Five years ago, at the behest of Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance was sent to travel the world beyond Equestria's borders as a diplomatic envoy. During that time, she learned to move through political circles, wining and dining with the world's elite. Back home, her former classmate, Twilight Sparkle, has since proven her mastery of magic and been elevated to the ranks of Celestia's revered guard: the Battle Mages.
The two foalhood friends suddenly find themselves together again when Cadance is recalled to Equestria without warning and Twilight is given her first official tour of duty: protect Princess Cadance at all cost from both new and ancient threats. Now they are forced to navigate a world of assassins and diabolical plots that stretch back before the very founding of Equestria itself.
Big editing thanks goes to Bubble Boom for the first 8 or so chapters.
Any and all mistakes are otherwise mine.
Also big pre-reading thanks to Misago.
I will read this when I have more time, but I must say...
FINALLY.
What is this I don't even
Hmmmm...... I've only read a handful of stories where Twilight uses her magic to become a battle mage. Honestly, I enjoyed them thoroughly. The thought of Twilight wreaking havoc against her enemies with spells of destruction appeals to my imagination to the fullest. Looking forward to reading this once I've finished up the other story I'm currently wrapped up in.
FINALLY A STORY WHERE TWILIGHT ACTUALLY SHOWS HER RAW ABILITIES AS A BADASS. Plus there's no dark tag. We need more stories with this concept. Already liked.
A complete 42k story deserves more attention!
it seems to trail off around here... I'll read the rest later.
my reaction to reading the blurb
twilight......guard......badflank............ DING
is there goanna be a sequel
Yay! Finally MLD is easy to read!
Also, congrats on the feature, Fuzzy!
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Yup. And it is already 7 chapters along. I post them as they are first drafted, in the Twidance collab that is hosted by ArguingPizza. If you want to read them, you can start here.
6596888 ok then i will give this a try
Most readers have probably commented at the end, but I just have to say here and now: Rogue Cadance already seems awesome.
About time this mofo got compiled! There goes my free time!
Not sure how I feel about Twadence. Must study further.
I'm a bit comfused. Are the characters anthro or normal pony.
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They are full on Pony. Hooves, little snoots and all.
6601633 ok thanks. A couple places just felt... bipedal to Me. Thanks for clearing that up
Hmmmmm......first chapter finished. So far you have captured my attention. Not only have you introduced Twilight as a battlemage, but a fully grown Spike as well!? Awesome!!
I have always enjoyed a good fantasy novel, most of them dealing with dragons, warriors and mages alike. With this premise alone your story has captured me. I enjoyed this first chapter very much and look forward to reading the rest. Small correction. Nothing big, has nothing to do with the story. Just a small grammatical hiccup> Shesmiled when Twilight blushed and then turned, looking up at Spike as the drake rose on all fours to tower above them both. Where is da space? Why you no have space!? WHY!!?? (cough cough) excuse me, lost myself for a moment. Carry on!
Ok. So spike has two forms? That's pretty awesome!! Nicely done.
6597774 I agree. So far this story has some pretty awesome depths to it. Rogue Cadence, Battlemage Sparkle, Spike being able to transform from bi-pedal to full-on bad-ass-dragon mode. I, myself am enjoying this story so far and it only depresses me that I have made it this far. Only because it means the end of another good story is near. Bah.
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Oooh, good catch! Fixed.
Also, I'm glad you are enjoying it. Pretty soon the sequel will hit the 10th chapter and I'm thinking I might start dropping that one bit by bit until it finishes up.
Gah!! A cliffhanger!! Curse you!! Although, you have redeemed yourself with the collab. So you are partially forgiven. In my opinion this has proven to be a great story so far. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the collab and seeing where the story is going to go. Well done.
Oh yeah, looks like I was right. You are a great writer because this story is awesome. This is also a good chapter to take a break at since I can't just sit here all day reading. Definitely looking forward to the rest.
I gotta say I am digging the Celestia obsessed Chrysalis. It just seems to add something to her character.
Oh wow, I wonder if Cadence is going to go into the forest and get fucked
Edit: Jesus christ, calm down i like this story, its just a prank
This is a common mistake. It's written Coltlombian (Colombia), not Coltlumbia (Columbia).
Trust me, that is my country.
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Good catch! I'll fix that.
This shipper smells Wincest. XD
...There will be a sequel, right?
6637219 Where did you get the icon for your avatar?
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Yes, there is a sequel in the works, about 15-20K words so far. It'll be out purdy soon.
6692528 but i need it now
god dam it spike thats just stupid you dont allow anything inside a secured area
Is this a remake of a previous fic?
Lol
I feel that it is strange that "close friends" are still using a title more than a name to address on another. Cadance is always called Princess despite us also being given her nickname of "Cady". Although, this could just be Twilight feeling she has to act the part while on duty and Cadance not correctly or teasing her about it.
