This story is a sequel to What Nightmares Fear
Twilight and her Advanced Projects team are asked to put on the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant. So they decide to modernize it a bit. And discover there's a lot more to the simple play than they expected...
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For more of this series, start with: A Canterlot Engagement.
Also, check out the entire series, beginning with Not Exactly Friends.
oh fuck the hell yes, there is more!
let me quickly upvote and favourite
before i get to reading this story.
I know who you're playing. Princess Platinum.
The unicorns wanted an all unicorn cast for this play. Recruiting you was Celestia's best idea for revenge.
Somewhere EQG Pinkie Pie is crying tears of joy and pride.
Sounds like there's a story there.
Sounds like a great fit!
Called it!
You'd better not be about to disrespect Starswirl. My stallion gets nothing but hate for implementing the same polices Twilight supported by the end of her reign, and at least he was consistent on the matter.
Always the stagehand, never the lead. Not that she would ever want it any other way of course.
You are pretty shy. Although personally, I would swap roles with Moon Dancer. It would seem to fit better.
No I think that works.
I mean you clearly don't though so...
Why? Seriously why?
Does Starlight look like a Smart Cookie to you?
That's pretty funny.
But why bother? You know your group better than Celestia.
Sounds pretty smart to me.
Why would that be a issue?
"Hey I'll have you know that washing things by horn is a perfectly legitimate line of employment!" Soapy Bubbles: Unicorn Maid.
Indeed.
Oh yeah! We're getting the band back together!
That'll happen whenever Celestia's massive snozzle is in play.
que? x.x
i assume that's supposed to read rectify?
but i don't get how that works in that context then?
probably because i am german and not a native
english speaker . .
11497758
To "reify" means to make something more concrete or real -- in this specific case, to take just "acting" a part and turn it into fully "living" the part, so the audience reads it as more direct and believable.
(Insert Moondancer emoticon here.)
11497751
Thanks much for the in-depth comments!
A side-goal in this story (and perhaps Celestia's intent in her "advice") was to take the typical associations of the characters from previous stories (that is, Twilight/Tempest, Sunset/Moondancer, Trixie/Starlight) and deliberately shake them up a bit, forcing the characters to team up with ponies they don't usually hang out with, and thereby learn how to deal with that.
Well, I did write a previous Starlight story (Starlight Breaks Magic) where she basically invents the Pony equivalent of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, so... yeah!
"Horn-washing" is a ponification of "White-washing", the practice (now rightly frowned on) of deliberately casting white actors as non-white characters in stage and screen roles. Starlight's just being the voice of cultural sensitivity here. (Twilight feels the same way, though for Twilight it's such a natural state of mind she doesn't feel it even needs saying. The world needs a few more Starlights calling attention to these things...)
a rhyme? or rather a rim i guess?
11497891
That one literally has a Germanic origin, so I'll let you look it up...
Honestly, Tempest and Starlight, you need to be more careful about casting spells on or near mysterious magical artifacts!
Oho, setting up for the Sombra arc, are we? I must say, I absolutely LOVE the idea of Luna holding her court in her own dream palace! Let Celestia keep her court in Canterlot, with all its stuffy nobles; THIS princess is in another, BETTER castle!
Something does indeed feel off. I blame Celestia. I know it's likely not intentional but she might be psyching them out a little bit, it's just a play. It's important to the ponies, of course, but in the end it is just a performance
That was a good story.
11497758
...My guess is "refine"... Though, with the letters present, that doesn't make much sense. At least on the QWERTY keyboard layout, like I've got...
11497891
From what I understand, when water is cooled beyond its freezing point without freezing, also known as "supercooled water", then disturbed, it suddenly freezes, and if the supercooled water was in the form of droplets (as in a mist or fog), that's what's known as "rime". Apparently, the frost that appears on windows (for instance, the stuff you have to scrape off your car's windshield before it's safe to drive) is a form of rime.
Things are getting very interesting...
11497814
Sorry. I should have replied way earlier. Apologies.
Yeah, that's very much a Celestia move, now that I think about it.
Well yeah, but isn't that a Clover the Clever thing? Smart Cookie is an earth pony, so I don't imagine her discovering universal truths of unicorn magic. I know Starlight's smart, but she's much more spell oriented than say Moondancer.
I figured. I was making a joke.
Great job with the ending though. The twist is just another one of those fantastic mysteries which is part of the reason why I keep coming back to the series.
That and the character and world building obviously. The ending stinger is pretty enticing too. Looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you all, for knocking some sense into Twilight (and Trixie)!
11497758
Rectify, possibly?
That was awesome! Loved it all, but what's this? A surprise twist?!
What thing?!! Lunaaa, waitttt!!
Love the apology scene.
But I don’t understand what made twilight go for the revised script.
Tempest's mage armor definitely played a role in how she acted. The disappearance of Palladium was caused by Sacanas after all.
At this point there is little for Trixie to keep from her friends given how little she's been told.
PHEEW! I've just finished all the AP series and I have to say this whole thing is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! Thank you so much for such a great time I got while reading it! Now I want printed version on my bookshelf so badly! It deserves to be a real book!