Shit! Shit! Shit!
Thinking fast, I cast an illusion of myself on the throne. Not enough time to teleport!
The door swung open to reveal Princess Celestia and a pair of guards entering the throneroom.
Celestia paused when she spotted my illusion, “Page.”
“Princess Celestia,” I said and stretched my wings, the illusion lounging across the throne as I stuck as close to the pillar as I could, trying to keep my breathing under control.
She sighed and flicked her ears, “It seems like you win,” she finally said, “You used your guards as a distraction to get inside.”
“Goal never was to defeat you or your guards, Princess. Just to get me on the throne.”
“How did you get past the guards?” Celestia asked as she slowly approached, “Everywhere were watched and guarded.”
My illusion shrugged his wings and jumped off the throne, “Wasn’t that difficult, one second, I’ll show you,” it said and headed for the pillar, “I have it in my satchel.”
Casting another quick illusion to make a copy of my satchel. As the illusion moved out of view of them, I cancelled it and trotted out the other side of the pillar, seemingly digging through the illusionary bag, “I have it here somewhere,” I said as I moved towards the throne.
Come on.
Just buy it for another twenty seconds. I just need to get my arse onto that chair and I have…
A sunlight yellow glow covered me and pulled me into the air, floating me over to the larger alicorn.
She looked tired, if slightly amused.
“Page,” she said as she sat down on the carpet.
“…Celestia,” I answered. Damn. I should have risked a teleport instead of the illusion. Damn it., “When did you figure it out?”
“When you returned towards the throne instead of heading to me me,” she said and reached out to tap my nose with her hoof and a smile, “Boop. Gotcha.”
Oh crud.
“…You win,” I admitted and relaxed in her magic, “That was fun.”
Celestia flicked her ears and put me back down, “You are an infuriating opponent, Page.”
“Only real chance we had,” I admitted and shrugged my wings as I glanced around. Teleport to throne?
No, was too late already. I had admitted defeat, she won.
“How did my Legion do?” I asked as I got up, “In the distraction?”
Celestia smiled, “They did very well. Sunset Shimmer especially so, you have trained her well, Page.”
“We are about as good, we practice together,” I said and folded my wings again, “Luna teach me anything I know, I pass it on to Sunset. We practice until we have it down.”
Celestia nodded, “I can see both my sister and the old War Mages in how both of you do combat.”
I smirked at her, “We should try some one on one. I’m curious how you measure up compared to Luna.”
“Oh, we are completely different, but I think I’m better,” Sunshine countered with a smile, “But I think that it’d be fun. I would offer tonight, but I’m rather tired. I think somepony may owe me some nice dreams too?” she then added.
I nodded and flicked my ears, “…Yeah, fair enough. Nice dreams for you and your guard for the rest of the week.”
She smiled and got up, “As soon as my sun is down, I’m going to bed. You should head down to the guard barracks and gather up your guard,” she said, “They are being kept under guard there until you were found and captured.”
“Better go let them out then,” I said with a nod, “Then I’ll take them all to the Pathfinder. After all of this, they deserve it.”
They did a damn good job. I was the one that bucked it up at the end, that wasn’t on them.
“Come see me tomorrow, Page,” Celestia added, “We have some matters to discuss.”
I did my best to hide my cringe, but apparently not well enough as she smiled and head out of the throneroom, leaving me with the guards.
They didn’t look overly happy with me.
“Uhm… you heard the part about all nice dreams all week, right?” I said and shifted a bit backwards.
“…Yes, sir,” the one on the left finally said and sighed, “If you come with us, sir?”
Nodding, I trotted along.
All that was for nothing I suppose. Well, not nothing. I clearly did reveal some weaknesses in the defences. But the fact that Sunshine won were kind of sour to be honest.
I had been so close!
Damn it.
So close XC good luck with sunshine
Actually I'm kinda disappointed he lost.
Page tried really hard! He should get some kind of reward, right?
Well, saw one coming from the title of the story
Little disappointed myself.
9119473
Yeah, me too.
well, good thing she already wasted her winnings by asking for nice dreams
At least Page was able to make the Master Chess Player sweat--that's quite an accomplishment.
That was vaguely infuriating.
