You don’t leave an honest paycheck behind.
Luster Dawn strolled into Quills and Sofas, looking behind her at the bell chime.
Oh right. She chuckled nervously. They have to have some way to notify when customers are coming in.
Luster strolled around, pressing her hoof against a chaise lounge. Supple. I like it.
Her eye caught the quills stocked under the counter. Luster dashed towards the counter and peered at all of the stock they had on display. Oh gosh, they have all the latest models!
She picked each one up in her magic and twirled them, examining the weighting and balance of each one in turn. Hmmm, this one’s too top-heavy. I wonder how this next one will feel on paper. I wonder if they have—
“We have paper and inkwells on standby if you’d like to test out the product.”
Luster Dawn glanced up at the somewhat familiar greenish-blackish blob, then back at the quills in her glow. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” She looked up again at the… the changeling who reached under… her end of the counter and pulled out a ream of paper and an inkwell. She leered at the… tall… feminine, changeling as she placed the quill she was currently grasping down next to the ream that… “Chryssi”, had just presented to her. Luster tapped her chin.
“You don’t look like any changeling I’ve seen before.”
A sickly green shine emanated from her… gnarled? horn as a similar sheen encased a well-constructed small box behind the counter, said box placed on said counter.
“That specific quill has several optional nibs you can attach for different visual effects in your hornwriting.” Chryssi presented a smile. “It’ll make you stand out from the crowd.”
Luster Dawn wasn’t exactly listening to the salesling right now as she stroked her fiery mane. “You’re too tall to be Ocellus.” She looked to the side. “At least in her natural form, but I don’t remember Twilight mentioning her working as a salesling.” Luster looked at the changeling, the practiced smile losing its practice — and its smile — before she looked down. “Pharynx? No. He’s too militant. Thorax? Yeah, I could see him working at this kind of establishment.” She looked up and smiled. “Are you King Thorax?”
Chryssi’s eyes popped open as she snarled and slammed on the counter. “You confuse me for that traitorous false regent again and I will make sure you end up worse than Fizzlepop Berrytwist!”
Luster watched as Chryssi’s form expanded and contracted with her breath, the associate seemingly lost in a time long past. The gears ticked in her head as Chryssi straightened out her vest and hair, as well as fix the crown on her head.
The crown.
The crown.
Crowwwwwwn.
Crow—
Luster put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh my stars you’re Queen Chrysalis aren’t you.”
“In the flesh,” Chrysalis growled before she tapped the box. “Now, if you’ll allow me to continue attempting the upsale, we can go on with our—”
“OH NO.” Luster’s body twitched. She paced around. “Oh no oh no oh no oh no. My first day in Ponyville and one of Equestria’s greatest foes is here.” Luster pressed her eyes shut. “Is this a test? This must be a test.” She looked at Chrysalis, currently lightly tapping on the counter. “Is this a test?”
Chrysalis sighed. “The only thing you’re testing is my patience. Now are you buying or not?” She tapped her forehead. “Not that that’s an issue. Please, take your time.”
“Should I leave? Twilight told me about stranger danger, but she’s not exactly a stranger. She is dangerous, though. Very.” Luster rubbed her muzzle. “But if I leave she might wreak havoc upon all of Equestria.” She stomped the hoof on the floor, the creak doing nothing to dissuade her thought process. Much to Chrysalis’s dismay.
“Let’s look at this logically.” Chryssi — much easier to think of her as Chryssi — Chryssi leaned her head against her hoof. “If I were to wreak havoc on Equestria, what possible scenario would involve me working at Quills and Sofas?”
Luster opened her mouth up to answer before Chrysalis cut her off. “I want you to think very hard about this.”
Luster thought.
Very hard.
About this.
She thought about this so hard she sat down on the supple chaise lounge; long enough for several creatures to enter the establishment, look around, make purchases, and even joke around with one of the greatest evils in Equestria.
Finally done with thinking, Luster took a breath, got off of the chaise, and approached the counter. “Okay, I’ve got it, but it’s a long shot.”
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I’d love to hear this.”
“You’re using meme warfare.”
“Meme war—” Chrysalis lurched over the counter, causing Luster to reel, then slowly pulled back and chuckled. “Okay, now I really want to hear this.”
