Epilogue: Revelations
Samus Aran, otherwise known as Sammy to people who didn't care to learn her proper name, blinked her eyes before reaching up and rubbing them. She had just spent a whole year watching someone else live their life. Every happy, sad and private moment she had just witnessed and she only felt like she had just finished watching a lengthy movie. Clearly something had been done to her to allow her do this. She hadn't once felt the need to eat or drink let alone gotten up to ask where the refresher was to relieve herself.
Sammy stopped rubbing her eyes and looked down at her lap. Carina was still there and still eating from her bucket of ever filling gummy bears, but at the very least she had slowed down a little to watch the life and times of Emerald Gleaner. Turning to her side, Orion was still there but now was sans a bucket of his own as he lounged back on his luxurious couch. Samus didn't know how or why, but she had the distinct feeling that he had gotten up a few times to attend to some other matters.
She was about to question him further when Carina started fidgeting a lot on her lap. Looking back, she saw Carina had decided to massively and disgustingly gorge herself on the gummy bears. Tossing whole handfuls into her mouth and swallowing them whole, an act that would have had normal children choking to death the moment they tried. Samus didn't bother to try and hide the disgusted scowl at the sight.
"Carina, stop eating like a damn pig!" the bounty hunter growled and grabbed both of Carina's arms.
"But why!?!" Carina whined and struggled a little against her babysitter's grip. She could have easily used her abilities to break free of the grip on her and force Samus to not do that again, but for some reason she didn't.
"Because you are being completely disgusting, eating the way you are!" Samus said as she let go of Carina to take away the bucket she had been eating from. The young Astral Lady stared with wide, watery eyes and a trembling, pouting lip as she watched Samus do this, again only putting up a token resistance as the bounty hunter put it out of reach behind the couch.
"Stop that," Samus commanded when tears started to flow down Carina's cheeks and frowned when she began to cry softly. Sighing in irritation, the bounty hunter pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment as she considered what to distract Carina with. After a moment, she tentatively got an idea.
"Why don't you read something instead?" Samus asked.
"Read?" Carina asked in confusion, the tears instantly gone. "Read what?"
"Uhh..." Glad that she had managed to distract the child, Samus began thinking of a book for her to read when one popped into existence on the armrest. Quickly grabbing it, the bounty hunter read the title before presenting it to Carina.
"This, Heritage of Horror," Samus said, but frowned when she considered what she said. "Wait a second I-"
Too late, the book vanished from her grasp and reappeared in Carina's hands. The little Astral girl proceeded to turn the book this way and that as she examined it from every angle before opening the book upside down to a random page. Giving the contents a look over, Carina then turned the book right side up before reading from the first page.
Still wondering if the book she had given Carina was appropriate for her, the former bounty hunter none the less gave an approving nod at her charge. Samus then frowned as she wondered if she would get in trouble for being harsh with an Astral Lord. Taking a look around, however, proved that no one really cared what was going on in her little spot, more concerned with the large crystal ball before them. Orion was the sole exception, and was looking at her out of the corner of his eyes with an amused grin.
'You do not have to worry about others, Samus Aran,' she heard in her head, proving that Orion actually was capable of using her proper name. 'You were brought here to be Carina's babysitter, after all. How she is to be cared for is up to you unless her mother says otherwise. And of that you have no worry. She trusts my word after all, and is enjoying her free time far too much to think of taking Carina's care back into her own hands.'
'YOU were the one who told her to a get a babysitter?' Samus frowned both at the revelation and how Orion seemed to want to keep this talk private. 'And you suggested ME of all people... why?'
'I did not suggest you specifically,' Orion answered. 'You just happened to be at the top of a rather extended list of people I gave to her. I suppose she either figured you were the best choice... or more likely she trusted all my suggestions to be good and simply grabbed the one at the top of the list.'
'...But why me? Why a mortal being and not one of your own?' the former bounty hunter asked, not sure whether to be feeling furious or confused. 'I have no clear idea of how your powers work. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to get another Astral Lord to watch over Carina instead of me?'
'Ah, now that is the question, isn't it?' Orion hummed in amusement. 'Why you and not someone who can properly teach Carina? Why, the answer is sitting on your lap. Look at her.'
