The sun had been lowered and the moon raised, and Luna was busy brushing her mane in front of a mirror when a series of heavy knocks thunked through the door to her chambers.
Her ears perked up in excitement. It was probably her sister, here to talk about how the negotiations had gone the night before. Luna couldn’t wait to report her successes in dealing with the changeling queen. Of course, Celestia had done most of the work in this case, but she had entrusted Luna to tie off the treaty with the changelings in her absence, incorporating them into Equestrian society. She had even managed to get rid of a pest in the process. She could almost see her sister’s proud smile through the door. She gave her flowing mane a few last strokes with the brush before standing and answering the door.
Like she had thought, Celestia stood on the other side, however, there was no smile on her sister’s face. In fact, Luna would say she looked quite pissed.
“Good evening sister,” Luna greeted warmly. The serious look on Celestia’s face was starting to make the younger sibling nervous.
“Good evening Luna. I think we need to have a little chat. Please, follow me.”
The rest of the day had passed as uneventfully as any other. After cleaning up the mess Chrysalis had left behind, Liam wandered the halls for a while. He eventually stumbled upon some of the maids and asked if there was anything they needed help with. They found some work for him to do and they chatted as the hours whittled away.
Most of his afternoon was spent in the library. He'd finally finished the book he had chucked at chitinous royalty and had returned to scout out something else to pass the time with. The librarian was obviously upset at the book’s condition, but when he explained what had happened she was very understanding, and even seemed amused by Liam's tale.
It wasn’t long before the human found himself scanning the many shelves of the labyrinthine library in search of new reading material. He had just wandered into the fiction section when he heard the distinct sound of metal on stone coming from nearby. The sound echoed off the tall shelves. It was probably a guard sent to find him. Liam wondered what poor fool they’d sent this time.
He had apparently garnered a strange reputation in the guard over the months. Sometimes someone (usually Celestia) would need Liam for something and send a guard to come retrieve him. Since he spent so much time in the library, it was usually the first place they looked. It wouldn't be hard to find a six foot tall ape, even within the tall shelves of the royal library. Or so they thought. Most ponies had no idea how to navigate the maze of books, so they got lost in their search until Liam happened upon them. When he did, he apparently had a tendency to startle them as he came around one of the shelves unexpectedly.
This occurrence had spawned a bit of a cult following within the guard. They’d come up with an entire lore based around him having strange powers that he could only use within the confines of what they had simply dubbed "The Shelves". Within the lore, Liam was referred to as the Wanderer. There were even branching theories in the lore, depending on which guard was asked. Some would say that the Wanderer acted as a protector of the library's knowledge on the orders of Princess Celestia herself. Others would say that the Wanderer was the restless spirit of someone who had died horribly in the library, and whose body had never been found. As part of a hazing ritual, the older guard members would tell new cadets about the Wanderer and his strange powers before sending them in to find Liam. This usually resulted in the human scaring the crap out of some poor kid by accident.
Liam didn’t know all the details of the lore, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. It wasn’t uncommon for him to find guards in various states of panic and have to lead them out of his papery domain. He once found a guard freaking out in the history section, and when he saw Liam turn the corner he ran in the opposite direction screaming that he didn’t want to be turned into a book. Good times.
Liam hadn’t found out about his new SCP status until weeks after he had started finding terrified recruits on a regular basis. From there, it just spiraled out of control. Once, when he had hanging out in the barracks with some friends, a guard mentioned that he was planning to write a book based on this new urban legend when he retired. In all honesty, Liam didn’t mind if they wanted to set him up as a boogeyman for new recruits, so long as nobody was hurt by it.
After honing in on the sound for a good five minutes, he rounded a corner and found himself standing next to a pony wearing golden armor. They hadn’t noticed him yet, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
“Hello,” Liam said simply. The guard jumped slightly and turned to look at him. They came face to face with his stomach before craning their neck to look up at his face.
“Um, H-hi,” she said nervously.
“Let me guess, you were sent to find me?”
“Actually, I was just told to wander around in here. They said you would find me, sir.”
Liam chuckled at that. “It would seem that they were right. What do you need?” he asked in a friendly manner. She was already nervous, no need to scare her more.
“My superior wanted me to deliver a message. Princess Celestia wanted to see you in her study at your earliest convenience, sir.”
Celestia’s study? Normally he was just called straight to her chambers. It was an odd meeting place, but who was he to refuse horse royalty?
“Alright, I guess I’ll head over there now. Do you need me to lead you out of here?”
She blushed in embarrassment. “Um, if you wouldn’t mind, sir. I’ve been lost in here for twenty minutes.” Liam chuckled again at that before starting his way back to the library entrance, guard in tow.
“No worries. You’re not the first pony I’ve had to help out of here, and you probably won’t be the last.”
It didn’t take long for him to navigate his way out of the library. After that, the guard took point and lead them to their final destination.
The door to Celestia’s study was simple and looked like just about every other door in the castle. Those that weren’t for show, anyway. The only real difference was the pair of guards standing outside. Liam's escort walked up to her fellow guards and began to speak to one of them. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, so he waited patiently for them to finish. After a few moments his escort turned to him.
“The princess isn’t here yet. She gave us orders to let you wait inside if we got here before her. I have to get back and report to my commanding officer. Have a good evening, sir.”
Liam thanked her before she wandered off to get back to work. One of the door guards opened the door and he stepped inside. The study was expensive looking, but not overly fancy. It had a well used feel to it. A large window took up a portion of wall and was currently covered by drapes. During the day, it probably let plenty of natural light into the room. A fireplace was set into another wall. It didn't have a chimney, so Liam assumed smoke was removed magically. The large wooden desk off to one side had a few stacks of paperwork waiting for Celestia’s signature to grace them. A nest of cushions laid in the corner, next to a sizable bookshelf stuffed to its limits with books in various stages of wear.
