In the modern era, it has become common for foreigners to mock Equestria, seeing the pony nation as weak, naive, unwilling to commit to hard decisions. More belligerent neighbors often view the ponies as easy prey or targets, to have their magic stolen, to be devoured and pillaged, or conquered as a ready supply of slaves.
It was not always thus. In ages past, Equestria was a land of heroes and legends, of darkness and bloodshed. In time, the princesses learned to temper strength with mercy, power with forbearance, and righteous conviction with benevolence.
But now, a thousand years after the younger princess was banished to the moon, the long peace is drawing to a close. Forces both within and without Equestria awaken, seeing a nation weak and easily toppled. Seeing a people grown fat on peace and luxury, who have long forgotten the hardships of war and conflict, or the glory of bloodshed.
Woe betide to all who come to Equestria with ill intent. For in all these long years of peace, the Princess of the Sun has never forgotten the lessons of war, and her eyes watch over her beloved subjects with not only patience and understanding, but an implicit promise of protection.
The time will come soon, when those who would do Celestia's Little Ponies wrong will come to learn... That even an Empire of Mercy is still paved upon the bones of its enemies.
[...]
Alternate universe story based on two main principals: First, that Rainbow Dash is taken in as Celestia's student in addition to Twilight. Second, that the threats to Equestria are both larger in magnitude, but also countered by a more competent and militarized Equestria. Also, it will follow my headcanon that alicorn's are gender neutral.
It is also somewhat based on my love of story threads that are disconnected but still intersect. The continuity will not really have a single group of main characters (Though it will start with mostly Rainbow Dash and Celestia), but rather a number of different story threads playing out simultaneously across the world. I have plans for the Mane Six, Celestia, Luna, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and Scootaloo at the least.
I will be posting every 14 days on saturday, at least for the time being. Story is in present tense, third person. Genre will kinda be all over the place, parts of the story will include the whole spectrum from war story to slice of life to drama to who knows what else.
About time you posted this masterpiece! Looking forward to more updates!
What's with the they and there?
Celestia is female.
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But are you sure about that?
Its an AU after all...
Who is the artist for the pic?
A most interesting premise. I’m interested to see what other changes there are in the story’s past and how this will develop. I hope Rainbow keeps in contact with Gilda in this fic (seems like a good future plot point to have a Griffin in the higher ranks of the government given that they are part of Equestria in this fic.)
Was the gaining of the Griffin lands due to military conquest or social/economic absolution I wonder?
Will any of the other mane 6 be noticed by Celestia for unusual talents?
Is Sunset still around and if so how does she fit into this AU?
Will Starlight be an insurrectionist in this timeline or caught early on?
So far we know of the zebra, yak, dragon & changelings as outside factors. Are there any others? (Like the cannon Prance, Saddle Arabia, Mount Aris, Kirin & Storm King) are there any pony nations not part of Celestia’s kingdom like the future Crystal Empire?
I look forward to future chapters.
Note: All questions in this post are rhetorical and simply a way of airing my musings.
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I think you're in for a real treat if you decide to stick with it
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Meep
Don't make promises I don't know if I can keep
But I'll try
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I got it from derpibooru from like 2016 or something. Artists tag is listed as "Wookylee", and source links here: https://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=mlp&no=177584&page=1&exception_mode=recommend
this is a Promising Start, I'll Keep an Eye on this Story to see where this goes.
While technically grammatically correct the singular 'they' is very distracting, and damaging to immersion.
Also, there are a number of grammatical mistakes; the most noticeable is using the possessive (their) in place of the object pronoun (them), a problem I noted at several times, and was extremely jarring every time.
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Since I've gotten a few negative responses to that decision, I've made an authors note in the second chapter explaining my reasons for it but also changes I'm considering making to hopefully make it more readable. Thankyou for the feedback.
At any rate, I'm still debating between taking the nuclear option of reversing the decision altogether or just trying to run damage control on it. If anypony wants to weigh in on that... Please just check the authors note at the end of the second chapter and tell me what your opinions are. The opinions of my readers are very important!
