Dear Trixie,
I have been able to recover the copied spellbook that I gave you originally; it was sitting in our rail station’s lost and found, thankfully intact. Having had a chance to read it, I can see now what, precisely, you meant by poor translations and mislabeling. I am fluent in Zebra, but I admit to having been in something of a rush to get underway to Hauptstadt der Greifen when I sent it along to you, and so I did not have time to do any but the most cursory of reviews.
Rest assured that Regal Tome, Vast Volumes, and Glitter Scrolls will not soon be working in the royal library, or indeed in Canterlot, again, though on that note I believe that we must have a discussion in the near future concerning the proper response to dealing with one’s problems, regardless of one’s emotional commitment to them –
“I think that our response was entirely proper,” Trixie said.
“Hang on, let me finish…” Lyra insisted.
– however, I find myself incapable of becoming truly angry with you at the moment, given the personal appeal and testimony I have received from Miss Heartstrings concerning your conduct and efforts to see her show through, no matter the cost to yourself. If somepony had described this situation to me as soon as three months ago, I would have not believed them. Your decision to remain in Ponyville was clearly for the best, and I believe you are becoming a better pony because of it.
Now, as to Miss Heartstrings’ inquiries as to what she turned into. The zebra word, binadamu, defies translation into Equestrian – much as how we would have a difficult time properly translating ‘bear’ into their tongue beyond simply describing the creature. Based on your description and rough sketch, however, I would posit that Miss Heartstrings was transformed not into a bear as she believed –
“I didn’t think I was a bear, I just figured I might as well be a bear as long as we didn’t have anything else to call me,” Lyra objected.
“Bears have tails, and fur, and muzzles,” Trixie pointed out. “And are taller.”
“Not all of them.
“Most of them.”
– but rather a simian, specifically some form of hominan, although what specific species, I am uncertain based on your description. Unfortunately I can’t say much more than that – they were never very common even in Zebrica, and to be completely honest I had thought them to have died out some time ago. Evidently the zebras retain some knowledge of their existence, however – perhaps there are pockets of the species yet existent in the Zebrica? Certainly there are cryptozoologists who will be delighted to hear that news and will be eager to journey there, provided that relations with the zebra nations can be normalized.
In any event, Trixie, I think I will leave the examination of zebra magic in different hooves. After your experience last week, I think you have earned a reprieve.
Your Princess and Teacher,
– Luna
“Hominan,” Lyra said, wrapping her tongue around the word. “Hominan. Weird.”
“From what Luna wrote, I think it’s just describing the creatures in general, but then there are specific sub-groups,” Trixie said. “Like with ponies, or deer.”
It had been a week since Lyra’s Worst Day Ever, as it was now officially titled in her mind, even if objectively she knew that there was at least one day in her life that was worse: the most recent Longest Night, when Corona had returned and kidnapped, among other ponies, Bon Bon. That day was kind of just terrible for the whole world, though, whereas a week ago had been specifically bad for her above everypony else.
The two of them were sitting in Trixie’s kitchen; or rather, Lyra was sitting, while Trixie was arranging a magic circle in the floor, albeit one much smaller than the ones she had constructed for Lyra. Sitting in the center of the magic circle was a rooster – the former hen of Fluttershy’s that Trixie had stolen, specifically. It was in a magical slumber once again. Fluttershy had raised no objections to the rooster’s theft, at least none that Trixie had heard from either Ditzy Doo or Rainbow Dash (the latter, most certainly, would have broken through Trixie’s once-again-repaired front window if she had known what Trixie had done), but after spending a week with the thing before considering herself brave enough to try another zebra spell, she was more than eager to get rid of the violent, smelly, ravenous bird. She simply supposed that it would only be proper to return him (soon to be her) in the same state and gender that she had acquired the once and future hen in.
“So,” Trixie asked, as she finished setting up the magic circle and looked to Lyra. “Have you been reaping the rewards of last week? Does the Majestic and Lovely Lyra Heartstrings have ponies knocking down her door offering her jobs?”