That reminded him; Liam hadn’t checked out a new book from the library before his departure. He would have to make his way back there later.
He grabbed one of the cushions from the nest and found a spot out of the way to sit down. He leaned against the wall and sat patiently, waiting for Celestia to arrive. The seconds stretched into minutes and Liam quickly found himself bored. If he'd known how long he'd be waiting, he definitely would have checked out another book before coming. Looking for something to occupy his time, his eyes inevitably rested on the stuffed bookshelf. He doubted Celestia would care if he borrowed something to read until she got here, so he made his way over and began looking over the selection of aging tomes.
Before he could decide on anything, however, the door opened again. Liam turned to see none other than the changeling Queen herself enter the room before the door closed behind her.
"Oh, it's you," she said bitterly.
Liam looked down and pretended to inspect himself. "Huh, so it is," he said jokingly before turning back to the shelf. He just grabbed a book at random and returned to his seat. It appeared to be about Equestian law. "Celestia wanted to talk to you too?"
"I was summoned, yes. Snooping through Celestia's things, are we? What would she think if she caught you in the act?" She walked over to the desk and started rifling through the paperwork there. She was going too fast to actually read anything on the pages, but she went through each one before putting them back how she found them and opening the desk drawers to search through their contents. Liam raised an eyebrow at that.
"Probably nothing compared to if she caught you going through her desk."
"She could have you punished if she found out you were going through her study looking for, say, books containing dark magic." Was she trying to blackmail him? What would even be the point in that? Liam just smiled.
"The thought of punishment doesn't seem to be stopping you."
"Oh, please. Unlike you, I would never be caught snoop-" Just then, the door opened, revealing the royal sisters in all their glory. Their eyes immediately landed on the changeling. Chrysalis froze, snout halfway in one of the desk drawers. Celestia smiled in amusement and made her way into the room.
"My my, Chrysalis. Snooping through my desk while I'm not here?" The changeling queen withdrew her snout, now green with embarrassment. "May I remind you that I am a centuries old politician. I learned not to leave sensitive documents out for prying eyes to see before Equestria was a nation. Just make sure to put everything back when you're done with it."
Chrysalis slammed the drawer closed and walked over to the nest of cushions before dropping down on top of them with a huff. Then she glared at Laim, as if her getting caught was his fault.
“Hello Liam,” Celestia said. "I see you have a different book than the one from this morning. What are you reading now?"
"I just grabbed something from the shelf over there to pass the time. I think it's something about Equestrian law."
She looked at the cover and gave a slight nod. "Ah, Golden Gavel's Guide on Governing Jurisdiction. I'm afraid that one is quite dry and uses a lot of jargon. You might find Lotus's Logbook on Legal Legislation a much easier book to start with."
"I'll keep that in mind, Celestia. If I'm going to overthrow you and become king, I'll have to know how the law works," Liam said with a joking smile. She giggled at the joke, but someone else didn't seem as amused. An angry snort jostled the pair from their reverie and Liam looked over to see Luna still standing in the doorway, glaring at him. He seemed to be getting a lot of those recently. He figured the diplomatic approach would be best here.
"Good evening, Princess Luna. I didn't mean to ignore you," he said with a slight bow of his head.
Instead of greeting him back, she looked to Celestia. "Sister, what is this about? Why have you gathered us here?"
"Yes, I suppose we should get to that," Celestia replied as she became more serious. "Come in and close the door. This should be between just the four of us."
Uh oh, that can't be good, Liam thought. There was only one thing that the four of them would have gathered to talk about. Luna closed the door, but remained stood in front of it. Celestia lit up her horn and stole a cushion from the changeling queen's horde, earning her a glare before she took a seat by her desk.
“I’ve gathered the three of you to discuss what happened last night when the treaty between Equestria and the Hive was signed.” Her horn lit up again, and a stack of papers flashed into existence next to her. “I finally had a moment to read over what was agreed to, and I had no objections to anything until I got to the end.”
She floated over a page and began to read some of the text out loud. “Possession of the human residing within Canterlot Castle will be passed to the ruler of the Hive upon the signing of this document by all relevant parties.” She put the page down and looked over the occupants of the room with a scrutinizing glance. “Would anyone like to guess one of the many problems I see with this statement?”
When no one spoke up, she pointedly looked at Luna before she continued. “Why don’t we start with the obvious and work from there? Luna, what were you thinking, trying to enslave someone?”
Luna flinched back like she had just been slapped. “E-Enslave!? Sister, I did no such thing!”
"That's not what this document says."
"That was not the intention of that statement, Celestia!"
Chrysalis perked up slightly at that. "It wasn't?" she asked. Everyone's attention shifted to her and she continued. "When I asked that I gain possession of the human, I was under the impression that I would gain ownership of it." Luna looked shocked by this revelation for some reason.
Yeah, just pretend that I'm not here. That's cool. Being referred to as "the human" and "it" isn't weird or anything, Liam thought.
Celestia spoke up again. "I have already told you that Liam is not a possession to be owned, and neither is any other sentient creature. The lawyer in me feels the need to point out that the wording of this statement would not give you possession of Liam, even if slavery was accepted here." Now it was Chrysalis' turn to look surprised.
Celestia reread part of the document. "Possession of the human will be passed to the ruler of the Hive. As per previous agreements read and signed by you, Chrysalis, the Hive is part of Equestiria. You will govern over your people, and you will retain your title as Queen of the Changelings, but you will answer to me. You agreed that I would rule over you, therefore I am the ruler of the Hive." While Chrysalis sat there letting that sink in, Celestia looked to Liam with a sly smirk. "Congratulations Liam, you are once again a free man." Now it was his turn to sit in stunned silence. That had been a roller coaster.
