• Member Since 23rd Jan, 2014
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NorrisThePony


Horseword maintenance and installation specialist. Mareschizo extraordinaire.

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Time after time, through chaos and through wars, Princess Celestia prevailed.

Of all the terrible forces she could have fallen to, Flim Flam Industry was the last one anypony had expected.


With thanks to gardrek for editing (3-6) and PinkieDP, Ice Star, and Odd_Sarge for prereading help.

Chapters (25)
Comments ( 1059 )

Very well done! I'd like to see a follow up to this, just to see her remind these fools just who she is.

Great story! Brought me close to tears ;;

I really want a sequel now!:fluttercry:

Very good. Needs a follow-up though.

Great story, but it needs a follow-up/epilogue/whatever.

Fuck a cock, Flim and Flam. Always hated you fuckers.

Definitely great. And definitely needs a chapter two - The New Dawn.

My God. Or my Celestia in this case. Cannot describe in words what this made me feel.

Damn. Needs a sequel now. Can't just leave it at that!

Imma have to say nay to this story. Not badly written but it is just enormously implausible that Celestia would allow things to progress to this point. And that she would be so unable to utterly reverse anything flim and flam could do. She could easily tear down the infastracture and rebuild it. She is the one who ruled for a millenia alone, what could they have done that she could not figure out?

then again i have the mindset that the timelines became more and more false as the cycle continued. Flim and Flam was the least plausible and the least stable, loside of outside destruction.

Besides, normal ponoes could easily deal with them.

6693555 Not trying to be rude or defensive, but several of the points you object to are brought up in the story.

Celestia did not allow Equestria to get to that point, it got to that point through war and destruction. They waged a World War. Twice, if you consider the changeling invasion (which was left ambiguous here). Resources were used or destroyed. Parts of Equestria fell into despair, but, like in our own society, others prospered from the war: namely, the industries, including Flim and Flam. Also, Celestia states it herself in the story: Flim and Flam were pompous and irritating, but they were also inventive and productive, two things Equestria was in dire need of considering its crapsack state. You may think McDonalds is evil, but you can't deny they're good for an economy.

Furthermore, yes, Celestia is the ruler of her subjects, but her role and authority is still defined by them. If the greater majority of her subjects decide to revolt against her, what is she going to do? Kill them? And if there's one thing we've seen, it's that Flim and Flam have a fairly positive impact on the minds of the common ponies. They managed to convince a loyal-to-the-core farming community to turn away from their beloved founding family. Twice. Obviously they have a way with words, and in a timeline where they are billionaires, those words can travel far. Again, we see it in real-life all the time. Keep in mind this is a timeline where ponies know that Celestia has killed her own sister and failed to stop a foe from killing her niece (this is justified, both times, but still). It isn't completely unreasonable to assume they were capable of imbellishing the facts to paint Celestia in a terrible light.

Finally, in the context of this story Celestia is weak from her fight with Tirek. He was equally matched against Twilight (who had the power of four alicorns) and Celestia still had to face him, completely alone and with only her magic. She (somehow) won, but at great cost to herself. Flim and Flam took over at a point when she was basically fighting to stay alive from her injuries.

Again. I don't mean to come across as standoffish or unaccepting of criticism here, but you've generalized a bit too cruelly. I admit I glossed over the backstory, but I did this because it isn't the point of the narrative. If I wanted that to be the focus, I would have started the story then. I didn't, I wanted the focus to be an exploration of Celly's mental state after all these villains have come and gone. It's a drama story, not a war-time slice of life. Rich political undertones would just be a diversion from the story I set out to write.

Thank you for reading anyways. Sorry it wasn't your cup of tea.

Definitely needs a sequel!

Pretty good, and needs a sequel. But getting rid of everything Flim and Flam did would be a bad idea; most of it like the corrupt state would be bad, but stuff like the higher tech? That'd be fine.

6693616

Furthermore, Celestia is the ruler of her subjects, but her role and authority is defined by them. If the greater majority of her subjects decide to revolt against her, what is she going to do? Kill them?

Thank you for finally spelling this out! I've seen this point made so many times, that Celestia's position could never be threatened by any "mortal" pony because she's a powerful mage. Well, unless she wants to rule by force, yes it can. The alternative is putting brainwashing helmets on everypony like Sombra did.

