The Night Court governs Equestria, and the ponies on the Court hold power unimaginable. Still, even the highest nobles have limits to their power. Shortly before the Grand Galloping Gala, in a quiet hallway in the castle two of the most powerful ponies in the nation meet to discuss political affairs, family matters... and one particular Element, whom both despise with deep, burning passions.
Lunaverse story.
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hmmmm....I don't know how I feel about Night Light at the end. He had no problem letting Ponyville suffer for a few days, but the moment something comes along that would punish Trixie specifically, he goes soft, wondering if it's right? Seems hypocritical much, don't you think?
Considering what we know of Night Light, he would have agreed to Fisher's proposal IMMEDIATELY
1851504: My impression from the Gala fic was that he was kind of tormented about that too, but eventually did it out of hatred. Plus, he was probably able to rationalize it slightly along the lines of, "Well, maybe they really are faking. It's kind of a strange story."
Whereas here, he doesn't have that excuse.
But if people feel that Night Light is being too soft at the end, I can edit it. No problem with that. :-)
Nice... but you still can't get me any sympathy for Night Light. I love the insight into Fisher, how he sees everyone as tools.
1851519
Let's just say if I was Night Light, I would have suggested someway for Trixie to get stationed in whatever the most hellish place to be stationed in is.
And get her to go on suicide mission after suicide mission, under the pretense that she might not make it back with all of her limbs intact, if she comes back at all.
1851535: What, not even with cute foal Twilight popping into his office to deliver him a big hug? :-)
1851536: To be fair, Fisher is talking about conscription for training, not actual deployment. Risking the lives of the Elements is probably not a good idea, as far as national security is concerned.
However, even without sending Trixie into suicide missions, I'm sure Captain Armor or whoever could find all kinds of ways to make Trixie's stay in the military absolutely miserable. Poor rations, sleeping outside, insane combat drills/obstacle courses...
1851549 Hmm... no. Not. One. Ounce. Admittedly, RDD basically poisoned him for me in 'At the Gala'. And that's no joke. In no way shape or form do I have any sympathy for him, like him, tolerate him or wish him happiness or continued physical health.[/dead_serious]
1851549
Exactly. Night Light, as far as I can see, would be ALL for all manner of horrible military stuff to happen to Trixie.
1851570: Yep. Bad food, bad bedding, forty-eight hour survival courses... as long as it doesn't actually threaten to kill or maim Trixie (which could endanger the nation), there's a lot that a mean drill sergeant could do to her.
All to train her/for the good of the nation, of course. :-)
(As for killing... I didn't get a 'I want her dead' vibe so much as an 'I want her to suffer and lament hurting Twilight' vibe. He's furious at her, but I don't think he literally wants her to die).
1851579
Yeah, I suppose death is a tiny bit extreme.
Y'know, I almost thought you were going to turn Fisher into an anti-heroic Politician. Then the second half came around, and you pretty well squashed that flat, burned it, then danced around and spread the ashes all over the place.
As for Night Light...You haven't made me hate him more, so that's an achievement. Might have made him sound a bit hypocritical, considering he only now considers the rightness of his crusade against Trixie when the scheme against her here is "Get her and the Elements trained to actually be competent, and have Trixie be dealt with harshly", as apposed to his punishment for her.
And the story itself is pretty good.
Five stars out of five, with only one waffle. (and it's excusable) Twilight is portrayed here by her father (who is not an unbiased source, I'm certain) as a dedicated study-addict who breaks off from study to go pay attention to family matters when needed. The Normal!Twilight might do that, but L!Twilight seemed to me to be a bit more...single-minded about her studies to the exclusion of all else including family, and frequently food, bathing, sleep, and other non-essential tasks.
1851845: I seem to recall, from the Boast Busted epilogue, that Twilight wasn't always quite so crazy, but seemed to get more and more obsessed after she embarked on her cross-country journey. At least, that was my interpretation. I could be wrong, though.
1851855 Plus there's a tendency with parents to brush off increasingly erratic behavior if it increases slow enough to become the new "normal" up to the point where Really Bad Stuff Happens. (too many real life examples to list)
1851900: That too. There's maybe a reason a lot of the examples are of foal Twilight.
Night Light's love for his daughter is really sweet, here. I do feel sympathy for him...
... however, he's still showing that Starlight determination not to accept that anything is his own fault, or his family's fault. I wonder if he knew just how much illegal magic Twilight was researching.
Fisher's position is also a fair bit clearer to me now. Trixie really is a bit of a layabout, compared to M!Twilight. I can't really imagine that Trixie's work as Representative is preparing her much for her next fight against Corona. Forcing military training onto her really wouldn't be a bad idea, not to mention being hilarious. Of course, abusing that power even a little bit would be very, very wrong.
"And tonight on Equestria's Next Top General, we have a pegasus filly who just wants to follow her mother's hoofsteps into the Night Guard! Does she have what it takes to lead Luna's forces into battle against Corona? Welcome Scootaloo, to the stage of history!"
