Triptych, Chapters 40-42: "I believe the time is now right to take a few questions." · 6:02pm Feb 28th, 2018
I just can't promise to answer all of them.
This isn't an AMA session: it can't be. There are revelations yet to come, and I'm not in the habit of spoiling my own work. ("Other than through writing it!" cries the Hatedom, and applauds itself for fast reflexes.) But a major part of the story has just been told. Some things were explained, and... there are going to be questions. There's certainly been some degree of commentary.
Now that I'm feeling well enough to write again, I'm going to honor my remaining Patreon blog dictation commitments: if those don't wrap up in March, it may be safe to assume I'm sick, dead, or experiencing dimensional transfer. (Still trying to decide on a preference there.) But today, I'm going to try and work on an update for Anchor Foal, get it posted before my local midnight if I can -- but I'm also opening the floor to questions. Because there have been three chapters of revelations and what I hope is story advancement, explanations which some people have been waiting a long time for... and it feels like there's some questions coming.
I can't promise to answer everything, and the vast majority of comments (plus some of your latest personal theories) on the newest chapter should be kept with the story itself. But if you have questions about the story, about the bits of the 'verse which were brought into the open in this section, about how all this came together in the first place... this just might be the time to ask.
Be warned: the answers are probably going to svck.
Pulling back the curtain generally reveals some poorly-painted sets and a whole lot of dust.
I'm glad that you're feeling better. If you had died before finishing Triptych, I would never have spoken to you again
No questions about what has already happened, it seems clear enough. Whether or not Spike got a message out or if the shielding around the castle blocks dragonfire will doubtless be revealed in the next chapter or two.
A question with a possible one word answer. Yes, no, or maybe. (Dare you write short?)
Coordinator is one if the ponies with the full list. Will the conspiracy try a Blackmail Backfire on him? (Caution, TV Tropes link.)
Good to hear you're feeling better and still occupying the local time-space continuum. As for the Ask You Something, I'll need time to go back over everything and gather my thoughts, but there is one question that immediately comes to mind:
In the montage of those Gentle had infused, who was the unicorn given pegasus essence?
Great to hear from ponyfic's favorite cynical optimist again.
I'm curious as to how you came up with the idea for Gentle's character and his trajectory. He's such a despicable character that you hid really well at the start, that unreliable narration up until he reveals his true nature is awesome writing.
You've said you know how it ends, have you made any plans about the possible sequel? Though admittedly I do kind of think of Anchor Foal as the false sequel since it takes place post-Triptych without canonical credit.
How the heck do souls and bodies work here?! Are pegasi, pegasi right down to their core? Pegasus souls? Exactly what are the components of a soul here, because apparently stuff can be replaced, but not all of it? Why not? What's preventing Gentle from accidentally turning a unicorn into a vegetative mass of earth pony magic in a unicorn body? Is he replacing something in the body? Why wouldn't the body just produce more of the original magic and the injected magic eventually run out? Is the change genetic? If so, why can't he go all the way?
EDIT: Not Triptych, but curious: how do Talismans work?
I suspect the rock farm isn't going to come up except maybe in flashbacks, but I'm a bit curious: just how terrifying is Tryptychverse Maud, on a scale of 0 to 10?
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Since this was started at the end of season 3, she probably doesn't exist.
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Sisters were explicitly mentioned in the rock farm flashback. They're probably much less nice people, given this Igneous, though.
I can't unsee them as the stages of grief, though.
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Yes, but it doesn't say how many sisters. Probably just the sisters we knew about from Cutie Mark Chronicles.
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Y'know, that just kind of went by without my thinking much about it at the time, but seeing you ask the question my first thoughts immediate went to Glim Glam.
Okay, having had a chance to review the last chapters and gather my thoughts, here are my other questions:
Are the properties of Rachette's blood unique among hybrids?
How closely is Discord watching this mission?
And finally, how much of Triptych did you have pinned down when you started? Has this all proceeded according to plan, has it been as much a journey of dicovery for you as for the rest of us, or is it somewhere in between?
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I don't think we've met her.
Ok, this is a question there seems to be a huge debate about in the comments and TvTropes: When Gentle speaks of the broken, does he mean earth ponies born to pegasi and unicorns, non-unicorns born to unicorns, or any foal born of a different race than their parents?
To put it a different way, did he believe his daughter was broken because she was born an earth pony and he believes earth ponies have no true magic, because she was not born a unicorn and he believes anything other than unicorn magic doesn’t count, or because she was not born a unicorn and so would never be able to share the magic of her parents?
Or yet a third way, possibly the simplest: Would he consider a unicorn born to a Pegasus or earth pony couple broken? What about a Pegasus born to an earth pony couple? Or a Pegasus born to a unicorn couple?
EDIT:
Two more questions:
1) Will we ever find out the reason behind the Secret?
2) Will the Secret be broken by the end of Triptych?
Also, a semi-related request on behalf of everyone submitting questions here: If you can’t answer a question because it would spoil future story, please say so. It’s one thing to know that your question can’t be answered now but will be in time, it’s another to think it’s been missed and may never be answered.
What were the roles of the other Pillars in the Tryptich verse, including Stygian?
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Maud herself wasn't mentioned in the show before her debut, and if she were a part of Triptych she would have gotten Pinkie out of that situation she was in when they were foals.
Okay: the vast bulk of these will be attempted tomorrow, especially as that will allow me to try and answer things after getting some actual sleep. (There was a lot of writing today, and I need to get some real rest -- if only in the name of not relapsing. This does drain me.) After that, it'll be the Patreon Blog Fulfillment Guilt tour. But I can at least try to make a start on these queries tonight, especially as I typically can't sleep until after the first comment comes in.
So let's see...
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This feels like it's on the border between answers and spoilers -- but you've already brought up the most important thing: the castle is currently on lockdown. It's not something which happened immediately -- but by the time the Bearers reached the conference, those spells were active.