What many didn't realize is that while Equestria was officially a diarchy, it’s two rulers did not have equal power. Liam had asked Celestia about it once and she explained that there were multiple reasons behind it. Mostly it was to prevent repeating history. Before Luna’s banishment to the moon over a millennium ago, Equestria had been a true diarchy. When Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, it had nearly caused a civil war that Celestia just barely managed to contain. When she returned, the sisters had discussed it and came to the conclusion that one needed to have more official power than the other. Celestia was the obvious choice for this role, as she had not been gone for centuries.
Celestia looked back to Luna. "If your goal was not to enslave Liam, then what was it?”
It took Luna a moment to respond. “I was trying to be rid of him.” She said unashamedly.
“Clearly, but why, Luna?”
“He is a nuisance.”
Celestia deadpanned at that statement. “Luna, the two of you have hardly said two words to each other since Liam’s arrival to Equestria. It was clear from the beginning that you didn’t like him. Nuisance to you or not, that does not give you the right to try pawning him off on someone else through the legal system.”
“Not to me! He is a nuisance to you, sister!” Luna shouted. Celestia was clearly confused at the revelation.
“I do not recall Liam ever being a nuisance to me. How did you get that idea into your head?”
“When he arrived, you let him stay in the castle and all of his needs have been met. You have been extremely accommodating, and what does he do in return? He lazes about, doing nothing but eat and read! He does not work, and I don’t think he has left the castle once since he has gotten here! I believe he is... what was that word? A mooch! He is a mooch!” Luna said, pointing at Liam accusingly.
When Luna was done ranting, the room fell silent again. Liam couldn’t believe he'd just been called a mooch by a talking horse.
“Luna,” Celestia started. “Liam is not a mooch. I keep a close watch on everything I can in this castle, and almost none of what you just said is truthful. He may not have a job, but that does not mean he lazes and does not work. I talk to the maids whenever I get a chance, and they say he helps them do their jobs on a regular basis. Just today he was helping them clean some of the spare rooms.”
It was a little weird for the human to find out that the maids liked to gossip about him to Celestia, but it was nice to find out they had good things to say.
“Captain Armor has reported to me on numerous occasions that Liam’s presence has helped improve the moods of quite a few guards. According to him, when Liam walks into the barracks, the troops gather around like foals trying to get him to teach them another card game from his world.”
Liam wasn't sure about the gather around like foals part, but they did like to pester him about card games. You teach one guy how to play Trash, and the rest swarm like locusts. It was all in good fun though. He supposed he'd be excited to learn a few games from another world too.
“And we’d be here all night if I went into what the royal librarian had to say about him.”
What? Liam was in the library all the time and he’d never seen Celestia there once. When had she spoken to the librarian? It made him wonder what she had to say about him.
“I don't know why he chooses to not leave the castle, but that is none of my business. Neither is it yours, Luna."
Wait, Celestia was the one that ordered me to not leave the castle all those months ago. Did she forget that? He'd have to ask her about it later. Now definitely wasn't the time for that.
Luna finally got a word in. "Even so, sister, he selfishly takes up the little free time you have! He is no better than those so called nobles that infest the city!"
Celestia looked baffled for a moment before her expression shifted slightly to... was that anger? Liam had never seen Celestia angry before. Despite the look on her face, she spoke with a calm and measured tone. "Luna, Liam is my friend. That is what friends do! They spend free time together when they can. Between the endless political meetings and whining nobles I have to deal with on a daily basis, it is nice to be able to speak to a friend and joke around for a few minutes. How many friends do you have, Luna?"
The question seemed to catch everyone off guard, Liam included. Luna sat stunned for a second, stumbling for a response to the biting question. She was about to speak but Celestia beat her to it.
"Let me correct myself. How many friends do you have that aren't one of the Elements of Harmony?"
That seemed to shut Luna down real quick. She didn’t try to speak, she just sat there in frustrated silence. When Celestia didn’t get a response she sighed and continued.
“Luna, you do nothing but work. You’re either handling night court or doing paperwork in your room. You’re so cooped up. I’m worried that you aren’t able to see what’s happening around you at times, and this incident only confirms my suspicions. As such, It seems I’ll have to do something similar to what I did with Twilight. I think you need to take some time off and make some friends to spend time with.”
“But sister-“
“And you can start by befriending Liam here, since you so clearly misjudged him. You will not hold night court or receive any official papers until you have become friends with Liam and at least one other pony. It will be Liam's call when he considers you a friend.”
Whoa. That's a lot of responsibility to just thrust onto my shoulders! There's no way in hell Luna will go along with this.
After contemplating for a second, Luna spoke in a near whisper. “But... how are We supposed to do that?”
Wait, what? She actually went along with it? This night was just full of weird twists. Liam felt like he was going to wake up the next day with neck pains from the whiplash.
“That is for you to figure out. Maybe if you asked nicely, Liam would be willing to help you make friends with others. He seems to be good at making friends around the castle. Befriending him is your responsibility, however. Liam will decide when he considers you a friend, and will report to me when he forgives you for what you've tried to do, intentionally or not. Do I make myself clear?”
"Yes, sister," Luna said dejectedly.
Celestia turned to the cushion hoarder in the corner. "I think it would be wise for you to do the same thing Chrysalis. While you don't have paperwork to be doing, and I won't force you to go along with this, it may be beneficial for you to seek forgiveness as well. After all, you are just as guilty of attempting to enslave Liam as Luna is, and the public's opinion on you is already tenuous at best. This may be a way for you to improve your public image. The only reason I am not being more harsh on you is because you are new to being a citizen of Equestria, and may not know the nuances of how things work here. However, should you try something like this again, your punishment shall be much more severe than Luna's, is that understood?"
