Princess Celestia has taken on a new personal student: an unusual young colt named Amethyst Eclipse. When Twilight Sparkle meets Eclipse, he warns her she is fated to "ruin" a magical and mysterious realm that Celestia and Luna have kept a closely guarded secret for centuries—but refuses to tell her more.
Joined by her more scientifically-minded friends, Twilight will try to unravel the mystery before his prediction comes true.
Written for The Writeoff Association's "Under the Sun" contest.
Chapters (14)
Before I read this, I have to ask, how does he know this?
Cue the butthurt from oc haters screaming about ocs being more powerful than canon characters.
Okay, it's a shock enough that he can do it at all at this stage. It's okay to make him a prodigy, but watch your balancing a bit.
Why? If you're going to ask about something like that you should ask your mentor. Unless this has something specifically to do with potions or zebras there's little to no reason to consult her over the princesses.
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That hasn't been fully revealed in the story by the end of the second chapter, so I can't answer it. You must let the story tell you, as it grows.
Maybe you should just do nothing then? You weren't ruining Quifons before. It's clearly a self fulfilling prophecy.
So exactly as she is now, just anti social? K.
So, more toddler than child then.
Zecora: "Well my dear, you've invoked my wrath. We shall take the truth potion path."
That would simplify things if she could do such a thing.
Ooooor that works too.
A good start.
A few issues though:
Celestial behavior sounds wierd, but that could just be me.
then whispered to Celestia again. You chose a colt You missed a quotation mark.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.
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Thanks for the typo catch!
You always come up with the best mysteries. I'm hooked. It sounds self-fulfilling, but we'll see.
What, you mean Equestria Girls universe? That's alright - go on and burn that world to the ground, Twilight.
Approval.
So, it was damaged by magic by law of 'now that you've said it's impossible, now it's not'
DarkAlicorn Magic is the magic of friendship now? kay.Okay, this just sounds silly. Like combining 'Sad' with 'Sabbath'
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I thought of it as alicorn magic activated it, and you can only see the past of those close to you.
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When was the latter ever specified or even indicated in the series?
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To my knowledge, never. I was saying what I think Trick Question meant. I could be very wrong, though.
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Conlangs are always silly. 'Saddeth' apparently means 'death'? Sad Death?
Calling it now, Spike is still young enough to remember and will alert Celestia.
You really don't know Celestia too well do you Twilight? It took mind controlling an entire town, or reducing a bride to tears on her wedding day to get her mildly put out with you. You're trying to avoid destroying this thing, I'm sure she'd do her best to help you not do that.
There's a tongue twister for you.
Nah, I'd guess he's too loyal to Twilight to rat her out when it's not specifically for her own good.
Counter proposal: Maybe Pinkie is still linked to Quifons due to already being a universal exception to everything else.
Twiight will ruin it by ruining it's mystique and ponies will realize it's not as great as it seemed
Well, this is fascinating. I already have a few hypotheses brewing. Eagerly looking forward to seeing where this story goes.
Also, I'm willing to give even odds that Pinkie still remembers Quifons.
TRICK ARGH I HAVE WORK TO DO
Now I won't be able to read this for days!
I'll get you for this…
You know that feeling you get when you know shit's about to hit the fan in a very bad, messy way? I feel that.
Ah, Twidancer, the perfect pairing to pair with intellectual cloak-and-dagger. Meanwhile, Twilight seems to reconnecting with her inner child whether she likes it or not, and Celestia just demonstrated that she has something to hide. On the other hand, now Sunbutt's going to be especially sensitvie to Quifons-related topics. This is going to get even more complicated long before it starts disentangling itself.
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Dang it, you're supposed to be bushy browed grump pone, stop being so damn cute!
Heh, Aryanne would be proud.
I would point out that Moondancer is more asocial than Twilight Sparkle, not less. And yes, that does logically translate to being even less sexually experienced. Both of them would probably get most of their knowledge from books -- but given who and what they are, that might be more knowledge than you might expect.
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Sort of. Over a span of around two years she was definitely more asocial: she became withdrawn and isolated during s01e01, at the same time that Twilight learned about friendship. Prior to that she was marginally more social than Twilight, and we don't know much about what happened to her since they reconnected.
Either way, social experiences don't always hinge on sociality. There are a lot of factors at play. Sometimes homeschool kids end up getting dates, etc.
Oh, this is going to be awesome.
They're asking the same question I had. This. Is. Awesome!
The last one is still an option: Celestia has all reasons to send someone to just spy on Moondancer old-fashion way.
For some weird reason their nerdy discussion of potion consistency reminds me of this small piece from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!":
I am inordinately proud of correctly pronouncing "rubicundcheekometer" the moment I saw it.
In any case, more adorable nerdhorses discussing millennial conspiracies. I do love Twilight's description of human Flash. Now to see how Moondancer reacts to her personal recap...
Well, Celestia knows Moondancer lied about being in recent contact with Twilight, so I wouldn't factor her out as an immediate threat just yet.
