This story is a sequel to Sisterhood lost
The Harvest Moon is coming. Princess Luna prepares for it.
Part of the epic noun-ponies-a-verb 'verse started by Ezn on one of his wilder hen nights.
Written after a conversation with Firebirdbtops in which Luna was described as the "Garden Gnome".
A Note On Sequels: None of them take place in the same location or carry the same themes. They're more a sort of loosely connected character arc for Princess Luna, starting with The Snowpony, that can be thought of as 'canonical' to one another.
Chapters (2)
This is the first thing I read when awakening.
Huh. That was different.
Either I'm too dense or stupid to get it, or it was just a random thing.
Either way, not bad at all.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I feel like I'm missing something here, but jeez is it well written. The words themselves more than make up for any lack of understanding on my part.
Good story works well my first cup of coffee.
It's nice to see you write a story which is at its heart such a thoughtful look at Best Princess and her relationship with her sister.
Heh. When I read the bit about preparing for the coming of the Harvest Moon, this guy came to mind.
i4.ytimg.com/vi/gDbA0ArRcvo/hqdefault.jpg
2684680
Damn straight
2684887
It's not random so much as it's a mixture of allegory about guarding things and absurdity stemming from looking someone dead in the eyes and saying, "There is deep significance in the guarding of a field by Princess Luna and her friendly scarecrow, Jimbo."
2685197
You weren't really meant to get it so much as get that there was something to get. If that makes sense. I'd explain more, but I've been told off in the past for doing so.
Glad you liked the writing: most of this was written through describing what something isn't doing in a sort of lost opportunities fashion, which I've used before but never to this extent. I'm pleased ramping it up a bit didn't result in complete regurgitation.
2686292
I have no idea what that sentence means, but I am glad for its existence all the same.
2687267
Please. This story is all about Jimbo, the most competent original character I have ever written. He had a gig as a ball in one of my past fics.
And I had to do something after darf said no more princess poems. I had the itch, man, the itch.
2688067
I don't think I've ever actually seen that episode of Courage, so the reference is utterly lost on me. Soz.
Reading this:
I kept thinking it was a sequel to an earlier story of yours, but when I went looking, I discovered that the story I was thinking of was actually one of the Shorts that Cold in Gardez was doing most of this past March: specifically the 12th one titled "One Thousand Flowers." The two stories go quite well together.
Mike
2690055
Huh. The bugger is, I've read that one and yet wasn't actively thinking of it when I wrote this. Subconsciously inspired, maybe?
Consciously inspired, Celestia's chest piece covering an old war wound came down from a similar scene in Consider the Lillies, where her shoes are used to talk about her... well, her bigness. I'm not sure if I drew from anything else, but I'm beginning to think it's likely.
Ding-dang it, Aquillo!
Now you've got me thinking about my least favorite form of verse, the dreaded sestina! I mean, the whole schtick behind a sestina is that it has this weird swirling pattern of the six words that end each line instead of an actual rhyme scheme, and the entirely of MLP FiM is founded on six words, isn't it? The rhythm of those six words--honesty, kindness, generosity, laughter, loyalty, and friendship--makes me think a dactylic tetrameter would work well with a spondee substitued in the last foot each time one of the three two-syllable words came along...
If I actually do this, I'll blame you.
Mike Again
2688269
Let me clarify. In twelve cups my coffee can take you from the walking dead to a resurrected Albert Einstein by several orders of magnitudes.
2688269
Holy shit, how could I have missed that? Luna and Celestia don't exist. They're just externalized allegory for Jimbo's psychological conflict: The dark side, which takes great delight in its macabre task and rends its foes limb from limb, leaving their bleeding corpses in the field; or the light side, which is his conscience trying to pull him away from the task, and let the field lie fallow.
The field is ponykind. Jimbo is the reaper, cutting down all the lives of those who die of old age.
Well, you just sort of gave it away there, didn't you?
I might like this version better, except for the lack of Jimbo.
For some odd reason I think this is about Luna's banishment to the moon.
The wheat is Equistria and the ponies; Luna had made herself wait until they were ready to beat her back. Celestia misses her sisiter and this shows by the moon shaped scar on her chest, or more specifically her heart.
And Jimbo, well he's just Jimbo and therefore awesome.
If I got this wrong......well I never been good with this kind of stuff anyway.
You missed a verse.
The deed be done, her tired vigil
Her companion Jimbo remains so still
Princess victorious for all to see
Glorify her later, for she needs to pee
2690489
images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111009164915/mlp/images/thumb/6/69/First_Pinkie_Pie_smile_S1E23.png/640px-First_Pinkie_Pie_smile_S1E23.png
Do it. That sounds awesome. I don't think I've even heard of that form before.
2690534
ok
2690862
2691009
Well, I did say it was clearer in its meaning. There's stuff missing from the verse version that's in the prose, but I think I managed to save the baby at least.
I also think the poem's better. I'm a better poet than I'll ever be a writer which isn't saying much
2691148
I'm not allowed to explain things; people have complained in the past.
Just rejoice in the fact that I'm deceased and any interpretation you want to make is as valid as anything I might've said.
2692167
>not iambic
>not at least three internal rhymes
Do you even haiku?
2692826 Last night my mind tired,
I was becoming Derpy
I could not see straight.
2692826
A pony sestina. For which I blame you.
Mike Again
2708204
It is blame I am happy to take
The prose was nifty, but a tad disjoint. The verse was beautiful though, and I think could stand alone.
Hmm...interesting. It definitely seems like a 'Luna does this for redemption for herself' type of thing, but can't say for sure.
But like I said, interesting story nonetheless.
P.S. Yeesh...I wonder what did that to Celestia. /thinks it was actually NM
Let's play, "Make up a meaning for the story."
Right... Here we go.
Luna is upset that her duties and responsibilities as a Princess are so limited that she might as well not be there at all. She chose to guard a field of wheat (bravo on having her use the "Old English" term of corn there, as it once meant any kernel of any grain.) as a harmless way to show Celestia how serious she was about the perceived slight.