Samus did and stiffened at the sight she saw. Carina was on her lap, and therefore she was practically in her face. This made the fact she now had a dozen protruding,- bulbous eyes coming out of her skull, and the fact her mouth was a writhing mass of tumorous tentacles rather... unappealing. After a moment, Carina giggled and her face returned to normal with a bright smile. She learned against Samus' chest and snuggled in close before returning her attention back to her book.
Samus turned back to Orion with a most displeased expression on her face.
'As amusing as that was, that was not what I meant,' Orion communicated. 'Carina's mother would not have grown disgusted with her daughter's behavior and likely would have just let her continue eating for decades on end. Not you. You saw her manners as what they were, disgusting. You made her stop, then you gave her something else to amuse herself with; something to occupy her mind. It is sad to say, but with this one action short of giving birth to her yourself, you have been more of a mother to Carina than her actual one. There is nothing bad to say of the Lady in question. However, she is just... more of a friend to little Carina than an actual mother. A child needs friends, but above that a responsible mother is more important.'
'That's what this is about?' Samus frowned. 'You wanted Carina to have guidance?'
'Yes and no,' Orion replied, and for once the easy going smile dropped from his face, replaced by a frown instead. 'It is good that Carina will be given the guidance she needs to be a good person, but what is more important is that more children have the same.'
'I'm not the only one, aren't I?' Samus asked. 'There are more people like me, normal mortal people taken from their worlds to be babysitters and nannies for your children... is it really that important that you need to do this? And are local parents so lacking in... maturity that they can't be trusted to do it themselves?'
'Oh, we have been around for countless eons. We do well enough on our own,' Orion answered. 'But most likely they perpetuate this endless circle by teaching their habits to the next generation as it were. And while that isn't so bad in comparison to what lies beyond our borders, it can be so much MORE... I am going to tell you a short tale, my dear...'
In one instant, Samus found herself no longer in the large room with the many couches and massive crystal ball. She now found herself sitting in the emptiness of space surrounded by stars and nebulas, sitting on an armchair facing Orion who was sitting in his own.
"Countless eons ago, in a universe long since since dead and had rebirthed dozens of times, there existed a stellar Empire," Orion began, their surroundings changing at his words. Seemingly showing a universe undergoing many heated deaths and violent rebirths in reverse before slowing and rushing inwards to show a pristine world of greens and blues. "This Empire cherished knowledge, but was pragmatic in the true ways of their world. Through power of technology and magic interwoven together, they rose to meet many challenges. No matter what they faced, be it mortal, divine or inward sedition, they met these challenges and overcame them, becoming stronger with each victory."
"Eventually they came to control the whole of their world and rose to the stars to make them their own as well," Orion continued, the surroundings changing and displaying what his words described. "They would meet yet more rivals, more of those who would challenge their right to exist amongst the stars. But like the challenges upon their world, they met each fearlessly and grew stronger yet with each victory. Eventually sedition would strike them again and one of their own betrayed them to work with the enemy. This traitor would have given their enemies soldiers capable of meeting them as equals and maybe even crush their onward expansion and ever growing power. So putting all their strength and will towards ending this traitor, they tracked him and his allies down, but not before they succeeded in actually creating these soldiers."
"The traitor knew his people were coming and took his few creations aboard a ship. They were not perfected just yet, but that did not matter; they would be fixed later when they were safe to work once more. However, the traitor underestimated just how close his people were and they were upon him before he and his protectors could react."
All around Samus and Orion, a battle in space silently raged. One side numbered nearly ten thousand ships, but they were still outnumbered by the other, at nearly twenty to one. Samus correctly guessed that the Empire wanted no chance of defeat. Suddenly, what could only be the flagship of the traitor was cored by a powerful beam that nearly blinded Samus. For a long moment the battle seemed to suddenly pause and halt, before a massive rip in reality instantly formed where the flagship had been.
"Aboard the ship of the traitor was a special device used to tear apart the fabric of reality," Orion explained. "This was how the traitor left the Empire and was how he had intended to escape it when they hunted him. Unfortunately for him, when his ship was gutted it also damaged the device as it was charging, prematurely tearing open a rip in reality that tore apart nearly every ship that was pulled into it."