“No,” Lyra said, “but just plain Lyra has a few shows scheduled.”
Trixie grimaced. “‘Just plain Lyra.’ Really? Where’s the stage presence? The memorability? The pomp?”
Lyra frowned. “My music is supposed to be able to speak for itself.”
“Sure. It’s great. Really, it is. But a little showmareship never hurt anypony. Play yourself up! Your music is basically a product that you’re trying to sell, and as any salespony will tell you, you need to advertise it well!”
Lyra frowned as she tried to piece through what she’d just heard. “So…” she said, “I should…dress like you.”
“Non!” Trixie objected, rearing up on her hind legs and throwing her front legs wide. “You should dress like the Majestic and Lovely Lyra Heartstrings!” Her horn glowed, and a few small, quiet illusory fireworks were set off.
Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Yeah…but I’m not doing this, I didn’t decide to become a musician, for the money.”
Trixie dropped to all four legs again, rolling her eyes as she turned back to the rooster. “Tell me about it…I can’t believe you’re not getting paid for that show…”
Lyra opened her mouth to argue the point, but then thought better of it. Trixie just seemed incapable of wrapping her mind around the idea that Lyra made plenty of money – actually she was fairly certain that by the end of the year, she’d have made more money from shows and concerts and even just informal gigs, then Trixie made from her stipend as a Representative of the Night Court. For some reason, though, she felt it would probably be a good idea to just bite the bit and not tell Trixie that, and instead let Trixie continue under her delusion that Lyra was in need of financial assistance, or at least marketing assistance.
“Okay,” Trixie said. “Now then, watch in awe as I turn this rooster back into a hen! See, that’s how you’re supposed to…” Trixie turned around to look at Lyra, but then noticed that Lyra wasn’t behind her anymore. Instead, Lyra was outside, in Trixie’s back garden, looking in but having put the glass-and-wooden door between herself and the zebra spell.
“Carry on,” Lyra insisted from the other side of the door.
Trixie sighed. This was going to put a damper on her plans to have Lyra help her with her magic show for the Eventime…
Yay! Finished! And now I can devote my time solely to "An Early Reunion," then, once that's finished, I can move on to "Tales of Ponyville" and, following that, "Return of Tambelon." After that, it'll probably be "The Grand Galloping Gala," then the long-awaited "Crisis on Two Equestrias" (with the "Countdown to Crisis" webisode lead-up), and, lastly for anything I've given any serious planning to, "The Summer Sun Celebration."
Yikes, my schedule is full.
Brilliant ending!
1052092 Wow.
1052290
To turn the rooster back into a hen so that she can give the hen back to Fluttershy, as a hen. As shown in the epilogue.
All's well that ends well I suppose. Really wish I had more to say, but all the best stuff was already played out a few chapters ago and this was just wrapping up the last few ends. Not bad, just noting that warrants much comments. Though I rather enjoyed Trixie second thinking offering Lyra and BonBon her bed.
Oh, and I must thoroughly agree with Trixie that, yes, BonBon is very scary indeed when she gets stressed. Kinda want to see her and Raindrops get some joint screen-time now just to see what happens.
1052092
Indeed. Makes me feel like a wimp for thinking as though Elements of Insanity, Captain Karotene, and that other Raindrops fic I want to write are a plate full.
Brava brava!! Oh well done! This was a certainly fun, zany and tense adventure! I don't know how I knew, but I knew papercuts and all the evils involved with them would have to come up at some point or other. Also, good for Trixie to remember the gender crossed hen. I actually forgot about that. =P
This was a great story and I cannot wait to see more of your work!
1052092
Is the crisis series an actual thing? Because it sound awesome if you're going to do it, and you should do it anyway if you weren't going to.
Oh lord, the Grand Galloping Gala, with that bunch. Mwuahahahaha.....
heheheheh.....soundproofing.
And Trixie had an admirer! That's so cute!
....I wonder how hard it would be to get Bonbon and Raindrops into the same anger management class.....
