Okay, so I had something interesting happen when I was banging my head against the keyboard trying to figure out how to get Nyx's friends to the villain's lair significantly after Nyx gets there. They need to be unaware that she is out there, but somehow... aware of it after a few hours or something.

As some of you may remember, the lead-in to the climax is that there are some 150 ponies held captive in an excavated cavern. They are being held there to lure Nyx into the trap. The villain expects that her friends will come and attempt a rescue as well. Her being rescued wouldn't help because once a memory orb is accessed, the person is locked in until the memory is finished. In this case, Nyx would be killed even if she were rescued, so Starfire isn't worried about that. The problem comes with the delay between when Nyx goes to help the captives and when her friends go to help Nyx. I was stumped about this one and said "Screw it, I'm gonna work on another thread for a while".

I then began working on Ebonstar's story arc. The idea here is that I wanted a family which was directly affected by the plague. Anyway, I wanted somepony who I can follow in the story who represents the personal loss side of the plague. Someone directly impacted by an abduction. This makes the plague more personal, kind of like how I've done with Sage so far.

Ebonstar is one of the key researchers at the Ministry of Arcane Science. He's the inventor of the talismans and also S.A.T.S. which is the mechanism that allows PipBucks to temporarily manipulate time for the purpose of giving an advantage in combat. As we've seen in chapter six, Ebonstar is currently researching the Time Key artifact, attempting to reverse engineer its functionality and incorporate it into a talisman. He hasn't quite finished yet, but he's close when Luna comes to visit. Luna gives him some critical information about the artifact's origin, which encourages Ebonstar to think outside the box on this one. Eventually, he solves it and the miniature talisman is created. Later, Nyx is called in to have her PipBuck upgraded. Since this is a StableTec device, it might be good to have Ebonstar meet with Nyx at the Canterlot branch of StableTec. I could fit Sweetie Belle into the story at this point if we like. Her role at StableTec is open for interpretation, and being a unicorn, it stands to reason that she has something to do with their technology department.

Also included in this story arc is Ebonstar's wife Caraway. She's a unicorn who is Nightwatch's assistant and helps with the more mystical types of research. She helped with the initial memory spell research, but is now working on biological mutation spells at Nightwatch's request. Nightwatch has a few tasks for this mare, using her interest as a herbalist and mystic to do things to help advance his plan. Nightwatch needs two things from her. The mutation spell/potion is meant to alter parasprites to make them much smaller and dramatically shorten their lifespan. These altered parasprites will then be shipped to a biotech engineer which Nightwatch has commissioned to change what they will eat. We know this is a thing since Twilight altered parasprite appetite in Swarm of the Century.

In addition, Nightwatch provides Caraway with access to the Black Book. He has her studying targeted paralysis spells for use when he's out harvesting memories of the infected ponies and taking their captives. While she's studying the Black Book, her mind is being further corrupted by the dark magic she is exposed to. This causes trouble at home. She and Ebonstar have an argument about her magical practices (which he never liked anyway) and she's all irrational about it. Caraway is also controlling, antisocial (like Moon Dancer from MLP), and an overprotective, obsessive parent.

Ebonstar and Caraway have a young daughter named Violet Iris. She's smart, but sheltered. She wants to be more involved with her peers, but her mother limits her exposure because she thinks Violet isn't ready to get involved in things outside of Caraway's control. Ebonstar is very concerned that Violet will be negatively influenced by some sort of dark magic at some point.

One day, Ebonstar comes home from work to find a note from Caraway saying that she has taken Violet on a camping trip. She didn't say where, or how long they would be gone - just that she needs to get away. While she is out camping, two infected pegasi find and abduct them. They are taken to a nearby nest and put in cages. After some time and a lot of asking around, Ebonstar is quite worried about his family. Nopony knows where they are, and he begins to think that something terrible has happened. By now, missing ponies are being reported in various remote regions of Equestria. Canterlot officials know about the plague, so they understand the cause of the missing ponies. Also, Nyx and her team are hitting nests and rescuing captives if there are any left alive. The captives suffer extreme PTSD, so they need therapy. A new branch of the Ministry of Peace is opened for this purpose, and Willow from Gatorton applies to head the department at Nyx's recommendation. I'm unsure about the logistics, since Willow is out in the bayou and probably wouldn't take well to Canterlot living. Perhaps it could be a Ponyville branch.