...I just wish English had a natural-sounding gender neutral pronoun I could use. Oh well.
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I mean, we use gendered pronouns to refer to inanimate objects and unsexed beings.
Also you're already calling Celestia Princess Celestia which is a decidedly gendered term.
I do have to wonder whether alicorns in this setting are hermaphrodic or unsexed.
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That... is an excellent point. It would be pretty much impossible to completely avoid any gendered terminology when I consider how much of it is linked into titles. In that context it does seem pretty silly to specifically draw the line at pronouns. Phooie.
Oh english, why must thou make my job so hard?
I'll wait overnight to see if anypony else has another opinion but, I'll probably go and edit it tomorrow to reverse my prior decision. I'll just have to find other ways to make it clear through the narrative even if the language used doesn't seem to imply it.
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Lol, English is a strange mutted language that is almost an ungendered language.
That said, it's often good to try something new, even if it doesn't work out in the end.
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DO YOU MEAN OLD OR MODERN ENGLISH
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It all simpler than it looks: the title Princess might as well be gender-neutral in-universe. Since Celestia still I assume adhere to feminine public image in this au, it might be something that she rolled with initially, and it stuck as irrevocable part of the pony society. Ponies hardly can imagine anything else other than rulership of the Princesses, hence if there for some reason a male ruler risen to power, he would be commonly known as Princess too and no one would ever bat an eye.
I believe this line of thinking can be applied to canon mlp as well, wanted to use it in my writing (and maybe will).
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I think I have a third option for you. I know someone who is non-binary and uses shi/hir as hir pronouns, you can you that as a middle ground. Hope this helps
There's quite literally nothing wrong with using they/them for Celestia -- honestly I don't see the problem. If you do want to keep them ungendered but still change the pronouns, I'd recommend looking into neopronouns. There are a crapton of different interesting pronouns that can be used (even if they're uncommon) and they might even add more zest to the worldbuilding!
I don't think she has to, Celestia can teleport So what's stopping her from home schooling rainbow, Either way great story
They is singular and plural.
Shakespeare used it as singular in his plays.
It fell out of common use as singular at same time that 'you' and 'thou' flipped between which was used in formal language and which was common language.
Oh, and on another point: In Sweden, all their rulers, regardless of gender, are called King.
don't think i've ever seen celestia potrayed as gender neutral before, what makes you think--...oh. so do alicorns have the traits of both genders as well as the three tribes?
i personally think you should go with she/her pronouns, it's less confusing for newer readers since it's never directly mentioned - if i remember correctly - that celestia's gender neutral, and as forcalor suggested you can simply wave it off as her sticking to public image.
It took a bit to get used to, but I think the whole they/them thing is fine.
Maybe use an authors note at the beginning to signify that celestia refers to themselves as they/them?
Also going back to change stuff is a bad idea because then you will just be going around in circles.
Sister, huh? Didn't you state all alicorns were gender-less?
I haven't read the actual story yet, only had a peek at the comments and the mentioned AN so far, but I've got to ask:
What exactly are alicorns in this story? Gods that are born into the world without gender identity?
Or does ascension exist in this verse? ... because that'd mean ascension wipes a fundamental part of a pony's identity and personality.
Not a pleasant prospect.
Do their bodies have no reproductive organs at all or both sets? Because if their fleshy shells posses any hormone producing naughty bits at all, I doubt it'd even be possible to live as long as Celestia and not determine a gender identity and sexual orientation of some kind for herself, however fluid and bi that might turn out. There'd always be a preference in pronoun, partners, public image, etc..
Does alicorns being gender-less have significant plot relevance, or is this just a change for the sake of making this verse feel different?
If it's the latter, stop it.
