Part 11: Inspiring Words
Quickfix’s body ached and groaned in pain as she started to regain consciousness. The pain wasn’t the worst she’d felt in her life. She’d received worse living up north, fighting all kinds of monsters and battling the weather itself. There was a reason the ponies of the north were the toughest around.
While the pain didn’t bother her, the heat and humidity did. The hot and steamy forest was Tartarus to Quickfix. She was a pony of the frozen tundra. Yes, she moved down south a couple years ago and should’ve already gotten used to the climate, but there was a reason she stayed indoors most of the time. Besides working on her inventions, of course. She was thankful for her newest invention the ‘indoor temperature controller’ or ITC. It worked wonders.
The ground beneath her was strange. It wasn’t the earthy feel of the Everfree Forest floor, but instead the cold metallic floor that reminded her of home. It was dented and rusty, giving her an uncomfortable place to lay.
A short distance away, she could hear the unmistakable sound of someone hitting metal. It was frantic and she swore she could hear some mumbling going on with it. ‘Doesn’t sound promising.’
All in all, she hated her surroundings, and she hadn’t even laid an eye on it yet. So, Quickfix drearily opened her eyes to view the area around herself, hoping it was better than it felt.
She was wrong.
‘Damn it,’ Quickfix though. ‘Ah shouldn't raise mah hopes like that.’
Quickfix found herself stuck inside some large, rusted, bird cage. Obviously, somepony didn’t want her getting away.
Quickfix smirked. What they didn’t realize was that this cage was nothing compared to her magic. ‘A lil’ magical push against these bars 'n' ah will be out in a jiffy.’ Her magical prowess was superb by northern standards. Yes, it wasn’t flashy or anything, but strength was all that mattered up north. She was just lucky to have developed some brain too.
Quickfix closed her eyes and focused on the bars. What should have been a simple trick accomplished with nary a thought, turned into a grueling headache. She cringed. ‘What the…’ Her magic was dissipating, refusing to come to life. ‘Kind o' like mah automobile.’ Feeling up against her horn, she found some sort of ring was clasped around it.
She sighed. “Just mah luck.”
“Hey guys,” a feminine, high pitched voice yelled out. “She’s up.”
The moment she heard the voices, she felt agitated beyond belief. ‘It just had ta be them, didn’t it?’ Turning her head around, Quickfix’s apprehension was right on the money. The owner of the voice was a scraggly goblin. She looked like your average goblin: green, black haired, large pointed ears, and small. Her tattered clothes reminded her of an engineer. It didn’t surprise her any, since goblins were a race of tinkers.
Still, the goblin was shaking in fear, wielding a wrench like it was some sort of sword. Quickfix didn’t know why. They had her in captivity and even disabled her magic. ‘Clever, goblins.’ She thought to herself. Her past dealings with the creatures had never been good. Actually, very few ponies could count goblins as friends. There was a brooding hatred between the races, and it didn’t help that goblins were incredibly greedy and selfish by nature.
“Well, well, well,” a more masculine voice spoke up. Quickfix had to admit, the voice did sound much better than a typical goblin. When she looked at the owner, she found him to be generally good looking, for a goblin anyhow. His face was unmarked by obtrusions or boils, his nose was shorter and rounder than a typical goblin male. His ears were sleek and his clothes looked like that of a noble. He was young, around her age with sleek black hair. “What have we here?”
“A pony,” the female goblin answered.
The goblin boy scowled at her. “Of course she’s a pony,” he groaned and rubbed his temples. “The crew I hired…Ugh.”
The goblins looked tired and haggard. Even the rich boy goblin’s good clothes was blotched with dust and a black substance that she wasn’t familiar with. ‘Smells awful.’ She scrunched up her nose at it.
“What?” The goblin shot her. He had caught sight of her scrunch. “I’m not in my best condition at the moment.”
“Uh-huh.” Quickfix rolled her eyes.
The goblin boy snorted in agitation. “Think what you want, it won’t get you out of that cage.” He smirked and folded his arms. “That anti-magic collar is top of line stuff hailing from my homeland. I don’t think I need to remind you of the sheer brilliance of goblin tech. There’s no way you can take it off without our help. Face it, you’re stuck.”
