Today’s story lays bare two characters united by redemption — with a side of tea.

Discourse on Fillies
[Drama] [Slice of Life] • 15,532 words

Diamond Tiara always knew that someday she’d be invited to dine with the Princess at the Royal Palace. She didn’t think it would happen like this.

But she’s going to sit there and be polite and smile and not be bothered by all the ways this is all wrong. Because that’s what good fillies do, and Diamond Tiara is a good filly now.

Right?

FROM THE CURATORS: This is one of those stories that was turning heads well before it reached our reading queue.  “Having seen no fewer than ten journals in a row signal boosting and praising this story, I knew it was only a matter of time before it ended up here,” Present Perfect noted, as AugieDog pointed out its heavily upvoted suggestion in our story recommendation thread.  And while not all of us appreciated the story equally, we found a story whose ideas were big enough to justify the acclaim.  “The author needs some special sort of commendation for giving us the idea of The Princess by Macavallo, then for making it be the book Diamond Tiara has based her entire life upon, then for making Machiavelli work in an Equestrian context,” AugieDog said.

However, what really turned our heads was the exemplary work on the story’s two main characters.  “This really excels at framing a child’s concerns about the world, but the big thing right is the interplay between Diamond Tiara and Luna, of the tribulations shared by the rich and actual royalty, and of how the scope of their differences varies exponentially,” Present Perfect said.  AugieDog agreed: “The way the author handles these two characters is what’s making me nominate it.”  Even the story’s critics found that powerful.  “I bounced off this story,” Soge said, “but the parallels between Tiara and Luna are interesting, and her view of the world, particularly her comparisons between the rich and the nobles in the context of MLP’s world, are nothing short of fascinating.”

Also held up for acclaim were the story’s heartfelt moments.  “This was angling for my upvote as early as the ‘Feelings are like muscles’ speech, and the little profundities just kept on coming,” Horizon said.  “The dig about uselessness and Luna’s response to it and the very adult handling of DT’s outburst (on both sides) was just amazing.  ‘Trying always counts’ was so on-point I think I accidentally stabbed myself with it.”  That was a consequence of the beautiful framing of the premise, Present Perfect argued: “Two characters in a state of reformation — ‘state’, because reform isn’t something you achieve and then go do something else after — trying to help one another? Brilliant, and a fantastic use of everything we learned in Crusaders of the Lost Mark.”  It all added up, as Horizon said, to a winner: “In between picking the right characters for the discussion, using them faithfully, and teaching me something about Earth history, this succeeds on multiple levels.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Daedalus Aegle discusses radiant inventors, muddy Machiavellis, and the missing directions of Norway.

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