- Experience Awe!
- Be staggered!
- And shocked!
- Step right up and read: "[Twenty-Four] Celestia-Perserverance stories [integrated into an overarching tale!] about her toughing out an obnoxious day on the throne while looking forward to a slice of cake." She's getting too old for this. (And Lyra gets un-backgrounded(!))
Era: Takes place during the first episode of Season 1. (See an index of my stories, sorted by My Little Pony Season).
- Why Create Such An Absurd Story?: Fan of Most Everything's contest requested: "I’d still like to see some creative choices rather than, say, forty Celestia-Perserverance stories about her toughing out an obnoxious day on the throne while looking forward to a slice of cake." So, I didn't write forty. I wrote twenty-four vignettes that build upon each other, leaving the rest of you with opportunities.
Content Note: The story suggests that snorting crystal is probably a bad idea.
- This is not exactly a take on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights, but the influence is undeniable.
- Contest language: "An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt CELESTIA (character) / PERSEVERANCE (virtue)."
- Image: By me (and using the smiling Lyra (or Amethyst Star) icon from the site's available icons for bookshelves).
I really shouldn’t be surprised that the mind behind the Biceps/Blaze production came up with this. A bit too heavy on the rot, figurative and cognitive, but still a fascinating collection of fever dreams. Thank you for them and best of luck in the judging.
The good news is that once Nightmare Moon is stopped (and we know she will be), Celestia's sleep (and perhaps other side effects) will improve (at least a little!) and her persistence will be rewarded! She has it rough now, but as her sister would note: "'tis merely temporary!" Thank you for reading!
I am not quite sure whether that is a Treehouse of Horror reference or a The Shining reference.
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Both! As the chapter title states: "Many Tales, one Truth". The Treehouse of Horror episode was referencing The Shining, after all. .
well, that is quite a paragraph to start us off
nice reference
ooh, a frame story!
do wonder what reference this is
i mean if the phrase "not give up" is such a ref, well!
doubly Biblical, nice
and yes, this fits the trajectory i imagine for Equestria's history! though i fear that's just the Fremen Mirage's hold on me
a fascinating aside!
guessing this is a Breaking Bad reference overall, due to the "crystal blue persuasion"
leaning a bit too heavily into this duality!
a fascinating way to tell that Cadance would not be the alicorn to fulfill the role Celestia had hoped
nice recapturing of the human world's use of "millennial" here
nice reference to Amareican expectations about working hours, especially in some industries
but it's such a nice thing to see when used on Chrysalis!
fun reference to the fact that there is no such thing as "0 CE" in our calendar system, and just how long it took for "0" to be invented, and how the numerals are thought of as Arabic because that was an intermediate language of transmission from India
i would too! how very un-regal!
huh, learned something new
Qoheleth and Isaiah, nice
so dark, love it
well i kind of want to write that fic now
can't place the song these lyrics are based on, if there is a base used
Modest Mouse?
i mean that weirdo could put anypony to sleep
Chrysalis???
Jean Valjean
this meme was old when i was young! but good double meaning of "jenny" as a female donkey
how kind of you, and oddly this fits my Celestia-as-indwelt-Daybreaker better somehow than any other Celestia i've read
ooh, fascinating interpretation this!
i've never read Infinite Jest but i'm guessing the recursive footnotes are its "thing"
well, the idea of lumber retaining sapience renders a lot of Equestrian society as a quiet tale of banal horror. plugging this again
loving this relationship between Celestia and Cheese Sandwich here! the role of a jester, almost
that does sound really good
Lyra?!?
hey, it's the television show!
bureaucracy works! such wisdom by Celestia
and what a beautiful rhyme it is
metacommentary on writing poems about events? and wow, Celestia really takes her food seriously!
nice early internet culture reference
hey, love that guy!
nice
that is an unfortunate name ponification
this one works nicely tho
nice, an actual haïku instead of the idea based on mere syllable structure
nice, that's how the Olympics are in real life too!
i do like this interpretation of Celestia's aloofness and inattention; that her energies are being spent on more important and secret things. might steal this long-running psychic war idea!
ah, love the whole Sword of Damocles thing! heavy lies the peytral
yes, yes, Lex Luthor cakes, yes
really great stuff here that i need to go back and do a more in-depth comment about after the Comment Period's expiry. for now i will just say how much i love this idea of Lyra, who always struck me as an unserious type getting by on the margins of life despite her unrealized potential and intelligence. and the setting-up of the LyraBon pair in this is great. a delightful meditation on power, its limitations, and cake, thank you for it!
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Thank you for reading and commenting with such care and in such depth!
In case you're serious (and since it may help others), The Shining! Link. The Simpsons also parodied this in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
" 'No sleep and no cake makes Celestia a dull Princess', she thought, recalling that bitter time:" and "student of hers started shining and talking to ghostponies."
Also! It's wordplay on this: Celestia imagines a desert of desserts!
