Luna Trolls an Archaeologist
Luna and Twilight emerged from the hotel room into the bright morning sun. Twilight yawned. Even though she had grabbed a few hours of sleep while Luna had been working on paperwork, she was still pretty beat. She felt a slight twinge of jealousy that her companion functioned just fine on an hour or two of sleep in the mid afternoon. “Where to now, Princess?” she asked.
Luna thought for a moment. “If we remember correctly, Captain Reinolds stated that he would be attending an unusually lengthy therapy session on this morn. However, we have heard that the Smithponian museum has just opened up a new exhibit, perhaps you would like to accompany us there?”
A museum! Twilight’s eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously at Luna’s suggestion “That sounds like a great idea, Princess! I’d love to!”
“We believe it is in this direction, come along.”
Twilight and Luna walked through the street, Luna greeting passersby and made small talk on the way over while Twilight stayed alert and scanned the streets for any pony that might be a threat. The fact that Luna stood out from the crowd and drew attention wherever they went made her task doubly stressful. Every pony wanted to come up and bump her hoof or just gush about getting to meet a princess. Studying every one of them for body language or movements that might indicate they were aggressive and making a snap decision as to whether or not they could be trusted within the span of a second was draining. She was happy to finally reach the museum without incident.
It was the major downside of travelling with Luna as her body guard. The streets of Pensacolta were gorgeous, lined with colorful stalls and merchants selling local treasures to the tourists and local ponies. Palm trees had been planted in the middle of the wide thoroughfare, and their big broad leaves offered a shady refuge from the heat. If she had been traveling alone or with her friends she would have enjoyed taking in the local color and browsing the stalls. But as things stood she couldn’t let her attention wander for a moment. As crazy as the idea of a pony trying to attack the princess seemed to her, Luna was trusting her to be vigilant and Twilight had no intention of letting her down.
A huge banner hung above the main entrance. New This Month At The Smithponian, Come Discover The Lost Treasure Of Ouroboros! it declared. The facade of the building looked to be under renovation as well, the stonework near the top of the building had been partially disassembled and was covered in scaffolding. The two walked into the main lobby, Twilight paused as they passed from the bright outdoors into the more dimly lit lobby of the building.
“Welcome to the Smithponian Museum!” said the attendant at the information desk. “Wait... Princess Luna? I wasn’t told that you were visiting today.” Twilight recognized the very early stages of a panic attack in the young blue mare, barely more than a filly really, with a cutie mark depicting an information pamphlet. After months in Luna’s service she’d come to realize just how quickly most ponies would panic if they thought they had disappointed one of the Princesses in even the most minor way. Luna’s desire to lock herself away in the palace most of the time rather than always dealing with that had made a little bit more sense to her afterwards.
“Fear not, we are not here in any official capacity. What is thy name?”
“My name is Fact Check, your highness, it’s a delight to meet you!”
“Likewise! We are most pleased to make thy acquaintance. We heard of your wonderful new exhibit and wished to come by in order to view it.”
“The Ouroboros exhibit? Oh, yes of course! I’ll go get the curator who put it together right away. I’m sure he would love to give you a tour personally!” said Fact Check, overflowing with enthusiasm as she picked up on an opportunity to atone for her imagined slight.
“There is no need for that, we do not wish to be a bother-”
“Oh it’s not a bother at all! I’m sure the curator will insist as soon as he meets you, in fact, let me take you over to his office right away!” said Fact Check.
Luna looked down at Twilight, who just shrugged. There probably wasn’t a graceful way out of this situation without at least meeting the curator, might as well just go along with it for now. The two of them were led through the halls of the museum, Twilight catching glimpses of other interesting exhibits as they went. She knew she was lucky to have this chance to meet the curator, but she also wished that she could linger over the exhibit on ancient print and typography. Just for a few hours. That kind of thing couldn’t be rushed if you wanted to really appreciate it.
Fact Check stopped in front of an office door and pounded on it with her hoof. “Professor Secrets?” she called out “Would you come out here please?”
