Part 21 of the Palaververse: The Immortals · 8:52pm May 17th, 2016
Last post's voting saw both the world's known immortals and Nightmares vie for first place. Though the immortals pulled ahead in the end, Nightmares seemed easy enough as a subject to weave into their mix, coming bundled with alicorns as they do.
All the usuals apply. If there's anything you'd like to have clarified, feel free to ask, and if there's any subject as-yet uncovered that you're curious about, then leave a nomination for it. If it gets a majority of votes, then I'll cover it, along with other, smaller topics that could be easily tied into it. Bear in mind that topics don't have to be especially specific, and can cover setting-wide matters - stuff that people have expressed an interest in previously have included various belief systems, forms of magical expression, military matters, and all those and more are entirely eligible. Themaskedferret continues to be an excellent proofreader for these, and deserves all due acclaim. (If said acclaim doesn't manifest, she'll proofread your soul. You don't want this.)
Below the pretty picture, immortals and such!
For most sapient creatures on Theia, life has a few constants. In the beginning, you’re born. You grow up, enduring bursts of acne here and there as well as your body turning treacherously changeable. After this plateaus, the sundry toils and excitements of living a life take hold, often but not necessarily including paying taxes, siring smaller versions of yourself, and watching Equestria shrug off yet another world-imperilling disaster by the skin of its teeth, whether from afar or with a front-row seat to the action. And at the end of it all, after a life that was hopefully lived entertainingly if not totally well, you shuffle off your mortal coil. And what comes after that, none can say. Not without provoking intense theological discussion and/or hoof-fights, at least.
Of course, it’d be a grey sort of world if those constants held in all cases. And indeed, there are a few species and beings who have lifespans that stretch beyond the average limits of several-score plus change, whether naturally or through magical means. Some of these beings are merely long-lived, counting their years in centuries or millennia rather than decades, but still bound to naturally perish after a long life. But there are some who are truly ageless, and who will live to watch the distant stars fade to black. Assuming no unnatural deaths come their way before that happy hour, of course.
The most widespread and common of these sapient elder species are the dragons. Wildly-varying phenotypes and biology across dragonkind produce varying natural lifespans, but few can expect to perish of old age before at least beginning to tally off the centuries, and some of their semi-mythic accounts tell of dragons who lived long enough to see the continents reshape themselves under their claws, back in the dawn age of the world. Even old age by itself is rarely a primary killer of dragons, and lifetimes of accumulating injuries, acquired through clashes with other dragons or other powerful wildlife, tend to exert their toll.
This longevity has coloured the relations dragons have with the rest of the sapient world. Even taking into account the cultural barriers that exist between dragonkind and other species, few dragons tend to pursue relationships with shorter-lived kindreds, and those who do tend to withdraw back amongst other dragons after the inevitable heartbreak. Those dragons who mingle with other species can find themselves living conduits to ages past, even if they often tend to confuse the living with their great-grandparents. Some dragons with a perverse mix of sentimentality and good traditional mercenary instincts even rent out their services as record-keepers for particular families or communities, reporting on genealogies, past disputes, traditions, and providing first-hand accounts of days gone by to anyone interested. In addition, dragons who have the chance to amass large hoards over their lifetimes tend to accrue enough to keep whole departments of historians happy for decades at a time. Although it’s a rare dragon who’ll willingly grant access to their hoard to anyone, those few hoards accessed by others have inevitably turned out coins and treasures stretching back centuries or more.
The oldest known dragon in the world today, Fire Queen Talon herself, has seen fifteen hundred years go by, and can recall the glory days of the Capric Empire and when the infant Equestria was still struggling to survive—indeed, she herself was responsible for a great deal of that struggling. Rather than succumbing to wounds or falling afoul of greater beings, in the manner of most old dragons, the Fire Queen has flourished throughout her long life, having grown to an immense size and gained mastery over many aspects of eldritch draconic magic. Her authority over dragonkind has remained secure, and her own efforts have actually seen a drop in the life-expectancy of dragons in light of her constant efforts to kill potential rivals. Although a few trusted others are permitted to hold rank beneath her, such as Lord Torch over the dragons of Western Ungula, such are rarely permitted to hold their rank for long.
