Retrospective: Cloudsdale · 5:12pm Oct 17th, 2016
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"Nothing's the same anymore." - Jeffery Sinclair - Babylon 5 - Chrysalis
Welcome to the final act of the three-part Applications Trilogy.
I wrote this story immediately after finishing Princess Celestia: A Brief History. I actually started the next day. In fact, this is one of those special stories that practically wrote itself. It all came together in my mind very quickly. Originally, it was going to just be Celestia, but she needed a confidant and while Philomena is many wonderful things, she isn’t the best conversationalist.
By the way, yes, Celestia can understand and speak with Philomena, but usually only Philomena. This has more to do with them being together for centuries upon centuries than her having any special ability to speak to animals.
Anyway, I needed another character. And who better than the wonderful Raven? I’ve seen a few versions of Raven but the quintessential one, of course, is from the appropriately named Raven by SaintChoc. Now, I’m not saying that the Wavelengths Raven is the same one written by SaintChoc, but I’m also not saying that she’s not. I’ll leave that up in the air.
My vision for Raven was a combination of SaintChoc’s Raven and Drumknott from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I’ve compared Celestia to Lord Vetinari several times in the past, so it’s only fitting that she get a Drumknott-style aide. Now, Raven’s not quite as unflappable as Drumknott. And frankly, finding out that your entirely reality shouldn’t exist… that would probably even throw Maud off (…maybe).
Still, it was nice to have a character with whom Celestia could let down her mane. You see, in both Applications and History, we get to see the impish, playful Princess Celestia who enjoys trolling her subjects just a little. Tweaking muzzles, having fun, playing games. However, consider when we are. Someone asked in a comment for one of the stories where Luna was. Since Celestia is handling both the sun and the moon, I think after this story, we all know where Luna is. Celestia’s essentially been alone for a thousand years, watching the ponies playing under her sun pass away through the centuries. I can’t imagine what that would be like. I pray I never do.
So in Cloudsdale, Celestia lowers the mask just a bit. Not all the way, because she still is Celestia, but enough that we can see what’s going on behind that mask. I won’t tell you what that is, as you should be very aware of what’s happening from Celestia’s own words.
One of the previous comments for Princess Celestia: A Brief History was that I completely nailed Celestia in that story. I do hope that trend kept with the two stories and that this Celestia is just as authentic as History’s version. Celestia is both hard and easy to write. She’s not nearly as formal as Luna is, but she still had that “Ethereal Mother” quality. She’s ancient. She’s seen so much. But she’s also very relatable and personable. It’s a strange dichotomy.
In addition, this was the first time I’ve created something entirely new in the MLP world: The Equestrian Secret Service. I wish there was some sort of precedent, but the wasn’t. However, I think it completely believable Equestria would have an extensive intelligence network, probably even more extensive (if not much more extensive) than their military forces. Especially with someone like Celestia at the helm, I see her working politics and diplomacy through subtle ways and proper intelligence is the best way to do that.
Okay. Enough dancing.
Let’s talk about that bombshell I just dropped on you all.
Yes. The Wavelengths Timeline is an alternate timeline created by Starlight Glimmer’s temporal incursion into Cloudsdale when she successfully prevented the Sonic Rainboom.
Which one is for you to decide… if it’s even one of the ones we saw! After all, we had a really quick blast of montage scenes. Who knows what else may have happened during that fight? 
Not only that, but Princess Celestia knows. Just think about the implications of that. She knows that the Twilight she knows ended up taking the path she’s prepared for another. But what Celestia doesn’t know is what was prevented and why. Yes, I know you all do, but she doesn’t. That’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
And now… Princess Celestia is keeping secrets from Sunset and Twilight. Critical secrets because she’s afraid of what might happen. Now if that’s out of true concern for her students or she’s more concerned about her grand plan… that’s up for you to decide (and me to know).
In fact, if you pay close attention, you’ll see the point of divergence in Sunset Shimmer’s life. It’s not complete and you likely won’t get the entire picture until Wavelength Theorems is released, but I think there’s likely enough information for you to come up with some plausible theories as to why Sunset Shimmer’s fate is so different in Wavelengths.
The greatest trick in dealing with a real alternate timeline (instead of an alternate/parallel universe) is communicating the differences without saying “oh, because X didn’t happen, Y didn’t happen, so Z happened instead, which caused C to happen after B unlike the main timeline when C was before B and Z didn’t happen at all.” I need to communicate this through in the story and let you readers make those connections.
It’s hard because I want to tell you and sound all clever like! I’m taking the Butterfly Effect and running with it. Not as far as I could go, of course (because that’s nearly infinite).
But in the end… what can Celestia do other than soldier on? She can’t go back in time and fix it. So, she just moves forward and does the best with what she has.