Celestia and NMM had a fling.
Then why bring Cadance back to Canterlot, was the assassin on the zeppelin with her and they are making Celestia a juicier target?
"Ugh, I hate this new reform the Princesses pushed through. I just want to buck one of them in the face."
"Dude, you would such a Twilight Sparkling before you even got within a 100 meters of a princess. "
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pffft.
Exactly
Guess it is time to make up for all that college experimenting that got missed.
I don't trust her. And I know Chryssi and Tia probably had some relations.
Ooooooooh shit.
Heh, I suspect Celestia knows who Crhyssi is disguised as.
HA! It never ended.
What is this about Celestia and Luna losing their god powers? What is the difference between then and now?
Clearly e=Mc^2 does not apply here.
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"get fucked" is what happens to Celestia when Chryssi visits her room.
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It's a scale of raw power, more or less. Before, they were basically worshiped and had immense reserves of magic power to call on. Now they are still far more powerful than the average unicorn or mage, but their power is measured in skill which has been honed for a thousand years, rather than just an ocean of raw force to pull on.
Celestia and Luna would be exceedingly dangerous opponents in battle, but could be overcome by enough incoming fire from other spellcasters. Celestia created her Battlemage corps to make up the difference in her personal lack of power to what she wielded in the distant past. The same is true for Luna and her Shieldmaidens, except she focuses on defense while Celestia is all offense.
7082315 Rip, Celestia
Luna is banging Fluttershy.
Celestia is banging Chrysalis.
And Chrysalis tells Twilight there needs to be more lesbians? It seems like the norm so far.
Hmmmm, what did Chrysalis do to herself to become a changeling? There seems to be hints that she was a unicorn at one point.
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We see some of Luna's power return here, so I think it is safe to say some of this power can be returned after it is expended. So what happened to Celestia's and what prevents her from getting it back?
Is there also some fundamental difference that stops Cadance from reaching this level of power?
I also feel like a lot of chapters disappeared on me. I get the feeling this was 71k words but now it is around 40k words. I am confused.
But assuming you will be writing more, I will address an issue I saw cropping up a bit that kinda annoys me.
The past tense of "lead" is "led". When pronouncing "lead" as "led" it refers specifically to a metal.
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That's probably just me being a derp and missing it when I'm skimming for easy edits. My mistakes are my own.
Celestia gave her power up willingly when Chrysalis inadvertently showed her what she'd become. In their belief system, Celestia was supposed to be a priestess of the Sun and for her devotion, was granted control of the Sun. (basically, the Sun was a deity, Celestia was simply its representative among mortals. In modern Equestria, they no longer worship the Sun as a god, so Celestia's role as a priestess is forgotten by most, while her role as a leader and powerful magic user has remained constant.) But in her hubris, Celestia had allowed herself to become the object of worship and lived like a God-Queen with zero repercussions.
She gave it up and her overwhelming power with it, when Chrysalis came along (as a normal unicorn named Crystal) to try and take Luna's abandoned position as the Moon's priestess. Celestia, at the time, had no intention of sharing her kingdom and goddess-like status with anyone but her sister. But Chrysalis not only wanted the position and power, she also fell in love with this larger than life version of Celestia. That forced Celestia to see what she was doing from another view point and it so rocked her, that she gave up being a goddess in a literal manner. She cut herself off, sealed it away, however you want to phrase it, but she chose to be more like the people she guided.
For the Everfree and the ponies and other critters that lived there, it was essentially the End of the World.
So this AU I'm presenting of Equestria is based on the idea of 'What if the apocalypse happened a long ass time ago? What would evolve, culturally, out of that fallout?' Luna realized that something was wrong and physically left, that's when she went north, met Sombra and sealed away all of the Crystal Empire by using all of that massive 'godhead' power of hers to do it. Celestia held onto hers longer, but Luna's exile started the cracks in her self-righteous beliefs that Chrysalis would break completely a few years later.
The reason Cadance doesn't have that sort of power is simply do to the fact that she is young and has never been worshiped as a goddess incarnate. Given time and enough followers, she could potentially match her aunts in the magical reserves arms race, but they will always have a 1000+ years of practice and training on her.
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So that means that Celestia could unlock her extra power by some means if it is just sealed away. There also seems to be the implication that if ponies started worshipping any alicorn as a goddess, that alicorn would grow in power. To avoid such a power jump, the alicorns can't be too loved.
When you say Luna saw something was wrong, are you talking about something wrong with the society or something wrong with herself? I want to say something wrong with herself just to keep things corresponding with show canon. Do you have blog posts about this AU at all? I really like just knowing the history of different worlds and all the major events (major ranging in importance based on what I find interesting).