I'm glad to see such an awesome fic about the Flim Flam universe. That was never really explained in the show, and it mostly looked like they had taken over just Ponyville, not all of Equestria. This is a good explanation for how they could have ruled Equestria. Science becoming greater than magic, even though Flim and Flam are unicorns. More like...magi-tech.

Good story. Really plausible.

they could not reverse the damage it’s enchanted head had done to her.

its

this strange mares face as she imitated it in synchronization.

mare's

She was also holding a platter containing the princesses breakfast

princess's

as it’s colourful paint job boasted

its. It's is an abbreviation of it is, so this sentence is supposedly 'it is colourful paint job boasted'.

knowing she could not silence the Princesses voice

Princess's

You counter proposal has been accepted

Your

How could she have forgotten her own nieces birthday?!

niece's

had been getting by without feeling it’s wondrous heat

its

6694410 Ah geez. This is what happens when you hurriedly revise your own stories in an hour between classes. I need to get a darn editor.

Fixed. Thanks for pointing those out.

So great...words cannot describe.

Pony authors are best authors!

Please, please, please make a sequel to this.

It's fabulous.

Interesting. Figures that it would take a corporation to bring Celestia down and find a way to use her. Nothing a CEO can't destroy when going at it with enough passion. :trixieshiftright:
Original, nicely written, very enjoyable.

This was really good.

6694903
The CEO is just an employee, like a chancellor. Everyone rants and raves at how nasty and selfish and low-down he is while he goes about the kingdom's business but it's the king who wanted him and supports him and ultimately replaces him with another when the heat gets too high. You can bet Flim and Flam have some real slimeball running the meetings and talking to the press while they sit back and play at not knowing what's really going on. And when he becomes too embarrassing, they'll pick out a "reformer" who'll gradually turn into a slimeball until he, too, needs replacing. Never mind who the CEO is: check who owns the stocks. That's where the real villains lie.

Very good! Still needs a follow-up, though.:twilightsmile:

6695411 A CEO is like a chancellor... Senator Palpetine was a chancellor, Senator Palpatine was Darth Sidious a great and terrible sith lord...

Sith lord... CEO's are Sith lords. it all makes sense now.

6695706
Thats poor comparison, you should fell bad more making it. Companies are more like Hydra

6695806 You would know...

You filthy Hydra swine! I see you for what you truly are... well you can send your winter soldier at me all you want foul nazi scum!

I will never stop spreading the truth that is SITH!CEO's

Great expansion on just how Flim and Flam of all ponies could have taken over Equestria. After everything else Celestia had to endure, all without the Elements (and especially without Luna), guess it was too much. And those two were always persuasive (and/or ponies are stupid). Would be nice to read more, but just a glimpse of Celestia in that last awful world was great.

I find it odd nopony tried to just off Flim and Flam when it became painfully obvious they were wicked.

Seriously, just get one pissed-off dragon after them. Anything less than an alicorn is essentially helpless against a dragon.

I just find it hard to believe the ponies blamed Celestia when she was instrumental for stopping all these villains in this world... all because of the word of two A-holes?

If the ponies really are that stupid and gullible... maybe they do deserve President Hillary! (BWAH HA HA HA HA!! :trollestia:)

Nice tale. A good take on how that alternative timeline could be.

But you refer to the scroll as a Sunset scroll in one instance, and a Sunrise one in another, just a note.

6696560 Yeah, it happened unintentionally when I was writing, and I actually did catch it, but ultimately I decided I liked what it implicitly said about the minds of the characters. Celestia always refers to it as a "sunrise scroll" and Shining Armour instinctively calls it a "sunset scroll." Really, the scroll is both, it's used to raise and lower the sun, but calling it a sunset scroll/sunrise scroll is kinda like the old "glass is half-empty/half-full" idiom.

6696460 I'm inclined to believe that maybe the ponies are that gullible, after basically spending the last three years in varying degrees of Hell with Celestia stumbling to manage life between them. All they've ever known, for like, a thousand years, is peace, then suddenly shape-shifting bugs and magic devouring demons and spirits of chaos... and when all the dust clears there's still a crapload of stuff to be done. Anypony offering a quick-fix (like a large-scale Cider problem) would probably be welcomed pretty warmly.

In that vein...

"...when it became painfully obvious they were wicked."

