For a thousand years, the continent of Equus, divided between the kingdoms of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, has existed in relative harmony. Within the enchanted land of Lumen, Twilight Sparkle has become the newest member of Class Zero, the kingdom’s best and brightest students.
A series of disastrous events leads to the threat of an all-out war between the races with Class Zero at its heart. And with the conflict comes a bitter chill not even the sun can warm. Twilight and her new friends will have to give it their all to defend not just their land, but the entire world.
But it'll take more than just unicorns to stop the coming storm. Because if the three kingdoms can't work together to find harmony, there may not be a home left to fight for...
Amazing cover art by Multiversecruise!
Gloriously edited by Novel Idea, DrakeyC, Cyrano, and Corejo!
Featured on Equestria Daily
I like it keep it up.
And so another fantastic Albinocorn story kicks off!
Here we go here we go, satellite radio!!!
Huh. Interesting premise. I'll put it on the RIL.
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Y'all getting hit with (Boom boom)
Oh boy been waiting for this. The anticipation is real, lets do this.
it has a very anime feel
Very, very good start!
Looking forward to future chapters.
Oh boy :) something for the new year
I know it's early, but character development is already pretty solid. There are so many of them, and yet they all feel pretty distinct (except Fleur at this point, but I'm not too worried).
This is gonna be pretty great; I can feel it.
Ayo, Colgate
Getting right into it, I see. I wasn't sure what to expect: either we'd get all the character introductions first thing or they would be spread out as the story went on. Either way is fine, but this way holds the advantage of introducing the characters we'll be following and building up anticipation for when they appear next. We get a touch of their personalities and will no doubt build off from that.
Heh, Moondancer would be Twilight's roommate. Kindred spirits, indeed.
Huh, seems this school has the grading hierarchy opposite of the American system. Rather than 12th grade being last, it appears one or zero is last. Though, I'm assuming the zero class is a special case in this world.
Wow, I didn't realize how much I've missed season one Twilight Snarkle.
Already looking forward to more!
Fantastic start; it has excellent pacing and character building, allowing us to get a feel on so many characters early on while leaving room to delve more into them as we venture forth. The imagery and ambience is well handled and gives the flair of being there. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen next.
Nice easy start to what is likely to be an explosive epic.
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Not exactly, since Monndancer is in Class 4, but is a freshman and will be taking course with mostly juniors and seniors.
The class levels here appear to refer to the level of difficulty of the coursework, where 9 is the easiest and 0 is the most challenging. So, I guess Class 9 would be more in the level of a junior college, while 0 is akin to an advanced doctoral program. Or something.
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Beats so big I'm steppin on leprechauns
(Wow, these lyrics are weirder than i remember)
So, from what has been revealed, apparently Hearth's Warming happened, but the tribes didn't unify afterwards? Combined with Season 1 Twilight Sparkle stepping into what feels like the start of a University fraternity/sorority Club story?
...
...
I'm down with this combination.
I didn't know what I was expecting walking into this fic, but I know for certain I came out of it wanting more. Very well written, and very, very interested in where this will go. I love how real the characters are feeling right now.
And as someone else has stated, it feels almost revitalizing to read Vanilla Twilight. No Twilicorn. Nada. Feels so good.
The premise of the story also scared me a little with how similar it seemed to an idea I had just the other day involving a split kingdom. Wonder how that'll go. Maybe I'll write my story and see what happens there...
Can't wait to read what comes next!
Also, I couldn't help but notice that the CSGU crest has the stylised crescent moon from the title of Pokemon Moon in it.
Not sure if that is the stylised sun from Pokemon Sun next to it.
Ooh, interesting, very good start. Like the others have said, it's a fantastic introduction to the Class, though for me particularly I feel like Minuette and Lyra need some more differentiation in their characters. But, of course, it's only just begun, and I have full faith those two will become more distinctly different to me fairly quickly. Also of note, Vinyl being blind? Not something I expected, but it works in a way.
All in all, I'm greatly looking forward to more of this.
PS: Amazing cover art, by the way. Major props to Multiversecruise.
I actually hope this catches on. Lyra has a good catchphrase sense, and I like the personality you’re giving her.
Minuette has impeccable reasoning skills.
So relatable. Also, I get the feeling someone’s going to make this joke with your stories. “This is the best MLP fic I’ve ever read!” *reads more Albinocorn* “No, this is!” Also, I’m glad to hear best pony has the same taste in doughnuts as I do, white with sprinkles.
I like the assortment of characters this has, and I look forward to getting to know Class Zero even more. Great work!
HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE BEST THING I'VE READ SINCE ANTHROPOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting start
A Dahlia sequel and this!? You glorious free time thief you. :3c
Huzzah!
The premise immediately caught my attention, and the way you've arranged the characters definitely sets up a variety of subplots the characters could go through as the story progresses. It's amazing how seamlessly you introduced this AU without the exposition getting in the way, and it shows your excellence in the craft. I'll definitely follow this one.
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I'm afraid the sun is not the one from pokemon. I didn't even remember where I'd seen a moon like that before until you brought it up! But thats a good eye you got there, i was afraid that the badge thingy would be too small and nobody would see the details!
Grats on making the featurebox!
Ain't this a promising start?
She's 14? So, CSGU is a high school. GOOD LUCK.
Roll credits. *ding*
I almost forgot how Twilight was like pre Season1, it's been so long.
Bare in mind that if they're here, it's for a reason.
In time.
Music horses!
