Trixie collected her wits just as the pegasus mare reached her – this couldn’t possibly be Fluttershy, not from the way she looked, nor more importantly carried herself. “Miss Lulamoon,” she said, sounding exceptionally cross. “Do you know who I am?”
Trixie rifled through her knowledge of ponies of the Night Court. This time six months ago, she probably would have been able to name all two-hundred forty three nobles within it on sight, but after six months in Ponyville, she was getting a little rusty. “No,” she said. She had almost prefaced that with I’m sorry, but frankly at this point she was growing more than a little exasperated with this trip.
The pegasus didn’t seem to mind. “Duchess Fragrant Posey,” she said. “I am the head of the Royal Ministry of Weather Management, and I am here with a demand: leave my niece alone.”
Trixie stared, as her memory was jogged. Posey…weather magnates from Cloudsdale. Fragrant Posey was the sister to Thunderous Posey, who owned a majority of the weather factory and, in essence, controlled weather production throughout Equestria. She blinked a few times when she came up with blanks for any other ponies named Posey, however, at least ones that she knew. “Who?”
“My niece,” Fragrant clarified. “Fluttering Posey. I have twice heard you mentioned in letter wrote to me by her, and it was not in a flattering light.”
Trixie shook her head. “I don’t even know who you’re talking about – ”
“Please, Miss Lulamoon, do not lie. I know it was you who threatened to drag her from her home on the Longest Night, and she got a very good look at you when you stole one of her chickens, and then returned it a week later with the poor thing’s back plucked!” The duchess leaned in close. “I don’t know what intimidations you are trying to play with my family, but – ”
“Fluttershy?” Trixie asked suddenly as enlightenment struck.
The Duchess leaned away. “Ooh…I’ve always hated that nickname,” she seethed slightly. “That Rainbow Dash gave it to her. Fluttering likes it, I suppose, but it seems so insulting…but yes, Fluttering is my niece.”
Trixie’s eyes widened. “Fluttershy’s real name is Fluttering Posey?” Trixie demanded. First Twilight turned out to be a Starlight…now Fluttershy was a Posey? What was next? Were Flim and Flam going to show up and reveal themselves to be second cousins to Wallflower? Was Gilda going to return as the heir apparent to a restored Griffin Empire? How badly could she have possibly screwed up?
Fragrant glared at Trixie. “Indeed,” she said, looking Trixie up and down. “So please, Miss Lulamoon. Fluttering detests the Night Court and wants nothing to do with it. Leave her alone, or I am afraid I will have to take steps to protect my family.”
The higher, less vindictive side of Trixie’s mind had shut down in shock, which was probably not a good thing. “Like what?” she demanded. “Somepony’s already printed lies about me in the newspaper! My home is already literally falling apart! Night Light already wants my blood! What could you possibly do? I guess my own family hasn’t been touched yet…you going to go after them? Go after my cousins? My aunt and uncle?”
Fragrant’s own eyes grew wide. “I beg your pardon?” She demanded.
“My life has been going straight into the sun ever since I became a Representative! If it’s not Greengrass trying to screw over my friends, it’s Night Light starving Ponyvlle, and somepony has been printing lies about me in the newspaper, bet that’s Greengrass too…or was that you? Giving me a taste of what you’d do if I didn’t listen to you?” Trixie stomped up to Fragrant. “For your information, Duchess, Fluttershy and I are friends!”
Fragrant blinked a few times at that. “What?” she asked.
Trixie’s higher brain grabbed the reins again, and pulled her back. She let out an exhausted sigh. “Last month,” she said. “Me and my friend Carrot Top have this monthly spa appointment. And Carrot Top is friends with Fluttershy and recently managed to convince Fluttershy to go to the spa too. But Carrot Top isn’t exactly swimming in cash, so she arranged things for me and Fluttershy to meet there, turn it into a big spa party thing. We got to talking – well, okay, I did most of the talking – and I apologized for scaring her at the Longest Night, which I didn’t mean to do, and for stealing her chicken, which I had a really good but very private reason for.” Trixie shuffled in place. “Maybe 'friend' is too strong a word…but I don’t think she hates me. And I don’t hate her. I didn’t even know she was a Posey!”
Fragrant had one hoof to her mouth and her wings slightly flared as she weighed Trixie’s words. “I haven’t heard from her for a few months…” she mused. “Can you prove this, Miss Lulamoon?”
Trixie opened her mouth to attempt to do just that, when the two were suddenly jointed by a white earth pony mare with white hair, though despite her coat colors, she actually looked relatively young. She seemed to have almost materialized from nowhere, despite Fragrant and Trixie standing in the middle of a relatively open courtyard, where they should have easily noticed her approach. “Begging your pardon, Miss Lulamoon, Duchess Posey,” the earth pony said, offering a bow of respect to the latter. “But I was sent by Duke Greengrass. An important matter has come up concerning the weather patterns in Caneighda, and he needs to see you immediately.”
Trixie’s face soured at the name Greengrass. To her surprise, so did Fragrant’s, though only for a moment. “Miss…Notary, isn’t it?” Fragrant asked. “I will be along presently, then.”
“Thank-you, Duchess,” Notary said with another respectful bow. She kept her gaze carefully on Fragrant, not making eye contact at all with Trixie.
Fragrant, meanwhile, turned back to Trixie. “It is possible that I was in error, Miss Lulamoon,” she said. “If that is the case, then I apologize. But I demand an apology in return for your saying that I would resort to the same base tactics that I was wrongly accusing you of. When I said that I would take steps, I meant only that I would ask Princess Luna to intervene if it proved necessary.”
