Concepts & Creations: The Them Series · 4:20pm Jul 10th, 2022
The never-before shown 'final product' of the Hunt Them cover art, which I inexplicably never used. Also, I miss Kvernikovsky.
I’ve often thought I’d get back to a great many of my story franchises. Of all of those, I’ve had a particular fondness for the Them series. The other day I got a PM from someone asking for closure on the topic, and it hit me that I’l probably never do everything with it that I wanted to. With that in mind, I’ve decided it’s time to tell all about what I’d had planned for this series. To be clear, this does not mean I won’t be writing more stories for it, so consider everything in this blog to be spoilers for what may come later. If we’re lucky.
To start, let’s recap what we know about the Them series. It got its start with RainbowBob’s Feed Them, in which an insane Spike tries to care for a zombified Twilight Sparkle. It was creepy, it was moody, and it was right up my alley. My commentary prompted a conversation between Bob and myself over our similar loves for horror and horror-adjacent material. Eventually Bob proposed we collaborate on some new stories, and I eagerly agreed.
Now, there’s a distinct difference between how RainbowBob and myself approached the series. While we both could be called “zombie fans” in the general sense, our interests in horror varied. Bob’s thing was always more heavily focused on the Lovecraftian and the grim. He preferred horrors with tragic endings, and wasn’t afraid to force that onto stories regardless of whether it made sense. I, on the other hand, prefer my stories to make as much sense as possible, and while I won’t say no to a tragic end I also like to see bittersweet or even *gasp!* happy endings. But this was Bob’s series as far as I was concerned; I followed his lead.
This led to the stories Entertain Them, Guide Them, and Hunt Them. When brainstorming, we each contributed greatly to their development. Entertain Them was almost entirely my idea, start to finish, but Bob helped me conjure up much of the imagery. Hunt Them was Bob’s idea, and he conceived the setting and the conclusion, while I handled the rest. Conversely, Guide Them was my idea, though I changed some things around at Bob’s suggestion. Although I consider all three collaborations, I did all the writing for Hunt Them and Guide Them; Bob contributed about half the writing for Entertain Them.
Then there was Becoming Them. This story was originally conceived by Bob, and the original opening scene was written entirely by him. It was while we were brainstorming where the story was going to go that Bob abruptly decided to leave the fandom in favor of focusing on his work and family, at which point he gave me full creative license to do whatever I wanted with the franchise.
The first thing I did was finish Becoming Them, which is also when I started making changes to the direction and tone of the series. If Bob had had his way, Scootaloo would have died at the end of the story just when her hope was at its peak. I decided I was tired of seeing Them stories ending on low notes and thus switched it to the ending we have now. There's also Origin of Them, which has both Bob's and my ideas regarding the origin of the plague, although we never hashed out the specific events so I was free to make those up on my own.
In appreciation of Bob’s contributions – to say nothing of starting this train ride in the first place – I suppose I should note what his grand scheme was. We discussed the matter in depth, and the ending struck me as very odd. In Bob’s imaginings, the Them series would conclude with all of Equestria dead. Celestia and Luna would then be revealed as lesser gods who, while in mortal form, forget their true identities. Discord would be a true God, a cruel and mischievous entity far too powerful for Celestia and Luna to fight. Discord would create and re-create the world of Equestria over and over again, forcing the sisters into living in them as they had before, and devising whole new scenarios for the world to be destroyed. The franchise was to end with Celestia and Luna re-remembering all of this and falling into despair and madness while Discord, greatly pleased with how the Them universe died, prepares his next masterpiece of horror.
…yeah. When I first heard all of this, I couldn’t help imagining the reaction of the fandom. Here we are with a zombie series and it ends with Elder Gods? I get that there’s a connection between the Deep Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos and zombies, but the disconnect struck me as a little ridiculous. If we’re writing a zombie series, shouldn’t it stick to zombies all the way through? I don’t see why we need to throw Discord in there as the Big Bad when he doesn’t appear to have any relation to any of the stories written so far. Simply put, I was not fond of Bob’s preferred conclusion. But again, this was his baby, so I didn’t object too much.