A portion of how Spike's scroll-sending works has been discussed in other stories (along with what most dragons use teleportation flame for). Just keep that in mind when thinking about how the lockdown might interact with it -- and remember, Doctor Gentle was just talking about what was required to get the attendees home...
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You could argue that it's already begun. Both Doctor Gentle and Quiet have openly observed that a direct confrontation with Twilight was wholly unnecessary: the scheme might have had more of a chance to work if he hadn't put a face on it and given her somepony she could fight back against. And Coordinator, as seen at the very end of Chapter 42, is very aware that he's one of the ponies with that list.
Doctor Gentle has advised him to run. Does Coordinator strike you as a pony who listens to advice?
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The short and cruel answer is "An OC." I saw the theory which argued everyone had just gotten their first look at the local Sunset: it's wrong. This is simply somepony we haven't met.
However... the chance of such a meeting is not zero. If there's enough interest in her as a character, there just might be a story. It would take my mind off the possibility of writing about the comedy of my current washing machine situation...
(Short version: deliveries? Aren't.)
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This was implied during AJ's argument with Pinkie. ICR the exact words but something to the effect "You've heard the stories..." That is, Earth Ponies believe that they'll be targeted if the truth is known. How true that was & how true it still is, is unknown
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"Each big appliance treats you with defiance
Until it finally falls apart.
Call the repairman, in a week he's there man
To knock your kitchen walls apart"
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Allan+sherman+lyrics+here%27s+to+the+crabgrass+&&view=detail&mid=536951095DC781038A8F536951095DC781038A8F&&FORM=VRDGAR
Princess Celestia is in Your Washing Machine
https://www.fimfiction.net/stories?q=celestia+is+in+your+washing+machine
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The implication was that it coming out would signal the beginning of total war, because neither the warlike pegasi nor the egotistical unicorn nobles could have stomached the fact that without the earth ponies they would starve.
Okay, here's my list of questions - I suspect some may be spoilers, things that you intend to put into the story, so feel free to disregard those or just say "spoiler" or whatever. But here they are:
That's all for now. I hope the remnants of your illness will pass soon. Please take care of yourself even though you want to catch up on your writing. Don't overdo it, okay? Also, thank you for offering us readers this Q&A session!
I was tempted to move this one into its own blog post under a Writer's Workshop heading, if only to see how many people would react with "Oh, look: Twilight's talking about Star Swirl again. Time for that nap!"
Also, this one could potentially take a while to answer, and so in itself will push back a few other replies. But as it's a question I can answer (if not necessarily adequately), let's move ahead with:
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Let's get something out of the way immediately: in at least one major aspect, Gentle Arrival is a trotting fanfic cliche'.
Which cliche', you might ask? Isn't it obvious? "Hey, everyone! I just created this really awesome OC who's already part of the main characters' lives! In fact, they love him! You've never heard of him before, you've never suspected he existed, but he's still so perfect that they'd would do absolutely anything for him! In fact, he's the single most important part of their backstory and you just didn't know it until now! Isn't that great?"
Okay, show of hands: after seeing me put it that way, who just vomited a little?
But when it comes to the creation of his character, there's an argument to be made that said cliche' was a necessary step. In the 'verse, Doctor Gentle ultimately turns out to be the source for so many of the differences which make the story collection into any kind of 'verse at all. He's a foundation stone: pull him out of the proceedings and pretty much everything in the modern era collapses. He was going to be one of the most crucial story elements, and so his life had to have meaning for the Mane Cast.
Before active composition began, I'd already chosen Pinkie and Fluttershy as the two who would be different-- and we'll leave the reasoning behind, because that's a completely separate issue. But that gave them a connection. And that connection needed one extra link.
So -- off we go into the land of overused plot elements: the OC who turns out to be so important in their lives -- but in this case, I deliberately buried the lead. A number of readers have noticed that Doctor Gentle doesn't even get a name for multiple chapters (with some rather annoyed by that): he's just this older stallion talking about something which happened, trying to figure out what went wrong. We get to know something about him as a character before we learn what his connection to the Mane Cast is. I didn't fully drop him in the spotlight during Act One while he declared "I am the reason for everything!" I wanted to keep him in the shadows for a while, building up curiosity about just who this pony was -- and then I placed the connection while praying for a lack of open revolt.
At least to a degree, it took. The majority of readers -- the majority of non-abandoning, non-downvoting readers -- accepted that he had a place in Fluttershy and Pinkie's lives. Some decided it was okay that he'd never been mentioned before: after all, how often do you talk about your own birth? And a few even allowed that they would love him as something very much like family. He was, after all, their first friend. And having Twilight give him what one reader termed as 'nerd cred' may not have hurt.
Actually... it may have helped a little too much.
Sometimes you get a comment which sears your soul.
...ouch.
We could talk about the shadows which fall across the Continuum: others certainly have. We've at least partially been over Applejack a few times before this. But the subject is Doctor Gentle, and so we're going to look at the sub-wound from that little stab: people were seeing him (and, for that matter, Quiet) as a good pony. Not perfect by any means: after all, things were happening, and he was clearly tied into those events. But readers were giving him the benefit of the doubt on motivation. Surely he'd meant well. He hadn't intended to do any harm: something had just gone wrong. Two of the Mane Cast truly loved him, and he cared about them in return. We'd seen him supporting Fluttershy, rescuing Pinkie. He went above and beyond for those who were his. And then I had him save a newborn's life on-screen.
People liked him.
And to a degree, that was fine. But I'd wanted an aspect of doubt present: the sense that you didn't truly know him. And what so many seemed to have decided was that they knew him well enough...
I was starting to worry. That readers accepted his existence: that was necessary. That they respected him for what they knew of his accomplishments? That was fine. And to have some degree of fondness for the character... well, the more readers liked him, the stronger the potential reaction when everything came out. (Also a higher probability for switching over to the downvote button just before flinging the tablet across the room.) But it seemed as if some had decided that whatever he was doing, he just might be in the right.