9119628
Oooh. Page may yet outponeuver her. :D
Too bad he didn't cast an illusion over himself to make himself invisible, letting Celestia talk and be distracted with the illusionary clone while he snuck over to the throne.
Oh, well. Now we get to see what kind of punishment Celestia's got planned for Page. Maybe she'll use his idea a personal maid for the day, complete with a maid outfit?
Okay, ante up! Whose had Celly winning?
So close, yet so far.
so close but so far,
9119702
in the end it dusten't iven mather!
9119695
It’s a good idea, but it was implied earlier in the story that Celestia can tell when an illusion is active if given an unknown amount of time to examine it.
9119701
Should be everyone. She was the favorite to win after all. Won't get much in winnings though.
Oh come on!!! Al this for him to lose? This chapter is bullshit
That was really...I won't say bad.
I didn't enjoy it?
"Welp I got you, you lose" Even a futile attempt would of felt better to me.
Like the ending didn't feel like there was something missing. No chance to escape from Tia's clutches, no "Solar Flare!" blinding attempt to break her concentration ...You do realize I control the SUN right?
I was totally expecting a changeling switch at the last second tbh. Like Celestia sees right through the illusion, comes up to him.
Surprise, changeling princess, was pretending to be him UNDER the illusion. She wouldn't even know WHY she was there just a message "Hey come to the palace, then pretend to be me in the throne room until someone calls you on it. Me and Celestia are testing our guards. I'll be along to add unicorn magic if I can. (So many hugs will be given. All the hugs. :P)" He didn't ask for help. He tricked for help :D. It was not Page bbut I
DioChangeling!Or if he would of talked his way to make it seem like he'd surrendered without actually saying such, and been like "BTdubbs, Booping is not capturing Celestia. And I never actually gave up" I know, good thing The throne has a solid wall of magic around it!
This is super anti-climactic. Like I get if Celestia is supposed to win from a writers standpoint. But I don't really like how several chapters of hard work end with a couple of lines of "lol nope" and its over.
I have to echo the sentiments of others regarding all the build up just ending in a noisily deflating balloon. However, it isn't what's off in this chapter.
To be quite honest, pulling off this chapter is stupid for how nuanced and frustratingly difficult it is. There are so many factors to keep this progression of events balanced. The weak point isn't even the events, but the presentation in this case. A little more energy and tension trying to sit on the throne from Page might have helped.
All in all, the chapter just feels cop out simple in a very complex, dynamic situation. It might be just Hiver having a moment of being stuck and needing to do something so as not to leave the story hanging for an unknown period. I've had that happen myself in the past and it's supremely aggravating to release something you know isn't at your usual level.
Beyond the end of this little war game though, the rest was a lot of fun to watch.
9119851
Yeah, this one really fell flat. It isn't that the outcome was unexpected, just that the path there felt more than a little arbitrary. Celestia being a step ahead of him and hanging out invisible on the throne so he sits on her invisible ass when he thinks he won or them playing a game of Calvinball to the throne would have worked, but this was really underwhelming. Throw in the lack of meaningful impact from the changelings and this whole arc really failed to come together in a meaningful way.
I'm disappointed as well. Seems like he can't win much - course most of the stories I read still have the underdog lose instead of pulling off a surprising win, which to me is way more satisfying.
So I'm not the only one that found the conclusion of this arc unrewarding.
To be honest, I think Page's presence in this world stopped having any meaningful impact right around the time he defeated Tirek. I started realizing this after the time Page got mauled by that Griffon ambassador, only to have the incident swiftly delt with by Celestia and mention of a new ambassador said in passing several chapters down the line. In any other story, I would have expected this to be a plot hook to put a strain on the Griffon/pony relations, the start of a political drama arc, or something. But instead, it looks like its only purpose was so that the chapter could end in a cliffhanger. This is one of the more obvious examples that I could think of, the story is otherwise dotted with unfired Chekhov's Guns, hanging on the wall, gathering dust.
If I have to describe the current state of the series, I'd say it's one of the most realistic slice-of-life story out there, in that it genuinely feels like reading about snippets of a guy going about his (albeit eventful) life, where things happen just because and lacks any narrative meaning or reason.
