Reflections - End of Line · 7:30pm Jan 20th, 2018
Well, here we are. We’ve reached the end of Reflections.
I will assume that, if you are reading this, you too have made it through the story. You have my sincerest gratitude for taking this journey with me. I certainly hope you enjoyed what you read!
There is a lot that I would like to say about his story. As such, what follows is an accounting of what went into this. Obviously, spoilers ahead!
Pictured: Crystal and Flurry meeting each other during the banquet (left), potential human world form for Crystal Faire (right). [1][2]
Literally the very first thing that I wrote down for it were the words “My name is Crystal Faire but your reality knows me as Flurry Heart. You may call me that if you wish.” This was back in October of 2016 or so when I was still working on Substitute. I think it was a random thought that popped into my head and I wrote it down.
I then walked away from it for a couple of months while I finished work on Substitute. When I finished that story in early January, I had to decide what I wanted to do next. I had a couple of other stories that I could have done but I eventually settled on this one.
When I first started writing it out, I didn’t have nearly as much planned for it as the final story ended up being. In fact, I had originally planned to end the story around chapter eight or so (with the first six chapters being almost as presented and then the next two chapters wrapping up the story). But, I think, I was mid-way through chapter three when I realized that I couldn’t end it there; you can’t collapse a reality without eventually addressing it. I had to come up with a reason for the collapse. And that was when I truly found my plot.
And it was at that point that I knew I had to fully discover the multiverse for myself. I had to come up with a whole slew of rules for how it behaved. This was a lot easier said than done, because there were a few things that I had to accomplish with the ruleset: I had to make it so that the amount of some character was a constant; I had to make sure that contradictions time-wise were not possible; I had to make it so that what Crystal did in timelines made an actual difference.
I’m a physicist, so I started with what I know. A predominant theory says that, given some instance of time, there are infinitely-many ways in which reality may be in another state in the next moment; it follows that there is a separate universe spawned for each possibility. These are differentiation events, actually.
There were many ways in which I could have actually represented this. A lot of my thoughts actually made it into chapters eight and nine with Twilight sitting down and trying to work everything out and then Crystal filling in the blanks.
The threading concept however was what let me make the magic happen because it practically solved every other problem that I might have still had in that it not only allowed me to keep the amount of Crystals constant but (with a small corollary) it allowed me to keep the amount of Twilight’s constant (and other characters too).
Pictured: Twilight Sparkle as she appears in Reflections.
Around this point, I knew I had to decide on a cast for the rest of the story. Crystal and Twilight were already givens; Starlight seemed like a surefire choice given she's performed time travel in the show; I wanted, neigh, needed Sunset in the story too (and, especially after what I did with her in Feedback and Substitute, my previous stories, I knew where I wanted to go with her too).
Sunset was an especially interesting choice because she allowed me to bring in a character that we know very well but they obviously have a story to tell that some people might not be familiar with. It goes to further show that, in the grand scheme of timelines, not everything is as we expect and much is fair game.
And that leads to the fifth. I knew that I wanted someone a bit more villainous to round out the cast. I was initially undecided between Chrysalis and Discord; I was considering the latter because he would bring a good amount of power to the ensemble as well as provide a little bit of comedy. I ultimately decided against it because I didn’t think that he’d have much a story to tell in this case and that Chrysalis would ultimately make things a little more interesting.
Briefly returning to Crystal, her context changed as the story went on. The travel power and her ability to see the timelines were there from the get-go (I knew that they had to exist on her character in order for her to actually be an effective defender of the multiverse), but the origins were not so set in stone.
From the outset, I knew I wanted there to be some sort of disaster that made Crystal’s timeline go kaboom. I knew I wanted that to be the start of the destruction of the multiverse. I even knew that I wanted it to involve the Crystal Empire and that Crystal herself would have a hand in it. But the exact circumstances escaped me up until it was time to write about it in chapter twenty (History).
I also don’t remember when it was that I decided that Crystal had the ability to see the timelines from birth, but I do know at one point that I had an idea to have the ability be a result of the catastrophe. But I knew that, by the time I wrote chapter twenty, I would have to decide on something. That something is what’s present in the final version.
And it was at that point that I could see through to the end of the rest of the story.