“What you’re doing is,” Luster started as she pointed at Chrysalis, “is lying low, working this dead-end job, being jocular with creatures. But for what?” Luster tapped the side of her head. “You’re trying to get their guard down for when you finally strike. See, what you’ll do after a few years of building and maintaining friendships, learning the details and ins-and-outs of everyone’s likes, and then!” Luster slammed her upper body on the counter, hoping to cause Chrysalis to flinch.
Chrysalis didn’t flinch. Well, she can’t stop now. Luster was on a roll.
“Then you’ll lead a counter-revolution against Princess Twilight to seize control of Equestria right from under her muzzle.”
Now Luster was the one heavily breathing. In, and out. Just, breathing.
Chrysalis slowly sat down on the chair behind the counter and just glared at Luster. A smirk slowly cracked on her face.
“You know,” Chrysalis said as she wagged her hoof at the absolutely certain young unicorn. “There’s a filly I’m sure you would have gotten along with, but unfortunately she’s a pigeon toilet right now.”
Luster gulped. “Am I — am I right?”
Chrysalis laughed. “You’ve got a vivid imagination.” She leaned over the counter and Luster snapped her whole body back about five feet. “I’m here on work release because Davenport can’t run the store without me. I get turned back to stone every night after my shift.”
“So, uh.” Luster scratched the back of her neck. “You’re here to… sell quills and sofas?”
Chrysalis nodded.
“Oh. Okay.” Luster took a deep breath, then grasped the quill she was looking at earlier. “I’ll take this, then.” She blushed. “And the nib set, for wasting your time and patience.”
“A wise choice,” Chrysalis said as she placed Luster’s purchase in a brown paper bag and hovered it over to her as Luster hovered over the bits onto the counter.
“It was nice to meet you, Chrysalis.” Luster grasped her bag and shuffled to the door as Chrysalis came out to the sales floor with a broom to sweep out the day’s detritus. She paused as the door, then looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Chryssi?”
“Yes?” she replied as the broom scratched against the floor.
“I’m new here, and I don’t know that many creatures yet, so I was wondering if we could be friends—”
“I don’t do pastel.”
“Okay gotta go bye.”
The bell chimed behind her as the autumn breeze greeted her and she took a crisp breath.
Well, I can say hi to her tomorrow.
She trotted down the street.
Princess Twilight said that friendship takes work.
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The first Luster Dawn story, congrats.
Ok... Sure. Why not.
'Tis amusing.
9884373
The first Dawn story, perhaps, but not the first Lunchtime one!
- MLP: FiM
- Comedy
- Random
Princess Lunchtime Luster, the Princess of the early afternoon, is tired of being neglected.Well how about that, a continuation.
9884373
And there's a tag and everything!
Indeed. She only does red and black.
Preach it, brother!
the lost sequel finally comes back to us
And I loved how Chrysallis refers to her fellow statue mate. Classic.
9884488
Should be "than"
I want to see this story become multi-chapter, with Luster slowly succeeding where Twilight and Starlight failed.
This was exactly what it needed to be. God bless you, Syeekoh.
9884559
That’s why it took 4 years for this sequel to come out.
Since no-one has done it yet, I declare "Goddammit Syeekoh" (that's how it works, right...?)
Seriously though, good stuff. If this and the few other post show fics I've seen are any indication... it looks like ponyfic will be just fine.
Just for the first use of Luster's newly made tag, this is cool.
9884576
Nah, we only goddamn when he earns that level of whatefuckery. This was actually level headed, funny and rather sweet at the end, so no goddamn earned.
It does get a like though, this is a nice first story for Twiggles 2.0, I'd say. A dignified entry in the Syeekoh 'verse, one could say
I was honestly expecting the explanation to be video game logic-like; she appears outside the statue, but only when noone tries to look at both her, and the statue at the same time. Else she always appears as a statue. This works though.
9884623
More like Twiggles 6.0 or thereabouts. (Spellcheck says that last one is still a word and I'm not going to argue)
"I also get a year off from my sentence for every six months I work without trying to escape or do evil while working. Admittedly, since my sentence is being turned to stone 'till the end of time', I'm not sure I'm making meaningful progress."
Thank you for this.
9884699
You’re welcome.
9884685
Well certainly not with that attitude.
9884685
You'll be free in about, 4000 moons.
You're punishment is only 12000 moons after all.
Trek, given this is the 3rd strike, is infinite.
Cozy Glow, she got 12000000 moons.
I think you got off easy, wouldn't you say.
I like this ending better than the canon one, not going to lie.
I love this, it fits so well with canon.
You should write the next season.
