra Rainbow paid was for the fancy frame which she got), but this doesn't really feel like a terrible crime to me, any more than selling someone a fancy coffin for their deceased family member. So I guess my question is, where is the harm done?
6208579
Lets just say that one day another pony walks into the planetarium, looking for their constellation. Fajr is there. They have their little heart to heart. They find out that their two separate constellations share some of the same stars. Letters to ECMCR go unanswered. The physical office is hard to find, and has powerful spells to conceal. As a former teacher, he tracks down the books.
He discovers that the tribute to his wife and daughter is filed as "Fiction."
This pony actually attempted suicide after the loss of his wife and daughter. Their memorial is a lie. What is that going to do to him? At that point the money exchanged in the con is irreverent. The heartache is real and may just kill him.
There are no victimless crimes. It's just that society thinks the victim is worthless.
¡You give those cheats at the International Star Registry and all of the other phony registries, Lunar Realtors, et cetara the what-for!
6204268
Almost every star visible to the ape-eye is still alive. The shortest lived stars live millions of years, and all stars close enough to see are, at most, a few thousand light-years away. It is safe-to-say that over 99.9% of naked-eye stars are alive:
1 visible star which probably is dead is Eta Carina. It is visible in the tropics and southern hemisphere. It is very unstable. It keeps on almost exploding. It probably did explode by now, but the light has not reached us yet.
One cannot get stars named after deceased loved ones, but one might me able of homestead on other worlds. Somepony on Tellus (Earth) cannot point at an astronomical object and claim ownership without physically living on it:
6211587 So I've been told.
Still, I doubt the CMCR or its real life equivalent care enough to confirm whether said stars still exist or not before selling them.
6211814
The fraudsters could not confirm whether a star has died before the light reaches Equus anyway.
"Hey girl...wanna buy some tulips?"
-
The thought of that made me giggle
Poor Luna
I wonder who the Commander was
I can guess, but I'm not completely sure
6208579
So, the thing about these sorts of scams is that there's a pretty big disconnect between the marketing and the actual product. The presentation to the customer is one that'll toss in words like "genuine" and "official" along with more flowery terms like "eternal" or "romantic" and generally make an incredible effort to gently lead a person to a particular conclusion that doesn't accurately reflect the nature of the product while conveniently drawing you away from the less glamorous fine print. You know that's their intent, because the second you start leaning on them, they'll fall back to a much more rigidly crafted, well-rehearsed narrative wherein they accept no liability, this is all for entertainment purposes, our terms were clearly stated on page 63 of a well-hidden document on our website, etc. That's marketing, and that's generally a mundane, if annoying, evil. In the vast majority of cases, the people who buy into this sort of thing are in a position like Dashie was in this story - and Luna's position is totally correct in those cases; they're legal, caveat emptor.
The harm from selling a lie - or something legally distinct from, but very much resembling, a lie - comes when you encounter cases like Fajr's. People who've recently lost a loved one are often some of the most vulnerable in the world. In a lot of cases these people will do anything to reclaim *something* of what they've lost. Often, that ultimately takes the form of a belief that their loved ones continue to exist in some form, and are happy and content, and lack of evidence be damned. When they come to that conclusion on their own without coaching, fine, to each their own - but when your business is focused on exploiting that vulnerability, and using it as a vector of attack to extract some cash from them? That's utterly, utterly abhorrent. Hell, you could even argue that in such a state people aren't even competent to enter into any sort of contract - desperation can definitely impair rationality even worse than drugs or alcohol given the right person. Not only that, put yourself in the position of a friend of someone like Fajr who was forced to stand there and watch him get conned. What if you wanted to tell him that maybe there's a better way to honour the memory of his wife and child than tossing bits at some con artists trying to sell him a pretty lie? Could you do it? When a lie seems to be lifting someone out of despair, do you take that away and maybe throw him in deeper? And silence from people you *trust* on this topic must be equivalent to them vouching for the authenticity of this salesperson's story, right?
