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* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.)
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* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. {{Subverted}}. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An A font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.)
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* TravelingSalesman: With a dash of ConMan, {{Hustler}}, and TheBarnum: the Slate ''works'', but its current operational parameters are so limited (and the contract so onerous) as to make it effectively unusable.
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* TravelingSalesman: With a dash of ConMan, {{Hustler}}, and TheBarnum: the Slate ''works'', but its current operational parameters are so limited (and the contract so onerous) as to make it effectively unusable.unusable.
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* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Trixie understands if the salespony doesn't want to discuss the details of how the enchantment was performed, but needs some details about how it operates during actual use. Her attempts to pin down the functional parameters (and increasing frustration towards same) drive the dialogue along.
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* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Trixie understands if the salespony doesn't want to discuss the details of how the enchantment was performed, but she needs some details about how it operates during actual use. Her attempts to pin down the functional parameters (and increasing frustration towards same) drive the dialogue along.
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Trixie is just coming out of a thaumaturgy shop, sorting out all the form copies she had to sign in order to purchase platinum wire, when a salespony hails her from the street, deciding that somepony with a channeling tool in her mark ''must'' be interested in [[{{Magitek}} new and exciting magic]]. And as it turns out, he's right, because he's selling -- Slate!
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Trixie is just coming out of a thaumaturgy shop, sorting out all the form copies she had to sign in order to purchase platinum wire, when a salespony hails her from the street, deciding having decided that somepony with a channeling tool in her mark ''must'' be interested in [[{{Magitek}} new and exciting magic]]. And as it turns out, he's right, because he's selling -- Slate!
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* AwesomeButImpractical: The Slate itself. The Continuum's Equestria has always had communications as one of the biggest gaps in their available {{Magitek}}, and at first glance, the Slate seems to be the first step on the path to solving a huge number of problems. But it requires a special chalk to write with (which can't be held in the mouth, as that affects the operation) and, after use, a special cloth to ''clean'' it, or the Slate remains full and can't be used again -- with both chalk and cloth requiring regular replacement. They require a distinctive, oversized style of writing, which means it takes very few words to fill one up. They come with an instant auto-wordfill feature which is prone to making mistakes that can't be taken back. It's a charged device, which means you need either a very heavy charging station (or the even heavier master charger) to get it back in operation after it runs out of power -- or a thaum funnel, which appears to pull magic out of the environment, with the salespony carefully avoiding all questions about what that ''does'' to both said environment ''and'' anypony nearby. They require relay stations (which also need recharging) to send the words, most of them are either in wild zones or on top of barns, and they keep getting destroyed. Especially the ones on barns. About one percent of Equestria has coverage, and that's with some very generous rounding up. And in the end, it turns out that the salespony sued the device away from the inventor, and so may have no actual concept of how to ''improve'' Slates at all. Trixie directly calls it a great idea which wound up in the wrong hooves.
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* AwesomeButImpractical: The Slate itself. The Continuum's Equestria has always had communications as one of the biggest gaps in their available {{Magitek}}, and at first glance, the Slate seems to be the first step on the path to solving a huge number of problems. But it requires a special chalk to write with (which can't be held in the mouth, as that affects the operation) and, after use, a special cloth to ''clean'' it, or the Slate remains full and can't be used again -- with both chalk and cloth requiring regular replacement. They require a distinctive, oversized style of writing, which means it takes very few words to fill one up. They come with an instant auto-wordfill feature which is prone to making mistakes that can't be taken back. It's a charged device, which means you need either a very heavy charging station (or the even heavier master charger) to get it back in operation after it runs out of power -- or a thaum funnel, which appears to pull magic out of the environment, with the salespony carefully avoiding all questions about what that ''does'' to both said environment ''and'' anypony nearby. They require relay stations (which also need recharging) to send the words, most of them are either in wild zones or on top of barns, and they keep getting destroyed. Especially the ones on barns. About one percent of Equestria has coverage, and that's with some very generous rounding up. And in the end, it turns out that the salespony sued the device away from the now-deceased inventor, and so may have no actual concept of how to ''improve'' Slates at all. Trixie directly calls it a great idea which wound up in the wrong hooves.
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-->[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDeparment "The Slate works."]]
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* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.
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* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.)
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Added DiffLines:
-->"You believe in living dangerously, don't you?"
-->"You have no idea."
Trixie is just coming out of a thaumaturgy shop, sorting out all the form copies she had to sign in order to purchase platinum wire, when a salespony hails her from the street, deciding that somepony with a channeling tool in her mark ''must'' be interested in [[{{Magitek}} new and exciting magic]]. And as it turns out, he's right, because he's selling -- Slate!
