A Derpy x Celestia Romance Fic
Celestia is lonely. Hopelessly lonely. With Twilight living in Ponyville and Luna busy reclaiming her role as Princess of the Night, the immortal Sun Goddess finds herself with not a single pony to talk to, heart-to-heart. Until fate decides to fling an unfortunate grey pegasus through her window and into her life. Can love survive the massive class gradient or will the pressures of being a single-mom... or being a solar deity... crush this romance before it blossoms?
(I write short chapters but try and update as often as I can. I'm going to try and make writing obscure shippings my thing as a writer. Feel free to check out my Trixie x Applejack fic as well if you're keen.)
Chapters (17)
That one shipping that almost escaped.
I'm liking this, so far!
Question: Will the smooching take as long to get to as your last fic? That could be a deal breaker.
3760875
Oh... did I wait too long last time? I don't really plan out my fics as much as I prob'ly should. Maybe I'll have them kiss next chapter just to blow your mind.
Not the first time I've seen this paring, but the first for sure to see how they get together. I think may have to set this aside to read later
....Then what D: -cliffhunged-
.nu..not again...
3760894 Well, some of us like a slow pacing. Others don't. I personally think the pacing in the last one was just fine.
On the story: F/F crack shipping is best shipping!
This time with best pony!
Although she finally has enough of everyone always bowing to her. Derpy better not mess this up, or Celestia's wrath will be terrible.
I hereby dub this ship Dyslexia if that's okay.
Derpy is so sly, she's got all the right moves.
3760972
That's already taken unfortunately. DerpLestia is not however.
3761180 What ship is that?
3761642
DIScord and ceLESTIA. DisLestia.
Oh yeah, and in response to your authors note, a couple things:
- Above all, make sure there's something Derpy would see in Celestia that would make her fall in love, and make sure there's something Celestia sees in Derpy that would make her fall in love.
- I've always liked the "everybody is afraid of Celestia's power" angle, where she feels isolated from her people because they don't treat her like they do each othet. For example, my favorite moment so far was the two guards, having a normal conversation, and then immediately turning it into something proper and artificial when they see Celestia is there. More of that kind of thing, because it's great. Celestia's inability to have a real conversation with people, because of who she is to them.
- Try not to make people cartoonishly afraid of Celestia... you did that a bit at the start and I was really on the fence. Fearing Celestia might imprison them or banish them is fine, but I can't imagine anyone would even pretend like Celestia would kill them.
- I'm kind of concerned that Derpy is going to be so retarded she can't even hold a conversation, which would make the two of them bonding kind of hard to pull off.
- I think it would be cool if Celestia, in talking to Derpy, has to simplify complicated problems to thier very essence, so she understands. And in doing so, she realizes what's at the heart of a lot of her problems.
3760972
Dyslexia is theeee perfect name for this ship.
Your thoughts, DerpyDitzy?
3761693 Like a good number of fans of MLP I disliked what I call the Last Roundup Debacle, since I took offence to the name 'Derpy' and the fact she was made to act and sound like she was mentally retarded, having a disability myself (Cognitive Disorder if you want to know) I reacted poorly in my defense, but I prefer the altered version much better than the original in my defense.
3761647 I thought that…
3761717
Yeah, I agree. I much prefer it when she's shown as being spacey, and a bit strange, and a bit goofy, but otherwise, a perfectly functioning and normal person. For example, she wouldn't really have the attention span or the inclination to follow a complicated conversation past a certain point, but she could, if it was important to her, or if she was interested.
In the context of this story, I thought it would be cool if Celestia liked that she didn't involve herself in the little complicated political and social games people in the castle played to seem important or seem respectful or seem intelligent. She is genuine, which is rare in high society.
CUE THE SHENANIGANS!!!
I like it.
A very...interesting couple. You have my attention and I can't wait to read what happens next.
This fic: proving that any ship can and has been done. It's pretty good too!
On the PREMISE ALONE I want to read this...
3761693
Yeah, I think I wrote Ditzy too silly and too much of a joke character in one of my previous fics and I took a bit of flack for it. She has Strabismus and poor spatial awareness but she's not an idiot. I like to think of her as being able to always see problems from a unique perspective.
And Dyslexia is a really clever name... as long as it doesn't offend anyone that is.
Okay, I like this. Gonna follow it, see what happens.
3763270
It's tricky. Make her too competent, and she becomes boring, like any other background character. I've never tried to write her myself, but I'd be sure to make her a total clutz, and rather spacey (i. e. easily distracted, off in her own world) -- I mean, that kind of thing is what makes her adorable. She doesn't have to be an idiot, just... spacey.
It's tricky. Honestly, I'm here to see how on Earth you're even going to try to write her into a romance with one of the most serious characters on the show
And then Derpy gives Celestia her package and the business cards for Ponyville Glass Repairs and The Wall Reconstruction company, flys off like nothing happened, Celestia is thankful she didn't apologise but then remember her crown and flys after her, two weeks later the wedding bells ring out across the land :) fic done :)
Actually this fic is pretty good, please do keep at it :)
Hm... Well... I'd generally prefer to have read more than 1.6 thousand words of a story before favoriting, but I'll take a chance here; your writing quality seems good and your concept interesting so far, at least.
