Private Gig
by NavyPony
Intermezzo 1
A Memo Between Castle Servants
FROM: Office of the Head Steward
TO: Bottom Line, Royal Financier
SUBJ: Misfiling to the RSF
Mister Line, I’m writing to inform you that one of my subordinates recently filed a royal expense report incorrectly, and it needs rectification. Which is to say that it needs alteration. Which is to say that it should never have been filed, and the expense itself needs to disappear. You understand.
To be brief, Princess Celestia desired the services of a certain musician to be hired for her protégé – the musician is apparently a favorite, and was to appear and perform at the protégé’s party as a sort birthday present. One of my proxies met with the pony’s agent to negotiate the contract, but she wrote the expense to the CCCB versus one of the more suitable accounts. In her defense, she was actually too junior to know how these things are normally filed, and the culture budget was probably the next best choice.
This effectively being a luxury request by the Princess Celestia, without boon or benefit to country, castle, culture, etc, ad nauseam, it has no part in the accounts. Therefore I, based on my authority as Head Steward, hereby ascribe this expense to the Royal Slushie Fund.
The musician and her company have already been paid and the accounts have already been charged, so this isn’t the typical matter of paying from different accounts. Instead, I need you to have the Canterlot Castle Cultural Budget reimbursed from the Slushie Fund, and then have records of these payments erased. If you file a Form 2583 Mundane Incident Report marked for immediate routing to my chief clerk, I can see that the official records land in your hooves. I’m trusting you to take care of it from there.
V/r, S.S.
P.S. You’ll be glad to know that my Lunar counterpart just informed me that he located the final batch of forms his previous assistant filed while trying to implement Princess Luna’s attempted tax overhaul. They’re being destroyed now.
P.P.S. Remind me to tell you of the RSF’s creation sometime, and why it’s called the Slushie Fund as opposed to the Slush Fund.
This is hilarious.
Ahh, the heady scent of bureaucracy!
1697237 My teeth are still intact.
Now if you want to go old school . . .
Where do you guys get your emoticons of octavia and others?
Geez I wonder how big the Royal Pastry Funds budget is.
1697316
I want to know this as well..
I do love me some bureaucratic shenanigans.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia_O_O.png 1697316
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia.png 1697316
1697456Tells me nothing
1697316
1697346
A Grease Monkey script for said Firefox plugin.
1697482 What? I don't get it.
FINALLY someone using post scriptum correctly!
1697495
They use the a script for the "Grease Monkey" plugin for the Firefox web browser to modify the site so that there are more emotes.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/131623
1697498
*takes out notepad*
care to elaborate?
I don't understand this bureaucratic letter. What was it all about?
1697583
For some reason everyone uses "P.S.S." which is short for post script script and that is WRONG. The correct use of post scriptum, being addendum a to a letter or note, is P.P.S. short for Post Post Script. It's misuse is a psychotic hatred of mine.
And yes I took advanced English and writing classes when I was younger in the wastelands of the 1990s.
Just burned through this. I actually loved it. It's not my usual fare, but it's an engaging read. I enjoy the different characters and their interactions immensely. Thank you for your time. I'll try to drum up some criticism later if I can, but I'm short on time now.
Well, This is interesting. I must say, the opening to the letter was wonderful.
I must admit, you have portrayed Octavia in her position as an entertainer very well. I am greatly reminded of Morena Baccarin's (I think that's how her name is spelled) role in the Firefly series. Hinted at what needs to be hinted at, while keeping her a mystery. Well done sir . I wonder how Twilight would react to discovering what Octavia typically does, and also whether or not Celestia is aware of Octavia's normal role. Though I would be surprised if she is unaware. Which begs the question, why did she send her?
Well, anyways, continue the wonderful work, I look forward to more on this.
1697586
For the servants, it's about balancing the books so that if the parliament/senate/population ever examines/audits them, everything is (looks) in order. After all, having the princess just throwing luxuries at Twilight from budget - from tax money - isn't appropriate.
For the audience, it's a tiny insight into how Octavia was hired. One of the more important tidbits is that neither Princess Celestia nor Octavia met for this contract; it was all done through castle servants and Octy's agent.
