When Spike gets his very own stained glass window in the Hall of Heroes, Rainbow wants to know why there aren't any with Commander Hurricane in them.
Twilight once wondered the same thing.
A Pony Planet story
Chapters (2)
- Member Since 2nd Nov, 2012
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Admiral Biscuit
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Admiral Biscuit
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Good Lord, Biscuit! Are you suuuuuuuuuuuuure you didn't participate in One-Shot-ober?
You say this is a pony planet story. Do you mean it's part of the Onto The Pony Planet timeline, or is it just a one-shot?
7686797
It's part of the bigger world, like The Pony Pull, or Apple Honey's Perfectly Ordinary Day.
7686844 Alright then. It's rather late though, so I'll likely have to read it tomorrow. Bookmarking for now.
Love your world-building stories. I really like the idea of stained glass being used to record history. Did you get the idea from somewhere or was the plethora of stained glass windows in Canterlot Castle enough inspiration?
It does make me wonder about other methods people used to record history over the ages. The written word may be common now but when only the select few can read it is limited in its usefulness. When thinking of other methods the first things that come to mind are paintings and oral traditions. Sculptures are perhaps the closest thing to the pony windows that I can think of. I don't know of many old stained glass works of art, outside of churches that is. I wonder why it isn't more common, too fragile or too expensive I wonder? Why did it work so well for ancient ponies that it caught on, maybe it had something to do with the sunlight shining through and Celestia connotations.
I wonder if the museum ever has late night opening where ponies shine lights through the windows and light up the place. It sounds like it would be very pretty. Regardless it is good to see that Twilight has the proper appreciation for Museums. It was to be expected of course, but it is still nice to see in action. Since this is a Pony Planet Story I hope we will one day get to see her in some human museums. The ones on the National Mall are some of the best ones I have ever been to and I can only imagine how they would make her swoon.
The parentheses is pointed the wrong way.
She’d been thinking about it all the way over. Should she ask to be led around the oldest ring—where the windows dated back to the very founding of Equestria—or the outer ring, where the more contemporary windows were placed? Or should she pick a middle hallway? More importantly, what would the Princess think of whatever choice she made?
If they were from the founding of Equestria, guess the windows had to have been moved from the old castle in the Everfree, eh?
Got to read it after all. Very well done.:D
Wonderful... I love historical world building. Twilight's filly characterization is spot on as well.
Oh the humanity/equinity. A little thing to brighten my day.
The biggest question, given a window older than Celestia, and the Unicorn Council raising the sun, and Celestia and Luna defeating Discord, is,
Was the system Heliocentric when the equines etc were not, or barely sapient, and it was when Discord decided to Uplift them, and for long enough, that they gained enough capability to defeat him, but by that time or as a last throw he made the system geocentric or whichever model is used?
Will any of the windows show the creation, or discovery of The Elements, or Tree, given the Castle in Everfree was built Over it? and will the Tree be a side effect of the Centric Shift and implimentation of Saturated Magic Enviroment?
If only the windows in living memory are stored, it means the 1800s are now slotted away where few people get to see the heros. No Shakespear, Brunel, Babbage?
the opening quotation mark is missing.
Is Rainbow bad at histoy or did you hesitate as to wich gender you wanted to give to Hurricane? 'Cause later on he is a he...
So you are really planning to publish some subsequent chapters?
Because it feel like an ending and yet it can easily be followed...
ps: pretty sure it make 100 by now, congrats!
Oh boy, a museum story!
Hope she means one of the curators. If a director is setting exhibition policy there's already something wrong.
I like this. I like this very much.
*who it had
This was gorgeous to read. I look forward to more. I happen to have a fascination with stained glass.
7687473
Maybe Hurricanes gender is in question historically and Rainbow prefers the idea that she's female.
Given we're told the Heartwarming tale isn't quite correct Hurricane might be an aggregate of several real life ponies rather than an individual.
7687473
7688699
It's not a typo. That should be elaborated on further down the line.
7687648
Maybe the director agrees with whoever is responsible for that policy, and just happens to be the one who stuck in Celestia's mind?
