Vermilion didn’t join the Guard to be a hero. He just wanted to escape the farm and his old, boring life.
But now it seems he may have no choice – his unit is being sent to Hollow Shades, a tiny hamlet hidden in the depths of an endless forest, to fight monsters on behalf of Luna and Celestia. When the mission turns into a disaster and the town is lost, Vermilion finds himself at the forefront of an unexpected war, with all of Equestria at stake.
A new dark age has begun. Heroes must be found to guard the flickering lights of civilization. And Vermilion and his friends will discover that monsters are the least of their worries.
Set in the years before Nightmare Moon’s banishment, The World is Filled with Monsters follows a young hero and his friends as they struggle to protect a newfound nation – and discover the cost of greatness.
Art gallery:
Hype!
This Prologue speaks wonders to the adventure ahead
I love it!
This story fills me with foreboding. Excellent work. Love the quirks you given the different tribes.
I am both sad and relieved to say that I forgot how delicious your prose is. Sad, because it's amazing. Relieved, because now I am reminded. And it is, in fact, bloody amazing, please continue.
Incredible stuff, deeply atmospheric. I especially love what you're doing with the psychological and behavioral differences among the tribes. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Well, damn. That is certainly something. I've had one person already ask, why Romance tag?
8140245
The romance becomes a major part of the story in the second act.
Good stuffs. Enjoyed every second of this.
Psst: Celestia and Luna, I know you like 'testing' your heroes... but really, do you need to sacrifice hundreds and thousands.. and sometimes hundreds of thousands... of ponies for your mysterious goals? You're the powergamers here. USE YOUR POWERS TO FIGHT THE MONSTERS!!
Saitama is most displeased with your lack of vision. Just look how annoyed he is!
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/055/401/999.jpg
Ya dun bucked up.
Just a thought... in these darker fanon worlds where ponies are sometimes or frequently KILLED by monsters... one might expect training for military assignments to be a bit more thorough and practical.
This ain't the world of FiM.
They really are woefully unprepared for this. Their formations are sloppy, they don't take advantage of each tribes natural attributes to back up the others, they clearly never had any formal combat training, and they leave themselves open constantly.
Ugh, it's like watching the humiliating initial Union defeats in the American Civil War all over again.
This Celestia fails at life for sending such children against monsters.
I am so hype for this story.
Holy Mirkwood, Batman!
This is a very promising story so far and I am glad to be able to read it.
Oh, Laws, the doom that's coming for these adorable little horses.
As usual, love your OC work and the details about pony mindset. Good color and sense of escalating horror. I think we need to thank whoever named a town "Hollow Shades" on the official map, because we fanficcers tear into loaded names like jackals.
On the one hand, there was no magic powerpoint.
On the other hand, the intel troop is a weirdo with no social skills.
Verisimilitude achieved. 10/10, most accurate war story on Fimfic.
For real, though, CiG, your writing is always top notch and, for lack of a more articulate phrase, full of heart. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the story.
I'm loving the way you're slowly building up the ominous mood.
And like 8140148 says, the differences between pony breeds, and how clearly inexperienced and unwarlike the ponies are, despite this being a military unit, are really nice. They're herd animals, not fierce warrior beasts... yet they're giving soldiering their best try.
This explains so much about Rainbow Dash.
Canopy may be a badass, but she's no diplomat. Still, at least the troops are getting some helpful context.
Meanwhile, fate seems to have taken a great interest in Vermillion. This is by no means a good thing, but it may mean that the worst-case scenario won't come to pass
Oh, man, that description of a farm-house floor... envy's a sin, but a hard one to resist. I wish I'd written that.
What an excellent start. Quicklime seems to be an interesting addition to the crew, and I like the realism of the moment when nobody volunteers to take her on as an extra duty. Vermillion, at least, is kind to her, even if it isn't for the reasons Quicklime thinks, but I can see that his opinion of her might be shifting a bit.
I feel like Quicklime's assurance about the spiders is a red herring of sorts. I mean, from a meta standpoint, ad cool as giant spiders are as a threat, I have a feeling that it's going to end up being something more. And that's exciting!
I like the detail you put in about the difference between the pony tribes, like how pegasus ponies are just constantly perching on things. Neat little detail, and it adds to the overall feeling the world is giving me.
