• Member Since 22nd Dec, 2011
  • offline last seen Aug 31st, 2023

Gabriel LaVedier


Just another University-edicated fanfiction writer who prefers the cheers and laughter of ponies to madness and sorrow.

T

Si fulcrum mihi dedis, ferre mundum possum
(Literally, "If you give me a fulcrum, I can carry the world.")
-Archimedes of Syracuse

Time rolls on, the years and seasons cycling along as things go along. Ponies and the planet age along with that passage. And the Black Knight-Errant Bad Apple is not immune to this movement. Perhaps in all the world, he feels it most keenly of all. The grand timekeeper's watch ticks off "like horrible hammer-blows" (in the words of Wilde.) It is either the end, or the beginning of something great.

Chapters (4)
Comments ( 48 )

1746342

Thank you much. Any particular comments?

It's about bloody time, you glorious bastard :3

You forgot a capital Δ there.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

I looked at the summary on the front page and said to myself, "Good lord, what kind of pretentious git writes this kind of crap?"

The answer: Gabriel LaVedier. <.<

So this is on my to-read now, haha!

1747198 Not unless δως is a name. At least, my Greek textbook doesn't use capitals unless it's a name.

1747198

Blame the transcriber, not me. I just copied the Greek text that I found. Be glad it showed up. I tried to include it in a story once and got nothing.

And it looks like the grammar police got here before me. I only do English nitpicking, not Greek.

1747233

Hooray! I'm a pretentious git! (/Zoidberg)

Seriously, though, I thought it seemed appropriate given the import of his mission :twilightblush: Hope you like it.

Maybe use Latin?
But it IS Archimedes' quote.
But he DID know Latin, I mean, "Noli turbare circulos meos"

So um, translation. Right. I did this myself, so it should be good. Maybe even less trustworthy due to my skill, though :P

Si fulcrum mihi dedis, ferro terram possum.

Literally, "If you give me a fulcrum, I can carry the world."

Hm this looks like it's going to be quite the good read.

1748332

I certainly hope so. I've been developing the concept for a while.

1747912

Oh, my, thank you! If I don't manage to change it now I will do so next week when I have access to wifi on my laptop.

I shall indeed not disturb your circles.

1751416 actually, let me edit my thing. I said "I can iron the world" XD

Its ferō, with one R, and a macron O. Sorry. Knew something was off :twilightblush:

That would have been bad. Yes, very bad.

Is this Bad's last adventure? Will it end as we hope? Join us next time for more Tales of Bad Apple!

You are off to a running start on this one, man. My only real complaint is that once we reach the caravan, the characters can walk over each other a bit. It took me a reread of some sections to remember who was who.

Gilda's brother, yay! When you first introduced him, I was thinking he might be related, so I was very pleased when he gave his full name.

I nearly choked when I saw the word "yearling". While this is a universe inhabited predominantly by miniature horses, you don't need to slip equestrian terms into everything. They're humanized enough that you can use human ages. So seeing "yearling" was rather jarring.

Plus, is Bad Apple's psyche so fragile that he begins to doubt himself just because he screwed up? He always struck me as the "I have a backup to my backup" sort of guy. He kind of comes off as "O MY PLAN FAILED, WOE IS ME" for a minute there.

1777577

Do you have any idea how long he's been doing this? Well, ok, as Luna's Black-Knight-Errant maybe five or six years. On his own, nearing three decades. He is TIRED. At the very least he has been beaten nearly to death TWICE. He has been disowned by his family, he is effectively invisible (and thanks to some confusion over a symbolic marker the buffalo believe he's some kind of ghost) his lover cannot be known, for various reasons. He's been promised children, recognition, and endless love when he is finished. One failure generally doesn't happen to him. As he himself noted, he had been stacking the odds so much he hasn't had to fail for a long, long time. It can be a blow to the ego.

Also... this is what is known as the Dark Night of the Soul. He's feeling old. Remembering all his quests, the friends he made, all the things he has done. all of them. It is not a small list at all. That can be a lot to live up to, even if you're the one that did it. But more than all of that, he's coming face to face with one truth: He never did and never could do anything alone. The one time he genuinely tried, this time, it all went to hell. Because one pony cannot stack the odds that much.

1763987

It's a long journey. But yes, it will be his last. No matter the outcome, it is the last.

1789010

The only reason his lover cannot be known that has any legitimacy in my view is that he needs to maintain his own secrecy in his job essentially as an undercover agent. The other reason that Luna's protecting her own good name is pure bullcrap because she wasted any innocence she had during her Nightmare Moon fiasco. Whatever edicts Celestia might give on the matter, the fact is it will take a few generations for all of it to clear up, if it ever does. On top of that, she also has a reputation for being eccentric, and given Bad Apple's relation to Applejack, however disowned by Granny, there's already precedence for a princess marrying a relative of an Element's avatar. If it were Celestia being courted by Bad Apple, it would be a different story as she has that "deitylike, above all" sort of persona.

He's still coming off as weepy and a bit ridiculous. Perhaps its because I got rather sick and tired of protagonists hating themselves in video games (Cloud, Tidus, Cecil, Squall, and Terra from Final Fantasy) or who make too much of a big deal when they screw up, even when they're not really at fault (Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia). Bad Apple's mistake was, at best, a miscalculation, and one that can be rectified. A simple "That could have gone better, let's see how this can be fixed" would have sufficed.

1777577

Yearling can and has been used to describe humans as well, it's just not in the modern lexicon.

