The Sequel to 'Faith and Doubt'.
It's been two months since the changeling attack and Shining's almost-wedding and much has changed. Twilight Sparkle is now an alicorn and has left Equestria to master her new powers. The sixth element of harmony, the corrupt abstract Doubt, has been reborn in his original form: Faith. He, along with Spike, have gone with Twilight as she sought to heal after the betrayal by her friends and family.
But Twilight's return to Ponyville will not be a happy one; in her absence her friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie have been turned into alicorns themselves and the embodiments of their elements. They have seized power and now rule Equestria with iron hooves, using banned magic to turn their friends and family into zealots that obey their every command.
To save Equestria, Twilight will have to do the unthinkable: form a rebellion and declare war on her friends. But will she be willing to make the tough decisions... even if it means choosing between friendship and freedom?
Everything is bad in large doses.
Thank you to all that got this story featured!
The TVTropes page for Faith and Doubt/The Abundance can be found here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/FaithAndDoubt
Cover by the wonderful FerGarcia220!
Ladies and Gentlemen... The Abundance.
I honestly never expected Faith and Doubt to explode like it did, let alone inspire a sequel. If you had asked me would a sequel to F&D would be about, I'd have told you in the begining that I had no clue.
But as I developed Doubt's backstory I began to examine the other elements... and a thought occurred to me: some of history's greatest monsters hid behind noble ideas. How many wars have been fought because of patriotism? What some see as kindness others see as oppression. The same with all the other elements... what is ok for one person is horrible for the other and the exact opposite of what it should be.
And thus, The Abundance: a tale of what happens when heroes believe too much in their element and, in an attempt to do good do evil things.
Remember what Gandalf said of The One Ring: I would use this ring from a desire to do good... But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.
That is the true power of evil... it takes the noblest of ideas and makes it the most cruel.
Drop everything and read!
its already amazing!
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notices notification number thingy.
you trying to give me another blog post mr. notifications number?
i dont remeber th-
SEQUAL ALREADY!
*click*
*click*
YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYE-
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
1570698
Just another 5 minutes and I'll get back to writing my ess... OOH A NEW CHAPTER.
Amazing! This is gonna be great!
Let the fun, insanity, and epicness begin. What's at the end? Who knows, but it should be a great ride.
...What the hell just happened?
Goddamnit Celestia. You had one job. ONE JOB!
To protect Equestria while Twilight could recuperate on her 2 month vacation and come back to the Ponyville she knew and loved.
AND YOU FUCKED IT UP!
Well like they say...
Another day, Another deity to defeat.
Let's get things back to normal again, eh?
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Power, absolute power, yadda yadda.
This story promises as much as it threatens.
I can't ask, beg, our demand anything of you, but I can see this very easily going downhill very very fast. Suppose I'll just have to exercise... faith
And so it begins
1570866
I will only say this... did not everyone expect a "Twilight goes nuts fic and murders everypony" when it came to Faith and Doubt?
And did I not go a completely different route?
What makes you think I am going to go anywhere near the cliche?
1570716
I was gonna do that
1570882 I am voicing my fears to banish them, if I truly believed you would do that, I wouldn't be here - and I certainly wouldn't have already favorited and up-voted your story.
Please forgive me my outburst - I'm here because/in spite of the fact that your writing scares the crap out of me.
...in a good way?
1570916
Um.....sorry
1570936
I'll take what I can get.
I will mention that I have 3 more chapters in the bag, so I won't feel as rushed as I did with Faith and Doubt (and it lets me take days off to play Assassin's Creed 3 and work on custom blind bag pony modes for people).
1570971
Now comes the question... where is Cadance?
1570862
But I wanted to sleep!
1571035 Too bad.
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This fic will be a perfect example of good intentions, bad execution. And even what is being thrown at the popualance as the good thing to do, ends up as horrific. (Example: People thought Hittler as a hero, inculding the pope.)
