Hearth's Warming Eve, Princess Luna, and the Festival of the Winter Moon (contains spoilers up to S5Ep20 and the new book) · 2:07am Nov 4th, 2015
Well, I have a nasty cold. It was 100 degrees and dry when I left California a week ago, and now it is close to 50 degrees and rainy. I called in sick and tried to rest. Today I also got all my mail delivered, and this book was released.
I always have mixed feelings about G. M. Berrow's books. I do think that when she's writing as A. K. Yearling, she's great. I was really pleased that they're releasing the Daring Do books as single issue, stand alone paperbacks. But for some reason when she's writing the spin off books, they're somehow . . . off.
She's probably more clued-in than any of the other side creators. And she does her homework like crazy. Her books are always bang up to the minute, with some ambiguity for episodes that haven't been released yet. For example, while the Cutie Mark Crusaders are some of the main characters in this book, she leaves it ambiguous about them having received their cutie marks. She just has them say that their task is to help other ponies understand their cutie marks.
She reads the other things, too. She's clearly a fan of the comics, and has included things like Princess Luna's pet possum, Tiberius. But weird things happen that just don't work, like Gilda teaming up with Trixie and giving Twilight Sparkle advice and Twilight taking it. I don't like dismissing things just because I don't like them, but time has rolled on and I've seen that some of the things that didn't feel right to me have subsequently been Jossed, like Gilda giving advice to Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie's parents being incredibly impressed by royalty.
What is sort of annoying is that certain planned elements or included elements of my fic Command Performance have been echoed by the books. Once again, I assume that I'm simply a good guesser. And major ideas from the Discord book this summer and the Festival of the Winter Moon were already part of the written or planned story.
I hope this doesn't sound terrible, but I simply intend to cherrypick the books. I'll wrap in Hearthbreakers where I can, but I'm not going to deep six my plans for Discord, and I'm sticking to my idea that Hearth's Warming Day now includes Princess Luna raising the winter moon. I just, um . . . like mine better.
That said, stuff that's in the book you can use!
(SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK FOLLOW)
Bat ponies are a separate race and Luna brokered a peace deal between them and mountain dragons.
Luna never attends the Grand Galloping Gala because a) she's working and b) she doesn't like it.
During off hours, the Mane Six play Whisk! on the map table.
Luna has a Royal Dream Register and a projected map of Equestria to keep track of worrisome events. Star Swirl helped her build it. Because of COURSE he did. (I'm actually ok with Star Swirl being a sort of Merlin figure who does nearly everything).
Her royal guardsmen are two bat ponies named Echo and Nocturn.
She is in charge of sorting out territory tussles between particularly fearsome beasts. And considering she once carried the Element of Kindness and--according to The Journal of the Two Sisters--was able to talk to animals like Fluttershy, this makes sense.
She has two white owls, Castor and Pollux, who stand guard over Equestria when she has to go out.
Celestia has a beautiful white, glowing dress made for her.
She ends her night shifts by saying "Gratias lunam et stellas"("Thank you, moon and stars," in Latin).
Stuff I'm ditching:
Luna doesn't want her own festival. Wait, what? Why not? I'm sorry, she's just not THAT shy. Socially awkward, still, but not exactly shy.
Ponies are still actively afraid of Luna. This is weird, especially since she includes material from "Do Princesses Dream of Electric Sheep?"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders plan the Festival of the Winter Moon. Uh . . .unlikely. It would either be Lemon Hearts or Pinkie, I think.
If they DID do the planning--and nothing about their new cutie marks suggests that they would--they might enlist Pinkie or even some of the Mane Six, but I have no idea why they'd ask Rainbow Dash to draw anything.
I think Luna suggesting ways to sabotage the party through dropping hints in dreams is kind of awful, especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders' dreams. That said, I think it's awesome that Rarity is the one to figure this out, and that she drinks rose tea.
The climatic thing at the end is plain weird.
However, the true, Luna-fixed Winter Moon Festival is rather nice.
I hope it doesn't sound horribly unethical to do this, but in some ways, I want to encourage this. There are some nice ideas in the chapter books, even if they're also filled with some really odd, out of character things. And they're there. You might as well use them.
I'm sick and way busy, but I have the feeling that more of Command Performance will be on its way soon.
You too? I've had a nasty cold since the day after Halloween, and called in sick today myself.
I do agree with cherry-picking the things you like if there are things that are bugging you in the book. It is secondary canon, and as you said, some's been Jossed already...
--arcum42
The key is to sit in Hosstralia until you can build up the per-turn continent bonus into an unassailable army.
I've always been an advocate of cherry picking. Headcanon is a wonderful thing.
Blegh, I have a cold too.
But, nevertheless, when it comes to the written material, folks can pick and choose what should go in their headcanon and what should be thrown out. I know I've done it a couple times. But, the show takes top priority in these kinds of things.
Glad to hear it. Tiberius is awesome.
That actually makes sense. In "Luna Eclipsed", when was she enjoying herself the most? When she was treated and accepted like any other pony. ("Call me Luna!") When she was allowed to have fun (in whatever multiples). When she was able to loosen up. Her archaic speech patterns at the time made her seem more formal and uptight than she actually is, but as you know, The Journal of the Two Sisters portrays her as a fun-loving prankster. Being at the Gala would probably bore her senseless.
That... doesn't make sense. That contradicts not just "Do Princesses Dream...?", but all of the dream-walking episodes. I suppose one could argue that the Cutie Mark Crusaders accepted and appreciated Luna's presence due to meeting her on Nightmare Night, but here's another way to look at it: if three children living in a small town aren't afraid of her, why should anypony else be? (And wouldn't word have gotten around about how she is now since her return?)
This also doesn't make sense. I agree that it would probably go to Ponyville's party planner or the palace's events planner... maybe even obsessive organizer Twilight Sparkle. (Or some combo of the three.) But why put the CMC in charge of what I'm assuming is kind of a big thing?
So awesome and I hope you feel better soon.
Get well soon!
YESSSSS MORE COMMAND PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!!
Never read any of those books, but I probably should.
Thanks for updating the rest of us on the key worldbuilding elements of the book.
While I don't like the idea of ponies still being afraid of Luna, Electric Sheep and the first Nightmare Night episode both happened in Ponyville and were not necessarily reported in the papers elsewhere. So maybe non-Ponyville ponies only know her now as that princess that shows up in your private dreams and shouts at you in a terrifying voice to "face your fears?"
On the other hand, we've seen ponies in general to be an incredibly forgiving species. At the last Grand Galloping Gala, nobody was afraid of Discord until his date went on a rampage and he tried throwing someone into another dimension, despite the much more recent events with Tirek. I find it almost impossible to believe that ponies would be less afraid of Discord than Luna.