Trixie almost considered not giving her one out of spite, but decided that she had enough enemies in the Court already – she didn’t need another one on top of that, least of all one who had been, from the looks of things, only trying to defend her family, and who seemed eminently more reasonable than Night Light or Shining Armor on the matter. “I’m sorry, Duchess,” she said, bowing her head. Fragrant nodded in acknowledgement of it, before trotting off, Notary in tow.
Trixie let out a long sigh. She made a point of not wondering what could go wrong next.
---
“What are you doing, Duke?”
Duke Greengrass paused in the middle of his speech to Fragrant Posey. Given that it was entirely improvised, he didn’t mind the pause: though he thought he was winging it well enough, he could use it to gather his thoughts. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I thought I had explained that in the beginning. Caneighda has a relatively low pegasus population, you see, so our weather is a bit more free than is normal in Equestria. I was hoping that perhaps you could help me put together a program to incentivize pegasi moving to the – ”
Fragrant shook her head. “That is not what I mean. I’m referring to Representative Lulamoon.”
Greengrass offered a slightly confused stare. “I had heard she was in Canterlot,” he ventured, “but I’m not certain what you’re talking about.”
Fragrant stared hard at Greengrass. “I ran into her,” she said. “In the castle Courtyard. Interestingly I might not have encountered her at all, had I not just been returning from a sudden meeting with Archduke Fisher concerning magical imports to Cloudsdale, a meeting that wasn’t scheduled and which he seemed to have forgotten about, given how unprepared for it he seemed.”
Greengrass pursed his lips. The benefit to keeping his office as painstakingly organized as it was, was that he knew where everything was. As soon as Notary had announced the duchess’ arrival for the weather situation in Caneighda, he had trotted right over to his desk and produced all the necessary documents and charts before the pegasus had even made herself comfortable. Notary’s language had even made it clear what the meeting was supposed to be about – it was a situation, which meant it was supposed to be negative, though not to the levels of a crisis. Situations could be interpreted from any set of data that Greengrass had on hoof. “I’m not certain I understand,” he said.
Fragrant considered Greengrass for several long moments, before her face softened, and she let out a slight sigh. “Perhaps I am being paranoid,” she said. “I consider one unexpected meeting a week to be unusual…two in one day may have set off some alarm bells.”
The duke offered a chuckle. “I can understand that,” he said, though he did not believe her put-on relaxation in the slightest. Fragrant knew about the role he had played in a relatively minor political altercation a few months back – knew, and could not be happy. Necessity required them to work together still, of course, and Fragrant was not one for petty revenge – but on some level, the duchess knew that the Duke was up to something, and simply had not yet finished putting together all the pieces in her head. She had perhaps been hoping for some kind of reaction from the Duke, but he had betrayed none.
Their conversation turned back to the weather situation in Caneighda. The duke’s home province really could stand to have more pegasi, though the situation was hardly an emergency by any means, more an inconvenience when the summers tended to last a little longer and burn a little hotter than they were supposed to. The duke had been holding off on fixing the problem until he could use it as a cover for something else, and it had, apparently, just paid off.
Notary – his personal assistant – was keeping an eye on Lulamoon at the moment. She had a talent for not being seen when she ought to be, and could make sure that Lulamoon was constantly deflected and bounced one way or another while trying to get to Night Light. Fragrant’s meeting with her had been planned out, to an extent, timed with the archduke, though apparently Fisher wasn’t nearly as good at improvisation as Greengrass was. He made up for it, though, with sheer sway in Equestria Nightly – the unicorn’s castigating of Lulamoon had perhaps been a little heavy-hooved, but there was no denying that it had gotten the job done. Blueblood, meanwhile, had little to contribute to the effort, beyond saying that he’d ‘make some calls,’ whatever that meant.
Between Fisher’s newspaper article and Notary’s deflections, Lulamoon would be kept going round and round Canterlot all night, never actually reaching Night Light. By the end of it, she would be angry, frustrated, and probably more than a little desperate – just as planned.
---
Trixie’s not thinking about how things could get worse didn’t help, of course. What should have been all of a five-minute walk somehow transformed into an epic quest of tedium. Halls were closed for repair. Tour groups were blocking her progress. Twice she ran into ponies who had heard about the situation in Ponyville and wanted to offer their condolences, that they represented special interest groups who would love to help foot the bill, and would she please just sign here? Trixie had to point out to them that, as a Representative, she didn’t have the authority to sign anything. She still made a note of them for Ivory Scroll once she returned to Ponyville.
Three times, she ran into “personal friends” of Night Light, who took it upon themselves to stop her and inform her – at great length – how terrible a pony she was. Trixie did her best to take their insults and not get involved in shouting matches with them. She even succeeded on her first try. The latter two…somewhat less so.
At great length, in spite of the universe itself, it seemed, trying to impede her, she finally managed to find the office of Night Light, steel herself, and enter. At last – the end was in sight!
She had thought.
“How does the Viceory 'being out' prevent me from making an appointment to see him?” Trixie demanded of the gray unicorn stallion that served as the viceroy’s assistant. Every member of the Night Court had their own small – or not-so-small, depending on how much pull they had – office within the greater Canterlot Castle, which was really more like a small settlement in and of itself with a dozen satellite structures clustered around the castle proper. Night Light’s office appeared to be roughly the size of a modest apartment, from what little of it Trixie could see from its foyer, where the gray unicorn was sitting behind a desk overloaded with paperwork. His mane was nearly black, while his cutie mark was obscured by the desk he sat behind.
