This story is a sequel to Into the Black: A Mare's Tale
It has been one year since the battle for Equestria. As always, the ponies stood victorious by standing together, but at a great and terrible cost. Wounds can be healed and buildings rebuilt, but the cost of life was high indeed.
Now is the time of peace and ponies eagerly await to visit their new human allies. Fluttershy and Applejack step into the stars to teach them the ways of agriculture, as no one matches the Equestrian labor ethic. Even as they settle in and make some new friends, the that darkness festered as wars were won and lost in the shining megalopolis of Magnasanti. Something breathes in the dark. Something is coming, and it fully intends to humble pony and humans alike.
Prereaders: Midnight Spark, The Synn Lofsvard
Co-story to: Nightmare's Dream
It is not necessary to read the prequel.
Welcome home, my friend.
this is the sequel, or other mini story ?
5638350 This is one of the sequels.
You mean like this guy?
cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/830079109060478061/6C87FC2B557328A511A4E7FA9BAB9C783F6E0CB5/
5638656
A little closer to this guy.
5638350
Yup, sequel. I'm the one who got shiro's shit together.
Color me intrigued...
5639474 I like my picture better. Oh, the name of the character in my pic is Skeletron Prime.
5640828
I'm very pleased you enjoyed it.
Lulz
5691585
Just wait until the inevitable hurricane of dick jokes come.
I tried capturing the randomness of a chat room while still retaining some semblance of plot. I think I did alright.
For reasons known to very few, I eagerly await future interludes.
5692271
The sixth chapter.
5692286 Excellent.
Here's a totally unrelated to anything story. Absolutely nothing to do with the fic. Not spoiling anything at all. No way. I am not the kind of person to do that.
Finally, a little exchange I came up with that can be used freely. It's best used when someone's being a bit arrogant and silly.
5692414
If you'd like, you can follow my format for chat logs and create your own. I actually encourage it.
5692441 I might take a shot at that. The tab will stay open on my tablet for the time being.
Wow. SCP references here and there, megacorps, and now Shadowrun all over the place? Very nice. I've got to keep an eye on this story... and definitely looking forward to future interludes, in particular.
There you are. I was wondering if you were going to just skip this update.
I think you're off to a good start with this. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out with Nightmare's Dream.
Space Engineers make for good impromptu psychologists
I like where this is going...
5745388
Yeah, I overslept. I had a wicked headache to nurse after the weekend.
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I'm glad you've liking it so far. I'm still a little nervous concerning particular events later; my story is considerably darker than shirotora's. Still, I have plans for incorporating items of interest, especially during the interludes.
5746121
No, you can't have a janky claw arm Orc space mechanic.
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I hope you do, and I've got plenty more planned.
If you'd like, since I couldn't get around posting them for this chapter, I do have a little extra bonus content: two alternate scenes concerning the dream sequence.
I can be anything, but alone I am nothing.
I can humble kings, but I am not man.
I can be a sight, but I cannot see.
I can be a sound, but I cannot hear.
I can be a word, but I cannot speak.
What am I?
5801920 Beauty
Synergy is the ultimate troll XP
5803982
Yup, that's the line that inspired SINless.
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When I commented about tidal waves of dick jokes, I wasn't kidding. Nothing is sacred on the information superhighway. I have so much more fun writing these interludes than chapters.
5802243
When i said I had slipped things into the story in the interludes, it's this chapter that starts it. The riddle is the key. People have yet to find the lock.
5804298
No matter how advanced we get, this will be a universal truth.
Those last six lines are comedy gold.
You mean by receiving superior firepower from afar. The ponies weren't the victorious ones, it just happened in their country.
6156140
No, Xander specifically mentioned that battles were being fought in the Griffon and Zebra lands as well. I have Word of God on this from shirotora as well.
And they fought well enough on their own. True, it would have been a battle of attrition if Disord didn't step in, but they fought on equal terms.
I know the details. It kinda was a requirement to write one of the stories after all.
Oh, god, someone gave Technia internet access!
Well, he's dead
What would she think about Jupiter?
Ah, modern art... Holy shit, I just realized, some day modern art will be considered classic art...
Way to remember one of your best friends, AJ
We already used 'Habogad', and 'Bob', so why not
6359264
Pfft. After the booze farm AJ just went through she's lucky to remember she's a pony.
6360110
Nope. I just published four different things and shiro road my coat tails. Although it is more of a side story than anything, and horrendously NSFW, the epic beer crawl Applejack had with Sophia can be followed up on in Liquid Courage. I published Grey Hat last because I was going to reference it in the author's notes in this chapter, but I needed that to be published first.
This chapter was primarily to introduce everyone. Now the story truly begins.
6360127 You mean I was waiting for you
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0c/0f/26/0c0f26ac9141aba9476fc7e933645134.jpg
6358589 I don't know who it was either. For now, this should suffice:
i39.tinypic.com/3308qox.jpg
6360054 The hills aren't safe. They've been hollowed out for multifunction mecha launch bays and armories. You can also go inside and find tons of full sensory VR games. The mountains aren't safe either, as they're simply bigger hills.
Also, who's Jynx Charm?
6444377
Making a fake newspaper is shockingly irritating even when the transfer isn't being a butt and messing up my URLs.
6446003
I will say that the particular writing style was very deliberate. Third-person limited is my bread and butter. When the time comes where I switch characters, how its written also changes. Jack in the prologue is a smart, secretive individual, so while information is plentiful, there's no real definite conclusions about certain things. For Fluttershy, things become a more about emotion. For AJ it's about others more than herself.
Same thing for the guardian. What you're seeing is confirmation bias. You are reading the world exactly as someone else is, but his very on everything is very esoteric. You are seeing what he sees, and although you and he may see the same thing, how you both perceive it is unique. What is real and what's not... well, that would be telling.
6446074
In time, yes.
And fimfiction was being even more of a butt and cut an entire paragraph from the chapter. Goddamnit.
Hmm... I'm thinking that VolTecha is the dratali.
6649496
I'm pretty sure that VolTecha is actually Technia, or at least that's the impression I got from a few chapters back. I might be wrong, though.
Either way, it's interesting to see this sort of back and forth - a commentary of the issues. I've always liked these chapters, for much the same reason as I enjoy the similar parts of David Brin's Earth: showing the reaction of people to an event can oftentimes give a much larger impression than showing the event itself.
Hah! And this chapter comes right after I comment on the last one... well, at least that almost confirms that yes, VolTecha is Technia. So yay. (I can imagine why she doesn't wanna give herself away, though - especially since she's on Shadownet.)
I'll have to admit, that meat thing confused me for a few seconds before I realized, 'Oh, right, this is the Avol universe, a-derp'. And hmm... theatrical combat. I bet VolTecha's earning quite a stack of creds from supplying that particular artform.
What's with all the 'Invisible text'. I remember an 'invisible link' a few interludes ago, but I can't seem to find the password needed to continue, maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. It certainly makes things interesting...
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Congratulations on being the first official person to find both.
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This chapter's commentary explains a few of your questions, but the password is known only to the two individuals. It would be boring if I didn't give any hints, so you have this riddle to work off of: 5801920
6682734
I hate you.
But I will figure it out eventually!!