I always so enjoy how you write pegasi.
I'm kind of concerned that the pony who knows about monsters knows that there are cats that can get that large, too.
I feel like that's likely foreshadowing for whatever is about to go wrong.
Welp, you've got soldiers down pat.
Another military story!
I have fond memories of being deployed with a small team in Baghdad. I mean, we were just fixing the network, no combat, but still. This story is already capturing the same feeling of camaraderie. I'm hyped!
I'm feeling a theme.
Hmn, that's more like an actually house cat sized spider. Definitely better than bus sized, probably.
Earth ponies confirmed to be hobbits.
First chernglerngs and now giant spiders... Equestria is really making my case for inventing RAID!!
I could make a killing selling pesticides to the locals...
I give a 50/50 chance of Vermilion and Quicklime ending up becoming an item, or literally all of Vermilion's friends dying before act 2.
This chapter is so good. Giant spiders are terrifying! I didn't even think about how effective the webs could be in hampering pegasai.
Heh
Isn't that how it always works? Unless he's been in the TARDIS or something...
Yeah, Murphy's just been taunted. This won't end well, but then again, we knew that from the story description.
And from that description comes a larger worry. Although the spiders aren't pushovers, this whole thing has been rather straightforward so far: ponies go in expecting giant spiders, they find giant spiders, and they fight them.
I'm guessing setting fire to the ravine will be the arachnid equivalent of kicking the hornets nest, although Cold may pull a fast one on us and make it look like they won. Regardless, nopony has yet asked a more fundamental question - why have these spiders started attacking now?
Given the overall description of the story, I'm banking on the 'something worse has pushed them out of the deep forest' scenario.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I love that smell in the morning!
8144528 probs gonna turn into zambie rush.
That cave leads to Atlach-Nacha (or maybe Ungoliant) and she's gonna be pissed about someone roasting her children on her doorstep.
That moonfire sounds like it's really nasty stuff. I wonder if it's banned, or even entirely forgotten, in modern-day Equestria...
Also, I like the mix of awe and fear the Hollow Shades ponies seem to have for unicorns. And even the Everfree ponies keep a wide berth when unicorns are doing unicorn things in their laboratory. Compared to the present-day Equestria of the show, it's clear that the three tribes are nowhere near as well united or integrated. (And though I don't think it's been stated outright, I get the feeling that everypony would feel offended if someone brought up the possibility of, say, a unicorn and an earth pony as a couple.)
Princess Of All Firebombs. Or Pony Phosphorus?
She's Ungoliant, or close kin to her.
Horribly awesome.
I just reread the prologue, and now I'm pretty scared.
We know from it that Vermillion survives, but...what happens to him, now?
Nice
Pony napalm is terrifying.
Well, that escalated quickly. Suitably epic end for the major.
Holy crap.
Poor canopy. I liked her. But I suspect that this is the kind of story where liking a character means they aren't long for the world.
Tsk tsk, you never assume victory when you haven't seen the bodies of your foes.
Anime tropes have taught me this!
Well, this was interesting. What I'm wondering now is if Blightweaver and her (fairly sure she's a her) brood the only things out there, or will other monsters turn up? I would think the first option's more likely for now, but I can't be sure.
Regardless, their spiders' entrance into Equestria proper should be... something. I really think Gloom's Edge may not be around for long, either, at this point.
I sort of expected this to be a few weeks of degradation. I was genuinely thrown that this was set the next day.
First named character death, and I suspect there will be more.
Alondro merely glances at the eight-legged freak with a bored expression. "You have size," he notes. "And that's about it. You're material. A god is more than that. Much more. You have no idea what a god really is. A god the size of an ant would destroy you with a thought. You're a bloated beast too big for its own good. I've killed things a thousand times you in bulk."
And the one who followed the training of the Caped Baldy splattered the so-called god across a wide swath of the forest. With one punch.
(When something powergames, just powergame harder!)
8146484 Or "It" in its spider form!
They need some kids with a slingshot.
man. the best part so far has been the interactions between the tribes. theres just somethings that are so ingrained into the society, and to have it salt and peppered through the story is fantastic. I wonder, is quicklime how you got around having a unicorn in their squad?
8146965
Well, we're still only in Act I...