Yes! Also: The Crystal Method is referenced ("methodically"), and this song, which to be fair was more about acid and biblical references but I justify including it due to biblical themes mixed with the larger drug references of Breaking Bad's crystal meth, etc.
Thank you. I was trying to brainstorm some possible reasons for why the hippogriffs weren't mentioned in the series for so long.
Go ahead. Although, it sounds more like something IAmSinner would write. That's the power of love.
A fair question. Many bubble pop songs have similar lyrics. All the italicized words in this segment are the titles of bubble pop songs.
Indeed. Neal Stephenson does this too, and Terry Pratchett spoofs it sometimes, but Infinite Jest is probably the most mainstream work notorious for going insane with discursive footnotes.
In the very traditional sense-yes!
"Along with the tasks of general mockery, jesters were given the task of delivering bad news to their King in a way that would make light of a situation; thus lessening the blow of bad news. " (LINK).
Thank you!
If food is not taken seriously... (LINK).
Weeellll... smoking something may have helped with some of Fried Mare's more far-out ideas.
A neat ponified reference on your part!
cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/870708882752819231.webp?size=96&quality=lossless
this explains Luna's troubles in "A Royal Problem"!
hehehe, fun metacommentary on background ponies
oh no, Celestia! you can't question why the main characters are the only characters that matter!
phrasing!
honestly just leaning into Celestia measuring her aging by her adeptness at "swallowing stacks of cakes" is both wonderfully absurd and poignant at the same time
love this aside, as i do for literally anything that reminds me of LyraBon, but also love linking the Wikipedia article for "humans", which don't exist
um that sounds super awesome? where do i sign up?
i think i'm going to have to accept Celestia's unfortunate cake addiction as canon, as nothing else really explains the whole Blueblood thing better
well now this is making me want to know more about what pony politics were like in this "last century"! and Lyra certainly has an interesting worldview...
ooh, that is fun! Celestia's problem being from the opposite end of the social hierarchy, of course, being a parasite due to her own accumulated power and prestige. though maybe not too different, considering it is her own wealthy parents' wealth that Lyra is refusing
augh, how do you make Celestia's cake addiction so poignant? i truly feel for her dilemma here
adds a second layer of meaning to it being the "daycake", augh. so good, much as i imagine the daycake to taste were it not stale
hey, ponies seemed pretty alive in the Nightmare Moon takeover timeline! earthpony magic is literally magic, after all!
i need to start making a list of all the phrases to steal from you wholesale. "cantering on one's own four hooves" as a replacement for "standing on one's two feet" would be one of them
auauagh so this is why Lyra and Bon Bon start living together? wait, that's not canon, right? Lyra and Bon Bon's relationship starting because they live together as acquaintances first is something i always forget is something i decided and not anything in the canon. but if that's what this is then i love it
customs are like that, aren't they? and if Nightmare Moon is about to return, well, in Celestia's mind it might be a relevant distinction again soon enough!
i love this so much! and Bon Bon being explicitly assigned to watch over an inconveniently talented and resourceful Lyra is a dimension that i had not considered before and love pretty much immediately.
ah, classic reference! and one that fits so perfectly into the overwrought way the narration describes cakes that without the reference, would just seem like any other part of the story
love the inclusion of the video reference
and augh, that poetic poignance again. such a wonderful phrase and mental image, to contemplate being preserved in "salt and sulfites". really wrapping up the themes of this story in one paragraph. beautiful stuff.
and of course it won't be complete without metafictional references to other MLP fanworks!
haha, i see my Woman x Mare contest is not the only time you've produced a story based on an aside in a contest description! and if they keep producing stories with this combination of quality and cleverness that take me to places i never would have imagined, i really hope you continue. this was an absolute gem of a story, and a fascinating experience. thank you for it!
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Thank you as always for the insightful comments!
Indeed. It is not as though Celestia missed anypony who actually was powerful.(*cough* Starlight Glimmer)
So... I didn't read the story that inspired the line so I cannot comment as to quality (but its amazing title stuck in my memory.) So... here is where it came from.
1. Agreed.
2. Special Preview: There may or may not be a Blueblood story on the horizon!
3. Indeed. Celestia likes all types of cakes... even... panCAKES!
- I have considered a blog post or series about the politics of ponies in my take on the world...but I have held that in abeyance since there seems to be a risk that some people might conclude pony politics=mine, when the truth is pony politics=what is entertaining. Also, some people have strong opinions about what they think their ponies' politics are. But, who knows what the future holds? If I do post such a feature, it will of course focus on historical and philosophical bases of ideological alignment: Nietzsche, Marx, Hegel, Rand, Hayek, etc. rather than on whoever is Prime Minister or President these days.
- Resourceful Lyra has been so fun to write.
A very good point!
Still, Celestia's fears are reasonable, if not necessarily accurate.
You are welcome!
Re: producing content based on the asides in contest descriptions - I have enjoyed the challenges and have been lucky enough to be inspired!