Tucked into my notes are multiple variations on this sentence fragment: "Must start darkening Doctor Gentle now." There had be an aspect of doubt concerning his motivations, personality, everything... and instead, it felt as if a lot of people were just growing progressively fonder of both him and Quiet. I eventually reached the part of the story where I could start to bring more questions in for that motivation: in particular, some readers decided he'd crossed the Moral Event Horizon at the moment they saw he intended to potentially repeat the experiment, and I think the individual who asked this question can name one of them.
But even so... a number of people still felt a degree of empathy for him. Fondness. Even after the most recent revelations, the Comments section saw a couple of excuses.
Draco In Birthing Garment.
But I would argue against his being an unreliable narrator. After all, he's just telling us about how he perceives himself...
The trajectory of Gentle Arrival's story arc is fairly easy to summarize: sometimes, the greatest evils are performed by those who truly believe themselves to be doing the right thing. To be working for the good. Because as somepony may soon be saying within their cell, love creates monsters. And in some ways, you could argue that Doctor Gentle is a monster wearing a pony skin. To a large degree, he's a self-made monster: the death of his spouse shattered him in many ways, but you have to consider the nature of the whole prior to that shattering. He already had some racist beliefs: having a corpse in the basement, added what he considered to be a broken child -- well, you've seen how the fragments landed.
(One thing which just about no one picked up on: when he's speaking to Quiet about the Bearers, in privacy, he identifies his by name, Twilight by her title -- and the others are only referred to by their race. If Gentle is talking about Rarity, she's never anything more than 'the unicorn,' and that held up for the entire story.)
Imagine a religion where all illness had been determined by divine plan, and seeking out a physician -- as opposed to putting your faith in your deity to help you recover -- was to send your soul into the flames. Gentle Arrival becomes the preacher who finds the member of their flock that knows they're curable with help, was just going to sneak away for two days, didn't think anyone would find out about their plans -- and locks them into their bedroom until they recover or die. And he wouldn't be doing so because he wanted that person to suffer: he'd be doing it because he didn't want that person's crisis of faith to lead into eternal damnation. Even if they died, he'd be saving their soul.
He would tell himself that he was acting out of love.
In the case of Gentle Arrival, people could -- and have -- argued that a tremendous amount of good has arisen from his actions. This is a pony who has saved lives, potentially hundreds of them over the course of his career. And maybe that makes it easier to forgive some of his actions, because some of the results were positive. After all, without him, in the 'verse, Pinkie and Fluttershy wouldn't exist: one for whom the strain of a breech birth would have been too much to survive, the other simply stillborn. We want to have those two in our lives, he's responsible for their being alive at all... and so he starts to feel like such a good pony. His personal trick does nothing but good for the world. Instead of the silence of the funeral conducted over a tiny grave, we have the laughter of children. Say that the Great Work has been of benefit to Equestria, and... well, it's hard to argue against, isn't it?
But at the same time, people have drawn another comparison: the Nazi experiments on human bodies in the concentration camps. The violation of every medical ethic there was, because those false physicians didn't see people being cut by the knives. Those scalpels brought discoveries into the world, and most of those concerned how low we can sink when we tell ourselves that we're only killing something other.
How does Gentle Arrival perceive the world? Well, for starters, he sees his own daughter as broken.
Since this section of the story began, there's been a few tropes added to the various pages. Here's the one I keep waiting for someone to add onto Doctor Gentle's character entry: Hypocrite. There's going to be in-story discussion of that very soon now, because that hypocrisy has now been recognized. He talks about foals being robbed of their heritage -- but what has he done? Initially, he was trying to change a pegasus foal into a unicorn one: so much for that first flight at your family's side. Then there were several years where he didn't know what had happened -- other than that he was clearly weakening the natural racial magic of those newborns, and yet he kept right on doing it because the foals were alive. That's seldom a bad motivation -- except that we then reach the part where he discovers that those he's experimented on have a sort of hybrid magic. And what does he do, this stallion whose stated motivation is to restore his daughter's stolen heritage, when he discovers that he has personally been removing said heritage from every foal exposed to a chaos pearl? He keeps right on going.
Perhaps he believes that this, too, will be fixed. Or he could have played with chaos just a little too often --
-- or maybe, when looking at what some would see as the chance to save a life, he just sees an experiment.
What does he think about what he's been doing? Because he clearly hasn't seen that hypocrisy within himself. What would he say if somepony pointed it out to him? Would he even hear the words, or would they bounce off the shield of his faith? Make no mistake: Doctor Gentle has faith. He may not see the Princesses as fully divine beings, but he has faith. Because at his core, he truly believes that he's doing the right thing. The necessary. The needful.
We've seen that phrase from him a few times, haven't we? He will do the needful. He's doing nothing more than what needs to be done, what should have been done centuries ago. He's acting for the good.
He truly believes himself to be doing the right thing.
He has faith in that.
Recently, it was observed in the Comments that in some ways, you could argue that he's so close to being a good pony. And his actions have brought some amount of good into the world. But that hypocrisy is still there. The racism. The dismissal. And he has his reason, his Freudian excuse, he calls his daughter broken (while, incidentally, apparently having made her believe that Primatura's death was her fault) and doesn't consider how he might possess his own version of that status...
...but at least in his own eyes, his intentions are good. And so he's done his best to create a new path.
remsol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_3817.jpg
Wonder where that road leads.
Oh, and:
There are two possibilities, and both would require major commitments. One would be a sequel.
The other would be a prequel.
Deep time...
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Y'know...
...it feels kind of like some people are taking advantage of this.
This gets into essence, and that immediately brings up something which has been repeated about it more than a few times: essence is not the same thing as a soul. And remember: ponies don't recognize any local version of DNA. They know something about genetics and how traits are passed on (although their own biology is tripping them up), but they have yet to discover anything that's truly responsible for it at the core. The best term they have is that something is simply 'in the blood'.
