Such construct does not scale well.
Illuminating Invitation (MLP: FiM AU)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Have this to tide ye over while I'm busy. Someday I'll compile all these bloopers into a bigger threadmarked post.
Chapter 15 Bloopers: Not Safe At Work
At that, it seemed like the guard who had whispered earlier was now intent on being included in the ongoing conversation rather than silently eavesdropping as normal.
"I'm sure that's not how you felt about the mare you brought home during the Celebration, Miss Silvertongue!" called the far guard, her words slightly muffled by virtue of needing to take the long way around Celestia's privacy bubble.
Silver Needle twitched, and she colored with understandable rage at having her lecture interrupted by inane commentary. What did some random mare have to do with this? Silver soon glared over my shoulder, apparently not caring that the far side of the room was blurred so much as to be unrecognizable.
"Celestia help me, I will slice your mattress to shreds, Garden!"
"What, and make me sleep on the floor?" came the answering call from 'Garden.' "I was under the impression that would be a bit extreme even for you."
Silver produced a screech of rage akin to the whistling of winds through a small space. Behind her, the guard she'd summoned as her replacement only halfway managed to cover his snickering. I couldn't help but feel a little irked by the presence of amusement rather than disapproval. So it was fine when other ponies reacted with anger upon provocation, but not when I did it?
I knew why, of course. As Celestia's student, it was understood that I would be held to a higher standard, unfair or not. At least I was able to see that Silver wasn't one of those ponies who would disguise their displeasure behind a forgiving act they didn't actually feel.
Although, now that I was thinking about it, there might be additional reasons that Silver's rage was better received than my own. Her choice of threats, for example: Silver threatened to destroy Garden's property, but did not threaten Garden or any objects that she was likely to be emotionally attached to. Additionally, a mattress would be expensive to replace and therefore something that Silver wasn't truly willing to destroy, possibly making it clear that the displeasure underlying her threat should be noted but not taken literally.
Corporal Silver Needle finally huffed and turned her attention back to me rather than trying to engage further.
"Please ignore my horrible pixie of a roommate," Silver grumbled. "She doesn't understand that there is a time and a place for her brand of humor, and it isn't here."
Garden wisely remained silent.
Chapter 15 Bloopers: Not Safe At Work
At that, it seemed like the guard who had whispered earlier was now intent on being included in the ongoing conversation rather than silently eavesdropping as normal.
"I'm sure that's not how you felt about the mare you brought home during the Celebration, Miss Silvertongue!" called the far guard, her words slightly muffled by virtue of needing to take the long way around Celestia's privacy bubble.
Silver Needle twitched, and she colored with understandable rage at having her lecture interrupted by inane commentary. What did some random mare have to do with this? Silver soon glared over my shoulder, apparently not caring that the far side of the room was blurred so much as to be unrecognizable.
"Celestia help me, I will slice your mattress to shreds, Garden!"
"What, and make me sleep on the floor?" came the answering call from 'Garden.' "I was under the impression that would be a bit extreme even for you."
Silver produced a screech of rage akin to the whistling of winds through a small space. Behind her, the guard she'd summoned as her replacement only halfway managed to cover his snickering. I couldn't help but feel a little irked by the presence of amusement rather than disapproval. So it was fine when other ponies reacted with anger upon provocation, but not when I did it?
I knew why, of course. As Celestia's student, it was understood that I would be held to a higher standard, unfair or not. At least I was able to see that Silver wasn't one of those ponies who would disguise their displeasure behind a forgiving act they didn't actually feel.
Although, now that I was thinking about it, there might be additional reasons that Silver's rage was better received than my own. Her choice of threats, for example: Silver threatened to destroy Garden's property, but did not threaten Garden or any objects that she was likely to be emotionally attached to. Additionally, a mattress would be expensive to replace and therefore something that Silver wasn't truly willing to destroy, possibly making it clear that the displeasure underlying her threat should be noted but not taken literally.
Corporal Silver Needle finally huffed and turned her attention back to me rather than trying to engage further.
"Please ignore my horrible pixie of a roommate," Silver grumbled. "She doesn't understand that there is a time and a place for her brand of humor, and it isn't here."
Garden wisely remained silent.
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The Mad Ghoul
Only Mostly Dead
- Location
- Holy Terra
Sunset would agree with you but Celestia considers it a fundamental right of every citizen and with over a thousand years of precedence reform is unlikely to be very popular.
Turns out that there are a few downsides to having such a stable society.
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- Location
- Finland
Two friends being "violent" at each other =/= The personal protege of the absolute ruler being violent at someone who has no way to fight back.
Someone needs to explain comedy to Sunset, and why punch up/punch down is such an important distinction.
I can't believe i am saying this, but...
This looks like a job for Pinkie Pie.
Someone needs to explain comedy to Sunset, and why punch up/punch down is such an important distinction.
I can't believe i am saying this, but...
This looks like a job for Pinkie Pie.
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- Location
- United States
Garden even more wisely used a silence spell to cover their laughing.
With a millennium of consistent rulings from the same monarch, it really should. If she was only contacted for cases where her precedent was contradictory or unclear, she shouldn't need to rule directly on cases more than once a month.