Even the Fire Queen can’t claim to be the oldest known being in Theia, though, and that honour goes to the various creations and cast-offs of Fallen Antlertis, endowed with formidable vitality by their apparently long-gone makers, and left to either wander the wilderness or entombed within the remaining Antlertean outposts. Over three millennia have passed since the Fall, and while many of these creations have since been slain or contained, some remain very much alive and kicking. The brothers Tirek and Scorpan are such creations, appointed to watch over the prison of Tartarus and its own long-lived inhabitants in days gone by. Although the passage of the millennia left them with little experiences outwith Tartarus itself, the intrusion of the unicorn Starswirl into their domain over twelve hundred years ago awoke them to the prospects the outside world offered. Tirek’s own dreams of conquest were arrested by Starswirl and Scorpan, and he was imprisoned in the prison he’d once safeguarded. Scorpan himself left for parts unknown shortly after, saying only that he’d “check what the others were up to”, and hasn’t been seen since.
The most notorious of the long lived Antlertean creations would be the creature Discord, who was fashioned near the end of Antlertis’s existence, was released from its sunken ruin some time after its Fall by the Smooze (which itself seems immortal; whether this is due to simple biology or Discord’s influence has had even the wisest beings helplessly shrugging), and who cut a merry trail of low-key havoc throughout the world before settling down in Equestria twelve-hundred years ago. Every attempt to cut Discord’s life short has ended in inglorious failure, assuming that the researchers undergoing all the joys of chaos wasn’t the desired end result, and any accounts of his own creation and power that Discord offered up cheerfully contradicted themselves from sentence to sentence. Some theorise that his longevity is rooted in the primal magic of the world itself; that so long as the unbound Fires of Creation continue to burn, Discord shall be truly undying and only capable of being rendered dormant by opposing harmonic magic.
Testing said theories may require waiting until the Fires of Creations burn out, of course. And even the most saint-like of fellow immortals are likely disinclined to wait and watch for that long.
One fellow long-lived being could be very safely presumed to not fall within the saint-like category, and is a relative newcomer to the world stage compared to its long-lived kindred. The Capricious Crown of Capra, sans any degrading biological systems to drag it down or any susceptibility to common forms of assassination, has ruled Capra for the last three centuries as its literally-heartless sovereign. Its creation by the ibex savant Grogar involved all manner of enchantments intended to ward off entropy both to its physical parts and its magical systems, in the name of prolonging its natural functioning for centuries to come.
Although these enchantments may make the Crown seemingly immortal from the outside, even Grogar couldn’t entirely overcome the entropy that sets in for both matter and magic, and the Crown knows that its functioning days are limited. Absent any repairs or fine-tuning, the Crown might see a few more centuries of life yet … but as yet, the Crown has too many spinning plates to manage and a duty still unfulfilled to let itself be put at the mercy of any blacksmith or enchanter who it can’t be guaranteed to kill in the event things go wrong.
Immortals with no such susceptibility, and those with perhaps the greatest influence in the world today, can be found in the country next door. The three alicorns of Equestria match vast ages to almost unchallengeable power, even if the vast age is largely technical in the case of Princess Cadance, and coloured by a long span spent in both physical and mental imprisonment in the case of Princess Luna. Princess Celestia amongst them has spent the full span of her life thus far immersed in the affairs of the world, and her influence upon them is hard to overstate.
