This story is a sequel to Dear Scootaloo
The Cutie Mark Crusaders are growing up. Their days are spent dealing with the usual gamut of problems facing fillies on the cusp of marehood; school, boys, nightmares...
Oh, yes. They've been having the most dreadful nightmares. Nightmares about an old stallion everyone thought was dead. It seems this ghost from their collective past has found a way back and has one thing on his mind; revenge.
Only with the help of a certain Princess of the Night can the three friends become what they need to be to destroy the evil that's haunted them once and for all; CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DREAM WARRIORS!
A Halloween Epilogue to the 'Dear CMC' Trilogy ('Dear Sweetie Belle', 'Dear Applebloom', 'Dear Scootaloo')
Inspired by the slasher classic 'A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors.'
Cover art by the incomparable Swirling Line
When there something strange,
In equestria,
Who ya gana call?
3387417 DUST BUSTERS!
3387430
The wrinkles on that ponies face in the picture make me laugh.
3387417 Ghost Nappa
3387487
Hey did you happen to name yourself after your OC,
because that what i thought you were supposed to do.
Now looking at other ponies usernames, i feel silly.
3387493 Yes, Dawn Flower is my OC and is the pony as my avatar.
3387520
Woo High Fi.... err One!
Being able to merge together to form the very embodiment of True Friendship is always a wonderous thing. Calling that & the CMC Awesome would be & definitely IS a very enormous understatement. I'd also like to thank you for giving Dear sweet Apple Bloom some closure after what happened to her parents. I think that when some1 loses the parent that love them so very much, people or ponies in this case would always need some form of closure. Further more allowing the CMC to see their loved ones during the Battle I'd definitely say gave the girls strength & courage. So thanx again. :-)
you are seriously making me contemplate watching nightmare on elm street 3, and i haven't even seen any of them at all for good reasons. good job dude.
You sir have earned this:
I think we all knew from the first time you posted this synopsis what (or at least who) was coming... but that doesn't make it any less awesome.
And I bet in a week or so "The King of Lies" will have me even more confused.
Am I the only one who thought the CMC theme song way back when sounded a little like "Dream Warriors" in the chorus? Just one more thing that's come full circle in here.
* * *
"that moment so many years ago when they had found each other at last"
Assuming that the stories are in chronological order on your front page, how big a time skip was there between "Dear Scootaloo" and "Lost in the Night"/"Phases of the Moon"? Everything after that is apparently squeezed into Luna's pregnancy term- apparently Sweetie is headed off to the Fillydelphia Academy of Music almost immediately after this story. To say nothing of how even "Dear Sweetie Belle" has to be set indeterminately far ahead of where we are in the show....
3390922 The CMC are totally Equestria's Dokken. Someone get me a mash-up STAT.
Let's talk chronology. I don't have my handy time-line next to me, but as best I remember it;
-'Dear Sweetie Belle' takes place first in the continuity, the initial point where my continuity diverges from established show canon. Roughly a week before the episode 'Sisterhooves Social' thus negating that and starting a shift in the timeline.
This allows the idea of Shining Armor and Luna's affair beginning several weeks after the Royal Wedding and continuing a number of years before either Luna or Cadance's pregnancies.
Events that occur in actual show canon (such as Twilight's rise to princess-hood) still occur in the time-line but sometimes years later than they're supposed to.
(Here's where I answer your question)
There's a three year gap between the 'Dear CMC' trilogy and 'the Sin of Envy.' 'King of Lies' takes place the day after 'the Sin of Envy' and 'CMC Dream Warriors' takes place several months after that. 'Paternally Yours' takes place the following year.
Many events (the CMC growing up, the Shining/Luna affair, and royal pregnancies) run side by side.
Whew. I may just have to do a blog post with that whole time-line.
Any other questions?
3392324
So if Luna is well into her pregnancy here, does that place "Paternally Yours" after "What's Done in the Dark"/"Apple Family Secrets" as well, or is an alicorn's gestation period just that long? And I'm guessing "Phases of the Moon" fits at about the same time as "Envy", with "Morning Glory" and followups resting comfortably in the timeskip.