But then Bob left, and I could end the story how I wanted. I promptly went about changing directions, and had we gotten all the stories (we may yet get a few more) then my ending would have been drastically different in tone, substance, and focus. So let’s go over some of the stories I had in mind, shall we?
Knowing Them
I’ve actually worked on this story a bit, having written a handful of scenes. I had always intended it to be the next story in the series, but alas, every time I try to work on it other projects get in the way.
Knowing Them would have been set during the fall of Canterlot. The hordes are running rampant in the lower city, but the upper city and castle remain untouched. Here we find Prince Blueblood. He has absolute faith that his dear Auntie Celestia will find a solution to this problem. As such, he refuses to leave Canterlot. Doing so would suggest he lacks faith in the Princesses, and he won’t be party to that.
So it comes as a shock when Celestia personally orders him to evacuate. She also reveals to him that the disease is spreading via magic, so he should avoid using it under any circumstances. Disappointed, frustrated, maybe even a little angry, he agrees, because he would never disobey her. Thus does he board his private yacht, the Noblesse Oblige – which, contrary to the rumors, was named after his beloved late grandmother, thank you very much! He boards his ship in the midst of panicked evacuations, and refuses to let others onboard because he believes the evacuation is unnecessary in the first place and these ponies will all feel like fools when Celestia and Luna fix everything.
Before his ship can get underway, however, the horde breaks through to the docks. Blueblood’s crew manage to get away without any casualties, but they are alone; all the rest of the ships at anchor are overrun before they can launch. Only now does it dawn upon Blueblood that maybe, just maybe, the situation is beyond his aunt’s capacity to handle.
The captain recommends leaving for another city to gather supplies since the forced launch left them with low provisions, but Blueblood insists on circling around Canterlot for as long as possible. He grasps at the idea that Celestia and Luna will overcome the problem and plans on being there to witness it, even as he watches Canterlot slowly become consumed. The deteriorating supply situation eventually forces him to submit to the captain’s suggestions, and the yacht leaves with Blueblood having faced one more blow to his faith.
The Noblesse Oblige would not make it to their destination. Some crewmembers would catch the disease thanks to magical use, and this would lead to the ship crashing in the Everfree Forest. I never determined if Blueblood would be the sole survivor or would have others with him, though I tend to lean towards the former.
Lost in the Everfree and suffering from a growing crisis of faith, Blueblood would spend time barely surviving and trying to make sense of his new reality. Driven by the terror of becoming one of Them, he shatters his own horn to prevent himself from using any magic, even unintentionally. Just when he’s at his lowest, he runs into the zombified Fluttershy, also wandering the woods. In his growing madness, he would capture her and try to communicate.
This is the part that I was never quite clear on, aside that it would be pivotal and all elements of the story would be leading up to it. The endgame would be Blueblood, mad from starvation, stress, and having lost all faith in Celestia, coming to worship Fluttershy as a ‘Holy Mother’, a replacement for the faith that he lost. He would come to view the zombies as some holy “next step” in the process of mortal evolution and leave the Everfree intent on spreading the word – and the ‘blessings’ – of his newfound belief.
This story was to be devoted to Blueblood’s “fall from grace”, if you will. I really wanted it to focus heavily on his faith in Celestia and how it gradually crumbled. The tricky part, then, would be having zombie Fluttershy take Celestia’s place. I never could figure out how I’d do that part. Still, that’s not why this never got published. I just kept putting it on the backburner for other stories.
Solving Them
This would be the story that starts the end of the series, and is the one that finally introduces us to Celestia and Luna.
Celestia was warned by Discord from the very beginning that the disease spreads via magic. He informed her that eventually this threat would lessen as the lingering effects of the Crystal Heart’s spell faded from the atmosphere, but the magic transfer could still happen if magic was used close to an infected individual. Alas, this information was unable to prevent the coming catastrophe.
