Forget not that I am a derp.
The year nears its end, but the war seems to stretch on forever. General Winter has sided with Sombra, and morale runs low among most Equestrian forces. Hearth's Warming seems like a bitter joke.
But a mare has come to the front from Canterlot, and she's brought one Tartarus of a present.
Written for Silver Shadows as part of Jinglemas 2019. Cover art by AaronMK, used with permission. Special thanks to Antiquarian for advising on military ranks.
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Thank you for the story! It was very good.
9999724
Glad you enjoyed it! Twilight and Sombra made for an unusual combination, so I had to take it in a rather unusual direction. Still, if Die Hard is a classic Christmas film, there's no reason why the season can't have a few positive energy explosions in it.
Given the type of art AaronMK typically draws, I hope this features AnarchoCommunist Pinkie Pie and Maoist Twilight Sparkle sharing the magic of Molotov cocktails and insurrectionary tactics.
Squee! You've done it again, FOME! Turned a bleak timeline into a hopeful rebirth
Makes one wonder what would happen if you attempted a chaptered adventure?
Chocolate pudding and turkey
Merry Christmas, you brilliant son of a gun.
Christmas is always better when you can combine it with a just assassination.
9999866
Sorry, artist politics didn't enter into this. I just needed an image with just the Twilight, Pinkie, and Dash of the Crystal War timeline, and those are not easy to come by.
9999893
I could certainly flesh out this Pinkamena's backstory; this story arose from the ashes of an abandoned idea, and refurbishing that as a prequel might work.
9999928
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
10000109
I'll be honest, when I got the prompt of "Twilight and Sombra," that was the first coherent moment that came to mind.
10000125
I'm sure there are many families who'd agree with that sentiment.
A very touching tale. Putting an end to the major conflict of one of the more popular Glimmerverses gets me in the Hearth‘s Warming mood.
But all Sombra wanted for Hearth’s Warming was
I kind of wish this was how Twilight had become an alicorn. Self-sacrifice to end a war is better than solving a problem one caused.
10001243
What led up to it isn't really as important as the eventual magical enlightenment, I think. Martyrdom doesn't really fit with the themes of the show, comparatively.
And for some reason, that's where I already start getting emotional over this story.
That was cathartic. Well done.
That... that was...
*stands on hind legs and waves hooves wildly*
*collapses gasping*
That was amazing!!!!
Missing open quotes at the start of the second line of dialogue.
Great line. Makes me think of a bit from one of the Halo books wherein a colonel proposes creating the Spartan IIIs to handle missions which, in all likelihood, will ultimately end up being suicide missions (only a few dozen IIIs survive the war out of the original hundreds). When one of the senior officers demands of him, "Are you proposing that we buy time with lives?" the colonel, who ultimately gives his life to protect Earth replies, "Yes. Isn't that the job of a soldier?" to which the admiral who asked the question says, "Yes. God help me, it is."
What makes both your scene here and the Halo scene work is that, in both cases, the people having the discussion aren't green-lighting the missions because they don't care about their soldiers or because they aren't just as willing to die as the soldiers they command (as I said, in Halo's case, most of the officers having that meeting do die in the line of duty). They're not callous or monstrous. They're simply soldiers making impossible decisions because the stakes will not allow anything less. The whole interaction between Celestia and Twilight here is spot on, and I love the hints at the direction both of their lives took following certain... tragedies.
The subtle references to the moon throughout and how it's a taboo topic (beautifully hinted at with Rainbow's mental correction of 'moon-banished' to 'Tartarus-banished in the cut scene) make for a heart-aching bit of quiet exposition.
On the note of that cut scene, it was well worth reading for the characterization of 'Mena' (love that nickname, by the way) and Dash. It was also interesting to see how Cheese is described differently than we'd expect from the show, which makes sense because he never met Pinkie during those formative years and thus took a different path, much like she did. Her blushing was adorable, and the fact that Dash knows her well enough to guess what her evasiveness meant speaks volumes to their friendship.
Speaking of Mena, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see a version of Pinkamena that isn't vicious or emotionless. She's stoic and conservative (in terms of demeanor, I mean), but very much a living character with warmth and depth beyond a caricature (you know, like most people who are stoic and conservative in demeanor). Quite enjoyable.
Segwaying to other things it's refreshing to see (man, I keep segwaying), I like that Twilight didn't fight dark magic with dark magic. She understood it so that she could destroy it. It is one of my biggest frustrations to see people use evil to fight evil in fics (in general too, but specifically with dark magic in fics), and I was more than a little happy to see that Twilight wasn't doing that. It also makes this interaction doubly hilarious:
There are just a lot of subtleties which I appreciate in both this and the cut scene. Like how (in the cut) it's mentioned that the Equestrians wind up fighting former friends. That's going to be devastating to an army's morale and perhaps lead to greater brutality or to a lack of connections. The fact that Celestia combats that by pushing for them to keep what makes them good rather than becoming like their enemy is, arguably, one of the most important moments in the story. There's no point winning a war if you lose your honor and virtues to do it.
