A diplomatic crisis arises between Equestria and the small, poor kingdom of Tarandroland, ancestral home of the reindeer. Celestia and Luna agree that it is time Luna takes a more active hand in foreign relations again, and Luna brings Twilight with her as someone she actually trusts and can talk to. But the mission turns out to be much more than political discussions - if scheming unicorn courtiers, unfriendly surly reindeer, bloodthirsty pirates, ancient sorcery and dangerous monsters weren't enough, our heroines must deal with something old - older than Luna. And is Luna really ready for diplomatic action, will Twilight learn to use a fan properly, and exactly how wrong are Spike's superhero comics about reindeer mythology?
Now has a TV tropes page
This looks very interesting, very well written. Love the worldbuilding.
Very clever. Sarvvik is an actual place in Finland(?) and Hrimfaxi is the "horse of night" in Norse mythology. I wonder if Luna knows Thor?
In Finnish mythology, Ukko is a god of sky, weather, crops(harvest) and other natural things. Also, in Norse mythology, Skinfaxi is the horse of the day(Dagr), as opposed to Hrimfaxi (Luna) being the horse of the night(Nott). Clever sieurin is quite clever.
So, Princess Sweet (Ljufa). Pousti means desert in Czech. Vaja means "need"(according to Google Translate), but I don't think that's right. Anyway, I'm loving this so far!
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A "vaja" is a female reindeer and is the world borrowed by my native Swedish from the Sami languages, when we don't just say "renko", "reindeer cow". You might know the Sami as the Lapps. A male reindeer is a "sarv", hence Sarvvik. "Vik" means "bay" in my native Swedish. A castrated male reindeer is a "härk", but this is teen rated so king Ukko's court won't have any eunuchs.
"Pousti" is me not being able to read my own worldbuilding notes.
It should be Poatsi (will correct this), and the reindeer call their country Poatsula. Poatsu is, again, based on Sami (which happens to be a bunch of very similar languages), where it means "reindeer".
The reindeer culture in the story have a mix of Sami, Finn and Norse elements. Hence I am mutilating several different languages.
Thanks for the nice words, btw.
poor reindear girl
Wonderful story! I like how you go in depth with the various cultures, and also touch on the influences that Equestria has simply by being the influential country that it is. Also, poor Spike at the foals' end of the table! Vigg is a great character . . . His perception of Equestria as a sort of Hollywood backdrop rather than a real country makes sense.
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Thanks for you kind words.
Definitely a more serious chapter here. Luna certainly seems to have the harsher edge compared to Celestia.
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It also means Luna is more likely to spread around hugs, spontaneous knighthoods and magical blessings out of nowhere for no bug reason, however.
She is definitely (in my head-fanon) more passionate, which means she is harsher when she gets angry. Celestia would have just fumed quietly in the above situation and avoided actually pointing out that her host was kind of a dicktard.
I just love the fact that Twilight is misunderstood as some powerful evil sorceress. I like how quickly this chapter came out, after the last one was antsy for some more of this story.
-Unrelated to the story but its interesting there are a number of stories that send Luna and Twilight/Mane 6 on a mission/journey/quest(such as this story), but despite the fact Celestia is Twilight's mentor, you almost never see them together in a similar capacity.
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Thanks!
Besides Luna's much much higher popularity, it is hard enough writing her as an active person-pony from her perspective; even if they don't think her a molesting tyrant (which I personally finds silly, but so there) Celestia obviously have powers and knowledge beyond normal ponies.
When this story started to flesh out in my head to be something but a series of injokes about my home, I realised that how it was going to play out in the end was sort of like a classical, cliched Western epic fantasy; two young people (Vigg and Saga, natch) go on a quest to save their homeland from blah. On the way they gain a superhuman mystical mentor and some nonhuman allies. Except in this case, the "main characters" are side characters, and we are told most of the story from the view of the mystical mentor Gandalf analogue (Luna) and the cool nonhuman Legolas analogue (Twilight). And it can be darn hard to not make Luna too omniscient or powerful. I think Celestia would be even harder.
Another chapter, sweet!
1. You use ellipses, I love it. I use them in my writing as well but generally it seems others use them quite little.
2. I wonder what personally loathsome task Twilight has for Saga, I can't remember anything in particular she was dreading earlier.
3. Saga's daydream was utterly hilarious.
4. Out of curiosity where are you from? Judging from your last comment I'm assuming your from one of Nordic countries.
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I thought the word was a geometric shape...
1. I had to look the word up.
2. It hasn't been foreshadowed enough. I thought of that when I wrote this chapter. My scheme for what is going to happen when is very sketchy, unfortunately.
3. Thanks.
4. I'm from Sweden, half Finnish, lives smack in the middle of actual Lappland. The heraldic symbol of my hometown is a reindeer. Yeah.
I agree the daydream was alot of fun, but what I'm really loving about this story is the worldbuilding. Everything from the King's rant about how much Sway Equestria has via Media and the like to the characters you've populated the world with.
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It is good to see I have learnt something.
Thanks for your kind words. Worldbuilding - though not neccessarily good such - is the thing I have written about most while someone actually smacking my head when I do wrong.