7688251
In that case, have you read the Mistborn books by Brandon Sanderson? It's not a huge part of the story, but stained glass does show up a fair bit (especially in the original trilogy), and I remember quite liking some of the parts in question.
And wow, I can't believe I only just realized that I actually (finally) could dig out my old stained glass supplies again and try getting back into that.
Thanks for the (obviously intentional) reminder!
7686887 I don't know about the author's inspiration, but this was actually a common method of making history available to the masses in the Middle Ages. Because most people couldn't read, the stories were put in the windows so that they could see it, like a picture book for little children. The reason it was mostly done in churches is because A) They were more likely to have the money, because they didn't have to fund the wars that the nobles did, and B) Their stories were deemed more important. To the nobles, there was no reason for commoners to know the nation's history. More often than not, that would be detrimental to the ruling family's claim to the throne. The churches, on the other hand, wanted everybody to know about what the Scriptures taught. Well, what they deemed to be the important parts, anyway. That's why most stained glass windows are religious in topic.
I get really excited when there's a historical question that I know the answer to. It doesn't happen often. And I' favoriting this story. It's an absolutely brilliant premise
I'm kinda surprised there wasn't a small end point of Twilight explaining it to Dash and showing her the museum.
I came here for the easy joke about how Commander Hurricane was hopelessly overdramatic and ended up busting all his Historical Commemorative Stained Glass Windows with his Dramatic Entrances, but received a nice oneshot about history and worldbuilding.
I am certainly not disappointed.
7686775
Nope! I mean, unless you count SGJ chapters as individual stories, in which case, yes.
7686887
Well, it was kind of a mix of things. I've always liked stained glass since it's pretty, and I've been to the stained glass museum on Navy Pier in Chicago. Then in the episode where Spike got his window, I thought about how if every noble deed rated a window or two, than the whole castle would have nothing but, unless they moved them somewhere else, and the idea was born mostly from there. At the very end, I'll have a blog post explaining all the details.
Besides what 7689025 said (which, as far as I know, is true), I think one downside to stained glass windows is that they're about the hardest thing to move when compared to books, tapestries, sculptures, etc. So I think that would have been a factor which would also have somewhat limited their really widespread use as a teaching tool, at least on Earth. On the other hand, a woodcut in a book can't really compare to the light shining through a stained glass window.
Well, the sunlight connection certainly wouldn't have hurt; after all, Celestia is the one bringing the glass to life. And it's also a good showcase for skill, too, which I think would be a reason ponies would do it.
That would give it a whole different look, wouldn't it? Or the windows being lit by unicorn auras; that might really change how they looked, too.
Twilight is one of those ponies where introducing her to so many things that are new to her all at once might cause her brain to explode as she tries to process it all at once.
7686993
Do you mean the quotation mark? If so, it looks okay on my end.
7686994
Yup. Some of them would have had to have come from there.
7687013
Thank you!
7687353
It's always the little things that make life great.
7691892 No prob.^^
7687442
I think that the sun worked the same way then as it does now, but it was just other natural processes that Discord broke. However, I don't believe that we have any good answer in canon, so I suppose it's possible that everything worked the normal way until Discord messed it up, in which case those unicorns who were raising the sun back in tribal times were doing it in defiance of Discord.
Probably yes in to the first; as for the second, maybe. I think that some things in Equestria probably happen just due to extra magic scattered here and there.
Well, the museum is open to anypony who wants to see, and certainly is going to have every significant piece of glass that isn't still in the palace. And of course ponies would also have other historical records, like books.
7687473
Thank you!
That's on purpose. And in canon, she can't even remember the names of famous historical Wonderbolts.
Yes. This is not yet complete.
It does! Thank you!
7687648
That's fair. I'll change it.
7687707
Thank you!
Correction made; thank you!
7688251
Thank you! I also love stained glass.
Wouldn't writing a story where ponies are making it be something? Hmm....
7688699
Or Rainbow just assumed.
7689025
My own headcanon is that near-universal literacy for the ponies is a very recent thing; the Mane 6 are the first generation where nearly everypony knows how to read or write. So for the ponies, it's still a good reason for doing it.
Man, that feeling when you've got the right knowledge for the moment.
Thank you!