"Yes, Princess Celestia," Chrysalis gritted through her teeth.
"You may still govern your people, but you answer to a higher power now. I suggest you remember that."
Seeing this side of Celestia freaked Liam out a bit. He was used to the lighthearted joking princess, not the threatening intimidator before him now. He supposed immortality wasn't the only thing that had kept her on the throne for as long as she has been.
"The two of you may return to what you were doing," Celestia said. "I would like to speak with Liam."
Luna's horn lit up, along with the door handle before it swung open. The lunar princess left without another word. Chrysalis shot each remaining party another glare for good measure before leaving as well. And then there were two. Liam began to wonder what Celestia wanted to talk to him about after that episode. He didn't have to wait long, as the door swung closed again and Celestia turned to him. She looked exhausted.
"You alright there, princess?" he asked.
"I'm fine, just tired. But that's nothing new."
"If you say so," he conceded.
"I couldn't help but notice you didn't say a single word throughout that entire conversation."
"I though you had it covered. I had nothing to add, so there wasn't much point in me joining in."
"You are a very passive person, do you know that?" she asked.
His only response was a shrug. She gave an amused snort.
"Never change, Liam. Sometimes I think more ponies should be passive actors. Too many active roles just adds to the chaos of any given situation."
They sat for a few moments, enjoying the silence before she picked back up.
"What is your opinion of Luna's punishment?"
"It was very... abrupt," Liam said.
"I would imagine so. I came up with it on the spot. I've been worried about Luna's nonexistent social life for a while now, and this conversation has only confirmed my fears. To think they would manifest in such a way. I'm sorry you were involved in this, Liam. Something like this never should have happened in the first place."
"Probably not, but you can't possibly know everything Celestia."
"Yes, that is something I've had to relearn many times throughout my life. I suppose I was due for another lesson on that matter. I'm also sorry for involving you further with Luna's punishment. It was a spur of the moment decision. I didn't think you would mind, but I still should have asked if you were okay with it. If you don't want to do it, you don't have to."
"It's fine. It'll give me another way to spend my free time, I guess. I think that was the first time I've ever seen you get angry."
"Admittedly, it doesn't happen that often, but Luna's always had a knack for pushing my buttons."
"Yeah, I get that. Siblings have ways of getting under your skin like no other." She giggled at that. It was good to see Celestia back to her fun loving self.
"That they do. Knowing you for as long as I have, I know you're the type that's quick to forgive, but I ask that you don't immediately let Luna off the hook. Make her work for it. It'll be good for her to be out and about, trying to make friends. She's very abrasive at times, but I hope you two come to enjoy each other's company in the future. If you need anything, or she gets out of hoof, come talk to me."
"Alright," he said simply.
The princess stood and stretched, flexing her wings slightly to work out the kinks. She tossed the cushion she'd been using back with the rest. "I suppose I should hit the hay. Some of us have a kingdom to run, and a giant fireball to fling into the sky every morning," she jabbed. "Feel free to stay here and read as long as you like. I trust you won't go snooping through my desk, not that I keep anything important there anyway. Those stacks of papers are mostly written complaints from nobles that I use as tinder for the fireplace." And with that confession, she was gone.
Liam had a feeling he was forgetting something, but he wasn't sure what. Assuming it wasn't that important if he'd forgotten it, he shrugged it off. He was comfy on the cushion and didn't feel like moving at the moment, so he decided to take Celestia up on her offer ro let him stay and read. He cracked open the book he'd taken from the shelf. She had been right, there was a lot of lingo in there.
Half an hour later, he gave up trying to decipher the mess of legal jargon and returned the book and cushion to their original spots before heading for the door himself. As soon as his hand touched the handle he remembered what he'd forgotten. He never asked Celestia about him not being allowed to leave the castle.
Oh, well. There'd be plenty of opportunities to inquire about it later. For now he just wanted to head back to his room with the intent of getting a good night's rest.
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Happy coincidences are the best kind!
Luna and Chrysalis just accepting these terms is just dissappointing.
me thinks Luna is jealous
Yes, another chapter! Haza!
I am most intrigued to see where this will go.
My bet is that Chrysalis will do something silly again.
Oh no Luna is a Karen, still good story tho
I love "The Wanderer"/SCP status he's attained
It's both hilarious in practice, but also very neat to see spring up. Also, I love the little tidbits of his 'accidental accomplishments' within the castle. Makes it feel like there's a nice cozy family in the staff and guards.
Also also also, nice spur of the moment punishment, I'll be intrigued to see about how both of the dark snooties handle this new Friendship Mission!
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yes but jealous of whom, Liam for spending time with celestia or for not spending time with her
I can only assume Luna misinterpreted things to think that Chrysi would handle his room and board.
Very fun story. When coming back to this fic for the update I was remembered the main character is named Liam and I am pleased, I now relate to this story 100%. Keep up the good work.
302 views in the first hour.I like it.
The SCP status got me to smile hard and punishment for Luna seems light in my opinion
Luna's great punishment? FRIENDSHIP! FRIENDSHIP! AGAIN?!
Unless card games are somehow raising the standards of ethical behavior within the Royal Guard he provides a morale boost, not a moral boost.
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yes
Not surprised that the slavery angle was unintended. But lol to the fact that Chrysalis thought it was.
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It's My Little Pony fanfiction, what did you expect?
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I was making a Mortal Kombat reference.
Oh yes, I've done that before. Take on a directive and keep following it for months after everyone else has forgotten about it.
Still liking this, really into the idea of him being aware of his novelty in their world. The scene with him going on about the guards interaction with him turning into a bit of hazing ritual was pretty neat and I can't say I've seen that before without the character "actually" being magic or directly threatening. Oh, I'm kinda confused about here though...