I'm pretty sure the word you meant to use throughout chapter 9 was "reagent". "regent" is a type of ruler, while "reagent" means something similar to "ingredient".
And that list of upcoming stories is pretty huge, lol. It makes me worried about how long it's going to be before Crisis comes out, because I've been waiting for that one pretty much since I first heard of it, lol.
Awesome story. Always love Trixie and the Lunaverse and equecidal Bon Bon is always fun.
Odd. Very odd. I wonder if hominians are cryptids in the Celestiaverse as well.
1052401
"Crisis on Two Equestrias" is sort of the offical "The Movie" for this series. It's a crossover between the Lunaverse and the Mane universe, and has been in preliminary planning stages ever since "Boast Busted."
1052516
I'm going to try and speed up my rate of writing. "Boast Busted," after all, was written and published in just a few days, the recent Chapter 5 add-on nonwithstanding. I should really try to get back up to that speed again.
1052800
Hominans, incidentally, is a subtribe of hominini. This tribe contains hominans and pans, or the various chimpanzee subspecies. The defining feature of hominans is that our feet are adapted to walking and are not adept at holding or manipulating objects.
Hominans would include australopithecus, paranthropus, sahelanthropus, orrorin, ardipithecus, kenyanthropus, and homo genuses. Lyra is pretty obviously described as some kind of homo, though I do not necessarily believe that she was transformed into a homo sapiens.
Awesome tale indeed!
Also, should the truth is a scourge… ever get featured in a story....
I am officially looking forward to seeing the resulting chaos
Thats..... quite the story lineup you have there....
eeyup.
Carry on!
Seriously Awesome all round i can't say much more than that.
Hey look at that, Luna's been negligent too.
1052868
Oh god, I can't wait. It certainly would be interesting to see everyone's reaction to that. Of course, first contact between them might go messily, considering that Luna!Twilight is a wanted fugitive and Luna!Celestia is an enemy of the state.
iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/131337872689.gif
I believe it's Than.
1052868 Holy... Crisis on Two Equestrias... Must... Read... hteoaqci But I can only imagine on the possibilities of Mane Twilight and your Twilight/Trixie meeting... the possibilities are great!
I really liked this story, but have one complaint: the big finale happened a few chapters before the ending. The last couple of chapters were good, they just felt a bit postclimatic.
Lovely end to a great story. Do have to say I like An Early Reunion more but that's simply because you've made me fall in love with your Luna. Trixie here though is on such a great arc through these stories. From so conceited to slowly but surely making her way into a much nicer pony. It's really amazing to see the character believably evolve rather then just all of a sudden jump forward unrealistically. You're truly doing a amazing job with that and deserve major props for it.
I do kind of wish you'd write more of what Celestia is actually doing at the minute though...Would be nice somewhere in some story. She seems a bit too backgroundy from what was supposed to be a 'reoccurring' villain no?
Anyway great story! Archived to my Kindle, and remains favorited. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Finally got round to reading this one, and I'm very glad I did. I really enjoyed this. It was witty, fasted paced and while you kept it lighted hearted, the stakes were still high enough for me to remain invested. The characters were all in top form but I have to say I enjoyed Bon Bon's rampage maybe a little more than I should
So really nothing more to say other than nicely done.
1052092
So wait, the Grand Galloping Gala and the Summer Sun Celebration will be two seperate stories?
1052493
Well that would depend if there is any pony brave enough to suggest it to either of them.
1052092 I don't know if I'm more pleased that there's going to be so much in the Lunaverse, or more displeased that there's so much to happen before Crisis starts. Note that both feelings exist, I eagerly (VERY eagerly) await the arrival of Crisis, AND I am happy to know the Lunaverse is so big. It's just, which feeling is stronger?
1052868
Hoo boy. L-verse HiE fics would have a really different feel after this episode.
This gives me some ideas....
Great read. Glad I read it through to the end. Lunaverse has so many fun shenanigans.
1052092 That is a very full schedule. Can't wait.
Okay, first M!Twilight says 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth', and then there's this. I'm forced to ask this.
