Part 11 of the Palaververse: Modern Equestria · 3:29pm Nov 24th, 2015
Let's pick up where the last week's entry left off, with the ponies of Equestria left on an inconvenient cliff-hanger as they were about to enter the modern era. Somepony called Princess Luner or something like that was about to do something with a Nightmare and the moon, which I'm sure can't end badly at all.
Read on past the page break for juicy details of how that went down. Normal nomination procedure is back in action as well, so leave any nominations you may have for future posts down in the comments, as well as any follow-up questions you may have. All due thanks goes to themaskedferret for offering her proofreading talents to this daft series.
In the two centuries after their defeat of Discord, the alicorn sisters ruled Equestria with a gentle hoof, acting largely as distant figureheads, Tartarus’s wardens, and shields against Equestria’s greatest threats rather than getting especially involved in the day-to-day running of the state. Their new court within a cleared swath of the Everfree hosted more artists, poets, and visiting schooltrips than it did ministers and diplomats, and for the most part, the old aristocracy and restored Equestrian Council continued to rule for all practical purposes. The high regard with which the Princesses were held gave them a lot of influence, though, and their few interventions into state matters were rarely openly quarrelled with. Additionally, the simple fact of their presence gave the ponies under their rule much more breathing space to explore. To expand Equestria’s borders into the hostile wilderness, to live without fear of the Capric Empire and dragons breathing down their necks. A new age of vibrant and peaceful growth flourished in Equestria, under the rule of the Council and the indirect reign of the new Princesses.
But though the Princesses were popular and adored, even moreso in the generations that followed after their defeat of DIscord, they weren’t accepted or trusted in all quarters. The same reluctance to accept absolute alicorn rule that had driven the Crystal Empire’s settlers northwards festered amongst many ponies in Equestria, particularly those in positions of power among the aristocracy for whom the rare interventions of the Princesses were an affront to their traditional authority. The dynasty of the unicorn monarchs, who’d been left as mere Dukes when the Princesses assumed their original titles and who’d lost their power over the motion of the sun and moon, were an especial and secretive focal point of opposition. And the sheer power the two alicorns wielded, and which had been demonstrated in nigh-on apocalyptic terms against the invading Fire Queen and Imperator Polaris, left others uneasy. The two sisters may be sincerely benevolent, even their greatest critics could agree on that, and their actions may have only been in immediate defence of their ponies … but whispers ran thick and fast in secretive circles of a time when one or both of them could run amok. And if that came to pass, what meaningful resistance could ponykind hope to put up against them?
These rumours and fears simmered parallel to growing loyalty and acceptance of the new order in the hearts of Equestrians. The Crystal Empire rose and was re-accepted into the Equestrian fold. The dethroned monarchs brought wary nobleponies into their circles and plotted out their return to power. And all the while as these schemes took shape and drew tight around them, Celestia and Luna seemed to settle happily into their new positions.
But their hearts were as sown with hidden madness and discord as any part of Equestria. And the Nightmare madness that had taken hold in their souls in the moment of their ascension was steadily nourished by the fears, pressures, and jealousies heaped upon them. Their Nightmares whispered to them, forced their fears to the forefront, and sought to isolate the Princesses in their own minds. Every fetter on their power could be lifted in order to destroy these fears, and so their Nightmares fed off the feedback loop of negative emotions this brought about, while coaxing them towards a tipping point where the Nightmare could take complete control.
What Celestia’s Nightmare whispered to her has never been recorded, and likely never shall so long as Celestia maintains her silence on the matter. Cadance’s short span of years before the Crystal Empire’s fall meant that her Nightmare hasn’t yet grown to proper size. But Luna’s Nightmare was fed by her feelings of isolation imposed by the nocturnal nature of her purview, her jealousy over Celestia’s greater prominence and power in the eyes of Equestria, and her own pride leaving her reluctant to communicate any of her fears to those closest to her. Taking Cadance on as an acolyte and grooming her for alicornhood gave Luna some measure of solace, but not enough to halt the Nightmare’s growth. And in the end, events in the Crystal Empire saw her solace taken away from her and saw her Nightmare unleashed.
The Crystal Empire’s position in the frozen north, past the Everfree and the Crystal Mountains, had always afforded it autonomy and little oversight from the rest of Equestria, with local politics and noble dominions rising and falling with little regard from the central court and Equestrian Council. In that remoteness, an ambitious unicorn noblestallion called Sombra arose from the ranks of the lower landed gentry to assume de-facto leadership in the Crystal Empire. Sombra was one of the most powerful and skilled unicorns of his age and reckoned a second Starswirl by many, and his keenness for arcane knowledge and power led him to learn magics which were regarded as beyond the pale. Dark magic became a secret study of his, delving down into those techniques which sacrificed piece after piece of the wielder’s conscience and sanity in exchange for vast and terrible power. Trapped within the coils of his own growing madness, and too far gone to recognise or reverse the changes he’d wrought upon himself, Sombra sought to use the Crystal ponies as a new source of power, trapping their lifeforce in the crystals that were his trademark as a nigh-unlimited source of immortality and magical fuel. He isolated the Crystal Empire behind veils and wards, and by the time word of his designs and planned ritual got back to the Princesses, it was too late to stop.
Cadance was the first to fly north and try to free her homeland, followed closely by Celestia and Luna. Both of the older alicorns were reluctant to wield their full power amidst the entrapped innocents of the Empire, and the end of the bloody affair came slowly as a result. The series of savage battles that erupted there are shrouded behind legend and rumour, and the exact sequence of events and clashes of eldritch magic that ensued are still puzzled over by scholars to this day. At the end of it all, in one last act of desperation fuelled by dark magic, Sombra froze himself and the Crystal Empire, hoping to re-awaken at a point when Equestria would be more vulnerable. Cadance was caught up in the spell and frozen away with the Empire, in spite of Luna and Celestia’s desperate efforts to retrieve her. The Princesses withdrew defeated, their armies battered and traumatised by the war in the arcane wilderness, the Crystal Empire and thousands of their subjects lost, and their adored protégée sealed past a ward beyond their then-ability to overcome.
