Well, there we are, the first story in what I’ve unofficially dubbed the Grandeur Sequence. Prologue, 26.5 chapters, Epilogue, six years, and what a long, strange trip it’s been. I hope you enjoyed the ride.
I’m just going to say a few things about the directions the story could have gone, and why some things went the way they did - and for some of them at least it’s an improvement. Feel free to skip this if you’re not interested in the details.
Predictions and Prophecies began life in 2012, in the middle of Season 2, as a sort of sequel to Boast Busters. Back then, the ideas were much looser than they would be eventually. I knew I wanted to start at Twilight’s library, Rainbow Dash’s incidents kicked the whole story off, time travel would be involved, they’d end up at a vault underneath Hoofington; but the in-between bit was where the story sort of fell apart. I was trying to get from Point A to Point C without going through Point B first.
Remember that bit in Chapter Three, where Flutter Doo thought that Rainbow Dash was the source of Ditzy’s pain? That was a holdover from the original version of the first chapter. In it, after Fluttershy arrived, Twilight received first a visit from Rarity, horribly sleep-deprived, and then Rainbow Dash would arrive accidentally towing Ditzy behind her. The end result was a hurt Ditzy, Rainbow would point out Rarity’s stress-mane which would make her faint, and then Twilight and Fluttershy would leave Rainbow to the books and go and take Ditzy and Rarity home. This got taken out when I realized I was just putting the actual plot off for too long.
Fortunately, the contents of Chapter 21 are not what I had originally envisioned. Originally - and I hope you appreciate the change! - the Mane 6 and Trixie (having convinced her to join their side somehow) would open the vault… and inside would be Doctor Hooves.
Yeah.
Having just time-locked 1000 years ago, the paradoxical opening of the vault would trigger the TARDIS to land inside, and the Doctor would then help the Mane 6 tie up the loose ends back in Canterlot 990.
What a cop-out. Really it was Magic Duel that put rest to this, as I couldn’t have Trixie take their side and then show up in a later episode swearing revenge. If you couldn’t tell, I’m really too focused in making sure things fit perfectly into canon.
Where Doctor Hooves’ presence was removed from the story entirely, other characters turned up without me expecting them to. Snow Veil had come about as a minor character in a short story, and that short story will appear soon as a way of properly introducing you to Wind Chime and Mayfleet. Princess Luna’s role outside of the prologue was entirely unscripted. Anthem in particular wasn’t due to turn up until another even longer story. But pieces fell into place nicely, and the story slots nicely into its new intended place between Boast Busters and Magic Duel. If you couldn’t tell from the timeline, I’ve pieced together the first three seasons to fit into a single year, not necessarily with all the episodes in the right order. Interested? Well, the timeline can actually be found here, at my blog on the MLP wiki.
NaNoWriMo 2014 was the first turning point. 50,000 words, 7 chapters plus the prologue, that got me through the introduction, through Hoofington, an unexpected visit to a marble mine (before proper planning, the telescope had just been in ‘a cave’) and a trip back in time to Skyview Lake. After a year of nothing, NaNoWriMo 2015 came around, bringing with it a character from a side story, a storm, more jumps through time, an Ursa Major, and finally the introduction to Reeds Melody. Another year of stalling, then the time travelling to the 600s and the opening of the vault finally came around. Then I published the prologue on Fimfiction! Then I lost another year, and Nanowrimo 2017 was officially the point where the story finished, with the trip to 990, and a re-write of the Great Fire climax.
So where do we go from here? Well, that epilogue sure gave us a few story hooks. Five alicorns? Where’s Anthem now, and for that matter, those other two alicorns? What did happen in 617? Why did Rainbow Dash trigger an alicorn magic detector? What about those ‘Wednesday incidents’ Twilight mentioned in the timeline?
In the future, I hope you'll read We Are Harmony: The Delusions of Grandeur, Where Did Wednesday Go?, and Chronologically Impaired - and in the interim, I have a couple chapters from Euphoria that are basically ready - but for now, prepare for the arrival of the Firespeaker.