Having decided - very recently - to return to the fandom, I've started playing with the notion on following through with some desires I had to write Chrylight some year and a half ago back. I'm a couple seasons behind however on the show, as well as being almost entirely in the dark with regards to whatever extended universe might have developed (books, comics, movies, other? I know my 'after expulsion' headcanon is quite a bit different then what some of the comics apparently depict). I've been busy at work developing a framework of sorts to build the story upon, but there's a number of things I'm uncertain of, or simply unable to make decisions regarding that having a partner to throw second opinions my way would likely be incredibly helpful. I'd briefly considered trying to tie some snippets of ideas to the collab, but the end project I'm planning should be a much longer work that simply can't be captured with several 1k word prompts.

I know there's a proofreader group which would traditionally be the place to go for requests of this vein, but I don't feel I'm asking for any of the extended commitment that would come with being a proofreader (I also haven't written anything other then the basics of a layout yet >_>) and I tend to be... picky... when it comes to finding a proofreader I work well with. So if anybody wants to argue with me over how to throw Twilight into dangerous situations and build a Chrylight ship from the ground up sometime in the relatively near future, let me know and we can discuss love and friendship and deserts which make the Australian outback seem tame by comparison and it'll all be... exciting.

Looked for obligatory Chrylight pic tax, but couldn't find anything special :( Guess I'll have to commission something once I have the foundation for this thing set.

4320709 Hmm, after I get back from finals, sure.

Also, go to netflix (or something) and watch the Rainbow Rocks movie. While Equestria Girls itself wasn't... spectacular, RR was amazing.

Also, burn the comics wherever you see them.

Oh come on, The Return of Queen Chrysalis wasn't bad at all.

4320976 Its portrayal of Chrysalis and the changelings is 'mwahaha I have no soul'. Which I find stupid.

4320985 Hey I like, most of, the comics!

4320985 She's bad as Equestrian villains go, but she's not that bad. She even keeps her word! ... Technically.

4320711

Heh. What time do your finals end? One of the big reasons I'm so desperate to establish a plan is that after my finals and parade week, which basically encompasses the next 20 days or so, I've got 10 weeks of computer-very-limited military training to struggle through, so I need to have all my plans safely tucked inside my paper notebooks.

Also, I think I did read one of the comics. It had Chrysalis abduct the CMC to try and lure Twilight and absorb all her power. Her interaction with the Crusaders was hilarious and perfect. Everything else about it was...

Actually, I think ... is the perfect way to describe it.

4322669 My two big finals are over now. I have a lesser final - math - on Friday and the big physics final on the fifth of May.

4322676

I think my own exams wrap up around May 5th, so that coincides nicely.

4322690 Well then let's start bouncing ideas. What've you got?

4323474

The majority of the fic is planned to take place deep in the southern deserts (If you check that equestrian map, you see it extends off the bottom of the map) so the whole locale is basically poorly documented wasteland. Also, quite a few years after the s2 finale.

The idea is that Twilight ends up there (I'm still contemplating a few ideas on how) after overloading herself with magic to the point of being unable to use it (temporarily, with temporarily being a decently sized portion of the fic) The desert is ridden with a mix of nomadic tribes, as well as exiles and criminals from all races, punctuated by the occasional caravan heading to or from Saddle Arabia (still uncertain on the last one, but I'm playing with the idea). Civilization is minimal, and while what civilization there is isn't entirely lawless, it's certainly far from lawful as well (there's a whole bunch of world building I've been establishing here). There's a small but prosperous slave trade that picks off nomad band stragglers and anybody foolish enough to roam around on their own, selling them back to the wealthiest residents of the lone permanent settlement in the desert, Respite. Nobody roams the desert alone... Well nobody except the mourning queen. Nobody in the desert knows anything about her beyond the fact that she's only ever traveled alone, and she's covered entirely in a shroud of black veil.

I could go on about backstory and worldbuilding for a while, but that's kinda the gist of it. Chrysalis is somewhat obviously the mourning queen, and I don't intend to try and hide that fact from the reader, though she won't be advertising it to Twilight. It's another case of I'm still deciding exactly how I want her to have ended up there, but what's important is that whatever hivemind she might once have had is dead, with the few surviving changelings from her hive having broken off and made their own way, and that she refuses to use her changeling magic. One important nuance of Chrysalis's character here is how she's basically switched from active deception to passive deception. She doesn't so much lie, but omit the truth (the easy manifestation of this is how she covers up her appearance with the veil, but does not impersonate)

Anyway, Twilight's going to be in a desert unable to use magic and unconscious (upon arrival) and Chryssy's going to find her, recognize her, and drag her off to the nearby oasis that functions as one of the two lifelines for life in the desert, and things'll basically start there.