Celestia and Luna themselves rose to alicorn status around twelve-hundred years ago, as part of their efforts to overthrow Discord. Although no full account of their journeys has ever emerged, allegedly involving travels and delving for secrets across both the known and unknown world, their alicorn status was rooted in part in the magics unearthed by Starswirl the Bearded. Their new forms and powers weren’t enough by themselves to contain Discord - that required the unearthed Elements of Harmony - but they certainly afforded them great influence in both Equestria and the world at large after Discord had been sealed away as a statue. Both acclimated to their immortal status in the two centuries in between Discord’s defeat and Luna’s descent into Nightmaredom, necessarily learning to avoid deep entanglements with their mortal subjects for fear of repeated heartbreak. Desire for fellow immortal company saw them strike up friendships with some dragons, and informed their decision to take on Mi Amore Cadenza as an apprentice and oversee her ascension to become Princess Cadance.
Their alicorn status comes with a price, however, and that price is the Nightmare that haunts every alicorn, blurring the line between personal instances of madness and malevolent spirits every bit as undying as their hosts. Nightmares play upon the personal flaws, fears, and worries of their alicorns, feeding upon their negative feelings to draw upon strength. All the while, they coax their hosts towards acting on their darkest impulses, promising the strength to achieve them and to banish all worries and fears. And if the alicorn snaps, or yields in a moment of weakness, then the Nightmare takes control, and every darkest impulse of the alicorn is unleashed without any restraint. Luna’s own surrender to her Nightmare came on the heels of the loss of Princess Cadance in the war against King Sombra and after decades of gnawing fear, envy, and resentment; and nearly brought about the end of Equestria itself under her newfound power. Only the Elements of Harmony under Celestia’s command were enough to contain her, and the after-effects of Nightmare Moon’s rebellion persisted for ages to come. No other alicorns have shown the signs of falling to their Nightmare since—Luna’s return has seen her guard against her Nightmare with renewed vigilance, Cadance’s Nightmare has had little time to work against her will, and whatever Celestia’s Nightmare has whispered in her ear, she’s shown few signs of yielding to it.
These comprise the known immortals in the world, but many marginal cases and rumoured individuals exist on the periphery. The Smooze’s ooze-like species are widely reckoned to be immortal in their home environment, the depths of the Black Ocean, though little research as yet exists to conclude one way or the other. Various psychephages and creatures of pure spirit, such as the windigoes, are theorised to be capable of immortality if they’re able to access enough food, though a lack of pre-existing research in the area coupled with a current lack of suitably insane researchers leaves yet another blank spot in the literature. Phoenixes living in the sun are reckoned capable of being replenished eternally by its flames, and one such earth-bound specimen, Philomena, has been adopted and kept alive by Celestia for centuries.
And past those, other, darker cases are reckoned to exist. Various dark magic rituals and spells are believed to have been used by the Antlertean mage-lords, Sombra, and others throughout history to prolong their own lifespans through the sacrifice of others. In the depths of the most secretive arcane circles, theories abound that some such rituals could bring about a form of perfect immortality if conducted with enough vigour, by either rendering the flesh imperishable or by separating the spirit from flesh and binding its permanence to something else. Such are just theories, however, and none exist in the world today who would test them publically … although ghost stories of those who’ve already tested them and found success abound.
Whatever the case, the history of Theia is littered with those who’ve seen long stretches of said history and shaped it according to their own desires. And many of those persist today, and shall for whatever ages are yet to come.
Maybe you addressed this before, but with the coming of Princess Ember and the whole Dragon Lord business, how would you say the scepter works? What is it exactly?
What the hell. Let's go for religion. Break the format a bit.
The kids these days in research, letting "ethics" and "sanity" get in the way of good, productive scientific endeavour. What the palaververse needs is a new batch of proper researchers, willing to get their hands dirty doing real work. Good, old fashioned mad science. Or the magical equivalent thereof.
I note you went with three alicorns. You were rather quiet on the topic of Princess Twilight and Princess Wave Motion Gun. What is their status?
I vote Breezies and homeless races for the next round.
How long do the undead Zebra linger?
