The Chaotic Touch of Harmony 72 members · 6 stories
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Alyarin9000
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Right, the main fic may not get a new book. You know what this means?
- If the fandom dies, the fic is more likely to never return
- We are the LAST refuge of CToH

The significance of this? CToH now relies upon us. I'm terrible at uploading, I know, but one thing is clear; The fan-stories are now the lifeblood of the series. And we need to keep it going as long as possible.

I deeply encourage more fics, perhaps we can have an idea grinder here? ^^ Ask about ideas, suggest topics.

4150279 I wanted to but I can't think of anything :raritydespair:

I had the idea a while back for a non-canon story about the four-millionth and final pony transformation. The twist would be that they would become an alicorn to match Alexia becoming one while being the first pony on Earth.

If anyone wants to use it, feel free.

I suppose I'll start with some ideas. I'll rewrite my speculations from the last chapter of Bonded By Fire. Be warned there are spoilers for the last chapter.



The vast majority of people in the world depend on things outside their control for their continued survival. Most people cannot really comprehend the fall of civilization and how it would affect them. Losing 3/4ths of the world's population is pretty much right above the edge case for the fall of civilization and I imagine the world would appear very different from what we are used to, but still be different from any post apocalyptic setting. With the threat guarantee of war in the future, how would society rebuild, and what would their focus be? Most of the world as we know it is based on urban sprawl, but would a war-time rebuilding look or be designed to be anything like that?



Survival in the short term is already possible (it was said that Earth Ponies already supplied the majority of food for the west coast, and the same with Pegasi controlling the weather to remove the threat of the poison clouds). The Mions left infrastructural piping (water, power, communications) alone and even repaired and extended it in areas because it was used by them. Add into that a lack of demand for both food and water due to losing 75% of the population and I don't think those will be constraints to survival. There are plenty of free open land now to boot, though I imagine that previous population centers have been hit hard. Can't forget this quote which implied that entire countries ceased to exist:

Alexia recalled a news report on the war torn UN headquarters being remodeled to fit the singular government. Of the original one hundred and ninety three flags that used to fly in front of it, now only eight flew. The center mast bore a new flag with a grey and light blue globe of the Earth super embossed over flanking olive branches with three stars on top.

We can speculate that the death toll was not evenly distributed and thus many areas would be in better shape for rebuilding (with others completely depopulated save for feral Mions and traitor ponies who survived). I'm assuming the military protected assets and personnel of sites of strategic importance, and abandoned the rest where it could not. So while there was damage and a loss of life, the war did go on for several years and we can assume that there were assets that remained intact and operational, or replacement assets that were constructed after the previous ones were lost.

Not to mention refugees all from all over the place converging on the remaining strongholds. And while there was a significant loss of life, there were population centers and their universities that survived, assuming research assets weren't taken to safeguarded locations as soon as it became apparent that the military couldn't hold onto sections of the country.

The entertainment (or at least propaganda industry) appeared to survive intact, and while it won't be nearly as huge as it once was, entertainment is a necessary requirement, especially in wartime. The focus of that entertainment I do expect to change though.

Survival in the long term is entirely dependent on the ability to survive the upcoming future war. That means research and development, and lots of it.

With all the captured assets of the Mions, I imagine bio-technical research to go through the roof, especially if they need to find a way to avoid a repeat of the Mion virus. Many of the hidden facilities constructed new and improved strains of the virus thus have production infrastructure to study as well. The communication facility also has new and improved technology to study.

The only parts that will need to be built from the ground up is space flight and magitek. With the study of automated machinery the Mions employed for production (see: Berry College egg harvesting machinery directly mentioned), harvesting and manufacture of space vehicles directly in space will probably be a priority of research. Though how much space technology can advance when there exists spells that can move things directly out of Earth's gravity well opens up many possibilities.

Magic, being the only thing the Koridost have no knowledge of, would be a priority research, especially since electricity to magic converters are available (and also allow for humans to finally read the various books that previously siphoned the reader's mana to have the translation spell running) meaning it will no longer be limited to just ponies. Magitek (the combination of magic and technology) I imagine will get the vast focus of research as it's the only advantage over the Koridost. It's also the field that Equestrians would be able to also simultaneously help with. I suspect it would get something like 50% of all the research done, if not more.