And, of course...
YOUR INPUT IS NOT DESIRED, MUD BRIAR! (Even if it did make me laugh pretty hard)
On the whole, an excellent story, and I appreciate the darkly humorous name of the chapter now that I understand its import. Well done! And now they have two great things to celebrate for Hearths Warming!
Oh, and Sombra's ham getting diced by deadpan Mena and Twilight's condescension was just delicious.
this was brilliant
it was quite cathartic indeed
Excellent. :)
10000570
Also slaves. And maybe a few more staircases.
10001243 10001524
Part of why I opted not to kill her off at the end. The original plan for the ending was exposition by way of Celestia's teary-eyed eulogy and posthumous medal presentation. Defeating Sombra was meant to be reassertion of those themes over the wartime drama, and given the sacrifices already made, that wouldn't work well with Twilight ending up a pile of burnt-out shards at the foot of the palace.
That said, she did get carbonized on her way to the Astral Plane in "Magical Mystery Cure," so there's certainly a death-and-rebirth aspect to it even in default Equestria...
10001731
Yeah, if we assume that the timeline proceeded in a familiar way up until the Empire returned, that doesn't bode well for the Bearers—whoever they were—or the royal couple.
10002703 10002741 10002986 10003412
Thank you all.
10002811
Your own war stories helped a great deal in knowing which thematic elements to include, along with considering what we know about these ponies and how they'd react in this scenario. Celestia would not ask of her ponies anything she wouldn't ask of herself, as seen by how she led from the front. She certainly wouldn't ask her ponies to sacrifice their fundamental equinity in the name of victory.
Luna did not fare well in this timeline, no.
I do wish I could've worked in the mess hall scene, but it was ultimately not essential to the story. Still, Mena is a fascinating character. A Pinkie who never left the rock farm until she enlisted is not going to be the peppy incarnation of Laughter we know, but she's also not going to be completely unemotional or psychotic. The same potential develops in a different way, and the end result is a lot like the rest of her family but still recognizably Pinkie. The nickname was another way to emphasize how this is a different part of that greater whole. (And that moment when she tasted refined sugar for the first time was a revelation for her. Before, she had signed up just to avenge Limestone. After, she swore to destroy the stallion who'd take away the wonders of a world she was only just discovering. Cheese has been her gateway to the joys of life, which in turn is letting him discover them through a fresh perspective of almost childlike wonder.)
And yes, Twilight decoding, refining, and counteracting Sombra's magic seemed like the perfect Twilit way to win the war without the benefit of destiny or Spike on her side. She still attended Celestia's school and she's still devastatingly intelligent. The fact that I could unleash snark-on-ham combat was the cherry on top.
Thank you for a wonderfully in-depth comment!
10003624
Honestly that first comment should have been way more emphatic, but I just couldn't find the words
Well, this was enjoyable. I like your take on the Crystal War timeline, and that you managed to give it a happy ending after all that happened.
I know this was only meant to be a short one-shot story for the 2019 jinglemas, but I would love to read more about this version of the Crystal Empire timeline.
You know. I've been trying to find inspiration from reading a ton of short stories after a year of a hiatus, but it turns out I didn't have to look far!
I can't believe I've slept on your stories this long. Because if this is any indication, I'm going to have a good time.
The Diminsional Exploration and Rescue Patrol are going to be quite proud when they reach one of their prime targets only to find it's saved itself already.
"Don't spoil the moment, that's an order." Ah, lmao, beautiful.
A thoroughly enjoyable story, as I read through it again.
My own theory as to why Maud was not brought (aside from weight concerns for the ride up there) is that she would have failed to keep the level of cool that Mena demonstrated in proximity to Sombra. He's responsible for the war that took her older sister, he's twisted ponies and stones alike into servitude to him, and he'd be threatening the younger sister she's already protective of in canon. I think she might've tried to solo the golem.
A most excellent story!
Good take on this 'verse. I'm sad about the loss of Shining and Moondancer but it was woven in well.
Why must you tug at my heart strings like this? Take your uphoof and leave my emotions alone!
Excellent!
Awwwww! That was good. Bad timeline, but sweet and wholesome for bad timeline.
Definitely
Go away.
Excellent story, giving a seemingly hopeless timeline a satisfying ending. If I have any complaints, it's that I know this story is a Jinglemas gift, but it would do much better as a multi-chapter fic rather than a one-shot and that the nickname "Mena" for "Pinkamina Diane Pie" does not work as well as "Pinkie."
This gets an AWESOME from me!