In the immediate aftermath, the pain caused by the loss of Cadance and what she took as a personal defeat haunted Luna, compounded ever-further by her gnawing envy towards Celestia’s greater and more revered status in the eyes of ponykind. Inwardly, past walls of isolation and stoicism, she teetered on the brink of madness, taunted all the while by her Nightmare with promises of power and glory and eternal respect accorded to her and her beloved night.
And one night a thousand years ago, Luna gave in, and Nightmare Moon was unleashed.
The eternal night she promised only persisted into the next day, once Celestia found her attempts to raise the sun defied and flew out to find Luna. She found Nightmare Moon at their palace within the cleared Everfree, with the court either fled or cowering. The confrontation between Celestia and Nightmare Moon began with Celestia’s desperate attempts at reconciliation, and erupted into a full-scale battle throughout their palace. Unable to overcome the sheer wild force of the Nightmare, and with no other options if Equestria and the whole world was to be saved, Celestia was forced to draw upon the weapon she and Luna had once used to defeat Discord; the Elements of Harmony. She wielded them once more, and banished the Nightmare inhabiting the shell of her sister to the moon.
In one short space of time, Celestia had lost the Crystal ponies, her protege, and her sister. And no breathing space was forthcoming. With her previous partner’s banishment, the Elements of Harmony fell out of Celestia’s ability to use and lost Equestria one of its ultimate safeguards. The Long Night had terrified Equestria and the outside world, and gave justification to those who had always feared the consequences of alicorn misrule. Luna’s own supporters were outraged, suspecting a deceitful play for power on Celestia’s part by arranging for the elimination of the other two alicorns, in spite of the testaments from the few witnesses to the event. And in the sudden chaos and civil war that erupted in Equestria, other factions raised their heads, intent on exploitation.
The Lunar loyalists were the first and greatest to rise, and clashed with Celestia’s own loyal armies in the field and fed discontent and insurgencies in the towns and countryside, in the name of bringing the tyrant low and restoring Luna to her rightful status. The forces of the old unicorn monarchs were next, with Duke Iridium reclaiming the title of Prince and asserting his dynasty’s right to rule all Equestria. Their flag was hitched briefly to the Lunite cause, before detaching to form its own faction intent on cementing their own rule across Equestria and beyond. Other petty warlords and bandits rose to exploit the chaos, bent on plunder or other personal grudges and motives.
In one long and dark year, Equestria was consumed by these Nightmare Wars, with Celestia harried on all fronts as she tried to defeat her foes one after the other. The Capric Empire itself might have moved to exploit the chaos, if the corvids under the Fourth Cormaer hadn’t begun their own war against the Empire. Stormclouds blotted out all the skies over Ungula in that time, and peace became only a memory.
Eventually, the Nightmare Wars came to an end. The Lunites were gradually and painstakingly defeated, and the weary and battered Equestrian legions restored order wherever they could. Celestia personally slew several of the major warlords and Prince Iridium himself, and dragged his young brother and heir to the new and fortified mountain-capital of Canterlot to extract vows of loyalty and peace. The rebellions petered out, and Equestria had the chance to breathe and rebuild. And as it rebuilt, an altogether grimmer, colder, and sadder Celestia set up a new court in Canterlot, to get much more involved in the business of ruling and protecting her little ponies.
She was quick to cement her authority, and took steps to reduce the chances of another mass rebellion ever happening again. The rights and responsibilities of the traditional aristocracy were severely reduced, and models of democratic participation and decision-making were imported from Ovarn and gradually implemented, shifting the balance of power from the truculent elites toward common ponies. The Equestrian Council was reformed wholesale into a Parliament serving under Celestia, containing representatives from across Equestria. Powers such as raising and maintaining the legions were centralised to Celestia and to the central Parliament and bureaucracy of Equestria, away from the nobility. Peace would hopefully no longer be dependent on the contentedness of the nobility, and thousands of innocents would no longer have to suffer for one pony’s ambition.
The peace held for the next century, as Equestria rebuilt, regained its balance, and slowly resumed its expansion. The organised system of support the central state could extend to prospective settlers soon meant that yet more farmland was cleared and more communities were established. The population and prosperity of the nation were quick to reach pre-Nightmare Wars levels, and by the time all living memories (bar one) of the old horrors had passed, Equestria had become an economic juggernaut.
Equestria’s new resources and influence would soon be put to the test, as the Capric Empire finally disintegrated on Equestria’s doorstep a century after the Nightmare Wars. Weakened by the corvid incursion and still helpless in the face of the alicorn on their border, the Empire was helpless to prevent several different wars of independence sparking and gathering force across its conquered territories. Eager to dismantle its old foe and to gain a few friendly neighbours at long last, Equestria sent funds and armaments to the various rebellions. With that aid, new or reborn realms in Asinia, Bovaland, and Ovarn soon took shape, all grateful to Equestria for enabling their existence and unconditionally recognising their nationhood. An especial friendship was struck between Equestria and the donkeys of Asinia for a variety of reasons, including neighbourliness, a shared dislike of Capra, and a certain capacity for mutually-agreeable reproduction.
The core territories of Capra itself began to fragment shortly after, and as it disintegrated into a number of different states, a confident Celestia was quick to carry a moral crusade right to its heart. With the Equestrian legions at her back, she oversaw the total abolition of slavery throughout both the Empire and in the main underhold of the Diamond Dogs. Helpless to resist, the caprid and dog slaveholders made sure their shackles were broken, and the old terror of most of the now-free species of Ungula was banished forever. Celestia politely informed the continent at large about the extent to which she’d tolerate the practise resuming anywhere (non-existent) and the consequences of doing so (decidedly unpleasant). Many of the freed populations ventured to their own nations, but a sizable minority pledged loyalty to their liberators. Griffon tribes and bovines and donkeys alike flocked to Equestria, mingling and lending their own skills and talents to the nation.