With all that in mind, what I'm struggling with is how to make that whole situation happen. I know what I want their circumstances to be, but I need to put them into those circumstances in a way people haven't done a few thousand times before. One idea I was toying around with was having Twilight remove Tirek entirely of his magic (a just deserts kinda thing) but be unable to control the backlash of harmonious and chaotic magic clashing, then overload and *le gasp* she's gone. I don't think I want to use Tirek though, because that forces me into a much earlier timeframe then what I'm comfortable working within given how much time I want to put between the stories timeline and Chrysalis's invasion from prior. I don't intend to take a 'time heals all wounds approach' but I'm still relying on 'time scars wounds over and lets people be pragmatic when presented with a currently non-hostile old foe', and given the whole Chrysalis's hive is basically dead and she's been outcast into a desert, I really don't think a year or two is long enough for that. Sure I could just screw with the timeline and move things back and forward, but that just feels cheap.

Regarding Chrysalis, I also need to find a plausible way of putting her into her situation. Her hive needs to be a non-factor, so her circumstances need to be based off of the kingdom she once ruled being for all intents and purposes dead. This doesn't necessarily need to mean all the changelings need to be dead (I've been toying around with the exiled/forced abdication of the throne approach) but most of the angles I've been looking at have involved it being dead (albeit with a number of the stronger changelings breaking off from the old hivemind to either go carve out their own lives amongst other races or possibly start a new hive somewhere more hospitable. I've been looking towards simply explaining the invasion with famine and desperation (which allows me to tie that problem to the bad things I intend to throw into the desert, giving more reason for Chrysalis to be there as well) but I'm not sure if the "we were starving so we invaded but now that the invasion has failed I guess we're screwed" approach is something too obvious or overdone. I feel as though the simplicity of it could be better in that situation, and I'm worried that attempting to make the hive issue political instead of basically killing it off creates too many different threads that I'd need to tie together with the story. If it's not political, then the prospect of Chrysalis locating survivors and starting anew once everything is said and done is always a viable outcome and source of potential motivation. If it is political, then I get to work with the vengeance motivation, but that makes so many other things much harder, makes Chryssy much more one-dimensional as a character, and I'd almost feel like the story was leading itself on to be showdown against some changeling usurper who fucked everything up to accelerate his fiendish plans.

So yeah. There's that.

4324261

. I don't think I want to use Tirek though,

How about she accidentally activates her Rainbow Power after being startled by Discord, the harmony and chaos magics clash, and she gets teleported away?

Her hive needs to be a non-factor, so her circumstances need to be based off of the kingdom she once ruled being for all intents and purposes dead.

'Chrysalis's invasion failed and now all the changelings are dead' is pretty overdone. How about she fell into a depression after her failure, and eventually abdicated to her daughter/a friend. There you have her depression to work around, 'I was supposed to be a great queen. I was supposed to be the one who brought low the sun, who ensured nothing would befall us ever again, and look how that turned out'.

4324583 or perhaps her daughter/heir simply overthrew her due to the failure of the invasion?

4324741 Well we're just bouncing ideas around, and I don't think Chrysalis abdicating is a thing.

4324761 fair enough moonie..

4324583

Hmm... the Discord thing gives me a slightly different idea actually. Maybe the powers that be decide it's high time the element of magic represented and understood all forms of magic, and Discord most generously offers his services in the name of chaos. His lesson in chaos magic consists of him throwing a bit of his very own essence at her, and it mixes with the massive stockpile of harmony... somewhat catastrophically. Think fusion reaction more than antimatter style though. Conveniently enough, Twilight also happens to end up in a place where she has the potential to understand Changeling magic as well (and dark magic? Dragon magic? How Avatar do I want to go here?)

