Story Notes: Kirin Luthiery · 12:11am Dec 30th, 2022
If I tell you the author I was assigned for Jinglemas is the only fimfiction author I have a T-shirt bearing the name of, then that rather gives his identity away, doesn't it?
It's rather nice to be assigned an author who you've read several stories by. It increases the pressure, I suppose, but it also gives you a clearer idea of what to aim for.
If you've read a few Admiral Biscuit stories before, you'll know that other authors will often slap a Slice of Life tag on their low-stakes drama stories, but Admiral Biscuit actually means it. If you've not, I'd highly recommend Sunbeam, or, if you have a lot longer, Silver Glow's Journal (and my story would have been finished a week earlier if I hadn't discovered that one mid-December).
Admiral Biscuit's focus is almost entirely on ponies you haven't heard of, I think in most cases they're from previous generations rather than OCs, but with stories set in Gen 4. There's often a ponies-on-earth setting, usually examining human quirks we take for granted, and generally being adorable while they're at it. There's also an intense focus on day-to-day detail, whether it's the description of the things the characters are doing at work or the real-world locations where the stories are set.
The story prompt I received very much fit with those trends:
I don't actually have specific preferred ponies--instead, I like stories about background ponies, the ones that don't generally get stories. Any generation is fine. Slice of life is the preferred genre, but I'm open to anything.
I interpreted this as the rather fun and unique challenge of 'write an Admiral Biscuit story.'
My first attempt, of Fleur-de-Lis meeting Rain Shine the head kirin at a Canterlot Hearth's Warming ball didn't work, and got scrapped a thousand words in. It was talking about the misery of office Christmas parties, whether large or small, but the simple truth is that I've never really been to one and so was mostly just thinking about the 2003 Christmas Special of The Office.
So then I thought about what day-to-day things I could talk about in minute detail with any kind of authority or enthusiasm, and there was only really ever one candidate.
If you have a spare seven minutes, I'd give the video a watch. You'll have an absurd new appreciation for even the cheapest acoustic guitar. There's just so much that goes into it. The processes gone through in that video, when listed out just by title, take up three pages in a google doc. And each one takes a very long time.
Maybe it's not so bad when it's your fifth guitar build. You know what you're doing, and you have all the templates already made. But the first time around there's just so much to do. I bought the wood for my guitar five months ago, and I'm only through five items on the three-page list.
I figured, when I started writing, that I'd put a little asterisk somewhere early on in the story describing the build process, and then mention in the end notes that the asterisk marked the point that my build had reached. As it turned out, I had no need, because I'm just as slow writing stories as I am building guitars. So the story wraps up at the exact point I'm at with my guitar now, 29 seconds into the video above. In fact I held off writing the final section as you see it so I could get the building done first, and then write from experience. And the story couldn't have gone on any longer without hitting the absolute maximum word limit. Funny how things work out sometimes.
Kirin don't celebrate Hearth's Warming, I'm positing. Perhaps they will in time, but they've lived by themselves for so long that any myths around that tradition have been lost. I presume the kirin would have originally been part of Princess Platinum's unicorn faction, since they have horns and no wings, but I doubt even they know that now.
Instead they celebrate Leaf Day once a year, and what that means or how it's celebrated beyond exchanging gifts I leave up to you.
Magic would make cleaning sawdust out of a workshop so much easier.
East Indian rosewood, from which Cinder makes the guitar, is the most common wood for acoustic guitar back and sides construction. It's also the most common wood used for fretboards of acoustics, electrics and basses. If a fretboard is light coloured, it's probably maple. If it's dark then occasionally it's ebony, but otherwise it's almost certainly rosewood, which is beautiful and sounds great. Somewhat ironically for a story about ponies from Chinese mythology, it's now increasingly hard to get hold of, being listed on CITES appendix II, chiefly because of massively increased demand from China.
So on that note I'll wish everyone a happy Hearth's Warming and a great 2023, and hope you enjoy the story!
“I’m only myself when I have a guitar in my hands.”
-George Harrison“If I could sing, I wouldn’t be a guitarist.”
-Robin Trower
I'm known for more than just slice-of-life!
Some of 'em are previous generation, and some of them are virtually unknown background characters in the show. There's like a billion fics with Twilight Sparkle, but somebody needs to write about Apple Leaves, who has eight(!) foals.
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Ha! I mentioned one coincidence in my PM; I also scrapped my first Jinglemas fic a ways in. I would love to see a fic with Fleur and Rain Shine, that's one heck of a pairing . . . if you ever decide to finish it, let me know
I've also never attended an office party, so you could wildly speculate (especially if you tag it as a comedy. . . .)
Related--on a different site I wrote a fic about a mechanic dealing with rusty cars, and the story approver said "never have read a story quite like it"
My first Bronycon, I attended a panel about making plushes. Not 'cause I was intending to make one, just 'cause I was curious [my skills in sewing are very, very low] . . . at the end of it, when I was in the merch hall and saw a Cadance and Shining Armor in their wedding regalia for sale for $1500, I wasn't shocked at the price, instead I asked myself why they were so cheap. When you know what goes into making something, I think you appreciate it a lot more.
It is insane to think how pretty good guitars can be made cheaply, given what goes into making one. I would assume that they've got some kind of giant machines that can steam and press with the power of a million angry
sunsKirins or something like that. . . .I've often thought that Hearth's Warming is really a pony-only tradition. It's about the unity of the three tribes, but where do the other species factor into it?
I can't express in simple words how much I love little bits of storytelling like this. You don't explain anything about it, and let the readers figure it out . . . I can assure you, I could picture it.
Sometimes in a story you gotta explain stuff in every detail, and sometimes you just toss a little detail out there for the reader to figure out.
Leaf Day headcanon accepted.