However, that doesn’t mean she’s going to do nothing. She’s going to find that flying pink unicorn. She’ll take action… and Harmony help Starlight if/when Celestia gets her hooves on her.
Now, I’m going to twist the knife just a little.
What happens to the alternate timelines when the primary one is fixed? This is something that’s going to be explored in-depth throughout the events of Wavelength Theorems. I’d love to go into a detailed talk about the various theories of time travel in relation to alternate timelines, parallel realities and other such things, but I’ll be doing that a ton in Wavelengths. So I’m going to just leave you with that thought and let you hate me a little.
Now, I wanted to talk about the cover (since, as you know, covers are a big deal to me). This cover design is inspired directly from the Fallout 4 “Stealth Magazines” known as the US Covert Operations Manual. Of course, I added my own twist on it with Celestia’s mark as a watermark and a washed and worn photo. That was actually a lot of fun to do. Make it blurry and difficult to see… but just recognizable enough to know exactly what it’s from.
And that’s where the bonus ‘art’ in ‘Classified’ comes from. Yes, those pictures are all screenshots I modified, adjusted, tweaked, washed out, vintaged and assorted other things. I wanted to let you see what Celestia and Raven were seeing! I couldn’t figure out an effective way to actually include them in the text without destroying the narrative flow, so I just decided to tack them on to the end.
So finally, I have a little graphic to show you, as I promised back in the Keystones & Arcs blog post. Now, I’ll admit that I’m not showing you everything here, but it’ll give you a better idea of the stories I’ll be telling from here on out. Originally, I was going to post this as part of that blog post, but I realized the dates aren’t actually in-story until Cloudsdale.
(You can click on it to get a bigger picture, by the way)
You can easily see the stories that aren’t done yet since they don’t have cover designs. I’m happy to report that everything in the Origins Arc has been at least started (though Prerogative is likely going to get a reboot like Alchemy did). The Infatuations Arc is going to be fun though. Really fun.
Trust me.
In addition, Bards of the Badlands, the story directly after Alchemy, is currently using temp art by Ziom05. This is not the final art, but only the piece I’m using as I request permission to officially use his amazing artwork. I wanted a true D&D-style cover (though ironically I’m actually combining at least three generations/variants of cover designs to create the cover to Bards), but I always get permission to use artwork in any official capacity. In this case, the artwork is so small, you can barely make it out, so hopefully that doesn’t annoy anypony. 
As for the dates, I’m taking some liberties with some timing on things. I talked a bit about that in the Applications Retrospective. I’d also like to mention bookplayer’s brilliant Lost Time was the inspiration for the dating system (specifically the 1,000 Year System. In my headcanon, this system wasn’t something Celestia was thrilled with but it was something her subjects desperately wanted, so she gave in).
I plan on trying to write the upcoming stories chronologically (also because I found I have to change some things in History to get Alchemy to play out well and I really hated doing that), but that may change. Just a heads up.
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Well, I do hope you’ve enjoyed the Applications Trilogy Keystone! This was a great way to kick things off and it seems a lot of you folks are enjoying this version of Sunset and company. There’s a lot more on the way, so stay tuned for the next installment, The Alchemy of Chemistry!
-Novel
PS, because there wasn't enough direct Sunny exposure in this story, have an extra dose of Sunset just to help you get through the day.
The Secret Service seemed to me like a mix of GhostOfHeraclitus' Civil Service and the private eye from Render Unto Twilight (don't quite remember his name). Not sure if you've read either of them, but if Captain Insight and Dotted Line ever meet it will be either hilarious or a singularity of stony silence.
Last chapter was a brilliant addition to the story. Really enhanced the stories mood for me to hte point i could almost palpably feel (imagined, of course) tension dripping from Celestia, when Raven was reading that report.
I haven't been this hyped since reading my favorite stories for the first time. Applications, Grading and Brief History were great, but this one takes the proverbial cake.
Oh my god I'm so happy so see that you have so much planned... I just hope you keep with it unlike some people that just drop off of the face of this site!
Also, did I mention that I can't wait?
4259610 I actually haven't read any of those, but I will endeavor to do so! Oh wait! You mean from "Whom the Princesses Would Destroy...!" Indeed, that was a masterpiece of behind-the-scenes Canterlot. As for the meeting... I'd say both.
4259708 Thank you! I wanted Celestia's mask to break just a little bit more than what we've seen. We've seen the teacher and the mentor, the mother and the tired sister... but I wanted to show the protector. She's still Celestia. And she is not going to screw around with something like this. Thank you ever so much! I'm glad the delivery was so effective!
4259891 You may have mentioned that. Then you should be happy to know that the first drafts of both The Alchemy of Chemistry and Sparks are actually complete. And even if I had to stop telling these stories... I would be happy with Sparks as a finale.