“Fact Check, I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed!” said a voice from inside the office. The door swung open to reveal an older earth pony stallion, his coat had once been a vibrant crimson, but now there were enough gray hairs mixed in to give the overall impression of a lighter scarlet color. “What could possibly be so... important... that...” his voice faded away as he saw the two ponies who accompanied Fact Check.
“We did not mean to disturb you, professor” said Luna “Twilight and I were just eager to see the new exhibit on Hippocamp culture and religion. We do not want to be a burden or inconvenience”
“What? No, it’s no trouble at all! It’s a privilege to meet you, my name’s Buried Secrets, and welcome to the Smithponian. I would be honored to show you around the exhibit, your highness. In fact we both will. Bronze! Get out here!” said the professor as he spun his head around to call back into his office, his blonde mane whipping around and into Twilight’s face. She spat out a few stray hairs.
“Just a sec, professor! I’m on my way” came a voice from the back of the office. It was crowded around the door, and Twilight wasn’t able to get a good look at the stallion the voice belonged to.
“Princess Luna!” exclaimed the voice. Professor Secrets moved aside to let the new pony through. From beside Fact Check and Luna, all Twilight could make out was the young unicorn stallion’s head that poked through the door frame. He seemed to be much younger that the professor, and his coat was an understated gray except where a stray beam of light happened to fall on it. That one spot burst forth with a vibrant silver glow that dazzled and surprised Twilight.
“We are very happy to meet you both. Allow me to introduce our associate, Twilight Sparkle” said Luna. The two stallions turned their attention to Luna’s companion, apparently noticing her for the first time.
“Charmed” said Professor Secrets before returning his attention to flattering Luna again. The other stallion wasn’t quite so hasty. Twilight noticed that the expression of awe-struck reverence he’d had while speaking to the princess had morphed into more of a goofy, lopsided grin.
“Hi” he said “I’m Bronze Bell.” He slipped past Buried Secrets out into the hallway, revealing a cutie mark that, sure enough, depicted an ornate bronze bell. Fact Check, apparently satisfied that the Princess was in good hooves, left to return to her post in the lobby. “Just call me Bronze, though. Everypony else does”
“Twilight Sparkle. But I guess you already heard that. I’m travelling with the Princess” said Twilight, bumping Bronze’s hoof. She was more than a little surprised that he was even addressing her. Most ponies ignored her entirely and fixated on Luna. “So what kind of special talent goes with a bronze bell?”
“Oh, this? I do artifact restoration for the museum, I have since I was a colt. Helps pay my tuition for graduate studies over at the local university”
“Wow! That must be so amazing to work in a museum! You’re a student too? My special talent is magic and back in Canterlot I study-”
“Twilight, we’re heading to the exhibit now. Care to join us?” Interjected Luna from a little ways down the hall.
Twilight blushed a bit at how caught up she’d gotten in her conversation. “Right behind you, Princess!” she said, trotting down the hallway after her and the professor. Bronze Bell turned to follow her.
The professor was going on and on about his credentials and career to Princess Luna, while Twilight mostly tuned out what he was saying while she looked around. Every once in awhile she would glance back towards Bronze Bell and catch him looking at her, but whenever their eyes met he just blushed and looked away.
He probably thinks you’re just some pampered noble filly travelling with Princess Luna. Twilight thought to herself. Too bad, he’s kinda cute.
The foursome reached the gallery where the new exhibit was on display. Professor Secrets cleared his throat to attract their attention. “Thank you for coming to visit our new exhibit here at the Smithponian” he began “The story of Ouroboros the sea serpent is one that pervaded the Hippocamp culture throughout the ancient era. The legends speak of him as a great beast that would raid their villages and attack their ships, stealing away their wealth and devouring their people. However, this all seems to have stopped when their fishing village made contact with the Kingdom of Equestria. At that point the elaborate cultural myth of Ouroboros broke down as trade with Equestria increased. More enlightened ponies such as myself have concluded that the tale of the sea serpent who robbed ships of their treasure to increase its hoard was, in fact, an elaborate metaphor for piracy and the negative effects of colonialism, which depleted the outer provinces of... um.. yes, Princess? Do you have a question?”
Twilight turned to look at the Princess, whose front hoof was raised into the air.