Does this mean the world where Equestria is based has a history of slave trade, at some point or another?
Holy crap! A Lunaverse story with a still dysfunctional as hell but unambiguously happy ending! HUZZAH!
Seriously though, I just love your Trixie to pieces, and this story was an absolute joy to read. I can definitely say your Lunaverse stories are strongest when they're not takes on canon episodes and go off on their own trail.
1105385
Possibly, though I was imagining a "bit" in this case to refer to their form of currency.
I was thinking of it as basically being like how, in olden times before proper painkillers, if any kind of painful medical procedure had to be performed, the doctor basically just got you pissed drunk and then gave you something to bite down on. In this case, a bit coin.
So, when I was reading Tales of Ponyville yesterday, I was wondering when you'd update this story. Well, it turns out I actually forgot to track it back when chapter one came out. On the bright side, I was now able to read the whole story in one sitting
It was a hilarious story, a brilliant take on the "Lyra wants to be a human"-joke. And boy, angry Bon Bon can be scary. The whole story arc was a nice read. It's great that so many of your Lunaverse stories would just work as episode of an alternate version of the show (well, except the naked human girl and the sexual references, but I don't mind those ).
One thing though: I don't know how fluent you're with German or what your intention was, but as a naitive speaker I have to say "Kernstadt der Greifen" sounds kind of off. If you were looking for a literate translation of "Capital of the griffons" then "Hauptstadt der Greifen" would be more accurate. Sorry, just me nitpicking...
Anyway, great job again
NTL
1115609
Ah, thanks.
I can only speak two languages - English, and Bad English. Everything else comes from Google translate, which is good in a pinch, but obviously flawed. So, please, feel free to correct me whenever you like.
1115628
Okay, will do then. Although, you could ask if you need some more German phrases anywhere. I don't mind a little translating here and there.
1162448
"Thinking" isn't really something they're doing an awful lot of right now.
I've deeply enjoyed this fic. The slap-stick, the break-neck trope inversions, and general craziness.
Also looking forward to performances the G&PT and beautiful, if barely-visible-in-the-distance, assistant, Lyra. That's her behind the sand-bags, folks!
1052868
Just started reading the stories in this 'verse this weekend, and holy smeg are they amazing. You clearly put a lot of thought into world-building, giving it a distinct tone without being a grimdark Bizarro universe. That said, when the Crisis does happen, I can only imagine the reaction the Mane cast will have when they find out about Corona. Especially Twilight. L!Luna meeting M!Celestia and seeing a version of her sister that she lost over a thousand years ago, not the terrifying monster her own became, will probably be both heartwarming and heartbreaking, too.
That and a confrontation between the two Celestias would be head-explodingly epic. Two physical gods, likely of equal power, but one is utterly insane and devoid of restraint while the other is level-headed and loving, but fiercely protective of her little ponies.
Loved it! I'm so glad I found my way into the Lunaverse, it's just so much fun!
Hesitant to start reading "canon" stories not written by you, but I'll give it a shot!
1857153
I've been making the attempt to change it in my future writing, but I don't feel like going back and correcting it in the past. I do think I'm getting better, though.
I'll admit that I keep hoping that American English will finally diverge enough from British English that "of" actually becomes correct...
1858341
I've seen that, and you have definitely improved. My apologies for taking my frustrations out on you. I'd just been seeing it so much lately, no matter where I went, that I was going nuts.
I, respectfully, hope that doesn't happen. To me, it's a lazy way of writing; and I think American English has become far too lazy as it is. If that is the direction it's headed, however, I see little that I can do to stop it. Only time will tell.
1861271
But remember that that's how languages evolve in the first place: people not speaking them correctly. For example, Latin doesn't have a single word for yes or no; you'd instead say sic est (roughly, "it is thus") or sic non est ("it is not thus"). Over time, sic est was shortened to just sic in both Italy and Spain - and later, to sí (similarly, sic non est became just non, and then no). Or the phrase "hocus pocus" - it's a corruption of Latin hoc est corpus, "this is the body," from the part in mass where a priest transforms an ordinary piece of bread into the body of Christ, as if by magic.