Thing is, in addition to claiming someone's bits with shaky consent, it totally strips agency from people who care about the target and *want* to advise against this sort of thing - it certainly took the wind out of Twilight's sails here. It totally robs power from the target *and* damages the ability of the people who want what's best for them to restore it - that's straight up predatory, is what it is.
For something like a star registry, that's probably only a chunk of their business plan. Sure, they're gonna push the recently bereaved to pay for the Premium Ultra Platinum Frame and the Brazilian Gilded Registry Book package - but that's only a little more terrible than when they sell their base package to the guy who wants something to bring up at parties, and a few hundred bucks in a situation like this might not be the most harmful thing in the world to most people (not that it would matter one way or the other to the seller) - but why stop there? Maybe pretend to be a "psychic medium" and extract a few thousand bits by role-playing as their loved ones. Hell, start a new "religion" and fleece them for everything they've got. Tolerating this sort of behaviour from the wrong people accepts that letting others have the power to potentially ruin lives is okay. I realize we're talking about a far less extreme case in this instance, but the same *legal* defenses exist across that entire spectrum, and so do the same arguments for why it's morally *wrong* to allow them to feed on vulnerable people.
That said, I agree with Luna's decision here. She was very much wearing her Princess hat, and in that case her ultimate concern should be with what's just - and she was - but fortunately or unfortunately, just doesn't necessarily mean right and I rather disagree with her moralistic defense of her position. Best to pull the rug out from under the charlatans right away and maybe do some harm to a few people than let the problem fester and do potentially less harm to more people for a longer time.
6211190 Yeah, I'd say these charts don't belong in the fiction section, more of an art section since it seems to be a book of artistic maps of cutie marks overlaid over the night sky. Yes, Fajr could dig in and demand his book be moved from "fiction" to "mythology" (or as I like to call it, fiction emeritus), where presumably the "official" constellations are kept. I think part of the question raised here is, how much of a scam were the first constellations compared to the ones around now? What if the first astronomer pony had told everyone around him he would show them where the star that represents Commander Hurricane is for 50 bits? Is it just a grandfather that the astronomers who happened to be around at the time ponies started writing down constellations get exclusive rights to interpret the night sky forever?
6215047 That's a good point, the group here is able to charge a large profit premium on the assumption that their work is eternal. It kind of is, in the sense that A) In this version of Equestria at least, the stars don't seem to move, so that pattern of stars will stay up there until at least one of them goes out, practically forever by mortal measure. and B)Those books with the pattern will set in the archives forever, at least until they disintegrate, though I doubt anyone will ever read them.
We've kind of focused on selling to the families of the departed, so let me ask you about this as a comparison: Many religious and non-profit organizations will let you make a donation in the departed person's name that gets you a little plaque with their name and in memoriam put up somewhere on their building. They use the same kind of marketing that the ECMCR uses, implying eternity and such, but no one actually bothers to read that plaque except the family of the person who paid for it, and that building will end up torn down in a few decades and rebuilt, as so many are. Is that the same con?
If a good friend of mine lost a family member, and they spend $200 getting a fancy star chart named after said family member, I would feel they were less "conned" than if they spent $2,000 on fancy flowers and a tombstone, since both things have the same effect.
6215861
I was intentionally sidestepping issues about the major religions in my first post to avoid causing unnecessary arguments, but I will say that they certainly have the capacity and machinery to pull off this sort of scam, yes. And some churches definitely do so. I'm sure it's not all of them, and there are plenty of religious folks who honestly believe what they say and that sharing those beliefs help the bereaved. I might not believe that myself, but I can separate a claim (true or not) made in good faith from one in bad. It becomes a scam when they knowingly sell an implication of something they have no right to, but deliver a lesser product that they do have a right to. It's a bait and switch which works best on people who aren't thinking straight, or can't be bothered to read the fine print, with the intent to take something from them for the con artist's own benefit. If a church is heavily leaning on someone to donate to them in exchange for a plaque? Not cool with me, at least. If that becomes a mainstay of your church staying afloat? Well, at that point you're Scientology, which we can probably all agree is a net harm to society.