The rip in reality did as Orion described and tore apart or disintegrated any ship that so much as grazed it as they fought to escape its pull. One ship was almost successful at doing just that. To Samus' eyes, it looked like a freighter or large troop carrier with massive engines. This ship had no weapons and even if it had, its cargo was too valuable to risk in a fight so it had been fleeing the moment the fight started. This fact seemed to be what saved it.
Orion had said nearly every ship was destroyed by the rip, and it was true. By the time the freighter was pulled back towards the rip, the rest of its protective fleet had been annihilated, but the rip was also beginning to close. Running out of the energies that opened it in the first place, the portal grew smaller and briefly stabilized as it swallowed the freighter and collapsed in on itself.
"The Empire was victorious yet again and no doubt they would go on to greatness, but this story was never truly about them," Orion stated. "No, our story follows that freighter."
Energies of incomprehensible colors churned around the ship as it spun and twisted in ways that should have shattered it like a dry twig, no doubt however to the ship's great fortune the laws of physics were different in this place. Suddenly the ship was back in reality, but it wasn't in the right place, attested to by the fact the ship was not only in atmosphere, but on a planet, and by the fact the front half of the ship was now fused with a mountain in some jungle. Years seemed to pass then as plant life soon rapidly over grew the ship and the elements caused its hull to ever so slowly rust, when the proper passage of time reasserted itself. A large chunk of ship hull suddenly blew open and out came human looking children in the thousands. They wandered about the area around the decayed ship, no doubt wondering what to do when a massive dragon like beast burst out of the foliage. For a moment, it seemed like the children were about to be slaughtered when the beast was torn to pieces by spikes suddenly shooting out of the ground, shards of ice sent flying at supersonic speeds and bits of metal from the ship itself. The children then fell upon the body with glee, savaging it more but growing sad when they realised it was dead.
"These children were the soldiers that had been intended to fight the Empire," Orion continued with a nostalgic yet oddly sad grin. "They would name themselves after their attempts to pronounce what remained of the designation upon the ship, Gor'ens. They were imperfect because they were not fully grown and their biological programming was not finished just yet, merely giving them the NEED to fight to enjoy fighting and to fall into a coma if they did not satiate this need. Their population was one long, constant explosion and their programming meant the society they would make would completely revolve around war and nothing else. Not drink, not sex, not food, not valuables; just pure war. They enjoyed it with a glee not often seen outside of small children."
At that, Samus suddenly had a mental image of a small, cheerful Carina smiling up at her, giving her a hint of what this tale may be leading up to.
"Within two millennia the Gor'ens now spanned their world, though their numbers had yet to reach a billion; a fact only constant infighting kept from being realised," Orion said, an image of a beautiful green and blue jewel that was the Gor'ens' homeworld. "Within another two, their people were billions strong and was already spreading across their solar system. For they were made both strong and intelligent, their all consuming desire for conflict being their only limiting factor. However, this desire for war went into high gear when they finally come into first contact with another race and the wider galaxy as a whole."
"Upon meeting another race, it was as if a switch had been thrown in the Gor'ens' brains," Orion stated. All around them were images of Gor'ens stopping what they were doing no matter what it was to look up the news. "In that moment, all infighting had stopped completely and the Gor'ens turned their attentions to the race they had just met. For that race, it was a routine first contact, and an equally gone bad first contact when the Gor'ens attacked. At first they were simply a nuisance, attacking ships many times their betters, but feared on the ground. Though soon they caught up and became dangerous, and they didn't stop there. They became known as a great evil. The barbarian hordes at the gates in the age of spaceships and stellar empires."
"In the following ten thousand years, the Gor'ens washed across the galaxy, their shapes darkened the skies of a million worlds," Orion stated solemnly as images of war and death flashed all around them. "At the end of those ten thousand years, alien races who took their first steps into the wider galaxy, expecting an enlightened society, are greeted with death and fire."
"In the following one hundred thousand years, they initially tore each other apart again in their newly conquered galaxy, before turning their sights outward," Orion continued as images of countless fleets, each at least a billion strong in ships alone flashed by, all aimed at an unsuspecting universe. "At the end of those hundred thousand years, the Gor'ens occupied several hundred galaxies, their grand empire built on a foundation of innocent slaughter and the ashes of cultures far more deserving."