All I can say is that this will probably end in tears on both sides.
Also, a couple things that irk me:
First, this: "all things Discord was against (save laughter but even then his type of laughter did not match theirs… his was the laughter of one against another and theirs was laughter shared by all)."
The part in the parentheses feels really akward and interrupts the flow. I had to pause my thought process for it.
Second, the lack of numbers being spelled out (eg sixth vs. 6th) irritates me, as I'm used to seeing spelled out numbers in published writing and major fics. It's nothing which needs to be changed, do your own thing and all that.
1565451 I personally love your story and philosophy on this it is true that power corrupts the weak. and power twists all good actions.
but for the love of all that is good blame ithe evil on the elements not the other main 5, i couldnt stand to see an evil fluttershy
also will this be updated every other day?
Lastly have some gifs that induce a sweetness coma24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m121w0OURn1qm02wmo1_400.gif i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/208/183/90298%20-%20animated%20artist%253Atomdantherock%20artist%253Avalcron%20celestia%20filly%20gif%20luna%20spinning.gif?1322379782 i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/9/22/yrf5IBYtdUm8rMAH8IAevg2.gif
I started reading Faith and Doubt because I wanted a rebel Twilight no longer accepting blame and calling everyone out. I know you wanted a twist and flavor for your story, but transforming her into an alicorn and bringing out doubt actually felt pretty... lame. I know he worked out mainly to pull some philosophy out there. To me he kinda ruined the story as he felt as a deux ex machina, even though it was your intention from the start to bring him out.
Know, suddenly every element being corrupt and all becoming alicorn really seems forced and doesn't make sense unless you really twist the show.
Why has Equestria become corrupt, according to the abstracts? Celestia failed as a leader?
She was never perfect, did what was necessary to protect the kingdom and her sister, but she created a damn utopia. We don't see poverty or crime in the show, nor corruption, unless you count some jerkish upper class and the market ponies. She couldn't stop Discord without the elements, so she was benched, no idea what happened during NMM (she could have been taken out or planned for Twilight's involuntary, or just had faith that Twilight could succeed since she knew of the prophesy.)
This kinda feels like cheap divinity. Reminds me of the angels in supernatural. Powerful beings that in the end are wither too narrow minded or a bunch of whinny brats. The problem with sentient abstract concepts is that they only see one point of view.
I can see how this could play out:
Honesty can be harmful, as sometime lies are necessary for the greater good.
Too much generosity leads to dependence and stagnates progress.
Laughter has it's place, but so does seriousness.
Kindness is great, but sometimes cruelty is necessary.
Blind loyalty can be worst than treason.
The elements, aside from Twi, haven't shown any leadership capabilities and yet now they are queens of a kingdom. Hell it's kinda like the lion king, everything was fine but some idiot think they could do it better and made it into a wasteland.
Twilight was kinda like Shepard from ME in the story and the show. She made bold accusations and had no solid proof, but is angry that they didn't support her. Being friend doesn't mean blind loyalty, and sometime you need to be cruel to get the point across. It kinda felt like she wanted Celestia and the girls to pay her debt to her.
In the end the question is why? Why do this? There is no reason to influence the elements and take over equestria, it's already peaceful and can take care of themselves. If the abstracts are corrupted, it feels cheap, if not, you need a very good reason to sell their motives.
I will keep reading but this twists and plot are not what I expected when I started, and I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Kinda feels like a bait and switch.
Oh goddamnit harmony
What the fuck. What the serious fuck. I know I should've been expecting this, but I doubt I'll enjoy this. Still, faving it to track it... I'm withholding my thumb though, for now.
This is intriguing!
I can't wait to find out if Celly and Luna left after getting an ass wipping or if they left on their own initiative (with the assumption that civil war is the worst possible outcome).
Things were probably pretty bad during the Celestial War a thousand plus years ago. I can not see Celestia or Luna doing it all over again with even more alicorns involved.
