Ask Me, Alternia and Company anything · 2:39pm Aug 11th, 2016
Alternia and I have done AMA's before, so this time, I'm opening the floor for all questions of all kinds in light of Equestria's Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress nearing its climax. Just leave them in the comments section of this blog post. I will take questions for four days starting now. I will stop taking questions on August 15 midnight Eastern Standard Time.
This means dead or alive changeling/pony characters can be asked questions of. You can also ask me questions about how I write, what inspired the story, and stuff, though I might not answer all questions depending on how personal they are.
You can also ask Tethys, Ebb Flow, Brinewing and Aquestrian related questions. They'll be answering XD. I can't say in advance how much they would reveal though....
Example questions: (Take them if you want)
How did Chamelia become such a force to be reckoned with?
Why did Equestria see fit to develop a navy, and an intelligence organization?
How did Sunset Shimmer grow up considering she never became "Celestia's" student?
How heavy is Celestia compared to Alternia?
If you're looking for what questions have been asked previously, check here and here. In fact, please check both of those because I don't want to answer repeat questions :P
Edit: I can't believe I need to say this and frankly I didn't expect this at all, but if you're going to shoot questions that are more akin to the Spanish Inquisition instead of polite questions aimed at trying to understand more about the Alternia-tive verse, expect them to not be included in the AMA for obvious reasons. I do welcome questions that are pointed and aimed at trying to get the characters to talk about personal matters.
Dear Princess Alternia,
What advice would you give to young Changelings who are embarrassed or shy to go around undisguised?
How heavy are Luna, Alternia, and Celestia compared to each other?
What is their favorite thing to eat both now and back then?
How many changeling hives are in your world and what kinds of things do they do?
From, Emperor Prince Gargon
Empress Tethys:
You seem quite distant and detached from your subjects. Is there anyone you actually like, have personal relations (friends or otherwise) with or even care for?
Will Celestia still have credibility in the eyes of the ponies given that so many of accomplishments for which they admire here were actually done by Alternia?
To whoever runs the equestrian navy (I forget, sorry XP): Have you ever thought of using submarines, either for exploration or for combat?
To the Equestrian Triumvirate,
Have you ever considered building aircraft to assist with the ships patrolling the seas?
Tethys,
I find it interesting that you're named after an ancient Earth sea, but my real question is what are the weapons your people use in wartime?
And to Alternia,
I have read the story leading to you being crowned the third Princess of Equestria. When you found out your sisters were still alive, what where your feelings on the matter like?
To the Triumvirate,
How do you feel about the lack of accountability being assigned both to the three of you and your commanding officers, as well as the extreme bias with which you allow entities like Twilight to operate on, to the extent that there are more then likely ponies who'll never recover their careers, and lives, and are dead, due to failures on all present.
And that those failures are treated as intelligent decisions by those of the military persuasion and those holding the fools errand of perfect loyalty?
a question for the mod...
Did you think to open a tumblr for "Ask the characters"?
About questions I have a question for Alternia and the other queens.
First of all for Alternia... Between you and the original Celestia. Who is more powerfull in more or less her best moment? (By best moment I mean, good rested and good feeded and with time to train enough)
Second of all... If in theory Chrysalis managed to defeat Alternia even when she did have the love of Equestria versus the love of Shining, does that mean that she is the most powerfull of the sisters in a more or less equal conditions battle? Or who could be considered more powerfull in a 1vs1 between all sisters?
Another for Alternia: Do you eat that great quantity of cakes because they are good, or because they don't have enough love for you to feed?
Yes Another for Alternia: You know what happened between Celestia and Luna and how she was forced to banish Nightmare Moon. Do you think if you were Celestia, you could choose to do the same she did that made Luna transform in Nightmare Moon?
This is for whoever can answer: Who was the first changeling queen?
More for Alternia: If Discord managed to break free (not sure if it follows the cannon the story, as I don't really remember) how is that he didn't notice you were not Celestia?