As the goblin was talking, Quickfix noticed he was only referring to her. She raised an eyebrow. ‘How come he isn’t talking ta mah friends? Hold yer horses a moment...’ Her eyes widened and she looked around herself. “Where are mah friends?”
The goblin boy raised an eyebrow. “Friends? You’re the only pony we found.”
The goblin girl shivered. “Thank goodness for that. I don’t think we could deal with more of those shadow ponies.”
“Shadow ponies….” A frightened, quivering voice spoke up. Quickfix looked over to see another goblin hunkered at the base of a tree. He was sitting down with his legs held close to his chest. His eyes were wide open in horror. “They’ll get us. They’ll get us all.”
The first goblin boy sighed. “He’s been like that since you lot attacked us.”
Quickfix scowled. “Now hold on a minute. Ah aint one of those night nutjobs. Ah’m a northerner an’ proud of it.”
The goblin boy shrugged. “Can’t take that chance, I’m afraid. But…” He rubbed his chin. “I have heard of you lot. Maybe you are telling the truth. The only ponies with that accent of yours are from up north so...”
Quickfix brightened up. ‘Maybe they’ll let me go.’
The goblin shook his head, dispelling her hope. “Too risky, but anyways, let me introduce myself. I’m Xed Gonk, owner of Gonk Industries. These are Nes—” He gestured to the female. “Nurt—” He then gestured to the whimpering goblin a little ways from us. “And the two behind you are Kur and Mgut.”
Quickfix turned herself around and was blown away at the sight before her very eyes. Oh, it wasn’t the goblin boy, Kur, hammering away at the machine, or Mgut laying in the grass bored out of his mind. No, it was the machine that received her fullest attention.
The vehicle was anything but sleek and form fitting. It was boxy and a crude, but effective design. A large four winged rotor was on top of it. It looked like it had plenty of space, more than enough to fit herself and the goblins inside…of course, that was just optimal conditions. It still was small enough to traverse the forest with some set of ease.
Quickfix tipped her head to the side in curiosity. She was a mare of the machine and this thing before her was practically singing ‘find out how I work’.
“What's that??” Her voice was filled with awe.
Xed cocked an eyebrow and looked at the machine. “That? It’s just a helicopter. Nothing special really.”
“He-li-copter?” The word felt foreign to her lips, but she loved it. Quickfix thought it tasted like a sweet wine freshly poured from the cup. She wanted more than just a mere taste. ‘Ah want it all.’
Xed nodded. “Yep, it’s a goblin flying machine. It’s an old model, a couple of decades old. Back when they were first invented. Honestly, I’m surprised it hadn’t broken down before.”
“Shut your yapper!” Kur whirled around. The older goblin had a small, pointed, black beard with a scar on his right cheek. “She was working fine until you brought us to this chaos addled place.”
“How was I supposed to know our contacts were killed?” Xed shot back. “I’m not a psychic.”
“Well,” Kur growled. “Maybe you should've thought about that. I mean, this is the EVERFREE FOREST!”
“Guys,” Nes spoke up. “Stop it.”
“Oh, let them fight,” Mgut nonchalantly said. “They’ve been doing it for hours. I think they need to get it out of their system.”
“I’ve been listening to them argue for three hours straight,” Nes huffed. “I don’t want to do it for the next three.”
“Quit your whining.” Xed scowled.
“I’m not whining,” Nes shot at him. “I’m complaining. There’s a difference.”
Quickfix blocked out the argument, focusing all her attention on the ‘helicopter’. ‘Ah’ve never seen somethin’ so beautiful afore in mah life.’ She was literally drinking in its charms, even with the obvious damages it had taken from the crash and the Nightmare cultists. She was just glad they didn’t stick around to finish it off. Would’ve been a waste of such a beauty.
Still, she couldn’t just sit there and observe the thing all day. Equestria needed her. Her friends needed her. She wasn’t going to let them down now.
“Are ye guys going ta let me go or what?” Quickfix spoke up, getting the goblins attention. “Ah’m kind o’ tryin’ ta save the world.”