Celestia hasn't asked Moondancer before erasing her memory first time when she received supposed note from Twilight but still can derive that either (a) Moondancer received note that morning or (b) she lied about the note and decided to lie just before visiting palace for some reason. Possibility of (b) further decreases probability of Moondancer still not being under heavy pony KGB surveillance. In case of (a) Moondancer is expected to return home, find the note, be very surprised and probably return to the palace to ask "WTF, Celestia?", so it can be used as a test to tell apart (a) from (b) (and Celestia specifically asked Moondancer to tell her if she hear something from Twilight).
On the other hoof Celestia seemed to expect Moondancer and probably not because of surveillance (or she is blowing it too obviously). Maybe Moondancer's visit was predicted and Celestia is so scared of "bad" explanation that she is clinging to "good" one?
That's a bit strange: if they haven't consolidated they should probably be gone forever.
Still, a panicking Celestia is definitely a bad sign. This is how we get plans like "We're putting all our eggs in one basket. Don't tell your friends." I just hope that when this blows up in everypony's faces, there will be some face left afterwards.
At first I was like "Really?" I mean I love me some Glim-Glam, but she's still kinda sorta a bit of a complete sociopath, Twilight. That's why we love her, all trying her best to understand empathy and normal sapient emotions and all.
But then it turned out they were gonna need to perform a bunch of forbidden research using ethically questionable methodologies and everything made sense again.
"Yes, creating this potion requires dragon seed.
Your little friend Spike provides all that I need.
A picture of Rarity I first show him .
Bent over backwards and showing her..."
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Choose one:
quim
trim
rim
brim
FiM
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I had the first one in mind, but I suppose it's up to the reader's imagination.
Oh, so this is going to be a Celestia and Cadence based chapter?
Well it's either moonlight or kissing, those are the only two things you were exposed to at the same time.
So this Equestria didn’t have Twilight raise the sun and lower the moon when Tirek came about, and does not have any of the numerous globes observed in various locations? Hm.
Does it have Owlowiscious?
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The globes are abstractions that take up less space than a comparably-sized flat map would. That will come up later in the story.
I've added a note about the Tirek event so it makes sense.
So, looks like Equestria is a Heliocentric system and the Princesses are just keeping everyone in the dark.
There is some serious shit going on in here.
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Fixed, and thanks for the catch.
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Clearly I need to rewatch all the episodes.
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Er, also I amended:
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...with a proper answer.
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I did ask about Owlowiscious for a reason, though, because his introductory episode contains the most interesting statements regarding astronomy:
Twilight Sparkle: This meteor shower tonight’s gonna be amazing!
Spike: Awesome!
Twilight Sparkle: You know, this shower only happens once every 100 years.
How does a meteor shower repeat in a true geocentric system at all? :)
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Check my blog index, that should save you some time. No, really.
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Same way comets repeat: we know from prior observation, but don't know why. That was already mentioned in the chapter.
(And how do meteors repeat with regularity when the Sun moves, anyway?)
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For example, multiple planets, including the Pony Earth, orbit a very low luminosity star – white dwarf, neutron star with no gamma emission, there are quite a few options depending on how far it is. Pony Earth having an orbital period of 100 or 200 years would serve and account for the 100-year repeating meteor shower.
Mind you, if you want a true geocentric system, you want to have meteors and even planets as a purely magical phenomenon instead. (Comics offer you multiple arguments, like the Secretariat Comet and the Grand Conjunction that turns Discord into Accord.) But then there’s the issue of lunar craters, which you’re using already, which can’t be impact craters if there’s nothing to impact…
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What I mean is, if meteors orbit the Sun, they wouldn't be highly regular events given the erratic motion of the Sun on a daily basis.
We've also seen a case of the Sun high in the Heavens at the same time as the Moon, where half the sky is black. Heliocentrism isn't something with strong support in the cartoon's narrative. Neither does geocentrism make much sense given the science in the show.
So what will Twilight and Moondancer find? Pfft, like I'm going to tell you early!
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Considering that your ponies appear to believe they live on a flat world for which the globes are just a convenient representation, but also need epicycles to explain planetary motion, you don’t have a whole lot of options.
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Maybe. But sometimes fiction truth is stranger than fiction fiction!
I think that sentence made sense.
Knowledge of Quifons appears to be incompatible with what might be called "adult activity." Not surprising.
As for astronomy, one tantalizing possibility is that the local cosmos really does behave geocentrically... until someone crunches the numbers and spots the inconsistencies. Falling from Quifonic grace seems to operate on a theme of increased complexity and maturation. A better understanding of the delicate dance of the stars might hasten that process.
Or the diarchs are just holding back knowledge for some other reason.
Also, I see we're turning Twilight's romantic obliviousness and naivety up to eleven. At least Moonie's doing her best to turn back the dial. Also, this plus my first observation handily explains why Pinkie might not remember Quifons.