“More of a comment, really” said Luna “We are quite certain that Ouroboros wasn’t a metaphor.”
The professor scoffed “With all due respect, Princess Luna, I have devoted the last fifteen years of my life to deciphering the culture of the Hippocamp. I am the only living pony who can even begin to translate the now-extinct language they once spoke, and I am the foremost expert on their history. What makes you so sure his banishment was not a metaphor for stabilized trade relations?”
“We are eminently impressed by thy devotion to the Hippocamp people and their culture, Professor...” began Luna
The professor’s chest swelled with pride at the perceived comment. “Thank you, Princess! Now if you’ll turn your attention over this way-”
“...However” Luna continued “There is one piece of evidence that you have overlooked that convinces us that you are not entirely correct”
The professor’s face fell “What might that be, Princess?” he asked
Luna smiled. “We were there. We were the one who provided assistance to the Hippocamp people and banished the great serpent Ouroboros, who had raided their oceanic trade lanes for generations. It was the condition they gave for allying with Equestria.” she said “Celestia may have helped as well” she muttered as an afterthought, waving a hoof dismissively.
The professor was momentarily rendered speechless, but quickly recovered a moment later “That’s... that’s quite the tale, but since no pony can read the written record the Hippocamp left behind before their language died out-”
“We can read Hippocamp” said Luna “Speak it, too. We find it a most enjoyable language to curse in when the servants disappoint us. What a shame that no other speakers exist, we are sure that by now our accent is atrocious due to disuse”
Professor Buried Secrets could only gape at her, but was still unwilling to concede entirely. “That’s... that’s not possible. I sent a request to the palace for any materials on Hippocamp language over a decade ago...”
“Oh, Celestia doesn’t speak Hippocamp anymore, we suspect” said Luna “She’s only fluent in about a dozen languages or so, and knows enough to get by in a few more,” she smiled “We, on the other hand, have a bit more of a talent for it. We must not have been back from the moon when your letter arrived, or we suppose we could have saved you some time”
The professor glanced wildly back and forth around the room as he took all of this in. “So... I suppose that the story of the three artifacts that were brought together to seal him away and then enshrined in this land to maintain it isn’t actually talking about the importance of maintaining an even division of powers between the three branches of government” he continued.
“Nope, actual artifacts. Since we couldn’t take them too far away from the seal itself or risk them falling into the wrong hooves, we built a bunch of temples with lots of puzzles and traps and locked them away, as was the fashion of the time.” said Luna.
“Right! Because if you had all three of those and the ritual, you could either unseal Ouroboros or take control of it, just like the legends say!” said Bronze, who was practically vibrating with excitement “I knew it! I knew it wasn’t just a myth!” He turned to Twilight and stared directly into her eyes. She blushed a little at his earnest intensity, but his enthusiasm was catching “Do you have any idea how frustrating it is? To know, just know that an old story about some terrible beast sealed away over a millenium ago wasn’t just an old pony tale, but not have anyone believe you?”
Twilight giggled. “Better than you might think, actually” she said with a coy smile as she glanced at Luna, who rolled her eyes but wore just the slightest hint of a smile herself.
Bronze Bell went on, wandering the exhibit looking at the artifacts as if for the first time. “All the accounts of the ritual say the three main components are a plate, a bowl, and a knife, and we just restored a gorgeous plate that had been recovered from a tomb less than 50 miles from here! It must be the first one! We just need to find the other two!”
“Actually we think we see the bowl over here as well” said Luna “although for some reason it bears the label ‘Primitive Ashtray’” Professor Buried Secret was crestfallen as he thought about the two weeks of work he’d spent identifying that ‘ashtray.’
Bronze, however, was becoming even more excited. “It could all be here! We could perform the ritual again and-”
“NO!” shouted Luna “ABSOLUTELY NOT!" She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. “We will not permit that. The ritual presents an extraordinary risk to all of Equestria. It would undo the seal that has held the great serpent at bay for 1500 years. We made a very deliberate choice when we created it. Though the power and wealth the monster had accumulated tempted us greatly, sealing it all away was the responsible choice and one we would not see undone.”
