It was leading to rabbit holes of character arguments that spiraled into hellish domains where finding a feasible 'out' for Sunset grew dire indeed. After several attempts I've decided to just rip out the rootMyths; addressing a couple concerns/issues seen in comments · 4:51am Dec 20th, 2012
I've seen a couple recurring themes among comments. A: Gilda must die, and B: Griffons are jerks/monsters/must die. Okay, maybe those are more one point together. There has also been some concern about the Alicorns.
On Gilda and the Griffons; they've purposefully been painted in a dark tone so far. After the end of Chapter 5 there is almost no direction for them to go but up. Right?
As for the Alicorns, I read a comment tonight worried about there being too many. To those worried about the Alicorns and how they will be portrayed I point to the inspirational roots of Myths (and My Little Pony in general); Greco-Roman Mythology. I've not tried to hide the connections. At one time Myths and Birthrights was going to have a lot darker tone over-all. One story arc during the very initial planning stages had one character forcing himself on one of the Mane 6. That arc/scene has since been cut (obviously, Myths is rated Teen and I intend to stay in that rating), but it was in tone with the Greco-Roman inspiration and roots. So, it should come as no surprise that there will be a lot of Alicorns in Myths, just as the Greco-Roman Pantheon is large and convoluted.
World building is something I truly love to do. My editors can tell you, they've had to reign me in a few times when I just do back-story exposition storms. Chapter 4, for example, had 1.5k words of Celestia just talking about Iridia and the events surrounding Twilight's mom. Obviously that got cut. I know I am taking a big risk here with having so many Alicorn OCs. One can be enough to make some reader's eyes twitch, but I've got a total of 40 Alicorns in the mythos I've built for the story. Yes, 40. I was a bit surprised as well when I counted them out tonight and saw that number. Now, obviously not all are important characters, or may be seen beyond an idle mention in conversation between two other characters. A 'Hey, where is Bob?', 'He's over burning down a village.' type thing. Others may not be mentioned at all and will just sit in my overly-detailed mythos master-file. That's fine too.
Why am I doing this? Why does Myths have so many Alicorns? Well, in large part it is because of the Red/Black Mary Sue Alicorns and the general disdain I had towards Alicorn OCs. I also wanted to write something different than what I'd read (Yes, I'm aware of The Immortal Game, but I've not read it.) and with the obvious inspiration Greco-Roman roots in Friendship is Magic I decided to go another step with it.
One of my biggest concerns writing the story has been the Three Foals and making sure they were not 'Mary Sues'. So far I believe I've done a good job with all three making each unique and well rounded characters. I hope I can continue to write them in such a fashion, and if I stray from the path my editors will beat me over the head with fish until I regain some common sense.
yay fish.
If you ever have the time you should read the immortal game.
I have to showcase my newbiesm once again, as I see the terms brought up regularly.
What are "Mary-Sue"s and "Red/Black"s?
My interest has been piqued.
All-around Alicorn hate has always bothered me. Everything is a tool, including Alicorns. If a writer decides to make a plethora of them, that's fine! It is then up to them to make sure they and their very presence are believable. That and anything can become a 'Sue, so yeah.
You have done the Alicorn Pantheon very well, as have a few other authors. I am not worried at all about your direction, since it is fun as Tartarus
My friend General Patton always took big risks, every time he got big gains, so what am saying is simple, taking big risks will more then likly gain you somethin big, and I will always support big risks when they are smart or somthing new!
(Also helps your a bad-ass author 
)
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"Red and black" is the coloration used by many OCs. It is considered cliche as buck, and quite often is used to make emo ponies.
[url=tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue]Mary Sue
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A Mary Sue used to be something fairly specific, but if you just assume it means "An OC with a bad/not much of a personality" you'll be right 9/10 times. It dates all the way back to one of the first StarTrek fanfictions.
A black/red alicorn is just a cliche in mlp fanfics; it usually shows poor to no originality in writing.
Edit: damn, conan beat me to it...
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Sorry to go off-topic, but Mary Sue is a pretty hotly debated term. It has been defined anywhere from "can do no wrong" to "merely an uninteresting lead character" and everywhere in between.
The problem with throwing Alicorns into the mix is that they are "different" and "powerful," often leading to them being used for such characters. I mean, who doesn't wanna be(i.e. their self-insert) a god?
Ha! Ninja'd
> Not read The Immortal Game
Tundara uses Lose Respect!
It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!
It's a CRITICAL HIT!
Jesting aside, best story I have ever read, that. If you find the time I recommend it highly :3 Also, while I'm making suggestions, I recently found this story called Birthrights and Myths. It's also a pretty awesome fic. Ifuknowwutimean.
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Thanks you all for your timely and speedy comments. I almost deleted this blog a couple times while writing it.
