Twilight Sparkle is a mare of legend. Time and again, she has faced impossible threats, and with the help of her friends, she has always triumphed. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, Sunset Shimmer, and now Tirek have tried and failed to best her, and each trial has only made her stronger still.
But what of the oldest princesses? Luna and Celestia may be old beyond imagining, and they've seen things that would drive lesser beings mad. Before that, though, they are sisters. Sisters fight. Sisters get angry with each other.
Sisters forgive.
This is an experiment. Stories can be written without dialogue, to be sure, but can a story be told with nothing else? One chapter, no tags, nothing but two sisters talking.
Chapters (1)
I've seen dialogue stories before honestly. (George Bush Invades Equestria comes to mind) Despite that, I think your experiment is a resounding success. Not having dialogue tags or actions to tell the reader what to think leaves room for imagination, and I could really feel the tones of both Luna and Celestia. A gold star for you!
i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--yT2pqFBF--/655227260230759600.jpg
Well, here it is. This story has been sitting around in a notebook in my laptop bag for more than a month, finished but for transcribing it here. It's not the only one, but it is the only one that I feel is "publishable" right now. Looking through them, Celestia crops up quite a bit. She's always been an interesting character to me, and I wanted to do a bit of exploring. We definitely don't see enough of her and Luna just being sisters.
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Clearly, the best story would have no words at all. That way, the reader can fill in everything however he or she wants! Now, to find a publisher...
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I have to agree with FG the A - dialogue only is risky, and you made it work wonderfully. Here's my version of a gold star:
This was very nicely done. I can just picture the various poses and actions the two sisters are doing in combination with the dialog. And the good-natured ribbing between them is both funny and believable.
"Discord's food cake" was a nice little touch as well.
now I want to see the sequel where Celestia visits Twilight for a genuine social visit+apology and immense awkwardness ensues.
There's a good lesson here, but I think it succeeds in spite of the dialogue-only format, not because of it. Here's why:
It comes across more as a gimmick, and your explanation of why you chose to do it reinforces that. It does have an unusualness to it, but you generally only get to do something like that once before that appeal is spent. There are valid reasons to go dialogue only, but it doesn't create any additional effect for me. What I'd hoped to see was a plot that seemed especially suited for it, either because you decided after formulating it that it made sense or that you decided on the format first and constructed a plot that would make good use of it. Yet it seems like this is dialogue only simply for its own sake. Situations that employ it well would be things like a conversation in the dark, so dialogue is the only means of interaction, or a character in the midst of a huge crisis who is too much in shock to perceive anything else.
In a story like this, it's paramount to keep the character voicings very distinct, and there were times I had to backtrack on the alternating speech to figure out who said what. Ideally, a character should be immediately recognizable from her dialogue; while there are obviously other ways of doing so unrelated to her personality, it's the consistent quirks and mannerisms that make it a more interesting read.
5283210 I second that.
Perfectly executed one-shot.
Fav'd, like'd and put into 'Interesting One-Shots'
As an experiment I'd call it a success. The story was quite good.
And the 'You're Pie-ness' comment was priceless.
(Also, if you think THAT was hard, try writing 4500 words told from Zecora's perspective... in rhyme... with interactive dialog... lol)
Just FYI, relevant group: Dialogue-only Stories
This is truly wonderful Good Job!
That was eye opening on several things...
Discord’s food
-Took me a second to get this... nice touch, especially given that in my own fanon he literally is a demon (then again so was Nightmare Moon... technically a demon-possessed demon).
I hope you don't mind, but I love this fic so much that I and a friend have dubbed it over on YouTube:
Nothing but words, nothing but emotion.
Both sides equal in that they both are correct and stand true
I applaud the writer, this was truly worth reading
I heard this story read by Scribbler on You Tube. Very emotional. Good work to you and her.
Very well done.
This is the sickest burn in the history of Equestria. XD