The unicorn shrugged. “Without the viceroy being here,” he said, “I cannot know, Miss Lulamoon, when he’d want to place a meeting with you.”
“He has a schedule. I can see it,” Trixie pointed out, eyeing the planner that was, in fact, sitting open in front of the gray unicorn. “He has to have open slots in it for unexpected meetings.” Her eyes narrowed. “I can see those, too.”
The gray unicorn made no effort to conceal the planner. “Just so,” he said, “the viceroy is very particular about his spare time, Miss Lulamoon. There is nothing I can do.”
Trixie glared at the unicorn. The unicorn stared back, though not particularly maliciously. At length, Trixie let out a long, angry sigh. “Fine,” she hissed. Her horn glowed, and she telekinetically grabbed a quill from the unicorn’s desk, as well as a sheet of paper. She scribbled down a note, folded it in half, and passed it to the unicorn. “Please see to it that the viceroy gets this.”
“Of course, Miss Lulamoon.”
Trixie sighed again, stomping from the office. After she had, the gray unicorn stood up, walking to the door of the office and checking down its length. Trixie continued stomping off, and as the unicorn’s horn glowed lavender, he couldn’t detect any kind of magical ruse on her part.
The unicorn unfolded the sheet of paper, reading it.
To Viceroy Night Light –
I am here on behalf of the town of Ponyville to officially request aid from the Royal Emergency Management Ministry. I would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience, and will be stopping by tomorrow at 1 o’clock in order to arrange a meeting.
On a personal note, I swear to the Stars that I did not say the things that Equestria Nightly printed. I do not know who quoted me as saying that. I would like to once again apologize for the part I played in the Ursa Minor incident some months ago.
Please, do not let an entire town suffer for my mistakes.
– Trixie, Night Court Representative of Ponyville
“Oh, poor dear,” the gray unicorn said softly, “you’re trying so hard, aren’t you?” The unicorn then trotted over to a nearby closet, opened it, and telekinetically hefted out a unconscious unicorn that was identical to hum in every way save cutie mark – for the unconscious unicorn had an hour glass cutie mark, while the one who’s horn glowed had a cutie mark of a black envelope.
The unconscious unicorn was propped up behind the desk, made to look like he had simply fallen asleep, rather than put to sleep with a creative application of magic. “Napping on the job,” the conscious unicorn noted, patting him on the head a few times, then returning to the closet and grabbing his cloak, sliding the note inside. “Not a good way to get ahead in life.”
The gray unicorn left the office of Night Light at that and smiling as ‘he’ made sure to get all the way back to the agreed-upon meeting place before dropping ‘his’ disguise: ‘his’ coat becoming white, ‘his’ mane becoming purple, and ‘his’ proportions changing to be more in line with that of a mare than a stallion. Which was just as well: even with her disguise being only an illusion, Zizanie never felt entirely comfortable disguising herself as a stallion.
The meeting room was another one of the small side-rooms in Canterlot; this particular one had a window that overlooked the courtyard and, by extension, the city beyond. There was already a white-coated, blond-maned unicorn waiting for Zizanie as she entered. “Done,” she said simply, holding forward the note that Trixie had left behind.
Viscount Prince Blueblood smiled brightly. “Excellent!” he said, as he took the note and read it over. He winced. “This will prove an embarrassment for Lulamoon when she shows up tomorrow,” he noted.
Zizanie agreed. It was part of why she’d agreed to take this job on such short notice in the first place: a chance to get a personal stab in at Trixie. In her line of work – blackmail, mostly, though she moonlighted in extortion, spying, and occasional larceny – personal vendettas were usually seen as an unnecessary risk. Then again, whoever had come up with that rule had never had to deal with Trixie Lulamoon.
“It’s a good thing that Trixie showed up,” Zizanie noted of Blueblood. “I thought that Greengrass’ crony was running interference and would stop her. Not that I’d complain about getting a free meal, mind. Speaking of…?”
Blueblood nodded, reaching into his jacket and producing Zizanie’s fee from an inside pocket – a bar of solid platinum, worth several thousand bits. “I had…a feeling,” Blueblood noted.
Zizanie suspected that it was much more likely to be luck – good for Blueblood, bad for Trixie – rather than any real skill on Blueblood’s part. His cutie mark of a compass rose did suggest that he had some kind of special talent related to direction, so it was just inside the realm of possibility that he had, in fact, know that Trixie would be able to make her way to her destination – possible, that was, if one didn’t know anything about Blueblood.
Zizanie elected to merely slide the platinum bar into her cloak pocket – it was wonderfully weighty – and just nod at Blueblood’s assertion. Skill or luck, he had been right, and Zizanie had been paid, and that was all that mattered. “Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, turning and leaving.
---
Duke Greengrass pursed his lips, looking up from the rough draft of the nascent Caneighdian immigration incentive bill, as Notary finished explaining what had happened after several hours of running interference. Despite her best efforts – and they were, in fact, quite impressive, how Notary had managed to arrange pretty much everything but a war breaking out to keep Trixie from Night Light – Trixie had gotten to Night Light’s office. But, it turned out, it hadn’t mattered: Blueblood had hired Zizanie again and ultimately, in a manner of speaking, saved the day.