My campaign for a magical overview will go on. Are these posts essentially set right after/around the Tempest, in terms of time frame?
So if Discord's Immortal Immortal was the Tatzlwurm poison just an odd fluke magical reaction or is it just that damn potent?
A lot of Equestria's mythological content is based on ancient Greece's and Greek myth does have monsters with poisons so strong that even the gods feared them. Some versions of the Hydra for one.
My mother is an English teacher. My soul has been proofread every day of my life.
Not much for me to say other than gratitude for continuing the series. A British Gentleman covered the area I was going to consider, but this history was clearly written prior to Twilight's ascension. As such, the scholars of Theia have yet to spend sleepless nights considering the capabilities of a Nightmare with a talent for magic itself, or one as old as its host, growing with her and knowing her every flaw as well as she does.
Hmm. Actually, if Flurry Heart can avoid a pubescent turn to darkness, she may turn out to be the most mentally stable alicorn of all. If she grows up with the Nightmare, she'll be used to tuning it out.
Also, my vote is for belief systems.
3951582
I'd say the bloodstone scepter's an enchanted artefact that was acquired by Torch for his hoard from a long-gone caprid king, and which he adopted as a symbol of his personal authority when he assumed the Lordship. It's not especially potent beyond magically inciting some amount of awe from onlookers towards the wielder, but it's acquired a certain gravitas due to association with Torch's rulership. When the Fire Queen demanded Torch step down from his position (with a large amount of 'dragon law' consisting of 'whatever the Dragon Lords and/or Fire Queen say') he chose to part with it in order to ensure as smooth an assumption of authority for his successor as possible. Needlessly annoying the Fire Queen otherwise tends to be one of those things that truncates draconic lifespans.
3951594
Nomination for religion and suchlike noted!
3951632
66.media.tumblr.com/672c1b37be4ce031f010fd1b5a0f6606/tumblr_n59pozuUov1r8j46oo1_1280.png
As a psych graduate, there's probably no-one better placed to appreciate how much progress we in the sciences could make if it wasn't for all these damned ethics ruining our fun.
Nomination for the Breezies and homeless races noted! If that wins out, I'd probably also go for minor races and nations as yet uncovered, like the yaks or buffalo. Princess Twilight and Princess Wave Motion Gun are indeed both as immortal as their older kin, and similarly predisposed towards developing a Nightmare. Luckily, Nightmares take time to set in, and Celestia, Luna, and Cadance (who has scarcely any Nightmare herself at this point) have at least a few decades to encourage them to ignore the dark, tempting voices.
3951674
Up to a couple of centuries, with proper enchantments and embalming. Constant use tends to degrade them faster, though, so it's usually sensible to keep whatever zombies you're not using in a nice preservative pyramid.
3951902
Nomination for a magical overview noted. And yep, these are all set just after The Tempest in terms of a general overview. So the changelings haven't made their move yet, no-one as yet suspects alicorns can reproduce, Tirek is presumed to be safely locked away in Tartarus, etc. Once the wedding-based story (working title of 'Wedding March') finally sees the light of day, that should progress things a wee bit.
3951937
Nominations for military or theological matters noted! And while I can't endorse abusing post-graduates (for entirely self-interested reasons), I can attest as to the sanity loss entailed.
3951940
Both of these are perfectly fair schools of thought regarding the Tatzlwurm. That said, I can't help but think the whole incident was only ever Discord doing what he does best; jerking ponies around for shit and giggles.
3952036
Nomination for belief systems noted! I'm glad you're still enjoying the series, and all due commiserations to your soul. Flurry Heart's own Nightmare development should be interesting indeed compared to her more conventional kin - whether it emerges more stable, as you suggest, or gets warped into something more latent, insidious, and decidedly worse. Either's got fun potential.
3951632
That's called "sane science", where magic is forcibly wrangled to obey logical laws of behavior through relentlessly consistent experimental methodology and unwavering observational recording vigilance.