...She'd probably want to deliberately review more cases than that to ensure her subordinates aren't deliberately misconstruing her precedent, but that should still amount to two or three cases and ten to fifteen hours a week, not most of her time.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
It obviously has. It works so long as Celestia is very consistent with her rulings and that they are all well recorded. With a thousand years of president at this point Equestria likely has tighter and more consistent case law then america.
Edit: Ninja
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Kellcat
Occasional Ex-Lurker
- Location
- Texas
On the bright side, by the time Pinkamina is no longer a rock farmer and has sufficient party pony proficiency to properly explain humor, Sunset might actually be capable of not misunderstanding. I mean, we have seen progress, right?Two friends being "violent" at each other =/= The personal protege of the absolute ruler being violent at someone who has no way to fight back.
Someone needs to explain comedy to Sunset, and why punch up/punch down is such an important distinction.
I can't believe i am saying this, but...
This looks like a job for Pinkie Pie.
No.
Disparate cases are disparate cases. Consistent ruling requires rules, extracting them from individual cases is an extremely hard work. It works when the community is small and the cases can be folded into relatively small number of classes. This is not the case for Equestria because it is quite diverse and has fairly thriving and diverse busyness and city life that evolves slowly but surely. Furthermore, law is not just people resolving personal conflicts. There is a lot of it that is aimed at setting baselines, and those baselines are regularly adjusted to reflect the changes in the world and state.
There IS a reason why common law was replaced by formal codes.
Pethrai Darkos
Murder Ensued
But it hasn't been, not really. Those formal codes aren't enough, they're still subject to interpretation, have appeals where people say that the judge got it wrong, are constantly modified by the precedent of individual rulings.
How is having a written down law against murder, which requires the precedent of previous cases to function as intended, any different from Celestia saying "don't kill people" and then clarifying the edge cases as they come up?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I am not sure that it ever actually was. Yes we do have formal codes, but they are largely drawn from common law and are then interpreted and reinterpreted though case law and president.
Ninja: really it's like we are sharing the same brain cell. Also I seem to type far too slow on my phone.
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- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
(EDIT: More on this when I have time to do the next chapters, but Celestia isn't the only source of law. All national laws require her approval, but there's also the House of Ladies.)
Celestia is a princess, not a president.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Those share, like, six letters, so they are basically the same thingCelestia is a princess, not a president.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Autocorrect never seems to recommend the word precedent and even googling always give me president.Celestia is a princess, not a president.
This is a common problem coming from the fact that people are different and no two humans have completely identical conceptual and moral frameworks. Some inconsistencies in interpretation are unavoidable, even within very homogeneous communities. However, a strictly worded formal code tends to produce more consistent interpretations than a disparate set of precedents. That's the entire point of having a formal code.
Nope. They are modified by law-makers, though existing rulings and complains are definitely taken in account. What you are probably referencing is clarifications: when wording used in a particular law isn't strict enough to be interpreted the same way by all members of judicial community of particular state, the relevant high court clarifies the way this particular law should be interpreted.
The Mad Ghoul
Only Mostly Dead
- Location
- Holy Terra
I read this as unmistakable the first time.
EDIT [to avoid dubble posting]:
Sure... but their grandmother's grandmothers grew up having their perceptions of justice shaped by Celestias whims; how likely are they to craft a law that isn't aligned with the precedent that she's set forth?
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- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Considering Sunset is misinterpreting what's partially embarrassment, somepony is certainly making a mistake there.
Being reminded of this bit the House of Ladies is lucky Sunset hates being around them more than she enjoys messing with them, otherwise showing up anyways could be a fun way to troll them. Do you still go with the classic vote against whatever the upstart brat says plan when said brat is the adopted daughter of Celestia? What about if Celestia has dropped some strong hints she agrees with whatever the brat is saying? How far are you willing to push to keep those darn whippersnappers in their place?
- Location
- Argentina
Okay Sunset would definitely laugh.
- Location
- Moscow
Twilight will probably join them soon enough and will possibly be in an even better headspace than in canon.
Suffering needs to be shared, after all.
Jeeze, Mi Amore Cadenza really needs to get on with those lessons if Sunset's missing that degree of baseline cultural context.
Or, y'know, Celestia needs to do it, but we all know that's not happening anytime soon.
Or, y'know, Celestia needs to do it, but we all know that's not happening anytime soon.
Garden, though not previously named, was stated to be an Earth Pony.
I strongly suspect Twilight will need to be actively prevented from summoning some equinomorphized library spirit in an attempt to merge with it and become Nightmare Book.
I AM DEAD.
I just, burst out into crazed laughter when I got to that!
darkgamer
Princess Glutei a Forma di Cuore
- Location
- England
Can't tell if this Is meant to be a pun, but it got me even if it wasn't.
Clarification doesn't happen on its own. If her rulings on edge cases do not come with explanations then - nevermind that the rulings themselves may not actually be 100% consistent with each other - it won't actually be possible for someone to just look at the rulings and figure out which unique facts about each case led to her ruling one way or the other.
I'm somewhat disappointed, incidentally, that the author took the easy way out of having the cult leader not be a true believer.
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