4260533 alright, well you know I'm eagerly awaiting any story you post at this point lol
I mean I liked it but then you posted the Cloudsdale report, now that got my attention big time!
4260533
Dotted: "..."
Insight: "..."
Dotted: "..."
Insight: "..."
Both: "Would you like some tea?" "Would you like some coffee?"
*Ten minutes later*
Raven: "You're not going to intervene?"
Celestia: "Loathe as I am to admit it, I am not sure even our combined powers would be enough for this task."
Raven: "So you'll just keep watching and making bets on who of them wins?"
Luna: "Oh heavens no. That could take days. We're betting on which wing of the palace will go down first."
Hm, timelines, wavelengths... quantum possibilities? Well, I mostly have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm just rattling off sci-fi sounding words.
A world like this would be nice to keep around, but on the other hoof, getting rid of the other bad futures was a good thing (Sombra, Chrysalis, the Flim-Flam brothers, etc.).
Not sure I'm reading too much into it, but did Celestia come up with that "assign Sunset to tutor" idea because she wasn't busy calming down Twilight after that Sonic Rainboom magic surge? Well, compared to canon that's good for Sunset, but arguably not so good for everypony else. Especially with the odd image of Sunset and six others, I've been wondering about that. Sunset and five other Elements sound simple enough, and after how close Sunset was to snapping, Celestia was probably very relieved that Sunset is kind of on the right path.
Though Sunset is still fragile, so if somehow she only ends up in a supporting role with Twilight still as Element of Magic, that might drive her over the cliff again. Alicorn Sunset, now that's the question. Well, there's still a long way to go (and quite a few other disasters to get through) before Twilight and Starlight show up again. In show timeline is murky, though I expect Sunset probably left before the Sonic Rainboom, but of course that's different here.
Sunset is less prone to hyperbole and exaggeration than Twilight, but she was also a bit less... moral originally. Now that Celestia knows there's a very powerful unicorn possibly floating around out there somewhere and an alicorn is going to show up again someday, that's certainly going to throw a lot wrenches in her plans. I wonder how she felt originally when Sunset didn't... turn out so well, but then Twilight showed up at the perfect time. Looking forward to more of this timeline, for how events unfold here and whether this timeline even survives.
4260679 Taking bets on the whole thing going at once. Any takers?
4260920 Technobabble is awesome.
If you're speaking about her assignment as an aide, then you may be on to something. As for the tutoring, I'll actually be going into that in detail in the upcoming novella The Alchemy of Chemistry. However, I will assure you that I've spent FAR too much time plotting out the events (including a bit of creative liberty with the timing of events because with a show like this, I pretty much have to).
I'm glad you're enjoying this and hope you enjoy what's to come!
Well, the point of divergence is obviously the Rainboom. Before this, I had suspected the divergence was before the Rainboom, when this Celestia managed to not fail as Sunset's mentor, and the lack of Rainboom was a butterfly effect. Starlight Glimmer's little escapade had completely slipped my mind. (Sue me, I'm working my way through the series slowly for a second time before watching the new season, and I'm only in early season 4 atm!)
So my new snap-theory is that when Sunset was having her crisis, Twilight was taking her entry exam. With the Rainboom occurring, Twily surges, Spike hatches, and ages into a really really big dragon, drawing Celestia's attention at a critical time. Sunset has her freak out unattended and vanishes into the human world beyond the mirror.
With the Rainboom prevented, Celestia's attention is squarely on her student-in-crisis and she is able to find a way to diffuse the situation, and Twilight's life plays out as we are seeing here.
...Celestia is clearly worried about Sunset finding out Twilight is the new alicorn and having a new freak out/Dark Side moment.
In the show, nopony in-universe seems to have noticed the potential significance of Sunset's wings during Friendship Games yet...that girl really needs to visit her home world (if it hasn't happened in the new movie; I don't know yet) and find out if she really got her alicornication. Celly could find herself with two new alicorns at once in this timeline...hmmmmmm!!
4262230 Eh, I'm too tired to sue you. Maybe later. As for your theories, you'll have to wait and see. Of course, the point of divergence is indeed the Rainboom, but the question is... what happened/didn't happen because of it? And what happened/didn't happen because that happened/didn't happen? I could keep going with this, but down that road lies madness.
(Which incidentally has a simply lovely Bed and Breakfast run by Eris and Sheogorath. You should check it out. The scones are simply divine.)
As for Sunny, it's possible, but I don't think so, but only because of events in Legend of Everfree. That being said... I think the direction they're taking her in is simply spectacular.
But in Wavelengths? That is for me to figure out and for you to find out... eventually (... after I figure it out). 