When he "Explained" what happened, to what degree? Did he give the sparks notes and just say "Oh, I got spooked and threw the book" or did he get more detailed and say "The Queen of the Changelings spooked me and I knocked her out cold with it" or, did he go so far as to tell the librarian the full story of how she was sprawled out in his bed looking for some "fun". The many possible reactions she had to this situation are really making me laugh but then I get more confused when you add later in the chapter...
Now that scene is beyond bizarre as I'm trying to get this picture of a distraught and confused librarian pony as she pantomimes her interested in knowing what happened to the book as Liam regales her the story of how he had a lusty mare on his bed but he wasn't interested so he bailed to another room where he was intruded on by the mare who was actually the Changing Queen and he then knocked her out with the book and the whole time he's telling her the story the librarian is just nodding along while showing various reactions and expressions, then, somehow displayed her understanding with the situation all without saying anything... Uh... What? Still a great read so far even if you really can't take it too seriously, still an interesting premise and I really enjoy the way you write Celestia, too many people gloss over the politics of a recovering diarchy.
Damn, love me a powerful women with good morals! Praise the Sun!
Great job on this chapter! This is actually the first time I have ever thought of Celestia as a lawyer. It sounds strange, but makes perfect sense.
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Luna will obey because it was a cold shot of water when her own serious lack of friends was put out in public view and she knows she was wrong. As for Chrysalis, well, we all know she's the scheeming type-- kinda surprised she hasn't gotten her hooves into Canterlot politics, she's a natural politician (hugs up front, knives in the back).
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For Luna's part, yep, as for Chrys, who said that she isn't? After all, this story is told by Liam's POV ( for the great part ).
Good on Celestia fir dealing with this properly. Though I don't really see why Liam should entertain Luna and be her friend. She qctively desires to not be friendly at all, let her deal with it. If I were in his position I'd just say "fuck it" and let Luna deal with her problem on its her own, same with Chrysalis.
Imminent B U G P O N E
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Oi, you trying to ship her with Twilight?
Political theory is an area that I enjoy dabbling in, and reading through this chapter I had some thoughts about a few of the revelations that we've been given here. These aren't criticisms, but rather my reactions to certain developments:
Now, perhaps she was demoralized by her recent loss, or perhaps it was because she was negotiating on an empty stomach, but it strikes me that Chrysalis made a very poor bargain, here. When coming to the negotiating table, the goal is to bargain for as much as you can while giving away as little as you have to. However, even with the alterations this story makes with regards to what changelings can feed on and how various subjects can resist, Chrysalis seems to have given away the proverbial store. Since changelings have no easy method of being identified when disguised (at least not that we're aware of), Chrysalis had a fairly strong bargaining chip in terms of her subjects being able to infiltrate pony society virtually at will (something we saw put to good use in the show's sixth season finale).
By using that as leverage, Chrysalis' attempt to sue for peace (which seems like what this is, i.e. a losing party pressing for a conditional surrender) strikes me as having fared incredibly badly if she was only able to integrate the Hive into Equestria by accepting that her authority (which I presume is still limited to changelings only) is derived from Celestia's, rather than having some sort of compound mode of government. If Chrysalis can retain her title as Queen, but is no longer "ruler of the Hive" because that particular position of authority is now part of Celestia's governing mantle, then she is effectively nothing more than a puppet ruler, if not an outright sinecure.
What exactly is the manifestation of "official power," I wonder? I ask because with no greater mechanism for enforcement (i.e. no stronger institution to impose this arrangement should Luna chafe at it), this agreement will last only as long as Luna wants it to. If we can presume that alicorns in general (and Celestia and Luna in particular) are possessed of far and away greater power than any sort of mundane military and/or collection of pony magic-users, then the Celestia's denying Luna independent access to the legitimate use of force in Equestria is something that Luna can challenge any time she wants. (Nor, it should be noted, does this challenge need to be effected by the use of violence on Luna's part; she can simply present herself as an independent sovereign, unbound by Celestia's whims, and so legitimize agents to act in her name, something that would put Celestia in the awkward position of then needing to try and forcibly curtail Luna's authority, which I suspect she'd be reluctant to do.)
Now, given that Luna seems to still be stricken with guilt and self-doubt after her time as Nightmare Moon, I doubt that she'll push this particular issue anytime soon. However, it's worth remembering that the current arrangement is (based on what we've seen so far) little more than a fiction which she's participating in as a show of contrition. As soon as she decides that she's once again living in Celestia's shadow and doesn't like it any more than she did the first time around, things are likely to change.
Equestrian "nobles" are one of the subtler inventions of the fandom. In the show itself, the only native Equestrian aristocracy that we see are the alicorn princesses, Shining Armor (a prince by marriage), the historical mentions of Princess Platinum and her father (never shown, but referred to as the "Unicorn King"), and Celestia's anomalous nephew Prince Blueblood (oh, and "Countess" Coloratura, but that's clearly just a stage-name). Every other mention is either a member of a different species (e.g. Prince Rutherford of the yaks) or a different polity (e.g. the Duke and Duchess of Maretonia).
I bring that up, because nobility had traditional duties in most feudal societies, largely related to administrating the land that they'd been granted, but also to provide soldiers (or sometimes money instead) whenever a military need arose. However, Equestria as we see it doesn't seem to have much in the way of landed gentry, serfs, or really any implications of feudalism outside of, well...royalty. As such, this would suggest that whatever nobility remains are largely ceremonial (which would explain why this story, like so many others, has them all living in Canterlot instead of in their own demesnes elsewhere). Still, I'm curious what special privileges this story has imbued this class with; hopefully something other than the ubiquitous "collections of out-of-touch snobs" who make for easy antagonists.