“That…is an unexpected amount of foresight on Blueblood’s part,” Greengrass noted. He thought back to his conversation earlier, with Blueblood and Fisher. Blueblood had never actually agreed with Fisher concerning magic and curses…and had seemed surprisingly well informed about the Ponyville situation, more so than Fisher, in any event. “I suspect I may have underestimated the viscount.”
Notary frowned at that. “I doubt that, sir. It’s much more likely that, knowing that Lulamoon had to be stopped, simply fell back to a familiar ally. This is not the first time he has worked with Zizanie.”
Greengrass considered carefully. “Probably,” he admitted. “But I think a somewhat more cautious approach around him may be in order. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day; perhaps this is just an example of that in action. Still, I’d hate to think that he grew some additional brain cells now, of all times.”
Notary nodded. “Yes, sir. You do still have some leverage over him thanks to the Symphony incident. Perhaps you should put it to use?”
“Hmm…” Greengrass considered, weighing out the costs verses the benefits. “After the gala, I think. I don’t want to be running too much at one time and end up tripping over myself. Isolating Lulamoon and bringing her and the Elements over to Fisher, Blueblood, and I is the priority right now.”
Notary nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
“Where is Lulamoon now?”
“Getting a hotel. Her old room is undergoing maintenance – that wasn’t me, sir, it’s part of the regular maintenance schedule. I have rented the room next to hers for Bear to keep an eye on her.”
Greengrass frowned at that. Bear was one of his bodyguards, alongside Ox. Their names were well-earned. “A little heavy, don’t you think?”
“I told him to watch her only and come and get me if she leaves. Given the nature this operation, I felt that trust was most important than not being noticeable.”
Greengrass considered that for a moment, then nodded, grateful that he had hired more than just dumb muscle to be his personal bodyguards. “Valid point. Excellent job today, Notary.”
---
Trixie felt more than a little guilty, getting a hotel room when at least a quarter of all the beds in Ponyville were unusable. But the simple fact of the matter was that Canterlot moved according to a different pace from Ponyville, which did not have the nocturnal tendencies of Canterlot. She wasn’t used to staying up all night, and it didn’t help that she’d caught the earliest train to the city, either.
Naturally, sleep would not come as her mind went over the day’s events. Between the train station, the newspaper, Shining Armor, running into Fragrant, the dozen problems she had just trying to reach Night Light, and then ultimately it all having been for nothing…she was too depressed to sleep, and her mind too active.
It was too much to be coincidence. Somepony was actually out to get her. Manipulating events to keep her from Night Light. But who? As near as Trixie could tell, there were really only two possibilities on that front. The first was Night Light himself, doing everything in his power to avoid Trixie. Such vindictiveness seemed more than possible from the viceroy, but then again, the sheer effort seemed unlikely. If Night Light didn’t want to see Trixie, he could simply not see her. He was a viceroy and she was just a representative, and not even from a major city like Manehattan or Fillydelphia.
That left only one real possibility: Duke Greengrass. The duke had been trying to gain control of the Elements for months now, first by trying to manipulate Lyra, then Carrot Top, into situations where they would owe or otherwise be at the mercy of Greengrass. All of Ponyville needing aid must have seemed like a silver platter to him, a chance to apply pressure to Trixie directly, rather than her friends.
Trixie had nothing. No friends in the Night Court, no acquaintances, nopony who owed her favors…
…all she could do was keep at it. Keep trying to see Night Light. Sheer persistence would eventually outpace anything that was thrown against her, she was sure.
She hoped, anyway…
Oh, poor Trixie. Good to see Zizanie back. And Blueblood mildly freaking ponies out by appearing to be competent.
I spotted a typo, though. "Given the nature this operation, I felt that trust was most important than not being noticeable."
Just letting you know I read it. Still don't like it. Nothing more. Goodbye.
Sigh...I suppose this is compelling and it's well written yes, but I really don't care about the politics. I know I'm in the minority in that, but I really find this extremely tedious. I guess that's what the point of this story is going to be, and the next story you have planned is going to have more action, but this Night Court politics doesn't interest me in the slightest anymore. I suppose I'll keep reading it to be informed of the future events but it's becoming increasingly dull. We have some nice moments with Trixie here and some good story with the plot but the political wrangling is simply told in FAR too much detail when we could do with a much simpler summary of said wranglings. This doesn't feel like a FIM fic at this point anymore, and I've never really felt that before in the Lunaverse stories, and I can't help but be disappointed. And considering that the plan seems to be a lot more of these stories in the next 'season' I can't say I'm very enthused. Every other story I've read from you RDD I've always been immensely excited to see the story alert in my email, this one? Not so much.
1701741
I'm with ya on this one, only perhaps even moreso.
I really, really wanted to like this one. I knew the Night Court would be involved, but I also really thought it would be mixed in with a good story about the ponies trying to survive the Gala and make the best of the night. Instead, we've gotten four chapters of every single political villain introduced so far screwing with Trixie, making Trixie's life hell, and setting Trixie up for a big fall. None of the other ponies are even involved anymore.
As far as I'm concerned, the Night Court has become the single worst aspect of the entire Lunaverse, even when compared to Corona and L!Twilight. At least those two are going to be used for something constructive down the line. There is nothing redeemable about the Court. But no, I can't stop reading this one because I want to see how the ending'll affect the rest of the series.
Personally, I'm enjoying the political elements. I love to watch cunning and scheming play out, both on the part of heroes and villains. It's like watching a complex array of dominoes getting set up, building up the anticipation for when everything gets thrown into motion.
