This story is a sequel to The Wandering Physicist Adventures
FAQ for this story: FiM Fic version (updated two weeks after every new chapter) and GDoc version (constantly updated and edited)
Over a thousand years ago, Discord killed Princess Celestia before he was finally defeated. Five hundred years ago, Queen Luna was overthrown and had to lead a brutal rebellion to reunite Equestria and give birth to the New Lunar Republic. Twenty years ago, an alien invasion was repulsed at the expense of all but one of the Elements of Harmony. A year ago, Queen Luna's oldest daughter disappeared without a trace, possibly never to return.
The world has recovered from all of the tragedies of the past and is more prosperous, more advanced, and more peaceful than ever. Ponies, Griffins, Zebras, Dragons, Donkeys, Buffalo, and all of the other sentient species of the world love and tolerate one another but under the surface, tensions between nations are brewing.
When the Elements of Harmony start finding a new masters, the other nations start fearing that Equestria is planning military strikes. With their mentors guidance, the new Elements of Harmony have to unite and avert the collapse of the New Lunar Republic before it is too late.
Author's note: This is a side story to the universe introduced in The Wandering Physicist Adventures's Crossroads, Origins, and Letters from Home. Knowledge of that other series is not required, but those stories provide a good basis for extra information about this series.
Character References: On tumblr - On Deviant Art - Warning: Contains spoilers and peanut products.
Image source by ponyKillerX. I would love to have some unique art for this series, but my art skills are not that good nor do I have the funds to commission one. *sadface*
This looks extremely intriguing. I will definitely look at this later.
Intriguing is the word.
(Also, try to put spaces between paragraphs, otherwise my eyes hurt just looking at the page.)
Nice psyche reference btw.
Is what I would imagine would happen after James broke the news to her. She would deny and go looking for her sister.
Ooo, what secret?
2596650
Well, it is a secret
It gets hinted at by the point when I get writers block... One of the things that would definitely get addressed once the block is over (among other fun secrets).
Ooo, this just got serious...
and obviously Rainbow's cutie is part Rainbow Pie, part Rainbow Dash and part Pinkie Pie! 
2604554
Wow. I thought that little touch wouldn't really get picked up on. Yes, she is a combo of
and 
depending on the situation. No, she is the only one like that. ... Sort of. Depends on how you want to interpret a character I wish I could introduce if could just get writing this story again.
I could try and help you, like write a sort of base, and you can add your special style to it. I mean how hard could it be?
Oh darn it I shouldn't have said that...
I can't believe Veda didn't comment on the notes for this chapter... Oh well. Shaun pointed out what would have been said anyway
Hey look who it is
WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN YOU LITTLE
2967923he was writing awesome stories that happen not to be this story
2967963 I apologize then really like this story though
2967970
In all honesty, I was stuck at:
'I'm not drunk enough for this.'
for the past year
I had major writer's block moving this chapter forward and went through three rewrites. I never wanted to quit this story. Never.
I appreciate you sticking around. New chapters will be sporadic, but they are on the way.
2967981 fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/170/a/4/this_pleases_fluttershy__by_rainbowdash0222-d542iuc.jpg
now that i have finally seen this story update, you got your 14th upvote
EDIT: for this story
To all RoH readers:
Sorry for the long delay with the new chapter. I got mired in work for my other story I'm writing right now. Most of it was actually stuff relating to RoH, but that is for another day
(Also, I've been doing art for EqD's Artist Training Ground on my Art Blog. That really cut into my usual writing time.)
Please enjoy this current chapter. Again, sorry for the delay. Hopefully it will be less than a month until chapter 12.
3163916 considering the difference between the two iron pony chapters, i dont think this counts as a above average wait
No offence intended, but how the hell did this get into the featured box with only 20 likes?
3308469
The number of likes don't mean a thing.
It comes down to how frequent the likes showed up, how frequent the comments show up, how frequently someone clicks on the story, and how frequent people favorite it.
So, here an example, if it gets flooded with likes, a certain number of views, and favorites within say ... 5 seconds, it raises its chances of getting featured; especially if the story just recently updates or gets posted.
just a thought, because i cant really remember if it was touched on, but who is Twilight Sparkle(in this universe)? we know she was TWP's love interest and she merged with him in the events that lead towards discords creation, but how does her backstory work in the Rebirth of Harmony? heck how did episode 1 work, where the elements gathered in the effort against nightmare moon(who obviously did not exist)... now to read the rest of the chapter
and then i get to this....
just... wow...
