New Year, new posts - Knight and Dei, and perhaps more Letters · 8:11pm Jan 1st, 2022
I plan on publishing the two full chapters of Knight and Dei - Pony Rides on Monday and Tuesday, and I can publish the next three chapters in Letters From a Little Princess Monster after that if people would like. The Arc is *not* done but writing is at such a slow pace that I might as well get the bits I have done out if wanted. Ninety-three chapters. Ouch. Sneak peek below the break, as well as an interesting reading of Letters.
First, I didn't realize that Fanfiction Reader has been posting automated readings of Letters. I'm deeply impressed with the quality of machine readings as of late. As a sample, here's Chapter 90, where Sunburst faces the aftereffect of alicorn birth. (one of these days I need to put together a playlist for all of the chapters so far)
FYI: The Tripartite arc starts here at the end of the hardcopy book and the beginning of Twilight Sparkle's quest to solve Discord's three challenges with friendship, just in case you want to run back and review before the new chapters. I'll just drop a little snippet in here to chum the waters.
“I have power far beyond your pitiful Storm King,” sneered Talon.
“You’re a puppet,” snapped Tempest in response just to keep the big griffon talking. “Dancing on strings without a mind of your own. Celestia told me about her student’s spell, and how she defeated Nightmare Moon. I’m not fighting you, I’m fighting Discord.”
“WAIT!” The strangest creature just appeared out of nowhere, standing between Tempest and the frost-covered griffon. It looked like some mad doctor had taken the limbs and torso parts from a dozen different species and glued them together, then dressed it in a black-and-white striped outfit. Lifting a whistle to its lips, it puckered up and blew a sharp blast. “Slander! Ten yards penalty and a red card.”
All of Tempest Shadow’s reflexes were honed for a fight to the death, and to have such a ridiculous sight pop into view was throwing her off about as much as if the corrupted griffon had turned out to be an inflatable balloon. She was caught speechless, unable to move, but her opponent…
...was frozen in place, the same as everything else around her, from the griffons to the hovering airships.
“Discord,” she managed from stunned lips.
“Commander Tempest Shadow,” replied the odd creature with a deep bow. “Imagine finding you here. I was expecting Twilight Sparkle or one of her little friends, and the commander of the Storm King’s Stormguard doesn’t have any friends.”
“I… don’t have many of them,” admitted Tempest, still jittery on the tips of her hooves with the mythical embodiment of frozen death just a few steps away and the mythical embodiment of chaos even closer.
“Take it from me,” purred Discord. “Friendship is highly overrated. I mean all the other Discords lap it up like it’s some special thing, but I’m sure you’ll agree that power beats it hollow. Right?”
“I used to think so,” said Tempest cautiously. “But the bad thing about power is there’s always somebody who wants to take what you have. Friendship can only be given.”
“Humph!” Discord crossed his mismatched arms. “You’re no fun. And after all the trouble I went through to make sure you’d have a fair fight.”
After a quick glance at the motionless Windigo, who outweighed her by at least twice her body weight, Tempest managed, “Some fair fight.”
“What, would you rather fight two of them?” A quick snap of his talons, and a second slightly smaller Windigo appeared behind the first, although thankfully motionless. “Or maybe you would like a whole nest.” A second snap made a half-dozen frosty monsters appear behind the corrupted Wingmaster, one of whom was the bulky griffon emperor standing nearly three times her size.
“Fair is relative,” admitted Tempest, turning her eyes to the frozen Windigo Wingmaster and focusing on staying alert. It might just amuse Discord to quit talking and resume the normal flow of time at any moment, and all it would take was a split-second of inattention for her to be killed.
“Really, I shouldn’t even be doing this,” admitted Discord with a tap of one taloned forefinger against his bearded chin. He lowered his voice and whispered, “I was just going to watch you get killed fighting both of the Windigo, but I couldn’t resist messing with that boooring little green pony. I mean he was about to get all dead, and I know how much that would upset little Twilight Sparkle. Plus, this fight would not be nearly as exciting!”
“Twilight said you had three challenges for her,” said Tempest quickly. “Why don’t you let me get back to kicking Frosty’s tailfeathers while you go check on the rest of them?”
“Oh, they’re not nearly as fun as you,” scoffed Discord. “Starlight Glimmer has this little humorless village that should be inside a snowglobe, and Sombra is just all—” the mismatched creature turned black and smokey “—crystaaahllls!” Several coughs later, Discord shifted colors back to his abnormal form and spit out a small black piece of glittering rock. “Bleah!”
“So…” Tempest gave him just the barest flicker of a glance. “Are you going to buzz off and let me finish dealing with the Windigo or did you want to talk with your friend Twilight first?”
“Friend?” Discord backed up a step and placed one clawed hand across his chest. “Oh, no, no, no.”
Now that was worth taking her eyes off the huge frosty threat. “Oh, really? Can you honestly tell me that Twilight didn’t turn your entire world upside down five minutes after you met?”
“Yes,” said Discord while looking in two different directions, neither of them hers.
“She did something nice for you even though you didn’t deserve it,” continued Tempest, watching the red line of embarrassment crawl up Discord’s neck like a thermometer. “Just out of the blue, in a way that nopony else had ever offered. She gave you her friendship.”
“She did not!” Discord shook his mismatched arms and shooed away a few hundred tiny moth-sized purple alicorns who all seemed to be chanting “Friends! Friends!”
“You’ve never had a friend before,” said Tempest. “You can’t deal with it. That’s why you saved Twilight’s friend.”
... Well far be it for me to object to more Letters! (Lord knows it's still one of my absolute favorite stories on this site.)
That is a hell of an image.
Oh yeah, definitely looking forward to this new arc! Been missing your stories...
Oh yes, more chapters please! You and Estee are the only authors I follow on this site who still produce content on a regular basis