Mgut barked out a laugh. “Yeah, and we can fix this thing.”
“Yes we can,” Kur shouted.
“How?” Mgut sat up and looked at him. “Face it. We’re stuck here and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Die,” Nurt babbled out, rocking back and forth. “We’re all going to die.”
“I’m sorry,” Xed said. “But we can’t take any chances. I know you might be innocent, but we’ve been through a lot in the last few hours. I think we need some time to think.”
“Ah don’t have time,” Quickfix barked with fury. She wasn’t one of them no good, murdering, piles of wasted space. She was a proud pony of the north. “Mah friends are in danger. Ah have ta help them.”
Xed just snorted and shook his head.
“How come ye lot don’t just fix it up yerselves?” Quickfix asked. Goblins were natural tinkerers. It should’ve been a no brainer for them.
All the goblins sighed, though Kur just growled. “We can’t.”
Nes spoke up, rubbing her arm shyly. “We don’t know how to.”
“Yer goblins,” Quickfix said, looking on at them in confusion. “It should come as naturally ta ye as putting one leg in front of another.”
“What’s the point?” Mgut spoke up, sighing. “We’re lousy goblins. We couldn’t even screw in a light bulb, let alone come up with a way to fix this thing.”
Kur shot him a nasty glare.
“You know it’s true, Kur.”
Kur dismally sighed. “I know…I just wish I could do something about this. I don’t want to die here in this forest in the middle of nowhere.”
The other goblins solemnly nodded. “I’m sorry, miss….” Xed paused.
“Quickfix,” she answered.
“Miss Quickfix,” Xed said. “But we just can’t fix it. Nothing comes to mind.”
Quickfix frowned, pondering to herself. ‘Goblins that can’t work machinery? Somethin’ isn’t right aboot that.’ She saw there downcast faces and sour attitudes. It broke her heart a little to seem them like this, unable to work any machinery. ‘That is...
THE
WORST
POSSIBLE
THING!’
She swore she felt something spark inside her. Then, an idea struck her like a freight train. “Why don’t ah help ye?”
“What?” Xed looked flabbergasted.
“Ah said,” Quickfix chuckled. “Why don’t ah help ye? Celestia knows, ye need it.”
Xed rubbed his chin, humming in thought.
Kur just scoffed. “Help? From a pony? They couldn’t tell a bolt from a screw.”
Quickfix scowled, a deep growl resounding in her throat. She was a mare of the machines. To be disregarded like that was…to say infuriating would be putting it mildly. “Say that again?”
Kur, wisely, started to sweat in fear and backed up.
Nes laughed. “I like her.”
Xed chuckled. “We might as well try it. Gods know, we can’t do it.”
Quickfix scoffed and threw a hoof out to wipe away the idea. “Yer goblins. It’s in yer blood.”
Xed rubbed the back of his head. “Not ours, I’m afraid.”
Quickfix stomped the metal floor beneath her. “Stop talkin’ like that. Ye can do this.”
Xed shook his head. “I’m sorry, miss, but…”
“NO!” Quickfix shouted. “Anybody with a lick o’ sense can be an engineer. Ye just got ta believe in yerselves.” She motioned to the forest around herself. “Do ye honestly want to stay ‘ere?”
“No.” The goblins shuffled about, nervously.
“Do ye not want ta go back home?”
“No.” The goblins started to add a little anger behind their words.
Quickfix smiled. ‘Good.’ “Do ye want ta never see yer loved ones again?”
“NO!” They shouted.
“Then let me oot.”
Xed went over to the lock with the key in hand. With a simple click, the door was left open. “There you go.”
“Uh-hem,” Quickfix pointed to the collar around her horn.
“Sorry,” Xed blushed in embarrassment. Quickfix paid it no mind and kneeled down so he could get better access to it. With a soft click and hiss, the collar was off. “There. That should do it. Now…How about fixing our helicopter?”
Quickfix rubbed her sensitive horn, trying to get feeling back into it. “Ahh, much better. Now, let’s get to work.”
Nes raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to do it by yourself?”
Quickfix chuckled as she strolled over to the new machine. “Do it mahself, they say? Ah didn’t take ye fur jokers.”