So -- and keep in mind that I'm not saying this as a definitive absolute answer -- here's a way to try thinking about it. Look at essence as DNA. Under normal circumstances -- pre-Gentle ones -- a pony expresses one set of racial traits. They may carry recessives for one or two -- or, if you want to involve the crystals, three -- other races, and it's possible for those races to emerge in their own children. But a pegasus is a pegasus, because those are the genes which turned up dominant: any earth pony or unicorn traits never get an oar in.
The chaos pearl, in channeling the essence of a different race, then turns into something acting as a retrovirus. It's permanently rewriting the DNA of the subject: yes, you only had one set of traits expressed because that's how it's always been, but now we're going to activate a few new genes -- which stay activated. But in this case, there's an absolute limit to how many genes can be active at any time. Earth pony traits are activated and in doing so, some of the pegasus ones are shut down to make room. The retrovirus tells the body that its new state is natural, and so the pony grows up with those genes following a new, functional set of instructions. Nopony reverts to normal over time because their body has its marching orders and it's following them: their current state is normal. And as for why a full transformation is impossible... you can't rewrite everything: at some point, it turns into tearing up the book, and then all you've got is a bunch of fragments on the floor. The book has been defined as a book: the foal's physical form was set before Doctor Gentle reached them, and we've talked about why body transformation in the Continuum is generally one of those really bad ideas. The covers are there, and you have a binding -- but pre-publication, there's still the chance to switch out a few words.
Whether Doctor Gentle's experiments have caused damage to foals is a question which would have to arise in-story: I can't answer it here. And similarly, talismans -- creation and capabilities -- are their own story, one yet to be told.
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Four hundred and ninety-two.
For now, let's just say that Maud very much exists in the 'verse -- and may eventually be heard from.
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Two of these can be answered, and one's going to take a while -- so I'm going to do the short one tonight, and take on the second on the morning.
So... of the Doctor's 'special deliveries,' Ratchette is the only pegasus to have manifested a device mark. Remember, it's not a particularly common talent to begin with and even taken across his entire career, the foals who were experimented upon could be regarded as a fairly small sample size. (I'm not going to give the exact numbers here -- but keep in mind that those experiments have been going on for Fluttershy's exact lifetime: it's safe to say we're into triple digits.) However, a significant percentage of those ponies have yet to find their marks and talents.
This means the safe answer is to say Ratchette is unique -- right now. Nopony else has her magic -- but it's still within the realm of possibility for another pegasus to manifest a device mark, and that theoretical pony's deepest magic could demonstrate a similar effect. It could also find a completely different way of expressing itself. And that's not even getting into what could occur if an earth pony turns up with a device icon, or the possibilities inherent in a unicorn gaining an instinctive understanding of wonders -- or talismans. We also have yet to explore Ratchette's full capabilities: right now, all we know is that blood-to-device contact created instant attunement and allowed her to use the rammer without necessarily understanding everything about how it worked.
I can add one closing detail on this portion: she's carrying a lot of unicorn essence. As noted in her TEoE story, when it comes to inherent pegasus magic, she's got flight, cloudwalking which never feels normal, and any wind creation capacity she might possess could also just be the natural result of flapping her wings really hard.
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This was amazing!! Thank you for such a in-depth answer. Hopefully my reply doesn't ruin the load time of the page, haha. Gonna try very hard not to go on forever as is my usual. Spoilers: I FAILED
Okay, totally have to say that you snuck in a Gary-Stu type very well. It's absolutely credit to the framing that it never even crossed my mind Gentle could be read in those terms. If you were in the mood to do some reaching, you could argue that Quiet has those elements (
) himself in being an OC a member of the main cast has a crush on, but honestly, the development was careful enough that it definitely didn't strike me in the same fashion.
So many people loved Dr KillsBabies because the way you wrote that narration, man. It takes intense commitment to stick to your plot points when they involve the destruction of a character you spent so long building up to be a positive force to the readers. Some people are never gonna be into it, get stressed when their fave OC is shown for his true colors, quit before the curtain. They're missing out. I can't even remember now how I found Triptych but damn, am I glad I did.
What really haunts me regarding the Great Work, besides the idea of long-dead essences being inside living ponies, is that there's no easy answer at all. Without that sick stallion, there would be no way to save infants in the womb in this Equestria. I assume the surgical method is too far off technologically or for some other reason underdeveloped, like how agronomy is stunted by earth ponies' existence, maybe the existence of magic curbs the ponies' desire to use physical means. Maybe the minotaurs will be the first ones to figure out the methods and disseminate them.
Fascinating how one pony's faith can have so many wide-spread repercussions and impact most likely hundreds of lives. I've never seen a fanfic capture that before. And now he's got disciples.
Asking me if I want a deep time prequel to Triptych or a sequel but not both is like asking me which hand I want removed. Sure, I do everything with one, but I'll die irl for a fic about pre-ascension Triptych!Celestia
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I'm guessing they wouldn't last long. Presuming they even discovered said talent.
After all, how does one become an author if there is no such thing as written word?
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All right -- Part Two. I can't answer the question about Discord: that's speculation/spoilers/other word starting with S. But as for the other one...
I've said before that for most stories, I follow a series of lampposts in the dark. Major scenes and story beats tend to be set in advance: I know what the big events are. But there are times when I still need to find a way of moving between them -- and that means stepping into the shadows, where things haven't quite been set.
Additionally, there are times when the characters don't want to be steered. The Mane Cast has a remarkable capacity for getting in their own -- and each other's -- way, along with having more than a few times when the author might try to tell them "And now you do this," and gets a double-hind kick in return because it isn't in the character's nature to do that. And as the 'verse has acquired layers, that aspect has become more of a factor. The Continuum's Twilight is now enough of her own entity to allow some degree of prediction for her actions: go outside that and not only will it not feel right to the readership, she's going to fight you.