I now bring the following bit of trivia that I knew from the start that, perhaps, the story loosely implies but gives no explanation on; anything exposed to the interverse gains the ability to travel between timelines. This means that Twilight, Sunset, Starlight, Chrysalis, etc. all have this ability now. As a matter of fact, the latter three more or less used this ability albeit unintentionally.
The only ability that is genuinely Crystal’s is the ability to see the timelines. But, given that the travel power requires being able to see where you’re going, none of the others can actually make use of it. You know the loser horn from The Price is Right? That’s the sound that’s now playing in your head.
As to why the multiverse operates around Crystal in the way it does, I’ve always thought of it as there’s some small part of her that’s intrinsically connected with the rest of the interverse. As such, she runs on interversal time because that little part of her is in the interverse to begin with. The text implies that this is the result of some anomaly that likely happened at the event of her birth (even being at a specific place at a specific time). We could extend this to what eventually destroyed Crystal’s timeline; she essentially was hit by her own magic (as it went into the heart, then into the castle, and then got shot back into her). We might especially consider the case where the magic is in a feedback loop in the space of that part of her which is interversal, then perhaps the fate of the timeline immediately follows.
(I also want to make clear that those things that I just claimed aren’t necessarily canon. I’m a believer in the Death of the Author and I think that the text should speak for itself. I don’t think I could have explored the above in the story and so the most I can do is offer a possible explanation; your guess is as good as mine!)
Pictured: Celestia as she appears at base camp. [3]
The development with Celestia was not so much planned. Actually, what inspired me to do it were a couple of comments that the story was getting a little too slow. So I said to myself “Hey I think I’ll shake things up, I guess”. And thus Celestia appeared.
And I have to say that it ended up working really well because it let me do a lot of things that I wanted to do with the story. It played really well with everything that I had and was going to have. So I’m glad that I did it.
It might have even set the stage for the developments which later occurred with Miasmus returning. I think it was mid-way through act two (chapters 6 – 12) when I had the idea for Miasmus to be a villain in later parts of the story (because I realized that the way he worked would allow him to exist across timelines). But, before the development with Celestia, it was going to be a random Miasmus. I remember smiling like mad when I realized I could make it the exact same Miasmus that had appeared in act one.
I think, at this point, I’ve hit on the most general stuff and the meat of what I wanted to say during this retrospective. Here now I’ll hit the remaining stuff chronologically.
Pictured: Miasmus' main body as it appears in Reflections.
Act one consists of chapters 1 – 6 and is the first half of Twilight’s arc. I wanted to establish the nature of Crystal and who she was in this part. I wanted to show Crystal in what constitutes her normal everyday life (we should remember that, to her, this was just another timeline to save). Obviously, the events in these chapters mean a lot to Twilight as well because this entire act deals with her home timeline and that which was characteristic about it.
I also wanted these early parts to start setting up the main plot of Reflections. I wanted it to kinda be lurking in the background for a while where we don’t quite understand the significance of it but it does set up the collapse which is, without a doubt, the initial event that kicks the plot off.
Obviously, Miasmus’ design worked really well in the end and I’m happy with that. I knew from the beginning that I wanted Twilight to face (and fail) against some villain but, in the concept states, Miasmus was just a monster with no name (no, not the Nameless, for those of you familiar with my other works).
Obviously, it’s here we see a crossover into another work. I wanted to ingrain Reflections into the expanded universe and incorporate several elements into it. Obviously, I went right for the throat with the first reference, and I hope it gave some ideas on what things we might expect later on. I doubt there is any reader that got all of the references, and I don’t expect anyone to; someone like Crystal would know all of the references but someone like Twilight would understand none of them. We are simply crossing paths with other stories that we can only take a moment to glimpse at; they allow us to look into that which is bigger than just our story. A facet that I particularly like, however, is that the curious could find these other paths and explore those other facets of the multiverse for themselves (as the stories exist!). However, personally, I make no claim about them; these glimpses can be anything the readers want; the references point to possible suggestions on what these things mean.
Pictured: Starlight Glimmer (left) and Sunset Shimmer (right) as they appear in Reflections. [4]
Anyhow, act two (as stated above) is chapters 7 – 12 and is the second half of Twilight’s arc. It’s here that Twilight is able to experience the multiverse through Crystal’s lens somewhat. Writing the subtle differences between Twilight’s home reality and this new one was a lot of fun and I had a blast with it.