After all, if Celestia is championing friendship throughout Equestria, then she would surely recognize that stratified (and hereditary) class divisions run counter to that. Ergo, if there are still nobles around then she must have some reason for keeping them around. Alternatively, they have some degree of power that she can't simply abolish their titles without suffering some sort of penalty that she wants to avoid, though that runs counter to her maintaining absolute authority that we've seen elsewhere in this fic (i.e. Luna and Chrysalis).
Hopefully, the story will address these going forward.
Oh, and the stuff with Liam is entertaining too.
Noice
Fucking awesome!
Hell yeah, Changelings blush green! I have seen so many stories talk about changelings having green blood, yet still they blush red or pink for some stupid reason. Out of the hundreds of stories I've read on this site, I only remember one where changelings blush green, so this is actually awesome to read. Thank you.
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In Chrysalis's defense, being semi-forced into friendship aligns very well with her goal of "don't starve"
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It's possible "Prince Blueblood" is in fact his full name and he has no special legal status/title. It's also possible he's descended from the unicorn nobility and retains their title as a family/cultural thing even though it has no legal meaning.
It seems peculiar for a ruler of an aristocractic society to be very concerned with somebody being "a mooch." Do any of the nobles Luna deals with on a daily basis have jobs? It doesn't make a lot of sense that working for money would be part of her experience or expectation. Then when you add in the fact that he's the only contacted member of an unknown species with uncertain capabilities, there's probably a certain degree of wisdom in keeping him comfortably on hand.
If an alien crash landed on Earth, would our government tell it to go get a job? I don't think so.
Is it even realistic to expect him to be capable of it" There are fundamental biological realities in play here. It's not like he's going to join the weather patrol...no wings, remember? And no horn, no nothing that involves magic. No earth pony strength or affinity for plants...so he's not a great candiate for farm work. What's he going to do, retail? Who's going to hire the strange scary alien to be their point of contact with customers?
It's entirely reasonable to simply keep him as a guest of the court.
With that said...Luna's punishment is...awkward. Lliam has been placed in a position of power over Luna. Her posiiton has been diminished until he says otherwise, and she must now seek his approval in order to reclaim it. That's a terrible field to try to plant friendship in. Nothing she does can be reasonably believed to be genuine. If she tries to spend time with him, he knows that it's not because she wants to...but because she feels she has to in order to get back what she lost.
You have Celestia engaging in what is effectively extortion, Luna will be acting under duress, and Lliam is now in the awkward position of having somebody who could squash him like a bug engaging him in false pretenses while knowing full well that being friendly with him is the last thing she wants, while simultaneously being painfully aware that this superpowered, magical immortal princess perceives him as the cause of her loss of status.
How is friendship going to grow from this?
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Under the circumstances, I would have called her a vassal.
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The moon shall reign!
Also, agreed. Celestia is rarely shown to actually act like a 'lawyer' or a ruler in general. Most stories have her just go, "Sorry, can't hang out right now, signing documents and listening to nobles." But never actually show her using her knowledge and diplomatic skill. It is very refreshing, and a nice contrast to the overall fun POV from Liam.
Still not sure why Chrysalis thought 'owning' a human would be a good deal, there had to been better bargaining offers.
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10278904
**sighs** Well, actually it's a little bit more than that. Guess I might as well write why exactly I find it's dissappointing, and why this chapter fully removed any desire to read this story any further for me. And it all builds down to what Celestia says in that meeting, both in Watsonian and Doylist perspectives. In no particular order of importance:
1) It fully resolves an initial premise ("A human living in Canterlot castle is given to Queen Chrysalis as part of peace negotiations between Equestria and the Hive. Celestia knew she shouldn't have let Luna finish the negotiations herself.") in most driest, boring and unsatisfying way.
2) It implies that not only Chrysalis isn't smart enough to avoid giving out Celestia a supreme authority over her Hive, but she also doesn't leave herself a way out of the treaty and just swallows it shown in her face. Chrysalis. That has pride as pretty much her defining trait... Again, it's boring. And it puts characters down so that others would look better. Meh.
3) Celestia openly shaming Luna in front of others and strongarming her into becoming friends with MC. Now, this is just wrong on multiple levels ...
- Forced friendship in general. It doesn't work like that. Now, it's certainly fine for Celestia to be concerned about Luna's lack of social interactions, but there's nothing wrong with her having only a few true friends. And encouraging Luna to interact with other ponies more (which may or may not develop into friendship) and basically saying "your task is to become friends with X" are VERY different options.
- Basically public shaming ... followed by strongarming via guilt trip. What were Celestia's words at the end of the first episode? "meant to rule together, little sister", right? Well, here it looks like a teacher-student relationship, and not a particularly good one. That's how you get Nightmare Moon and angry and resentful Sunset Shimmer, not how you reconcile and help your sister, Celestia. Celestia at least attempting to resolve it privately with Luna, whether implied or "on-screen" would be much better. Now, if it would strongly backfire (as it realistically should), it could lead to some interesting plot developments, but I don't have high hopes for that.
4) And with Celestia going through all of it, basically for the convenience of the MC, while the possible negative consequences are being glossed over - it starts to thread directly into the Mary Sue category, and even if it's not quite there yet, it's quite unappealing to me.
This Wanderer persona makes me think of a filly Twilight having an "imaginary" friend in the library.
Nice
Good to see this updated. Look forward to the next chapter.
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Well, since you replied to me I may as well respond to this even though I was only defending Chrysalis's actions.
1) I agree that this nullifies the premise, but in all honesty I think that was a good thing. A bunch of people rightly pointed out the power dynamic problems with it and how that would warp the tagged romance into something ugly, so I'd say this is a clear improvement on that front. I'll grant that the execution could have been more impactfull as far as Liam, Chrisalis, and Luna go, but it did show a side of Celestia that logically must exist but we rarely see so it's not all bad.