Nor was it able to save Luna. She didn’t get the message in time and thus became infected via the magic transfer. But she is an immortal alicorn, so she won’t succumb right away. And in the meantime, somepony needs to maintain control of the sun and moon.
With Canterlot and all of Equestria fallen, the Royal Sisters come up with a plan to end the disaster… hopefully. To this end, they embark on a journey to Tartarus. Fearing that flight magic will bring the sickness, they walk the distance. The story begins with them already on-route, witnessing the destruction and demise of their once beautiful country. They meet others, they defend themselves, and they wonder if their plan will even work. The whole while, Luna’s physical and mental health gradually deteriorates. I considered having them run into Queen Chrysalis during their voyage, taking it as an opportunity to describe how the plague affected the Changelings, but I don’t know. That might instead warrant its own independent story.
Eventually, Celestia and Luna reach Tatarus, which remains untouched by the catastrophe. While Luna hangs back, Celestia goes to talk to Tirek. She spins him a line about how the ponies of Equestria have betrayed them, violent revolution, tired of it all, yadda yadda. Then she lets him out, telling him to do whatever he pleases, with all the consequences that implies. Naturally, his first instinct is to take her magic, and she offers only a token resistance to sell the act. That done, Tirek leaves Tartarus to do his thing.
Celestia has no magic. Yeah, she can’t be an almighty alicorn. But she’s also incapable of catching the disease via magic transfer. Neither will whatever other survivors remain in Equestria once Tirek gets to them. It’s not a cure, but it may be enough to give them a fighting chance. What the disease will do to Tirek is unclear, but one step at a time.
Celestia and Luna discuss the situation. Luna has long hinted that she thinks Celestia should leave her behind, and now she pushes for it. Her mind is barely her own anymore, and she doesn’t want Celestia to see her succumb to the disease. After plenty of arguments and more than a few tears, Celestia agrees to move on, leaving Luna at the gates of Tartarus. There she can continue to cycle the sun and moon, at least until the disease takes her over completely.
The story concludes with Celestia heading back into Equestria, now an unknown and hostile nation, hoping to find survivors and start anew.
End of Them
My intended final story is set some time later. A year, perhaps? Unclear. Anyway, it begins with Celestia, having been alone and unsuccessful all this time, finally stumbling upon a community of survivors on some cliffs overlooking the eastern ocean. There she finds the leaders of the town, Scootaloo and Spitfire.
Spitfire is a bitter and ever-angry pony whose faith in Celestia was shattered by her experiences in Cloudsdale. By comparison, Scootaloo still has a firm grip on the hope that ponies can survive and thrive despite all that has happened. While the two are often at odds with how to handle situations, together they have forged their little community of a hundred or so survivors into a fortification that has withstood all that the disease has shoved against it. It helps that Tirek has taken the magic of most of the ponies here. That combined with the isolation and none of Them in the region have made the place disease free.
This is all wonderful news for Celestia. Over the course of her journey she has witnessed the undead’s gradual but certain decay. In time, they will have all rotted away. If these survivors can continue on without any direct interaction with the sickness then they may be able to outlast it and restart Equestria anew.
I was never entirely clear on all the events of this story, mostly due to it being so far away as to not require that level of consideration. Certain things would need to come up, such as the ever-present conflict between Scootaloo and Spitfire, how the ponies view Celestia, her new role amongst them without her powers, and the question of Princess Luna’s state considering the sun and the moon are still moving. I considered having Blueblood and the Children make an appearance on their ship, but that seems far too convenient to make the cut. I also considered Spike being there, but honestly I’m more inclined to believe that he died/got turned back in Ponyville.
What I am aware of is the final arc, when a giant, zombified Tirek begins to approach the town. Spotted from afar by Scootaloo, there’s a quick discussion on what to do. It is agreed by all that Tirek must be stopped before he can come near the town, primarily to prevent there being any presence of the disease. As Celestia knows, just having an undead nearby can saturate the air with the unseen miasma that makes magic transferal possible, so holding him back is a must.