Yes, the charts are official - but it's not the office we led you to believe. Yes, the stars are (in equestia, probably approximately) eternal - but the association with your loved one is not.
It's funny you should mention that these should be considered an artwork rather than a copyright on a natural phenomenon. I was expecting this story to end with the company being shut down for producing unlicensed derivative works of another artist - that is, Luna. And that's the thing, they aren't original works of art. The legal defense is that they're delivering what they promised - a pretty (if low quality) framed sketch and a line in a book that no one will ever care to read. If they did otherwise, in Equestria at least, that opens a whole new legal can of worms to defend against. If they believed their sales pitch and weren't aiming for a profit that would be a nonissue. It's not, so they care about their legal standing very much.
As for tombstones and flowers? Personally, that fantastic bit of world building about pegasus culture is totally on the mark - cremate me. And don't waste bits on a memorial, just remember why you cared about that person in the first place. Go revisit that mountain you climbed that one time. Certainly don't try to paint names in the stars. Even if the constellation is, by some miracle, remembered, ain't no one gonna remember much about them, or even how they got up there in the first place.
6216033 Yeah, but what is "official?" Official meaning like 100 astronomers are going to know about it and no one else will ever read about it, as opposed to "unofficial?" That some board of obscure star-gazers gives a particular pattern the nod or not? That really doesn't seem that much more official than what the ECMCR does. And of course they care about profit, you can't do anything unless you stay in business. And anyone who wants to stay in business has to be very careful about their legal standing, especially in this Equestria, where we've seen a lot of rather frivolous lawsuits filed.
I also thought it would end the way you described, that Luna actually moves the stars around and therefore has exclusive rights to claim constellations. (That would actually be a very interesting thought experiment. If you create a famous painting, and I create a plastic overlay of dots that purports to show a cool pattern in your painting, have I infringed on your copyright if I sell my plastic overlay?)
I agree though, that tombstones and flowers, like a star registry, are pretty useless to the actual deceased.
6216052
Exactly, that's the trick! And what Twilight got wrong, too. If Twilight Sparkle can't find the correct procedure for naming new constellations, well. Thing is, there *are* no rules for what's "official" - and imposing artificial ones destroys the reason we care about the constellations in the first place. They came about over a very, very long period of time being passed through generations of historians and scientists. No one person has either capability or right to dictate what's relevant to culture. Even Luna herself couldn't sell you a personalized constellation - she could probably give you one that looks much better, but it wouldn't carry the weight of history with it, which is the product people are trying to buy. Once you throw a cultural concept to the machinery of commerce you wind up with something that's very, very different than it originally was, if only because you suddenly have a massive surplus of it. The trick is they're selling the feeling of the former - something that takes forever to build up and cannot be done artificially - and delivering the latter - a mass-produced imitation that has no history. That literally didn't exist before today. To people who don't understand that, or are desperate enough to push the thought of it aside. Companies *want* to turn a profit (unlike a registered non-profit, such as an idealized church), but that doesn't imply the manner they're going about it is acceptable. They're probably in good legal standing in this case - like I said, Luna was being just - but that doesn't mean I won't be happy if the idea that they're a scam becomes ubiquitous to everyone in society. I also wouldn't be opposed to Equestria instituting some truth in advertising laws.
As for the plastic dots thought - I'm thinking probably not, unless you used a print of the original art piece as advertisement. In the case of stars, if they literally just gave you a chart with no attempt to duplicate the original image of the sky, they'd probably be violating Luna's hypothetical trademark, rather than copyright.
6216122 This might be the core of the issue:
I agree with you that this is exactly what they are selling, but I think where we disagree is that in an intangible asset like this, the feeling is the product being sold. I don't see that as a scam, any more than buying digital hats on Steam games is a scam, or getting people to pay more for "luxury goods" is a scam, even if those luxury goods are objectively similar in quality to a more utilitarian product and just have a better marketing campaign that justifies their higher price. That's what marketing is, selling feelings to get you to pay more, it's a vital part of the economy. As for those who buy into the idea that culture has inherent and exclusive value, and want to pay more to exclude others and do so as a status marker, if it's inside their own heads they get what they pay for.