This is just begging for a story about it. Maybe not revolving around Scootaloo, but somepony. Lightning Dust might be the perfect candidate, actually. The really, really obvious plot would be for Fisher to want to recruit Dinky Doo for her leadership potential, but there's no way Ditzy would allow it, and I'm pretty sure Equestria will never reach a state wherein it's possible to conscript foals for military training against their parents' wishes.
I do wonder if Night Light would be willing to simply ignore Twilight's tendency to pilfer texts. Given his guilt about being an absentee father (which by no means excuses him for being so gullible as to fall hook, line and sinker for Fisher's bait), he'd just pay for the damages and let Twilight be what Luna sees her as: the cossetted daughter of a useless obstruction left to run hog-wild. Luna might think that Fisher has a bit of a good idea (and she'd be glad she thought of it) but as for letting Shining Javert play dumb drill sergeant from Tartarus, that's a non-starter.
What'll happen is that Shining Armor will be too busy being viceroy and visiting his sister at the psych ward to punish anypony.
1851845
I agree there. For the simple fact that if Twilight did pop into her father's meetings and official functions as portrayed here, then it's less likely that Trixie never met her.
1851519 Please do not, I thought you did a good job characterizing him here. Considering that we were told in his chapter in At The Gala that he felt his actions there "tarnished his family's good name", having him jump directly into another plot with Fisher here with no regrets or hesitation wouldn't really be in line with what we have seen of him so far, and in my opinion would be a terrible thing to do to his character and to Twilight's family.
(The pro-Twilight side of me finds the idea of the L6 getting a little basic training from Shining Armor to be hilarious.)
My only concern about this is the idea of playing up another Night Court story literally in the middle of the shenanigans Trixie is up to in At The Gala, seems like a good way to run aground against whatever RDD has planned for the Night Court by the end of the Gala.
1851560
You're...kinda' harsh on ponies. First Luna, now Night Light...
1852822 Night Light was ready, willing and almost able to let a town suffer for his daughter's eff-ups. Luna destroyed the careers of a number of musicians with that thrice-damned symphony she simply should have banned the playing of or explained what was up with it, not to mention Cadance and all that. If I am 'kinda harsh' on them, it is due to their actions.
1852797: There's no need for any of this to come to fruitiion by the end of the Gala; any attempt to conscript Trixie (if it happens at all; Night Light could decide he doesn't want to do it) could also come later.
(That said, it also could happen at the Gala. I tried to leave things as open as possible, so if this story does wind up as a tie-in or something, it doesn't need to conflict with other things, but could be used in a variety of ways).
Glad you like Night Light's characterization. That was what I was going for. He's not a bad guy at heart, but he's grieving for his daughter, and his desire for revenge is warring with his conscience.
(Also, dunno if anyone noticed, but we now have a name for Greengrass's dad -- Greenmeadow.)
1852822: If I can be so bold, I'm curious as to how you think I did with Night Light's character, since you created him and all.
(And I'm more sympathetic, I think, to both Night Light and Luna. They've made mistakes, sometimes big ones but they're not irredeemably evil or anything).
1853014
Have to direct you to this. I'm...not in the mood for giving opinions on much today. Maybe tomorrow.
Oh, wait, I have to work all day tomorrow...man, December sucks for me...
1853044: I'm sorry to hear about your mom's hospitalization and the surprise guests with no notice. I hope things work out for the best for you and yours.
I hope your holidays go very well. :-)
1853044 Sorry to read about that. Glad your mother's all right, too.
1853044
Oh, my. I hope things get better for you.
1853014
A thought occurs to me. I noticed that some members of the Night Court don't realize that what looks like Mlle L from nowhere important jumping ship was her stalling for time; I also notice that most of the idiots Luna plans to rid herself of lament the fact that someone powerful like Twilight Sparkle isn't the leader of the bearers. It seems to me that some of what motivates Twilight is a need to impress her daddy by becoming what the mountebank cannot be.
Raindrops is best bounty hunter.
Fisher isn't completely wrong to think some training would do the L6 some good. I think there is some nice story to be had with Luna forcing Trixie and her friend on a week or two of boot camp with Shining Armor. Not a full conscription but, you know, some basic training. Obviously by that point, Fisher's ploy of Shining Armor being harsher on Trixie than necessary out of spite wouldn't work because Shining will have his Twily back, possibly thanks to Trixie.
Fisher: "Wait! You don't hate her? Since when?!"
I also think it would be hilarious if the only one really struggling is Trixie. All along Fisher is twilight his mustache like a B picture villain and he's got stuff like Raindrops smashing stones, Lyra unleashing her impressive magical potential, Cheerilee besting her instructor at infiltration missions, and Carrot Top and Ditzy just NOT STOPPING. EVER. He's on the verge of breakdown when FINALLY Trixie collapses and he starts laughing, much to the confusion of his staff. "Are you allright sir?"