2) To be perfectly frank, Chrysalis got a much better deal than she had any right to. She had absolutely nothing to offer, was in a desperate situation, and her overtly hostile gambit failed so she was 100% at Celestia's mercy here. The fact that she retains any control at all is a minor miracle, especially since Celestia would have been fully justified to toss her in the dungeon as part of the deal. Also, this story is clearly ignoring Chrysalis's character assassination in the later seasons so your arguments there are invalid.
3) You're very much on point with this one. His relationship with Luna should be irreparably poisoned by this, and it should also build serious resentment between the sisters, but I don't think it's fair to assume we won't see realistic ramifications this early on. My hope is that Luna gets fed up, blows up at Celestia, and just walks out of the country entirely to teach Celestia that lesson, but there are other possible outcomes.
4) No, this was absolutely not done for his convenience. Luna crossed the line big time and it had to be dealt with. Celestia's options were to either find a way to negate it or to outright tear up the treaty because letting it stand has the effect of legalizing slavery.
10278904 The idea that Blueblood is a direct descendant of Princess Platinum, and is retaining the title as a legacy of that (albeit with no real privileges save for popular regard), is my guess too.
10279179 The issue is that vassalage, like most other forms of feudal obligation, tends to trade obligations for special privileges, which Chrysalis seems to have done a bad job securing for herself during the titular peace negotiations. Other than retaining her title and living in the castle (this second one being rather odd, since it means surrounding herself with guards and servants who aren't loyal to her, rather than maintaining her own household with her own staff), she doesn't seem to have kept much else, losing even her right to hold the position of "ruler of the hive," when that kind of privilege would normally be sticking points among those negotiations (especially since Chrysalis kept her title as queen). For Celestia to say, in effect, "I'm your lord now, so anything that's yours is mine," puts Chrysalis in a shockingly weak political position, even if you throw in the caveat that this only applies to things that use her title(s) rather than her proper name.
It's also the sort of thing that contractual disputes are made of, since both Luna and Chrysalis had a meeting of the minds where turning Liam over to the latter party was concerned (though this is debatable, since Luna didn't think it meant slavery and Chrysalis did; nevertheless there was some agreement of transferring him to Chrysalis's custody). For Celestia to simply step in and twist that clause of the agreement should be a major red flag regarding how well she'll honor other provisions that she doesn't approve of. Now, we could say that she's doing this because slavery runs counter to Equestrian law, and that would be a valid counterpoint, save for the fact that "Equestrian law" seems to be Celestia's whim rather than an independent system of justice. As with Luna's subservience, there's no formal method whereby one can contest or constrain Celestia's actions, so for Chrysalis to go along with this is her essentially her submitting to Celestia in, to be somewhat overdramatic, all things.
She could at the very least threaten to hold their entire treaty in abeyance, since that would serve to remind Celestia that, regardless of how "settled" their negotiations are, if she (Chrysalis) ever finds the terms unbearable, she can simply break it and take the changelings to war against Equestria again. They might lose (they did before, after all), but there's no way that Celestia would want to deal with another conflict if she could reasonably avoid it, since even winning would have costs associated with it. Instead, Chrysalis simply knuckles under, giving up all leverage for no reason that I can determine.
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To be fair, Chrysalis really has no leverage here. As I said in my reply to another poster, she had absolutely nothing to offer, was in a desperate situation, and her overtly hostile gambit failed so she was 100% at Celestia's mercy. The deal could have specified Chrysalis getting tossed in a dungeon and she still would have had to take it since the alternative was literally her entire species starving to death (herself included), so if Celestia changes the deal on her she doesn't really have any recourse.
10279630 I disagree. Chrysalis's leverage is that she can command the changeling nation to cease hostilities with Equestria. Given that we see her successfully pull off a coup in the sixth season finale, this is no small concession. As such, her coming to the table to negotiate peace gives her a bargaining position that is not insubstantial.
Moreover, even with the ideas that this fic introduces about ponies "bottling up their feelings" in order to prevent being fed upon, it strikes me as implausible to suggest that the changelings would have starved to death en masse if this deal hadn't been reached. The entire point of changelings being able to disguise themselves is that it lets them approach people without raising suspicion, and so feed off of their emotional reactions unhindered. While this fic is somewhat unclear in regards to how ponies can guard their emotions in order to prevent being fed off of, if we presume that this requires maintaining some sort of emotional equilibrium, then it seems self-evident to suggest that such a state could not be maintained by the bulk of the population for any length of time. Certainly, Equestria's ponies couldn't operate under the prolonged suspicion that they might have changelings in their midst, and so need to retain their composure at all times; that level of stress isn't something that seems reasonable for them to sustain at length.
Ergo, it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that Chrysalis had some degree of leverage during the negotiations. Moreover, she has subsequent recourse should she later posit that she was coerced into making an unreasonable agreement due to the threat of starvation, that being that once she secures sufficient provisions for herself and the other changelings, they can then simply break the treaty and resume hostilities. So it's still in Celestia's interests to strike a deal that Chrysalis finds favor with; if the costs of abiding by a treaty (e.g. perpetual servitude in all but name) are higher than the costs of breaking it (e.g. a coup that the changelings could conceivably pull off; again, see the sixth season finale), then a successful treaty needs to be one that all parties are happy with.
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I thought that starting a discussion might be worthwhile, as I kinda disagreed with your point (s). I still do, even more so.
1) I'd say that it looks like bait and switch from an author here. Yes, there would be issues with that premise. Reading about them being resolved in an interesting manner by Chrysalis and MC was the main reason why I started to read this story, to begin with. Should I have known that it would just be "solved" by the author's fiat, essentially, I would just skip it. Annotations and premises written there are important. Having them misinform is not "nice" to put it very mildly.