Now none of this really describes how I imagine the population centers to change from the described fortress of San Francisco (with people living in additions to the skyscrapers, missile batteries under heavy guard, pegasi blimp patrols, and even roof entrances for pegasi and helicopter drop-offs).

Vertical farming is entirely possible with Earth Ponies (see: Loki growing flowers with only a sun lamp and a small plot next to a stream), and the food export industry will probably not be reconstructed, but instead focus on locally grown farms in the middle and directly surrounding all the major cities. I kinda expect city state structures to make a come-back for efficiency of material used, and the land outside the major population centers more with a skeleton population for maintenance. I highly doubt urban sprawl would be repeated due to it not being defensible against airborne biological attacks as the Mion threat showed.

I expect a ton of power stations to be built for mana conversion, though the fact that the Preparatory Sphere rendered nuclear fission useless means we'd probably see alternative methods being used. Or maybe not as it was used by all the nuclear subs on the final attack, there might be nuclear power stations everywhere. Due to magic able to rely heavily on atmospheric mana, there might even be a push for mana generators constructed around the world to just prop up the background mana supply. Anything beyond that which would rely on atmospheric mana I couldn't even begin to speculate.

In summary, it would look really different from both a post apocalyptic setting (at least in countries that survived with sections intact) and future settings because of magic, magitek, ponies (complete with a foal boom that could see the numbers increasing drastically), and preparation for a future conflict that everyone assumes is coming. Not to mention the use of magical translation to get everyone to read and speak the same language. Or mentioning how interaction, immigration, and trade with another planet and it's dozens of sapient species would have long-term.



An aside, but my predictions of the future of this story brings up the idea of the effect of increasing atmospheric mana on the world. We know Equuis is a really weird place with even weirder life (Crystal Ponies anyone?), what's to say that things like The Everfree Forest and bizarre intelligent life doesn't spring up on Earth? Or the sudden magical uplifting of existing species. For example, dolphins could suddenly become intelligent and capable of interacting with magic, or other bizarre outcomes.

In addition to various species immigrating to Earth (Griffins and Minotaurs need representation), I fully expect at least one Changeling Queen to try and smuggle herself to Earth to begin a hive. If the attempt will be caught or even allowed (hey, it's another potential military asset) might be a story in itself.

There are a lot of people who were brought into the story then disappeared, that might be worth a mention in stories as well. Ones that spring immediately to mind are: The captured/turned pony Bodi Mari, First Sergeant Vanders, human magic researcher with a bad attitude Roberts, former CO of the barn Colonel Bowler (he was imprisoned before the war really kicked off, would they even keep prisons around? Execute him? Free him to help with the effort?), the former director of the CIA who was said to have been one of the first transformed into a pony (I don't think we ever see him beyond the one mention), and the soldiers and agent Alex worked with over the course of both stories. Tune's parents (I found it weird that Alex quoted them several times as being the source of his life philosophy early on but by Bonded By Fire they were treated as bigots not worth of anyone's time) assuming they didn't die in the war (They were in Kansas City right? Does Salinas still exist or did it disappear like Rome did?), and Conrad's family (I expect that considering he is with Alex his picture has been seen by people that knew he transformed, maybe the buyers?)

About turning captured ponies, I wonder if that was just a two time thing Alex did or if it was done whenever a blank flank was captured? Despite being flat out told that many ponies at least in the Berry College area were turned by psychic torture (probably from sirens?) and drugs from the red fungus stew, and also being sad she didn't have time to try and reach others, she still wished them to rot in hell for being traitors in the last chapter.

There's also a large niche for slice of life stuff in this universe. The advantage over similar settings is that there is a larger conflict going on as a backdrop that can interact to varying degrees. There's also the choice of early story where the ponies are shrouded in mystery and face internment if discovered or later story where they're fighting for acceptance.

Canary gave a good list of loose ends, but even something as simple as the story of the missing radio host (a conspicuous note when Loki and Alexia are listening to the radio) becoming a pony in the early days could be interesting. The inter-book political conflict would also be a good setting. Another potential avenue would be the effect on public consciousness if a well-known figure transformed. Would this make it more of a reality? More acceptable?

What if an important heir was affected? The dictator of North Korea?

Post-story, there's Boldish's concept of cultural preservation to play with. Humans will have to fight to keep their cultural identities alive in the face of post-devastation Earth just as the Ponies fight for their stakes.

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