Slavery was abolished in Ungula. And Equestria, almost entirely by accident, had assumed the mantle of a great power.
That new mantle influenced most of Equestria’s dealings for the next millennium, which were in turn coloured by the benevolent streak Celestia brought to proceedings, and was comfortably maintained as its technology and industry marched ever onwards. When an eccentric noblestallion, Lord Monsoon, established a colony on the remote, barren, and hostile island of Saddle Arabia and pledged it to Equestria as a new dominion, a somewhat bewildered Celestia and Parliament gained something that could be charitably described as an overseas holding. Closer to home, when the Asinian royalty grew ever more tyrannical, Equestria began to secretly support those common Asinians who yearned for freedom. When Jackplate’s Rebellion and the Great Revolution swept across Asinia, Equestria and Celestia were quick to support the new and hopefully more ethical regime, and helped the fragile republic survive its first centuries of life.
Favoured access to the Asinian trade markets also saw Equestria spread its wings over the rest of the world and gather its riches through peaceful trade. Resources began to flow into Equestria’s port-cities of Manehattan and Baltimare from far-off lands, bringing the exotic riches of Dactylia and Ceratos into Equestria. Zebra alchemy, Bovine literature and epic poetry, Pachydermian lore, and even artefacts and artificers from far Ceratos made Equestria’s cities true melting pots of species and learning, with dozens of different disciplines evolving. Scientific and magical enquiry flourished, and explorers ventured out from Equestria to push back the borders of the known world. The industrial revolution that took shape in Asinia was quickly mimicked by Equestria, and the vast size and resources available to Equestria made its industry a truly mighty force. Equestria’s keen adoption of airships, electricity, ever-progressing magic, chemistry, biology, and advances in other natural and supernatural fields kept it a beacon of advanced learning and technological sophistication.
All that and more, for the nation that hadn’t even seemed likely to survive a millennium prior. But these stretches of peaceful growth were always punctuated with strife, and Equestria was obliged to go forth and exercise its power in the name of preserving harmony.
The rise of the Capricious Crown in Capra three centuries ago and its subsequent wars with Asinia and Bovaland saw a new and dangerous foe emerge on Equestria’s border. Capra’s re-unification shocked Equestria, and news of its atrocities appalled the ponies yet further. Celestia threatened to intervene with Equestria’s own overwhelming strength and tip the balance of the war if the Crown didn’t immediately cease hostilities. The Crown in turn threatened horrors upon any and all civilian populations if Celestia dared to involve herself, and in that moment, the alicorn’s greatest strength acted as a weakness. She reluctantly came to a negotiated peace where Capra annexed chunks from Asinia and Bovaland and the Crown was allowed to persist in its rule. Since then, the threat of Capra has remained a constant shadow overhanging Equestrian foreign affairs, and the naked ambitions of the Crown to restore the old Empire is well-known and deliberated over by Celestia and her advisors.
Capra isn’t even the only military threat faced by Equestria, both then and now, with the corvids of Corva happily adding themselves to that number. The Corvid Incursion led by the Seventh Cormaer swept all of Ungula up in bloodshed and fire a century before the present day, from utmost east to the border of Asinia. Equestria was the only power capable of even combating the corvid hordes one-on-one, and Equestria duly gave battle at Dream Valley as the Cormaer’s forces came streaming across the border intent on plunder. The homeland of the Equestrians turned into hell over several days of battle, with countless thousands on either side watering the valley with their blood. Celestia unleashed the full power of the sun for the first time in centuries once the corvids had committed all their forces, and slew hundreds of thousands of their warriors along with the Cormaer himself. Equestria may have single-hoovedly stopped the Corvid Incursion, but at the cost of over twenty thousand ponies, Dream Valley itself, and with a long-lasting grudge formented in Corva against the ponies. More ominously yet, the projection of Equestria’s peaceful strength had acquired a sinister air for many foreign observers, with the ashen valley now serving as a permanent reminder of the full power Equestria could wield against those who crossed it.
Peace has persisted in Equestria — and Ungula as a whole — since that last great war, and Equestria remains peaceful and prosperous. Its fertile fields produce enough food to feed a continent, and its population, landmass, and wealth have only increased, keeping it firmly in the top rank of the world’s great powers. Celestia herself remains a benevolent and authoritative force at the head of the nation, who has delegated many of the tasks of rulership to local councils and the Equestrian Parliament while remaining ready to intervene personally where necessary. Centuries of her rule have made her beloved and revered by nearly all Equestrians, and many can’t contemplate a world without her presence.
Many old ghosts have been laid to rest as well. Expeditions into the north were able to release Princess Cadance from her frozen prison. Her biological age had been frozen, and mercifully so had her mind, allowing her to have passed the long years in the blink of an eye ensuring she didn’t emerge mad or in the thralls of her Nightmare. A delighted Celestia was quick to secure Cadance and see to her rehabilitation into modern Equestria by foalsitting Celestia’s own student, and plans were set in motion to free the rest of the Crystal Empire. More joys followed with Luna’s return a few years later. The escape of Nightmare Moon from banishment may have briefly cast the world into night and saw Celestia herself fleetingly banished to the sun, but the immediate assumption of the Elements of Harmony by a new group of bearers — including the aforementioned student — saw not only the Elements exist as a safeguard once more, but saw Princess Luna return to Celestia’s side once more. The joy of the reunited Princesses was said to outshine the sun, and Luna was swift to take up her own rehabilitation and gradual re-assumption of state duties amidst the court in Canterlot. Even the last heir of the unicorn monarchs, still bearing the vestigial title of Prince, exists as a harmless dolt swanning around various Canterlot social occasions, of little danger to anypony barring himself.