2) Highly debatable. Just because she can't offer that much in terms of cooperation, doesn't mean that she has no leverage. And even if Celestia knows how bad Changelings position is (which is not that likely), they have the potential to lose much more, should the negotiations break down, and would the Changelings go more hostile and direct route further. Celestia is not a ruler that would risk her subject's wellbeing over pushing for a better bargain. And Chrysalis frankly has no objective or subjective reasons to give up all that she has, baring implied incompetence or authors fiat/change of mind after earlier chapters.
And, being Chrysalis fan, I really loved her later development, 2nd part of the finale included and to me, her rejection of Starlight's offer is the only saving grace of 6th season-ending. It's personal preferences, I guess.
3) We seem to mostly agree here, I just don't have much faith in the Author's intent of developing this plot-line. I would be glad to be mistaken, but alas...
4) Well, my impression of the chapter says otherwise. Or at least that for Celestia MC's convenience and the success of the treaty came as the first priority (she absolutely had to invite him personally after all, and clearly gives him more attention than any pony, except maybe Twi or Luna could dream about at this point). (Celestia's order "to make friends with him" is also telling.) Her concerns for Luna's behavior are coming second at best and the "slavery" isn't seen as a problem at all outside of Luna's understanding of modern laws and MC's future status. As is, even if the treaty would come to power as understood By Luna and Chrysalis it would hardly legalize slavery by Equestria's law.
This is a bit bait-and-switchy, as others have said, but the backdown was pretty reasonable. The nation that forbids slavery can't very well go taking & selling slaves. Least of all to the leader of a formerly independent nation that is now a part of their own. So long as the story remains entertaining I won't complain.
I didn't expect to see a political debate about Moncarchy and Dicharcy when i came into these comments. But still, informative. I'll just say I laughed because Liam has my style of humor and the story is cute. I like it.
the dueling in the comments is a fun distraction, but im going to be honest and say that this is is a direction i wholeheartedly prefer. even if in the end it comes back around to another romance story in the end. also, to poke the bees nest, i would say that people might want to keep in mind the physiology at work here, ponies aren't humans people, just close.
Boy, this chapter certainly took the story in a direction. And it brought many... issues that I feel mar the plot.
On the good side, I loved the little interactions between Liam and the staff. The 'Library SCP' bit is fun, and a fun little note of gossip going out of control. And the meeting started out promising, with Celestia basically calling a private meeting between all parties to figure out just what the hell is going on.
Which brings me to the eyebrow raising parts.
Most of the issues I've noticed have already been pointed out by other posters in more specific detail. Especially with how Celestia pretty much scolding everyone involved like an angry mom diminishes the characters of Luna and Chrysalis.
But on the flip side, something I've noticed hasn't been talked about is how... bullshit this all is to Liam, both as a character, and in-character. First off, Liam has barely engaged with the whole "sold into slavery/servitude under Chrysalis" plotline. There was Chapter 1, where he was surprised by Chrysalis in his room, and that's really it. Chapter 2 was more him trolling Chrysalis with 'spooky space alien' routine, and Liam pretty much flirting with Celestia while asking for her help in the matter. By the end of Chapter 2, the 'sold into servitude' bit was pretty much implicitly dropped, although not explicitly. And now Chapter 3 here Liam is back to square 1 basically ignoring what happened in Chapters 1+2.
So the Inciting Incident didn't really incite anything. Which not only makes the first two chapters feel awkward, It brings into question why are we even watching this through Liams perspective? He's clearly not doing anything, and nothing is happening to him either. So he is neither a Reactive nor Proactive Protagonist in this case.
This actually brings up an idea, what if you rewrite the chapters from Chrysalis's viewpoint only? So far she's the one who seems to be actually engaging with the plot, as well as be the one who's starting her "Heroes Journey" (Signing the peace treaty=Forcing her out of her Comfort zone, and she has a clear arc set up where she needs to adapt to society in order to survive) This would allow Liam to troll Chrysalis while the audience is in on the ironic humor about the 'strange human bean'.
Back to Liam, the whole Celestia tossing the responsibility of whether Luna can go back to princessing onto Liam is strange, as he is very clearly an introvert, and has not been shown to be the kind of person who could knock some sense into Luna. And since Luna has to get his 'approval' to go back to princessing, it makes any overtures of friendship by Luna laced with insincerity, given that she's literally being forced into this. If Liam actually seemed frustrated by the 'being given away' bit, this would be a nice bit of dramatic irony, with the tables turning on Luna. But as established earlier, Liam apparently was ignoring the agreement already on his own very successfully, making this whole reversal more of a pain in the ass for everyone involved, instead of any sort of comeuppance. And Luna's entire stance on this is not based on any issue she has with Liam, but her issues with Celestia herself, which are not being resolved by this in the slightest.
So the plan doesn't fix anything, nor does it serve as any sort of justice. If anything, it's going to make Luna's issues worse, as from her perspective, she's being forced to sucker up to some lazy nobody. And given her apparent idolizing of Celestia, she's probably going to assume that this is all Liam's plan. Which is going to color all their interactions from now on.
Man, if only Luna had some sort of equal, who specialized in Friendship, like how Cadence specializes in Love. A Friendship Princess if you will. She could be brought in to help Luna directly with her issues. Maybe with this hypothetical "Friendship Princess" Luna could be taught how to engage with other ponies, and establish a healthy base of support. Maybe even get to the bottom of Luna's dependence on Celestia. Ah well, toss her to the space monkey. They'll be fine, they got so much in common! He's from space, she controls space, it's a match made in literal heaven!
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Ah, my bad. I'm not really into fighting games, so the reference flew right over my head.