Alright, after MUCH deliberation... I have settled on sticking with they/them. The majority of people I have asked have been ok with it, and re-reading the story myself I don't really think it disrupts the flow that much. I flip flopped several times- I thought Nukestar brought up a VERY good point regarding how I am already using feminine terms for princess and sister. But at the same time, I think that might make it even more important for me to use they/them, since otherwise it would be way too easy to forget that alicorns are canonically gender neutral in this world. That WILL be a plot point at some point and I wouldn't want it to come across as random and unwarranted.
I flip flopped on this ALOT and have spent basically the entire last night debating my decision. I ultimately settled on this answer because I don't want anypony to forget this key setting detail while they read. I dearly apologize if its distracting or upsetting to any readers, I do want the story to be as legible as possible, but I believe it should be alright once you're used to it a few chapters in. And if you don't want to read a few chapters in on account of this decision, then I understand, that is entirely your decision to make. But since enough people seem to like the story and accept it as is, I've ultimately decided to stay true to my vision as much as possible.
Having said that, Celestia will still have some feminine language used to refer to them; Princess and Sister, in particular. I think these both make sense because they were female prior to their ascension to alicornhood, and it therefore makes sense their titles and relationships would reflect this. I will endeavor to find a place in the story to make this clear.
You can see from my deleted comment that I changed my mind on this, I even made a comment stating that I was going to do the other decision and started editing the story to she/her. But while I was editing I found that I didn't feel the they/them detracted from the writing substantially and that it still sounded ok, which was what ultimately triggered me to reverse my previous reversal and go back to how it already was.
Thankyou all for your understanding and input, it has been tremendously valuable to me, and I hope everypony still enjoys the story even if the decision I made ultimately wasn't what you all were hoping for. I was tremendously conflicted and really still am, no matter what choice I make it will still be a compromise to some extent.
As far as ponies who hate the decision to make them gender neutral in the first place... I'd probably advise you to stop reading, it is going to be plot relevant and it is in fact a part of the story. I would have to cut multiple entire plotlines to change that decision, and I have no intention of doing so. The rest of you, I am happy to have you along for the ride, and can't wait to show you what I have planned next.
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Glad to see you have reached a decision on this.
Now it makes me wonder the lore implications.
Did Celestia and Luna experience any gender dysphoria when they were younger?
What about Cadence does she/they come to terms with their new gender or are they still struggling to adjust?
As their future groom what are Shining Armor’s views on the matter? Was he immediately accepting or did he need to take time to work out his feelings and sexuality? Or does he not know yet?
What are the public’s views on their leader’s gender identification? Is it well known, is i known but most consider them female until they think about it? Does Celestia just accept that some of their subjects misidentified their gender? Or does she consider such semantics to be too minor in their opinion to be bother correcting them?
Interesting premise. I wonder if this means Celestia is more than just flesh and blood in a metaphysical context if they are non gender. I also do enjoy a more militaristic take on the Sun Princess. Faved and followed.
May you find the wind beneath your wings little one. We expect great things from you Rainbow Dash. ^^
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Aww. I'm honored you like it, and I shall do my best to live up to your expectations!
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If they manage to stick with it and get to all those plot points, I'm sure you'll be quite surprised.
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Hey you made a fun fanfic starring Rainbow Dash and Celestia. I'm already sold! ^^
Why do you have that as your headcanon?
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Two reasons.
The first is, based on what we see when Twilight ascends, it seems like her original body is just completely gone and she's manifested a new one entirely through magic. This kinda resembles how Divine creatures work in my own original setting, and based on that idea, I like the idea of divine creatures being beyond such base matter as having normal sexual reproduction. They are unique, inviolate entities, untouched by mortal sins, manifested solely through the exertion of a soul's magic into realspace. As higher beings they therefore differ from ordinary lifeforms in several important ways, the most significant of which being genderlessness.
You could also kind of connect it to the cathar idea of souls being genderless. So when a pony's original body dissipates, but their soul lingers on, that soul has no lingering gender and the same is true of the body it remanifests for itself to inhabit.
Makes me wonder what plans you got for Spike?