"In the following five hundred thousand years, the Gor'ens expanded ever faster." Orion sighed. "Their armies and fleets filling faster than they could spend them on the defenses of knowing and unknowing enemies alike, their strength only growing greater as they developed ever more deadly implements of war. A hundred conquered galaxies became a thousand, then a hundred thousand, then a million. By the end of that five hundred thousand years, they conquered their billionth galaxy and were not slowing in the slightest."
"In the next million years, the Gor'ens grew ever more exponentially." Orion waved to the images of fleets so vast they clouded the skies of every world in a galaxy and armies so huge they trampled entire planets flat. "By the end of that million years they conquered over a hundred billion galaxies, and for the first time since their war upon the universe for no reason save it was fun they looked all around them... and saw no one left to fight, no possible lands left to hold new enemies. The entirety of the universe was theirs to do with as they wished and no other sapient species that traveled the stars lived. And what did they do? They started fighting the one people left standing... themselves."
"Whole galaxies died in the turmoil that followed," Orion said softly with a hint of trepidation in his voice as images flashed by, showing ships as massive as stars flying through planets and exchanging fire with ships that matched themselves in size or incredibly huge swarms of 'little ones'. For ONE. BILLION. YEARS. One billion years this state continued, a state of war and death unending. And what happened at the end of this billion years of slaughter? An accident. By this time their weapons grew so powerful that they started to tear apart the fabric of reality. Eventually one observant Gor'en decided to investigate this effect, if only to potentially develop ever more potent weapons. What he discovered would bring the Gor'ens literally unlimited enemies. The entirety of the multiverse was revealed to them and once more the whole of the Gor'en race instantly ceased their interwarring and quickly reorganized to mobilize against all unlimited existence. This could be counted as fortunate on their part, as while their wars were immensely destructive, they were still out growing their death rates. They were beginning to drive their universe to an early heat death thanks to their numbers and the vastness of their weapons. Most would say this would have been preferred to what would happen next.”
“Once they had expanded outside of their home universe, there was no stopping them... initially," Orion said somberly, the images flashed by showing victory after victory, before suddenly it was all replaced by Gor'ens dying by the trillions. "The Gor'ens met their fateful foes, local ascendants and gods who were banded together to protect their local territories against the destruction of interdimensional warlords. Now they faced a new threat that had arisen within their midst. They were reality warpers and gods incarnate, but the Gor'ens had been waging war for over a billion years. Their weapons technology was nothing to scoff at as a few overconfident ascendants soon learned; a lethal lesson for others to take to heart."
"God and Gor'en died in the war that followed, for every one god they killed, untold numbers of their own died in the effort," Orion stated with a resigned sigh. "But the Gor'en’s desire to wage war and become ever better at it continued. For the Gor'ens, the war against gods was not nearly as fun as it could be. It was far too one sided with only one of theirs that died for every quadrillion or so of the Gor'ens. So the Gor'ens sought a means to even the playing field for the first time since they arrived upon that planet ages ago. They looked towards sciences and ideas they barely touched upon; they sought ascension."
"With their collective resources focused on this goal, the war against the gods raged for a century; a bloody century that left every universe the Gor'ens ever touched deeply scarred from their warring," Orion said and clenched his jaw muscles in agitation. "The Gor'ens sought ascension without enlightenment. For most races, this would be doomed to failure. But not them... so great was their determination and will to even the playing field against the gods, they eventually succeeded."
"When it happened, it did not happen slowly. It happened all at once," Orion explained as images showed Gor'ens awash with bright energies across all the universes they fought in. "In one moment, the gods were fighting a war of deadly attrition against a people that, while dangerous, would be but ash and dust in the wind with a wave of their hands. The next moment they were fighting a freshly ascended people who could warp reality just as easily as they could. The newly ascended race did not know their new powers, but it ultimately did not matter. Instead of quadrillions dying for every one god, it was only a hundred. The gods died drowning in a sea of enemies and the multiverse was left at the mercy of the new ascended. Ascended who renamed themselves after the appearance of universes in the emptiness of the multiverse, the Lords of the Stars... Astral Lords."
"...So that's how your people came to be," Samus commented as she took in the images of the heroic last stand of the gods against the newly created Astral Lords. "So what happened next? Did all of you fall to infighting again?"