Gotta agree with Tanglemane, too, about enjoying Zizanie's return and the way Blueblood actually pulling off a competent move confused everyone who knows about it, including his own accomplice. Though if the contents of the swapped-in letter are anywhere near as bad as Blueblood's reaction to it suggests, I wouldn't want to be in the room when Night Light reads it.
I also thought the scene with Duchess Posey was nicely handled, too. There was no real bad guy in that scene aside from a touch of dated misinformation. It left me with the impression that once the Duchess confirms what Trixie said is true, our dear Representative might not end up as alone in the Court as she thinks.
Compas Rose....Direction........OH MY! I just thought of something. What if his tallent is MISDIRECTION! As in, he only lets others THINK he's a moron and he's really a genius. That...would be interesting.
Heh. I really liked this chapter.
1702008
personally, thats what i believe as well, he may not be as smart as Green, but by remaining hidden behind an act he can probably do more
Ooh, really liked this one. I think you did a good job portraying both Trixie's desperation and Greengrass's scheming.
Also enjoyed Surprisingly Competent Blueblood. Zizanie's return was neat, although I was surprised that she seems to be working for him voluntarily; they seemed to be on fairly bad terms at the end of 'File Under I.'
Notary being awesome in her own way is always a blast. :-) I like the image of her arranging tour guides, politicians, and haters to get in Trixie's way.
Was a bit surprised that Posey could apparently ask Luna to step in on behalf of her daughter like that; does that mean that Posey and Luna are unusually close, or just that since Trixie is nominally Luna's responsibility, Luna could tell Trixie to stop being a jerk to Fluttershy?
Gilda as a griffin princess would be funny. :-)
The one thing I didn't like was the insinuation that Greengrass would let things go badly in his own province as part of a gambit. He wants to 'tend his gardens' well. I think it'd be more likely either that he'd be speaking there on behalf of a neighboring province (which could also get some other noble to owe him a favor), or that he'd be trying to get things in his province on that regard to go from 'okay' to 'good' or 'good' to 'great,' not 'minor problem' to 'okay.'
I very much enjoyed this chapter, the poltics the villains Posey and hooray for the shape shifters return.
I look forward to seeing where you are going with this, I would have liked a bit more Trixie but this was still excellent.
I could definitely see GG pulling something like this in regards to the weather problem and I feel it was excellently done.
I also very much liked how the villains are breaking their activity up between each otehr and various other so actually tracing them would be exceedingly difficult.
also scary almost smart move by Blueblood :D
1701741
actually as I understand it there's going to be less politics and more Corona taking their place, the Fisher arc was cancelled as was any other political arc, if I recall there's only going to be one political episode and that would be based around Trixie doing something in her new job.
1701822
To be fair we are going to get the other elements, they just haven't shown up yet, plus the villains consider Trixie the "nominal leader" and she's the only one present so it's natural they are trying to screw her. I'd have to disagree about the "worst part" thing but that's just different tastes clashing.
Ah the tendency of a politician to play little petty power games while in a burning building is without measure. You can bet that Greengrass would be the *first* pony to scream for Trixie and her friends if confronted by Corona, and would instantly go back to being a louse as soon as the last flicker of flame vanished from his sight.
1703040
...Wait, they were cancelled?
Except the story is still almost all about Trixie and her problems. We've had no buildup whatsoever with any of the other characters outside of the first chapter, which spent more time admonishing anyone who liked the previous story and setting up Trixie's problem than it did anything else. We're four chapters in; they need to have done something by this point to have any sort of meaningful impact on the actual Gala. Otherwise, it's just Trixie dealing with a problem while the others hang around. The show has the same problem with Twilight, but there they have only twenty-two minutes to tell a story and have to sell toys. This story doesn't.
Hey, if you like the Night Court, good for you. Just don't count on me ever becoming a fan.
1701822>>1701741
To be fair, the remaining five will be showing up soon ("soon" here is defined as "the chapter after next")
I'm also working on a little something on the side, something that hopefully you two (and everyone else) should enjoy. Hopefully.
1701871
Letter swap? Zizanie just took the letter with her to show to Blueblood; she didn't swap out any letters.
1702008>>1702232
Keep in mind that Longest Night, Longest Day explicitly refers to his retired grandfather as a baron, pretty much the lowest of the gentry worth considering, but Prince Blueblood is a viscount, the next step up.
1702590
The latter. Basically Posey was giving Trixie a chance to promise to stop under her own volition, and if she did not, then she'd bring Luna in, whom is nominally both their boss. Basically, the way that things are supposed to be resolved between two members of the Night Court that have an altercation.
1703120
If I recall like half or more a month ago on the 10th BR thread.
Interesting point but there is a good reason for them not to be there yet, considering the issues with the town and I'm pretty sure it will be awesome when they do show up.
interesting point about the normal show to that woudl have been one of my key issues with crystal empire, that and spike and sombra.
eh if you don't liek a style of story that's cool, what type do you usually go in for?
1703283
Generally, I prefer the slice-of-life style, although I do like some adventure stories every now and then. I don't even mind political intrigue elsewhere, but the Lunaverse version just never cuts it for me.
1703314
I'm cool with slice, I tend to prefer adventure and dramatic stories myself, I didn't really care for political stories till L!verse.
1703251 Sorry, I was reading in a bit of a hurry and thought that Blueblood's reaction was to a harsher message that they were going to leave in the original letter's place. Don't read on Speed, kids!
1703251
I don't know if it's what I think it is, but whatever it is, I hope I do enjoy it. Because right now, this story's ready to start keeping "Boast Busted" company...