Bronze was still shaken from being exposed to the Royal Canterlot voice. He recovered, but his enthusiasm had waned a bit. “Oh, I’m sorry Princess, I got kinda caught up in the moment there”
Luna put on the kindest smile she could muster “Do not trouble yourself. We admire your enthusiasm and have no wish to condemn you for it. The temptation is great, we will admit, but be assured only terror and darkness lie in that direction.” She extended a hoof to help him regain his footing. “Perhaps we could return to your office, we would be happy to answer any questions you might have about the grammar and syntax of the Hippocamp language?”
Bronze perked up again at the offer “Really? That would be amazing! Wouldn’t it professor?” he said, glancing back at Buried Secrets who muttered something unintelligible but followed along the others as they returned to his office.
Luna spent the next 45 minutes describing as much of the Hippocamp language as she could remember, while the two scholar ponies scribbled down their notes on parchment as quickly as they could. They were deeply focused and silent except to ask a brief question or request some small clarification of a particular detail. She also took a look at the artifacts the museum was in the process of restoring, pointing out whatever details she could remember regarding their use or cultural importance. Her revelation that the “important religious document” Buried Secrets had been struggling to comprehend for the past month was actually an ancient take-out menu finally reduced the poor stallion to tears.
Twilight and Luna took that as an invitation to leave the office waving goodbye to Bronze Bell, who pulled out a well-worn textbook and seemed to be cross referencing something with his new notes and Buried Secrets, who pulled out a flask and took a long pull from it.
Luna and Twilight walked back in the direction they’d come, wending their way through the museum’s other exhibits. “That was most enjoyable. We will have to remember to correspond with the professor about his studies more frequently” said Luna.
Twilight and Luna wandered the other exhibits until they began to grow hungry. Waving goodbye to Fact Check on their way out, they stepped back out into the mid-day hustle and bustle of the city. It had been several hours since they entered the museum and the city had sprung to life as the day went on. The once quiet streets were now packed with ponies rushing to and fro. Twilight and Luna stopped at the base of the stairs. “We are feeling peckish. What sort of lunch would you prefer, Twilight?” asked Luna.
Rather than answer the question, Twilight wrapped Luna in a field of her magic and flung her across the street.
Luna wasn’t hurt, even as she landed on her side, but she was startled by the outburst. “Twilight! What is the meaning of-”
She was cut off when the giant slab of rock landed on the spot she’d been standing a moment ago.
Twilight staggered back from where the rock had landed, only inches from her face. There had been no time to explain, she had just reacted after seeing the stone dislodge itself from the facade of the museum. Other pieces of stone, smaller but still heavy enough to crush a pony, were tumbling off the building. There was no way she was going avoid all of them. She pushed all her focus outward through her horn and created a small dome of purple energy around herself.
No sooner had the dome formed than the rocks crashed down over her. The shield protected her from the full weight of the stones but she felt each impact like a punch to her gut. In a moment it was over. Twilight redoubled her focus trying to push the rocks away from her with the shield, but they were just too massive to lift without better leverage. She couldn’t use telekinesis without dropping the shield, but if the shield went down she’d be crushed before she could clear away enough rubble to get out from under the pile.
“Twilight!” she heard Luna scream, muffled by the debris. The rocks began to shift and clatter against one another, then they simply exploded into dust and harmless pebbles. The cloud of dust billowed outwards and Twilight dispelled her shield. She couldn’t see anything but a wall of grey.
“Luna? I’m OK!” called Twilight before she began to choke and cough from the dust she was breathing in. “I’m over *cough* over here!”
Instantly the alicorn was standing over her. she grabbed Twilight and pulled her out of the dust cloud into the fresh air. Twilight coughed a few more times and inhaled the clean oxygen her lungs were screaming for. Finally she was able to look up Luna. She noticed that the dust must have irritated the Princess’ eyes; they were all red, and tears were running down her cheeks.
“Are you OK, Princess?” Twilight asked.
Luna looked at her blankly. “Are we OK? Twilight, you just... we thought you were... you could have been...” she trailed off and began to sob.