7690088
Twilight and Dash visiting the museum will be the next chapter.
7690124
Oh, man, if I'd wanted to go the comedy route, that would have been brilliant.
"Rainbow, how many windows do you have in your house now?"
"Well I used to have four, but I broke them all. Why?"
7689025
Thanks for the information! It makes sense that the church would be primary responsible. They always have such a sense of opulence in the old days, especially the Catholics.
7691886
Big and fragile are fairly significant downsides when it comes to looking at the practicality of a work of art/teaching material. Makes it harder to move/hide and more likely to break when hard times come. While woodcuts cannot compare in an aesthetic sense they do have the added benefit of being easier to make and produce. They're not designed for the same function. Stained Glass is meant to awe and inspire (at least in a church), while the woodcut is for more widespread distribution. I think that's a good thing too, would stained glass be so impressive if it was everywhere and widespread? I'm not certain.
True, but trying to drip feed her information little by little is likely to frustrate her just as much. She just has to know everything! It's similar that Phil Collins song in Disney's Tarzan, without the romantic undertones (I think. The purple pony loves her books). Her brain may explode, but deep down it is what she really wants.
7691958
Glee!
7691933
...and her name will be Lead Came.
Very nice!
I just remembered another story about the stained glass windows by Titanium Dragon: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/229065/1/forever-and-again-and-again/of-eternal-magic
Lot of storys on glass to be told.
This is a stained glass window. All craftsponyship is of the highest quality. On the item is an image of ponies and apples. The ponies are laboring. The apples are being eaten by the ponies. The apples are screaming. The image relates to the founding of Ponyville by the Apple family in CE 1146.
Ooh, very nice way of commemorating all the great ponies who can't fit in the Expository Hall. Definitely looking forward to Dash's reaction.
7825089
The Apples are just lucky that they founded Ponyville by a river with no carp in it...
Will there be more?
9515745
Yes, eventually. Don’t wanna make any firm promises, but I do have most of the second (and final) chapter written, I’ve just never found quite the right ending for it.
Revisiting this gem in 2020 after an OTPP update, just enjoying being able to swim around in the delicious worldbuilding potential that is Equestrian history. Kudos once again, Admiral.
Also rather bittersweet to read this at the current point in human history, where my country is experiencing violent convulsions that are rooted in our past (and also involve our historical monuments). We're struggling to find that balance of honoring the honorable things while renouncing the dishonorable, but not forgetting how we came to be, which is of course a complicated story. Some people seem ready to just smash the sordid reminders of less enlightened times and be done with it, which might be well-intentioned, but is also worryingly simplistic. Stained glass doesn't grow back.
Really love Celestia's take on it:
Would that such wisdom prevailed among us humans with our painfully-short attention spans...
10286824
Thank you!
Your country may also be my country (or perhaps not)--either way, you’re right, it’s complicated. As you’d imagine of late, that’s been a topic of interest in the community here and the community at large. For my part, some of my ancestors fought and died for a less-than-honorable cause and while I can’t pretend that didn’t happen, I also can’t accept that they made the right choice simply because they ultimately produced me (I’m speaking actual biological ancestors, rather than figurative) . . . I think in the case of my family, at least, we understand that this was a thing that happened in the past; that there is an heirloom which has been passed down through the ages, and that it has value as a family heirloom but it’s not who we are now.
That passage was written long before the current debates, discussions, civic unrest, etc, and yet . . .
There are clearly things which ought to be shoved into the dustbin of the past, maybe learned about briefly in a history class and then forgotten. There are other things which should be honored, which should be proudly displayed as a monument to the hopes and dreams of the people. And than there’s the broadest class of things which fall into a grey area which changes with time and place and current philosophy that perhaps should be destroyed or perhaps should be kept or maybe ideally kept but with context. What fits where is hard to say sometimes, and really can be complicated by a bunch of factors, not the least of which is our modern interpretation of what it means.
Man, this one can generate a bit of drama right now.
10306332
I know. Assuming I get off my lazy butt and post the second chapter sometime soonish, new readers are going to think that it was written in response to current events, when in reality it was literally years ago. (In fact, the story as a whole dates back to 2012.)