“I wasn’t joking.” Nes pointed out.
Quickfix sighed. “Ah know.” She had to think up a way to get them to help. She knew that it wouldn’t be easy for her to work on this unknown machine alone in any short period of time. She could, but Nightmare Moon had to be stopped now, rather than later. Which was a shame; she really wanted to spend time with this ‘helicopter’.
Stopping before it, Quickfix put her hoof on the machine. “Easy lassie, you’re going ta be all right.” She rubbed gently over the metal surface, enjoying the sensation it brought. “Ah’m going ta fix ye up, right ‘n’ proper.” Closing her eyes, she silently prayed to three gods in respective order: Celestia to give her strength and power; Athena to help inspire the goblins and to figure out the trials ahead; and finally—and most importantly to her—she prayed to the machine god, Deus Mechanicus, to help her figure out the secrets of this helicopter.
Equestrians usually just prayed to Celestia for all things, mostly just to honor her. Celestia may be the goddess of the sun, as well as having immense magic and wisdom, but she wasn’t the lord of all things. She had help.
The goblins were silently observing her.
“What’s she doing?” Kur asked.
“Praying,” Xed said.
Kur snorted. “A fat lot of good that’ll do. I never understood why every other species has to pray. Why can’t they be like us goblins and do something more productive, like you know, fixing our stuff.”
Xed glared at him. “Kur, shut your face, or I’ll give you a scar for your left side.”
The two goblins butted heads, causing Quickfix, who had just finished her prayers, to sigh. “Stop fightin’. We need ta work together on this.”
Mgut snorted. “We couldn’t work together on a sandwich, let alone this.” He sighed. “Just fix it and be done with it.”
Quickfix scowled, but didn’t say anything. ‘Gettin’ on their ill side won’t help me none.’ She calmed her breathing and closed her eyes. Focusing on her magic, it seeped into the machine before her, scouring every nook and cranny to give her mind a mental picture of its workings. She was fascinated. Of course, she didn’t know what half of it was, but that didn’t matter. ‘What’s that black stuff?’ She made a mental note to ask about the stuff in the machine’s tank later.
Now wasn’t the time. No, she had to get these lazy goblins off their butts. ‘But how…’ Her thoughts stopped when she looked at Nurt still whimpering and rocking back and forth. A twinge of sympathy went through. Celestia knows, she’d be like that if she were unable to fix something.
Walking over to the goblin, she nudged his side. Nurt slowly turned his head to her and she smiled. “Hey, think ye can do somethin’ fur me?” Using her magic, she summoned a floating blue square, with the schematics of the ruined ‘helicopter’. “Ah’m havin’ trouble with this thing ‘ere ‘n’ ah thought ah could use yer opinion.”
“My opinion?” Nurt asked and she nodded. “Why? We’re just going to die anyways. There’s no point.”
Quickfix frowned. “Now, don’t be talkin’ like that. There’s always a point ta be found. Ye just got ta look.”
With her snout, she nudged the goblin to stand and led him back to the helicopter. Using her magic to lift some of the tools scattered around, she gave a wrench to Nurt. Nurt looked nervously to the wrench and then back at her.
She gave him an appreciative smile. “Go on, ye can do it. Ye just got ta believe in yerself”
Mgut rolled his eyes. “Hogwash.”
Kur nodded. “I’m with the lazy bum here. Believing in ourselves isn’t going to fix a damn thing.”
Quickfix rolled her eyes. ‘’N’ ye goblins wonder why yer stuck on some islands.’ She looked down at Nurt, who was still shaking. Putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder, she spoke, “Relax. It’s gonna be all right. Just think o’ somethin’ ‘n’ do it.” She held up the schematics. “The problem is just waitin’ fur ye ta solve it.”
Nurt nodded and looked at the schematic. “Just waiting for me to solve?”
“Just use yer noggin and imagine,” Quickfix said. Her master’s words coming back to her. “Yer’ll be a master in no time.”
Nurt, to her great pleasure, started to actually try and work. He was such a nervous pile of babble when she first saw him, so she was worried he’d just stay like that. Turned out, he just needed someone to believe in him. ‘Ah’ve heard this story before,’ she thought with some humor.