"If only that were the case," Orion replied with a mirthless smile and shake of his head. "No, my newly ascended ancestors only ever fought each other when there was no other possible foe. And that most certainly was not the case with the infinity that was this bubble of the multiverse they now found themselves masters of."
"So we fell upon the multiverse with a childlike glee," Orion continued, images now showing unbelievable slaughter and war, so much so Samus found herself feeling numb to it all. Unable to truly wrap her mind around the scale of the fighting, images flashed by, most of them alien to her, but two brief ones were very recognizable. It was of her; two alternate universe versions of her. One was her ship being completely surrounded and blown up while another was of her on the wrong end of a horribly one sided fight. "For a thousand years, the plague of unmerciful slaughter and devastation that was the Astral Lords unchained and unbound by mortality and the laws of physics ravaged the multiverse. Precious few could slow our rampage. Fewer still had any clear idea of what was going on before it was already over. But as whole clusters of galaxies and universes died, something began to slowly happen. We were growing bored of the one thing we were born to enjoy most."
"You may recall that we were an engineered people who were biologically programmed to enjoy war," Orion said with a true, genuine smile. "However, we were biological creatures no longer. The moment we ascended was the moment we no longer experienced a NEED for war, though we still did it because it was part of who we were as a people."
"And so it was, the years past and more new generations were born knowing of war as the great game but had no real need for it," Orion continued a little happily. "At the end of a thousand years, the Astral Lords who still practiced war as the great game had fallen into an insignificant fraction of our whole. Our people were now looking for something to fill the hole our programming left. Some interacted with our charges, our dustling subjects, named so for they are but stardust to the stars we lord over. Some simply traveled about, looking at interesting sights. And some simply decided to watch the dustlings as they laughed, lived, fought and loved. It was this last group that drew the most of us."
"So here we are an eternity later!" Orion said grandly with a gesture to his surroundings, images flashed by of the Astral Lords as they are now, reality warpers who dressed in victorian styles and lived in palaces as big as planets and watched the children of the star dust as they lived their brief lives. "We are certainly better than what we once were, but I wouldn't exactly call what we are now a state we should be happy with. We are a people who ascended without enlightenment. Our powers were won through conquest and violence at the cost of countless lives. Many would likely damn their own people if they had done but a fraction of the destruction mine did, but they are still my people. Enough death and destruction has been done. It's time for more subtle measures. It's time for people like you, Samus Aran."
Samus leaned forward and clasped her hand over her closed fist in front of her face, thinking intently of everything she had heard. Suddenly her days as adopted daughter of the Chozo and renowned bounty hunter seemed like a lifetime ago as her mind wrapped around the facts she was facing and the implications she surmised. After a long moment, she leaned back in her armchair with a sigh.
"Okay... I can see why I was kidnapped and forced into babysitting, now. I can even see the importance of it," Samus stated as she crossed her legs and inwardly wished for a drink, a wish Orion granted an instant later. "You want people with a different outlook on life, those with different values and lifestyles so they can imbue those same life values in Astral children. For while the Astral Lords can take care of and raise their own, their own views and lifestyles are inappropriate for children, let alone these new, better Astral Lords you want. So you want "dustlings" like me to care for you children and raise them ourselves, whole generations of Astral Lords raised with ideals imbued into them by us to become a more restrained and moral breed of Astral."
"Exactly!" Orion smiled. "Astrals like me are rather... rare. I wish that weren't so, that we weren't an ascended race of... of... almighty idiots. But we are what we are. An engineered race made for war so we ascended in ignorance rather than in enlightenment as most ascended do. But now… now is the chance to work towards self improvement in earnest rather than let the natural social evolution take place, something that is rather impractical considering the model was thought up with a society whose members are killed off by old age every once in a while."
"That reminds me..." Samus said with a thoughtful look. "You mentioned how the Infinite Kingdom rules only this "bubble" of the multiverse, and that certain actions are taken so that neighboring bubbles are made into a sort of buffer state to shield the Kingdom's realms from outside aggression. Who exactly does that or ensures that Lords don't wander out into multiverse at large and cause havoc?"
