• Member Since 12th Jan, 2013
  • offline last seen 2 hours ago

Skijarama


Voice actor and writer.

Sequels1

T
Source

This story is a sequel to Little Choices


In the aftermath of the fall of Canterlot, Princess Rainbow Dash and her friends have found themselves in the newly restored Crystal Empire, seeking a power that they can use to push back Queen Chrysalis and save Equestria. But with the history of the Empire shrouded in darkness, finding this power will prove a challenge.

To make matters worse, a shadowy presence lurks at the edges of the Empire, and the Changeling Swarm will only take so long to discover where the last remaining princess has gone. The pressure is mounting, and even though she feels she isn't cut out for this, Rainbow Dash must step up to her station and lead her friends, and the Empire, to save Equestria... or lose everything she holds dear.

Cover Art was drawn up by the absolutely incredible Novaintellus. They are one of my favorite brony artists, so please, go show them some love!

Never thought I would write a story that necessitates this, but beware the spoilers in the comments!

Chapters (62)
Comments ( 1168 )
JMP

Glad to see this up. Rainbow and co. have an uphill battle to fight through. Hopefully they can make a breakthrough soon.

Woohoo!!! I can't wait for more!

New update yeah!
I’ve been waiting for a long time

Ri2

Well, that was a freaky nightmare.

We just noticed this because we wanted a story to read, went in the search bed with nothing entered, and this was the second on the list!
Looks like our ‘I have no idea why but I want to do this’ sense has kicked in to help us again!
That’s not a sense... but is bordom control suggesting something, didn’t you read the manual?
NOPE! And I’m not gonna!

This is going to be SO AWESOME! :rainbowkiss:

8946790
A long time...

It's been less than 2 months. XD

Excellent job on Rainbow's self-reflection in this chapter. Sorry I was too lazy to respond to the last half of your previous story in the series. I have to admit it WAS good in an "Empire Strikes Back" sort of way (as actual reviewers said better earlier), but yeah, the reflection on the party following their arrival in the Crystal Empire WAS great.

Yeah, getting things back on track will be VERY difficult (especially considering, as mentioned by other reviewers earlier in your previous story, they'll have to deal with both Chrysalis AND Sombra at the same time) , but NOT impossible. So, if the previous story could be compared to "the Empire Strikes Back", we can hope that THIS story will be closer to "Return of the Jedi" than "Revenge of the Sith".

But I digress.

It WILL be quite intriguing to see what sort of plan the crew can come up with to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and whether or not said plan will work (then again, in stories like this, the first FEW plans tend to fail until the heroes finally wise up to the enemies' weaknesses).

I will most assuredly be eagerly looking forward to more of this.

Hypeeeeeeeee

And the third story begins. Let’s see what Tone has in store for us.

Aaaand already 3 dislikes. I never understand what makes people do that. This is the very first chapter and only an introduction kind of thing, without any real direction or opinion building events. :ajbemused:

Whatever, I look forward to the third book. :twilightsmile:

8948066
3 dislikes, 51 likes.

All things considered, I think I'm doing alright.

8948398
As would I. :-D

Speaking of which, the "plan discussion" in this chapter was simply great once again. Wonderful work on the characterizations, exchanges and future chapter set-up in all the right places. And, yeah, while I stand by my guess that the first few plans will meet with SOME degree of failure, I hold on to hope that they DO still succeed in at least giving the Crystal Ponies (and Equestria in general) some real degree of hope.

To use a quote I quite like "It's always darkest just before the dawn, but the dawn IS coming."

And, yeah, I'll most definitely be looking forward to more of the story (and I'm glad you already have the next four chapters mostly ready to go).

It would be hilarious if they start to hail Rainbow Dash and Twilight at some point instead of Spike and Cadance, because there is now an entirely different setting. There is no shield that could protect the empire from Sombra and no Shining Armor who can toss his with wings equipped wife at the Crystal Heart to safe the day.

8948486
They don't really hail Cadence in canon. Not from what I'very seen. Only Spike, for some reason. Who did the least of anyone involved. You don't see a statue of Cadence in the empire.


By the way, I notice that there is no King Sombra tag. Shouldn't there be one?

8948507
Well, they somehow think that Spike played the main role in their liberation from oppression, yes, but acknowledge Cadance every now and then, too. So I imagined them thanking Blue & Lavender instead.

Though they should never give Rainbow a statue. She will gloat about it until the end of time.