more TWP headcannon holes aquired! specifically if cadence has been ruling the crystal empire for a long time because no sombra, would that invalidate her foalsitting of twilight? becaue i could see that totally having an effect on twilight. although there may have been several other threats this basically removed the need for the elements at all. no nightmare for formation. Dsicord is compliant, no chaos there. im assuming no chrysalis because cadence would have been at the empire while shining at canterlot doing guard stuff. Last but not least sombra is only a regent.
now for a comment on the quality of the chapter.
as the main universe i can see some major continuity errors when view from the context of the cannon universe. without additional threats there are no need for the elements, but spotting holes like these has always been the best part of watching/reading stories so this was a fun chapter for me. the children of celestia a a fun if quirky addition, because of the nature of the main universe that is RoH means they or variations there upon exist in TWP. EDIT: i just re-read the authors note, damnit me. END EDIT despite this i felt the death of Sunburst to be a little soon, giving me no time to get invested in these characters. i can only hope that the death/departure of the other two is after some more group building so it holds a little more weight with me.
just a bit more feedback, you did a flashback to timeskipped events before the master game in SC, perhaps we could see some of the cannon events reworked to this universe through similar chapters... the only downside would be that RoH has a more linear story line that has less room for flashback chapters.
3331974
Okay... Let's go through these one at a time and see what I can pull out...
1) Twilight's backstory was that she was Luna's best student and was sent to Ponyville to arrange their version of the Summer Sun Festival aka the Celestia Sun Festival. While there, the Elements of Harmony realigned to herself and the rest of the Mane6. (A fixed point in time for Doctor Who fans out there.) In RoH, the Elements are treated as something that disappear or realign to new owners and are not really anti-bad guy beams most of the time.
2) Sombra's full title is Regent Sombra XXVI. It is just shorter to leave out the the Roman numerals since someone like Rainbow will try to pronounce them phonetically, and that might be a good idea for a joke in a few chapters...
3) Cadance and the Crystal Empire will be dealt with at the same time as Sombra. Chrysalis will be shortly thereafter. Also, who said Cadance has been ruling the whole time? If we check the Crystal Heart book (good read, but poor use of Trixie since it was supposed to be post S3), we see that Cadance was still a filly (or at least preteen) when she was princessed, something backed up by the Shining Armor comics when they were in high school together, thus putting them at the same age. Cadance could have been princessed and tutored on how to be a princess by Luna, thus giving her time to babysit Twilight and seduce Shining before she assumed her role in the Crystal Empire.
4) Corona is the RoH Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer is my second favorite character in FiM. Do you think she is going to have only a cameo or minor role in the story? (I actually had to work her back in when I realized one planned event wasn't given enough time to develop).
5) As for other threats to the Republic, there includes the Nightmares from the Nightmare Rarity comics (mentioned briefly in this chapter) as well as other potential threats that might require the Elements, though likely just requiring the group of six friends. As this story is showing, the Elements as a magical wreaking balls is only a small part of their role compared to their role as idols and national symbols. Just because Discord wasn't flying around all the time requiring him to get stoned constantly, doesn't mean mean there wasn't a need for national symbols otherwise. A thousand years of known and unknown unknowns is a lot of time.
6) As for flashbacks... I did have one planned for Alba, but that was going to be a different beast entirely. Since I don't know what sort of things you are looking for in the flashbacks, I don't know if they can apply in the same manner as Alba's adventure or if you are just looking for how the TWP/SCS universe differs from the RoH universe. Most of the differences would boil down to one line explanations from me:
Gilda was more accepting of Dash's friends. Trixie and Twilight worked together the first time they met. James wasn't as depressed as he was in TWP. Sunset Shimmer is not as power hungry as in EqG. The Doctor failed to stop the Daleks at the wedding. Etc. Simple things like that.
Like you said, RoH is linear and will remain that way. Any important elements that don't get touched on in later chapters are free (and encouraged) to be discussed in the comments.
Maybe this world is supposed to be filled with holes and only had a fleeting existence. Nah! That would imply there was something fundamentally wrong with the creation of the RoH universe. I mean, it's sole purpose couldn't have been the creation of Rei to send her to the TWP/SCS universe, could it? Does it even have a deeper purpose?
(Will I ever stop this game of meshing RoH with TWP/SCS? Nope!
... Well, maybe once RoH is over...)
Edit: I think this comment is longer than the SCS I'm going to be posting in about 12hr >_>
Honestly, I would have thought the comments would have been jokes about the last two parter in this series.
Children of Celestia, part 2 coming this time next year!
Not really. I have a good part of it started already. It should be finished and posted sometime next week. Getting a lot more RoH for a while. (Good. Since I need it done for SCS...)
Mordred as if that doesn't sound evil at all.
