And we're live · 7:51am May 13th, 2012
Act III, Part 4: Allegiances is now here.
I've been waiting a long time for this chapter. I'd rank it up there with "Gilda" for parts of the story I've been waiting to tell for a long time.
You know how I may have mentioned before that in the original outline for the story, Nightmare Moon played a very minor and indirect role, and some of you may have been wondering how? This is how. How I originally planned the story, the conflict between alternate Rarity and Applejack formed the core of the story. Uniting the Elements of Harmony moonside is not an easy task when two of them blame each other for Ponyville's current state.
It was difficult to write this chapter and not have the background obviously favor one side or the other. (In fact, while planning this out, my sympathies often switched back and forth between them.) Some people are probably more likely to side with Orange than Rarity, or vice versa, though, and that's okay.
One thing I've noticed while writing this is that while I have some very astute readers, there is still foreshadowing that, to the best of my knowledge, people have not picked up on. I wonder if people will pick up on stuff in this chapter.
The overall theme of this chapter, condensed: Every pony has secrets. Not every obvious conclusion is correct.
That was fast.
113056
Relatively speaking.
So, am I to assume then, that Pumpkin Custard is not giving information to Nightmare Moon's forces? 'Cause that's the feeling I get from him.
Then again, his secretive attitude could just be a red herring...
-Tricondon