Since his attempt to unite dragonkind into a singular nation, the young dragon Spike has been feeling lost in the world.
Miss Cheerilee, Element of Laughter, knight of Equestria and teacher extraordinaire has been growing worried about him. But having heard of a dragon professor in the far off Crystal Empire, who lives and works alongside ponies, Cheerilee thinks that Spike could use his perspective.
But upon arriving in the empire, they find that Corona, the Tyrant Sun is also in the city, as well as a shadowy threat from a monarch long gone...
Good to see a new Lunaverse story, and its off to a solid start. Yangin is certainly one of the more unique additions to Corona's faction, and I like that Yangin is more blunt and up front with Celestia while at the same time Celestia recognizes the shared experience on the "complex sister issues" front.
Its sweet that Cheerilee wants to help Spike, and I'll be interested to see how things develop in the Crystal Empire. Oh, timeline wise where is this one taking place, by the way?
Neat. An exploration of the Lunaverse's Crystal Empire, and a follow up to Smoke and Fire.
Added it to the Season 2 lineup, specifically in Summer, as I think that was where you wanted it?
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I pictured it happening in the Summer, but before the events of Past Remnants. Just part of the lead up to the season finale.
Yangin does have an appreciation for Celestia. She's also pretty convinced that she's the only sane mare among the group.
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The Crystal Empire is very faux Switizerland in the Lunaverse.
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You got it, boss!
A good tale so far. :) Now Spike, don't worry. if you're anything like your canon version, you'll be able to resist the crystal just fine. It's Rarity people should be worried about. I swear, she was about half a second from dry-humping the walls there in the season-three premiere. :p
Off to a great start! :D
Her older self is probably what she's going to become anyway. They don't have movies in THIS Equestria so Cheerilee and Spike have no idea that they've just witnessed a coming attractions reel......
Scandalous rumors that it's actually a few feet off from being the center abound in the Crystal Empire.
All I'm imagining it Schwarzkopf giving the tenure speech that a teacher in American Dad was.
"So you see class, that's why the school can't fire me, no matter what I do." [bites a huge chunk out of the wall]
I like Schwartzkopf a lot. He's very similar to how I have dragons in my own fanverse.
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Yeah, there's a bit of irony involved there. Should be interesting when the season is done!
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.....Damn it, now I really, really wish I could have fit that joke into the story somehow. >_>....
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He's also a bit of a reference to a character in the Shadowrun table top RPG. He's a university teacher in that setting too.
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It would be deeply ironic if Corona ends up pretending to be reasonable until she actually internalizes sanity. . .
now the cats out of the bagand Yangin knows she is deeper shit then she thought at first, we can only hope she decides to get out before the shit hits the fan.
I think that surrounding herself with an army of idiots and monsters might be having an effect on Sunbutt. At some point, she's going to realize WHY she's hated and feared...she's the idiotic monster who's the menace. Once that hits her, she's going to spend a millennium or two making up for it.
Celestia 'forgives' Cheerilee.
Well, that takes some cahones.
Corona might contest that it's actually Luna's habit to send things to the sun.
It's good to have doubts about how moral one is. Not having doubts leads to yelling that one is the Sun and doing an impersonation of an ingrown hair.......
Yangin: "Luna! We meet again!"
Luna: "Yes, we do...you."
Yangin: "...Do you not know who I am?"
Luna: "Should I?"
Yangin: "Oh come on! We fought! I gave you a black eye and everything! A thousand years ago, give or take?"
Luna: "When I was wandering the land a drunken wreck?"
Yangin: "...oh. Right."
Yes, Cheerilee. You're a good pony.
Also, ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-MY-MY-MY CORONA! :D
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Interesting point. Though a little too much doubt and you land up where Luna did in season one. Afraid to ask.
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Ha!
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*squints at the pun*
....Get out.
Interesting......we're getting closer to Celestia's final confrontation with getting over herself. It seems to me that she kinda needs to have what happened to Yangin to happen to her......
Great ending, here. Ah... I'd pay money for Celestia to get the 'reason you suck' speech she so richly deserves. And hell, Lunaverse or Maneverse! I'm for either one!
Even as Corona, tea remains the solution to all problems for Celestia. Or rather, it has the ability to replace all problems with a more fundamental one, viz., why isn't there any more tea?
It's nice to see the Crystal Empire get some screen-time... page-time, and some development.
But the story is kinda short and just sort of ends very suddenly.
(I get that Corona and Yangin have sort of done what they came for, but all the same...)
In before this is a long job and Yangin is still working on this wish.
This feels like a good suggestion.
First impression, Schwarzkopf is pretty great. He could turn out to be an excellent influence on Spike.
It's Mothra! Wait, what?
Ah, so it's some sort of vermin thing.
That seems bad, probably.
Pretty good start to this PR campaign.
Hah!
Hopefully not ominous.
Well, that is what happened.
I feel like they're not talking about dragons anymore.
Which is probably going to be betrayed eventually, unless Celestia finally comes to her senses before there's a chance for Corona to screw up the relationship.
As much as I'm inclined to more or less agree that Yangin is in the right with her issues with Cheerilee, if this is how she's going to be in the conversation why did she bother to find her in the city anyway? To make Cheerilee a prop so that she's the one who can feel better?
Probably a good thing for members of Team Celestia to know.
Even for someone who is normally an instructor, there's always the occasional need for advisement work.
This conversation is going well.
Explicitly stating the warning is probably good.
Don't forget that this is insane Corona, not pleasant Celestia regardless of what the PR campaign is trying to push.
The Lunaverse Element Bearers tend to err a little too strongly on the side of the ends justifying the means.
Chaos, eh?
As before this doesn't really entirely seem to be about dragons.
Spike knows how to work the comp system.
Property damage!
That's not going to help the PR campaign.
Geeze, Yangin, now that was probably an overreaction. Really not a good idea to do it in front of the reporters, too. I wonder if she is being affected by the dark magic that came out of the crystal?
Well, you don't get too many opportunities to punch an alicorn in the eye.
Nice character development for Corona, I like it. Feels like another step down the road to becoming Celestia again.
Applying fire appears to be surprisingly effective.
Even more fire!
This has been good development for Spike, too.
Good story.
ok i can't picture Schwartzkopf without picturing the dragon selling hair care products