Truth in advertising laws that would prevent this will probably have to have mandatory language like "buying this ethos brand product does not make you a better person, nor does buying name-brand clothing make you a cooler person."
I feel bad I didn't read this sooner.
This is really good.
I'm really glad you pointed out that all constellations were fake, and I love that the original constellations were apparently made by Luna and Celestia themselves to remember dead loved ones.
I reviewed this story!
My review can be found here.
6204118
FYI, this doesn't require you to have read Blessing to understand it. I haven't read that yet, and I grokked it just fine.
6204307
The thing is, as Luna (correctly) notes, constellations don't actually exist. They're not real. They're imaginary lines WE draw in the sky. Indeed, the ending of that chapter, with the moon-raising, makes it pretty explicit that Luna herself came up with "The Commander".
What is actually even darker is the implication that Luna knows there is no afterlife, but is either pretending there is because she finds it too painful to bear the idea that dead ponies are gone forever, or is trying to pretend for Twilight's sake. And Twilight, being the smart pony that she is, now knows that there probably isn't an afterlife, given Luna's response.
That being said, I don't think knowing that is actually all that dark. I think it upsets people to some extent, but I don't think it is an especially helpful thing to believe in. Not that many people truly believe in it anyway. There's a reason people are sad at funerals, and they don't just act like someone went away for a while, but forever.
6221360 yes the description said I don't need to too; but I want to!
I'm half way done and will most certainly finish it, It's pretty good, I'm enjoying it so far.
~Leonzilla
6208579
Thing is... well, constellations don't even exist. The real life "Star Registry" is making a very different claim in some ways; constellations by their very nature are imaginary, something that it took Twilight a while to really figure out in the story. The biggest part of the "scam" here is the attempts at seeming official about it (and the slight lameness of them copying the same patterns over and over again); Rainbow Dash, by getting a totally unique constellation due to her unique cutie mark, actually probably got a much better deal than almost anyone else did, because she actually got her own constellation, rather than just copypasta.
It is a scam to some extent, but what they're doing here is actually much less scammy than what the star registry does; the star registry purports to let you name stars, but paying someone to find a constellation for you is an artistic endeavor to begin with. I mean, a real organization which did that, and didn't pretend like anyone else would care about the constellations they created for you, really wouldn't even be morally dubious.
6221409 Yeah, I think you nailed it. Thinking about it, this story fits really well with Estee's other story about Twilight wanting a 1st Edition Textbook. Except Twilight in that story is like Rainbow Dash in this one, totally buying into the marketing hype.
I am surprised by the ending. I figured Luna would either be upset with the fee or do something to make them semi-official.
6204307
I don't think I've read a single Triptychverse story that goes down that road. I think it's in direct contradiction of the setting's themes.
6260375
I rather feel that this one right here goes down that road? I mean, strip the story down to its skeletal plot and it goes something like this: a citizen discovers a scam and reports it to the government, and the government responds "we can't or won't do anything about this."
But I feel like a lot of Triptychverse stories end with, basically, everyone being right back where they started, only more informed about why they can't get anywhere else. There's a reason Estee is known as a giant cynic.
6260670
...be back in a few hours. I have to go turn all my story notes over to Tom Brady.
6260783
That's a deflategate joke? Had to google the name, and I still know nothing about American football, ignorant foreigner that I am =| But I want to underscore that nothing in the previous comment says that the story was bad.
6260804
No, the notes are on the phone that Brady smashed.
It took me a while to get to it, but I really liked this.
