Thoughts and Discussion on A Blade Reforged on a Twilit Hill

To start off, props to whoever decides to dig this far into my profile due to the story and interest in it. I've decided to make this blog just to have a space for anyone looking to discuss anything in regards to the story. This way I avoid the issue of using author's notes or comments to answer every question people may have. I'll also use this place to occasionally put out my thoughts on the direction of the story and the like. For now have some of my initial thoughts on the story and why I even decided to go through with writing it.

Comments

[Mechscout]

To begin this story does have a preplanned ending so rest assured it will reach a conclusion in time. It will be a while before we get to the end though, so do keep that in mind if you were looking for a shorter read this will probably not be your cup of tea. I might dabble in shorter stories at a later time, but for now I wanna focus on this.

The idea behind this story begins with another fic that inspired me, the name being "The Fifth Holy Grail War: A Pony's Perspective" (not sure if I should actually link it, also how do? I will admit I'm a bit unused to using a site like this and the general etiquette on this site). The idea of Shirou and Twilight being shipped had never crossed my mind before that. Honestly I largely didn't look into MLP at all for most of my time even being present during the boom of MLP on the net. So seeing that story show up on the fanfiction site (I tend to spend a lot of time there due to the number of crossover fics I can find there, its my addiction reading crossovers tbh) kinda shocked me. I had no negative view of MLP so I was quite intrigued by the possibility of a crossover between the world of Fate and MLP. Unfortunately I haven't seen the story update in a while so I can only hope one day the author will return to it.

Another inspiration ironically enough was an image which simply asked "Sir are you aware you are allowed to be happy?" to a very suprised Cat who was editted to look like Shirou. And boy has that image lived rent free in my mind since I first saw it. So when I found that MLP is a world full of happy denizens who live in the closest thing to a Utopia I thought it'd be funny to send a broken being like Shirou into it to see how he'd deal with the idea that maybe his dream wasn't so impossible. I should also note that as dark as the Nasuverse can be I don't actually plan to turn this into some grimdark fiction where ponies are forced to contend against all the horrors of the moonlit world. There will be a suprise guest or two, especially for the finale (though not how most would think I'd say). But for the most part it'll be Shirou struggling to understand how his path doesn't have to end the same as Archer's. Of course there will be action and a grand fight at the end, but those are kinda pay offs for the character growth needed first.

Another note is that I will be buffing enemies not just to make it an actual challenge for Shirou, but because I feel some of the threats faced in the show could actually be incredibly dangerous in the lens of the Nasuverse. Which brings me to the point of contention in my mind. Is this a fusion fic? I don't feel it really is although later events might make it seem as such. It will take some level scaling from Nasuverse, such as concepts being powerful and the older the stronger most things are. But at the end of the day the world of MLP is still the same one ya'll know. Without spoiling too much you could say the world may be similar, but the threat was never from a world.

[NevianDragonPhoenix]

Interesting and hello just read your story and as I wrote in my comment I usually if'y about human in mlp but for now I'm hoked and will like to see where this fic may go as i wrote before a few prediction and thing I see happening.
1 Shirou being the common sense of the group yet driving everybody up the wall with his 'normal' self.
2 A culture clash of fate magi society and mlp one(throu Shirou story)
3 Shirou somewhat casually dealing with monster and terrors of pones. And not understanding why he's being praised.
4 Discord actually being unable to effect Shirou because he's already distorted to extreme.
5 UBW being revealed and the cast being horrified of it and it aria.
6 UBW getting zapped with harmony Lazer and subsequently changing Shirou.
Also i like for Shirou to become eather a threstal or hypogriffe at some point, maybe changeling. Fells more fitting and rearly see this.
So this is a twilight x Shirou fic then?
Nasus concepts being powerful make sense in mlp( harmony) also older means powerful is somewhat represented in dragon's.
About Tracing divine construct's technically Shirou can make them but he can't make the fine details and it increase the mana cost to absurd level's. So there weaker and cost a lot.
As for powering up the antagonist there actually few major one i can think you'll need to buff.

[Mechscout]

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Seeing as you're the first to actually use this blog as intended I feel I should do my best to address your predictions without spoiling things too much. Albeit I do think I mentioned this is where I'll be more candid with my ideas and plans for the fic so take that as you will.

*Slight spoiler warning*
I'll try to mark them with the spoiler bar as I go.

I'll number my responses to correspond with each predicition.