Ponies were gathering around the fallen rocks. Miraculously, no other ponies seemed to have been hurt in the collapse. Twilight realized how upset Luna really was, and led her down a quiet side street before anypony else realized she was there and turned to her for leadership. Luna didn’t look like she was in any condition to provide it right now.
“It’s alright now, Luna. I’m fine, see? I’m really good at shields, remember?” She gave a small smile. “Hey, come on, you know I’m tougher than that. Those rocks were nothing compared to some of the stuff you threw at me a few months ago.” Twilight hoped a bit of levity would lighten the mood.
It didn’t. Luna stared at Twilight, a haunted look in her eyes. “That stupid fight. If we hadn’t been such a foalish idiot back then, you wouldn’t even have been in danger today to begin with. It’s... it’s all our fault that you almost died!” Luna broke down again. She wrapped her front legs around Twilight and pulled her tightly against her as she cried. “We are sorry, Twilight, we are so sorry for everything.”
Twilight returned the hug without saying anything, and they stayed there until Luna was able to collect herself
“I think my appetite’s gone now anyway. Why don’t we head back to the hotel and regroup?” suggested Twilight. Luna sniffled, but nodded and managed a small smile. They made their way back to the hotel. Word of the construction accident at the museum was spreading like wildfire in the streets, and they were barely noticed as they walked in the opposite direction of the ponies jostling one another to get a better look at the scene.
A few minutes later they arrived back at the hotel. As her adrenaline rush wore away, Twilight felt a lot shakier on her hooves than she had a moment before. She could feel it dawning on her that she had, indeed, nearly died. It was building in the back of her mind, threatening to overwhelm her. She pushed back the slowly growing desire to hide in a corner sobbing her eyes out, but knew it was only a matter of time. Gotta keep moving, keep thinking about something else she told herself.
Luna pushed open the door to the suite they shared “We do not know about you, Twilight Sparkle, but we feel that we have had more than enough excitement for... one... morning...” she trailed off as she looked at the room.
The room had been torn apart since they had left it. Their belongings were scattered all over the room, and even the cushions and mattresses had been slashed apart. Luna was too shocked to speak, but Twilight asked the question that was on both of their minds.
“What the buck is going on around here?”
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Luna uses museums the same way the Doctor does; a way to keep score. Oblivious Twilight is my favorite aspect of her personality to write, she doesn't quite get interpersonal interactions 100% of the time.
This one ended up pretty long even though I actually trimmed a few parts here and there. There was a lot of ground to cover.
Looks intriguing. Don't have time to read now, but I'll make sure to give it a look sometime within the next few days. Putting it on the read later list now
I love it when characters that are thousands of years old go to museums. It makes for such funny scenes...
oh man...i as laughing so hard...I think the reactions to the crushing part went a smidge too fast...but dat cliffy...i was gone for 5 days and i come back to it...
Bronze: Must free serpent!!!!
Luna: Aw, hell no!
Twilight: Rocks, lots and lots of rocks...
Ancient take out menu. Priceless!
833346
I know that's what I would do if I had direct experience of the events the museum was covering, either via time machine or being Just That Old.
833414
Yeah, that gag was originally going to be its own paragraph, actually, but the museum part was starting to feel like it was dragging. Bronze was going to comment about how that explanation made more sense than the high priests offering to bury a second family member for half price with the purchase of a full priced burial every Tuesday
833426
Heh, Chapter 5 Twilight agrees.
833392
Luna: Twilight, find out who did this.
Twilight: Alright... what're you going to do?
Luna: We have a serpent to release.
833532
Lol
Well, now. A museum with a new antiquities exhibit, another case of an ancient threat to the stability of Equestria that was sealed away by the Princesses to be forgotten in the depths of time. It's a pity that the warning labels on everything have been lost in the intervening centuries, and now ponies are busy collecting the sealing elements into the same location. Just right for crazed treasure hunters to do a snatch and grab on the items.... Still not sure what the connection is to Luna specifically yet, though I would imagine that part of the seal is tied to her life force, so she either has to voluntarily release it, or she needs to be incapacitated so that it can be leveraged into release while she is out of action. Looks like Twilight will actually have a reason for her position in the near future.