Princess Battleship Yamato
Princess Irregular Apocalypse
Princess Prime Mover
Princess Problem Child
Princess Reasonable Excuse
Princess Yawning Angel
Princess Death And Gravity
Princess Very Little Gravitas
https://qntm.org/culture
Culture series ship names work too damn well as Flurry Heart nicknames!!!
The first one was a red herring.
3952036
It is my believe that Twilight is already so in tune with her Nightmare self that there would be no credible difference between them beyond superficial appearances.
Anything Nightmare Books might want to do is already done by Twilight Sparkle in a questionably restrained fashion that begs one to consider if Twilight Sparkle exercises genuine self-restraint or merely mimics it through mental gymnastics.
"of the loss to Princess Cadance in"
"loss of Princess Cadance"?
3952519
She has been called the Princess of Neuroses in the past. If anyone can build a rapport with her own inner demon, it'd be Twilight. Of course, that leads to the question of whether or not that's a good thing...
3952519
"Anything Nightmare Books might want to do is already done by Twilight Sparkle in a questionably restrained fashion that begs one to consider if Twilight Sparkle exercises genuine self-restraint or merely mimics it through mental gymnastics."
3952538
Fixed, and thank you!
3952603
Definitely a good thing.
Teaching the value of, and difference from, psychopathic behaviorisms versus the magic of friendship; check!
Either way you read it, you read that correctly.
Doling out justice to dog-earers of public textbooks; check!
Keeping ethically immoral research white-papers in the public domain; check!
Staying sane on interplanetary missions; check!
Instigating, surviving, and fixing the hyperspace miscalculations reenacted by the best-selling "Event Horizon" documentary; check!
Addressing Luna and Celestia's possession concerns by reinitializing her Nightmare as her very own biological flash-clone hive-minded sister-self ; check!
If Twilight Sparkle and Nightmare Books were to become twin-sister-like in their relationship, common twin sibling behavior patterns would make Nightmare Books the safe crazy one!
3952646
You know, i/we DO take all of your comment-vignettes as Palavarverse Official Canon, yes?
3952646
You know, Alicorns usually get worshippers, and their Nightmare forms usually get cultists. What kind of cultists would evolve around an eternally reading nightmare books?
3952646
AT LAST!
Ahem, I mean...
Good show. I very much enjoyed it. Excellent adaption of new Dragon knowledge into your world. Your post does make me wonder what Scorpan is up to and when/if he will return. Interesting that he and Tirek are the oldest of the group. I've already shown my appreciation for the hints given at Celestia's Nightmare, but find Cadence's interesting to contemplate as well. I'd assume it would reduce other ponies (in her view) to be puppets pulled about on the strings of emotions she controls.
Also somehow I get the feeling Nightmare Books would end in this situation.
https://youtu.be/AXeunk7KoKk
Or we'd see the pony form of Midnight Sparkle, obsessed with knowledge and magic no matter what the price that must be paid for them.
You know what I'd like written?
That.
3952990
Sci-Twi went mad in that direction because she felt that her desire to understand magic was under attack by social, emotional, and physical limitations; when Sci-Twi got magically empowered she gained pseudo-Alicornhood that came with a pseudo-Nightmare; it used Sci-Twi's own motivations to gain control, allowing Midnight Sparkle to execute a full-on "Star Swirl Offensive" against those things.
Pony-Twilight suffers too little in those areas to go mad the same way; a Nightmare is always limited to using existing negative motivators to shape the personality it uses for integration with the victim's host mind.
This begs the question, what motivators would Princess Twilight's Nightmare use for a possession personality outside Twilight's deep and passionate desire to book?
3952646
You're welcome. :)
3952892
Well, if the Past Sins equivalent were ever to be written for Nightmare Books, I imagine in place of the insane cultists doing the summoning there, you'd instead have a cult of primary school teachers concerned about declining reading ability amongst foals and looking for any way to reverse that.