I was really unsure about it, and a little about Myths and Birthrights as well. I have a lot of issues with chronic anxiety and stress, and with the holiday season I'm even more on edge than usual and perhaps a little hyper-sensitive to certain comments. 
I'm using the term Mary Sue a little more broadly than is usual. In this case, a character with little depth that other character instantly love and fawn over.
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TUNDARA has fainted!
Use another WRITER?
Sadly, The Immortal Game is one of those stories I am purposefully avoiding to prevent writing contamination and getting 'lost' in it's narrative. With my issues I have a hard enough time some days discerning reality from dreams. I also tend to ghost write what I read without realising it, so when I am writing a big project (like SotA or Myths) I usually read lighter fair or stuff too different from what I write. As an example, I re-read one of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels every month. Those things are walls of text and almost technical manuals on 18th century sailing ships. He is tied with Anne McCaffrey as my all time favourite author.
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Aesthetic B, I chose you!
Anyway. I see the point about "ghost writing" and getting lost. I've never published anything (oh god, the horror, the HORROR!) but whenever I HAVE written something I can usually read back through it and think "I totally jacked that from ------!" Thus it gets deleted in a swirling storm of angst. Hence why I've never put out any stories :3 But you... YOU... You dun gud.
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Thanks! My ultimate goal is to some day inspire fan-art of my fan-fiction. Maybe some fan-music.
Yeah, that would be cool. Someday, maybe someday. 
one thing that bugged me (though its probably me having read something wrong or not understood) but with the whole Gilda and the griffins thing, did they intent to use the alicorn to retake all their old land, or just the parts being warred over by griffin tribes. cause the former implies they want to war against equestria which seems phenomenally stupid since they have 3 alicorns (as far as the griffins know) to their one...their foal one. Its just something that wasn't clear to me, but I'm assuming its the latter, cause the griffins are very...spartan-y but their not stupid
Personally I wasn't worried with the prospect of so many Alicorns. Sure it caught me off guard but I shrugged and went with it. I'm willing to go where the writer takes me and while I know there are many stigmas against Alicorn stories as well as many other brand of stories I'm willing to go where the author points... well at least until they prove themselves incapable of leading me anywhere. Of course I feel really silly for not catching the similarities between Myths and... well myths! xD
Looking forward to your next works! ...and have you been staying away from the statistics? Stop freaking out! You got dis!
Idk. Still leery about reading this story.
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What a coincidence. MY goal is to learn to draw (anything). After I get to the point where my art ISN'T amorphous blobs I'll give it a shot. No promises on the date. Soon (tm)
40 freaking alicorn OCs...Yeah. For a story in general that would be overkill on characters alone much less OCs. Even if you are planning on leaving a few out that's still overkill and unnecessary. There were maybe twelve Olympian gods that held power. That's slightly more than a fourth of what you have. Trim them down so the ones that do get screen-time will be better rounded. Plus throwing around character's names maybe once or twice who we don't know will just get confusing unless you plan on spending time explaining who they are and why we should care. After all the alicorns are starting to go from rare and mysterious entity to "SPAM ALL THE ALICORN OCS! Quick someone call Nyx and get Lady Shard on the line! We're gonna get ourselves a "horns and wings" ho down going here!" It's a bit much in so few chapters. Especially with alicorn OC. Being relations to Celestia, Luna, Cadance, andTwilight they already got one-hoof in the grave.
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Your correct that there were only 12 Olympians, and they were certainly the most important of the gods. Trouble is that there are a bunch of different gods that have been Olympians. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Olympians
Every Alicorn on my list does have a counter-part, either a God, Goddess, or Demi-god.
And I'm being conservative! Have a look at this list! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures
I want Blueblood to die!
We have? I may have been enjoying the world too much, though not enough to emit those weird "SQUEEE" noises, nope, not me.
WHAT?! You sir are missing out on a good, dark adventure.
I got my fish ready!
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630715 No need. I've long since memorized most of the pantheons of the Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, and even a couple of ancient mesopotomian gods.....Yeah, I was kind of a weird kid.
Why have an Alicorn as a demi-god? I mean then it makes no sense unless you're simply taking name and role and just promoting them to godhood.
This is why people have a knee-jerk hatred of alicorn OCs, because with very little effort they very quickly become these bloated symbols of power, completely eclipsing everypony else with their sheer awesomeness. Can alicorns be balanced, believable characters? Yes, but it is waaay to easy and tempting for author's to say "time to show how much this character rocks."
In which case you are basically making an entire pantheon of literal god-mode sues.
Talona, Tyr (Still a weird name for a filly), and Shyera-whateverherfaceis do have the advantage of being foals where it's easier to keep them reigned in. I can easily see them being fun characters. It's these other fully grown alicorns that you've mention that I'm worried about like Iridia and Ares.