I love this story.
Its kind of hard to read on the fimfiction site though. All the spacing is wonky. I'd also suggest getting rid of the breaks in the 2/3 part of the ninth chapter. Since there isn't any time passing between the conversation, and your not splitting to another scene, you don't need them.
BWAHHHHH-HAHAHAHAAAAHAAAAA!
Perfect last line.
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Any tips on on how to make it better?
Re: Spacing: Yeah, I should probably look over that...
I... I don't even know why I put that break there... Hm?
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I aim to please.
It can be hard to see, mostly because I cannot write teenagers worth a damn, but Vigg is something like fifteen (fairly older than Spike, slightly younger than Saga). He has his moments of less-than-mature...
”Spike, your mom is really hot!”
And then Spike proceeded to punch his royal face.
I'm guessing a Saga-Vigg ship is incoming.
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Spike is at least a shipper on deck for one, that much I will admit at this stage.
Ohh I love this story. From the mythology and coffee crazy norwegians (No offense) to the way the whole thing is written. Keep up the good work!
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Thanks a lot, though the coffee craziness is more inspired by coffee crazed Swedes and Finns. ;)
This fic is great. Like... Awesome.
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Thank you!
I want to see the Alluring Dances for Egghead cover :)
I play too much Dungeons and Dragons, I was statting out the differences between unicorn magic and reindeer magic and caught myself thinking of D&D solutions to the eye rune.
Still, excellent stuff here, your writing sometimes reminds me of Terry Pratchett, and has a good combination of comedy and seriousness. I enjoy the differences in culture between the reindeer and pony civilizations, it seems very well thought-out.
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Since I like PTerry's writing a lot, that is high praise.
I must confess being an old roleplayer as well. My only lets call it professional writing, that is, where I had an editor and such, has been made for fantasy roleplaying games. I find myself spending a little too much on exposition, actually, so I'm glad people at least find it interesting.
I get both "Under The Northern Lights" and some delicious Scandinavian food in the same day, what a deal! My church had its annual "Norwegian" Supper(a bit of a misname since, due to the number of Swedes, there is food overlap), lots of Swedish meatballs, Lefsa, Kumle, Kringla, Spritz, Flatbrod, Ostkaka, and Lutefisk.
I love the blend of Norse mythology in this story, and this "War with Winter" reminds me very strongly of the Fimbulwinter, the legendary three winters without a summer that precedes the end of the world.
Wonderfully written, and a good blend of darker themes with more lighthearted moments.
Powerpoint uh? Where is Office, Excel, Access and Outlook?
Now seriously, really nice chapter.
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They have actual careers!
And thanks.
So Twilight reverse-engineered an enchantment cast on an entire royal palace, using foreign magic, then mimicked it with her own magic and maintained the spell for ten hours. While half-drunk. She has no idea how impressive that is, does she?
But that's why we love her so much.
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Kinda. She used the existing enchantment, the spell she maintained with gallons of coffee changed her perceptions so she could use the enchantment. On the other hand, she basically hacked the enchantment and took control over it, using sock physics, so, yeah, it is meant to be crazy hard, and Twilight has no idea that it is impressive, since she is a bunch of neuroses held together with cuteness.
My favorite moments in this story are when Twilight and Luna interact, the way you write them they play off each other so well.
Neuroses held together with cuteness, I love that description.
One minor grammar comment- "have you drunk alcohol?" reads awkwardly "have you been drinking alcohol" is more natural.
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Yay, a Cyclone12 comment!
That is nice to hear! Characterisation is the one thing I dread the most, so it is nice to hit some notes!
Will correct Twilight's drunkenness.
Eyup a moose would look like a troll to tinier cervines especialy with that bulbous honker of a muzle and the great big shoulders.
This is something I thought you should see. The lunar rainbow under the northern lights. Rainbow made from the lunar light http://io9.com/5859772/feast-your-eyes-on-a-rare-lunar-rainbow--against-the-northern-lights?tag=this-is-awesome
Sorry better version http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2011/11/moonbow_vetter_1200.jpg
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cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2011/11/moonbow_vetter_1200.jpg
Nice, thanks.
Love this addition . . . Oh Saga, your friends are going to be so, SO jelly!
Oh Vigg. XD
I love the reindeer's interpretation of magic. And also Spike clarifying that Twilight didn't have to sit on the gg.
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Bucks will be bucks!
In my head-fanon, the times he or Twilight talk about such personal things, people keep thinking she sat on it like a hen, so he has got into the habit of correcting them.
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Thanks for your words of praise!
I like slightly drunk Twilight.
Alluring Dances for Eggheads . . . Ahahahaa!
Poor Spike! I can't help but laugh at his worries over having a reindeer dad who is his own age.
<i>And she must never know what reindeer think of her, or we will never hear the end of it.</i>
Ahahahahaaaa, it's funny because it's true!
Great chapter, you are great at capturing the essence of the surroundings, like the snowstorm. I also loved how Saga and Spike broke the tension with their dramatic "ice sculpture" poses.
Love this chapter and the notion of Luna and Celestia being the youngsters in an extended, powerful celestial family!