1703251 And it IS a meritocracy. So he obviously has more skill than his grandfather ever possessed at the least. Not something you associate with a moron.
Excellent chapter RDD! And cool use of Zizanie
1703398
I know you meant it the other way around, but for me I could only hope for this fic to get that good.
A pity too; I actually had been enjoying the last two chapters and was just about ready to flip my opinion of this fic to positive, but overall the setup is starting to drag out too long. The last two at least had some interesting character dynamics and interactions; this one though felt mostly like exposition, a transitory migration that exists just to bridge the plot from point 'A' to point 'B', yet accomplishes little to nothing of its own. It's not that the chapter is bad in and of itself, just kind of boring.
For a fic titled after the Gala, it's taking us an awful long time to reach said event.
1704392
I think the setup is a major source of my problems with the story.
Political intrigue stories require hiding a great deal from the audience. They feed on paranoia and misdirection, both for the characters and the audience. In many ways, they're like watching a magic act all the way through, enjoying it, and only at the end figuring out how the tricks were performed. We shouldn't know who the perpetrators are until just before the reveal, or what their goal is until they've got our heroes cornered and are seconds from victory. It helps to build up tension.
Here, we see all the tricks. We know who the villains are and the roles they play. We know what their goal is. Going back to the magic act analogy, it's like the magician just revealed the trick's secrets before it was even started.
Furthermore, all this buildup means the Gala itself is basically not important. It's just where the story ends. You could have put it in the Canterlot Garden Party or at that music festival from "Musicians and Dreamers" or anything else and it would have worked just the same. All that's important is that the villains are publicly humiliated at an important event and ousted from the Court. Back in the show, the Grand Galloping Gala was actually treated like an important event, got a whole song detailing why it was so bloody important to our heroines, and every step of the buildup reflected that. The ponies were excited to get their tickets in "Ticket Master," Rarity worked hard on their dresses in "Suited for Success," and the whole first act of "Best Night Ever" was spent detailing the various hopes and dreams for the party. Here, the tickets were an afterthought in "Tales of Ponyville" and much of the story has been focusing on why the ponies really won't be giving a damn about the Gala itself, but what they can get out of it for Ponyville's sake.
In short, let us take some things on faith. Stop showing us every single step of Trixie's march towards despair. Save some stuff for the end. And most importantly, GET TO THE GALA!
1704536
I don't know about everything in this post, but I do agree that I wanna see the actual Gala already.
I liked the bit with Trixie and Posey. It wasn't that Trixie was telling Posey off per se but it was more Trixie being 'Lady you wan't to kick my flank? Get in line."
That said I'm glad that had been resolved peacefully, Trixie really didn't need another pony out for her blood.
It was also cool to see Zizanie again. Though It also makes me want to see a showdown between Zizanie and Pokey. I also think I like the sort of Drunken Master interpretation of Blueblood that we have going in the Lunaverse. Yes he's not a big player but when he does do something no one ever seems to see it coming.
All in all this was a good chapter and I look forward to things stepping up in future chapters.
1704536>>1704821>>1704392
Well, like I said, the idea is to divide the story over three days, 4 chapters apiece.
But I guess this could also be divided into Part 1 and Part 2, with Part 1 being chapters 1-6 and Part 2 being chapters 7-12. Part 1 is the "Night Light" arc and Part 2 is the "Night Court" arc.
I know that's not really much of an excuse...in hindsight I kind of wish I had fully planned this story chapter-by-chapter ahead of time instead of my usual case of lurching from one scene to the next.
1704901: I think it'd be funny to have Zizanie, Pokey, Notary, and all the other secretaries just sitting down for a drink and chatting about their masters and the hijinks they wind up.
1705022
They should totally have their own bar called the Worn Quil or something where only secretaries or former secretaries are allowed.
1705107: ... okay, let's make that canon. That's brilliant. :-)
1704904: No excuses needed. I love the story. :-)
1704536>>1704392
hmm you make an interesting point regarding political build up and mystery.
I do however have to disagree with you second point regarding the Gala, I don't really want to start a debate here so feel free to ignore me.
One of the key issues seems to be the use of the Gala and how it's not going to be like the show, honestly that isn't a shock, Twilight never attended the Gala's before and no one knew what to expect Trixie has so they all know it's going to be a stuff formal event and that's ignoring the attention they'd get for being the elements.
Plus I don't really see much point in rewriting the original Gala plot we have a different cast, different world, different motives, views ETC and the actual plan for the Gala has been laid out for awhile now in regards to saving Ponyville and political gambits. It serves as a good setting moving it to some new and original event would be kind of pointless I feel.
The fic is entitled the Gala because it's going to serve as the setting and culmination of all the different plot threads and actions of the characters collidining in one place.
Sorry if any of this came across as rude or an attack.
1705183: Exactly. This isn't the show. Lunaverse is different. So the Gala episode probably shouldn't be about the actual dancing and stuff; the show did that.
Trixie wanting to be in the Court is a significant motivation for her, so this stuff is important. And the Gala is a convenient time to get everyone together; it's probably one of the few times that Trixie might encounter all these folks normally. Otherwise, she's at such a low rank she could probably never even see them.
I think the story is going just about right. :-)
1704904
Admittedly, I tend to go scene-by-scene for the most part as well, but for a story this important, with so many far-reaching consequences...yeah, it needed to be planned a little better. Still, a lesson for another day, I guess.
By the way, whatever happened to that "Trixie in heat" story?