But Equestria isn’t free from all strife yet, and various threats and problems remain within and beyond its borders. Eldritch patches of wilderness still pockmark the landscape, and the occasional world-imperilling horror still wanders out from them to be fought and banished to Tartarus. The native buffalo in the southern Badlands have clashed with encroaching settlers, in spite of Celestia’s attempts to peacefully mediate the situation. Asinia’s increasingly avaricious and ruthless exploits in the southern seas have started to offend Equestria’s sensibilities. Distant war-drums beat past the borders of Capra and Corva, both intent on seeing a common enemy laid low, and their combined forces might be too much for Equestria to face by itself. And shadows in the dark places of the world, past the Black Ocean and gathering strength within Equestria’s wildernesses, threaten unknown and greater harm yet.
Celestia continues to guide her little ponies, as she has done for centuries and foresees doing for centuries yet. And one day, she hopes to see herself made redundant, once the ponies of Equestria can finally peacefully bring the whole world together in harmony. All species and nations joined in friendship at long last, ruling themselves without any tyrants or alicorns at their helms, and banishing all the old nightmares of fear and war and death through their common labour.
For herself, once she can finally free herself from her duty in good conscience, Celestia hopes for a pleasant little cottage in a peaceful valley somewhere. A cottage where she can keep a garden, stock a modest liquor cabinet, and watch what the world makes of itself alongside her sister, students, and dearest friends.
The path to that world and that little cottage remains long and gruelling, even after the hard trail walked thus far. Maybe it remains as impossible as it was at Equestria’s founding, and Celestia has wearied herself with pursuit of an pointless dream.
But of all the qualities Celestia has held herself to lack, hope has never been amongst them.
Yet another wonderful piece.
And totally not headcanoning that in your post-apoc story, the sisters didn't die, merely lost all power, and thus retired to some little hovel somewhere to rest and rebuild
All alicorns have a Nightmare within them? Hmmm. Now, if I were an amoral and dubiously sane sapient magical artifact, I might well attempt to exploit that.
I might well endeavour to see what would push the young, naive and vulnerable Princess Twilight into her Nightmare, thus casting my enemy into chaos while removing it's most potent weapon.
Though I can't imagine Celestia would like that...
Excellent blog, as ever. My vote is for Zebrica.
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Nomination for Zebrica noted! And yep, the Nightmare madness is one of those regrettably exploitable things, if a cunning enemy were to seek to do so. Expect every manner of objection from the older alicorns if such were attempted, though ...
I think it's time for the Zebra to have their day.
Excellently done, good sir. I like your ideas regarding Cadance; they're a great explanation for what we've been shown especially given that details on her and why she took the throne of the Crystal Empire are still mostly unknown. Even better though was your explanation for why Nightmare Moon rise was such a big deal to the nation when what we saw in canon was so brief. Expertly crafted there. I did have a question though: about when in Equestria's history did the sirens appear?
I vote for Saddle Arabia as I'm certain you've got more in store about that place.
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Ah, but therein lies the danger of bending her into such a weapon. Twilight's nightmare could easily be something directly outward, perhaps manifesting as a hypermania to destroy all creatures that impede the spread of 'friendship'. The Crown would certainly be at top of such a list.
So not only could her Nightmare be potentially more dangerous to Capra but the nation would have to be ready for what followed as such an act would certainly provoke war with Equestria. Perhaps even Celestia losing her cool, damning the consequences, and doing unto the Crown's palace as she to Dream Valley.
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Nomination for the zebras noted!
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New ending confirmed, whooooo
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! Glad you approve of my various flailing explanations - coming up with things to fill in the blanks for Cadance and the Crystal Empire was good fun.
I think - if the wiki's to be trusted (which it should be, in comparison to my terrible memory) - that the sirens were banished by Starswirl during his early exploits.
Here's hoping Celestia can enjoy that cottage one day. I can only assume that grooming her student to take the nation's reins would be a massive step in the right direction.
Oh, goodness. Princess Twilight on the Palaververse geopolitical stage. And she thought just being asked to smile and wave was bad... though I'd love it she were so fascinated by the spells that went into creating the Capricious Crown that she managed to make it uncomfortable. To say nothing of being a quasimaternal figure of the Fire Queen's son...
As for where next, my vote is still for Saddle Arabia.
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It is a gamble, and not one a sane being would take. The Crown, sadly, did not have a firm hold on sanity to begin with, and that situation has hardly improved; as the Capra blog demonstrated, it is becoming increasingly senile, irrational and insane.
The Crown strikes me as a gambler, and may well adopt such a strategy as an opening gambit in a planned war.
It may count on the other alicorns stopping her, and hope that one or more of them is killed as a result.
It wouldn't be a good plan, of course; as you said, Celestia might be decidedly apocalyptic in her response:
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Nomation for Saddle Arabia noted! And Princess Twilight out and about on the Palaververse's political stage is indeed a fun prospect to consider.
Gah! These stories are awesome! I look forward to the day that the crown stirs up a shitstorm, just to see Equestria settle things back down, with a suitably peeved Celestia at the forefront of the affair. As others have said, it would almost be worth it if Twilight was specifically targeted by Equestria's enemies, pre or post ascension, just to bask in the toasty glow of the aftermath. But only if Twilight ended up okay in the end! Anyway, I vote for Zebrica next.
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Nomination for Zebrica noted! And any shitstorm that the Crown may try to kick up involving Twilight would indeed be a spectacle to behold, from a safe distance. With as close to an intact Twilight as possible remaining at the end of the day, of course.
Well, now I want to see what the reunion between Cadance and Luna was like! I vote Saddle Arabia, I'm interested to see if Simoon inherented his personality from Monsoon. I loved the focus on Celestia's mind state.
How does the White Horse fit in with this Chronology? Sombra was frozen in the empire before Luna's Banishment, but in that story he meets with Prince Iridium.