Fisher, like many other, just doesn't get how the Elements of Harmony work. He seems to think it's triggered by a spell.
Having the L6 have fun together IS training for making the elements work better. Heck, if anything the Elements shouldn't be expected to work like a soldiers battalion, and more like a special mission force. Fighting against the ruthless terrorism of Corona... EQ JOE! YOOOOO JOE!
1855520 I love every part of this idea.
1855520: I like the idea of Trixie and co. getting some military training too. Boot camp hijinks!
Plus, it'd be an interesting way to get an actual political victory for her, which she hasn't really had yet. She realizes that Fisher has something of a point in that training would be helpful, but rather than just give in to the 'let's have Trixie be tormented at boot camp to account for her moral flaws' ideas, she proposes her own, saner idea (getting trained in Ponvyille, going to boot camp occasionally for sessions, getting trained by someone who doesn't hate her) and gets the Court to accept it by using her own skill as a showmare and political savvy.
...
Reading this was a mistake.
While I appreciate what the story's trying to do, I cannot honestly call this story a success. If the goal was to flesh out Fischer and Night Light some more, then that's all well and good. But if the goal was to actually get us to like Fischer or feel sympathy for Night Light, then I'm sorry but it didn't work. Fischer still fell rather flat for me, although I'm willing to let that go on accounts that I just don't like his character archetype that much. But trying to built up some sort of sympathy for Night Light by painting his relationship with Twilight? I'm sorry, but...that doesn't work. At all. In fact, seeing his reasoning actually makes me hate him even more. If this was set after the Gala, and we got to see his reasoning going into things and how it contrasted with his present situation, then yes, it might have worked a bit more. But since all we have is him denying a town aid so he can bait Trixie into coming to Canterlot so he can destroy her dreams as part of a petty revenge ploy, there is nothing sympathetic about him in the slightest.
But then again, this story isn't for me. This is for people who like the Night Court, who want to see more of these ponies and their political bickering, who enjoy L!Twilight and her screwed-up family. Much like "At the Grand Galloping Gala," I just have to accept that this story is for a totally different audience than the one I belong to and just walk away.
As has been said, Fisher actually has a point. The Bearers actually could do with some training.
Seeing the way that Night Light thinks about Twilight is sweet. That said, as the othes have put, h doesn't seem this soft in At the Grand Galloping Gala.
I do find myself experiencing sympaty for them, but that's rather easy for me, so I may not be the best example.
1857695: In GGG, he's talking to someone he hates. Here, we get his own thoughts, plus what he says to a pony he somewhat respects. So he's a bit more tender than when he's just venting at Lulamoon.
1857695
Well, yes they could stand some training. But from whom? Shining Armor has an ax to grind. So he could very well risk them without any benefit, and Fisher pointed out ways to make Trixie suffer. How long did Twilight break the law, and how long did Night Light know about it? Night Light already proved, he isn't above letting others suffer for her mistakes, and his grudge, can we assume Shining Armor is any better? Especially when he already thought about ways to make things difficult for her, when she comes to the castle.
These aren't the kind of
peopleponies you want in charge of anything more important than planning lunch.And, no offense, but Fisher is a putz, and far too typical for those in power.
His family make policy and money, but other ponies get to make war? I didn't read the GGG yet. But unless it comes up that he served in uniform, he's no better than any other profiteer. His company sells to the army, so if they aren't doing so at cost, he makes money. Wheres the oversight? And why isn't Luna doing more to crush these yahoos?
His kid is trying to make money, but wants the Elements conscripted?
They're both typical politicians. They won't think twice about making someone suffer they don't like. Any anyone around them, just to make the point, that they're above everyone.
1860142: While it hasn't been canonized yet it wouldn't surprise me if FIsher spent some time in uniform; just like he worked all kinds of crappy industrial jobs so he could learn what the factories needed to improve, I would imagine he would want to spend some time as a soldier so he could learn what soldiers needed. It's been mentioned elsewhere, as I recall, that he keeps himself in unusually good shape, that could be a relic from soldier days.
I think he's also being sincere when he says he sells to the military as cheaply as he can so that they can beat back Corona. I like the idea of a zealot who genuinely doesn't care about personal profit; he makes a nice contrast to the Duke and Blueblood, both of whom care about their own selfish wants and ambitions. Especially since that means, while he won't succumb to greed or other, more prosaic forms of corruption, he can cause a lot of problems that the others wouldn't.
1861459
To be honest, this is the first I saw of him.
Mayhap he did serve. Since its your story, you'll have to tell me.
The trouble is, I'm getting really tired of politicians screwing around....and it some times comes out in posts.
I am sorry dude. The Lunaverse, and its authors are awesome. And the best writing out there.
I do enjoy your stories and the other ones here.
Carry on.