1. Shirou will definitely be more down to earth about things, he's kind of a logical being and I find pairing him with Twilight’s occasional bouts of overthinking things to be nice a balance between the characters. It also adds to the fun of putting someone from a place like the Nasuverse into the far more lighthearted yet occasionally serious world of MLP.

2. Culture clashing is already somewhat brought up early one when Twilight gets a brief rundown on Shirou's world. But it will be fleshed out more once he and the others have time to process the unique situation he's in. It'll be soonish, kinda the closing part of this first arc involving Nightmare Moon. Definitely needed to show how much work is needed for both sides to establish a common ground since Magi are notoriously ruthless and being a former enforcer of the Clocktower Shirou has picked up on that paranoia of theirs as well.

3. For lesser villians and certain other main antagonist he'll definitely have an easy time. For example a dragon might be a legendary Phantasmal Beast, but at the end of the day Shirou has plenty of dragon slaying blades to choose from like Ascalon or even Balmung. As I've mentioned here other villains will be powered up to a greater degree, as this might not be a fusion fic, I still like the way the Nasuverse handles powerscaling when it comes to beings of legend gain conceptual weight aside from just their physical form. I kinda lean into this early on by having Shirou freak out when meeting Celestia. Sure the show likes to make Celestia job fights, but I feel its doing her a great disservice and will try to make better reasons for when she does lose while also just not having her job for the narrative. I want to keep things consistent on that end. The gratitude of ponies Shirou helps is an important point. It'll be part of how Shirou starts to value his own efforts more as he realizes that here his efforts are sincerely appreciated without any of the second guessing of him being suspiciously nice or people just taking advantage of his altruism.

4. I plan to give most of the powerful/ancient beings either a new backstory (if it was never expressively touched on by the show/comics) or altering them to fit the new overarching plot. For Discord I'm planning for him to be an Elemental. A being that was manifested by the planet/harmony, that means his powers come from the world as he is literally the aspect of Chaos. His more malicious use of his powers will be explained and he will eventually be reformed cause at the end of the day an elemental might mess with a planet's inhabitants (in the Nasuverse non-human entities just loved to mess with humans) but they also know that these inhabitants (specifically the denizens of Equestria cause God knows Gaia hates humans) are loved by the world/harmony. I have planned to make things interesting for the Discord and Shirou confrontation, such as Discord telling Shirou to embrace his true self (an unfeeling sword) while also loathing Shirou's foreign origin for making it difficult for the powers granted to him by the planet to work as well as it does on the ponies. Won't mean he can't cast spells at him but it won't be to the same degree he can manipulate anypony else. You'll get a better understanding of it when I get to that part of the story.

5. UBW my beloved. Jokes aside, you'll be pleasantly suprised (I hope) at how early we'll be addressing that part of Shirou. Its a very focal point of this fic as its so rare to be able to show character growth through an actual manifestation of that character's soul. And I simply can't resist using UBW. But it'll definitely bring up many questions for the ponies who witness it. After all what kind of pony/person has a soul composed of swords and a rust colored sky?

6. I will outright say I don't have UBW being rainbowed as part of the plan. That's not to say it won't be changing. As I mentioned earlier I will have changes made to UBW, but I want these to be natural changes. A kinda of progression from Shirou when he arrives at Equestria to Shirou wielding *spoiler* and standing by all the friends he's made finally understanding his new path is a beautiful one where he isn't alone. So no layzer but absolutely Shirou chaning for the better. Its honestly why I wanted to write this fic, I feel he'd benefit greatly in Equestria where he can pursue his dream and not end up like Archer or feeling the immense guilt his dream carries.

7. I'll use this to address the rest of you comments. To start uhhhh, I'm not sure how people will take this but the ship is Shirou x Twilight x Luna x Celestia. Now hear me out before you assume the worst, I feel there is a lot of chemistry between Shirou and each of the ponies mentioned.

To start with Shirou himself doesn't seem to mind being in a relationship with more than one person as we've seen with the Shirou x Saber x Rin scene, and most fans seem to like that idea as they all have chemistry amongst each other. So Shirou trying to make everyone happy can lead to this, but its not just him stretching himself thin, but also has to do with the each sister wanting the other to be happy and a lot of stuff that'll I'll do my best to explain in story.