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! Suffice to say that Simoon may not be an exact ancestral replica, though there are certain ... I'll be charitable and call them 'similarities'.
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The White Horse doesn't fit in with it exactly, alas, due to the number of people who pointed out the continuity flub therein. Iridum and Corn Rose and 'Mercy' can still be assumed to have met, but Sombra's own uprising happened before it all rather than alongside it.
These blogs are always a joy, not just for their actual content, but because of all the microfics that inevitably pop up in the comments.
Rats. And there I was, hoping for a weird time travel explanation for that.
I vote Saddle Arabia next.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/037/227/336.jpg
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! Glad to delight with blogs and microfics both.
Frankly, I thought it was very impressive, the way Sombra could not only accidentally travel through time but do so without anypony or even himself realising.
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He is naturally talented like that.
Nomination for the Zebras!
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Nomination for the zebras noted!
Saddle Arabia: Because skipping past it and going straight down to zebrica would just be rude.
That has to be the neatest Cadence headcanon I've heard yet.
Also, you should totally gather all of these blogs together into a "history book" fic once you're done with them.
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Possible solution! With the Empire gone, some other ponies form a new settlement somewhat south of it. Yadda yadda. Then along comes unicorn 2.0 who adopts the name in The White Mare, trying to sound more intimidating yadda yadda and poof.
Or something.
Or hell, just say the empire un-froze as Sombra had contingency spells in place, and when Celestia won he was like 'Welp!' and jumped back out of time.
Then in the modern era, the spell ends not by his choice, but because the freed Cadance somehow set in motion a failure cascade. WOMP. Fixed.
So Saddle Arabia was founded by Equestrians? I guess that's where we're headed next!
Gotta say, the stuff about Cadence has me on edge, and I don't particularly like the idea that Celestia has killed ponies. Birds or caprids, sure, but her own ponies? It's unsettling.
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! Glad you like the Cadance headcanon. And I might give some thought to getting all these in a story format once they're finished. They've probably already managed to clock in at a respectable story length, combined.
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Ooh, the second of those has potential to be reformed into something sensible. (Sensible, of course, being what the Palaververse is all about.) I might just keep it as is, but worth considering all the same.
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! And I can get where you're coming from with Celestia. I take the view that she's had to reluctantly get her hooves dirty in darker times than the show depicts. The White Horse goes into a bit more of the unpleasant details.
I vote for the Elephants.
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And yeah, of course Celestia has had to kill ponies when the only alternative was to let more of her own ponies die.
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Nomination for the elephants noted! It's never something she does gladly, and it's not something that came naturally to her in the beginning ... but if no better option's given to her, she'll do it.
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You have crazed warlord-militants going around being awful. Think Raiders in Fallout - do you let them continue to rape and pillage and murder, or do you eliminate the problem, however much you wish there was a better way? Sometimes a single scalpel cut prevents an entire limb from festering and going bad.
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You totes should use it, because The White Mare is awesome and should remain 100% canon.
"labour.."
Was that meant to be a period or an ellipsis?
Very nice. :)
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Flattered you think so. I'll think about it.
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Derp, t'was meant to be a period. Fixed, and thank you!
First of all: that was brilliant once more. A very satisfying description of how modern Equestria came to be. And I simply love that you give your Celestia incredible powers but somehow manage to let her remain vulnerable and, yes, beatable. An alliance of Capra and Corva, however delusional at this present day, might be enough to put the world's fate in the balance, even if it would take totally insane or greedy beyond measure leaders to take a gamble like this... oh, wait.
Especially since you've put the Nightmares into play as a complete wildcard.
I had to laugh at that. Beautifully put; this needs a story of an epic quest for romance.
About Celestia getting her hooves dirty: The days of Discord's madness might have seen this already, but somehow I would really like to see your Princess Celestia's first pony kill. Not for griefporn or the strengthening nightmare, but for the character development that must come with it.
Your history of the palaververse remains my weekly highlight. The overseas holding of Saddle Arabia next please.
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted! And I'm very glad I've been able to make these a highlight of your week.
Keeping Celestia powerful but not invincible in relation the threats she faces, and with a few vulnerable points ready for dramatic exploitation, always seemed important to me for worldbuilding purposes - it's only sensible to give her proper foes on the worldstage which she can clash with and not just immediately prevail over.
Writing more about her and Luna's early adventures - including the first time she had to draw blood to defend herself - would be a heck of a fun project if I could find the time.
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No problem, and you're welcome. :)
Oh, and I think I'll cast a vote for Saddle Arabia next, too; as has been mentioned, it seems a reasonably logical next step.
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Nomination for Saddle Arabia noted!
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Obviously you have your troops go in and they do the actual murdering so you remain pristine and white. :B
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One can hope! I absolutely loved The End of the Day and I guess a similar oneshot would be enough to do the theme justice, considering how much you managed to cram into that one.
I'll start and save up some time and mail it to you when I reach a sufficient amount.
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Deliver me your time, as and when. I'll try not to waste too much of it.
Excellent!
I have actually been considering another similar oneshot around the same time, detailing Celestia and Luna's somewhat less-than-upbeat first meeting. Celestia fighting would occur, though against a monster rather than her fellow ponies. Plans can be changeable, though.
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An enemy would have to be very careful in exploiting an alicorn Nightmare so that the collateral damage didn't take out the planet. Luna's Nightmare was obvious, especially in retrospect, and yet it had the potential to wreck the ecosystem and condemn the planet to slowly freeze. Celestia's could likely glass the entire surface of the planet, and possibly even vaporize it in its entirety if hers became particularly irked.