The same thing applies to our villains. There are things Coordinator will do, even when his actions are clearly the wrong ones, simply because that's who he is and he's not capable of change. There are actions which Quiet wouldn't take. And as we saw in the most recent chapter, even with all he's already done, Doctor Gentle is still capable of drawing a line in the sand -- for now.
So I can say this: as far as the master plan goes? We're still following it. As with A Mark Of Appeal, I know what the closing vision and final line will be -- or rather, what the choices are, because there are two scenes which could potentially finish the story, both will appear in the last chapter, and I keep going back and forth on their order.
The major set pieces -- the pools of light along the trail -- have remained fairly stable. We were always going to have the conference, and the Bearers were always going to be watching from above. (Let's face it: pastry-carrying trains aside, the Mane Cast are not natural detectives. There's only so much they could be reasonably expected to work out on their own, along with an absolute maximum of evidence which can be stumbled across before coincidence starts to break. 'Villain explains plan' is another cliche' -- but there are times when it's the tool that fits the job.) Similarly, there was going to be a party, the blackmail attempt would take place there, which meant there had to be a manuscript which could be stolen in order to learn things which could serve as blackmail... To that degree, things have been flowing along a fairly steady track.
But it's still the little things which twist, as the characters find their own way through the intervening shadows.
The conference? To some degree, Doctor Gentle had to play a con game: here are the positives of what's happened, and we're not going to talk about the downsides. But I didn't know he was going to openly admit that the changes were both cyclical and unstoppable until the moment he did it. He knew that letting the gathering see how much pain she was in just might serve as the breaking point -- but at the same time, he confessed to more degrees of failure than I'd been expecting. He told lies of omission -- while including one extra fact.
(Admittedly, it's possible that his sponsors may occasionally try to visit him in his new location: he's realized that -- and while he may think there's always going to be one more painkilling dose, eventually, somepony was going to be in her presence long enough to spot a shift. All things considered, best to admit it now.)
Little scenes came from the characters. Quiet as hoofball coach and referee just happened -- as did the moment when he spoke of his true fears in hidden terms, and Twilight asked him to read to her. I kept Pinkie out of the party planning until the moment she basically pushed her way in.
Other story elements just manifested. Do you know what was never in the original plan? For Twilight to try contacting Cadance, asking how her former foalsitter had changed. But when you look at Twilight, it's the sort of action she would take. There was no good argument for her to not do it, and so a scroll was sent into the aether. And I'll give you this: there will be a reply.
But... a lot was planned out from the start. We just saw a link to the first chapter, as Twilight finally got to read those words. (However, the location of that reading changed: I had initially considered allowing her to discover some of his notes.) One passage which got a lot of attention -- Discord's description of the 'mission equipment' -- has finally come fully into the light.
Other things gained extra significance along the way. Ultimately, you could say that both Pinkie and Twilight only got one dance.
A number of scenes only existed as 'this must happen' and took a while to figure out exactly how. At the party... Twilight had to hear somepony defending her in a way which didn't help what she was going through: I figured out that it would be Weaver fairly early, but the coffee shop owner -- that was a late arrival. (Her appearance was also a spontaneous scene: one more reminder that Trotter's Falls isn't a good place to be.) I also knew I needed someone new to the conspiracy, who wouldn't quite go along with the program -- and when we reached the scene, Duke Cinarest Cimarron ("Of House Quarant!") was right there: hey, if anyone was going to get their heart squeezed...
(On a side note: the earth pony thief sisters were never meant to be one-shot characters. I had intended for Ratchette to start, shall we say, learning a little more about herself -- and then I realized I could bring the siblings back as the cause. That part had been planned for some time. The near-spontaneous development was having it happen on the same night as the conference.)
In one sense, the path was set. We're still on the main trail, and perhaps an end is now in sight. But characters don't move in straight lines. Ponies have wandered and in doing so, unexpected side trips were made. There were discoveries: of who some of them truly were at their core, of what they might say to each other -- and the things they kept silent.
So 'Somewhere in between' would be the fair answer -- and I think that status will maintain through the conclusion. Because I knew that after the conference, she had to be alone for a while -- but just what she would think about during that time needed a while to settle. And do you know when I realized that Quiet had to be the one to take her there? That there had to be one brief scene where the two of them spoke? Three days ago. Which, incidentally, is when my mind finally provided the lesson which Quiet had gone underground to teach her. Remember, he's met her once before... And I knew that Spike would break free, turning into the potential wild card. I know a lot of what he's going to do. But it hasn't been that long since I realized just how he would have 'gotten past her,' and it's a story element which wasn't there at the start. How he finishes his actions while alone is set -- but how he began? Just showed up.
Maybe my subconscious figured all this out a long time ago and just notifies me of the details along the way. Or some things just appear, for characters move as they will and the plot scrambles to follow.
But there was, and still is, a master plan. More pools of light await.
I do have answers. I'm not making it all up as I go along. I can tell you that we're now in the endgame -- and that I know where it ends, and when, and how.
(And I'll also never be able to convince the doubters about any of that, but, y'know: Internet.)
I'd like to say I discovered that I can keep something going this long and maintain coherency -- but that's kind of subjective. And we're not quite finished yet...
4808221
So she is around? I have mixed feelings about this. Under the first hoof, more Maud is always (well, usually) a good thing, and I'd like to see what somepony who (I presume) has Twilight's level of magic can do with Earth Pony powers. Under the second hoof, if she and Pinkie had gotten along like in the show, Pinkie probably would have had a much better childhood (I remember somewhere it said that Pinkie's sisters at best ignored her and at worst joined in the abuse) and I'm not sure I can handle a mean Maud. Under the third hoof, a story in which Pinkie running away eventually led Maud to break ties with her family as well and eventually reunite and reconcile with her sister would be an amazing story. So while I'm a little nervous, I still want to see her.