Spanish is just a badly spoken admixture of Latin and Arabic, when you get right down to it...French is badly spoken German and Latin. And English is especially guilty party here. Talking about the purity of the English language is an exercise in futility. English is the result of Norman men-at-arms trying to pick up Anglo-Saxon tavern wenches. The language that resulted is no more legitimate than any of the other consequences.
1861328
Oh, don't I know it. I, myself, am Cajun, which is just the time- and laze-altered version of the original "Acadian". Cajun French is notorious for being exceptionally lazy with the original French; while taking influences from Spanish, Haitian, and a couple others I can't recall and being lazy with them as well. As you might have guessed, we're usually a somewhat laid back bunch.
I wonder if Lyra will have a sudden aversion to using her double jointedness to sit in a similar manner to hominans. I really liked seeing the other side of those interactions with Ditzy and Dinky, too. It's always vastly entertaining when stories set in the same universe overlap like that, showing different perspectives of certain events.
A reversal of the memetic "human Lyra trapped in a pony's body" that is by parts hilarious, thought-provoking, and beautiful. I love the idea of zebra magic being a sort of alchemical/ritualistic reality hacking, and the tie-in with "Family Matters" was skillfully woven on both ends. Two transmuted/conjured thumbs up. At least.
I'm hoping this makes more sense once I actually read the story . . . wait wait wait. Trixie's actually going to turn Lyra into a human? Are you serious?
Well of course you are, it explains the whole "looking up" thing. And that quote up there. But . . . really?
Also, woo! I'm in New York now! Or maybe Pittsburgh, I know somebody in Pittsburgh. Sure, let's go with Pittsburgh.
1162448 They had no real evidence the counterspell was wrong (in fact, I'm pretty sure it was correct). It was a counterspell for the pony-to-zebra spell, why should it undo the pony-to-human spell? They were just hoping Trixie had cast the proper first spell and botched it, but not badly enough for the counterspell to fail.
2206118
Yes and no. Its true she could have reacted differently. But it's also true that they were affecting her livelihood. And since I didn't see anyone buying tickets, we have to assume there's a tip jar for after the show.
That isn't my problem. If Celestia wants to be a sovereign Princess she has to learn to make hard choices.
If he was that much of a threat, she should have killed him.
But she didn't. She tormented him for how many centuries before he got loose the last time? And even then, he took it easy on everyone. Really, Celestia was more vicious than Discord ever was. At least going by what we saw on the show.
If I were him, I'd just play along. Then when the time is right....
"Revenge is dish best served cold".
There is nothing they could really do to stop him. Unless they plan on turning him to stone after every outing. Which would lead any reasonable person to say 'well hell, no wonder went for payback'.
No, he knows who the elements are, where they live, who their families are, what they care about..the whole nine yards. Discord could just take his time, and destroy them in detail. All while maintaining that all important 'plausible deniability' . And in the process get revenge on Celestia too.
Or maybe just gaslight them. And sit back and laugh while they go insane.
What a great story this was!
The first comedy for the L-verse, if I'm correct, and it certainly shows from beginning to end -- it's the first story, I think, that really went into Trixie and Lyra and it's wonderful seeing the relationship between the two.
Trixie was wonderful -- increasingly throughout, she shows just how much she cherishes her friends: how much she goes out her way to fix Lyra. Throughout the entire story, it feels like everyone is giving her hay over something, whether the Ice Palace incident or, in this situation, what was an accident - I understand that she can be seen as most responsible for Lyra's predicament, but it feels like it gets old fast this constant blaming....the royal guards giving her a hard time, Bon Bon...Lyra seems to be the only one, for the most part, who gets that it was an accident and Trixie is doing everything possible to change that: rather then looking for who to blame, a lot more progress could be made if more focus was put on fixing this mess.