Yay.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia2.png
1697708
OHHH I get it
Thanks for the explanation, I'm not really one that knows how politics and bureaucratic stuff works
1697642
huh, guess i'v never seen it used enough to notice.
1698058
Yeah it's one of those weird little things.
1698129
nah, grammar is going down the tubes these days.
it's the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.
I wrote a letter like this once. That lawyer never saw it coming. And he knows not to mess with me anymore.
1698187
Thank you for saying that. It actually means a lot.
I hereby request more of the same.
1698224
Do you mean the joke or the validation that you are, in fact, sane and most people have poor grammar?
Either way, your welcome.*troll face*
Well... this has been rather enjoyable! I personally love Octy and Twi as characters... (I think Octy might be my fav background pony... I THINK) as so having them together like this is awesome!
1698224 1698443 I'm only 17 and these sort of things bother me ever so greatly.
Thank you for being sensible people. You Have Been Awarded 5 Moustaches!
Now that was interesting, a delicate waltz around implied physical romance skirted by honest innocence.
Now i am sure there were quite a few upset readers with nothing physical happening, i for one quite enjoyed this take.
That is not to say you did not make the allure of it strong enough, i avoid such reading normally and this made me think twice about how i wanted it to turn out, but it is nice to see for once that someone did not take the easy road and make things physical just for the upvotes.
Your characterization of Octavia is almost scary in it's depth, and Rarity's disdain was quite amusing when she could not identify Twilight's total obliviousness to the implications of Octavia being a "Performer".
The "Slushie" fund was a rather amusing bit as well.
Great job!
Though i would not be suprised if some of the readers wanted an alternate ending, you made that alternative very alluring.
(Though if such a thing were made i would avoid it if it were fully detailed to the 4th base,i prefer romance and light interaction stopping at 2cd base.)
Sock's off : Check
Sock's missing anyways : Check......
It seems that all it takes for one's socks to be blown is a well written, and interesting, story.
1699107
How can there be an alternate ending when the story hasn't ended yet. it's still incomplete and there's more to come.
Great to see more Snowy Slopes in action.
1699366
Wait what? (Checking) ok, i either forgot or did not notice. Sweet the story is not yet over, cmon Rarity drama outburst!
Thanks for pointing that out i will definatly be back to check the updates.
1697300
1702344
1697708
Ah... Thus prompting the misunderstanding of exactly how Octavia was supposed to... entertain Twilight.
Anyway, really enjoying the story, can't wait for more. I do slightly dislike this (implied) sluttier Octavia. Mostly because OCTAVIA IS MINE AND MINE ALONE!
Mind fuck in three
two...
One...
Crackle the Magical retarted dragon!
Beautiful so far, a very fluid and intensely engaging tale. Please, continue!
For the record I have never seen anyone put P.S.S. instead of P.P.S. so I'll have to watch out for that now.
You good sir are being watched
Great story. Reeeeeaaaaaally creepy... but very good.
on an off-topic note
1697520
Do you need to have an up-to-date web browser for greasemonkey to work? I'm using an old version of firefox and the new emoticons aren't loading...Also, greasemonkey is erasing my scripts every time i close firefox.
1718723
I do not know; however, if you have a choice you really should stay somewhat up to date when it comes to web browsers.
You could ask the person that made the script, they have an account on this site with a similar name to their account on the userscript site (where you get the script).
1718840
Thank you. I'd like to stay up to date with Firefox, but dial-up and 17MB downloads aren't really compatible...
And my previous comment, the first half of it anyway, was intended for another story I was reading at the same time.
This story is not creepy at all. I it.
In fact:
1615655
/5
Screw the two people that disliked this.
*reads, likes, faves, and walks away*
hope to see this go far!
MOAR
so far really well done... to me at least :D and NEED MORE Octalight
I have to say that I'm impressed with this story. Using the right amount of circumspect dialogue and innuendo, you've made escorts sound classy again. Also, OctaLight is an awesome ship. Sail on!
1697642 1698187
Maybe I move in more rarified circles, but I haven't seen that particular grammar mistake in quite some time. I've also noticed that the writers on FiMFiction as a whole tend to be a little more competent than the average fanfiction writer. Again, this has just been my experience. Granted, I've come across some real stinkers here too, but the Device Heretic(s), Ghost(s) of Heraclitus, or Sleepless Brony(s) more than make up for this.