One thing that really surprised me was the reader response to the existence of the native Twilight. Admittedly, in an early version of the draft, Crystal outright told Twilight what happened to the counterpart as to explain it away. I felt, however, that things would work better if that fact was saved for a reveal at the culmination of her arc and so I pushed the reveal back to chapter 12 (Sincerity). What I had instead was a hint as to what happened to Twilight: Starlight asking “Didn’t you go out to the Everfree today?” I actually expected more people to catch onto this but the question continually came up in the comments. Actually, I consider myself a dense reader, and I wonder if I too would have missed it if I was a reading the story instead of the writing it. I think the payoff was really good though and I really love how it turned out.
Obviously, I had ample opportunity to start building the multiverse here, especially since, given what the two experienced, Twilight and Crystal could be much more candid with each other. I myself am a bit of a mechanics nut (I wrote essays on how dreams worked in Inception, for instance—by the way, I may or may not have had some inspiration from that movie). The experiment was especially nice and I had some fun writing that; obviously everything they determined came up later in the story.
One part in particular that I was really happy to include was the bit where the story visited A Shimmering New Year (which was the part of chapter nine (Mechanics) where they visited CHS). A large part of it had to do with it allowing me to buckle down on how all of the realities fit into the system that I had created (which was a necessary question to answer because, obviously, the world of Gen 4 is comprised of more than just the reality which Equestria sits in). It was, quite literally, the perfect opportunity. And I was especially happy that I was able to do it the way I did it because I have absolutely no idea what human form Crystal would look like (feel free to speculate about this in the comments).
It’s also happened since then that Crystal was integrated into A Shimmering New Year. Her inclusion still tickles me to the bone and I can’t wait to see more stuff like that.
Pictured: Chrysalis as she appeared prior to her transformation. [5]
Act three is comprised of chapters 13 – 18 and is the first third of Crystal’s arc. It’s here that the problem of the collapsing multiverse, which has been hinted at before this point in-story comes to a front (but is to no surprise as readers will be well aware that this is the plot). We had, before this point, seen a collapsing timeline, and now we get to see (the aftermath of) a collided timeline. And I think it’s here that Crystal (on Twilight’s suggestion) starts shedding her old self.
The planning scene was one that I especially looked forward to writing. It also ended up being the most edited chapter for two reasons: some criticisms arose on how much of a slog it was originally (in editing it, I cut out around 1,000 words, which should be telling about how much that might have actually been the case), and it contained a scene based on the then-unreleased movie (which, once I saw it, I got some really good ideas about how to change it up to fit better). There is a certain importance with it anyhow as readers should have an idea of how the solution actually works (in other words, it had to happen at some point; not showing the process would have probably been cheap).
Chrysalis is a very interesting case in that, within the show’s canon, a significant portion of people see her as unredeemable. I’m of the mind that what she went through when we first meet her has a lot to do with why her character development in this story is even possible. (And it probably helps that Crystal picked a timeline where she accepted the treatment.) I think she ended up in a reasonable spot that’s (hopefully!) still fairly in character for her.
I hadn’t originally planned for chapter sixteen to take place (this was the chapter in which Chrysalis time traveled and they discovered an inherent discontinuity in the multiverse). My intention for this was to give a signal that the amount by which the multiverse was messed up extended past its dying state. It was also meant to point toward how Crystal fit into the picture (and give some clues as to what started the destruction in the first place). It also had the nice bonus of elevating Chrysalis to a time-traveler status thus making everypony in the mane five so (in her backstory, Sunset has used the time travel spell). Overall I think it succeeded in what I wanted it to do.
I can’t go without mentioning Adamantine who appears near the tail-end of it. She’s obviously not from the show; rather she is from the story that I wrote before writing this one which is called Substitute. That story is the sequel to Feedback, which was my first story and also one which put me on the map. I’m very happy that I got to include her in this story and I suspect that, for readers of Substitute, they might be happy with seeing her here too (especially considering the events of that story). I intended for her to have a small-ish role in the story but she ended up getting more screentime than I anticipated. But it worked out well, in the end, I think. It also let me tie in Sunset’s backstory a little more (as a matter of fact, I imagine that the Sunset that appears in this story is the exact same one from Substitute as it was written, so in a way that makes Reflections a stealth sequel to it).