Reading is cool, kids. And if you're the sort of pony who doesn't agree, Nightmare Books will turn you into something more useful, like vellum.
3952990
Glad you approve! Rest assured Scorpan went off to interesting places to investigate interesting things, and maybe he'll get the chance to resurface one day. The Nightmares each alicorn could manifest do make for fun contemplation. That video's as good a take as any for Nightmare Books, I will admit.
3953039
It's a-coming. The opening scenes have been sketched out, and the rest of the plot's clear in mind. There's one more story I'm currently trying to complete before I give Wedding March my full attention, but once that's finally inflicted on the world, capers involving the world leaders should resume in high gear.
3951582
Oh.
I vote for "various sundry artifacts of power"
3951632
I think their status is "not yet ascended" and "not yet born", respectively. The Palaverse is still somewhere in mid-season 2.
3953669
Nomination for sundry artifacts of power noted! And yep, the Palaververse as of the end of The Tempest and all these posts is still mid-season two.
I vote breezies and other lazy hobo drifter races as well.
3951632 See, this is why Theia doesn't have an Adjunct Problem. Adjunct Problems arise when there are too many hopeful post-grads for too few tenured positions, weakening the bargaining power of labor. PhD programs investigating dark magic regularly clears up this imbalance and ensures the living, sane, graduates who successfully defend their dissertation. are in high demand.
3952646 Princess Celestia succumbed to her nightmare, Nightmare Cake, 900 years ago, and no one noticed, right?
3954204
Nomination for Breezies and whatnot noted! I'm afraid I couldn't possibly comment with regards to Nightmare Cake beyond casually observing how nice it is for Nightmares that they have a ridiculously high metabolism. All those calories get converted into refined malevolence as efficiently as you could wish for.
3954376
The maid who cleans the royal bathroom must have the worst job in the world.
3954464
3954529 Here's a funny story the Nightmare should appreciate, given its own name: Spring Clean's mother went into labor while trapped in a snowed-in cabin with no access to painkillers, after a 29 hour delivery. Before her father had the name changed at the hospital, Spring Clean herself was originally named "Concentrated Malevolence."
Ah, you relentless tease, with those last couple of paragraphs. Great entry, and a nice way of collecting and recapping a lot of disparate details scattered throughout the back catalogue.
I have to go with some of earlier comments, in that I would love to read your thoughts and ideas on religion within the context of the FiMverse, especially if Equestria is a rather uncommon case in the world for not displaying widespread faith. Heck, I would be curious if - especially in the wake of this Immortals entry - there's some cults that latched onto the likes of Celestia over the centuries, and how she might have handled them.
3952036
That's a pretty big "if". The power of teenage angst is quite potent.
no one can save us from the bad poetryI notice you carefully avoid mentioning any of what Celestia's nightmare has actually SAID to her!
Tsk, tsk!
And what exactly -are- the Nightmares? Like, okay, Parasites, but where do they come from / why do they exist? Or is that too 'Spoilers'?
Regardless I nominate Cthulhu as before! Or the Cylons. How do the Cylons fit into the Palalaverse and when can I expect to see Adama?
3955187
Nomination for religion in the context of the Palaververse noted! There's a few differing manifestations of it throughout the known world - Equestria's own lack of widespread overt observance is fairly common, but nearly everyone has their own traditions and icons of veneration, and some take it further than others.
And where'd be the fun in these if I couldn't remorselessly tease?
3955416
3955631
Nominations for Cylons and exceedingly spoilerly topics disregarded, alas. Though I may as well aggravate by stating that I know exactly what the local Cthulhu is and what its been doing, and I'm saying nothing.
Celestia's Nightmare should probably be kept under wraps as well, though a wee gander in the direction of the Tempest and Second Sun should highlight some of those dark impulses she really, really wants to release but knows she shouldn't.
3956142
The only reason there is to disregard a nomination for Cylons....