8948519
In this setting, she'd be more likely to say "Ew, tear that down!"

8948519
Yeah, every now and then. But not the foaming at the mouth, we're all saved, they want his babies, kind of reaction Spike gets.

And with no shield, there should be nothing any of them can do. The only reason they even had time to find the Crystal Heart was because of the shield Shining and Cadence had up kept Sombra from over running the Empire again.

8948507
Not necessarily. In canon, the Crystal Empire reappeared because the spell ran out of juice. Here, the ‘lights pulled it out of wherever it was early. It’s possible that Sombra didn’t get pulled out with it and is stuck for several more months yet.

JMP

I hope the Crystal Ponies don't just get frightened by Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom. I mean, it's gonna be a huge flash and a very loud sudden noise. I think the overall plan is solid, but no plan is perfect.

Rainbow smirked happily with an eager and cocky glint in her eyes, her wings already twitching with excitement at her sides. “Heh, now you’re talkin’ my language. I could fly into the sky in the center of the city, put on a totally awesome show and end it off with a Sonic Rainboom. That would draw attention from everypony in the city, and they’d be dazzled by it.”

Rainbow, you’ve been hanging out with Rarity too much.

Wait, if Rainbow does the Sonic Rainboom, aren't the changelings going to be able to locate them easier? I mean, I don't know how far the ring of color goes until it fades and in canon, the Rainboom can be seen from below Cloudsdale to Canterlot. They could have taken that into consideration...

8949150
That was the first time only. Every time after that, it's usually far smaller.

pedals

Pedals go on a bike. Petals come from a flower. :twilightsmile:

:yay: yay!! I'm so happy that this is finally up! I can't wait for the next chapter!

I like your charaterization of the mane six and starlight, it amazing!

She knows.

Betcha she knows. Betcha money.

So they just happened to run into Winds mom during the Hollow Shades visit. What are the chances am I right?

Also the feels will be devastating when Wind finds out the truth.

8950588
500 dobras, that’s how much! Any takers?

JMP

Poor girl. And man is this not helping with Thorax's guilt.

I like this version of Thorax.

Ridiculous story idea:

Twilight has three heads, each with a different philosophical view, nothing happens and they start arguing why. You sure could get a few thousand words out of that.:rainbowlaugh:

Once more, you did an excellent job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. I particularly liked the discussion on every body's parts of the first plan as well as Wind's taste of Crystal Empire berries and Thorax's reflections as he was thinking about how much out of his depth he is, even if his conscience DID ultimately win out enough to at least convince him to stay .

And, yes, I am DEFINITELY going to be looking forward to more of this.

You're off to a good start!:pinkiehappy:

8950651
I would if not for that it won't cover the exchange fee, we'd both lose money regardless who actually wins.:applecry:

8951238
Yeah, but we’d be losers together!

And that’s the real magic of friendship!

So glad to see that you've published another chapter. I've been so busy with work and friends since EFNW that I haven't had a chance to read your short story entitled Little Choices. But I'm eagerly looking forward to it. Perhaps now that the crazy in my life has died down.

Dreadnought

I bet you Rainbows sonic rainboom is going to attract some unwanted attention. Just like the movie am I right?

8952641
I was being sarcastic. On the other hand, I read a story that was 400k.

Dreadnought

8952728
I'm not good at detecting sarcasm in people; especially without tone of voice to help indicate one's intention. Just another symptom of Asperger's.

Make Her Pay.

I swear, she’s cursed. Discord, why? T^T

8952728
meh, i've read bigger. don't feel like digging through 200+ faves to find it but i know at least one of my faves breaks the million word mark

8952866
In my opinion, because Discord knew something. I don’t know what, exactly, but he knew something, and this is the only way to make sure things work out.







That is, it’s the only way to make things work out if you happen to be Discord. Anyone else? Probably ten different ways to make sure it works out. Discord? Just one.

Once again, this is some really superb work on this latest chapter. The exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all quite well done. I particularly liked how Rainbow and Twilight had to warn Starlight away from trying to pry too deeply into how Pinkie can do the stuff she can AND Pinkie making a rather valid point to Rainbow concerning Starlight .

I'll very certainly be looking forward to more of this.

8953203
Man, Discord was just sowing his namesake. XD

8953209
Don’t care; still believe in the gong.

8952753
I have a hard time with sarcasm too, even in real life. My friends have sometimes resorted to a sarcasm sign:

Dreadnought

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