Twilight x Shirou is the original inspiration for this fic. But man does Celestia have Artoria vibes with her being a ruler who serves her people at the cost of her own happiness at times. I mean how devastating must it have been to banish your own sister for 1000 years, feeling guilt at letting it reach that point. And then having to accept that to your ponies you were a hero and your sister a great evil. So much so they made a celebration out of it and made a night of frights due to how much your sister scared them. As for Luna, while obviously not a direct comparison, I feel she shares some of that Sakura energy of being the sibling who was dealt the worse hand by fate. And thus her fall into Nightmare Moon. She still loves her sister dearly, but it must eat her up that she believe she failed her sister by becoming Nightmare Moon and as such her sister had to suffer the pain of 1000 years of loneliness without her. Also the dynamic between the Royal Sisters reminds me a bit of the Tohsaka Sisters.

Lots of trauma/guilt will need to be addressed and I hope I can do a good job of that because I legitimately want these characters to feel better by the end of it. Its not all gloom and doom though, Celestia does love her ponies and can be happy knowing her rule has gone as well as it has. Luna has her regrets but is happy to be back with her sister. Things like that are where we can help them process the guilt they feel for other matters. Shirou just happens to be a catalyst for that due to his unique experiences and past with individuals who the Royal Sisters remind him of.

It brings to mind that Shirou's experience with Saber means he has a pretty interesting understanding of what it means to be a ruler and it'll be how he will initially approach the subject with Celestia. I also plan on him talking to Twilight about these things to allow Twilight someone to talk about her concerns when she gains bigger and more responsibilities.

Yeah that makes sense for the Divine Tracing, I've seen other fics that have Shirou trace hollow version of divine constructs like Ig Alima. At the end of the day I feel the narrative decides whether or not he'll even need to trace such objects so for now its a case of I'll let sleeping dogs lie as both sides can be argued for.

I'm honestly curious what villains you have in mind. If you don't mind sharing we can always discuss just theories and the like. That's kinda the intent of this blog, to be able to discuss ideas and theories for the story. I am always open to ideas, but there are parts I won't change just cause they're fundamental to the story.

Honestly the idea of Shirou as a Changeling is great, he's already a faker, why not take it another step further? Unfortunately I don't plan to have Shirou change from being human (the pony transformation is moreso cause Celestia didn't want him spooking the ponies since she's too busy to address his existence at the moment). Its also kinda funny to see this fully armored human who looks like a knight from legends next to these cute ponies facing down monsters. I also feel it'll help lend to the idea that the main cast believe anyone deserves to be a part of society and be friends.

I hope after answering these predictions of yours I haven't put you off from following the story. I really want to see how people react to all the things I have in store, I get quite giddy thinking about it. But if you do find these things to be a turn off for your enjoyment of the story then I understand if you choose to abandon it. I don't want to force anyone to like this story as we each have our own preferences (hell when I posted this the first interaction I had was 1 dislike with no new views since the mods reviewed it for submission). I do hope you can find some enjoyment, at the end of the day I want to tell a story that people can enjoy and if lucky can inspire them to write their own story. I love reading as much as I enjoy writing. So if you want to write about Shirou as a changeling or any other species from MLP FiM then I'd love to read it. Thanks for using this blog as intended btw.

[NevianDragonPhoenix]

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Ok first ...HOLY WALL OF TEXT!
Second not quitting now even if I'm a bit disappointed that HIE thing.(most likely will head-canon that shirou is an anthro Chimera of hypogriffe/unicorn/threstal). Personally I have no problem with the poly-pairing will like to see how it evolve's.(the amount of therapy for all parties will be massive)
I'm still not sure which route you took or combo definitely not heaven fell or oath under snow. Dou i still think zelrich simple giving shirou all his routs powers and trauma is right up his Alley.
Technically shirou can trace Avalon with no degration but on a technicality. As for what he needs a DC well NM, Tirek and discord.
Will like to see point 1,2,5 and 4. So many little problem solved by common sense. Interesting thing with discord. I read a fic where alicorn power comes from the combination magic power of the ponies, and is divided by the amount of alicorn. Also celestia and Luna power additionaly come from there people faith which explains how they weaker in later season's.
Should have clearified about UBW being zapped by rainbow Beam. TLDR: it doesn't fully change shirou it just make Hime more pony or native them before not that aļl the distortion and trauma left.
As for villains the BB:
Tirek;
The main think is how doesn't Shirou go hunting him early before he gets super strong?
Discord;
You practically got and answer already.
Chrysalis;
Practically Celestia/Luna counterpart aka her power is here people power and believe in her. P.s. hope you make here in a war-mother like character for her race.
Coze glow;
Truthfully I have no idea what to do whit her.
Sombra;
Make him an apostal ansestor equivalent.
Stormking and tempest;
Make them an actual army?
An another note will the royal guard and night guard actually be useful? Hoping shirou actually learns some magic. Also he better not lost his bow.
If you want you can go the anthro Chimera route to keep the team of integration in society and friendship and keep the funny image of a knight.

