Introducing the Library (and some SL bonus content) · 2:22am Oct 12th, 2013
Howdy, everyone! I've been pretty distracted since my latest story rocketed to the top of the featurebox — a deluge of 5,000 reads and 200+ comments in three days will do that to you — but my silence this week deserves some additional explanation.
As my collaborators have already noted, today marked the official launch of a project called the Royal Canterlot Library. What is that, you ask? A way to honor the fandom's top stories and introduce us to their authors via interviews. (The first honoree is the exceptionally deserving Skywriter, whose "Princess Celestia Hates Tea" I've been recommending all over the place ever since I first read it.)
(If the whole "plug great stories and interview their authors" shtick sounds familiar, that's because RBDash47 has been doing that for two years now with the Pony Fiction Vault. The RCL came about because he decided to archive the Vault — that is, stop accepting new submissions and freeze the site. Rather than let a great idea sputter and die, the Library is doing its best to pick up that torch. I'm honored to have been asked to be a part of it.)
Anyway, with today being our first official feature — and what with me getting the accompanying FIMFiction group set up and all our policies written out — I've been buried in administrative stuff. Hoping to get back to writing now that I can take a breather from that.
Back to story writing, anyway — I've been sneaking in some microfiction in comments to Social Lubricant. (The story is NSFW, but I'll link for completeness.) If you don't obsessively trawl through multiple pages of comments on every story you read, you probably missed these little moments of whimsy, so allow me to drop one at you as a bonus for reading my blog!
The context for this is that Nemryn dropped a snarky comment about Twilight Sparkle not making the connection that the subject of the famous painting, the "Moona Lisa," was actually a pre-Ascension Princess Luna. How could she miss the huge hint in the name? Twilight responded:
Actually, the Moona Lisa's name has nothing to do with either Luna or Nightmare Moon! In the wake of Celestia's efforts to suppress knowledge of her sister's rebellion in the First Century, the painting was removed for many generations from the Royal Palace, and reintroduced in the Fourth Century —
Twilight …
Twilight.
— and since everypony drew a blank on identifying her, the mare in the portrait was given the name "Alissa", which was a diminuitive form of "Alice" (a name derived from the old Germane word for "noble"); literally she was "the unknown little noble." Because of the painting's setting she became known as "Moonlit Alissa" —
Equestria to Twi …
— over time shortened to "Moon Alissa", and after the linguistic switch from Germane to Canterlothian became officialized in the Sixth Century, the name "Lisa" was the closest modern counterpart, so it became corrupted into "Moona Lisa," which is what I learned in my art history classes, and had no basis to question the story even after Luna's return, unlike Rarity who always keeps ahoof of Canterlot gossip —
Twilight!
What?
Nobody cares.
…
If you've already read the story (otherwise these won't make much sense), you can also check out what happened to AJ after the story ended (warning: silly), and the letters Twilight sent to Celestia after everything was over (warning: NSFW).
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to kick off your new archive, and thanks for stepping in to fill the space emptied by the Vault's door-sealing.
Also thanks for pointing out the friendship letter. I missed that on my first readthrough.
Ah, you're in on this too? I'll check it out, then. :v
Those comment links do not appear to have worked...
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Hm. The site seems a little pokey tonight. :\ Try letting the page sit for 30-60 seconds after it looks like it's loaded; it has to thrash the comments page through Javascript and then jump to the anchor once the comment exists.
If they don't work, the AJ thing is near the top of the first page of comments and the Twilight thing is halfway down the fourth.
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Thank you too. Everybody wins!
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I ended up digging them out by hand. When do we get the payoff for our magelight jokes? (I'm rather sorry I never came up with a better version of the 'negative one' response; I did try.)
I'm trying to contrive a scenario in which Twilight came down to retrieve some actual 'sweet fucking alicorn shit' somehow, but it's not working.
Is it strange that I feel that No Regrets, and The Lotus Eaters should be added to that library?
I know, you don't want to add yourself in because then you would look like you are tooting your own horn, but come on. Those things keep me going!
Alas, I was disheartened at the thought of the PFV shutting down. I was so intent on getting in because I thought it would lend credibility to Silver, of which I'm going to need all I can get if I'm shooting for EqD with a humanized story. I thought our little arrangement with RBD47 might give me a slight advantage. I was sure he would like it in the long run, at least.
But now, this! This is most excellent news. I only feel more confident in my ability to get credibility with the torch of what is basically the PFV in your hands. Yes, good news indeed.
I don't say that this gives me more of a chance since I have some sort of my connections with you, but that you seem to like Silver so much. I don't know how RBD would've taken to it (I had my hopes, though), but I know I've got you hooked! And the story only gets better, H. Things haven't even started for you yet. Honestly, at this rate, I can tell Silver would be a shoo-in by the time it's finished if it were completely up to you. (And that'd be one step closer to EqD!
)