9884937
So do I.
9884577
A new beginning. Now who will be the first to do a clopfic and the first to Rule 34 her?
9884531
That is a brilliant idea. And it would fit in-universe better than the canon ending.
9884489
Now we just need someone to hire Cozy Glow. If you could keep her from stabbing Twilight in the back, she'd be a great advisor. Or a lawyer.
At least Chrissy has options. Fun job!
9885169
Looking at R E D A C T E D Counting down in 5...4...3...2...
(or should that be "clopping down"?)
9885171
No, what you do is give her to Luna to babysit.
9884937 How can we NOT??!
9885231
I wouldn’t wish that on Luna. Now Discord on the other hoof? He has some punishment in order, and what better way to punish him than making him help cozy glow not grow up to be an irredeemable twat?
(I know that a lot of people would use the term sociopath instead of twat, but I have good friends who are sociopaths and still good people because they recognize they should be good people on a logical level even if they have trouble feeling empathy.)
She really is the least dangerous one out of the three, let's be honest here.
9885322
Everyone's less dangerous when they have a job to keep down.
9885322
to be honest only Tirek is genuinely dangerous and only in the sense that everybody doesn't just use a blunt object like a brick to the face when he starts out.
Cozy Glow reaaaaaallly needed to be dealt with in a much better way, like give her to glimglop for an afternoon of mind wiping
The main canon is complete. Long live B canon, long live fanfiction, and long live Pony!
9885294
Good old enlightened self-interest; there's a limit to how evil you can be before people go out of their way to stop you, and it's higher than people claim but it's still there.
So... what did happen to Tempest, anyway?
In any case, fantastic sequel, more than worthy of the original's legacy. I do appreciate the implication that Cozy Glow is too dangerous to let out for any reason.
9885386
I was going to vividly disagree with you, on account of the pro-Cozy Glowites out there being just as bad as the insipid "Nightmare Moon did nothing wrong" crew.
But then you handed her over to Storklight Gloamer for mental reassignment. Bravo, good horse.
Just FYI, I haven’t seen the finale yet. If you just spoiled the fate of the Legion of Doom, I will have words.
"Thanks."
Luster nodded as Starlight Glimmer, headmare of the Twilight Sparkle Unified Royal International Academy of Friendship, Diplomacy, and Advanced Education-- someday they were going to have to do something about the name-- accepted the small parcel of quills. "Happy to help. I suppose you are terribly busy here, no time to do some basic errands..."
"True. Although that's not why I asked you to pick up the quills."
The Student of Twilight blinked. "Oh?"
"No." Starlight turned to her desk, and fumbled about a few papers, with a slightly uncomfortable expression. "I.. don't get along with Chrysalis very well."
"Oh... harsh words, and the like?"
"Actually, it's more if she sees me she goes berserk, attacks me, I kind of, well, get a bit snarkier than usual, parts of the town go boom... that sort of thing. So, I avoid that shop."
"... what."
"We... have a history. And she's not one to let go. It usually ends with explosions. At least, that's what they tell me."
Silence. And then, "What... they tell you?"
"I've never actually seen one myself. According to everypony, they happen after I start walking away, always behind me... that sort of thing."
"This town is... odd."
"You get used to it."
9885640
ha
Alondro eye-narrows and then quickly messages 4chan, "We've got a turd in the punchbowl. I repeat, we've got a turd in the punchbowl..."
Luster is then confused for an alien wizard whose mighty spell was forcing rich men to cheat on their wives, and summarily shot 5,000 times by a bunch of Army dudes.
FEAR THE MEMES!!
9885231
Oh, that's also a good idea.
9885294
Hell, I sometimes have trouble with empathy.
9885797
Why do you think that is? If you’d like I can try to help you explore that. I’m no substitute for a professional trained therapist, but I do like to help people and I am thinking about going into therapy.
9885860
I've been to therapy. It helped when I was suffering depression. In general, I have antisocial/misanthropic tendencies. I like certain people, but people in general? Ehh, not always a fan. So when someone I know has a loss I can come off as "Uhh, what do I do/say here?"
For some reason, I keep misreading Luster Dawn's name as "Luster Purge". I have to remind myself that she isn't Latios. ()^_^
9885732
I agree with that last part, in that they left us all of their great -isms.
9885294
Luna I think is better for two reasons. One she wont take no guff. Second is she will paddle her bottom if warranted. Discord might wander off if he got bored.