4807561
I probably should have seen this one coming: after the events of Chapters 40-42, it's a natural sort of question.
There are layers to Doctor Gentle's beliefs, and none of them acknowledge any levels of hypocrisy. So if we're looking at this question as he might view it...
*trying to figure out how much I can say without going into spoilers or dropping fully into character analysis*
...he primarily means it as it applies to his own situation: an earth pony born to a unicorn family. After all, that's what he lives with every day -- his pain -- and so it's what he's going to think of first. But the broadest definition would be an other-race foal born into any family. So yes, technically, the Cakes are a 'broken' family -- but that's also where we might see a little more hypocrisy surface: after all, it's not as if earth ponies have any real heritage which could be stolen.
(One question which no one's asked so far: given his connection with Pinkie, why didn't Doctor Gentle attend the birth of the Cake twins? This has a simple answer, and it'll come up in-story very soon.)
Not perceiving earth ponies as having true 'heritage' (or magic) to lose is part of why there are no earth ponies in the conspiracy: remember, Doctor Gentle does much of the recruiting himself. Going up to earth ponies and telling them that you consider your own daughter to be broken -- well, he has some reason to expect that wouldn't go well. Having used the prejudices of Trotter's Falls to form part of the initial network, accompanied by Coordinator's own 'standards' in finding additional resources -- well, Coordinator would be thrilled to blackmail/bankrupt an earth pony, but that money would be unlikely to turn into chaos pearls.
(Of course, when looking at somepony like the local Igneous, we know Doctor Gentle just might have been depriving himself of resources: there are certainly earth pony families who would love the thought of getting the pegasus and unicorn 'taint' out of their blood, so a little strategic rephrasing... And at one point during the conference, he was basically talking about 'marrying pure': don't think that got past Applejack.)
So to see a pegasus or unicorn be born into an earth pony family has a touch of 'But at least now you'll know real magic!' -- but at the same time, he would acknowledge said family as broken. And you certainly wouldn't want your own children to marry such a foal, because you know what's in their blood.
However, there's another layer to Doctor Gentle's own beliefs, and that goes into spoiler/speculation territory. Just keep this in mind: ultimately, he didn't send his daughter on -- and so far, nopony has directly said what 'sending on' means.
* Not for a long time.
* That's not a question I can answer.
*nods* Understood. With the story still ongoing, there's only so much I can say.
4807615
I can't answer this because I have seen no part of S7 and so have yet to decide what, if anything, I would incorporate from it.
Obviously Star Swirl's fate ain't gonna be the same.
4808718
Fair enough. *withdraws the question*
4808001
Now this?
Is pushing your luck.
All right: one at a time.
If so, it wouldn't happen until after Triptych concludes: there's no natural place for it in the current story.
Okay, once and for all: Star Swirl did not become Sombra. Sombra was a separate entity. Anyone who wants to put the 'Jossed' up on the WMG page can feel free.
Star Swirl's ultimate fate will be revealed in time -- or at least what is now believed to have happened.
There will be a reply scroll before Triptych concludes, but it may not contain all the information everyone might wish. Beyond that, it's a separate story.
I can't answer this one: it's discussing things which haven't come up in-'verse yet.
He was, and still is, deeply in love with her. Allow a stallion the right to see his spouse in the best possible light.
Partially discussed above. The sin is the intermarriage of the races: the "broken" children are the result of that sin. Remember, he said that part wasn't her fault. (Although also as discussed above, he seems to have no problem with making her feel responsible for her mother's death.)
To a large degree, the hybrids are their own ponies. The essence they carry certainly has an influence on their lives, but it doesn't mean they're going to be direct (partial) recreations of the donors. It would be also impossible to say to what degree the magic, talents, and traits of those ponies has been reborn without knowing exactly who the donors were. Doctor Gentle would be the best possible authority on that subject: he knows who all of the hybrids are, and it's not out of the question for him to have also kept some level of record for where the essence came from. But ultimately, we'd still be looking at his own conjectures.
(Also, some of the essence was collected from dead foals -- ones which the Exception was unable to save.)
Author Fiat: it's an additional way of distinguishing her aspects and showing the transformations as they progress. (Note that her overall trio of hues remains the same: dark purple, sapphire blue, and tan.)
Realistically, this can't be currently answered, both for lack of pony scientific knowledge about their own genetics and a failure of genealogy. We've seen that some ponies believe it's possible to be -- and remain -- "pure," but even Doctor Gentle has acknowledged that no family trees can be traced throughout the Discordian Era. So even if it's true that a purebred unicorn family which had married only the same throughout their history would never produce anything but more unicorns, nopony can ever know exactly what might have happened in the deep past. And when they don't know what genes are, they can't go looking for them.
There's also another possibility, something which could come from myth -- and it will be mentioned before the story ends.
That's an interesting question. Are there any other questions?
Ultimately, any belief in destiny is in the mind of the believer, and it all depends on just what you want to have faith in. Whether there is a tapestry of fate, with all threads meant to go in a certain way -- well, absolute predetermination is a rather cruel thing to inflict on anyone. There may be general trails which can be wandered away from, or ponies are just choosing to see destiny where it doesn't exist. Perhaps only a few have such things set, and not completely -- while others defy or warp.
Is that too vague? Then it's too vague. Because that question was about a matter of faith, and such seldom have simple answers. For now, it's a question of what you want to believe...
Both of these fall under potential future/past events, and so can't be discussed at this time.
I've already talked about Gentle Arrival above: there had to be a reason for so many of the events, and he took on the role of keystone in the story arc(h). And also as already discussed, there's both planned aspects and organic elements to just about every character. But we can talk about Quiet for a few seconds.
The thing about Quiet, even now, is that so much of him is still standing in the shadows. Doctor Gentle calls him the most devoted, and we've seen some of that devotion: this is a stallion willing to abandon his entire life in order to run at the side of his first friend. We've seen that he's willing to lie, has already performed some manipulations, the family library certainly played a part in all this (although it's been noted that some of those books may have been in place already -- remember, Doctor Gentle started the Great Work before Quiet was born)... But the story hasn't given an exact reason for that degree of loyalty, and may not for some time. He'll have his scene with her -- but after that, he may step off the stage for a little while: we have to check in on the Bearers, and I'm pretty sure people are curious as to just what Spike's up to.
Quiet does have a way of fading from the story until needed again, doesn't he? After he finishes bringing the Bearers into the conference, he has two sentences of dialogue. You could almost forget he was there at all...
As a pure story element, you could argue that Quiet's purpose is to provide a different level of link between conspiracy and Bearers. But he's also present as something very much like a trotting illusion -- the illusion of support. Twilight is in a time of upheaval in her life, something she can't adjust to, a change which she's starting to feel should have never happened at all -- and suddenly, in the midst of the storm, there is that single new buoy which just might keep her from drowning. Pity it turned out to be a weighted anchor.
If you view the Great Work as a cult, then how do we look at Quiet? Is he a true believer? Is he a little like Coordinator in that there's something he's specifically hoping to get out of the process? Like Doctor Gentle, people could make the argument that in many ways, Quiet is so close to being a good pony: he's somewhat separate from his settled zone, he does whatever he can for the local children, he gets along so well with Spike --
-- he's sick. There's something wrong with him physically, something where he can't even be happy without pain. And yet he soldiers on.
He's the victim of an arranged marriage, trapped in his castle with a spouse who doesn't love him, and no part of that is his fault.
And he cares about Twilight. We've seen that in his thoughts, haven't we? But we've so seldom seen any portion of what he might truly be thinking.
He's sympathetic. It's easy to feel bad for him, to wish his situation was better. He has a title, a castle, some degree of wealth, and it's not enough to make it seem as if things are going right in his life. And he's so good for Twilight, she certainly seems to be good for him...
...but he remains that most devoted.
Quiet puts a different pony face on the conspiracy. People eventually came to question Doctor Gentle's motives, and finally got a direct look at what they were. We still don't fully know why Quiet's here. All we've seen is that there was a night he keeps returning to in dream, a motivation to remain loyal. And he is loyal, isn't he? He's just about Rainbow Dash #3.
There's something sympathetic about Quiet, to the point where some people wanted things to work out between him and Twilight -- even when everyone knew it could never be. But we have yet to recognize the core of him.
He's right there, fully in the open. And still he's just about impossible to see...
Oh, and the names? Yes, to a degree, that was me playing with first impressions. 'Gentle Arrival' and 'Quiet Presence' don't sound like natural villains, do they? As you noted, they're soft names: one seems to openly welcome, while the other stands in a corner and doesn't call much attention to itself. When viewed for first impressions alone, neither of them comes across on the same level as RedAndBlackAlicorn McBadguy.
Pony criminals planning on passing their profession on their newborns might want to consider the value of naming one 'Innocent'...
I have an extensive notes file which I consult before any major effort, and I do go through the occasional full reread to make sure I'm properly tracking events. There isn't much trouble tracking what hasn't been revealed, because those are the notes which are still within their () borders -- but there are times when I need to see exactly what was said, and when. I can't have an effective callback unless I check the moment I'm calling back to.
I typically ruminate on what should be in each chapter over the course of a few days to weeks, with most of that consideration talking place on a background level. More active, deliberate thought occurs during walks which are being conducted for exactly that purpose: I tend to think on my feet -- literally. But once everything's come together on both surface and deeper levels, the actual writing of a chapter takes place over one or two days. I'll use the Author's Notes section as temporary storage for my list of things which need to happen in this section, along with the occasional key piece of dialogue. As each goes into the story, it's deleted from the secondary box. And when the AN box is empty -- well, realistically, there are times when it's empty because I wind up deciding that there's enough in this chapter already, and the next event has to wait for a different section. But for the most part, it turns into 'These are the key story moments which need to take place.' And when those moments are set, the chapter is finished.
As Triptych chapters tend to be at least 5k in their word count, active composition (including edit passes) takes a minimum of four hours. Some of the longest sections have been closer to fifteen.
Well, I've got a few questions, mostly around what-ifs.
The first one... let's take Doctor Gentle. What if we were to turn things around into a lighter shade of grey? Where he saw that a third of Equestria were bereft of magic aside from the effect, including his own daughter, and decided they deserved more? It's easy to imagine a take on the character where he studiously avoids the crimes he's committed here, doing as little harm (that he's aware of) as possible. (For instance, only hybridizing the earth pony foals, since don't have magic anyway.) You've made him a villain, and his madness is now plain to see, but what if you took the most moral version of the character possible, one that was unaware of the damage he'd caused, and was doing the needful to help earth ponies? How do the bearers react?
If Celestia and Luna were aware of how Trotter's Falls was "sending on" certain newborns, what would they do?
And I suppose the next is more about a recent blog post, but... you mentioned Rarity isn't the most likely bearer to kill. Which one is?
Finally, something I've been wondering since seeing the nightmare night story... how exactly did Twilight initially bond with the others in this 'verse? Given how much she'd withdrawn from the world at large, it seems like it should have been nearly impossible for her to connect with anyone, let alone five strangers in the course of an evening.
4808754
Okay, wow!! Honestly, I knew I was pushing my luck; I wouldn't have been surprised if you had simply put a blanket "nope" on 90% of my questions, making full use of the "dismiss any questions you don't want to/can't answer yet" statement.
Which is why I would like to say THANK YOU in all capital letters for taking the time and patience to write such a thorough and lengthy reply! It was a very enjoyable read and I truly appreciate getting so many answers to what I wanted to know. I got some very interesting outright knowledge, more to think and speculate about, and a good bit to look forwards to in the future. As if I needed more reason to be excited about your stories...
4808208
I’m surprised you didn’t expect this. Twilight bows to him. Pinkie and Fluttershy are willing to drop everything to rush to his aid, and they declare in so many words that they trust him absolutely. The Mane Six, the ponies whose judgement we trust above all others, have declared that they trust Gentle. That the readers would give him the same level of trust seems to me only logical.
I just really have one question. Why is it that the specific depiction of Twilight in Tryptich of all your stories is such an -idiot-? I get stress, I get feeling out of place, but she's gotten to the point where she is so useless and out of character that she sets off my bad OC alarms in ways Gentle never manages. Despite, as you note, him being a cliche at heart.
It's been bugging me because she is legitimately worse at everything than the instances we've seen of pre-ponyville isolated librarian nobody can stand Twi.
4808915
Poorly. In such a scenario, even with what might be seen as improved motivations, the fact would remain that he'd been experimenting on the unborn without anypony knowing or consenting to the procedure. It's still totally disregarding what the children and parents might want. The exact hue may have been lightened somewhat, but we would still be dealing with a significant degree of darkness.
It depends on what you think 'sending on' means -- and that's all I can say for now.
Deliberately? Rainbow. Not only is lightning one of the more deadly weapons in the Bearer arsenal, but she's the most likely to declare "Oh, buck this!" and go for the fatal strike if she truly believes it's the best way to end something now. She doesn't necessarily want to kill, but she has it available as an option.
If you're looking for the cause of an accidental fatality, Twilight believes herself to be the most likely suspect -- something which terrifies her.
Pretty much as it happened in the premiere, with the addition of a few 'deleted' scenes. The basic principle we're looking at here is a variant on the typical lack of atheists within foxholes: in high-pressure conditions, some people find (or fake, or gamble on) faith. Twilight was placed into a stressful situation where her options came down to trust or death. Trust worked out, and so she began to perceive value in it again.
4809319
There are three answers here. One is probably going to come across as cruel, and so I might as well unleash that first: it's how you're choosing to react. I don't control how you decide to view what's happening. You've decided to see her as stupid and so to you, she's going to be stupid, useless, and out of character. It's likely permanent.
The second is even less likely to be accepted, because it's going into the sin of character interpretation, and there's no atonement for that. But the Continuum's Twilight has her life in a state of near-constant upheaval ever since the day she came to Ponyville. She has to keep both learning and incorporating new lessons into her life. She knows she's capable of backsliding. There's a part of her which still believes her current state is fragile and the smallest poke in the wrong place will make everything fall apart. She doesn't know if she's finding her best possible self or trying to turn into someone else. There's been very little solid ground to stand on and just when she was finally getting her hooves planted? Wings, and the highest-stress time of her life. Plus there's one more major factor -- something which will be directly stated before Triptych ends, and it's been a constant in her life for a long time.
And third? The local Twilight doesn't get to run god mode. God mode is boring.
Follower count: minus one.
Pfft. Like I'm going to quit reading over a dislike of one characterization in one story.
Like I said, I think I get where you're going with Twilight, I just feel like you may have gone a bit overboard in trying to sell it. It was never a question of God mode, you don't let the Sisters get away with it after all.
I just remembered a major question I had much earlier in the series.
All throughout the Continuum, you’ve made it clear just how much Discord hurt the Sisters. Works like Good For Nearly All Princess Labor make it clear that even over a millennium later, the scars haven’t healed. And the Sisters’ discussion in A Mark Of Appeal makes it clear that they view releasing Discord as the last of last resorts, to be attempted only if the choice is between releasing Discord and the death of all living things, with all other possible options having been exhausted.
And yet, the Sisters have released him.
I know it’s probably too much to ask for you to reveal why here, but can you at least tell us whether you know what the reason is, and if it will ever be revealed?
One last thing: has Gentle created a new medical disorder?
Or, if I missed the deadline for questions, just tell me that.
4808221
I can see Maud now in this universe, as a horror story.
Why?
She can hear. Everything. Everything that Pinkie Pie was supposed to get, she got as well, and she comes from a strong, pure family.
And, when you hit a certain point, the really interesting deformities come out from too-tight inbreeding...
She is flat and emotionless because that's the only way to keep other ponies from being emotional, and her hearing it. Even so, she lives in a universe that is always speaking at her, yelling at her, wanting her to pay attention. And, she is terrified to lose that sound...because if she did, what would she be without it?
4808220
That explains why all hybrids retain at least the autonomic parts of their racial magic (Rachette can still fly and cloudwalk, Pinkie still has earth pony strength and durability, etc.) Those magics are so closely tied to the physical structure of the foal’s body that they can’t be altered without breaking down and reforming the body (as was done with her).
4808208
I've been turning this one over in my head since you wrote it a few weeks ago, but I'm having trouble seeing it. Or at least to the extent you are holding his hypocrisy out as a defining and damning trait. I think there are two reasons for this.
1) Whatever else he may have done to his experimental subjects (other than Her) he gave them the chance to live. This includes a number of the characters I really like from both canon and in your universe. So despite the obvious moral issues and the inconsistencies in his logic you point out, it still seems like a net positive. (Again, except for what he did to Her.)
2) Whatever hypocrisy he may be guilty of, Applejack and the other earth ponies come off as worse to me. Whatever damage he may have done to families and individuals (again other than Her) seems minor compared to this poisonous lie embedded in the core and foundations of Equestrian society. Especially as his actions are largely motivated by his belief in the lie they've been feeding the other tribes/races for all these generations.
4827783
I find it’s easier to understand if you consider things from a slightly different angle.
His only justification for what he did to her is his belief that she is broken, that anything that could restore the heritage taken from her is justified, no matter how far-fetched or extreme. But he is constantly creating these hybrids, and if she is broken, then they most certainly are as well. By the standard he appeals to to justify his treatment of her, creating these hybrids is an unconciousable act.
So if he’s willing to create hybrids, then what conceivable excuse could he have for what he did to her?