I’m not clear on exactly what they do and how, but I do know that Celestia, Spitfire, and Scootaloo together lead a group of ponies to confront Tirek, luring him away from the town and ultimately defeating him. At the same time they determine that Tirek has truly succumbed to the disease, being little more than another zombie now, albeit a really big one and still capable of stealing magic on instinct. I’m reasonably sure that Spitfire doesn’t survive the encounter, and as such she officially passes Scootaloo the metaphorical torch.
That done, Celestia and a few other magicless ponies move Tirek’s body far away from the town and burn it. When it is naught but ashes, the magic within him is unleashed. In an instant, all the survivors have their magic back. For reasons that I never decided upon (but would absolutely need to be clarified when the time came), this does not also transfer the disease. The ponies return to their village, wary of using magic but aware that they are safe so long as there are no zombies within the vicinity.
Time passes. A few years, perhaps. A few more survivors trickle in with stories of how the undead are disappearing, their bodies rotting away and the disease seeming to have destroyed itself. Eventually, the town sends out scouting parties to investigate. Then they start building new colonies. Then, abruptly, the sun and moon stop turning. Celestia journeys through the darkness into Tartarus, where she finds her sister’s desiccated and lifeless corpse.
But Luna is not dead. She’s an immortal alicorn, and for the first time is given the chance to know exactly what that means. Luna continues to live on in spirit form, a form she chooses to maintain as her old one purely out of familiarity. She still holds the sun and moon, but stopped because she knew if she did Celestia would come to investigate. Discord is there, too, also in spirit form.
Now, I don’t actually know what’s discussed at this point. The scene was only there to establish the true nature of Celestia, Luna, and Discord, which is itself a final nod to RainbowBob's original intentions. And maybe Chrysalis, although she wouldn’t be present to confirm that and I never decided if she’d survive in the first place. All I know for sure is that this would be the final scene of the series, with Celestia going back to Equestria to help rebuild (and maybe reclaiming control of the sun too).
Needless to say, there’s a lot of potential stories I could still do with this. There’s the Chrysalis story. There’s the story of how Scootaloo and Spitfire met after their individual tales. What happened to Blueblood and the Children? Are there any other survivors out there with stories worth bringing up? But at least now you all know where I had been going with this once RainbowBob left the equation.
Feel free to ask questions, but honestly, the material beyond what I’ve already laid out is nebulous and I doubt I’ll have any concrete answers. And again, I’m not saying there won’t be anymore Them stories. Someday I might just write one of those I just summarized. But I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
Other C&C's:
Runaway Train
The Gentle Nights: Silver Dreams
Histories: The Rise of Macromida
Histories: The Great Divide
As One Falls
Histories: One, Mother of Ponies
The Tale of Tom
Fleur-Verse: Agent Fleur
No Heroes: Nildean Roadtrip
No Heroes: Twelve Angry Ponies
No Heroes: The Changeling Incident
TvE: The Many Lives of Pinkie Pie
TvE: On Sunburned Wings
TvE: Pony at the Gates
TvE: Rise Against
TvE: Belle
TvE: At the Mausoleum of Twilight
Trixie vs. Equestria 2
The Silence
Needs of the Few
OoS: Little Surprise
OoS: The Good Mare
OoS: Trixie vs. Equestria
Dink
Flash in the Dark
Distant World
Tea with Cinnamon
Thank you for this post. I really enjoyed the Them stories and this post gave me a lot of closure. I hope to see more stories from the Them universe in the future, but this post satisfied me
The sheer amount of promise in this series. Masterful!
I enjoyed the 'Them' storys years ago and always was a bit sad it never continued. The real shame was the Mane Six died off very early in the story and there never was a actual conclusion to the series. Even World War Z had a ending as did the Romero Zombie films. Not fond of the spirit bit or the God bit though of the Alicorns and Discord. Just jumps heavily into Cthulluesque storyline there.