The helicopter thankfully wasn’t too badly damaged. Well, that was what she had gathered from her scanning spell. So, she had Nurt tighten up a few loose screws and such. He was really lanky, even for a goblin. She doubted he could do some of the harder stuff.
Nes and Xed were quick to join, helping out where they could. Quickfix spent most of her time trying to get the three of them to come up with ways to fix the machine, even make it better. They were quick learners, which wasn’t surprising since they were goblins. She would lend a few thoughts and ideas, but she wanted them to do it.
It didn’t take long for Kur to strut forward. “That isn’t how you fix up a helicopter.” He grabbed a few tools and pushed past them. “Let me show you.” He walked into the machine…and quickly walked back out. “Ummm, a little help?”
Quickfix and the others chuckled. She lifted several items with her magic. “On it.”
Mgut snorted in agitation. “You aren’t going to be able to fix this thing. This is all for not.”
Quickfix narrowed her eyes at him. “’N’ what’s got ye so miffed? Don’t ye want ta get outta ‘ere?”
“None of you know the first thing about helicopters,” Mgut pointed out.
“Pfft.” Quickfix waved an arm. “That’s what yer noggin is fur. Thinkin’ up ideas.”
Mgut crossed his arms. “Well this noggin is fresh out of them.”
Quickfix rolled her eyes. “Yeah, ah could tell.”
Mgut glared at her. “Are you calling me stupid.”
“Nah, ye called yerself that.” Quickfix smirked.
“Well…” Mgut growled and looked over the machine. “The tail’s too long.”
“What?” Quickfix was a bit taken aback by his comeback. “Mah tail is perfect.”
“No,” Mgut shook his head. “The helicopter’s tail. It need to be shortened….maybe smoothed out and some of the excess metal cut away…”
“’N’ we could use it ta patch up some o’ the holes!” Quickfix’s grin grew. “Mgut, yer a genius.”
Mgut smirked and preened. “Took you long enough…” He then frowned. “Wait, I just had an idea?”
Quickfix nodded enthusiastically.
“Blimey.” Mgut put a hand to his forehead. “This is a first…I like it.”
“Good.” Quickfix hoofed over a blowtorch. “Now, let’s get ta fixin’.”
___________________________________________________________________________________
Unbeknownst to them, a wispy dark cloud of magic spied upon them. Its owner puzzled over the scene before it.
“Most curious,” Nightmare Moon said. She had rarely dealt with goblins before, opting to let her sister deal with the loathsome creatures. They were stingy, kept to themselves, and had such irritating voices. But now, they were willing to help this mare…This northerner!
Yes, it was to save their hides, but they were honestly getting along…and in such a short time period. Nightmare Moon gritted her teeth. ‘Ponies are so quick to befriend others. Where was my friendship? Did I not deserve their love? Did the thousands of foul beasts and traitors I slew to protect them mean nothing?’
She let her anger fuel her magic, pulsing outwards and hover over her servants. She didn’t need their love or friendship. Not anymore. Now, she just wanted their loyalty…or their souls. ‘Either which would be okay with me.’
“Should I send out a party to slay them, Your Majesty?” Apostle spoke up.
Nightmare Moon shook her head. “They are no threat to me.” She spread her tentacles out wide, emphasizing her size. “We must focus our efforts where we are needed. I am needed here and you should be quelling the Ponyville insurrectionists, like you should have done hours ago.”
Apostle bowed his head. “My apologies. The soldiers aren’t up to your proper standards. That is my fault, but rest assured, Ponyville will fall before your might.”
“As will all of this world.” Nightmare Moon grinned. “And every world like it…I do so hope Starswirl’s mirrors are still working. An existential trip would do wonders to celebrate my conquest.”
“Perhaps a trip to a sauna world, Your Majesty.” Apostle looked at her with a grin. “I’m sure you deserve some relaxation, after dealing with your ignorant sister.”
Nightmare Moon smiled and patted his head. “A splendid idea.”
