• Member Since 11th May, 2012
  • offline last seen Sunday

Emeral Bookwise


A lonely pony amidst the darkness, ever longing for companions to share the night with.

Sequels2

T

This story is a sequel to Boast Busted


Scholar … Prodigy … Fugitive …

After an unfortunate turn of events, Twilight Sparkle has found her self on the wrong side of the law and on the run. It wasn't her fault though, well maybe a little, but Trixie was the real criminal. That witch, she had tricked Twilight into all it! If only there was some way to prove to Princess Luna who the real Element of Magic should be.

If only there was some way…

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-- This story is set in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, and is a sequel to the events of Boast Busted. If you haven't already read that fic you should consider doing so for improved context.
-- Twilight Sparkle vector by Klarnetist

Chapters (12)
Comments ( 341 )

I was wondering what had become of this song! It certainly looks like you've got the making of quite a tale, here.

So, um... yeah, this is a thing now; Don't ask me how or why. :facehoof:

Anyway, this might have only been a one time deal, although chapter 2 is already well underway, and I do have further ideas on how this might proceed after that. Oh, and just to cut off dead-end speculation, no, she is not going to recruit the other M6. That said, don't count on me getting back to this regularly or soon, but next part should be up before the weekend is over. Updates to this story will still likely be infrequent and/or inconsistent at best. Then again, I never thought even this much would go up, or that I'd write a good chunk of Ch2 before Ch1 even went live, so who knows? :twilightoops:

Also big thanks go out to the folks at Friendship is Witchcraft for writing the music that inspired all of this. :pinkiecrazy:

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Oh and sorry, Fizzy Orange. Looks like I lied about my next fic having no L!M6. I didn't mean for this to happen instead, honest. :ajsleepy:

Hmm. So far Silverstar is reminding me a bit of Rooster Cogburn from True Grit. The 2010 one, not the 1969 one, but only because it's been forever since I've seen the 1969 one. If you play up that aspect (heck, go for the 1969 one and just make him Pony Wayne), you'll probably be able to get the comedy back.

Oh god......Is it sad that I actually sung the lyrics out loud as I was reading?

Whoops, you forgot to close your bold and color tags.

788174
What? Where? Story looks completely fine on my end

788102
It pleases me that my lyrics were good enough to sing.

785010
Ah yes. John Wayne. Patron Saint of Westerns and War movies alike.

:rainbowlaugh: ...at least my father seems to think so, anyway. He has a bible and a cross by his bed, and a picture of John Wayne bigger than the fireplace over the mantle, and a replica of the man's rifle over THAT.

Speaking of which, where do you want this to take place, chronologically?

788187 I see problem with the colour tags too myself. Everything turned lavender until the end.

anyway this is something interesting. I wonder how it'll end up :twilightsmile:

I'd almost want to see a version of this...

This is going to be epic. Epically hilarious...

788258
Still not seeing it on my end, and the tags all seem to check out. Fimfic or some specific browser/configuration would seem to be the one :derpytongue2:ing, not me.

788245
Oh my, I have absolutely no clue. Wasn't even sure this would make the cut in a way that mattered. As of right now, since none of the action yet crosses over with the L6, I'd leave it's placement as ambiguous.

788306
Well, that was a decidedly contributing factor responsible for inspiring the last two words of the chapter.

Oy, that was intense. :rainbowhuh:
WRITE MOAAAR. :twilightangry2:
...Please. :scootangel:

Poor Twilight. I like that you managed to evoke feelings of sympathy for her, despite her being so clearly in the wrong and having almost razed a village. I don't want her to succeed, but I don't want her to be totally humiliated and embarassed either. :-)

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I think we can both be a great help to each other, sheriff Silverstar."

I think Sheriff is supposed to be capitalized, but otherwise, this is brilliant! :pinkiehappy:

788521
As per my comment up top, "MOAAAR", is already in the works. Things will be a bit different with each chapter though, as each of the next 5 will be told mostly from the perspective of whatever hapless pony Twilight is trying to recruit. So word of warning, there may be unexpected tonal shifts ahead, but I hop that everyone can enjoy the ride.

788598
Mixed feelings you say? Then I have been successful.

oh, this is gonna be nuts. And maybe not a good way, either. Twilight... don't make me side against you. It's Trixie you're taking on, after all. She's my number one pony. :trixieshiftleft:

Given the poor foal's over-reliance on dictionary meanings and vital statistics, she's going to make a big mistake....especially since she totally ignores the one advantage Trixie has over her in both timelines: the ability to read other ponies. What she'll probably do is fill the elemental slots thusly:

1) Generosity: Locate some jerk who donates loads of bits to charities to get his/her name in the papers; said creep would be like L!Rarity who's only generous so she can help herself.
2) Kindness: The local analogue to a TV preacher. Said icon would be all benevolence in public and thus fool somepony as blind to nuances as L!Twilight but actually be a pious fraud.
3) Honesty: A stroke victim deprived of the ability to filter out what s/he says.
4) Loyalty: Some poor drone like Octavia who's the pawn of an ambitious noble and knows it.
5) Laughter: A crazy pony who makes L!Pinkie Pie look as timid as L!Fluttershy.

Since she wants very much to not get the point because doing so would mean that she should have taken the time to have a life, Twilight is opening herself up for not just another humiliation she'll learn the wrong thing from but becoming another Octavia: the cat's-paw of somepony like Blueblood.

793166
Well, you got one of those mostly right, and another is pretty close depending on how broad a stroke you'd like to take.

And yeah, Twilight is relying on fairly text book like definitions, but given that she is such a giant nerd, it's a pretty advanced text book. So, while her interpretation will be very literal, she does possess a conceptual grasp that goes beyond the smallest most basic understanding. In some cases she might actually miss the mark by interpreting.

793233
True. Still, though, this will not end well for her. I'd say by the time the crossover gets here, she'd be in a really bad way. I have no idea what RainbowDoubleDash has planned for her but I really, really, really do not like L!Twilight's chances of avoiding a lengthy stretch in the custody of the Shadowbolts when the dust settles. Getting a shut-up-Hannibal speech from M!Twilight might be what finally gets her to look in the mirror for the source of her woes.

793332
Only problem there is that she might mistake M!Twilight for the mirror.

793371
Mirrors don't shake you and tell you "Get a grip, lady!!" They also don't weep openly in sympathy for intellect gone rancid and potential squandered in the pursuit of vengeance. Even though the cross-over will be the first time she actually lays eyes on Corona, L!Twilight is marching down the same path to being somepony who could have been a hero but let negativity destroy her. As they say, there is no fire like passion, no shark like hatred, no snare like folly and no torrent like greed.

793414

Mirrors don't shake you and tell you "Get a grip, lady!!" They also don't weep openly in sympathy for intellect gone rancid and potential squandered in the pursuit of vengeance.

Are you so sure about that? This is Twilight —off her rocker— Sparkle we are talking about here after all.

794725
Point taken. She's THE example of RainbowDoubleDash's premise: her less desirable traits (obsessiveness, intellectual arrogance, refusal to admit that she might be wrong) have been amplified while her Harmonic traits (humility, the ability to find worth in others, her ability to laugh at herself) have been all but eliminated.

795275
I'm not sure M!Twilight is all that humble. The only real example of that is Boast Busters and there it was more out of fear of driving away her new found friends, who seemed so put off by Trixie's bragging. I also wouldn't say she's all that good at laughing at herself, more so she's good at working her self into such a stressful frenzy that when it finally all cracks laughter is all she's left with.

The real core of her harmonic qualities, as I see it, is her ability to put faith and trust in others, and to make them do the same for her; the ability to some how inspire disparate individuals to cooperate and achieve a greater goal. She is the magic at the center of the M6s collective friendship; the glue that binds them all together, making each a better pony than they would be alone.

795324
Here, she lacks that ability to put trust in others and be trusted. Sure, she tells herself that she's doing this for the greater good but she really just wants a pat on the head and a cookie for being smarter than the ciphers who only exist to tell her that she's special.

795374
Yeup, though I do at least intend to try showing that while her harmonic quality is lessened in the the Lunaverse, it is still there, no matter how much her more unsavory traits seem to overshadow it.

795410
Too bad that she didn't have a focus for it here. One of the things that happens in both worlds is that her very positive trait of being able to focus on details no one else sees has a revenge effect: it blinds her to the bigger picture. In the Celestiaverse, we see her being too wrapped up in herself to realize ponies do care and enchanting dolls. Here, without someone actively showing her the kindness she craves, she thinks that friendship is a waste of time (all the while blaming the ponies she shoved away for her own failure to act) and gets goaded into smashing up villages by abrasive show-offs.

I'm actually a little disappointed. I'd hoped Twilight would be the cause of the the Crisis crossover. It seems more interesting to me than just Corona, though of course she could take advantage

811551
Don't take anything here as any indication how the crisis crossover will go down. RDD is writing that, not me. This is mostly just a work of passion that I wrote while in a bit of a weird mental place. I have no idea how, or even if, it relates to the wider Lunaverse canon yet. I'm trying to keep consistent, but that's about all I can say.

Right now my focus is purely on telling what I hope is something of an introspective set of character pieces, largely inspired by Twilight's inability to come to terms with her own faults. Though most of that will be indirect for the next few chapters, as I intend to introduce each of her selected alternate elements through their own perspective so that I can focus on the faults that make them poor choices.

Whether I succeed at any of that will be up to the audience to decide. Witch should all start soon when I post the next chapter in a hour or so.

Can't believe I forgot to do this last time, but a huge thanks goes out to LDLUYAB for proofing both chapters, and I mustn't forget Mally either, he's been helping out too. Without them my writing might still have all the same content you people all seem to like or whatever, but it would read like cheep trash.

