//------------------------------// // Reality Geeks // Story: Equestrian Fanfiction // by Lise //------------------------------// Midnight Castle: Everhere, Vol 7, Chapter 9, Euryala Wow is this insane! When I started reading, I expected one of the popular theories: Euryala is Poseidon's ex-lover or something (we already know she was the first follower, so unlike she's his daughter). Then everything went huh?! Sorry for my rants here and there :) We start with Euryala having a conversation with Poseidon. In the future. (Wait, what?!) Apparently, the Everprince has risen and the deities gave called for a truce with the corporations (huh?!) to face that threat. No mention if the grand9 at this point, only Euryala. There've agreed to a truce (despite the unforgivable thing that Poseidon has done). Euryala receives a ruby fragment with assurances that's all Poseidon has. Blazen then storms in (in the temple?) and says they must go. So far a hundred lines and I'm completely clueless. We are presented with a dark version of Mistmount in which the Everprince has gained control of reality. Everything is in decay, everyone is fighting these walking suits of armor, with only the "vassalized" allowed to live a normal life. We have the typical underground rebellion thing with them fighting the nights. Turns out that Danny is loyal to the Everprince, Bellucio is missing, Karl and Megan gave done on a mission, and Eric has closed the portals to keep the Everprince trapped. Molly arrives with Omni and Icelos, and they start talking about the "pieces". (This is one of the minor let downs I have. Initially I was convinced they were part of the crown. When I learned what they really were for... I went bleh :( ) Euryala speculates the final stone is on the crown, so they coordinate a massive way to storm the Everprince's stronghold (some factory?!) and claim it. Already things are wonky. I admit the factory makes sense on the reread, but other things still sound strange. There's a huge (very well written) preparation and battle scene with various characters facing various enemies until we get to the final conflict. While everyone is fighting, Euryala sneaks into the treasury to find the Everprince waiting for her. It turns out that they know each other. There's an exchange of blows and cheesy dialogue, at the end of which the Everprince offers her a choice: the Ruby fragment or the evergem. Euryala picks the Ruby and it turns out that that is part of her (literally) shattered heart. She then uses Blazen's stone to make a reality clone of herself destroying reality (?!?). We are then taken to some ancient setting in which Euryala must complete her trials to be chosen by Poseidon as her favorite. There's some tension (again great combat scenes) but she wins (of course) and us sent to the "chosen candidates". There as she relaxes, she has a conversation with another of the chosen, in which she explains she's seen the future and his time she went really far ahead and knows what to do. The other tells her not to mess up, at which point it's revealed it's Bellucio (?!?!?!?). And then Bellucio wakes up in the present day... and the chapter ends!!! I mean there are cliffhangers, but this! PrinceEric @PrinceEric: Hey, no sweat. Since the key thing is reality, the story just follows some reality-continuum principles, and damn does it follow them well. I'm really curious who's writing this. They must have an academic on stall. @DarkSparkle, can you look into this? :) For all unfamiliar with the theory, here as a few pointers: 1) Getting into contact with your reality clone can create a paradox which destroyed reality (the theory is that it does a hard reset to the first safe point) 2) Eury's power is to create a reality bubble, thus she remembers everything that has happened in any reality, even if it's destroyed. (Quite clever trick :)) 3) Everything considered as part of Eury is subject to this bubble. (You mixed up the heart thing, Prince. Eury put it in herself in her self battle so she could transport it to her past state (apparently her past is considered the safe point). I must admit that I'm stumped with Bellucio being there. Maybe he's been there all along and everything else is fake? Maybe he got put there through some reality changing power? Or maybe Euryala brought him there (curious why she kept pretending to be his maid in Chronicles) All in all, I loved the science! Best chapter yet! LightSparkle @LightSparkle: pfft! I don't know about the theory, but things just don't work like that in practice. (You rely on theory as much as Dark.) It's obvious that the writers knew something about magic, but academics or not they messed up big time. There's no account for mnemonic artifacts after a paradox split. If Eury didn't have any protection (even if we assume she's a goddess / titan) she would at least add reality fatigue. Not to mention the butterfly effect as a result of knowing everything, Personally I think that everything could have been explained much better with a dream simulation (both Icelos and Molly are dreamwalkers so they could easily have made a prophecy prediction model.) TrueSparkle Bleh! Geeks! :P RRBB @TrueSparkle: Don't put your ignorance on display, little girl. I deal with practical field tested theory. You clearly missed the mention of the reality bubble. It IS the shield. There'd be no mnemonic or physiological artifacts because Euryala has it. If she hadn't, it would have been a whole different matter altogether. Another thing, the Everprince was in a power plant, not a factory. Huge difference since Eury could have used the power for her ability. (Which means that the Everprince needs large quantities of mana as well.) LightSparkle Wow! Even I am lost. PaintDrop Actually, things would be simpler, if the reality created was a bubble reality that Euryala created to explore and obtain parts of her heart. That way she wouldn't suffer any hazardous effects, since the true reality wouldn't be damaged. It would also explain how Bellucio was in the past and the present. Simile @Simile: Hmm. Never thought of that. Good theory :) @LightSparkle: You're still a cow! TrueSparkle Wow, girls! That brings me back to school! Fascinating stuff. However, what about the aether buildup? Surely, creating reality bubbles would produce waste. What happens to that? MightyDragon @MightyDragon: please don't embarrass yourself. ;) For small amounts of waste, reality dissipates before there could be a buildup. It would take over a thousands bubbles at the same time to create any significant problem and if that had happened the deities would have noticed, don't you think? :) CodeFilly Locking this thread before you scare everypony away with your geekiness. CodeFilly is right, though. There's no way for reality waste to be a thing in MCE. For one thing it would have affected the portals, as we've seen how sensitive they are. LyraHands Reality has been licked! MightyDragon