There's a new amusement park near Canterlot, catering the nobility, the rich, and the elite.
This is nothing new. Canterlot is the city of the wealthy and the gullible, two things that draw entertainers and con men like flies to honey. The Golden Beach is different though. The owners of the park somehow managed to turn a worthless spigot of land into an artificial inland sea with a tropical island attached, with a regular old assortment of rides on the borders and the outskirts. The common ponies come for the circus attractions, the nobles for the equine-made vacation spot, away from the stress of being expected to do something the modern world.
Thing is though, there's a reason it's called the Eighth Wonder of Equestria. By all rights, the caliber of magical engineering used to transform a large area of a fairly cool climate into a subtropical paradise, even in winter, is...rather advanced for modern sorcery. Though that may be because the coldness gets displaced into the staff, who just seem to close themselves out from the outside world after a while, helped by the fact that most of them live in provided housing that they are allowed-neigh, encouraged-to bring their families in. And the wildlife seems really tame for creatures from Everfree.
But it's not like there's anything wrong, right? It's not like the hidden bosses of the park are servants of an utterly amoral alien supercomputer that fully deserves the title of God-Machine, is it?
....
[activating Concealment structural component: perception-filter.exe]
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A New World of Darkness crossover.
So from what I'm getting so far:
There are these cyborg ponies who are servants of some alien machine god. They run this resort called the Golden Beach, and they want Pinkie so she can use her Pinkie Sense to manipulate probability for them (and also turn her into a cyborg I guess?), which they did by luring her in and then somehow managing to erase absolutely everyone's memories of her.
Am I getting this right? Is Pinkie a cyborg now?
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Somewhat. The Overseers are servants of the God-Machine, yes, they erased everyone's memories of Pinkie so they could harness her Pinkie Sense without harassment, yes, but these three aren't cyborg ponies. They were built this way.
Let me put it this way-the God-Machine may not be the One True God in the New World of Darkness, and likely isn't (it's more likely akin the Demiurge), but it's not for lack of trying to be.
It even has independent programs and autonomous drones, created using the principles of arcane sciences and mathematical sorcery only it understands.
This will all be revealed next chapter in plainer words, so it ain't a spoiler, especially if you read the actual God-Machine Chronicle. I can tell you the Dalga isn't properly one of them, but a representative of an organic(ish) race created by the G-M so it doesn't have to expend more effort on creating a legion of truly cybernetic servants.
As for Pinkie...nah, that's something I'll reveal later. I will say the memories aren't erased so much as blocked, though.
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Okay. This was kind of confusing to grasp at first.
I think I've got it now. I'll be paying attention to this.
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Tell me if you need any other explanation! If it isn't spoilers, I have you covered.
I don't know world of darkness, but this seems to be off to an interesting start.
Your Author's note comment about humans dissecting a being from another world isn't necessarily true. If pentacle mages learn about a world where the Lie doesn't hold sway and of the existence of the elements of harmony, they would do everything in their power to sway a being like twilight sparkle to their cause.
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Oh, a fellow nWoD fan! Didn't realize there'd be others here. How nice.
Well, I actually agree with that, but the Pentacle isn't the majority of humans. The majority of humans in the World of Darkness who know enough to believe "These people are from another world" are going to leap to "ALIEN INVADERS! AAAAAHHH!/SHOOT THEM!"
Ergo, humans in general are more likely to dissect them or lock them away in a cell somewhere.
I love Nwod, but you are mostly correct. I was just saying it wasn't impossible, just statistically unlikely to end well. I really need to get around to reading the God Machine Chronicle. Even if its grappling rules are stupid broken.
I know it´s your fic, but it´s also usually funnier for the readers when we have to wait a few chapters at least to figure out the hidden, horrible truth, instead of being spoiled on the prologue
Another thing, are you going to include some demon in the story, maybe a Messenger?
3012899 Ah, see this? This is exactly what I'm looking for.
Yes, my foreshadowing is a bit clumsy. I'm not a mystery writer by any stretch. Besides, I had to explain what the God-Machine was at some point.
Of course, we still do have to learn what the Overseers' mission is.
...Unless, you thought Twilight was having that dream, didn't you?
In which case, good. The actual blatant foreshadowing was missed for the red herring, such as when I directly tell you who was actually dreaming.
Careful using the God Machine. It's the antagonist of the coming book, Demon: the Descent.
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I know.
I'm planning on it. *sinister chuckle*
I was always kind of bummed out that the Malkavian were changed from a full clan into a virus. They were part of my top 3 clans in masquerade, along with the Salubri and Gangrel.
Gasp! How dare you make a Johnny Cash song feel so sinister!
And I don't think this God has any better home planned for our dear ponies...
Oh geez, and the moment I realized Fluttershy and Pinkie were so deep in the Infrastructure- *shudder*
... Jophiel and Harahel's bet was about whether or not Pinkie would get scared, wasn't it?
You know, I was worried Fluttershy was replaced from the start.
Didn't catch on about taking on the bakery job being ooc, though- clever~
I think the God-Machine just makes me too paranoid to believe it would be that simple.
Still not sure what to think of Malcavia in a living, breathing host, buuuut were are dealing with exceptional circumstances here.
Still not sure how that gave her access to First Tongue, either. Dunno if I'm just blanking of WoD details, or just a point that was meant to come up later.
Sigh~
Shame it's probably dead.
At least you graced us the story arc climax first.