Twilight might look like the easiest mark of the four alicorns to exploit, but considering how badly she reacts to potentially failing at anything ("If I can't find a friendship problem…"), her near-obsession with order ("I call it my booksortcation!"), her sheer magic potential ("
KHANTI-REK!!!"), and most notably the way her Equestria Girls doppelgänger reacted upon gaining magic in the Friendship Games ("I didn't understand magic before—but I do now!"), even the Capricious Crown might have second thoughts about involving her.3568040
Excellent and terrifying points all. Any alicorn's purview and personal abilities stand to make them an unbridled menace when their Nightmare takes over ... and given the right mix of personality traits to play upon and bring to extremes, that can be an unhappily easy task.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I think I'll just shotgun out a few thoughts that've built up over the last few posts.
The idea of sapient or at least "willful" artifacts vis-a-vis the Capric Crown is still one that I enjoy, and I've been thinking a lot of how to incorporate it into my own "verse", perhaps via the Alicorn Amulet instead. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that.
I don't have much to say about your take on dragons, since it's not all that far off from my own, or what I call "dragon-classic." You know, as opposed to all that newfangled psychic dragonrider nonsense that's got the kids in a tizzy these days. I had some ideas for giant elder dragons that crawl through the magma veins in the earth's crust, creating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as ideas for "weredragons" and dragon cultists (because who doesn't like fantasy cultists? the koolaid is ACTUAL magic!), but that's about as far as I've taken that species.
Your take on changelings seems to be a well-realized version of the predominant fanon. No crazy "Chrysalis is Celestia's long-lost stepsister's maid-turned-alicorn-turned-vampire-bug" or "the changelings are flutterponies that got infected with the mutagen" theories. Which is probably for the best, since most of those backstories I've read are pretty lamely executed. Most just say something like "changelings are monsters created by NIGHTMARE MOON!!!" without ever getting into the where or the when or the why or the how in a satisfactory manner, at least in my experience.
The idea of changelings being telepathic and (at least in the majority) sub-sapient is always something that I've struggled with, not because it's not a cool concept, but because it makes them so much more alien and difficult to write from their POV. It's hard to make readers care as much about creatures that are barely more intelligent than animals, mostly because it's hard for me as the writer to care about them. And writing from the POV of a character capable of species-wide telepathy in a believable and interesting manner is something that I feel would be very time-consuming and, by its very nature, would have to be a central feature of the story.
...I guess I should say, your view on changelings is typical fanon for when they're portrayed as antagonists, since portraying characters in an alien and sub-human way is exactly what one often wants to do with a villain. The typical "good changeling" story usually has them be more just "pony-plus," with basically similar pony psychology and biology, a desire for Equestrian assimilation, and with the blame for changeling hostility usually placed on Chrysalis as their Bad Boss leader. In that sense, I often prefer to read "evil changeling" stories, simply because they're usually more creative with their worldbuilding and plots.
(Going to give a shout-out to This Platinum Crown here for having extensive changeling worldbuilding, sensible motivations, simultaneously fun and horrifying depths to their cruelty, and the constant subtext that they, too, are people and are capable of redemption.)
...I also enjoyed your implication that the march of civilization is an actively hostile threat to the changeling way of life, and to survive they will have to either *cough* "change"/adapt or perish. This was my take on Chrysalis' sudden desire to "go loud" against Equestria, and is a theme I'm incorporating into my own work.
Your worldbuilding for the diamond dogs may be my favorite so far, not only because you bothered with them at all, but because you managed to make a bunch of ugly one-shots seem actually cool there for a minute. The mines of Moria was always my favorite part of Lord of the Rings, and you did a fine job of channeling that in the diamond dog origin story. I would have preferred a more symbiotic relationship with dragon ala kobolds (because I'm the only guy in the world who thinks kobolds are cool I guess), but at least they have some relationship backstory. They basically take the role of dwarves in this universe, but better because they're not "short bearded people who like to drink and sleep in the dirt."
I don't have anything else to say about your diamond dog worldbuilding, other than that it's easily the best I've seen, probably because it's the only diamond dog worldbuilding I've seen. Not quite changeling-levels of interest in diamond dogs in this fandom.
I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed by some aspects of your Equestria lore, at least compared to some of your other work. For example, I always figured that the Crystal Empire was basically the capital of the "old kingdom" that ponies descended from in the first place. They were supposed to have come from the far north in the first place, right? I can't think of any canon that explicitly rules out that interpretation. And it would explain all the weird crystal-tech you see there; remnants of an advanced ancient civilization mostly lost to time, sort of like your Atlanteris or whatever it's called. And Sombra could be the good and wise Unicorn King who ruled the remnants of that ancient civilization and mentored Celestia and taught her how to control her powers, and the Alicorn Amulet could be the artifact that gave him the power to keep the sun and moon along their designated paths....
...Anyway! Not saying you had to do it exactly like that, no, but your Crystal Empire seemed a little bit more of an afterthought. I realize that there's all that business with Private Pansy and Chancellor Puddinghead and all that to consider, but I frankly always found that backstory very pat and questionable in the first place. I sort of figured that play was a grab bag of historical figures put together to teach a moral to children.
~ Excerpt from a children's play 3000 years from now.
Of course, I know some folks are very touchy about their canon, but. I guess I don't write for those folks. I always figured the show was more of a starting point to build from than a tie to bind an author's hands.
Anyway. The incorporation of Tartarus and co was cute. I'm not super-fond of the show's interpretation of Tartarus as basically just Equestrian supermax, but hey. It's a little girl's show, right? Supermax is still pretty edgy.
You danced a bit around the exact origins of Celestia and Luna, how they gained their powers, where they got the EoH. Which is... fine, I suppose. That kind of deserves a story in its own right. I've been playing around with the idea of writing an origins story for them myself... perhaps featuring Luna as Celestia's student rather than blood-relative. I always liked that interpretation of Celestia: that she was the first modern alicorn, and that she takes on other ponies of potential so that, if and when they ascend themselves, they will see her and each other as family, thereby keeping the world from being split between rival deities (and more cynically keeping herself secure as Matron of the pantheon.) That would explain why she accepted Twilight as her daughter-student based upon little more than a display of Twilight's power. It could also explain Star Swirl's mysterious journal: perhaps he was also a student of Celestia's, one that failed to ascend (or that she decided would not make a good addition to the pantheon), and maybe Celestia used his work combined with the power of the EoH as a means of streamlining ascension for her students in the future.