IS IF YOU ARE A CYLON! J'accuse!
3956179
Total nonsense. No such thing as Cylons. I can't even believe you'd accuse of being one of those things which, I repeat, doesn't exist. Absurdity in the extreme.
Apropos of nothing, how's Earth's defense mainframe? Just asking for a friend.
3956186
Hah! We use analog for just this reason, frakking toaster! I'll have you know that our nuclear codes are safely stored in a bunker in my basement!
What the toaster doesn't know is that it's a trap and the real codes are stored deep under Whinny Mountain! Haha! The craftiness hath been doubled!
*Gives praise to Themaskedferret*
*Votes for Magic*
*Read through it all* ... Cool!
3957109
Nomination for magic and all due averted soul-proofreading noted!
3952265
Locking babies up like that requires feeding them and stuff, which causes variables into the experiment which may result in it's uselessness... Unless they can be factored out somehow...
***
3951632
I thought Princess Wave Mtion Gun was like Mashy Spike Plate, from Elementals of Magic... Need to Call FOME here...
I've no idea what's left, but I nominate that you keep doing these forever!
3965875
Nomination for blogging on whatever gu bràth noted!
IT'S HERE! Praise the dark Lord, it seems that at least one of the dark rituals worked, just have to figure which one.
But I can do that later, the important thing here is that we need to know more about the Nightmares. I'm guessing we saw a glimpse of Celestia's at the end of Tempest (Nightmare Peace/Order, I assume?). And we now also know that the Crown is fading fairly quickly, probably faster than he planned for, which leads to the question: does Capra have nukes? If so, Celestia better start looking for a brilliant blacksmith to fix him, or an assassin for obvious reasons.
Last quick question: is Discord reformed? Or pretending for a laugh? Because either situation could become...interesting...
And finally: the voting. May I please, good marques, cast my vote for religion, or failing that, knowing if these posts are being written in-universe and by whom. Thanks again for taking the time to do all of this :D
3973274
Nomination for religion noted! Barring one-offs like the Equestria Girls post, these aren't written in-universe, but rather by some aggravating prat of an outside observer who's keen to keep some of the juiciest details under wraps.
I personally peg Discord as being semi-reformed. He's formed genuine friendships with the ponies, especially Fluttershy, and he'll stand in their corner if shit goes down on a continental level. It doesn't mean he's necessarily learned when is and isn't an appropriate time to steal the mouths of annoying conversation partners, and most stuff relating to basic empathy and social decorum remains a fathomless, alien expanse for him. But he's still on Equestria's side as of the latest episodes, and he's something the Crown's going to have to deal with, one way or the other.
As for nukes, the exact science behind nuclear reactions isn't as yet known to the Palaververse's scientists. There's no telling what magical equivalents dark magic might have produced, though, and The Motion of the Stars demonstrates the effects of some of these.
... how the heck did I miss this post for so long?
At any rate, stellar work as always. Having the Crown be technically mortal certainly makes things interesting, if only because it's on a timer, so to speak. And Twilight's future Nightmare certainly won't lack for insecurities and assorted little neuroses to work on, when the time comes. A spirit of of corruption could have a real fun time with Twilight's obsession with lists, order and tidiness. Woe unto ye who do not return thy library books by their appointed due date in the realm of Nightmare Book.
For whatever it's worth at this point, I'll cast my vote for the wildernesses--the Everfree, the Utmost North, etcetera.
3982828
Nomination for the wildernesses noted, though I'm afraid the post for assorted faiths is already underway. I'm sure another wilderness nomination in the comments for that one wouldn't go amiss, though.
All manner of orderly woe unto those who cross Nightmare Books indeed. As for the Crown, some sort of mortality for it (or at least, natural entropy setting in for its physical material and enchantments) seems only appropriate. Nothing like a little extra pressure to get continental conquest off to a timely start.