Nice touch with the curator and his assistant, I'm sure that Twilight sees the reflection of her earlier self in Bronze Bell, and I have to believe that Luna was indulging her sense of alicorn mischief when she was doing identification and translation drills for Professor Secrets. I am a little surprised that when she found out that two of the three sealing items were already located in the exhibit that she didn't at least suggest that one of them be relocated elsewhere. (Frankly, I'm sort of surprised that one of them didn't get the "To the Moon!" treatment just on general principles right then and there.) Oh well, that would sort of short-circuit the adventure, so I'm sure that is off the plate for consideration. At any rate, with what is going on now, I'm expecting Twilight at least to be muttering to herself about stepping into a Daring Do novel without being warned first. Looking good, and I'll be waiting to see what happens next.
ooh somepony is pissed off and now they may be suspicious about whether or not those rocks falling were on purpose or not. heck as a body guard Twilight should take inventory of their belongings and immediately send word to the canterlot guard about a possible assasination attempt on the princess of the night.
Shit's about to get real. And I love the museum part!
i see a epic battle with a serpent coming on...
...nice...
833619
“Nope, actual artifacts. Since we couldn’t take them too far away from the seal itself or risk them falling into the wrong hooves, we built a bunch of temples with lots of puzzles and traps and locked them away, as was the fashion of the time.” said Luna.
The bolded part is why they had to stay close enough to the seal to be found now, no banishing them to the moon or they can't maintain the seal. Everything else may or may not come up during the course of the story.
833662
The shocking twist next chapter is that the mysterious figure talking ominously about plans was just a random pony that enjoys wearing cloaks and standing on rooftops while dictating internal monologues. Their room was due to wacky hijinks by an inexperienced maid, and the stone work actually was a random and tragic accident. The remaining 8 chapters of the story will involve Luna and Twilight getting ice cream and unironically discussing how glad they are that all that information about Ouroboros has nothing to do with their vacation.
833878
Everything beyond the next two chapters remains in flux, actually, so even I don't know what the big finish will be
833917
If I'm not constantly on the verge of being sued for emotional whiplash I'm not doing my job
833619
It's the whole principle of knowing where things are.
Assuming that some group or individual was attempting to collect all of the items, their absence from the ancient temples might not be noted (as evidenced by the very fact that Luna apparently wasn't aware they had gone missing from them in the first place). On the other hand, their absence from a high profile museum exhibit would be noticed very quickly indeed. And of course, Luna has no reason to suspect that anypony in their right mind would want to free the ancient evil serpent.
We, the readers, know better. Luna doesn't.
833949
Yes, it's a shame Luna didn't have access to tvtropes.org from the moon.
"What? It's been 1000 years already? Give me another century, I have 47,000 tabs open that I haven't read yet and I simply CAN'T go bring eternal darkness to the land until I find out what a 'Satchel Switcheroo' is!"
833958
Staving off eternal night?
Pssh... Give Discord access and we [the collective internet] will utterly break him the way he breaks so many others.
833929
What constitutes "too far away"?
It could be that just bringing them here is enough to weaken the seal.
834069
Remember how Bronze Bell mentioned that the plate was found less than 50 miles away? Pensacolta is just the modern name for the area that the Hippocamp tribe used to rule before they merged with Equestria. So I haven't figured out exactly where the "too far away" line would be, but it's more than 50 miles and less than the distance to a high security vault in Canterlot.
833986
I don't know if I could condone that kind of cruelty, even to Discord. Even evil chaos gods don't deserve 4chan
833949
I'll give you that, but I should point out that Twilight reads the Daring Do novels avidly, so even if she wouldn't admit that it could possibly have any place in real life, she ought to see that what's happening around them now would make a perfect Daring Do novel setting. I would think that there ought to be at least lip service to the concept from Twilight in the near future.
834092
4chan? I'm pretty certain we can leave Discord a babbling wreck long before it comes to that.
834110
You people are killing me. I keep half typing stuff in response to your posts and then I'm like "nope, too spoilery" and delete it.
834110
I think a few more events need to happen before Twilight makes that kind of connection.