How is the relation of Equestria with the other powers of the world? Seapony (if they exist), Dragons, Minotaurs, Zebras, horses (Saddle Arabia), Diamond Dogs, etc. And what do you think could be their reaction if they discover who you really are?
How much do you know about before Celestia? I mean for example the parents of Celestia and Luna. Do you know anything?
Can changelings be affected by weed/Cannabis?
Final Question to Alternia and maybe her sisters: Imagine one day you wake up only to notice that you are a foal/hatchling. And you are more or less a couple of years before your mother die. Even if at first you think everything that happened it's a dream, you notice that things begin to happen just like you remember so you know that somehow you are in the past. What do you do and what could you think to change?
4144166
One word.
What.
It's a freaking triumvirate/monarchy, they don't have accountability to anybody other than themselves, that's how it works, deal with it. Duh it's not exactly great in real life, but it works in story because those three rulers are benevolent. Hence, they have no commanding officers. Now if you were talking about the officers under the Triumvirate's command, well those officers are accountable to their ponies/soldiers, and their rulers.
As to failures on all present, yes, of course there were failures, but it's not like anybody could have prevented those failures unless they had foreknowledge of events. I don't even know which failures you are even talking about so I'm going to say, yes, at least in-universe, all the military decisions were made fairly intelligently for people who don't have the birds eye view of the story or the knowledge required to build the weapons we have today.
If we're talking about Twilight, i'm just going to point to the canon series and ask "when has their actions resulted in physical/severe financial harm, especially to ponies who don't deserve it (don't tell me Trixie and the Flim Flams didn't deserve it, one got way too carried away with showboating and the other basically was trying to swindle someone else out of their livelihood)." Then two, I'm going to ask how is Twilight supposed to make friends when she's under severe royal oversight and therefore is being constantly monitored.
Now if you had problems/criticisms with my story Hunter, I would have rather you actually indicated them in the comments, which I believe you have before and not abuse the AMA to shoot them at me in a vague manner (eg. I have no idea what failures you are talking about) and under a very thin veil. Or you could have worded the question in a manner that didn't sound like the freaking inquisition.
4144932
Firstly, even a king has accountability, it generaly ends with a coup after a point.
Secondly, the failures are: Celestia choosing a singler individual over her entire country, repeatedly in the cases of Samudra and Nightmare Moon, one of which would have been more or less common knowledge prior due to the trade route restrictions, a somewhat strange plot-hole to be honest, as that information completely being forgotten seems somewhat unlikely with all who would have been aware of the regulations and the known consequences of breaking them. The good General and Twilight screwing over an entire news house more or less permenently due to how hard a treason charge hits, nearly unemployable, fines in excess and a whole host of other things, because one of them is a zealot with immunity by all accounts and the other failed to distribute information that should have been common knowledge due to the unknown dangers at the time, as an evacuation was more then acceptable when the reasons behind the attacks were at best vague.
As for Twilight being under watch, that wasn't what I implied, although cannonically she's been showm to get a slap on the wrist for good ententions when she breaks or outright causes damage, and we all know that isn't what would happen to anyone else.
As it stands, I have little respect for cannon Twilight and Celestia. And if that sounded like an inquisition when phrased along the same lines as everything else, I'm sorry, not my intent.
4145053 Ahhh... Still really would have appreciated you actually bringing up in PM or story comment rather than in AMA, but I can answer that. (Thanks for writing it in a much better tone).
True... it's why i arranged Equestria's government in the Alternia-tive verse the way I did. (See here) What do you think?
I suppose we kind of have to agree to disagree on the Celestia's failures. I do think it was a failure, though its difficult to blame Celestia for it as those decisions were made thousand years ago when she didn't know they were wrong decisions. Not to say that excuses it, but it's a bit difficult to punish something for something they didn't know was a bad idea at the time and at the time, wasn't a terrible idea.
Trade route restrictions were forgotten when nobody started to enforce them as the original treaty was lost by the ponies, and the seaponies were too busy to you know, enforce it.
