Have you heard the tales of the gallant Sir Talon? Equestria had never seen his like; a warrior without peer, and a gentlecolt with a wit sharper than his sword, he defended the land from countless threats! No trouble was too minor for such a humble servant of the realm, but no threat was too great for his courage, either!
Though he had been born and raised in a foreign land, he felt destiny call him to Celestia's court; through his mighty deeds, he came to be recognized as one of her greatest agents, but such accomplishment engenders dangerous envy. Even for a noble knight of the realm, things were rarely as straightforward as they ought be; what awaits you are tales of derring-do, intrigue, betrayal, and the burden of a hero whose secrets were darker than Luna's night, so the fainthearted should turn away now...
... for the tale that awaits you may not be all that it seems.
I think I know the identity of our narrator, though I can't help but wonder who his audience is.
I can already tell this is going to be awesome. I like Talon already.
(thanks for the heads up about signatures on comments)
6895506
No problem, and glad you like my work so much! It was quite nice suddenly getting a barrage of comments.
By the way... Did you read The Queen and I before reading this?
6895528 I'm kind of on a Chryssie binge, reading any stories with her I can (as long as nothing horrible happens to her in them), I found this verse and its stories really intriguing.
Hah, read all available stories in this verse, going along the reading order pricier at the time.
Cya
Raziel-chan
I like Talon even more, if that's how he approaches conflicts he's on. And the two dragonflies were hilarious.
Cya
Raziel-chan
To understand another creature, flap a mile in their wings. Or something like that. In any case, here's hoping this will satisfy the oh-so-finicky audience. Probably won't, though.
This was glorious. On every level.
nice
Enjoyable.
Ah, subtle tragedy. Though given the interruptions, I think I'm getting a sense of the audience. I don't want to say anything just yet; it will be interesting to see if I'm right.
*sniffles*
Sir Talon is a hilarius character
7216710 Glad to hear you think so. He's actually from another story I wrote, The Queen and I. I enjoyed his dialogue so much I decided he needed his own sidefic to be wacky and smarmy in.
7217981
I know, I read all off your fics already
7218645 D'aww. I've become discouraged in my authorship lately, as it seems my stories garner very little attention or feedback. It's good to know a few people are interested.
That left me a bit teary eyed... Kinda makes me want to read some more stories taking place after the conclusion of the main stories, to maybe see Cecily going back and doing stuff that she couldn't before.
7218740
You are a funny and creativ writer.
Don't dub your self.
I see I was correct about the audience.
In any case, a very touching story, even if it didn't have nearly enough action for most of the listeners. Thank you for it.
A crushing one.
That's because people are too busy clicking to the next chapter and next story to leave comments. Since there's a whole saga/meta-verse here to explore.
Or at least I am. I member one chapter you had ended with an author note to asking for readers to leave chapters. At the end of that particular chapter? I thought no way, I'm not stopping. I considered leaving an ironic comment about refusing to leave a comment . . . but that would've involved stopping.
Let's say this. I've been thinking of the changeling caste system when I see bright collections of colors now, matching the colors to casts that I can remember. This puts it next to A Novel Tale and Conversations at a Canterlot Cafe as a changeling fic with immersive world building that makes it something special.
That said, I think my journey into this universe *might* highlight a problem other people have getting into it
The first fic I read in this series was "If Fear Divides, Courage Unites". I read it months ago. I thought it was decent and moved on to other stories. I think I saw the Iggleverse timeline list. That probably looked kind of intimidating, and I wasn't really interested in Cheersalis because it looked like a simple comedy story that didn't really have interesting world building or themes going for it. Actually, the "duplicate" plot sounds almost like a standard plot you'll find in western animation. I didn't actually read Cheersalis until, well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'd like to add that the initial set-up may also come off as odd; the stories are all about a cultural exchange, and but even the earliest story in the timeline takes place when the signing of a peace treaty is already happening. That jump from canon world to a world where Chrysalis is signing a peace treaty might also make people pass the story, since there's this interesting peace treaty development and rather than explain it the story seems to be focused on some wacky clone shenanigans happening on an unexplained pretense.
Anyways
Recently I read another one of your sidefics, and seeing there were others I started reading the sidefics, although feeling slightly left out.
And then I saw Fading Embers.
The emotions in the story, as well as the combined story of the other sidefics, I enjoyed so much that I started reading The Queen And I. And after leaving a confused comment on the first chapter of that story, I finally decided to read Cheersalis so that I could understand the whole universe.
I actually think this 'verse has a similar trouble to My Little Pony itself, in that single stories that can work standalone don't really do the 'verse justice, and the ones that do the 'verse justice are not standalone.
There's also the element that many of the side fics are about such different stories. Prime example being when I finish the Queen And I saga I look at the fics after it and I think "I don't care about these stories, I wanna know what happened with the characters/events I just read about". Which story connects to which can seem random judging by the titles. When they see a story line that interests them, like the changeling from Fading Embers, only a thorough review of *every* other sidefic in the series reveals all the stories relevant to the character's journey. Counter-intuitively, stories that share titles are only connected by themes. It's poetic, and original, but not really helpful to the reader when sometimes a title only makes sense to them after they've read it.
That said, once the stories actually ARE read, I think it's an enjoyable universe, and once the characters are known it's a treat to hear more about them.
I think this universe is a gem. And I very much look forward to the next installment.
7401613 Thank you for your detailed commentary. I've often wondered about how approachable the Iqqelverse is, and that's a big part of why I made that list with instructions on how to read through it. There's not much more I can do for it at the present, but it really invigorates me to hear that you read through all of the stories, and recognized how the titles are designed to make sense after you've read through them.
The Iqqelverse, from start to finish, was originally designed to be subtly reinterpreted in retrospect as you learn new things about it.
7401665 I would suggest putting together lists of fics that involve specific characters, for example featuring or linking to a list of fics that involve Krittith/Cooke in the descriptions or last chapter author notes for stories that involve one of those characters.
I re-read "If Fear Divides, Courage Unites" today and remembered why I didn't really remember it; a lot of it would've just not been very meaningful without the related stories. I think a list of specifically the stories that were part of Krittith's story in the story description would've been very helpful. Or if the Iqquelverse main list had notes next to story titles listing fics as being part of Astra/Stargazer's story or Krittith/Cooke's story (or in the case of Infusions 2, both)
I liked how over the course of the vignettes who is being told the story is gradually made clearer, and the speaker's nature similarly is hinted at over time before being rendered essentially clear. Seeing more about him than what's been done here and in TQ&I3 would be nice. It's also found the look at Celestia to be more interesting than most of what's been in the series (at any rate after "Fidanity"), since its focus is more on how she's interacting with someone (people, really, counting Cecily) who she both doesn't have preexisting relations with/history, and who isn't important to her role as princess of Equestria in the way that Chrysalis or the Bearers are.
Also, although I already knew it happened, I found Cecily's musical success to be more affecting in this story than "My Language is Music," since it's more immediate and observed via her brother rather than a curious admirer.
I'm a little bit confused on what happened here. Did Talon give Celestia the letters of Cecily? And what about the old knight's quest?
7401665 Seconding at least the first paragraph of what Crocoshark said; these stories have grabbed me like nothing else in the past few months. I can't really comment on the rest of what he said; that would take time away from reading the next one!