I don't mean to nitpick; I'm just awed to begin with by how your 'verse comes together (looking through your discarded fic ideas and the rest of the blog I get the impression you feel the same) and I'm not sure whether it's better to let it unfold (for a hypothetical friend, I guess, since it's under the bridge for me) in posting/writing order (which I gather aren't the same thing, at least not for FIMfiction) like I did or hash out the chronological order- and if the front page isn't in chronological order, then what order is it? Is it your recommended reading order either way?
3395907 An alicorn's gestation period is the same as most ponies in Equestria (roughly one year) and you are correct that 'Paternally Yours' occurs after 'What's Done in the Dark'
(As I'm typing this, I noticed the inconsistency of my continuity listing on my Author Page. Thanks for helping me find that. This bloody universe...)
The way I see it, there's two ways of reading the in-continuity stories.
1. In chronological order, using the (now fixed) listing on my Author Page. This way the whole story can be understood without having to jump around.
2. In Published order. It's not one long sequence, but you pick up on hints and such along the way much like Stephen King and the way most of his novels tie into each other and the 'Dark Tower' series.
King's handling of his universe is kind-of my greatest writing inspiration, so let's use an example from that to compare what he does to what I'm trying to do.
Castle Rock, Maine, is King's preferred town for a great many of his works (Cujo, The Dead Zone, It Grows On You, the Sun Dog, Needful Things, etc.) The events of these stories are oftentimes mentioned in off-hand remarks.
Sometimes he gets a bit deeper. The villains of 'Insomnia' are the servants of the Crimson King, the main antagonist of the 'Dark Tower' novels. Father Callahan, one of the heroes of 'Salem's Lot,' turns up in 'Wolves of the Calla' and becomes a central character of the 'Dark Tower' novels from then on.
And (to use a non-Dark Tower reference) in the recent novel '11/22/63,' the hero travels to Derry, Maine in the mid-50s... the exact time period that 'IT' is taking place. He even runs into two of 'IT's main characters.
In almost none of these examples does King come out and say "HERE'S BEV AND RICHIE FROM IT." Instead, he drops hints and riddles that rewards fans of both books and will eventually pay off if someone reads one before the other.
What does this have to do with me? I'm trying something similar but on a much smaller scale. I know all these stories are building to an endgame... but I've chosen to write them out of order.
For most of my readers, the slow-burn began so long ago when Time Turner told Derpy that a storm was coming. But that kick-off line, that moment, actually takes place in the middle of the proverbial saga. The REAL first indication that some serious sh*t is about to go down actually happens in 'Phases of the Moon' with the first telling of the "Sons of Armor" prophecy.
Bloody hell, I get long winded when I try and explain things.
But I love it so...
In this story, Apple Bloom mentions that she has a niece. Is that going to be the subject of a future story, and will it be anything like Windfall?
3418134 Scarlet is the daughter of Macintosh and Fluttershy. This is her first in-continuity appearance, but I first wrote of her in 'Apple Family Secrets.'
3418158
Whoa, wait, I forgot about that Scarlet bit... so if she's already been born here but her parents' wedding circa Morning Glory comes after Luna was already pregnant in Phases of the Moon, Fluttershy must have had a relatively short term....
3422747 These stories run sometimes run concurrently, not just in sequence... but yes, Scarlet was born early.
Nice way to tie all three entries in the 'dear..." series and make freddy kruger look like a cupcake in the process...featherduster is messed up
Is it weird that I heard Robert Englund's voice as Feather Duster?
You know...I don't think I'll ever understand why I love this continuity so much. I don't think I will ever know, but I am glad to have read this.
The characters are all well done, with no complaints from me. The interactions with them, the determination in their eyes, and the bravery all make for an exciting read. It's also done in a way that a new reader doesn't really feel lost because they never read your other stories. This is just a great fic overall.
Now, with a reading,
That was Freddy Krueger, traversing space and time to kill feather duster for stealing his job.
8759740
nope. its balial from king of lies.
You are absolutely mad.
10745892
Yeah, this is one of the ones that hasn't aged well.
10745968
Don't be hard on yourself, I thought this was great. XD
10745968
What makes you say that?
10999002
It feels rushed and the tone is all over the place.