...But we were talking about your crazy headcanon, right? Whoops! Anyway, moving on.
I believe you wrote a story about the Tantabus, which is still on my RiL list, but I assume you explored the concept of nightmare-entities a bit more there. Your interpretation of them as some kind of... spirit, I guess, that only possesses alicorns was a bit strange. Why only alicorns? Are there more out there? Are they independent entities, or mere reflections of their host? Was Luna being "possessed" by Nightmare Moon, or did she BECOME Nightmare Moon?
These are all important questions, as NMM is still Best Pony, even after all these seasons. (Don't get mad at me, Chryssy baby. You're not a pony.)
I could go more into my own headcanon regarding nightmare entities, but I feel I've done too much of that already. Suffice it to say that I look forward to reading that story of yours, and hope it fleshes them out a bit more. Your take on MLP's more respectable species is nuanced and detailed; the monstrous ones need love too! (Besides changelings. Everybody loves those guys.)
Speaking about the Nightmare Moon incident some more, I'll again say that sticking too closely to canon can do more harm than good, I think. I know that the show says that the Epic Confrontation Between Good and Evil, Light and Dark, Reason and Madness took place in a deserted castle and was over in about fifteen seconds, but I prefer to think that either
a) The Watsonian view: Zecora's was the Magical Potion of Historical Cliffnotes, or
b) The Doylesian view: the show was made on strict time-limit and budget and the creators didn't have enough of either to animate an epic civil war or Alicorn Showdown at Midnight.
You seem to stick to canon as closely as you can, which I respect, and I know that for some readers, that's the only kind of worldbuilding that they'll accept. But I feel that that approach can be very limiting at times.
Beyond that, I only have a few points more. First, I wish that nobility got a little more love and respect in this fandom. I get that Blueblood and a few others in the show were jerks, and that there's a deepening mistrust in western civilization for the wealthy and powerful that is, to an extent, warranted. But when I see the good common pony versus the noble-born jerk too many times, it starts to feel a bit trite. Even the show has its philanthropist rich Fancy Pants and its scumbag poor Trixie. To give another shoutout, This Platinum Crown is again a story that does a great job showing the moral complexities of the noble elite, their pride and senseless rivalry, their deep-seated sense of duty and patriotism.
I also wish that your portrayal of Celestia were just a tad more... balanced. I mean, it's almost right-on-the-money for how the show portrays her (save your Celestia being far more hawkish and competent, of course), but that carries with it the same baggage of show-Celestia being, well. A bit boring. Sort of like Twilicorn in many respects. Once you remove a character's flaws, they start to seem less real, and their internal conflict basically goes away. That's not terrible for what is essentially a background character, I guess, but even a hint of inner doubt, turmoil, jealousy, or pride can add a lot to a character. You don't have to go full tyrantlestia or worfeffectlestia to at least make the reader question a bit whether she's in the right, or competent enough to be in charge, or whatever.
The fact that you essentially Word-of-God that Celestia's actions are pure and just is also a bit awkward, since many of the actions she takes could be seen as very controversial. For example, slavery is seen as a universal evil here in the west... but not all civilizations treated their slaves as poorly as the old Deep South or (far worse) the farms, mines, and mills of Rome. There are a number of periods, such as ancient Egypt and the middle east, where being a slave might mean better living conditions than being poor, or even being treated as a member of the family. There was little or no racial element involved, and many people voluntarily sold themselves into slavery in those days.
There exists a number of possible cultures that would take great offense at a foreign power instituting forced manumission; indeed, not only would it be seen as unwarranted and unwanted interventionism by the slave owners, but many of the slaves themselves might be alarmed at this perceived attempt to separate themselves from their homes and work.
It's easy to say "slavery is bad," but like most real-world issues it's not something you can really sum up well in a fortune cookie or a political slogan.
...My point is, your Celestia seems to take a pretty hardline hawkish and interventionist approach to foreign policy. Which is interesting, and leaves a lot of room for conflict with... well, everyone who doesn't like a foreign dictator dictating to them what they can and cannot do. My problem is that the way you portray her basically states that what she's doing is right and her motives pure, which is a lot less interesting because the reader basically either has to agree with you or disagree with you, rather than form their own opinion on whether what she's doing is right or wrong. For example, I don't think a citizen of not-Equestria would have to be evil to view Celestia's approach to the rest of the world with alarm, or her subjects' near-worship of her with dismay. But if one accepts your portrayal of her, it seems the reader must accept that such a citizen MUST be either evil or at least severely misguided.
Anyway. Sorry it took so long, and hope you at least found my omnibus comment interesting to read. I really should go do other stuff now instead of nerding out about my favorite show. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and look forward to the next post! Maybe something about Atlantis!... Atlanteritis?... that other place! ~ Sable, He Who Never Says in Ten Words What Can Also Be Said in Ten Thousand
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Glad the dragons, changelings, and Diamond Dogs all rang true enough.
Nomination for Antlertis noted! And your omnibus comments are always a joy to read.
Regarding Equestrian lore, I'll cop guilty to my Crystal Empire fanon being less developed than most others, and if it comes off as a bit of an afterthought ... well, that's not an entirely unreasonable thing for it to come off as. I was trying to juggle reasons why it in particular could have captured by Sombra (geographical isolation in northern parts), its name suggesting an existence as an independent state (self-declared independence from Equestria came to mind), and why Cadance in particular was chosen to rule over it (she was born there, and she was caught up in the fighting for it before Sombra ruined everypony's day). Reconciling my various half-considered thoughts may not have produced the most satisfying results.
