A mysterious stallion wielding incredible powers, with the help of mystical devices from Starswirl The Bearded's era, plunges Equestria into the pre-classical age—a place in time where questing and adventuring is first and foremost. The magical effects at play give the Cutie Mark Crusaders a new world, new abilities and a new challenge to overcome, all while fending for their lives in an ancient conflict.
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Map of *canon* Equestria is the geographical tool.
Chapters (4)
Change the name, there's already a quite popular story with this name.
2714133 Two stories with the same name makes no difference from one to the other. At one point, Eternal had dozens of stories with the same name--but that didn't matter. Not to mention the story isn't actually all that well known; 2.7k views isn't a gargantuan amount.
Over the Hills and Far Away,
Good little fillies adventure and play.
Through the deadliest forest and the scariest gorge,
Brave adventurers past have all tried to forge.
A strangely new world, that looks much the same,
A trio of girls that know all's not a game.
A sleepy little town dropped into the past,
All that was once quiet, now knows it can't last.
Through thick and thin and times of rage,
Our Heroes must carry on, as historians write their page.
Sisters by trial, and friends for life,
Can these three young foals bear the coming strife?
With action and drama and adventures galore,
We promise, dear readers, you'll like what's in store.
To the author, I must say, this fic looks quite great,
I sit hoping for more, to see what's their fate.
I shall follow and favorite, to see the rest of this tale,
Whether our heroes be victorious, or die as they fail.
I have not much else to say, except a great big "Whoop!"
And with that, my dear author, welcome to my Group.
2715308 Wow... I looked this up and honestly thought this was some pre-written poem. I am incredibly impressed that you made this--and I am not impressed easily at all.
I feel inspired to write heaps of text just because of this. Thank you so much for this poem.
2715347 No problem, mate!
When I get an itch to rhyme, I know right then it's time!
And I've got a good feeling with your fic. I don't usually get good vibes like this.
This song was the only reason I clicked on this fic. And I have found that it is pretty good! THank you Nightwish! (The band)
tinyurl.com/mbho6go
cdn.someecards.com/someecards/filestorage/boston-bruins-nhl-champions-sports-ecards-someecards.png
Taking another read of this, since your blog post reminded me of it, and I dizzy want to ask why you use the singular quotation marks, instead of the double ones, which are more commonly seen. Any special reason? I can think of one myself, but I'll see what you say before I voice my thought.
3405361 Well, it started out as me trying it out because so many of the writers I admire (Tolkien, Huxley and Findley amongst many others) followed that same rule, but as time went on, I really liked single quotations and decided that I'd incorporate that into my style.
Teletubbies come out to play
Sorry i had to do it
The name kind of reminds me of a song by Great Big Sea.
Great story by the way.
I am loving this story! Everyone thinking they have amnesia makes me think of Final Fantasy X. I'm getting really excited for the rest of this adventure!
May I know who drew the header, and the cmc armor picture? I really love the styles.
3407927 I can't believe I didn't put in the source. That will be fixed in no time.
Click
3405750 Yeah, your reasons are much more interesting, but here's mine anyways:
Ponies don't have fingers to make the ' ' air quotes ' ' with, instead having them simply be ' air quotes, ' due to ponies only having a single digit on their hooves. So therefore, I can see pony (and other hooved creatures') scriptures and literature using only a single quotation for their punctuation, though griffins, minotaurs, dragons, and other creatures with multiple digits on their forefront appendages would use "dual" quotes. A small, mostly innocuous detail, but still one that could be important for world building purposes.
3405750
I was gonna object, but eh, it's good enough for EqD, it's good enough for me.
ONWARDS TO READING!
This is amazing. Your prose is sound, the style is enticing, the images can be clearly defined in the mind of the reader, and the use of conflict and foreshadowing to create interest is sapient: Celestia knows if I wasn't grinding my teeth when you interrupted the first scene to start the flashback!
Seriously, very very good job this far. Please keep this up, it has the numbers to become one of the best adventure-tagged stories on this site.
It's a genre that's particularly difficult to find in the fandom, (at least well-done), and it brings me immense enjoyment to find such a promising story.
Pony on, Sir.
3411563 Thank you so much, those words do mean a lot!
I will never understand how the EQD crowd works... they post up gimmicky garbage and it gets a bazillion likes. They post up an actual, well-done, honest-to-Celestia adventure story, and after two days it's still got < 30...
Keep up the good work!
Wait... this evil stallion plunges the WHOLE of Equestria into an older age... *calculates energy requirements*
Well, they're fucked.
Time for mass suicide, everypony! Scorched Earth Protocol is in effect! *ponies all begin committing seppuku with katanas that they just... have.. for some reason..*
If ya can't beat a villain, leave em with nothing to rule over! See how brilliant that is! Do you see?! DO YOU SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Well I'm DEFINITELY seeing shades of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in this story, what with the book and the sudden world-shifting and so on and so forth.
I never played plain old Tactics beyond the first mission or so, though, so I couldn't speak for that one.
Anyway, it's a touch infuriating that they immediately jumped to "amnesia" as the answer to the Crusaders' issues. Especially if nothing has happened to them recently to CAUSE them amnesia. But not only that, it kinda infuriates me a) The crusaders wouldn't try and explain more about the world/time they came from and how it's different from the world around them, and b) that ponies would jump to the conclusion of amnesia, when amnesia is not known to CREATE memories that were never there before. The second they started mentioning true names they should never had known and the fact that Twilight had magic, "Bookworm" should have known there was something more to all this than amnesia.