Anyway, here we meet the first of Twilight's "team". Sorry if I dialed up the wangst too much for any of your, and if so, well, I hope you'll stick around a little bit longer. They won't all be so down and dreary, in fact, I think this should be the most depressing it gets, though possibly not the darkest.

Anyway, next up should be Laughter who's shaping up to be just about this guy's polar opposite. I might even get to add back in the COMEDY tag I originally wanted to put on this story. Unfortunately though, It may be a while. The mania that drove me to write all this in the first place has mostly passed, plus I've got a backlog of 17 or so chapters form various fics that I'd like to be reading.

And there's the "Lunaverse Burn" that gets me when we've got Twilight involved anywhere. Actions so terribly in character... and she's got the "Universe's Buttmonkey" flag ticked.

Poor girl can't make a friend without it being a crisis...

D'you think that any of her "elements of failmony" will ever actually be her friends? OR show up at her inevitable trial as witnesses for the defense?

This certainly paints a rather dark picture of Apploosa in the Lunaverse.

This is pretty great. I cracked a smile at the magnificent seven joke and even the mention of 'destiny' that 'manifest' itself hehehe.

Poor Twilight though :( the way she is clearly out of her depth in this whole situation, being a fugitive and all that jazz.

812144
Can't really say much for certain without spoilers. At a guess 2 maybe, 2 hard to say, 1 definitely not.

812335
Glad the Magnificent Seven reference made it though. Wish I could claim credit for manifest destiny, but that one is just a happy accident that I never noticed until just now.

814933
She's on the run from the law. Her whole life has been turned upside down. She's probably operating at some degree of a Lesson Zero mode. From her own warped vantage point I'd wager this "plan" of hers probably seems very well thought out and organized; her brain's just not firing with all cylinders, such as it were.

An excellent portrayal of a shattered life, there. I... don't know if it's gonna end well for him or not. I like to hope it will.

Notes:

- So she picked a Failure Knight as her element of Loyalty. This can only end well. (Also, I expect to see her dismissive commentary about the rest of the Luna Six owing her to failure to find value in ordinary ponies.)
- Well, that puts paid to Over a Barrel, doesn't it? The Apple Trust had the bisons exterminated for the money. This makes Applejack the most sympathetic of them.
- Judging from what I saw in Boast Busted, she's been running on fumes for years.

816031
Thank you. It was a bit rough to write in that mind set, kinda dropped myself into a bit of funk in the process, but it seems the effort paid off. Anyway, I too hope things work out for Silverstar, he's pretty down on himself right now but he seems to have an honest soul underneath it all (which is really the bulk of his troubles as were he truly the wicked pony he thinks himself to be he wouldn't be having these regrets). Too bad I have little clue where this is all going yet and so can't make any guarantees.


812324 816349
Minor Technical Note: According to RDD, L!Equestria has different borders than M!Equestria. I'm playing that some similar scenario accrued, but the name and location of the settlement has been left intentionally vague, as has the identity of the natives.

Also, Silverstar's statement that he no longer has a town to be sheriff of would suggest that it was the natives who won the conflict, though clearly not without losses, while the Apple Trust was forced to withdraw.

816461
Which would feed into Applejack's paranoia. The Night Court would see it as a minor skirmish brought on by ponies who overreached. AJ would see it as a sign of the end times.

816473
Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration. I'm not sure I believe AJ is quite that paranoid. She'd certainly be unhappy about what happened, but I'd like to think it's the loss of life that would trouble her more than the loss of profit/production.

816495
True enough. The problem is that she tends to see herself as the only thing standing between Ponyville and famine; this might color how she sees things just a little bit.

Well, I guess this Twilight has the same compulsion to FIX EVERYTHING, just way less to lose.

Looking forward to the next "Meet the Team" chapter.

Thumb-bump and cheers!

811913 17? That's nothing, try 50+ appearing at the same time. Also, sorry it took me this long to read; it was a good chapter, and I definitely want to see the rest. I wonder who the other 'elements' are going to be...

829899
I could probably match that 50 if I actually started reading the 60+ stories in my get-to-it-latter bin.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying and curious to meet the rest. I'd love to just tell you, but SPOILERS and all that such.

829926 heh, those updates all came from one story, actually. For over six weeks FiMFiction seemed to forget I was tracking it, and the author somehow manages to update everyday. So yeah...
And please, as much as my annoyingly powerful curiosity is driving me to find out everything, I think you should keep the no-reveal strategy going, thanks.

I really liked this one. I think Clover's personality comes through really well (and now I'm quite curious about how she got her cutie mark). She definitely seems more... sane... than the other 3 members of the fake elements so far, which makes her a useful addition to the team. And I have to admit that I'm kind of rooting for her, even though the fake elements are pretty obviously doomed. She just seems so happy that, despite all her misfortunes, she can bring joy to others.

Someone sing this version of Pinkie's Brew and post it to youtube, NAO.

This was a fun one. Clover has a mentality I can definitely identify with. "Laugh, because the only other options are anger or sadness."

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