What's Slate? It's potentially Equestria's first reliable long-distance communication tool. You write on one Slate with the special chalk, and your words will appear on another Slate. You can keep in touch, call for help during emergencies... And yes, Trixie is ''very'' interested. So interested that she just has to find out how the new device would ''work'' in practice before she considers putting down her bits for it.
The Tartarus is in the details. And in this case, so is the agony.
Read it [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/153235/0g-network-coverage here]].
!!Tropes found in this story include:
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Slate itself. The Continuum's Equestria has always had communications as one of the biggest gaps in their available {{Magitek}}, and at first glance, the Slate seems to be the first step on the path to solving a huge number of problems. But it requires a special chalk to write with (which can't be held in the mouth, as that affects the operation) and, after use, a special cloth to ''clean'' it, or the Slate remains full and can't be used again -- with both chalk and cloth requiring regular replacement. They require a distinctive, oversized style of writing, which means it takes very few words to fill one up. They come with an instant auto-wordfill feature which is prone to making mistakes that can't be taken back. It's a charged device, which means you need either a very heavy charging station (or the even heavier master charger) to get it back in operation after it runs out of power -- or a thaum funnel, which appears to pull magic out of the environment, with the salespony carefully avoiding all questions about what that ''does'' to both said environment ''and'' anypony nearby. They require relay stations (which also need recharging) to send the words, most of them are either in wild zones or on top of barns, and they keep getting destroyed. Especially the ones on barns. About one percent of Equestria has coverage, and that's with some very generous rounding up. And in the end, it turns out that the salespony sued the device away from the inventor, and so may have no actual concept of how to ''improve'' Slates at all. Trixie directly calls it a great idea which wound up in the wrong hooves.
* TheBarnum: The salespony firmly establishes himself as this at the end when Trixie tells him that he's talked her out of buying Slate, ''and he attempts to charge her fifty bits as a consultant's fee'', because how would she have known not to purchase without him? However, since he's dealing with ''Trixie'', it also makes him TooDumbToLive.
* BreakThemByTalking: Or in this case, Talk Them Out Of Buying It By Talking: at the start of the sales pitch, Trixie's clearly interested in the Slate -- but the more she learns about both the product and the pony selling it, the more frustrated she becomes.
* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.
* DrivenToSuicide: Invoked. Trixie feels the most useful thing to do with a Slate should a monster attack her in a wild zone is sign it to the contract, which would then result in the trope.
* ExactWords: All over the place, and never to the customer's benefit.
-->"And the Slate only works within range of those stations?"
-->"Oh, it works anywhere! It just won't send or receive unless you're close to a station!"
-->"So how do I know when I'm in range?"
-->[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDeparment "The Slate works."]]
** And then there's the roaming fees: the payment required for the salespony to ''consider'' following you when you roam and potentially set up relay stations in your wake. Sometime. If he feels like it.
* InsistentTerminology: The salespony keeps saying everything you can do with the Slate beyond the purchase, including cleaning and recharging, is ''optional''. Of course, the ''other'' option is to throw away a useless Slate.
* NoDialogueEpisode: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. The entire story is told through nothing ''but'' dialogue: two characters speaking in turn, with all body language and tone implied. There isn't even a single 'said' in the whole piece, and the total exchange reads a little like an old-fashioned RadioDrama.
* ReadTheFinePrint: Trixie does and discovers that the salespony will effectively own any words she writes on the Slate, with the salespony protesting that no one is actually allowed to read the ''full'' contract until ''after'' they've paid for the device.
* SlasherSmile: Trixie just about ends the story with one, and when the salespony wants to know ''why'' she's smiling, she tells him to give her two thousand bits -- for a [[IronicEcho head start fee]].
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Trixie understands if the salespony doesn't want to discuss the details of how the enchantment was performed, but needs some details about how it operates during actual use. Her attempts to pin down the functional parameters (and increasing frustration towards same) drive the dialogue along.
* TakeThat: To mobile phone service providers, their contracts, terms, conditions, bundling, roaming fees, yearly upgrades, data collection, charging, data usage allotments...
* ThirdPersonPerson: Averted. As with [[Recap/TriptychContinuumPostNegativeCommentsOnly Iron Will]], Trixie's use of the trope is reserved for her stage persona. In direct conversations, she speaks normally.
* TravelingSalesman: With a dash of ConMan, {{Hustler}}, and TheBarnum: the Slate ''works'', but its current operational parameters are so limited (and the contract so onerous) as to make it effectively unusable.
-->"You have no idea."
Trixie is just coming out of a thaumaturgy shop, sorting out all the form copies she had to sign in order to purchase platinum wire, when a salespony hails her from the street, deciding that somepony with a channeling tool in her mark ''must'' be interested in [[{{Magitek}} new and exciting magic]]. And as it turns out, he's right, because he's selling -- Slate!