[NevianDragonPhoenix]

images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/3006190d-ba96-40e9-b0bd-3d2b25beb12c/dfdstuq-0047750d-9b1f-4478-8b33-7da08e923c31.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzMwMDYxOTBkLWJhOTYtNDBlOS1iMGJkLTNkMmIyNWJlYjEyY1wvZGZkc3R1cS0wMDQ3NzUwZC05YjFmLTQ0NzgtOGIzMy03ZGEwOGU5MjNjMzEuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.Y6c96T7Jmuf6zS9PM3EHMSxtEwuDimEnkt7MrejuLMU
ok took a bit too much but here my personal design of a sword you can use it in your story if you like.

[Mechscout]

5709557
Oh my, that's a really cool looking sword. If you don't mind me asking, what's its name? I might be able to use it at some point in the story, and if I do I'll be sure to credit ypu for it. I never expected something like this to be honest, but I am thankful all the same.

[NevianDragonPhoenix]

5709596
Anathema;
(Righteous Ruin of Twilight Calamity)
Type: great sword(length 7'7)
Divine construct
Rank: B-EX
Class: Anty-Reality, anty-magic.
>Astral wrought spirit blade;
*Purite of essence;
The Blade is ever evolving. Can use ability of other weapons that the wielder is connected to.
*Purite of form;
Can transfer and hold any and all kind of energy.
*Duality of light and darkness;
User is able to use both light and darkness and combine them.
Ability:
>Angelic magic;
*Enable the use of holy radiant magic in 3 ways;
Solace: protective and guard other's
Retribution: punish others for there sins and pain they cause.
Mercy: heal and calm others
>Harbinger of the grave;
*Put the dead to rest and destroy undead beings transmute necrotic energy to radiant.
>Spellbreaker;
Counter spell - reflect any magic attack
Devour magic - absorb magic to store and later release in antimagi attack.
>Blood of the Dragon Phoenix;
Infuse the wielder with the power of a Dragon and Phoenix.( Effect may be permenant)
Broken phantasm:
>Oblivion of Destined Death;
* Returns all to nothing and erase it from time and root.
Lore:
The Blade made of the dust of ancient stars, blessed by divine spirits and infused with cosmic power, blood and soul of it wielder. It nature is both angelic and of the Dragon and Phoenix's.

[NevianDragonPhoenix]

Shirou magic: I took basic magic from Witcher and a few different idea for rune like magic
>Runes
[Arven/Arfar]- heritage/inheritance provide buff:
|Kiritsugi - time manipulation
|Arturia - dragon fervour, increase base stats in combat
|Antra Mania - cursed fire
|Siegfried (ancestor) - dragon blood armor take less DMG
[Rottin] - decay/rot deals necrotic DMG prevents healing and regeneration
[Hjarta] - heart magic related to blood and emotions.
*Glyphs
Draw ancient runes/glyph in surface or air for different effect.
#Infusion - infuse the weapons with magic for different effect
*Signs
[Aard] - telekinetic force wave. Staggers, disarme or knockdown enemy. Deals both force and cold DMG. Can be used cone blast or a AOE around the user.
[Axii] - stun enemy unit. Can be use on multiple targets. Can calm targed down. Make target more susceptible to suggestion.
#Somne - put someone to sleep.
[Igni] - blast of fire, burnes enemy. Can be used in a wave, stream or ball form. Can be infuse into a weapon.
[Yrden] - a magic trap. Can pierce enemy with blade, lock them down or cripple them. Deals lightning DMG. Counter enemy progectiles. Increase casters magic ability withing it confines.
[Quen] - protective barrier. Automatically absorves enemy attack. Reflect a portion back. Once broken release a shock wave.
#Heliotrope - counter a powerful attack and reflect it back on attacker.
>Alchemy
*Alteration - change characteristics of an item
*Brewing - elixer, potion, bombs.
*Cloth weaving - weav magic into cloths changing them.