Welcome to The Age of Iron.

These are just a collection of stories and thoughts that have passed through my head while following the extensive Iron Hearts series created by SFaccountant.

Some of these may have some veil of truth to them. Others are nothing more than a curious daydream. Who knows?

These will range from serious tales to the downright silly. So hopefully, you have an attitude for both.

If anything could possibly take place in the main story I will try to list where and when.

Special Thanks to Nightweaver for proofreading and edits.
Special thanks to MarxyHooves for proofreading and edits.

Tags will change as necessary.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
Yet stranger still is,
Lost Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou unsung as tears unshed,
Must dry and die in,
Lost Carcosa.

What's it been? 1000 years?
That's funny. It feels like much longer than that.

Let me tell you, being trapped in stone that long can do crazy things to a guy.
And when you were a little off your rocker in the first place...
But now I'm free. The leaders of this disgusting place trapped me here, and now they're going to pay.
I'm going to show them the real definition of insanity.

[Rationalfic Deconstruction / Subversion of Displaced]
You’ve read the stories of people from Earth being “Displaced”: Their bodies are changed, their minds are warped, and they’re thrown across the multiverse, to whatever world and timeline their supernal "Displacers" decide upon.  Well, this story isn’t one of them...

...because when they tried to remake me, I didn’t let them.

A Rationalist Horror story, in which an Occultist from some version of Earth (implied to be the World of Darkness) undermines her own Displacement and ends up as a Self-Modifying Construct. Scientific Inquiry, Philosophical Debate, Rational Discussion, Body Horror, and Existential Hijinks ensue. Themes, Concepts, and Style inspired by HP Lovecraft, Elizer Yudkowsky, Gordon R Dickson, Edgar Allen Poe, Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein), Dresden Codak, World of Darkness, and Friendship is Optimal.
^{Front page on JUL 28th, AUG 12th, OCT 30, and every update after that.}

Your story breaks the shitty norm that most displaced stories have in common by being an 'actually interesting story' instead of a powertrip for a horny teen.

This is like brain porn. My head hurts but in a good way.

Author’s Notes

I often find Displaced fics to be more often Miss than Hit with me. Often, they're generic, poorly written, or just do not do anything worth reading with the concept.  This is an experiment to trt out a few other concepts which aren’t used often, even by me, including some which directly subvert Displaced as a genre, and maybe even come up with some advice for those authors. This is also a crossover with the upcoming Dragon: The Oroboroi Chronicles, a World of Darkness rulebook which I lead the development team for.

I hope you all enjoy this, and I implore you to leave some feedback in the comments section: I'll experimenting with a few uncommon concepts here, and I'd like to know how people feel about how they're coming across. :3

FAQ

Because people keep bringing these things up...

Horror/Dark Tags

I've had multiple people ask "how bad does it get?" Note the lack of the "gore", "sad", or "mature" tags or anything like that. Yes, there is blood and death at some point in this story, but the real horror of this story comes from the philosophical and scientific quandaries the characters go through: this is "intellectual horror", not "visceral horror".

Length

In the interest of this NOT becoming one of those long, sprawling fics, I plan to keep this limited to a manageable 10 chapter limit, not counting Prologue and Epilogue. No one wants to read something that long, and I'd rather not be stressing over this 6 months from now.

Sequel

The Sequel is already in the works, with scenes already written. It will be a more episodic story revolving around world optimization and interplanar hijinks.

Crossovers

To be clear, I do plan on having the main character make one of those "Token" things, but as they often get in the way of actual stories, that won't happen until the end of the story. The Sequel will be crossover-heavy.

Daring Do visits her oldest foe, Ahuizotl, in the Hoofington Insane Asylum after receiving a letter from the administrator telling her that he was found a gibbering wreck.

She was prepared for a ruse, or something of the like.

She wasn't prepared for what she found in his cell, or the gruesome story that he told her.

A story of an ancient ruin and a nightmare that has been unleashed onto the world.

Inspired by the works of H. P Lovecraft, Amnesia: the Dark Descent and the series Penny Dreadful.

TV TROPES PAGE! Show it the love, people!

Tartarus: the fabled prison said to hold all of the demons of Equus at bay.

Few truly know what lies behind the impenetrable doors Cerberus guards. Some say that it is a pit, infinite in it's depth and darkness, from which there is no return. Other claim it to be a hellish plain, filled with fire and pain and suffering, to punish the demons for their sins.

All of them are wrong.

Tartarus is small. An inescapable cell for a single prisoner. But the tales about it's purpose are not false.

For this captive human holds the key to unleashing upon Equestria forces which have not been seen for centuries, forces which predate Equestria by many an age.

And soon, he shall be free.

EDIT: Featured on 5/25/14! SUH-WEEEEET!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/6MrWqNZ.png[/img]

Darth Vader is one of the most despicable forces in the galaxy. Once a powerful and respected Jedi Knight, he betrayed the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order for the dark side of the Force. The newly christened Sith Lord was apprenticed to Darth Sidious and quickly became a master of the dark side. Vader was soon the scourge of the Jedi, continuing the Great Jedi Purge by slaughtering all remaining Jedi.

An extension of Emperor Palpatine's will, the Dark Lord was constantly on the move, traveling throughout the galaxy to defeat rebel uprisings and kill any surviving Jedi. This mission brings him to the edge of the Outer Rim into the Unknown Region of the galaxy, in an unknown star system. High above an unnamed planet he duels with one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy in a starship battle. But during the battle his ship is damaged, and he crash-lands on the mysterious planet.

With his connections to the Galactic Empire severed, Vader must find a way out the land known as Equestria, inhabited by the strange creatures known as ponies. That, or he could take it over.

Twilight Sparkle, also known as Medusa, is a hardened criminal mastermind, and the leader of what was formerly the most feared band of criminals in all of Equestria. That was years ago. Now, her crew is in shambles, and she looks to two-bit thug Rainbow Dash to bring it back to its former glory.

With Twilight's genius and experience, combined with some fresh blood, the Mythos Crew may become more formidable than ever.

Supreme Overlord of the Dominion of Equestria.
Wonderful title isn't it?
Capture the Country, Marry the Princess, Take over the world.
Sounds like an Adventure story doesn't it?
Well this is no story.
How do I know? Well I'm not stupid for one.
All those other dolts that came before fell into too many simple traps.
They're all so easy to avoid.
That's why I work to rule.
The rules.
The Rules of an Evil Overlord.

Pandinus Imperator (You can call him Pan, he won't mind) is knocked back in time during the Canterlot Invasion, and accidentally kills King Sombra on arrival. Instead of being executed, the changeling is surprised to find himself being hailed as a hero, and is promptly put on the throne as the new monarch, the Crystal Emperor. However, Pan now faces a great many problems, among them Celestia and Luna, who seem certain that the changeling is secretly up to no good, as well as several political factions secretly plotting to undermine his reign. There's also the tiny problem of the constant snowstorm that threatens to cut the city off from the outside world permanently.
The Crystal Ponies need a hero now more than ever before. Why did they get a changeling instead?

We Has A TvTropes.

While not truly a part of Bucking Nonsense's Changeling-Verse, the same rules regarding changeling abilities and society apply.

Cover image provided by gabapple, used with permission.