What's Slate? It's potentially Equestria's first reliable long-distance communication tool. You write on one Slate with the special chalk, and your words will appear on another Slate. You can keep in touch, call for help during emergencies... And yes, Trixie is ''very'' interested. So interested that she just has to find out how the new device would ''work'' in practice before she considers putting down her bits for it.
The Tartarus is in the details. And in this case, so is the agony.
Read it [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/153235/0g-network-coverage here]].
!!Tropes found in this story include:
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Slate itself. The Continuum's Equestria has always had communications as one of the biggest gaps in their available {{Magitek}}, and at first glance, the Slate seems to be the first step on the path to solving a huge number of problems. But it requires a special chalk to write with (which can't be held in the mouth, as that affects the operation) and, after use, a special cloth to ''clean'' it, or the Slate remains full and can't be used again -- with both chalk and cloth requiring regular replacement. They require a distinctive, oversized style of writing, which means it takes very few words to fill one up. They come with an instant auto-wordfill feature which is prone to making mistakes that can't be taken back. It's a charged device, which means you need either a very heavy charging station (or the even heavier master charger) to get it back in operation after it runs out of power -- or a thaum funnel, which appears to pull magic out of the environment, with the salespony carefully avoiding all questions about what that ''does'' to both said environment ''and'' anypony nearby. They require relay stations (which also need recharging) to send the words, most of them are either in wild zones or on top of barns, and they keep getting destroyed. Especially the ones on barns. About one percent of Equestria has coverage, and that's with some very generous rounding up. And in the end, it turns out that the salespony sued the device away from the inventor, and so may have no actual concept of how to ''improve'' Slates at all. Trixie directly calls it a great idea which wound up in the wrong hooves.
* TheBarnum: The salespony firmly establishes himself as this at the end when Trixie tells him that he's talked her out of buying Slate, ''and he attempts to charge her fifty bits as a consultant's fee'', because how would she have known not to purchase without him? However, since he's dealing with ''Trixie'', it also makes him TooDumbToLive.
* BreakThemByTalking: Or in this case, Talk Them Out Of Buying It By Talking: at the start of the sales pitch, Trixie's clearly interested in the Slate -- but the more she learns about both the product and the pony selling it, the more frustrated she becomes.
* DelusionsOfLocalGrandeur: Averted. Trixie's reaction to finding out the salespony has no idea who she is? An font-implied mutter of "Thank Celestia for small favors..." (The story takes place after the events of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]], which means the Continuum's Trixie is at the start of her transition into becoming TheAtoner.
* DrivenToSuicide: Invoked. Trixie feels the most useful thing to do with a Slate should a monster attack her in a wild zone is sign it to the contract, which would then result in the trope.
* ExactWords: All over the place, and never to the customer's benefit.
-->"And the Slate only works within range of those stations?"
-->"Oh, it works anywhere! It just won't send or receive unless you're close to a station!"
-->"So how do I know when I'm in range?"
-->[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDeparment "The Slate works."]]
** And then there's the roaming fees: the payment required for the salespony to ''consider'' following you when you roam and potentially set up relay stations in your wake. Sometime. If he feels like it.
* InsistentTerminology: The salespony keeps saying everything you can do with the Slate beyond the purchase, including cleaning and recharging, is ''optional''. Of course, the ''other'' option is to throw away a useless Slate.
* NoDialogueEpisode: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. The entire story is told through nothing ''but'' dialogue: two characters speaking in turn, with all body language and tone implied. There isn't even a single 'said' in the whole piece, and the total exchange reads a little like an old-fashioned RadioDrama.
* ReadTheFinePrint: Trixie does and discovers that the salespony will effectively own any words she writes on the Slate, with the salespony protesting that no one is actually allowed to read the ''full'' contract until ''after'' they've paid for the device.
* SlasherSmile: Trixie just about ends the story with one, and when the salespony wants to know ''why'' she's smiling, she tells him to give her two thousand bits -- for a [[IronicEcho head start fee]].
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Trixie understands if the salespony doesn't want to discuss the details of how the enchantment was performed, but needs some details about how it operates during actual use. Her attempts to pin down the functional parameters (and increasing frustration towards same) drive the dialogue along.
* TakeThat: To mobile phone service providers, their contracts, terms, conditions, bundling, roaming fees, yearly upgrades, data collection, charging, data usage allotments...
* ThirdPersonPerson: Averted. As with [[Recap/TriptychContinuumPostNegativeCommentsOnly Iron Will]], Trixie's use of the trope is reserved for her stage persona. In direct conversations, she speaks normally.
* TravelingSalesman: With a dash of ConMan, {{Hustler}}, and TheBarnum: the Slate ''works'', but its current operational parameters are so limited (and the contract so onerous) as to make it effectively unusable.