This... is really fucking good.

2084520

Thank you very much. I love it when my efforts are appreciated :twilightsmile:

And Argentum saves the day! Beautiful timing, that.

Mwaha, Fine Grind's running the show? oh, lovelycakes~

up and own. Down.

They are literally the KKK...

accompanied by six taking. Six.

Give home some love! Yea! give him/yeah. There were a couple more instances of yea when you meant yeah; yea is yes, yeah is woohoo.

changed, to Gray. changed to Gray.

out Majesty. our.

Did he managed. manage.

worried that would. worried that you would.

I swear you do large chapters and miss things just to drive me loony. Well it won't work! I was already there. :pinkiecrazy:

More excellence, though, personally, I would have forced the unconsciousness a little more than Bad did; brain leakage only results when you are too stubborn to pass out. :pinkiecrazy:

2086231

Well, you know, nepotism. From manning the front desk and being pleasant to being daddy's replacement. She seems pretty good at it, so, Cherrywood is secure.

2088268

And, done. Thank you again!

I know... the yea/yeah thing... sorry. I suspect that may be regional. Or about laziness. Or both. Not sure. Heh. :pinkiehappy:

Oh come now, he's too nice a guy. And he knows that restraint is better. He does not vent his hate on others. He's older, wiser and gets much, much more pleasure from justice than vengeance.

2122274

True dat. Besides, she was probably the only one to volunteer.

2122299

Hence why I said what 'I' would do. As long as vengeance and justice act for the same cause, a little extra damage is his due. (He being our antagonist.)

The thing with yea and yeah is that while yea can still be yeah, it can also be a yes, and that just gets weird.

2129010

Too true. Well, it adds a bit of drama. After all, Bad Apple isn't Michael Weston. His government agency actually likes him :rainbowlaugh:

Oh, now this IS intriguing... I like Robin... full of regrets, little huntress... I wonder how this will play out...

had smooth mane, Missing an 'a' there.

I hope there will come a day when I don't have to mention that Mister and Miss when used as titles should be capitalized.

Bad is pony Santa in disguise... Yeah, I'd believe that.

Does that draconequusian line mean red's a Discordian too?

Wait, so is the unicorn the Devil? Lots of talk about binding contracts and his coloring are pointing me there.

Blank's a changeling, I can't believe I didn't see that coming. As soon as I read 'green fire' I knew. We only had two changelings, might as well make it three.

men only regarded. males.

razor-like caws claws.

understand full fully.

to admired it. admire.

Until you named her, I was just calling Robin Booker in my head.

You are back to epic form here, I can't wait to read more.

2481751

> draconequusian line

That's a nod to laws and rules being 'draconian' in bent, that's all.

2481751

Because of what Discord represents to say "Draconequusian" is both "Draconian" and "Byzantine." He is both cruel and overly complicated.

I figured it was time for a starring male Changeling.

I don't read fantasy and sci-fi like I usedto. What is that name a reference to?

2485754
2485818

I had a feeling that's what you were going for, but it just an overly complicated word.

My reference was to Bioshock Infinite.

2481751

Also, regarding the devil: Isn't it bad enough he's a Randomoid? It's actually a favored tactic. As seen in "The Bad Apple Chronicles" from chapter three on, their favorite way of bypassing their own convoluted rules about treating others like rational means is to chain them up in paper and ink. There's also a little bit of blackmail involved here, as she was the one that did some hurtful things, and would be going down hard. She's bound in honor and fear.

2490675

Hello Mr. Contract, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Mr. Fire. Also, couldn't she just slit his throat in his sleep? Contracts of paper and ink being so binding always baffle me, especially in a situation like this where he'd be possibly vulnerable while making legal accusations. You know me and my pet peeves.

I did listen to the song however so literal comeuppance for the win.

Also, he's red and has a hard-on for contracts, what other connection do you expect me to make, huh?:rainbowhuh:

2499724

I use a sad historical precident. Because the intersection of fear, desperation and a weird cognitive dissonance folks under near-slavery conditions internalize their situation and, however they hate it either grudgingly accept it or go along with it to keep safe.

2501287
I have faith in Agent 7777 to set things right. :raritywink:

Your latin is wrong. Not that it's really important, since no one here actually knows latin, but the more you learn. It should be "ferre mundum/orbem possum". Terra meaning planet or world is medieval/really late latin.

Also, Archimedes wrote in Ancient Greek, so that's like quoting Ghandi in French.

3256914

I had the phrase in Greek originally, but if you look in the comments there was a suggestion that I put it in Latin (as a very intelligent fellow, Archimedes presumably spoke Latin as well) The Latin was provided by someone else; I got a C in Latin and that was years ago.

Ha, so close with the Celly card.

Jut keep silent. Just keep silent.

You become. You became.

was a booted. I believe you meant this as a proper noun.

with had. which had.

gotten father. gotten faster. How in the hell did you do that one?

Ha, I'm worthy, oh crap, wham.

probably intimidated. probably intimidate.

sculling?

Principality. Not proper, don't capitalize.

And the smack was laid down upon the prick.

3265439

Corrected. And glad you liked the end. The sculling was probably a word I can't recall anymore so I fixed it up into something that still works contextually.

2129010
Humph! Grammar Nazi! Be proud, though. I missed some of those.

I wish you would continue this. Did you stop because you couldn't bare to lose BA?

9049233
No, I got caught up in the Fall of Equestria opposition.

Login or register to comment