Dancing around Celestia and Luna's exact acquisition of the Elements was indeed done: it's something I'd be interested in writing a story about one day, so keeping things close to my chest there seemed sensible. Your own origin for them sounds excellent.
You're also right that I try to stay as close to canon as possible. Stuff like the Hearthswarming Day tale can be reasonably taken as a summary or mythic retelling of actual events, but unless given a reason to think otherwise, I'd take things like Zecora's flashback at face value. Working around the deserted castle and apparent briefness of the battle can be relatively easy, if you assume there was a period of fraught dialogue beforehand as well as a great deal of battle we only came in at the tail end of.
As for Celestia ... you're perfectly fair to call Celestia as depicted in the Palaververse being a little unbalanced. A certain degree of hawkishness and competence seemed necessary for the broader worldbuilding (stick something like an alicorn into a setting, and the outside world's certainly going to push at it, and if the alicorn's survived to the present day and protected the things in her charge, she's almost certainly had to push back). I personally roll with Celestia genuinely being benevolent at heart, with most of her actions born of kindness, a desire to protect her ponies and innocents of other species, and a sincere wish to reduce the amount of suffering in the world while inflicting as little suffering as she can possibly get away with. That's not to say I don't think she's got her own share of frustrations, pent-up rage, and inner Nightmares - Second Sun addresses some of that.
I do reckon her motives are pure and that she's been a force for good in the world overall, but I hope one of the things I've managed to do with these posts is show that her meddling in the outside world hasn't always had optimal results. The first war against the Crown ended in a stalemate and concessions, thanks to Celestia's own personal horror at the war's depredations, and as a result the Crown remains very much alive, kicking, and in a position of strength. Celestia ended the Seventh Cormaer's Incursion in a bloody and exceedingly conclusive fashion, and that bred fear and resentment in Corva that festers and threatens the peace of the world to this day. Other nations beyond Ungula have every reason to fear and distrust alicornkind's potential, especially as of the end of The Tempest. She may be the very image of serenity and benevolence to her little ponies, but as you point out, to other nations she's a foreign dictator who's self-righteously dicked around in others affairs and who could present a threat to the whole world if she goes further off the rails. And considering alicornkind's past precendence, going off the rails is a very real and entirely justifiable concern.
If I wrote something from the perspective of a citizen of another nation in the Palaververse, I think it'd be fairly easy to convey distrust and dislike toward Celestia without having to depict that citizen as fundamentally wrong or misguided, but with concerns born of their own worldview, national history, and present-day concerns. To a caprid, she's one of the principle causes of the fall of the old and glorious empire, who dismantled everything that made your nation as great as it was, and even now stands as a meddling and nigh-unassailable menace on the world stage. To a corvid, the Cuddy Queen burned your own great-grandfather alive at Dream Valley. Casually. Along with tens of thousands of other brave corvids. And even to a donkey or a sheep or cow in their own home nations, your nation's fate may well be dependent on the goodwill of an enigmatic alicorn schemer, who's raised nations up from the dust and who could very likely cast them down again at her displeasure. Everyone's got their own motives and reasonable thoughts on the inside, and I agree with you that a being outwith Equestria wouldn't have to be evil or misguided to view Celestia with distrust. If I've not properly conveyed that in these posts, then I've bollocksed up at some point or another.
Though for what it's worth, I do imagine Capric slavery as grim, American South-esque chattel slavery, with appalling living conditions and a pronounced specist dimension to it, with non-caprids regarded as only being good for slave labour and not much else. Ponies would have been targets for it as much as any other species, and as a free nation with a sudden amount of power at their disposal, marching in to rip the institution a new one would have seemed entirely justified from their own perspectives and from most of the slaves involved.
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I guess my problem was that I was being told that Celestia was a good person and that the things she was doing were good things, rather than simply being shown them and allowed to judge for myself. To put it more succinctly.
I haven't finished reading "Tempest" yet, but I'm glad that you reminded me that it was you that wrote "Second Sun." That was a great story. I kind of thought/hoped you might be playing the Sister's origins coy because of spoilers for a future work, and if you can write them as well as you wrote Celestia's id in that story, I very much look forward to it.
I think the only true time you've bollocksed is when you said that Sombra was defeated before the Nightmare Moon incident, despite my clearly recalling another one of your stories where he chills with a bunch of warlords and psychopaths post-NMM. But you see? That's where having a lassez-faire approach to canonicity is the most useful. When even the author himself doesn't know what's going on!
...I kid. Sombra in that story was clearly Luna in disguise. She was the backup. ~ Sable
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Ah, that was intended to be unbollocksing my previous bollocks-up in that same story. Apparently, canonically, Sombra really was defeated prior to Nightmare Moon's rise, and him chilling with said story's warlords and psychopaths after the fact was the original bollocks-up. Awareness of things that go on is such a valuable yet rarely-used skill.
3577918 Invasive foreign policy, nuking a belligerent into oblivion, shattering a once-mighty superpower into a dozen pieces only to have them hastily reform and snatch up swaths of those lost regions again, a rather generous immigration/refugee policy... If anything, much of recent Equestrian history seems very "Horse 'Merica."
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Good points all. I've genuinely no idea how much of that was intentional or otherwise. Given my average lack of anything resembling a clue, safest to go with the latter. The overall show environment is pretty America-y (accents, yo), albeit with more equines and monarchism, which I suppose is inevitable if it's made there and its main demographic is there.
3590366 Yeah. Plus things like Manehattan and Fillydelphia being canon. Even Canterlot, the most exotic Equestrian city, could be reminiscent of British Colonial influence.
Honestly, I don't blame you for most of it. It's hard to find a justification for immensely powerful / benevolent creatures in a world wracked with warfare, and you built around it rather well.
I just wanted to say "Horse 'Merica" and get away with it.
Random thought: If you needed a full formal name for Equestria, I usually go with "Principality of Equestria", which is pretty neutral in terms of governing style. Figured I'd throw that out there.