Chapter eighteen is known for two reasons, one of which might not be so readily apparent to readers who weren’t here for it. This was a chapter that I accidentally published a good while before it was intended (in fact, it was published before chapter seventeen was). I will admit that I have a habit of uploading chapters well before they are published and subsequently perusing them on my phone when I’m out and about. Chances are that I accidentally pushed that publish button without even realizing it. It was an embarrassment indeed. Especially since the chapter ends with a pretty nice plot twist that sets the stage for the rest of the story and shines new light on everything that’s happened (this, of course, is the other reason why the chapter is known).
Pictured: Adamantine as she appears in Reflections.
Act four is comprised of chapters 19 – 24 and is the second third of Crystal’s arc. Obviously, I’m already talked about the developments with Celestia, and I’ve already talked about how Crystal’s past was up in the air until it came time to actually write it.
Chapter twenty-one (Melancholia) involved Sunset’s computer and them hearing various songs out of it. In the original draft of the chapter, a lot more of the songs were actually apparent (whereas in the final version only Dance Magic is identified). It will interest the reader to know what I had in mind. The first song would have been Fortunate Son by C.C.R. (just picture in your head Chrysalis and Celestia having heard this song now); Starlight would have hummed Smash Mouth’s All Star, likely having heard it played earlier. Mask Off by Future would have been the song that Sunset would have turned off from it being “overplayed”. And the song I intended for Crystal and Twilight to dance to would have been O’ Children by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It might have been for the best that I left the few patches of lyrics out, however.
I actually struggled a lot with how Miasmus was actually going to be a threat to them. I think it took me several months to figure out what his exact circumstances were (I had the thought to have him spread across timelines but I had no idea how to get him there). Some ideas that I had included that he was getting across timelines via timeline collisions (as that’s when any two timelines come together), and I actually leaned toward this for a while. In a way, I have to think the unplanned development with Celestia for offering me a solution to this conundrum as I was able to apply what I did with her to what I did with him (thus making her part set up his part).
I absolutely one-hundred percent knew that the story wouldn’t be complete without us seeing a timeline as it was colliding. And even when I had the first imaginings of the scene many months prior, I knew I wanted it to be a fight scene in the Assassinverse (one would ask why I chose that particular one, and the reason is that I don’t really know but the thought of Twilight showing up to her own funeral and then kicking some flank was just one of those images that I couldn’t get out of my head). I actually had the idea to make the other timeline that collides with it an alternate version of this verse; it would have been a crossover of the most literal sense as I would be jamming the two timelines together. I wasn’t able to fit it in through. Actually writing the collision was a challenge because there are certain things that should happen and I’m of the mind that it probably should not have been as well-behaved as it was in the text (you might be thinking “That wasn’t well-behaved at all!” but by what I thought it should have been, it was comparably so).
Pictured: Princess Cadance as she appeared circa the defeat of King Sombra.
And, finally, act five consisted of chapters 25 – 32 and is the final third of Crystal’s arc. The first chapter which involved their hunting Miasmus was actually one which was very fluid; I had a general idea of what had to happen during it but as for the places visited or the actions performed, I wrote that off the cuff. I would reckon that part of it was that I really didn’t plan on chapter twenty-five happening to begin with. My original plan was that both this and the next would have just been them storming Canterlot Castle over the span of two chapters (with Crystal being the only one to take the fight to other timelines). I realized that this wouldn’t have been a great option however because there wouldn’t have been anything to stop them from just appearing right in front of Celestia/Miasmus and ending it in two seconds.
There’s an interesting comparison to be made with what happens when they enter the interverse. The sequence of events concerning Sunset, Starlight, and Chrysalis was extremely fluid (apart from the fact that Chrysalis would reach the culmination of her arc and thus transform—I’ll talk more about this in a moment) while the sequence of events with Twilight and Crystal was fairly rigid. I would dare say it was these latter parts that consistently played through my head for months on end which is probably why I knew them so well when it came time to write them. I toiled to make sure that their wording did exactly what I wanted from them as those bits are, indeed, the climax for the whole story (and it’s thus extremely important to get them right!).
I wrestled a little bit with what to do regarding Chrysalis’ transformation. From what I’ve seen, the changeling's redesign in the show was quite divisive. With this being a fan-fic, I’m especially interested in having consistency with the source material (yes, shortcomings and all; I’m okay with the redesign but there are others who perceive the shortcoming). I’m glad that Pharynx got a dark color scheme when he transformed because that convinced me that I could go with the transformation that kept most of her original appearance (while generally making her a little more wholesome). She still, thankfully, retains a lot of her personality (which is a big part of what makes her her), and while she might not be willing to go all lovey-dovey and allow friendship into her life, she’ll at least tolerate them. Baby steps, after all.