Edit: Damn autocorrect
Eh, I expected this arc to be dumb from the start, so having it end like this wasn’t a disappointment. What’s dumb is that if you go for this bluff, you don’t pretend to then try to win, you just claim you’ve already won. Literally all he had to do was take the place of the illusion and come out with his bag and explain his plan as if he’d already won. Then if he wanted to “honestly win” come up with a story that his request is to sit on that throne with Luna while Celestia is a foot stool or SOMETHING that sounds plausible. Then you’d get people thinking “at least Celestia saw through his bluff” when she inevitably wins because you already broadcasted from the beginning that Page was not going to win.
9119721
The few seconds she would need to see through his illusions might have been enough for Page to succeed.
9119473
There is still the very real possibility that Celestia 'punishment' for him losing may count as a reward.
Am I the only one finding this version of Celestia to be infuriatingly smug and overbearing? Just once I'd like to see her actually lose to break this Mary Sue-ish "I win everything" BS going on.
9120216
Well, I'm thinking it will appear as a reward to everypony but him. Notice the cover picture. That's what I think he's in for.
He didn't get to the throne, so she's going to make him have it far more than he would like.
9120633
I had nearly forgotten about the cover, but you do have a point.
Celestia looks awfully smug while Page looks positively unimpressed.
9120613
Pretty much, I'm fairly certain no one was surprised by the outcome of this "bet". I get it's to continue the story but I also would like Page to one up Celestia for once.
Many of you commenters complain about him not doing this, or that... and yet, it is in character for Page to do exactly this. He's a human whose mind is resembling much strongly now the equines he coexist with, instead of the full-on human he was at the start.
Check the whole story from the start up to this point, and you'll see the shift in Page's mentality towards a pony one.
If he had his mentality intact, then he'd have gone straight to the throne - as likely as it would have been for Celly to stop him mid-trot, or even stop him one inch from sitting on the throne. But he would have done that. Alternatively, he'd have done exactly as many of you said. It is 'human' common sense.
But he behaved like a pony in handling this, he used his subconscious 'pony' common sense instead. Thus, the sense of lack of fulfillment that many of you feel.
So, learn this lesson for the future, just in case you get stuck in his shoes: if you get changed into a pony, and live with ponies, don't expect your mind to be fully human in the long term in terms of decision-making.
9120633
I was going to say "Page in a maid costume tending to the entire Royal Guard he just sleep deprived" but that works too
To beat on a very dead horse, I'm disappointed with how this arc ended. There was a lot of balls in the air that never came back down. The changelings for one.
9120947
An interesting point. That could easily be a very compelling subject for a HiE. (As in, a more focused version of the same concept.) And not one of those fics that either bash "human violence" or "pony submissiveness," either. Rather, a psychological analysis of what changes, and what stays the same. What is your personality, and what is your nature?
9123069
Indeed.
What amuses me even more is that some snowflake got offended and gave me a downvote in my statement.
And I don't think many have tackled that subject, simply because it'd be really hard to do in terms of research, and knowing - or being - a psychologist to actually do it right.
Seriously? Stepping out and looking around is how just about every group of hero gets captured at least once! Teleport from cover, damn it!
9122776
Checkhov's gun and all
9444448
Chekovs gun is supposed to WORK.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChekhovsGun
It's an averted trope, if it's not brought up again. Either that, or
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatHappenedToTheMouse
Guys, we literally saw this coming, although Page could've been better.
For example, have Celestia catch the illusion, before teleporting into the throne. Or if that won't work, smoke bomb from the illusion, and ran onto the throne.
Well that didn't end like I guessed it might. I expected the throne to be replaced with an duplicate/illusion, stolen and moved outside the castle.
You win some you lose some. Anyway they did amazing for a new regiment. Well trained indeed!
You were too impatient Page.
9132234
Same thoughts here. I was almost screaming at the screen…
Page in Maiden uniform, here we come...
You know of he just acted like he had won instead of trying to win that wpuld have been it as Celestia had adimitted defeat already.
That was so very disappointing. I mean, i had a feeling that Page would lose, but still... No fun with changelings? No stealing the throne? :-P (I wish there was a good 'annoyed raspberry' emoji.)
i.pinimg.com/originals/09/65/16/0965166448ceb4ed776563cab1d8aab5.png
Page was an idiot here. Should've teleported onto the throne the second he saw it was vacated.