5671485
Yeah, the fact that the M6 died so early on was a bit annoying when it came time to plan more stories. I don't know how many times my thought processes went something along the lines of "What if I use X member of the Mane 6 to... Shit." But I wasn't about to retcon anything. Only crap writers (intentionally) retcon. On the plus side, it forced me to work with side character I don't often utilize (see Babs Seed and Iron Will and Spitfire).
Bob's version did, yeah. I had no intention of anything "Cthulluesque" in my version. Still, I didn't want to completely abandon Bob's ideas, so I figured a more 'benevolent spirits' rendition would at least make more sense for the characters. Nobody would notice, but Discord's comment about immortal beings in mortal forms in Origin of Them was intended as foreshadowing of this outcome.
5671621
There was some room to maneuver on the Mane Six. At least one died off screen and with no body. Just a burned downed boutique. Which would be a good way to have a 'Burned Mare' running around.
5671626
Nah. I asked Bob and he told me outright that she was dead, and I decided I wasn't going to change that. Besides giving Rarity a "miracle survivor" handout felt cheap to me.
5671627
A shame. But it's what happens when you work in someone else's universe.
I always had this question dragon scales seemed a lot thicker and more durable ( heavens sake they swim in lava) than Pony hide. Like it could actually take a zombie bite and they're not be a scratch on it was it because Spike was a baby dragon so hid scales wasn't as hard as say a adult dragons or teen dragons.
Also was iron will actually immune to the zombie virus as it was implied that he had been bitten before and didn't turn? minotaurs actually immune?
5671893
I can't speak to why Spike was so easily injured, as Bob wrote Feed Them before we'd met and I never thought to question it. "He's a baby" is as good a justification as any, I suppose.
Minotaurs are not immune. At no point did I ever intend to imply that he'd been bitten before the events of Becoming Them.
This was one of the first series I ever found on FiMFiction back in the day, and I don't frequent the site often anymore. I've sort of fallen a bit from the fandom if you will, but foday was the first day I've logged in to the site in months and finding this blog in my notifications felt like opening a present on Christmas Day.
I loved hearing about where the creative differences came from between you and Bob. Even more so I loved hearing the ideas/plans you had in mind for the other stories. Whether you get around to them or not, however long it takes or if it just doesn't happen at all, this specific random series will always be special to me. I look forward to the (potential) future of the Them series, thank you so much for sharing this!
Now, I think it's about time I catch up on some of your other works lol.
5672042
Well hello and welcome back! The positive commentary is greatly appreciated. I certainly hope I can do more of the Them series in time, but I can make no guarantees.
Anyway, hope my latest stories appeal to ya!
5672046
You know now that I'm going through them I genuinely don't think I ever touched anything other than the Them series! Even if it's never touched again, it's still incredibly great as is. I must've reread the series at least four times over the years lmfao. With your writing style, I'm certain I'll find some that appeal to me!
I was about to start with Coco Powder and then jump around from story to story, reading where I can. Drops of Jupiter is next on the list.
5672047
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Shtahp it, you're making me
5672053
thanks for the closure once more. and yeah this blog was awesome. hope to see more from the them series
Im glad go see a happy ending to this story. I think it goes along with the vibe of mlp to have a good ending, and im glad you released it.
Still i encourage you to write the stories for this universe as im sure they would be as good if not better than the ones we already have.
(also between you and me, i liked that you changed the ending to "Becoming Them". It may not be a happy ending outright, but i much prefer it over how rainbowbob would have done away with any hope of an ending that isnt soul-crushing and dark asf)
5745125
If you ever end up reading anything by RainbowBob, you'll find that "dark asf" was his go-to style.
Anyway, glad to see you appreciated the material so much! Maybe someday I'll finally write that Blueblood story, which is the one I keep going back to but never getting very far in.