I really like what you've done with this story.
You've very quickly captured Celestia's point of view, and it'll be interesting to see that explored further. Doubly so because she doesn't fully understand the reputation she has, and it might help to get an outside view, which is a chicken and egg problem for her when she can't actually talk openly to anyone.
It also makes for a great contrast with Derpy's introduction. I can imagine several ways you can take it from here, and all of them work. On the one hoof, Derpy could be ridiculously apologetic and Celestia has had enough of it, and finally takes the time to talk to a pony about it. On the other hoof, maybe Derpy has apologized enough times that she has a better grasp of it than most, and she doesn't take it overboard, shocking Celestia enough to want to get to know her better; that's the variation that seems like it'd be the most fun (since it turns Celestia into the curious one that wants to get to know Derpy more), though it'd be a challenging characterization for Derpy. On the third hoof, perhaps Celestia will preempt the apology altogether. On the fourth hoof, perhaps Derpy doesn't think of it at all, and just untangles herself and says she has a delivery for her; inconsiderate under most circumstances, but timely and refreshing for Celestia (and could lead to the same notion of Celestia wanting to get to know her better). On the fifth hoof, you might have something completely unexpected planned here.
The title of this was eye-catching, and the cover image and description doubly so; I wondered how you planned to make this work, and how much crack would be involved. I was particularly curious when I realized that this didn't have a "Comedy" tag. But with how well you've characterized Celestia already, I'm certain you can pull this off, and I'm really looking forward to it.
3760894
Please don't; there's no need to rush it. Pacing is an art, and for a story like this, characterization and careful development is critical. You've already got the characterization nailed, and you've got some great hooks for further development; keep it up.
3763270
Good call. I'm not a fan of painting Derpy as an idiot, either; her dump stat was Dexterity, not Intelligence.
Have some fan art. I had the components handy to assemble a variation, changed the text, found a good sprite of Celestia, and broke out the window behind Derpy:
i.imgur.com/Q5S8BU2.png
Okay, interesting premise, good start... Let's see where this goes.
(Also bonus points for at least implied Celestia arse-kicking in the past. I feel that as she is a thousand-year old sun-goddess (or at the very least a thousand-year old immortal) that the lack of being allowed to kick butt - even often in fanfiction - is a crying shame... I mean, if there is one entity I would completely trust to be going all Galadriel and righteous fury on something deserving occasionally, it would be Celestia. So I take what implied badassery I can get...!)
3764692
Oh you're just the coolest ever! I'll post chapter two as soon as I'm done with it. Thanks for being so awesome!
3764718
I hadn't thought of that being good enough to be cover art; I just thought you'd enjoy it as fan art.
3764718
Here's a variation that's only 250 pixels wide, fitting the limit for cover art, so that it doesn't get slightly scaled down (causing the scaling artifacts currently present in the version used as cover art):
i.imgur.com/SDqmVV6.png
3764759
I have no idea what that means but thanks. I replaced the art and put in a new chapter.
Okay that was a cute chapter, can't wait to see what happens next.
I will only accept ditzy being this. welll ditzy if 'you make her book smart. Like does she know how to talk to people nope can she tell yo what 148375x285355 equals. Yep. think it would be funy
Off to a great start here, I shall be watching
3764922
Hey, that was a really good sandwich
3764950
I didn't downvote you, if that's what you're thinking. That was someone else.
3764950 Joke answer is a joke.
This is rapidly becoming glorious. I like the characterization you've used for Ditzy/Derpy here; it works. Endearing is right. She fundamentally means well, she's a bit oblivious but not in the things that really matter, and she's more or less immune to status differences.
"This is either madness, or brilliance." "It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide."
Her comment about the Princess being able to take a day off was definitely brilliance, though; I think that really speaks to how you're portraying her in this story. She may not always see everything, and sometimes she misses the details that everypony else would think of out of social convention or common sense, but at the same time she sees things that ought to be obvious if not for everypony else being blinded by that same social convention or common sense. That also makes her a good lateral thinker.
"you're"
"mailmare"
3761868
Agreed on all counts, especially about her being completely genuine.
3764996
Oh no! If she was a malemare this whole story might've gotten super weird super fast. Thanks!
Mooooooooooooooore. Thoroughly enjoyed this, looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Have a moustache as a token of my appreciation!
3764922 Its a very good sandwich.
First of all, you lied to me!
Second, your Derpy is super cute. Such a free spirit is just what this Celestia needs.
As a couple, they are bound to turn some heads.
Dat sandwich crown
That's going to be a fun conversation to see. It'll be interesting for Luna to understand what's going on; given her occasionally olde worlde personality and the background leading to Nightmare Moon (since she wanted some attention and respect), she might be offended on Celestia's behalf at first; that would give Celestia an opportunity to explain what's been bothering her and why she found Ditzy so refreshing. Between that and Celestia actually taking the advice to take a day off, she and Luna will have plenty to talk about.
Well, that was fast:
i.imgur.com/ss8UcKW.png
Well deserved.