I'm not 100% positive it would've become painfully obvious. A ridiculous amount of money can do a lot of things, including sweep controversy under the rug and promote exaggerated yet convincing propaganda self-image.

Yeahhh...it's far-fetched and I'm aware of it. I'm no student of the political sciences, and even I look at my cynicism with disdain, but ultimately I didn't conceive the timeline, I'm just trying my best to make sense of it.

The irony here is that if she just died, it's likely they'd all be in a world of hurt... Yet it seems they'd be happy to see her go. I guess fools can seek their own demise pretty well.

6696299
It seems like Celestia let them, convinced for the moment that it was for the best.

Interesting, but I feel like I'm missing a lot: how much Alternative Universe is this?

Cadance is dead? Why, how? What happened to Luna? Twilight?

When Celestia breaches the smog cover I couldn't help but think of that scene in the matrix.

In this Universe, will Celestia recover from her injuries when exposed to the sun? It is implied it is but I'm not quite sure.

6696640 Running with the assumption you've already watched the finale.

I figured that since it's rooted in an alternate timeline depicted in canon, I could get away with not using the Alt-Universe tag. It's established what canonical alternative timeline this is in from the get-go, so I'm comfortable not using the tag. And for this timeline to happen, we know that Celestia would have had to defeat Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Discord, Sombra, and Tirek. The firstmost example gives you your answer with Luna, and explains Celly's trauma. As for Cadence, I imagine she escaped the crystal caves herself, and distracted Chrysalis long enough for Celestia to break from her pupa-prison and engage Chrysalis properly. Kinda like Zecora, actually. The downside is, Chrysalis kills Cadence just as Celestia breaks free. Twilight failed her exam because the Rainboom never happened, and therefore never became Celestia's student. Nonetheless Celestia still knows about her through Shining Armour.

Also, that's a very, very good moment in that movie. Wasn't on my mind when I was writing, but you're right, it fits quite well. Now just imagine Rage Against The Machine blasting as Celestia tells Flim and Flam that she's going to show Equestria a world without their control, and whatever they want to happen next is "a choice she leaves with them."

Hold on, was this set in someone else's verse or was this an episode? I'm very confused now. If it was in the show then damn, that's dark.

Also, this may just have been me, but I would have preferred an ending where Celestia did end up writing her own death. But this is still amazing without that.

6696791 The final episode of season 5 spoilers here. I gave you the minimum possible context, so as to spoil as little as possible.

Twilight visits an alternate future in which the Flim Flam brothers rule the world.

6696601 A fantastic explanation for how the Flimflam brothers could take over. Especially to the idea that to the average pony, things may actually seem peaceful. Sure the environment sucks, but there is peace, and marvelous new inventions to buy. People don't start resenting the downsides of an industrial revolution until they are several decades in. I do wonder what Celestia will do now: especially if most ponies actually like the factories and jobs, smog and all.


6695411 That's a great point. The real tyrant is the shareholder, which includes all of us with any mutual funds or 401ks.

6696873 ...Huh. So basically going along the medieval Europe route at a hyper-accelerated pace and some radicalness then, eh?

6693616 lordofmyth is a brainless cumdumpster that tries to pick a fight with anything/anyone that goes against his "headcanon"

Just don't even give him the time of day and he'll go away.

Woo! That was fun!
The ending made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

This is probably the only story that has had me womdering whether the main character will live or not until the final sentance, litterally. I thought she'd get caught after she escaped .

6696601 Well, in that particular timeline, we only had a glimpse of Flim and Flam plowing one relatively small section of Equestria down. To extend that momentary view to their basically 'taking over the world' is a bit of a reach.

Smart businessmen also know that it's far better to USE the rulers to your advantage than to supplant them.

Think the mega-rich industrialists of the monopolies in America. They didn't want to rule. Ruling creates all manner of problems which they'd rather not deal with. It'd interfere with the business of accumulating wealth and make them visible public targets. They just bought leaders who'd do what they wanted.

I could see Flim and Flim being that sort, propping up a weakened Celestia while using her to get all manner of laws passed making it easier for them to fleece the populace with their corporate machine.

Are you going to make a sequel? This is awesome, I would like to see Celestia bring the world back to its former glory.

6696712 Ah there's my error, I haven't actually watched the finale yet :D

6697969 You totally should! It's very good!

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