1705183
I knew that. I just expected it to actually be used in a good manner, and so far that hasn't happened. And while I may have complained about aspects of "Best Night Ever," overall it was entertaining and enjoyable. This story feels like sandpaper being rubbed across my face while I'm reaching out for a giant diamond that's just out of reach. Painful, but just in the way of the reward.
First, you can have all your political gambits and not make the fic a cluster**** of boredom and despair. As you said, Trixie already knows all about the Gala, so she would be the perfect focus for that. Second, we have a new cast, which means new problems for them to deal with. It won't be a repeat of the original episode in any way if you stick to the characters and setting we got, and just work them into the party itself. This whole story so far has JACK to do with the Gala. That's why I said end the first chapter with the cast resolving to go to the Gala to save the day, jump straight into the party, and confine all the stuff happening outside to the GGG itself. It might mean cutting out Trixie punching a security guard, but you could keep just about everything in here so far without any sort of issue.
Then it shouldn't have been called "At the Grand Galloping Gala." That implies the Gala itself is incredibly important, and so far, it isn't. We're four chapters in and we're nowhere near the Gala at this point. In fact, the GGG is only supposed to be the last four chapters, far too little to actually make for any sort of meaningful use out of besides shutting down the political arcs.
It didn't. I just...really shouldn't have come back. But I saw Bree R's comment and had to agree, and here we are.
1705255
And as Zecora being a villain has demonstrated, sometimes going against the show for the sake of going against the show isn't a very good idea.
1705314
"Beating the Heat" is...sort of on hiatus until I figure out how I want to take it. Basically the inevitable happened: it stopped being crack to me as I actually started considering how I wanted the story to progress. Unfortunately I don't know how I want it to go. Do I ship Twilight and Trixie? Raindrops and Trixie? Twilight and Raindrops? All three? None? It kind of stopped being a silly comedy with the chapters i planned. Still funny, but not random anymore.
I'll get back to it soon, though.
1705314
I really shouldn't respond but well I can't keep myself quiet.
that sand paper analogy is pretty harsh. and again you're comparing it to the original best night ever, when it's a separate story that's totally unrelated.
I don't entirely disagree with all your point, though how you made them... anyway I don't actually find the current political stuff to be boring so it's really a matter of personal taste as opposed to actual story quality.
In regards to the new cast we don't actually know how they are going to be implemented into the gala yet, and again they have entirely different motives for going there, this story as far as I know was never framed as being the best night ever style night for the character nor did they seem to expect that.
Like I said the gala is where the entire climax of the seasons build up takes place so it seems an appropriate name for the episode, but that's just different views again.
I don't think it's going against the show for the sake of it, it's just telling a different story that's s had an entirely different set up going for awhile now and there's not much reason to expect the same story as in canon or even compare them.
anyway I doubt this will get us anywhere, we cool?
1705183 1705255
I wasn't expecting a rewrite of the show (Tales of Ponyville already established that the L6 were never planning to have the "best night ever", and instead just hang out together, get some free food and enjoy the perks of their celebrity for a change), and I was always looking forward to the political machinations that would be going on beneath the surface, but I still expected the Gala-fic to actually be more so about the Gala. Sure enough the frivolity of the evening would be very much a facade to the true conspiracies under-hoof, but that's what made the notion that it was to be a masquerade ball all the more narratively meaningful.
What I expected was a story of gambits, counter-gambits, cross-gambits, and just about everything else imaginable all converging at once to see who'd win the evening and take home the prize. Here though so many of the cards, so to speak, are being layed out on the table before the game has even begun that I'm not sure what intrigue will actually be left for the event itself.
It would all I think be much better if the Gala itself figured more prominently into events. We could have established in a single chapter that Night Lite was avoiding Trixie (and/or that Greengrass's legion of doom was running such interference), setting up that by going to the Gala she could corner him and force him to listen to her. Having Trixie waste a few chapters accomplishing nothing directly related to the goal of saving Ponyville is starting to just feel like padding.
1705314
While that particular issue doesn't bug me nearly as much as it bugs you (though I have my own concerns about it), I must over all agree. I'm tired of "we should be different just because we're an AU" being used as some kind of excuse. Just because we CAN do something doesn't always mean we SHOULD.
Ostensibly this whole AU is still supposed to be the same as the show, just with a different cast and somewhat more mature sensibilities. That's a large part of what's made the Lunaverse stand out from other group continuity projects, because our fics supposedly still carry the same themes and message as the actual show. We twist things around a bit, show familiar faces in unfamiliar roles and situations, but we still operated on the basic principles of MLP, rather than just hijacking the setting to tell a completely different story. So to some extent, I very much think that we should at all times strive to emulate the show as much as possible without become blatantly derivative.
1705464
I could argue some of these points especially compared to previous reviews/debates that have been held here but I really don't think anything will come of it.
I do especially disagree with imitating the show, but again I don't really feel like debating this.
1705447
Yeah, we cool. I just really don't like the direction this story's gone, that's all.
Personally I'm really liking it so far. I like Fragrant Posey's character and am looking forward to seeing how you develop and utilize her through out this and latter stories.
1702590 In regards to the Gilda as a griffin princes part of the post:
I after I read Griffin Over the Line I ended up thinking about how the thing with Gilda may effect the rest of the stories latter and ended up with a rather hilarious What If scenario involving the Gala. Basically it involves Raindrops getting cornered by someone aligned with Greengrass during the Gala ready to give her a "offer you can't refuse" when all of a sudden a rather large and very important looking griffin ambassador that eats and breathes HAM with on indoor voice approaches with the words "You must be RAINDROPS!! My daughter has spoken quite HIGHLY of you!!".