"They are the Astral Knights," Orion answered and the surrounding images shifted, now showing a collection of Astral Lords whose demeanor was shockingly solemn in comparison to the Lords Samus met so far. They wore the standard victorian style clothing but had a cuirass of simple iron over it and a rapier strapped to their sides, seemingly the only things to mark these people as Astral Knights rather than simple Lords. "They are our protectors from those who would assault us... and they also serve as judge, jury and, when the situation calls for it, executioner of Astral Lords who go too far."
Samus Aran merely raised an eyebrow, a simple act that showed her incredulous thoughts regarding the Knights' effectiveness as a police force.
"I know, it doesn't seem like they are doing a good job considering what a good number of Lords get up to, doesn't it?" Orion stated with an agreeing nod. "However you must realize that even we can't be everywhere and the Knights make up a tiny fraction of our total population. There is simply only so much they can do and so they must focus on the worst cases. Otherwise they'd be tied up in, comparatively, minor crimes."
"Are you one of them?" Samus asked.
"No I am not," Orion replied. "They say I've come a long way, but I'm not quite there yet."
"Considering the vastness of your population, I'm likely hardly the first to get roped into this," Samus stated. "Or that the people like me taking care of Astral Children are in any little number."
"Of course!" Orion laughed. "One can hardly cause a social revolution one at a time. There are trillions of people like you taking care and raising our children. And that's just counting my rather meager contributions to the cause. There are many more like minded Lords who have thrown in their lot with the social revolution and made their own efforts to make us better in a whole."
"So now that I'm in the know... what's next?" the former bounty hunter asked.
"Now...?" Orion began. "Now you get back to raising your charge and enjoying the show."
"Of course," Samus said and blinked as she instantly found herself back in the large viewing room with the many couches and massive crystal ball. Orion was sitting back in his seat like nothing happened, sly smirk upon his features. None of the other Lords had moved as well and the scene in the crystal ball hadn't moved past the point she had last seen it in. Carina, however...
"Where did all those books come from?" Samus asked with a raised brow at her charge.
"You and Orion were taking an instant too long," Carina answered absently as she turned a page. She was no longer on Samus' lap and was lying on her belly on the couch, her legs kicking in the air behind her as she read the book before her and had a rather large stack of apparently read books on the floor. "So I read other stuff while you two were doing things."
"So you got bored waiting for an instant in time to pass by?" Samus stated with furrowed brows before sighing. "I suppose if I'm going to put in the effort, I ought to teach you proper patience."
"AWWW, BUT THAT'S BORING!" Carina whined.
In his seat, Orion smiled subtly at Carina and her babysitter before turning his head briefly to look out the still open door Carina and Samus had entered through.
Walking by the door at that very moment was a very familiar blonde haired, blue eyed and fair skinned woman, wearing victorian clothes but far too prideful to be wearing anything feminine and so was wearing the more masculine version tailored to her frame. Two Astral children on the cusp of being teenagers were at her sides and holding her hands, a brother and sister who were gabbering away contentedly to their caretaker, who had a smile though ever so slight it was.
'Trillions of people just like you, indeed,' Orion thought, laughing inwardly. 'Perhaps I should have mixed up the lists I gave out to everyone just a bit? Ah well, variety may be the spice of life but the devil you know and all that. I'm sure the metaphor does something clever there. Now back to business.'
With that, Orion got ready for the next part of the tale unfolding before him. Season three of that cartoon series was up next, but at the rate Emerald's presence was beginning to charge up major aspects of the world, the Astral Lord figured it would be soon time to "forget canon" as it were.
'How exhilarating.' Orion smiled in anticipation. 'I could easily look ahead but that would be cheating. Plus it would ruin the surprise, and that is the last thing I want to do. Such an interesting little Dustling, Emerald is... well, on with the show.'
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i.imgur.com/ir3MzxH.jpg
Can't wait for the next book!Take your time!
I ... Whu ? ... What ? .... WHAT ?!!! I don't understand !
Something about these people reminds me of the civilization told of in Dissidia. It's hard to explain what it is exactly though.
wut...?
i think i need to reread the last chapter.
Nice to see you got your technical problems solved.
Also, considering how the last book ended with the Astral Lords stating non-interference, I kind of feel like these epilogues aren't really needed, and they are just adding...well not even filler.
Unless...
Oh God.
Emerald is going to ascend through war...and be a new Astral Lord...
...ok.