Nice choice
3372700 exactly, when making an obvious villain, you need a evil name.(he should even look evil, what with being black and red)
on another note, was this nine day gap the longest wait yet?/sarcasm.... good work on the timely upload of a good chapter.
just a point, in the previous chapter, Corona's mother tp'ed everyone out then put up a shield, what was stopping her from tping herself out then putting a similar/the same shield up?
seriously? you are gonna pull that on her character, then have the Emperor of Griffin kind do some asshole move to try and kill all of them? good way to be mean to your characters...
edit, i also seem to remember it was mentioned that other nations were afraid of the elements being used as a magical superweapon
luna's solution, send the new elements to another country to meet with its RULERS in what could possibly be an assasination attempt. or if the elements were to be feared like a nuke, a act of aggression(like sending troops to "visit" for no reason other than to say these troops are not to be feared)
3372700
Something that is going in a future note is that I am trying to keep naming consistent across my stories. Whereas TWP/SCS have characters named Uther and Arthur in two chapters, it felt right that the evil griffin emperor continue the Arthurian trend and get an appropriate name.
3374940 Now I'm awaiting a unicorn mare named Morgana.... dear lord why did I say that?
3372759
Makes you wonder how she only had one civil war in the Republic's history. Maybe if Celestia was around, she could have taught her sister some better ruling techniques.
As to your question about Sunburst, short version: Plot. Long version: Plot convenience.
Edit: Also, we have a ruler who hates ponies with the most politically charged group of ponies in them middle of his kingdom and hints of an absent prince swirling about. How would he not want to use that for advantage on the world stage when things go south?
does razzly have a cutie mark? if so what is it? i have not been able to find it.
EDIT: it is for fan art purposes
3401086
OH! I never mentioned cutie marks in the series! (Probably should for the CMC and others in SCS too...) Sorry about that. It has been about half a year since I even drew them on any character. Just started getting back in that habit after changing James' to something easy to draw. ... Might need to update TWP...
Anyway!
No. Her's is a dark purple berry.
Apple: Three green apples in the same configuration as Applejack.
Rainbow: Normally, a cloud, but can change to a cloud with rainbow lightning or a set of rainbow balloons whether she is channeling Rainbow Dash or Pinkie
Helios: A sun, sort of like those seen in Mesoamerican art. Crudely rendered here
Alba: A six-pointed star like Twilight Sparkle's except being more crystalline, sort of like in Twilight's crown
Razzly: Just like on her dress here! jk! Wrong Razzly
Everyone else's is just like their TWP/SCS counterparts.
so in the interest of doctor who, have you watched the 50th anniversary special?
EDIT: first anything you have posted since the episode was broadcast
3528584
Yeah. I finished this chapter Wednesday morning and it was ready for posting since that evening. I hated sitting on this chapter for so long, especially with my 'Post RoH as they come' rule, but I wanted something to post with the episode.
[Edit: Rest is repeated in my blog]
just reading the chapter through, got to this part
why the hell are they using Dalek weaponry?
3662688
Because evil.
Becaue no writer is allowed to use full Celestia or Discord class DEM items straight off the bat because it, unbalances things.
Personally, I prefer to take advantage of a game that allows level and power up grinding, that is, spend time and effort building resources till I can really go to town on my oppnants.
Really nice variation on the main TWP universe, just glad my OCs notes are scure in TWP reality, given his perturbation functions for d jumping.
Look, a double chocolate pudding distraction.
And Chrysalis finaly turns up. Im so slow I didnt work it out from the legends and names offered.
The Nine Billion Names Of God. The Light Of Other Days.
Nice variation on this universes Discord, but those Griffons really need a slap down.
And Angel. Go easy on him.
there are only a few instances in the WHOverse where start went out(for the new series at least, i may have missed a few)
please tell me the daleks are not behind that star going out?
alternately, it was good to see discord in this universe, he was handled fairly well.
3771797
The RoH Discord genocided the Daleks as his first act in Origins. There are no more Daleks in the RoH universe. Therefore, something else is at work. Something Alba must solve. Something that makes her furious. Think she can solve it in the last 8 chapters?
Something to be careful of. The confusion between responsibility and ownership, and between illusion and sheer overwealming power.
A Sombra.... as a good pony? This world really is an Alternate Universe.
Who was that unknown guard. We dont know sire but we will return him in a Flash.
First time Alba beats up Flash? Just how many times have you already deliberatly planned his removal, and will there be acidental incidents of the dog in the night time also?
Trixie plays a mean guitar? Brain Mane, Van Manelean, and Jimini Hayricks might have something to say about that.
3949839
How many time does Flash get what he deserves? Not enough.
(I should have her start beating up Trenderhoof too...)
3950695
I soo love dirt.
Well, Eat This.