“Of course,” Apostle said. “I still think we should eliminate the goblins. Their ‘he-li-copter’ could prove to be irksome.”
Nightmare Moon chuckled. “Think nothing of it. No doubt it will blow up in their faces like every other goblin invention.”
“Still…” Apostle’s eyes narrowed at the image.
“Focus on your task at hoof,” Nightmare Moon said with a glower. She would not have somepony question her judgement. If she said something was so, it was so. ‘Do not make me hurt you, Apostle. I…I don’t want to do that.’ “Ponyville must fall immediately.”
“And what of Celestia’s daughter?”
“I shall task one of your students with ridding us of her,” Nightmare Moon said. Yes, while she didn’t think much of the goblins, letting someone like Sunset roam free would be stupid on her part. She had sensed Sunset’s aura and it was huge. ‘Not ‘god’ huge of course.’ She could see why Celestia had adopted her. Nightmare would have done the same, ensuring such a pony would never stand against her.
Nightmare Moon wasn’t at full strength yet. A trained unicorn—if unbelievable strong on par with Starswirl himself could theoretically kill her. She needed to be rid of Sunset now, or at least stall her until she could regain her body of flesh and blood.
“Trust me, Apostle,” Nightmare grinned. “This night shall be just perfect.”
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So now we're about halfway through with introducing the Elements to the audience. I'm pretty excited on where you're taking this.
On a side note, I understood the goblins better by having their voices portrayed by the crew of Monty Python. Makes the scene even better.
4628807 Interesting view point. (Monty Python fan myself.) Which goblin was which Python?
4628816 Mainly I got the voices from MP and the Holy Grail
Xed was King Arthur
Nurt was Prince Herbert
Kur was the keeper of the Bridge of Death
Mgut was the wizard from the final act
And there you have it folks.
4628915 Ah, the Holy Grail. The best movie ever. You are awesome for thinking thus
.
By the way. I saw on MLP Wikia that another name for Quickfix is Silver Spanner.
4629144 Still in Canterlot. (Read chapter three of A Different Sunset: The Battle of Ponyville. She makes an appearance in Celestia's room. She doesn't know any of this is taking place.)
4629147 I know, I just prefer Quickfix.
Is there anything else you two want to comment about? What did you like about this chapter?
4629249 Thanks!
I try. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the rest of my story.
Love the reference to Starswirl's mirrors.
It might be worth figuring if you can break the chapters up a little. Maybe break to show what's happening with a couple different characters at once. It's just that the bit with the goblins and Quickfix was maybe a tad on the slow side.Not bad or uninteresting, just there's cultist and Nightmare Moon up to stuff and all these ponies running around, plus Spike still in danger. I do enjoy you showcasing everyone's elements, but showing a bit of what's going on with Coco or Redheart will break things up and also help remind us all the other stuff going on.
Stupid genre-blind, tsundere overlord wannabe. If your minion, unlike you, can recognize a Chekhov's gun, the least you can do is listening to him.
4629484 Yeah, to be honest I thought this chapter was slow myself. While I like it, it wasn't the most 'fun' chapter to write. Kind of why it took so long.
Well, I might try and shorten it. (Maybe I'll try and do two Elements next chapter.) The problem though is I don't know anything really to have the characters do until they meet up...beside get their elements of course. Given how they're going to meet up in a chapter or three, I didn't plan on anything like that...Gah, I should, but nothing comes to mind. (It'd feel like filler to me.)
When I found out who was the star of this chapter, I had interest but not as much as the other two. That being said it was a great chapter, a bit slow but a story is bound to have these sorts of moments. It kept interest and still expanded the universe, but still the stand out piece for this chapter wasn't the element in my opinion, it was a look into Nightmare Moon.
While foolhardy as sparing her, it seemed to give the goddess a different feel as though the Luna that Celestia knew still lingered if only a small fraction of it.
4632498 Is Quickfix an uninteresting character, or is it because she's a background pony with no real characterization in the show/comics so you don't feel that attached to her? Just asking.
4632520 The latter to be entirely honest, I mean its hard to wrap around a character that you didn't know existed until this universe.
4632657 Sad really. She's appeared a few times in the show. Yeah, for only a few seconds, but some characters grew from one appearance. *cough*Vinyl Scratch*cough*
Hopefully, this universe will put a fix to that. (maybe give her some art...Come to think of it, a group shot of the main six would make an excellent cover/Shimmerverse following picture.)
Funny some people said Monty Python, the goblins reminded me of the dwarves in Time Bandits.
I like the NMM/Apollo scene. Are we going to learn Apollo's back story? I'd love to hear how NMM recruited him from the moon.
4633219 Either in a later fic, or in the side fic of this story. Matters when i get to it. (I will get to it eventually, rest assured.) {Liked that movie.}
I just remembered: How does Luna know about the mirrors? It was a major plot point in the comics that she didn't know about them.
4633328 Oh right, I forgot about that point in the comics....Well, this is an alternate world, however.
I believe a change-up is in order. (I don't think it'll be hard to think up a way she could've known. This Luna is far older than 'canon' Luna.)
4633402 Hmmm. Well from what I could tell, Celestia and Starswirl started playing with the mirrors right before Luna's fall, and continued to do so after her banishment. It seems to me that one major difference between this world and canon is that in this world Luna must have had a way to scry on and communicate with Equestria. How else could she have recruited a cult and enacted these complex plans? I bet however she observes Equestria, dream - spying or whatever, she used to spy on Celestia as soon as she got to the moon and that's how she learned about the mirrors.
4633607 Huh...I had similar thoughts (about the recruiting part) but that also works on how she was able to find out about the mirrors. Thanks for the idea.
(You're good. Anything else I might have missed out, or left too vague?)
Also, how much did Celestia suspect? Canon Celestia knew Luna would be alone, so she sent her student to make friends and blast her sister with the elements.
Did this Celestia have the same expectation and she was wrong? Cause I think if Celestia knew Luna had recruited a cult, Celestia would have found an excuse for a division of the Royal Guard to be present in Ponyville.
4633622 She didn't know about the cult, only Nightmare Moon's return. She was just as surprised as her subordinates when Shining gave her the news.
So yeah, she was just expecting her sister to come back, still weak enough for Sunset to find the elements and use them...She didn't count on her sister having an army, or an effective means of contacting outside her prison.
If she knew, she'd have sent her Knights in for support. (Although, she might suspect now. Hopefully, you've read the side story 'A Different Sunset: the Battle for Ponyville.)
4633618 Thanks! World building is my favorite part of fanfiction. And if NMM DOES get to confront Celestia, she can always throw in a taunt about/threaten Good Somra, just because she's a nag.
4633641 Hmmm, now that I think about it, you know how other writers of alt-main six (Lunaverse as an example) have several authors working on it? Mind considering helping out once I finish the first episode? I doubt I'll be able to do all the characters a proper and just lesson.
4633655 Oh I suck at writing. All ideas but no skill at dialogue or follow through on details. I'm very flattered that you asked though!
4633670 Hmmm, well I tried...Still, I could use someone to throw ideas around with. You'll due.
4632678 I understand, though I believe Vinyl Scratch's popularity could also stem from the fact that she might be a background character but she rarely appears unlike other ponies that are place holders usually.
Roseluck for instance I believe is much more honest and cold with customer/ponies then her two counterparts usually seen with her.
4633807 Huh, I always took Daisy as the more frustrated of the three. (She didn't exactly look happy with her job during 'Family Appreciation Day')
Roseluck seemed like a nice mare, but again, fan interpretation. (And this is an alt-world, canon is bent to become new canon.
)
4633827 I actually interpret Daisy as the opposite, the pony pleaser of the three, the one that's go that extra mile to satisfy the customer as long as it was within reason.
You do know what 'literally' means, right. Last I checked charm isn't a liquid.
Another great chapter.
What's with the randomly bolded words?
6531546 OH! That must have been from the revision comments and such. Seems an error or few came through when I got this from GDOCS. Heh, I'll fix it soon enough.
Five green skinned persons, one female four male, who can't seem to do anything right.
It the Gang-green Gang from Power Puff Girls Z.
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6531595
Three years later...
(Still love the story.)
9478020
Make that six...