There's a big difference between reading about something and living it, particularly if you're not actively trying to find parallels. Unless events were happening identical to one of the books, I don't honestly expect Twilight to start suspecting something similar until she's a little further in.
Current tally of potentially related Daring Do type events:
Ancient artifacts that are instrumental in keeping a big nasty monster sealed away are in the local museum (as opposed to an ancient temple).
Stones fell from the top of the museum from a portion that was shown to be under renovation towards Luna and Twilight.
Luna and Twilight's hotel room was ransacked.
Of these three, only the last one would be raising any sort of alarm bells in Twilight's mind right about now and there's nothing to tie it to the other two.
Luna, the demi-goddess of the night who was personally involved in the sealing of said ancient monster seems unconcerned about the artifacts at the museum, so why should Twilight be?
The falling stones could have easily been an accident as far as Twilight and Luna are concerned right now. That part of the museum is under renovation and this kind of thing can happen, especially if somepony got lazy about safety procedures.
My basic interpretation while reading it.
"Well, this is no real-"
"Nope."
"Well, then this must mea-"
"No."
"So basically-?"
"Yes, yes, and no."
"But that would mean-!"
"Exactly. Oh buck, a giant rock!"
Ermahgerd! Tom is and assassin!!!
YAY!
new update!
love this story and I can't wait how this goes on!
keep up the good work!
Keep it coming! So glad you are continuing this!!
833929
For some reason
When i read Fact Check's name i think of Fat chick
834113 One suggestion. Google with safelock OFF. That'll break him. Just do that and let him search whatever the fuck his cartoonishly innocent heart desires.
Rocks fall, nopony dies.
Twilight makes DAMN good shields. There must have been abot twelve tons of rock on her at least!
834113
Nah, just use Rule 34. The horrors that lie within will break him in 3 seconds.
Amen, Pinkie. Amen.
833929 right sounds legit
i will just sit patiently with Sir Lints-a-lot and Madam LeFlour to see it all unfold
Subtract U from Ouroboros and you get Gobal Saturation.
These assassins sure have a way of committing colorful suicide.
>Attempt to kill two very combat-oriented unicorns, one of which is an eldritch night goddess... with a rock
This will not end well. Also, Trolluna is awesome and amazing and wonderful.
So teh plot thickens. Hmm... (Luna emoticon COMING SOON)
834844
It runs in the family
What I wonder is why she didn't try teleporting out from the kill zone, although that could be chalked up to her first response being to get Luna safe, and then see to her own safety.
..wow. It really DOES run in the family.
It took me a while to really pick out the themes in this story, but once they began to click into place I really began to admire it beyond the simple enjoyment of the narrative. Luna really shows off her complete lack of understanding when it comes to mortality throughout this story, and it's used to good comic effect in this chapter as she casually tears down the life's work of a pony. That it's not done with malice (or even awareness) and that the guy's ego could use the deflating give it the comic edge, but there are nice subtle digs at the tragic truth that we don't get the wasted years of our lives back, and so mistakes way more heavily on us. Even the loss of two weeks spent misidentifying an ashtray is not insubstantial when your time to make an achievement in life is so limited.
Twilight crams every second of her life with the race to acquire as much knowledge as possible before her time runs out. When Celestia barred her from studying for six months it was a brutal punishment to her. Understandably, when she took up training in combat magic it was important to her to achieve in that arena... otherwise it was wasted time. Then Luna comes crashing through the roof, casually challenges her to a duel, tells her not to hold back and, after making Twilight thinks she was at least putting up a good fight, reveals that she had been toying with the unicorn all along. Saying "You did well for a mortal" is akin to saying "It's cute that you put so much effort into accomplishing something when you're far too temporary to really do so."
We see so many MLP stories dealing with how Immortals deal with having to live and form friendships with those who will pass away, it's really refreshing to see a story touch on what it does to a mortal having to live in the shadow of immortals. In this particular case, it seems to have made Twilight want to cram Luna's teeth down her throat at that moment. So she didn't hold back and let her have it on every front she could think of, and Luna damn sure wasn't going to be able to dismiss her efforts as inconsequential after that.
