Quick Foreword on Carnation/Ch.1 Maps

So... In case you're here from the link I gave in Chapter 1 of Carnation: I'll introduce the V-Maps as bookends to my foreword before we begin.
The first shows their journey until their meet-up in the emergency crisis center...
...And the second takes that and runs it through to the end of the chapter Coup. Enjoy.

Everyone else, sit back while I foreword you on the tale of my moment of Vis.

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When I was first introduced to fanfiction, it was on a trip to Georgia. I thought of something that would reflect the amazing storytelling I'd see in mystery novels, Hercule Poirot stuff from my overseas aunt, and even Investigation Discovery, my then-and-now favorite network of all time. Naturally, I was drawn to mystery, and specifically, the solving of mystery, on a regular basis. So naturally,

Then I saw MLP: Forensics is Magic, nifty little Google-Drive-centered fic showing just how two cop ponies would handle a situation like the one in the Grimdark as F***-rated Cupcakes, and what the implications would be of just how high up the echelons of Equestrian society the enabling of what Pinkie put together in that moment would be, considering one of the patches on Pinkie's Amazing Techinicolor Skincoat belonged to a pony that literally only one other alicorn could overpower by that point in canon.

Well, I don't want to say it was like sitting on a banana.... but well, I took one look at that twist...

Because, dank memes aside, I thought at that time of one particular thing that fic showed that was only replicated one other time in my readings on this site.

Fast forward five years, and we're hip-deep in 2019. I'm a lot more well versed in Fimfiction's treasure trove of things, and from Loved and Lost to Fallout: Equestria, from the guilty pleasures like Friendship is Mind Control to the not-so-guilty pleasures like Naked Singularity (seriously, the dialogue in both flows like manna and I envy both artists, read both if you can) I naturally plunge headfirst into the 'Mane 6 corrupted' abyss again, already tired of waiting for Elements of Opposition to get out of the Battlestar Galactica season finale stage. (Still read that one too, it's my other muse for Carnation's story progress at the end as well.)

Upon scouring, I found that there was apparently this ditty by a chap called Headless_Rainbow, called Condemned. Finding that brought me three things, one of which is relevant to the creation of

1) a reality-defying way to actually make me feel sorry for Blueblood,
2) a Twilight corruption story that didn't involve Sombra, Discord or Tirek,
3) and the realization this was the second completed, non-sequeled story I'd seen that brought back that feeling I'd had in the parsing of Forensics is Magic - that roiling, weirdly inspired spark of promise.

Not often that two stories can make me go 'that was it' in any type of a... good way? Okay, gotta parse for Condemned's case, but from this end of the pond fellas. Tis one of the few Headless stories that ended with somepony, Cadance and Shining in particular, escaping the squickfest alive, kiciking and holding down the fort, with the main protag not hoisted up on a petard high enough to touch Saturn and twice as debris-ridden, and most importantly, with the other Main 6 still... gonna go with intact, families took a pounding and not in the fun way.

This got me thinking; well, no way in Tartarus they're gonna get the drop on Queen Twilight in this case, she's got two alicorn powers on her side and the Elements are good, which is DWKspeak for 'might as well bend over and spread 'em' if they get froggy (also, Twilight Takes Command shows how pear-shaped that attempt goes if you need visual aid.) So any counter to this Sparkle supremacy would have to come wholly from left field - from somepony just wily enough to not get kicked in the complacency (word to Patrick Stewart) and resilient enough to survive the first horntwitch with the former Princess Highlights.

And thus was born Carnation.

So this is my grand experiment. I've got two more stories on the horizon too - a second-person account of the Condemned/Carnationverse's Equestria via Daring Do's words (T-rated, in the second perspective) and a canon-universe telling of my favorite crimson pony's hoof-in-hoof collab with A.K. Yearling in the post-season 4 Equestria, forced to work together on a book on the safety of architectural treasures while stealing and studying them, respectively, in their alteregos as Viscera and Daring Do (E-rated first-person perspec.) But through all of these, I hope to drive home one thing - that whether its rating, perspective, or worldbuilding, I can do it all.

Here's hoping I can see it all through. For any who missed it: again, each chapter of Carnation that can get it will have the V-Maps on a linked blod from the tile. See, as long as I can get up maps of each city Viscera rolls through in her attempts to dethrone Queen Twilight, I'll be showing you the routes she and her three OC allies take through them. And considering this starts in Ponyville, I've a lot to work with. It's right in the links up top, and down here as well.

{Carnation - 1.1 Coup / Map 1}
{Carnation - 1.1 Coup / Map 2}