6260670
Not sure I completely agree here. I do agree that a lot of Estee's stories do seem that way, that the characters ultimately get nowhere, but are a bit wiser about why they got nowhere, but I disagree with the sentiment that this is an inherently cynical viewpoint. Case in point is this very story, because our protagonist did get somewhere. Legally, she didn't; unfortunately, the world is full of scammers who make money from the fact that the average person is tragically prone to not thinking things all the way through. But personally and emotionally is another matter altogether.
Emotionally, she did move forward. Twilight puts her faith in Rules, as mentioned in a previous comment. After this particular adventure, she also understands a bit better why ponies put their faith in less tangible things. The biggest problem she faces is relating to others on an emotional level; she's capable of it, but it's more difficult for her than it is for her friends, and maybe that's a weakness she'll never be able to fully overcome. But even if she doesn't understand how some ponies get tricked like this, she better understands why.
Personally, she's reaffirmed if not strengthened her friendship with Rainbow Dash. Yes, the whole mess came about from Dash not thinking, but rather than berating her for it, Twilight instead worked herself silly trying to accomplish a task that, even if it had not been impossible, would have at least been Herculean. That's not something that anyone would do casually. And in the end, they both conclude that the idea was heartfelt and not really all that bad, and make something of it.
I actually view many of Estee's stories in a similar light to the program. Friendship is Magic shows us what the world might be like if only we were a bit friendlier to each other. Estee shows us that while the world may not be fair, we aren't powerless in the face of that unfairness. Twilight may be unable to do something to stop the Registry, but she's not unable to do something. Dash may be unable to do something to get her bits back, but she's not unable to do something. And really, I think I prefer that.
The show tells us that there can be good things if only the world wasn't so unfair. Estee tells us that there can be good things even if the world is unfair. Maybe we can't do anything to stop the world being unfair. But that doesn't mean we can't do anything.
6288016
I don't actually disagree with any of this, but this is essentially what I meant by what I called, back in my first comment, the 'that's life for you; nothing to be done' ending. It doesn't mean that nothing changed, in the sense that none of the characters grew. Character growth is usually the payoff in stories that deny you the satisfaction of a plot victory. It means that their growth came in the form of failing to accomplish what they set out to do, and learning instead to cope and find meaning elsewhere.
I just disagree that it had to be this way in this scenario. But then, I'm an atheist, socialist government-believer who thinks that at some point we will find permanent solutions to many or all of the problems that seem universal and insoluble today, and that history shows we have done so many times before. When we do, all the people who told us that wisdom lies in learning to cope for it cannot be otherwise end up looking rather silly.
The thing is, you've kind of undercut yourself here. Which is good, actually. You don't put a ball of rage on a page, it'll just burn right through.
But when the ECMCR turned out to be a generational operation with a care for standards and craftwork, this became a very different story. I mean, yes, businesses change, it's possible this one may pass to a pony who mishandles everything, and they're selling "a lie", but language is a lie we tell ourselves, pardon my Wittgenstein.
I'm assuming a consistent cosmology here, which may not be the case, but that "meteoric" frame, even if it's made of "normal" iron, was still forged in the heart of a distant star and rocketed through the void of space for untold ages before it was caught up by the sun and melded with its fellows by that mysterious force which brings all things together. What are you trying to hold against the iron? That it had more company than most?
It is still pretty good vintage Book Horse, who is trying to take all the wonder out of the world except for the bit she approves of.
Crud, now I want a little more of this story, just a little more, because what I'm seeing here is that when Luna was gone, Celestia took her ECMCR prototype and popularized it. Or if not Celestia, then at some point this came to her attention. And wow do I want to have a listen to that conversation, as it may come up while Luna catches up on a thousand years. I mean, compare and contrast: would you rather have your memoriam filed away in a library and largely forgotten, or be widely known and taught and remembered but not as a memoriam?
First of all, Why hadn't I read this already?
Second of all; Stop that, Estee, my heartstrings are not an instrument to be played.
Someone in Belgium read this story as a how-to guide, and is now trying to create a lightning bolt constellation for David Bowie.
Amusingly, I'm reading about people complaining about people just making up constellations.