6123251 you can call it filler if you wish. But everthing has a point, even if it's foundation for the future.
Also it appears a great many people forgot about how it is Emerald first arrived in Equestria. I said it once I say it again I refuse to let it be some unknowable mystery, they are why she is here though I don't really bring them up often.
6123284
We do remember they brought him...her...it there. But that's their impact on Emerald. With the stated no interference policy they will not have any more of impact on Emerald's story. And that's what this is. Emerald's story, and the story of those she affects.
I just feel like you have done everything you need to with the Astral Lords after the epilogue in the last book. Anything else I feel is not necessary.
Still, as long as they just stay in the epilogue, it isn't really that big of a deal. Can't wait for next book.
6123163 That picture reminds me of a quote I heard from... Either Tony Stark, or Peter Parker, I can't remember, but it said: "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
EDIT: I was completley wrong, its from Batman
6123188 at points in the series, we'v epulled back to these Gods and their 'guest' Samus. We've been seeing Emerald through their 'TV' of sorts. The Gods and samus are more of a framing system right now more than anything, and the relevance of them to Emerald's actual story will likely pan out later in the next 'book' so to speak. Don't worry, the writer didn't go bug nuts or anything, Just have faith fellow reader.
6123168 oh hai there!
Was hoping for Emerald since I got more emotional investment in her, but was an...interesting chapter.
6123470 I did the same thing for the epilogue in the last book if you recall
6123453 H-hello.
6123356 Okay, thank you
I think I messed up and took a wrong turn...
Nope, I at the write place...
Soooo... What the hell did I just read?
I mean, it's like someone tried to Insert Winnie the Pooh right in the middle of the Zodiac!
what?
6123481 Oh yes yes I know and wasn't complaining about that. I just got overly excited when I saw your story had updated and was thinking `yes more Emerald!` until I saw it was the last chapter and went `Aww end of a story no Emerald, ah well always the next book in the series!`
6123553 try looking at the epilogue of the last book. You just might notice something familiar
6123622 oh I know. Truth be told I am rather glad season 3 is so short, lets me get to the big stuff quickly. The third book may be more action filled then even the first one.
Wow
You just invented ROBS.
6123673 I've had them for a while now, they aren't exactly a recent creation
So... they're all Orks?
...well shit.
6123760 Basically, save they lack one issue the Orks have. Orks spend as much time killing each other as they do other races. What the Astral Lords once were only fell to infighting when there was no other enemy.
It is said the Orks could conquer the universe if only they could work together. I agree
Just a little longer, just a little longer.
Really enjoyed the story, Legionary, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Also, I really got a kick out of that Earthbound reference.
WTF is this shit
I am vibrating with excitement, impatience, and a need to pee. I can only do something about one of these things. Only you can do something about the other two.
If it worked, I'd give you my old laptop.
6124221 Oh hey its Grumpy Cat! I haven't heard from you in a while! How have you been?
??
?????
Uhhh. Did you post this chapter in the right story?
Is this going to be a crossover with metroid?
Emerald is going to become an ascended god?
What the fuck was this?
I mean it was a good read. But what?
6124667 continuation of the first book's epilogue basically, I can understand you not remembering though. I mean I did finish writing that story a year ago.
Anyway, Emerald has already beaten down and is far stonger then most beings who are seen as gods in Equestria. I think that's given her some godly credence
6124648 good but seriously wtf is this
6124792 just a continuation of the last book's epilogue. I had intended to quickly write it up and get it uploaded a day or two after the final chapter of this book but a broken computer and being forced to write this up on a phone delayed it immensely
Ah ha! So we finally get to see the Astral Lords again, I was beginning to wonder.
And you even shed some light on their origins, which was great; who would've thought they started out as crazed science experiments gone horribly wrong.
...Who now hire people like Samus Aran as babysitters. Not bad at all, actually.
Who was the one woman with the teenagers, though? Another Crossover? Didn't recognize her.
All in all, this was a great loose-end-tying chapter, and can't wait to see more.
Carry on!
Wait a sec... If I remember correctly, Discord is an Astral Lord in EGAU. Unless the author is scrapping that idea, I suppose that would be carried to here as well.
That said, Emerald got some of Discord's stuff in her.