In general, she was also just hilarious, as was the story in general....a lot of different things, such as the first hint (I believe) of the "truth is a scourge", to paralleling the "Family Matters" story, to Trixie being a virgin (which is played for laughs, though it's not a stigma or anything)....you really had a lot of fun with this story, and played with a lot of different material that would last into the future -- I loved how much depth you went into describing Zebra 'magic', and that you deliberately made a point to not describe human beings...even at the very end: I'm guessing that human beings are a mythological species of sorts? or died out who knows how long ago? In any case, if Luna doesn't remember them in all her years, then it's a good likelihood that it's been eons since humans were around or they never really existed at all. In any case, you've made the point to give them the bare minimum of attention.
Lyra is someone I really enjoyed in this story.....there is something about her, out of all the L-six, that makes me see her as the most casual or down-to-earth -- perhaps that distinction belongs to Cherrilee, but I think Lyra deserves it....yes she gets upset at what's happened to her, and laughs/groans at Trixie's shenanigans, such as wanting to make her more bombast (which may not be totally unreasonable), or about her nonexistent money issues....but out of everyone in this story, it seems she is the one who has the right attitude about everything: she sticks by Trixie and acknowledges her efforts, she manages to arrive at the concert and successfully play (and Octavia was there, which I think was her first appearance)....all and all, I just like how she handled everything.
Bon Bon was, well....I admit, she was iffy for me -- I guess it came down to her moodiness, which she herself acknowledges: in a way, she reminds me of Raindrops, but more so in a way...I guess what it comes down too, is that I never really liked her attitude toward Trixie really the entire story: sure, yes, I get that it's a comedy and we're not supposed to take, well, the whole story too seriously, and Bon Bon has the right to be mad at Trixie for what's happened, and she lightens up....I guess I just was never crazy for her perpetual antagonism. As before, I get that she's upset...but it seems she doesn't really contribute a whole lot to helping her marefriend then lashing out at Trixie, which really doesn't help any -- on the flipside, I know there are instances in the future where she doesn't act like this, so I guess her attitude here is just temporary. Her attitude toward Trixie could be seen a sign of her overwhelming love for Lyra, and she certainly is scared for her all the way through and I did enjoy that:
I also want to explicitly point out the musical writing during the concert, and that it was wonderful that you received help with that: indeed, it's filled with terms and references that just fly over my head, but that's what happens when I don't know anything about music -- even so, it's nice to have a chapter like this where I can expand my knowledge on the subject (and future stories with Octavia especially go even further).
All and all, it was a fantastic story...it was basically one giant deconstruction of Lyra's obsession with humans, and certainly was funny if you took it all with a light-hearted attitude, which was the whole point. After the adventure of LDLN and the emotion of Family Matters, it was wonderful to see what, in hindsight, was a pretty ridiculous adventure for these girls, and it's exactly what they deserve (well, maybe not, but it certainly was funny ).
I get the impression everybody seems to think this based on Raindrops attack on Lyra in "Eye of the Storm" Which leads me to wodner how and why she's cultivated this.
Discord is pretty much a god, short of an immortal like Luna or Celestia, he can outlive anyone, and just by that simple fact, he wins. As for Luna and Celstia, well, they should be glad Discord is just a cosmic prankster, consdering his reality warping abilites, he could easily destroy them if he so wished, I sure as hell hope that Trixie and co never get Discord angry, if they ever encounter him...
Man. this fic was hilarious, fun, and of course...heartwarming. Well, everything that an episode of MLP proper needs to be. I liked how Lyra and Trixie played off one another, as both friends getting used to one another and as players in the same field-entertainment. I liked how both approached their spefic field, Trixie is exrtragivigant while Lyra is subdude. This has a lot to do with the fact that one is more in music, while the other is in one where it is preferred to be extragivant!
I also notice that this shows a little more of Trixie's character, that at times when she messes up, she will do everythign she can to fix it up and will try and make amends. She also seems to be the pony that doesn't believe she deserves her redemption, even when given freely.
Lyra, on the other hand, demonstrate a character of peacemaker. Trying her best to not tick others off.
Now, for the first chapter of the live read for all to enjoy