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Is it established that all the foals in Ponyville Elementary are the same academy year, or is it that Ponyville only has one classroom-sized amount of foals, so they're all lumped in together? Because if it's the latter, I'd love to read a story of Cheerilee at parent-teacher conference having to go over all eight children with Apple Leaves.
My thought was that Rain Shine is the only other pony besides Fleur with alicorn stature but pony abilities, so Fleur might suggest Rain Shine tries modelling?
I can already speak to having learned some things about cars from your stories. I didn't even know muffler bearings were a thing that weren't a thing (that it turns out actually are a thing).
That's wonderful to see the panel made it plain how much work they were. I find they become something that I don't doubt the value of, but still can't afford.
Yeah. And a cheap guitar still takes 95% of the effort of an expensive one, in construction terms. The main differences, other than less desirable woods used, are that less time is spent on human quality control, so parts are lined up and matched together because they should fit, not because a human has checked and confirmed that they do.
Thanks for saying! Out of interest, what season do you think Leaf Day would take place in?
Historically in the US at least, one-room-schoolhouses taught grades K-8 (or thereabouts) in the same classroom, and I've always assumed that the pony model was similar. My own headcanon is that ponies age out of one-room schools about when they get their cutie marks, more or less, and then they'd go on to university or trade school or an apprenticeship or whatever. So there's probably a multi-age span in Cheerilee's classroom at any one time . . . which I suppose for a family like Apple Leaves' would mean Cheerilee's got a bunch of siblings and all that entails. By eight she's probably hoping it'll stop soon
Very much a possibility. Although--what does Fleur do? Is she just a model/trophy wife, or does she have other skills?
Yay! I aims to entertain and to educate!
I didn't (and don't) have deep enough pockets to drop 1.5k on Cadance and Shining, but I've spent more than was healthy on a few plushes. And I can say that "I can't afford that" has led me to develop a few skills, maybe not enough to be considered a craftsman, but enough to get the job done.
As mechanized as lots of the world is these days, I can attest from many manufacturing jobs that with a lot of jobs there's still no replacement for a good old-fashioned human overlooking the process and making sure that everything is done like it should be.
My gut says autumn, but I could also justify the spring. Truth be told, I could provide more rationalization for it being a spring celebration, but sometimes the gut's right no matter what the brain says.
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FIM has an interesting approach to the upper classes. Some, like Jet Set, Upper Crust and Spoiled Rich, are precisely the one-note snooty stereotype you'd expect. But with Filthy Rich, the show goes out of its way to highlight that, while he has high standards, greatly values money and doesn't gladly accept losses or excuses, he absolutely respects the Apples for what they do, and understands the importance of all parties feeling like they're being treated fairly during an exchange.
Fancy Pants gets the same treatment. He's clearly posh, well-educated and interested only in high culture, but he's also shown to be accepting, generous, and very aware that others' tastes are not his own and there's nothing wrong with that. He manages to sit on his pedestal without looking down on others. Given that, I think the writers would take a similar approach with Fleur if she had more lines in the show. So I think her being a trophy wife is unlikely.
She shows up to almost all the same events as Fancy Pants, so, given his expensive tastes, we can probably deduce Fleur is also quite well-off. Her posing in the Sweet and Elite scene where they both meet Rarity for the first time suggests she's a model, and, given that she's the only pony we see with an alicorn build who isn't an alicorn (I don't think Sassy Saddles has it to the same extent), I think it's reasonable to conclude that professionally she's Equestria's top supermodel. Somepony has to be, after all, and the role fits her better than anypony else we see. It also puts a slightly nicer spin on her being one of the ponies keen to get hold of Rarity's new Princess Dress: rather than just trying to follow the trends to appear trendy, she wants it because wearing the latest things is her job.
So that's my conclusion
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I feel like that's a good insight into how some wealthy people actually are, for example compare the late Sam Walton who earned his money with his kids who inherited it (same applies to Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara, I'd say [even if she hasn't inherited it yet]). FIlthy's probably the richest pony in Ponyville, and yet he understands and appreciates the ponies who helped them earn his money.
Now that you mention it, I think you're right. I'd never considered comparing him with Filthy Rich, but I do think that they're very similar in their personal philosophy.
Also concur. And it does make one wonder about Filthy's wife (Spoiled Rich? I can't remember her name). Maybe he got suckered by a gold-digger, or maybe the wealth corrupted her, and he's too honest a pony to kick her to the curb.
I more or less agree, and that does raise another question--who had more money when they got married? Assuming they weren't high school sweethearts.
I kinda see Fancy as having a rich upbringing, but he wasn't ruined by it. So he might have had access to a lot of wealth and the opportunities it offered, but I don't see him being idle rich, I see him earning his keep, maybe with as little help from his family as possible. As for Fleur, if she is/was a supermodel, she could have been raking in mountains of bits, possibly more than Fancy could with whatever it is he does*
Yeah, I could very much see that. Although perhaps as a fashion model, she's more used to setting the trends . . . of course, if she's got a contract, practically anything is possible.
One thing I also feel with Fleur and Fancy--most rich ponies would have others to deal with a lot of their day-to-day, but I feel like Fleur and Fancy would do as much of it as possible. Like, if Fleur was getting the dress for her job, she could presumably have delegated that to some other pony who can recite all her measurements.
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*While I've never really used Filthy Rich as a significant character in any of my stories, I have used Fleur and Fancy Pants. I had Fancy Pants as a noble in the pony version of Parliament and also a lawyer who appreciates all the other ponies and what they do to make Equestria great (at one point, he snubs some major newspapers to do an interview with a small-town newspaper headed by a pony who makes up for her bad spelling and poor grammar with genuine honest enthusiasm); in that story Fleur is also a very good lawyer and master of spycraft, at least as it applies to legal stuff.