Eventually, Caraway is found dead in a nest. Infected ponies did their usual to her. Violet is missing. Canterlot officials begin to notice that a disproportionate number of children are missing and not found dead or alive. Ebonstar begins to suspect that the children are being held elsewhere. He's determined to find his daughter one way or another. He knows Nyx is actively involved in fighting the infected, so he installs a beacon in Nyx's PipBuck when she comes in for the S.A.T.S. upgrade. He shows her how to use SATS, and while she is there, he explains to her that his wife was killed, but his daughter is out there missing. He asks for her help in finding her, explaining that he installed the beacon and all she has to do is push the button to let him know that captives were found.

This, of course, is the efforts of a desperate father trying to save his daughter. It's the best bet he has, since he's not a warrior or in any position to be looking for captives himself. But Nyx understands what he is going through, and agrees to let him know if she finds something he should know about.

Now... Fast forward in time to the final day. Starfire does indeed have many captives, and Nyx is on her way to rescue them. She is lured into the trap and just before going unconscious, she remembers the beacon. She activates it and Ebonstar is notified. On his way to find transportation out there, he runs into Dinky. She tells him that the rest of Nyx's friends are in Canterlot, unaware that Nyx is out there where captives might be. They all hop in the Valkyrie and fly out to the beacon, and the story picks up from there as they discover the villain's lair.

Somewhere during all of this, I'd like to work it in so that Ebonstar, in his distress, meets up with Willow at the PTSD clinic. Nyx could introduce them, and I'd like to have some very nice, happy-ending shipping going on with Ebonstar getting together with Willow. This would also make Lemondrop and Violet Iris step-sisters, which I think is just

4681737
The beacon idea could work, gives Ebonstar a kind of poetic justice in helping defeat the one that killed his wife.
Its nice to have a happy ending for two characters that have lost something dear to them. As long as its not rushed it should work out nicely. Its just a shame they die in a nuclear firestorm Or do they?

4681890 Hrm...
Yeah, that's the down side to creating a universe which is intrinsically connected to Fo:E.
No happy endings for whoever stays behind.

Although... he's the one who got the time thingy working. If anyone can figure out how to duplicate the effect, it would be him. All he needs is enough power. I'm tempted to do that.

I suppose alternatively, they could end up in a Stable.

Still, yeah, I don't like killing off my characters "just because" the source material ends the world.

4682013
Well he did invent something used in pipbucks so I'm sure Stabletec would move him to the front of the queue for a Stable.
In fact, he could be one of the founding members of the Twilight Society after the war is over. He could have been working in Tenpony tower and survived with his new family along with its residents.

I'm with you, never kill characters unless you want to

I like this. Oddly the real reasons I like this is because of very personal events in your life that I know of . I am not going into them here to respect your privacy but you know what I mean.

AS much as I criticize RC for injecting his views into a story , I am in no way a believer in " death of the author". That is I actually think an author SHOULD inject parts of himself into the story, that is any story , in order to justify the effort an author puts into it, should make some kind of statement that relates to the author's experiences as a person. The key is that it be ORGANIC to the story.

I have always of course expected this character to be the one you use to address those issues in the story that are most resonant with you the human being , personally in the real world. This is of course due to the fact that you know... he is your avatar.. which as i have pointed out in my edits, is something the readers who make the connection will also expect. I am glad to see he will play a much larger role than originally planned, because again, that will be precisely the audiences expectation as well.

And of course the personal resonances mean that in a way his scenes should be particularly powerful. Do not be afraid to pour yourself into him, emotionally, especially when you have him go through some of the things you went through. Might even serve as a form of therapy.

I approve of all of this, as long as you are up to i.

Okay, this is a little weird. I was reading through chapter 9 where Ebonstar is introduced. And as I read his lines, the voice in my head sounds exactly like Sunburst from the MLP Season 6 premiere. The vocal inflections and style... everything. Even the fascination with "what time travel is like". It's like they're the same character, somehow, despite the fact that I wrote Ebonstar into the story waaaaay back in October 2014 long before Sunburst was even thought of. Even the recent enhancements from a few months ago that I've put into that section just serve to make him sound more like Sunburst.

I guess that means I have a solid example of what this character behaves like, even though it's just in one episode.

5267411 , Please don't pull a Fine Bros. move against Hasbro. Trademarking a dialect/inflection is just as wrong as trying to trademark a genre.
...
I'm kidding mostly. I can't really see you suing someone over fictitious characters' speaking styles.

5268420 Well, at least you're kidding. The litigation-happy society we live in is one of the most disgusting things to me. Personally, I am against the concept of IP as a whole. It's terrible that MLP fanfic can't be sold for profit.