That's one of my ideas for a Discord origin story too... only mine made use of only-existing canon races. Thus, I made the presumption that the Alicorn race of Marelantis had been performing terrible experiments upon ponykind in the attempt to create a truly immortal creature.
Discord was the great success and failure. His explosive madness at 'birth' tore their land to pieces of various substances and ... nothingeverythingness... I dunno what it was! It was unrestrained chaos, ya know!
Only Celestia, Luna, and a few others who'd become incensed by the wickedness and callousness the alicorns had sunk to survived. They'd left the land some days earlier upon seeing the latest gruesome remains of a test subject and been rebuffed of any effort to stop the proceedings.
But that's just ONE of Discord's origin stories. With absolutely nothing about his origin even hinted at in the show, it's really an open book with many possible angles to pursue.
I wonder what would happen is an alicorn were to surrender to their Nightmare and study mage-lord magic. We saw what Nightmare Moon and Sombra were capable of by themselves, so this would probably result in a threat far bigger than either of them.
The fact that Celestia and Luna achieved alicornhood while searching Antlerian secrets has me wondering if the Nightmare might be a byproduct of Antlerian magic being involved. On the other hand, we don't even know if it was Antlerian magic that allowed Celestia and Luna to ascend, considering that Cadence and Twilight didn't need Antlerian magic.
4198049
A Nightmare-gone alicorn with a command of dark magic? Michty, that's an apocalyptic threat if ever there was one.
The spell of alicorn ascension might well have a few Antlertean influences, even if other species can cast it as readily. Without knowing exactly what Celestia and Luna found on their travels, who's to say for certain?
Day 21: The Immortals
- It seems that acne is a disease that plagues not just us humans. We should join forces with the denizens of the Palaververse to exterminate ache. Jolly Cooperation! (Please tell me you get this reference. If you don't I'll ... I'll ... actually there is nothing I can do about it.)
- You only live to die and pay taxes.
- Is it possible for an alicorn to lose it's immortality? If their connection to their nightmares or whatever makes them immortal was somehow served, then could they actually start to age again?
- We must provide healthcare to the dragons. We must raise their life-expectancy. Granted, such healthcare comes in the form of killing Talon, but it is still a worthy cause.
- The Crown is like the child amongst all the adults.
- If there even is a being that could repair the Crown. That's if they would even want to.
- How are alicorn made? I except a "mommy and daddy love each other very much" joke to come from you so don't try it. Does the Tree of Harmony have anything to do with it? Seems unlikely though considering that the tree would not be able to create nightmares, which go against everything that is harmony. Perhaps is was a old Antlertis spell that changed the sisters into alicorns? Or perhaps it was Faust, the one true Creator?
- You may want to update that. Celestia is showing increasing signs of Nightmare syndrome.
- We need more insane researchers. We had dozens a few centuries back. Where did they all go?
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- Dark Souls? I've never played, but I've watched playthroughs. That rings a bell from one of those, maybe.
- Facts of life are terrible things when you get down to it.
- Theoretically, if whatever magic made them an alicorn was undone, the alicorn would resume their previosu state of existence, complete with aging and taxes and all suchlike things. As yet purely in the realms of theory, though.
- She's worse than roving adventurers looking for loot and experience for poor life expectancy among dragons, really.
- Give it a millenium or two. Then it'll be one of the big folk. Or hopelessly demented, one of the two.
- Few capable, and fewer still willing.
- Oi, not fair. You're pre-empting my smart-alecness. The roots of alicornhood are indeed mysterious and being kept close to my chest for now. But they are Antlertean in some capacity.
- Tsk, I don know. One ... alright, two bar-brawls and they call you a Nightmare in the waiting.
- One can only speculate, and then recoil in horror from said speculations.
I misread part of that paragraph as "so long as the unbound Fires of Creation continue to burn, Discord shall be truly annoying".
As you might expect, it took me a while to realise that wasn't what it said.