It's a very rich set up for this next phase of the story, and I'm curious to see where you go with it. While the two have obviously reformed bonds, I suspect they still need to truly deal with the underlying issues of that bout before they can both move on fully. Luna likely needed that prodding in her vulnerable spots to get her to stop wasting time, get off her flank and actually set about accomplishing things like her sister did during her 1000 year absence, rather than just moping about it, and Twilight needs to come to grips with the fact that she's not blessed countless years ahead of her like Celestia, Luna and even Spike, and do so in a way that doesn't leave her quite so unhealthily obsessed with gaining achievement before her time runs out.
Definitely looking forward to the next bit!
RELEASE THE KRAK-
I, uhm, mean,
RELEASE THE OUROBOROS!
Well, I hope we find out who's messing with Luna and Twilight, because this is getting serious...
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I envision Twilight's teleport having a bit of a "cast time" attached to it, a somewhat limited effective range (a long one, but she can't just pop between Ponyville and Canterlot with a thought for example) and not usable to reach somewhere she's never been. Because otherwise it's so overpowered it isn't even funny (and very frustrating to write around)
That said I agree that she could have teleported herself out, and even thrown Luna with TK then teleported if she hadn't been caught by surprise by the rocks falling. But shields are faster.
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Damn, I thought I was writing about ponies beating the tar out of one another
More seriously, I appreciate the feedback. That does seem to be the direction the Luna-Twilight relationship is developng. On paper they should be perfect for one another. They're both adorkable introverts with common interests. But they have very different worldviews and ideas about what's important. I really do think that Luna's take on the world (as I'm writing it, anyway) drifts pretty close to a serious Antisocial Personality Disorder. Plus Twilight is so high strung some times. It's perhaps unsurprising that the theme you picked up on would grow out of that.
I'm finding that it's quite difficult to strike the proper balance of plot development, action, and character growth in each chapter, but I'm enjoying the challenge. I'll see if I can hammer out two chapters by the end of the weekend, but there should be at least one.
When you introduced Bronze all I could think was "heh, looks like Twi is gonna have a 'study buddy' if you get what I mean. Wink, wink, nudge nudge."
With the falling of the facade, "Dammit, Bronze is prob evil and trying to eliminate the Princess. That will make any 'study sessions' kinda awkward."
Am I the only one who saw this: "The foursome reached the gallery" as something worse?
Please tell me I'm not alone
Rocks suddenly falling on you after you more or less ruin someone's life's work?
That's not suspicious, not at all...
You made the perfect setup for a romance story between Twilight and Luna.
Actually ordering them to stay together for 6 months.
And yet there is no romance tag!
Anyway next update?:0
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Because there's no romance subplot. Plus considering the whole "attempted murder" factor a romance would just feel kind of wrong.
And yeah, I'll get back to this at some point. I haven't totally abandoned it I just haven't written anything for it in, wow, over a month? Not going to be dumb enough to promise a particular date though, because I'd almost certainly miss it.
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Luna only had Twilight as a friend back then. And Twilight knew how Luna felt.
In that little battle they somehow said things they didn't meant and it might strenghten their bond.
And now Twilight and Luna have to stay together for a looong time while multiple threaths are trying to assasinate them.(or whatever you planned for them :))
could end up in a good romance and further extend the writing. But its up to you.
Finaly Twilight and Luna are acting like the real Twilight and Luna would act, I quess it in half pay up for what happened during the fight, keep up with good job.
I wore an onion on my belt as was the fashion at the time. The only Simpsons quote I know, of course something like it shows up here.
"Luna Trolls an Archaeologist" may just be the best chapter title I've seen around here.
(Of course, as a student of the injured profession, it's worth noting that the most traditional way to troll an archaeologist is to ask them about dinosaurs. That one practically goes back to Napoleon's time.)
All of my d'awws. All of them. Now this is getting good. As for the mysterious guy at the end of the last chapter? Much less ominous now. At least they're not trying to summon anons into Equestria. Could you imagine? It would be like Habbo Hotel combined with Armageddon. The event of Christian mythos, not the movie. Although, imagine Bruce Willis setting off a nuke in Canterlot...
Apparently, immortals do too.