Eh, she's part Astral Lord
(unless, you know, the author disproves this)
6124898
Perhaps its an alternate version of her? Because what Orion says after the girl is mentioned sounded pretty literal to me.
But i haven't really played Metroid anyways so I wouldn't know how to describe Samus.
6124926 yeah scrapping that idea, no dancing around the bush here. EGAU was my first story and now that I recall the original content and plot lines I had for it I just cringe because of the utterly wrong direction I took the story in. The rewritten plot lines stays in the Atlantean reality for... a good long while rather then the snap shot of Atlantean worlds and peoples it originally was.
6125102 It is another reality's version of her, you are correct.
A wild chapter has appeared! Attachment unlocked -what's your excuse- 'this chapter was written in 2 months on a phone, what's your excuse?'
I better pull my finger out and get that cover art done for book 3.
6125185 Spud's done his coverart for this book as well, he just needs a scanner to get it online
6125221 K. At the moment I've been painting that retry of the 'Emerald baggy clothes' sketch. Trying to get the hair right.
well, now that we've got the epilogue out of the way and the book is completed, it's time for me to ask a question that's been bugging me for a while now.
How are sex and sexuality viewed in your version of Equestria? Because at some points the story seems to contradict itself on that topic.
Usually it seems like the ponies of Equestria have absolutely no concept of the existence of sex at all. When Emerald did that new add campaign with the provocative poses, they made a lot of ponies that looked at them "feel weird", but none of those ponies ever realised what that weird feeling actually was. Not even Fancy Pants realised, even while watching his wife pose for him.
The only way that's possible is if they've never been aroused, ever. If they had, then even if they didn't understand why it made them react that way, they would at least understand what the reaction itself was.
And on top of that, when Emerald and Twilight started dating, the backlash about it wasn't some sort of philosophical or religiously based opposition. Ponies were simply and genuinely confused at why two mares would want to date since they can't have foals together.
But then there are other times where they very definitely know what both sex and arousal are. When Emerald was telling her backstory to Rarity and she mentioned losing her virginity, Rarity not only didn't have to ask what she was talking about, she immediately knew and understood the significance of both the word itself and the impact of Emerald's situation on her choice to do that. Likewise, when Emerald first went to Ponyville in her pony form, the various male ponies of the town obviously found her physically attractive, and more importantly, the mares with them knew the significance of that attraction and got mad at them for it.
At first I thought it was just some sort of a selective filter put in place by the Elements, since they've been revealed to be not only sapient, but to have a plan of their own. But there's a problem with that theory as well.
When Celestia saw the adds, she immediately knew the significance of Emerald's poses, and on top of that, she knew that her ponies would not understand them. If the Elements were manipulating things, Celestia would most likely have been more concerned about the fact that her ponies were so blinded, or she wouldn't have caught the reference at all herself.
And the end of this book also made it clear that it's not just ponies that are affected by whatever this is, but the other races of the planet as well, since Master Gyatso had the same reaction to Emerald's adds that all the other ponies did.
So is that intentional, and there will be some sort of big reveal later to explain it all? Or is there some sort of plot hole in there making things more confusing than they should be?
An ending with an unnecessary complicated story
Wut. Just, what? Samus? When did this turn into a Metroid crossover?
Okay, that explains everything.
6125344 It's on purpose, ponies don't "get the joke" unless it's made obvious. Rarity only thought that Emerald had chaste relationship with Sophie, with kisses being the most they got up to until Emerald bluntly told her they had sex with each other. The Stallions were attracted and their girlfriends got mad at them for very clearly giving Emerald attention by staring at her but they weren't thinking 'I'd tap that.' it was more appreciating the fact that Emerald is a very beautiful mare. As for Celestia and her sister, you'll notice she didn't immediately realise what Emerald's posing was implying as she had to study the pictures for a while before she realised what the posing was about, same for Luna though it was offscreen. The reason it didn't fly over the heads of those two is because they've been alive for a very long time.
Long story short, ponies are innocent and don't get sly innuendos unless you make it clear you are talking about sex. They'll either take you literally or think you are implying something different.
6125346 Ending? This is the epilogue, if you want the ending you may want to click on that link to the previous chapter.
6125364 You may want to refresh your memory by reading Book 1's epilogue
6125371 you know what i mean