I hope that things get a little more cleared up in the next chapter as to what happened (for both us and the characters) and that the crusaders can actually get the help they need. Overall, though, I'm quite interested to see where this goes. Been a while since I read a good adventure story.
3418161 They didn't create new memories, they forgot about the restriction to the ponies' real name—Bookworm and friends haven't always been under those names, which will be explained. There are actually a fair few more details concerning this, but you'll just have to trust me that there's a reason for all of this.
3418173
Well, no, they didn't actually create new memories. They remember an entirely different world.
From "Bookworm's" perspective, though, they would have created new memories, given that they never apparently knew her real name in the first place, nor the fact that she can do magic.
...and unless you're pulling a twist that the real Equestria never existed and the CMC actually are crazy and have some wacky amnesia-esque thing, they didn't FORGET anything, they just have a different set of memories.
Unless I'm COMPLETELY misinterpreting this.
MOAR GIVE ME MOAR RIGHT NOW AHGw2hgwgbiwbgh
Im liking this. Cant wait till the next update
3418173 My suspicion is thus:
Who's here is there now left behind,
The truth: be it body, soul or mind?
Crystalline clue, of shade of blue;
What else, I wonder, can it do?
Book of pages bare of text,
Recording all that happens next?
Story true or fantasy,
Which reality we must wait and see.
This is FASCINATING! I really wonder what happened now.
Yipyapper,
I read these first three chapters some months ago and was captivated by the story. I still come back every once in a while to check for any additions. Its been awhile, but if you ever decide to continue this story, here's at least one reader who's day you'll make with your work.
Thanks for these three golden chapters and here's to hoping someday we'll see more.
Sincerely,
Ragnu
4458653 I had left the site for a while, but coming back to read a comment like that... it means a lot. I'll definitely be continuing with this very soon, and if I was less of a terrible person and procrastinated on this and other stories, it would be closer to completion (although it should have a long run).
4459215
Glad to hear it. :D
Its understandable if life takes priority so don't turn everything upside down quite yet.
Still, you've got a gift and I'm glad to hear that you haven't given up on writing just yet.
Howsabout this: When you make that next chapter, I'll stop chickening out and finally write that story of my own.
Your profile picture.
I like it.
So...
While I certainly am enjoying this, I must ask - Why does Bookworm seem to be so... Inclined that it's amnesia? Shouldn't the theory that someone somehow let her name slip be above that? Or some kind of spell?
4589043 I tried to imply that her name wasn't really a widely-known thing. I have stuff planned to address that anyway, but I can't explain for plot-spoiling reasons.
Did I miss an Anthro tag?
4589233 Refer to this blog for reasons as to why I do this.
Reading this was a wonderful decision. I'll be going on to the next chapters, now. But first:
One question: Does your editor know how to speak EModE? I saw a few errors hither and thither, but none as major as most people who attempt it.
Wait, two: Shouldn't "aliquatenus" be "aliquateni" in the plural? Unless the singular is "aliquatenu", in which case it feels like it should be the same in singular and plural.
That's all. In return for making a great story like this, please these gifts:
This green, disembodied hand whose thumb always points up. It is physically impossible to orient it in any other direction except by changing the direction of the nearest planetary-level strength gravity.
This golden star, which glows from within and gives the wielder +2 to Radiation Sickness risk, as well as providing a source of yellow light. It explodes on contact with nylon and duplicates on contact with cotton. Don't ask how.
That's all I have today. I'm gonna go back to being that one shopkeeper.
I am regretting reading this less and less. Considering I stopped regretting it around when Scoots used magic in the prologue, I am now actively figuratively patting myself on the back for reading this.
But I'd like to thank you for writing this.
And mention that finding out where your family is wouldn't be that hard, so please don't cancel this.
This is a really good start. You can bet I'll be continuing with it.
On that note, you should too.
Here, some tokens of my esteem.
*Clicks two choice buttons*
Oh wow, this is how you do a memory loss story. I do quite enjoy the idea of waking up in your normal home, everything being totally different, and having to be re-taught everything. It's reminding me of the epic Asylum by Daemon of Decay.
Please, sir, do continue.
What 3411563 said.
Seriously loving the Final Fantasy vibe here. Keep it up, the story is getting quite interesting now...
Teletubbies come out to— Nope! I'm not making that joke...
Happy for a return, kinda annoyed that it's not brand new content.
Hopefully you get some time and inspiration to continue this soon.
I'm super glad I never took this off my Favorites List.
Holy crap... this is by far the oldest story that's come back from a chronic vegetative state after this long.
6849788 You definitely haven't heard of my more popular story "The Dancer" then (3 and a half years for like 20-30k words?)
6849874 As hard as it is to believe with me appearing in comment sections apparently everywhere; I am not, as rumored, omnipresent.
There are many stories I have yet to pollute with my presence.
Sooooooooo, if they were abroad... the spell didn't know about them.
This does rather hint of a limited scope to the effect, potentially a simulation overlaying the reality rather than a true alternate reality. I shall call the Librarians immediately! They deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis! Like that cursed storybook!
I could've sworn that I read this chapter before you disappeared off the face of the planet. Still, it was good to catch up on the story again. :)
It always stops right when it gets good:
