Retrograde - We're back, and with two pieces of news · 2:02pm Jun 17th, 2018
Hello, everyone. It’s been a while!
There were a number of factors relating both to the story and to things outside the story that more or less delayed the release of this chapter. I’m not going to go too much into them but I personally will be trying to work on this much more often than I was.
Since it’s been some time, I wanted to give two pieces of news.
I’ll touch on the most pertinent stuff first. For the first few days after chapter three’s publication, the actual contents within were in flux. The original version of the chapter contained a character by the name of Crystal Faire (who actually is from another piece of fiction by yours truly). There was some slight backlash related to the way in which we included her, and so we removed her from the chapter entirely. We then reexamined the manner in which we included her and, considering it was something both my partner and I wanted to do, we put her back in but changed the way in which she was handled.
In particular, this manifested in a new scene being written which more or less introduces her to the reader; it was inserted into chapter three. Said scene is also included at the end of this blog post, for those that read chapter three before it settled into its current form on 4/24.
We will include this character in future chapters per our initial intentions; we want to, however, stress that impact on the story is minimal.
Secondly, as some of you may see, this story has new cover art!
We’ve been working fairly closely with overlordneon on this cover art and we’re pretty happy with the final product. We hope that you all like it as well!
And now, the scene:
The fireplace lit both Twilight’s face and the face of the mare sitting in the seat opposite her. It cracked as one of the logs within split down the middle and fell to the side. The mares themselves sat in silence, not even affording the fire a glance as it fell apart.
“I see. So,” the vested mare said with a sigh, “you want my help.”
“Crystal Faire… I need your help.”
Crystal Faire adjusted her vest and sat back in her cushion. “Well… Twilight Sparkle…” she began as she folded her hooves together and narrowed her eyes. “While I want to… I don’t know if I can.”
Twilight’s expression fell. “Why not?”
“Well, I have my job at City Hall to worry about. That is not something that I can simply walk away from. Even now, I am on the clock.”
Twilight groaned. “I would think that they would understand if I needed you for a while.”
Crystal raised an eyebrow. “But you should also think that they would ask questions. They are government types, you know.” She stroked her chin. “Remember, even if I am the city’s delegate to you, they will ask questions about why you needed me for some secretive task.”
Twilight threw her hooves into the air. “I know, I know. There are not a lot of ponies who know that there is another world-class mage living here in Ponyville. And said world-class mage wants to keep a low profile. I can respect that.”
“I just wanted the quiet job.”
“I know.” Twilight stood up and pointed to the door. “But that mare in there… she needs help, and there is nothing more that I want to do than to help her. She means a lot to me.”
Crystal nodded. “Yes. I can see that.”
Twilight swallowed. “So…?”
Crystal sighed. “I happened to run into Starlight Glimmer on the way in. She told me that both Starswirl the Bearded and Sunburst of the Crystal Empire had agreed to come help you. I personally think they would be more capable of helping you than I am.”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak but shut it just as quickly. She then stroked her chin. “Well… Sunburst has done some really nice things and I know he’s capable and then of course Starswirl is Starswirl the Bearded.” She chuckled. “And, I mean, you can’t go wrong with Starswirl the Bearded! He’s the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era for Celestia’s sake! And he’s the Pillar of Sorcery!”
Crystal pinched the bridge of her nose. “...Yes. I am aware.”
Twilight let out a long exhale and turned her eyes back onto Crystal. “But as capable as they are, I know that you can also help too. And I’m looking to get all the help that I can get. So please…”
Crystal snorted and threw her hooves into the air. “Twilight Sparkle… Look. I want to help you. And I suppose that I can try… but that is not my issue. I do not think there is anything that I can do to help you.”
After a few moments of silence, Twilight narrowed her eyes and trotted forward, closing the distance between the two. “Yes there is.”
Crystal shook her head and looked away.
“I know for a fact that you have seen a great many things. You’ve probably seen something like this before. Right?”
At that, Crystal’s expression, which was already pale thanks to the the very light fuschia that was her coat, turned even paler. “As a matter of fact… I have not.”
Twilight could feel her breath leave her body.
“And my expertise lies in preventing things from happening in the first place. And sadly… nopony could have seen this coming.”
Twilight hung her head. “But still…”
“Even from what you’ve described to me and from what I can glean… I don’t know what I can do about it.” At that, Crystal stood up. She closed the distance between the two of them so that she was nearly muzzle-to-muzzle with Twilight. And she said, with a voice at nearly a whisper, “But if am to be perfectly honest… and I somewhat fear that these other ponies you want to bring in to help will say the same thing… but if this situation has indeed reached this point already… I think that you should be prepared for the worst possible outcome.”
And Twilight had nothing to say. She stared into Crystal’s eyes while her own expression slowly started shaking more and more. And the mare across from her stared back with an unflinching frown.
Really good choice for the new cover art (and congrats for the owner), thanks for the chapter.
"The original version of the chapter contained a character by the name of Crystal Faire (who actually is from another piece of fiction by yours truly). "
You mean like an OC put in your story like as in a non canon original character that exists as a character in this story? Cool! I like it.
I originally thought that was the reformed villainess from the MLP movie; whats-her-name, Tempest.
I mean, they both have scars, and are female, so...*shrug*.