And then Cadance has, probably, the single most interesting situation in the entire story, both in-universe and out-of-universe. Obviously, after a four-thousand year gap, she is likely to have naturally changed a little, but I think that there are some factors which would have eclipsed that in a way; one being that there could be some bits of insanity from being out there and furthermore that the corruption probably never completely left her. I very much wanted her to still resemble the Cadance that we’re all familiar with and that stemmed from one single aspect: sincerity. I felt like the interactions between Crystal and Cadance would have held the most meaning if Cadance was herself. That isn’t to say that she did perform some villainous actions within the story but I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if her reasoning for doing so made sense.
And then there is, of course, the ending. Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight were givens. That left me to figure out what Crystal and Chrysalis were going to do once everything was said and done. I didn’t put too much thought into the latter as I did with the former but I had a few ideas for Chrysalis, one of which included putting Chrysalis in a situation like Twilight (place her in a timeline where she died). I think the final version was a little more sensible (because they can keep an eye on her in the meantime and she’d have ponies to talk to who know full well her position. Whether she succeeds in that is up in the air (actually, me leaving it open might allow other authors to take up her story; I’ve spoken with another author who already plans to do so to a degree, so that might happen later). Crystal was a lot tougher to figure out. I pretty much knew what I wanted from the ending scene (Crystal appears, Twilight reads; incidentally, the last line of dialogue was planned out months in advance), but where she went from there wasn’t so easy. Having Crystal make a home for herself seemed to fit most into the theme of her arc. And I really do think that Crystal got a job at The Krusty Krab City Hall. I might explore that in some vignette someday.
And that’s all I have to say about this story. The question is what happens now?
I am slowly working on a project, but it is secret for now. Some might be able to guess what it is, however. We’ll see if it ever sees the light of day. The truth is that I take a lot of time with these projects; each one has taken the better part of a year of my life. I am unsure if I wish to devote another year to another project.
I might write some little Reflections-related things in the meantime but I doubt I will write anything that’s serious. In fact, I probably would write silly.
Nonetheless, that’s all I have. Again, I want to thank you for allowing me to share my story with you. I’ve said this in the past and I’ll happily say it again: it’s you, the reader, who makes all the blood, sweat, and tears worth it.
- RQK
[1] - A Blast from the Past by LittleTigress
[2] - EG Crystal by LittleTigress
[3] - Celestia by alexiy777
[4] - Currently unsourced Sunset Shimmer vector
[5] - Mlp Fim Queen Chrysalis (...) vector by luckreza8
And we thank you for making an incredible story.
While I was late to the party for the beginning of it, once I caught up, I kept biting my nails in anticipation of the next chapter and what it would bring.
I hope your next story will be just as amazing...
As a Chrysalis fan myself, I merely dislike the idea of Chrysalis being redeemed if it causes her to transform. The entire concept of the "true" form of the changelings changing depending on their alignment makes a bit of a bad taste in my mouth due to the... implications.
Again, I'm pleased and honored to have been a small part of this, and glad that you were satisfied with how I adapted my story to fit yours, even if it took a couple tries to get right. Totally worth it, though.
Hey there RQK. I am both happy and sad that it's done. It's been a fun ride. Keep an eye out for the start of Nexus from me. Maybe you'll get new ideas. I'd say more but...Spoilers. At least here in comments.
If these things do in fact exist, is there an easy place to find all of them?
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https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212596/the-reflections-multiverse
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Would ya look at that? Fancy schmancy groups being productive and stuff.
First of all, I apologize if my English is not the best, English is not my main language, but I still wanted to write a comment.
That being said, I also apologize for my late comment, I just barely finished reading your story, and I just have to say... WOW, my hat is humbly off to you. Reflections has been one of the few stories that made me stop and analyze all the details thoroughly. Like you, I am currently studying physics and believe me when I came across the first of your stories about time travel, I was totally hooked. You are easily in my top 3 best time travel authors on this site. When I read Reflections there were parts where my brain was carbide
to understand the mechanics behind the story.
I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future, and thank you so much for the effort you put into your stories.