How Twilight / Celestia / Luna will convince the rest of the main 6 to stop being tyranical douchebags i do not know ...
The time skip was a little disconcerting, and this chapter was mostly filled with recaps, but an excelent start and I look forwards to more.
Please tell me this is the last sequel...
not that I don't like this story, but I really want a solid, finished ending after this.
Well, faved. Tracking. And I'm probably going to end up having to be the one to make the TVTropes page again, right?
1570882
. I've just read a lot of summaries like that where the summary was like yours and the story was comprised of aforementioned angstwankery.
You know, I've only just now put F&D on my 'to-read' list because of your comment; I looked at the description when it came up in the featured box and just went.. 'noob-style angst-as-substitute-for-plot story.. NOOO THANKS!'. It sounds like it will actually be a good story from what I read here
1570846 Well, it's a good thing Twilight is a total badass super genius.
Ugh... and so it seems I was proven right in my assumptions. I went into this story cautiously, knowing it was likely gonna be even more dark in its aspect than Faith and Doubt, yet all it's taken is one chapter for me to already dislike the premise of this story: Twilight's friends becoming the Queens and turning most all of Equestria into mindless slaves?
I honestly am shocked, even if knew this may've been coming. The scenes on Equestria's past were nice touches and certainly explained I guess a bit about the other abstracts, as well as about how the others see Faith (still known to them as Doubt, though) as an enemy now, not one of their family anymore. Such a giant misunderstanding (I assume) and mess this is gonna be... 
And Shining Armor getting beaten to a pulp? I guess I can understand that, if he's still loyal to Equestria's former Princesses/rulers. Though have to wonder what happened to them, not to mention Cadence. But I guess that'll all be explained next chapter, no doubt. It is with a cautious heart that I track this story, if only of hopes in seeing where it goes and that it gets better eventually. I honestly hope Twilight knocks some sense into her former(?) friends, and Faith does the same to his siblings, at least in due time. Won't downvote it just yet, in case I later like it, but right now, not holding my breath...
1571293
You and me both, dude. As far as a thumb up or down.
So here we are again.
I've always love a story that has a sound theme or message, even if a bit cliche. However what makes your work that much better is the way you present those themes. It's rare to see an author with so much insight on how people think, and to think he writes incredible Fan-Fiction!
I have high hopes for this story, and I'm sure you wont disappoint.
tvrefill.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/awesome.jpg .
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Probably. And what do you mean 'last'? This is the only sequel to Faith and Doubt
Happy face
yes!
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can't wait to see where this goes!
I was wondering throughout the chapter where Faith was. Did he suddenly disappear?
1572598
Faith is around... he has sworn to protect Twilight... which should show you just how powerful she is that he doesn't view a squad of pegasus guards as a threat.
Favorited and liked
Sorry but I don't feel like writing a long review right now, maybe later so...
I like it! moar please!
Great to see the sequel, and it's a nice start. Really interested in what will come.
WTF did I just read? I honestly hadn't expected any of this. That's a good thing though.
No on so many levels.
1565451 My money is bouncing off the screen. How can you have all my money if it's bouncing off the screeeeeeen?!
(reads the description) ...the twist is that this is a dream right? (finger cross)
Hmm, like the idea here.
By any chance have you played Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny. Because this gives me some flashbacks to that game,
1574411
Nope... but alot of this is inspired by Assassin Creeds 3 and the fact that the villains always tell the hero that they were doing the moral thing and he was wrong.
1574612
Had't fought of Assassins Creed 3, great game with a lot of moral grey shades.
Still Ultima V, might be a good place to find some more inspiration, if you should need it.
The setting of the game is that the ruler of the world have taking the religion off the game, (which is based upon 8 virtues, Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Humility etc.) and turned the virtues into law, creating a world of moral absolution, where those who don't follow the virtues to the the letter, will be punished as criminals.
But no matter where you got your inspiration, this still seams interesting, and can't wait to read more.