As for the negative criticism don't let it get to you too much. Even though I'm don't like seeing the Trixie get screwed with to this degree that is actually a strength IMO. After all the situation is supposes to feel hopeless and the fact that the villains look like they're winning is supposes to be infuriating. I can understand if some people just don't like political themed stories (heck I'M not really into them [don't hate them just not into them] beyond certain exceptions) but I don't think think they make up a vast majority of your audience.
1705604: Heh. That'd be pretty neat.
Although cornering Raindrops is probably not a great idea in the first place... :-)
And, yes. Some people just don't like politics, but I don't think they make up even close to a majority of Lunaverse fans. Besides, what matters is quality. And the Court stories are good, this one included. :-)
1705604
For some reason I desperately want to see this, the epicness would be awesomeness!
1703283: It was never actually agreed to cancel those stories, and in fact I'm writing an S2 one now. :-)
1705604
First, the fact that the situation is hopeless is not the reason I'm complaining. I'm upset because it took what was supposed to be a humorous story and beat all the comedy out of it just to reach that level of hopelessness. Not to mention that so far, nearly all of it has been padding.
Second, while I agree those who don't like the political stuff in the Lunaverse, it's all in the execution. When I think intrigue, I think of cloak-and-dagger espionage, of sinister beings pulling the strings from the shadows and our heroes not knowing how far the trail goes. Instead, every Night Court story so far has been obsessed with showing us every step of their evil plans. It sucks all the mystery out of the air and just replaces it with garden-variety villains doing garden-variety things.
Although RDD did show me an outline for the story (guess he got sick of my constant whining ) and it might have a shred of hope for me. Eventually. As in, a long way from now.
1705832
Again, I like politics sometimes. I just don't like what we've been presented with so far.
Oh. Well, that's...um...nice...
1706055
Out of curiosity...did I ever say or imply that it was going to be comedic?
I can't help but feel that you went into this with certain expectations, probably brought about by that anachronistic order thing that we do, that you really shouldn't have. "Tales" ended with the Gala on a positive, upbeat note, but "Tales" is half a season before "Foalish Misadventures," the true lead-in to this. That I kept egging G&C2 on to add more destruction to Ponyville.
And I said with "Family Matters" that I was through doing "FiM episodes, but in the Lunaverse!" and that while the same elements may recur, like parasprites or the gala, they'd have completely different stories and feels.
1706098
I wasn't talking about this one. I was talking about "Foalish Misadventures," the story you used to lead into this one. And for all your pushing for Ponyville to get destroyed in that one, it was still played mostly for laughs, some of the antics were genuinely funny, and outside of the bad ending and Zecora, wasn't too bad of a story. But the first chapter immediately kills the laughs in that one by not only showing us the consequences, but by shoving our faces into it over and over again, ramping up just how screwed everypony is, and then ending it with Trixie in despair over her uselessness in this situation.
"Tales" may have ended on an upbeat note, but I would have accepted a downer beginning to this one...if it didn't feel like it was beating us over the skull for daring to laugh at drunk!Trixie last time.
My only expectation was to be entertained. If a story does that, I'm happy. So far, I haven't been entertained by this one. Sorry.
1706153
True enough. Perhaps expecting to get the severity of the situation across via foal's eyes wasn't the best of ideas.
Meh.
1706153: Which is ironic, because I specifically altered the ending to try to remove Fridge Horror by having Zecora escape from the Guards and not Apple Bloom. After all, once Zecora gets booned and becomes the Zecoratron 9000 and begins stomping on houses and shooting lasers from her eyes, I didn't want Diamond Tiara to be able to point to Apple Bloom and say 'Your fault she got out.'
That said, I still like both stories.
1706193
Still not happy about Trixie taking the credit at the end, though...it just seems woefully out of character. She'd ask Dinky what happened, and she knows Dinky enough to believe the story Dinky told, and there's no way that she's such a glory-hog as to try and steal the Foal 6's moment of awesome. Maybe early Trixie, but even then Trixie likes kids way too much.
Poor Trixie. I think this shows a lot of character growth for her, that she's trying so hard to fix things for Ponyville, no matter how badly it goes for her personally. The encounter with Fragrant Posey was interesting, and she was surprisingly reasonable.
Blueblood was clever but also kind of... ham-hoofed in this chapter, I think? Using pre-existing governmental issues and other subtle setups to detain important officials and slow Trixie down is clever. Knocking out a secretary and replacing him with a changeling or whatever Zizanie is? Not subtle. Blueblood is clever, but he's not in Greengrass's league. This can only end badly for somepony. Or, hopefully, everypony! Everypony except Trixie.
1706198: I guess I could go back and edit that.
(The idea I had wasn't that Trixie was deliberately stealing credit, but rather that Trixie genuinely had no idea what happened, but woke up in a magic circle, sensed the remnants of herself casting a spell, and concluded that she had saved the day. And Dinky and the other foals didn't get a chance to talk to her about it, what with getting the whole town awake again, until after Trixie had already done the whole 'yay us!' ceremony.
1706153
1706176
1706193
1706198
Maybe a few edits to Foalish Misadventures would help. You could add a epilog from one of the adults POV, and make a few modifications to the last chapter to ease readers into the tone shift from Foalish Misadventures to At the Grand Galloping Gala, that way the mood whiplash isn't as bad.