• Member Since 1st Jun, 2012
  • offline last seen Jan 11th, 2022

Norm De Plume


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Rarity’s little Temptation ends up on pins and needles. Literally.

With her shoulder-devil out of commission, other Temptations pop into her life to pick up the slack from their fallen sister.

-~-~-~-~-~

Written for the Barcast's "Make Rarity Not Garbage" contest.

Cover art by JennDyLyon. Adore her. Fear Her. Admire her art!

Pre-read by ScarletWeather and Aragon.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 57 )

Everything about this is genius.

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Thank you, dragon-person!

I had no idea how to feel about this concept at first but you really pulled it all together. It's rare for a concept this out there to work this well, especially outside of the comedy genre. Well done!

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Thanks. It came to me while I watched an ASMR video about a shoulder angel and devil, and had this mental image of a person's Angel & Devil being assessed as part of an annual physical and what that might look like. It snowballed from there.

Hey, that's pretty good!

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It was Heather Feather's from a couple years ago. "Testing Your Alignment: Binaural ASMR "Doctor" Examination With Your Shoulder Angel And Devil", and the title just twigged

I don't know how you did it, but you made this concept very cute.

That was really quite delightful. The characterization of all the little recorders was so great, and it was fun to see how Rarity interacted with them.

Too cute. Of course the only thing more adorable than little ponies is even littler ponies

Before Gifty could say anything, Rarity shook her head. “Please, dear, nothing about how this will go straight to my flanks, or keep me awake. This is the only good thing that's happened today, and I am going to indulge in it!” A tiny noise interrupted her and she glanced down to see a wide-eyed angel pony with her own little bowl and spoon, eyes big and shimmering as she held it up in her hooves. “Oh, Gifty, dear, I'm so sorry. Of course you can join me.”

Aww :heart: I hope someone will make a fanart of this scene, it's simply adorable.

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I adore the work JennDyLyon put into the cover art as it is. I watched her work on it for hours. Check out the larger version on her DA and you'll see so many little details. :D

Daaw, the ice cream scene was adorable!

....I want to take this story home and snuggle it. It's that sweet and adorable and snuggle and a just a wee bit sad.

I'm going to give the nicest complaint I can: There isn't enough of this. I was hoping for yet more shenanigans between Rarity and her borrowed Temptations, from Devil's Food Pie's caloric castigation to Zealous Sparkle encouraging her to put that horn to real use for once. (To say nothing of what Starlight's shoulder devil might say...) Still, it's a clever premise and a very sweet execution. Thank you for it.

You can do a lot with this concept. It's very entertaining.

This is one of the simplest and most brilliant of ideas to take away from that scene in "Saddle Row Review." I am in awe of your talents. Bravo!

I enjoyed the story, but there seemed to be a vital part missing: when Deviljack was talking, she implied knowing what Applejack knew. I was imagining a mini-scene like this:

Gifty huffed and narrowed her eyes. "You know you're violating the rules, you have to tell her." The demon smirked at her and said, "Ah ain't sayin' nothin'." Gifty then wore a strangely dark grin, "Oh, yeah?" She looks toward the boutique's door and shouts, "I appeal to the Judge!"

Applejack's face became ashen, "Oh, please, not that, Anythin' but that!" Twilight Sparkle's demon poofed beside the two of them, dressed in a formal blue jacket with an expensive-looking briefcase floating in her magic beside her, embossed with the word "Rules" in a fine calligraphy. Gifty looked to her, "Your Honor? You can see what happened. Tell her," she points to Deviljack, unsuccessfully hiding behind her Stetson.

With a dour expression, the Rules Lawyer harrumphs, "My colleague has been deceptive in one of the few ways that is impermissible. it is a fact that we reflect your own thoughts, Dame Rarity, and cannot provide true thoughts of other ponies." The Judge looks over to Deviljack, "And you have an appointment at my court tomorrow to go over all the fine details of our rules." She then wears a genuinely demonic grin, "You should clear your schedule."

Ooo, I have to read this one!

What a completely charming tale! Well done, indeed.

I completely missed this one until today! More people need to read this, it's absolutely brilliant.

Now I want a sequel that shows the mane 6, as well as some other ponies, with their own Recorders.

A premise this bonkers shouldn't work as well as it does. Excellent job!

This story is absurd in the best possible way. It takes a site gag from canon and takes it to the extreme, yet it also establishes internally consistent rules. This makes it miles better than the "LOL so random" brand of absurdity.

This was fun. Not sure why you didn't label it Random, though.
And seeing "Mine" as a name was confusing, especially when Fluttershy's Temptation said, “Mine's learning that lesson slowly, but she's getting better." Took me a moment to realize she meant "my pony Fluttershy" that time. (I was expecting a joke on that eventually.)

Cute as a button and well worth the read :twilightsmile:

I request another story in this universe, but one without the ponies. How about a gathering of Recorders 'after hours', say at their equivalent of a local pub, where they get to complain about their ponies?

Of course, at the beginning when Mine had advised putting off cleaning the boutique, her advice was what allowed her to fall onto a pincushion.
Self-inflicted injury, more or less.
You have to wonder if her advice might be different next time.

This was adorable. :)

“[...]When two small versions of me appeared, telling me 'Mine!' or 'Gifty!', it was how I grew to know them.”

So the language skills of Rarity's Recorders matched her own. Interesting. Also a good representation of Rarity's inner conflict between selfishness and generosity. Also utterly adorable.

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They're cute little things. Irresistable in plush form. Also, it depends on the age at which a pony has a developed sense of self awareness and moral sense to have their Temptation and Conscience first appear. They grow together, which is why Twilight's Recorders are as nerdy as her. (Although she lost one Temptation, which means another had to either be selected or made for her. It's not like there are just spare Temptations flittering around...)

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

This is my favorite kind of fic. :D

The sheer fact that this has survived since September without garnering a single downvote tells me I need to read this.

It's a good concept, and it's very cute as well. BRAVO

This is, to put it succinctly, hella cute.

Sweet, delicious absurdity.

I feel like Discord's Conscience isn't listened to much.

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Either that or he is constantly urging Discord to perform acts of chaos that don’t directly harm/severely annoy others.

This was weird but cute and hella creative.

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Discord probably has two Temptations.

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The fact that it's been three weeks and does not only still have no downvotes, but it has actually risen by atleast 60 votes since the last time I checked, tells me that the time spent reading this story was time well spent.

That was awesome and really creative. Very well done.

Adorable fluff. Good stuff.

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And a very green conscience. Bet he gets hazed a lot.

I've reviewed your story HERE!

This is actually fairly entertaining and I like the original idea of seeing your mini devil and angel at the story.

Oh this is wonderfully precious. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

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