TTwilight's Monster
MLP: FiM
Romance
Dark
Twilight Sparkle faces social ostracization when a crystal is discovered to contain the lost Princess Luna and must look past those social norms in order to learn more about this strange mare.
Alt. Universe
Twilight
Luna
Shining Armor
Fuzzyfurvert · 13k words · 735 27 · 10k views

Tiny Excerpt Time: Twilight's Monster-verse · 10:21am Aug 28th, 2015

Alrighty, it's been ~~awhile~~ too long since I talked about Twilight's Monster and its follow-up. Let's fix that.

First off, I'm pretty sure at this point, that I want this to be a sequel that picks up where TM left off(hense the 'verse' bit up there in the blog title). I know TM is currently marked incomplete, so that will likely be amended pretty soon. I might do a sort of 'spanner' mini chapter, but I dunno yet.

Secondly, as I've mentioned on Skype in the past and in a few comments here and there, the sequel will focus on the gathering of Exemplars by Celestia and Twilight's fate at the hooves of the Solar Council. Technically, the first Exemplar(Fluttershy) has already been contacted, so I'm moving right on to the next one: Rarity. The fic will be focusing primarily on her and her change from passive member of the unicorn society to active in her anger at the use of living creatures as parts and engines, etc.

There are, of course, some side plots to cover and I'm not going to ignore them. Shining Armor has his part to play and Twi's fate is not as decided as some would like. New pieces are moving onto the board and they all have their parts to play in attempting to save this crapsack version of Equestria. The other Exemplars will be coming up until it's time to bring down the whole thing.

Let me leave you with a tiny excerpt, which as always, is a first draft and unedited.

Rarity craned her head upward, gazing at the few stars bright enough to break through Neigh York’s haze, and sighed. “I would have quit, moved to some backwater village—”
“—no doubt touting some nonsense about air quality.” Goldie added drolly.
“Oh, of course!” Rarity puffed her chest out, standing at rigid attention as if preaching from from the stump. “The air would be wonderful! The townsfolk would be colorful and enchanting in that quaint upstate sort of way.”
The older mare rolled her eyes. “Would you take your family this time? Provide for all of them by opening your own business?”
“Certainly.”
“Even Sweetie? I seem to recall that just yesterday you were confiding in me your never ending annoyance with the filly and her messes?”
Rarity scoffed in mock hurt, falling back to lean on the lamp post dramatically, brushing her hat off to let her deep blue curls bounce free. “I love Sweetie Bell! To suggest such a thing, Goldie Panning, are you not the kind and caring pony I imagined you were?”
On que, Goldie cracked a disarming smile that honestly made her look more like the soon-to-be grandmother she was. “I’m the absolute worse.”
The pair stood there, looking at each other as the lamps continued to brighten and push back against the light of the stars and rising moon. After a moment the giggles started. Then those giggles bloomed into full on cackling guffaws that left both mares gasping for breath. Rarity recovered first, slipping her hat back on by the time Goldie was breathing more or less normally.
“Darling, you shoulda been on Bridleway.” Goldie coughed again, thumping a hoof against her chest. “Not slaving your days away with us down at the Gemworks.”
Rarity snorted dismissively. “Please, me on Bridleway? Doing what, helping ponies find their seats?” She shook her head sadly, nodding her chin at the collection of gemstones adorning her flanks. “I’m supposed to be at the Gemworks, Goldie. Polishing, sizing and setting beautiful stones for jewelry and all these new crystal tech devices. It’s a great time to be in the industry.”
“But you don’t love it, darling. Talent or not, it’s not your calling.”
“Perhaps.” Rarity sighed, turning and setting off again along the sidewalk. She glanced up at the highrise building they were passing. Lights shined from most of the windows, shapes and silhouettes of ponies moving in some she could see from street level. “It pays the bills, Goldie. I’m not hurting.”
“You’re not living either.” Goldie matched Rarity’s slow pace as they rounded the corner, moving further away from the city’s center toward the cheaper apartments. There was still a decent amount of ponies out on hoof, late into the evening, but the herds were thinning quickly. The powered carriages and loaders rumbled up and down the wide street with hardly any lessening. Ponies still slept, but in their increasingly developed city, business never did.
“The night’s still young.” Rarity forced an unconvincing smile onto her muzzle. “I can still have a good time. The time of my life even…” She faded out when sirens suddenly split the low background murmur of the city. A block away, a huge red colored fireloader rounded the corner, moving fast. For a brief second, Rarity thought it would topple over, spilling its load of water and foam all over the steps of the brownstone there, but at the last instant, the loader’s wheels and hooves hit the ground again.
The carriages in the road pulled to the side and let the fireloader through as it sped towards the middle of the city. It roared past them, shaking the ground hard enough that Rarity could hear the crystals in the street lamps rattle. More sirens joined its plaintive howl from deeper inside, more fireloaders where converging for a mass response.
When the giant vehicle was beyond the next block, Goldie took her hooves out of her ears, smirking at her younger co-worker. “Well, somepony is having a much worse time than us, huh?”
“Yes…” Rarity kept her eyes on the truck until it was completely out of sight. “I suppose somepony is.”