Substitute Librarian - Closet (and piano) Arc · 12:57am Mar 20th, 2022
It says something that I now have 100k total words written on a story that I started as just an exercise. With that in mind, I would like to announce that Emerald will come out of the closet next week. No, not that kind of closet. A real (or pony-fictional) closet. For context, you want to read Estee’s 100% Move, 50% Fire. Heck, even without context, you should read it.
Those of you who follow me know I’m an Estee fan, although I try to stay out of stalker territory. Estee is a master of existential angst, and I’ve been learning to rip hearts out and salt the wounds, but there’s always room for improvement. (and wow, have I got room there)
If you don’t follow Estee, you may not know just why the author got a reputation as a piano-killer. ‘Move’ is why, and well-deserved. If you haven’t read any of Estee’s stories, I’d start there, and read Five Hundred Little Murders next and maybe a few more before you dive into the epic Triptych. (and visit her Patreon)
Anyway, the Substitute Librarian storyline is written as a “What If the pony Green Grass from The Traveling Tutor were in Estee’s world?” Quite obviously, the two would never meet face-to-face, although Twilight might get back to her library after a Bearer mission occasionally to just see the faint streak of unmarried green vanish out the other door. Think of it as Forest Gump for the locations he winds up in, and Star Trek II for the way the two main characters are never in the same room.
Anyway, the latest arc in Substitute will start on Monday and run three days before impact… um, I mean the end of the arc for now. Stay out of closets and don’t stand under any tall buildings while waiting…
Substitute Archivist
Never Volunteer“Should. Have taken. The elevator.”
No matter how much he was overheating, Emerald could not stop on the Archive tower’s ramp because he was fairly certain he would just be stuck there until somepony dragged him off. At least he did not have to worry about slipping down to the bottom of the tower and rolling the rest of the way back to Celestia’s school because of the friction spell on the ramp. It was both a blessing and a curse, which was why he was carrying the heavy boxes instead of pushing the enormous pile of cardboard and supplies ahead of him.
Why is it always stairs?
Spring was turning out to be warmer than he expected, which would have been a good thing except his winter coat did not believe it and had not even begun to shed yet. Therefore, Emerald had decided to do this task just as early in the morning as possible while leaving his
toy-stuffed vestyouth education and magic evaluation tool collection behind in his fraternity room. Of course he was still wearing his threadbare hat, because some things were more important than practicality, but the warmth of early Sun was starting to send trickles of sweat down through his thick green coat, from his forehead to his flanks to mark the cardboard boxes he carried with faint damp patches.“Never. Volunteer.”
This time of morning was when Emerald normally went jogging for his health, enjoying the warmth of a Sun that had just barely started to peek over the horizon to start the Day also. Health was more important to him than ever, particularly since he had that short stint of volunteering at the Ponyville library. For a few Moons, there had been a fair certainty that he would need to make his escape from the town as fast as he could run, and getting that pace up from ‘panting with a slow trot’ to ‘a brisk gallop for at least a short distance’ was an ongoing goal.
I for one, look forward to it.
So, why's the story set to Hiatus if you're updating it?
5645172 because I have fat fingers and I didn't want to try changing the status this morning on my phone. Set to incomplete now.
Not sure when I'll get to it through my backlog, but I'll look forward to it. :)
5645233 My backlog is... um... I'll be dead by then.
5645327
...Yeeeeah, I know how that is. So much to read, and people just keep adding more things I want to read to it.
Oh well. Better than having too little good writing to read, I suppose. :)