Regarding Chrysalis, I'm not sure if I want to go the depressed direction. She's called the Mourning Queen because she wears all black in the desert - she doesn't share enough of her personality with any of the desert dwellers that anybody could determine her to be incredibly sad. She's certainly not happy, but I'm looking more to make her apathetic at the start than anything else - time's dulled the wounds that were there at the start. I suppose I could follow an approach where she simply chooses not to return after the failed invasion. The changeling hive is built to survive, so when she just decides to walk into the desert instead of facing her failures, she does so with the knowledge that it can raise a new queen if necessary (this could perhaps lead to the idea that they don't actually raise a new queen, and consider her absence an extended sabbatical and run the hive as normal while she's gone. It's nothing I'm sold on, but it's an idea to toy with, and I think it finds a neat comfort zone between 'hive is dead' and 'hive completely abandons her' that hasn't been touched on too much). One of the reasons I really want to shy away from depressed Chrysalis is that I absolutely love playful-in-a-snarky-verbally-harass-you-to-hell-but-then-kiss-and-make-up-sort-of-way, and if I decide to run with her actually being sad all the time then I can't rightly bring that aspect of her out until much later in the story. If I follow an apathetic route, then there's a lot of room for the detatched 'I don't really care but you amuse me' sarcasm I've come to love from her, and it's much easier to develop her as a dynamic character. I also think apathy is a much more fitting state than depression for someling who's established enough of a reputation that slaver bands would shy away from antagonizing her.

4325236 Interesting ideas.

and dark magic? Dragon magic? How Avatar do I want to go here?

Stick with changeling magic. Though I don't know if you should make her able to use changeling magic, given that she's not a changeling.

I absolutely love playful-in-a-snarky-verbally-harass-you-to-hell-but-then-kiss-and-make-up-sort-of-way

That's my favorite kind of Chryssy! Much better than my depression idea.

4325362

Yeah, the idea is more to give her a fundamental understanding of how it works. Like... she's not physically able to cast it, but given her nature as the element of magic, with the right knowledge - and having a bit of it within her - she could naturally recognize the magic for what it is. One of the things I always thought Twilight should be able to do as the element of magic ascended to alicornhood was -with time- develop a more extensive understanding of all things magic than any other living being possibly could. Even if canon only calls her the Princess of Friendship, I like to think that's Celestia's way of bridging the gap to basically being the goddess of magic with a single type of magic that Twilight's especially knowledgeable and comfortable with.

Headcanon is that after enough exposure and taking a bit of the essence of that magic inside herself, Twilight can effectively master the theory of any magic, even if she can't actually use it.

It opens up for more development, since Chryssy at the time of finding Twilight is unwilling to use Changeling magic. I'm running it as a sideeffect locking herself out of the hivemind and being unwilling to tap back into it. I think tieing changeling magic to the collective nature of their society is a pretty neat idea.

And yeah, it's definitely the best kind of Chryssy. 'Really sappy for no real reason' and 'I'm the most evil being in Equestria' Chrysalis both make me cringe, since they're both kinda far removed from anything we've actually been shown.

4325436

'Really sappy for no real reason' and 'I'm the most evil being in Equestria' Chrysalis both make me cringe, since they're both kinda far removed from anything we've actually been shown.

Ikr? Most writers either have her 'Oh I am a woobie and I've done nothing wrong' or 'Mwahaha I have no soul'.

4325473

A lot of people thing I have this blind hatred for dark fics, because I refuse to read most of the ones people publish here, but they don't get it. I'll pull one of the stories from that collab for example:

There's one where Twilight's friends kill Chrysalis where they come out, and Twilight kills Celestia, Luna, and her friends for some necromancy to bring her back. Like... what? Aside from the fact that Chrysalis was somehow... bullied... to death... every single character needs to be ripped viciously out of character to make it work, and there's nothing that it even works towards. There's supposed to be a purpose for things being dark, and if a story is dark simply for the sake of shock value, then there's really no point to it. It's just cringe-inducing and depressing at the same time >.>

Anyway, there's two Chryslestia stories that did an incredible job (The one by Pen Stroke, and that Advanced Lesson/Intermediate Lessons series by the other authour I forget the name of) and I'm just hoping to do Chryslight justice with a story of similar quality.

4320709 Bouncing ideas? I think I could enjoy that part.

Proof-readers and Editors are for the production of the story, once you have the first draft in print.
We are here for the work that leads up to this point, and some beyond.

ChrysaLight, as in Queen Chrysalis and Princess Twilight Sparkle? Jus curious.

You can see several of the episodes from season 5 on the Youtube site, if you intend to see them for the purpose of sourse material for a story.
Or just to see if you enjoy them.

4325473 I like to see Chrysalis in the light of actual Earth Royalties. Just as Prince Blueblood. This explains most of who they are and why they do what they do.

A monark has a nation and a People to protect, even when they go about this entirely wrong for all the wrong reasons.

Chrysalis is a fun character to play with, if you have an idea in mind and a goal to drive towards.
She has her desires and dreams, which she tries to reach, more times than not with her changeling swarm by her side and reasoning behind the actions.