Iridia, unfortunatly, is
well on her way to beinga classic Mary Sue having bested Celestia and Luna, requiring the canon macguffin of power to defeat her. And these are the two that defeated Sombra and Discord. Oh and she was worse than Nightmare Moon ever was, making the dreaded Mare in the Moon look like a mere prankster and took on the name Death, while simultaneously being the wellspring of all life. All this on top of being the real mother of Twilight Sparkle.I'm not trying to be mean but Mary Sue, the red-maned, black-coated alicorn wasn't that bad and she was an intentional parody of Mary Sues.
EDIT: Sometimes I derp so hard I'm surprised I still have braincells left.
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Actually, it wasn't Blueblood. AJ was the Mane 6 involved, and I'm going to leave it at that. It is one of those things that was brainstormed and seemed like a good idea for about a pico-second before going, 'Yeah, no, this is actually a terrihorribad idea.'
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When you put it that way, yeah... that does seem rather Mary Sue...
You are right. The character is jumping the Mary Sue train, and looking back on things now it seems so obvious that I want to face-desk. I have no excuse or defence, and I can't believe I missed it given how paranoid I was about the foals. Iridia felt 'safe', since I was using the visual aspects of a character from elsewhere in the fandom, even though personality and back-story were being created by myself. A stupid mistake, on my part.
Oh, and there is no Sombra or Crystal Empire. There is a Crystal 'Kingdom' (okay, it's a couple cities and a few villages). I am leaving most Season 3 developments out.
Edit: And don't get me started on Discord!
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Yeah, I mean Applejack would just buck 'em in the sprouts, smashing those poor therapist nuts against some wall. Also, do I need a reason to see Blueblood executed? I just do not like him.
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Rawr, rawr,rawr Discord, you mad Tundra?
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Halibut to be exact.
One thing that hasn't been addressed in the story, but which I have full faith in your ability to address (in part because it's at least been lampshaded), is the utter tonal mismatch between the Panthe-o-verse where the foals came from and the Celesti-o-verse they landed in. The world Celestia rules is much nicer, and Celestia herself seems like she wouldn't exactly end up defending a regime which was casually bloody. She doesn't really seem to believe that she's essentially different from everypony else; she is ageless and oversize, but still a pony. Permitting temples in her honor would be a major setback. Permitting somepony to be executed for disrespect would pretty much ruin everything she loves.
Celestia seems more like she'd be one of the Titans trying to corrupt or cast down the panthe-o-verse. The world she lives in is that vastly different from the world Tyr came from. Presuming the Titans have some motive beyond Rawr Rawr Evil with the occasional dash of My Little Slaves thrown in, "these alicorns are intolerably vicious and must be removed from power at any cost, even the cost of becoming vicious myself" becomes a perfectly coherent motivation.
Do try to keep in mind that canonically, everything the alicorns can do is something that other ponies can do as well. In the times before Celestia and Luna, the turning of the days was done magically by the Kingdom of Unicornia. This is one of the very lowest-level differences between Poniverse and Grecian Myth. The ancient gods of human mythology were doing things that no human could ever do. The alicorns are doing things that other ponies could do with sufficient power (or more practically, with a sufficient number of cooperating ponies). Luna and Celestia together vaporized King Sombra, who was just a unicorn, and it didn't kill him. Then the Crystal Ponies vaporized Sombra again with a collective ritual that didn't need even one alicorn. (It just needed the focusing artifact in the middle of the city.) Maybe he'll come back from that too, but he hasn't yet.
I mean, Cadence could beam hope and love across all of the Crystal Empire, at the cost of utterly exhausting herself maintaining the spell. The Crystal Ponies collectively could beam hope and love across all of Equestria, and doing this left them cheerful and energized in a way they hadn't been for a long, long time.
This puts some limits on the amount of godly shenanigans that are plausible.
as long as you put the emphasis on the alicorn that we know (celestia, luna and now twilight), then im fine with W/E you throw at us. you've proven capable so far, so why doubt you now...
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Because I am doubting myself.
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) doubts themselves to oblivion...
meh, seems like every capable writer on this site (besides AestheticB, look at his blog post called "Arrogance
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Dang it now I'm trying to identify where Iridia's appearances came from. But as I mentioned there can be good alicorn OCs as well. They just require a lot more work to keep them off the slippery slope. That's why I was a bit concerned with the forty alicorn OCs since each of them since keeping them all reigned in (yes I went there) would be a hell of a task. A smaller number like say the Olympian dozen we mentioned earlier would be far easier.
Also this has been bugging me for a bit and now it's eating me alive. If Iridia and Ares are Titans then how are they alicorns too? I mean the Titans in the Greek mythology were a different from the Olympians, described as huge primeval beings whereas the Olympians were more human.
Also what do you mean about Discord?
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631441 Wow. Who ever did that did a really good job.
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http://equestria-prevails.deviantart.com/
just don't make too many of those alicorns main characters, otherwise i'll have to start making flow charts to keep track of who's related to who and who's doing what lol