The good general and Twilight screwing over the entire news house... IDK I thought the news house was spreading panic and sure information could have been distributed faster, but when the information wasn't there yet, there was no point to printing half-truths. In fact, it's very damaging to do so. Also, I think I should have made it clear it was more of the upper level directors charged with treason and once they were gone the paper would have to print a retraction, but could then continue. Seriously, mass media is durable. Look what happened to Rupert Murdoch... his stuff is still printing anyway.
Not quite sure how did the general screw the publishing house over... the information wasn't entirely processed yet and heck, was just recently processed by the Equestrian army. Evacuation therefore when an attack was imminent of course was acceptable, but explaining why the attack happened was always going to be a problem until they fully understood why.
Canon Twilight I think does get better toward the later seasons, but seriously the show keeps handing Celestia idiot balls after idiot balls. As proof of concept, I really had to bend backweards in PC:TCQ to explain why Celestia didn't trust twilight.
4145086 I'll apologize again as it is my fault on this, but I'll agree to disagree with Celestia's decision's still, as I for the life of me can't find any logical or even panicked train of thought where those options are even a close plan C.
4145107 Nah that wasn't your bad. It's your opinioin :P
Is Princess Alternia still receiving a roughly similar level of love form the country post-reveal?
How is the young princess doing with her prosthetic?
Has Princess Celestia found a friend amongst the castle staff?
Question for Captain Ebb Flow,
Do seaponies/kelpies have a professional type of army or they base their military strenght on few, highly-capable warriors? And if the answer is the former, does promotion come from courage onto the battlefield or from discipline?
4147622 I actually really like that question because I sortof know how the kelpies/seapony army operates now, but Zervziel is more familiar with how they operated against samudra.
Hey there Alternia,
Out of all your pony friends, who gives off the best love? Or whatever your favorite flavor of love is.
Since I haven't actually read the story and will probably maybe get around to it eventually, so here's my fallback question.
Have you accepted the light and love of Jesus Christ into your life?
I've got two here, I hope that's not too much of a pain.
To Celestia, - if this has been asked before, I apologise- :
Toward the end of Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen, you showed a great deal of surprise and gratitude that Alternia handled the affairs of state as well as she did, may I ask what you expected to happen? Did you have a worst fear other than utter destruction? Mayhap a best case scenario?
To Tethys, since the question about the military has already been asked and if she is so inclined to answer a lowly ape beast :
If you do manage to devour the old one and gain His power to then utilize it to remove the need to eat the life force of sentient beings within the Kelpies and thus remove a persistent requirement for war;what then? You seem to really only see the surface dwellers as at best a food source and at worst - understandably - a threat. I know your own code of ethics essentially dictates that your word is your bond, but will you actually allow steps for true peace, or will it essentially be a 'Cold War'?
Why do my teeth hurt? And what is that smell?
Spoilers all through this post.
Alternia: What has been the biggest physical change with your brace? Has it affected your ability to use any of your changling abilities? Do you find yourself still anxious to go out among your ponies in just your chitin? Is there a fundamental difference in being loved for who you are and what you've done rather than being loved for "being Celestia"? Why do you (as a changling) have such a voracious sweet tooth (and did it come from Celestia)? Are Twilight and Cadence still treating you as if you're made of tissue paper?
Celestia: How are you handling the glut of Alternia's memories? Is there anything in particular that you have found interesting, enlightening or scandelous? What was the biggest change between when you left Equestria and when you returned? Do you have a particular like of baked goods? Did you dream in your comatose state?
Luna: We missed your reunion with (the actual) Celestia. You already made up with who you believed to be 'Tia, what were the differences between the first and the second time? Alternia sees you as a sister, is she working on forging such a relationship with Celestia? With Alternia coming into the monarchy, does that mean you can take an eight-hour shift instead? Is there an easy way to help Alternia separate herself from her memories and time serving as Celestia? What elements of modern times might prove hardest for Celestia to get used to given she's been asleep for a thousand years?
Tethys, who was Ist,ytal exactly, and if it was you, why do you no longer go by that name and what is your relation to the Great One?