French horse and fashion horse. Irrespectively.
Trick horse.
BeigeBookHorse.
Ouch.
It's cheap and it's good.
Maybe she's blind? Or likes it. Or doesn't care and Lyra does it anyway.
That is the correct response.
Hm...
You know, I was joking about her being blind.
WELP. I'm hooked.
Twilight's hiding something. I don't know what it is, but it has something to do with her entrance exam.
Where's Spike?
Well now. Color me thoroughly intrigued, especially since some characters are most notable in their absence. Of course, this is just setting the stage for something a lot more dire than a school drama. Eagerly looking forward to more.
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thats the mystery of the chapter. shes either embarrassed or feels unworthy because of something that got her to pass (which in cannon was the rainboom) happened again. nothing was said of her cutie mark, i think because shes older than that moment in cannon. shes still a shut in who doesn't know how to interact with other ponies that arent family. makes me wonder if the author intends to have cadance either be in this story, or involved in twilights life at all. she still has smarty pants after all.
that brings up another thing. has this twilight interacted with any other pony outside of her unicorn family in any meaningful way?
i'm loving the class zero interaction. having Minuette act as a dorm resident assistant was a good hand hold for me as a reader.
its been a while since a super intriguing story has popped up and i got the itch to hit a non-existing button to read the next chapter.
to the author: are we going to get info dumps on the world you got them running through or is the first "book" going to concentrate on twilight at school before the conflict against the wendigos/ hopefully nightmare moon?
Inkwell's lesson on magic reminded me of the schools of thought, and it does a nice job at describing how magic and spells work in this universe. However, I'm particularly fascinated by Trixie's character in the story thus far. She maintains her haughty personality from canon, but from her interactions with Twilight during this chapter in particular, I have a strong feeling that Trixie may be hiding something about herself that'll play a role in the future. Anyway, that was a nice chapter, and I'm curious to see where the story goes from here.
A very well done chapter that gave a great amount of information whether on their history or how magic works smoothly. All of the explanations were fascinating and thought provoking, showing just how much time and effort went into making this a natural part of the world. All the world and characters traits touched upon definitely make me wonder about where we're going to go, such as if we'll actually see a kelpie (or the reality the legend it is based on) and any other legends we might learn. It certainly is something to see how different certain characters are while still being the same, like with Trixie. And Twilight herself is continuing to show how well developed she is with how she takes studying, the costs of that, and how she handles pressure in tune with her magic.
You are entirely too excited for this.
Oh, how interesting. The Royal Sisters never took the Elements, but 6 mortals did.
It seems this time, Discord managed to do more damage than in canon.
Smart.
I like you.
I REALLY like you. A Reasonable Authority Figure, you're smart despite your old age and you're not going to outright dismiss Chaos Magic as evil just because of Discord.
She has a point.
So where are Kadabra and Alakazam?
Easy now.
You're making it very hard to like you, Trixie,
Seems she has some issues of her own, beyond her possible neurosis, which isn't seemingly played for laughs and tendency to think of worst case scenarios off the bat. This should prove interesting.
I liked as well, a nice touch, especially the bit where you see that Hearth's Warming still took place, and neatly explains something that confused me about the chapter 1 lead in - a note about all the ponies standing together before a tower, but now apparently divided.
That symbol Inkwell does, though...
...tried to draw it and insert or even copy/paste with the snipping tool but it's not working...
Sounds kind of cool though, I'm just wondering if I have it right on my paint pad.
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If you look closely at the page breaks, you can see the symbol at the top.
Interesting world building and character development I especially like Inkwell and how you describe the magic system
Fascinating, very fascinating. Good on you for establishing the different forms of magic early on. And an interesting interpretation/translation of the scene of Twilight's canon entrance exam, with her having difficulty actually casting magic... It suits her well, and I'm interested to see how she overcomes it. At least it seems like she's still getting private lessons from Princess Celestia. And it was delightful to see Twilight all young and massively nerdy and socially awkward.
Also, Trixie seems like the first level boss that Twi's gonna have to face. Something something earning her respect the hard way? Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how things play out between those two at least.
I'll comment on one aspect that some other's here haven't brought up. I'm guessing that with eight students and eight fields of magic, each of the Zero Class ponies will excel in one field more than the others. And given which ponies described each field, there's possibly some subtle foreshadowing as to which ones will excel in which.
I mean really, what's more perfect than Illusion for Trixie?
Till next time!
I wasn't expecting much when I started reading this story but you have gotten my attention. I love all of the characters so far. Minuette is fun and a blast. Lyra is basically unicorn Pinkie and I love it being able to play off Vinyl as a beautiful voice of reason for her (also I'm calling right now, Vinyl is blind). Blueblood is a character that I want to punch in the face, but that's intentional and I am certain given how great the characterization of the others in this chapter alone is. He won't stay like that forever. Trixie is interesting her asocial behavior toward Twilight when they first met took me a little off guard but that could simply be a person (in this case Trixie) not wanting to open up to someone that they just met but are more open with others that they have had more contact with and consider friends. I also love the fact that Trixie still refers to herself in the third person. I love Moon Dancer as a character and seeing her as Twilight's room made we squeal with excitement, god I love Moon Dancer. I look forward to seeing more of her even it is nothing more than as a supporting role with would make sense given the mane cast is definitely the Class Zero. I am really intrigued my Twilight and her internal dilemma and certainly look forward to seeing it grow in further importance and clarification. And one character that I am really intrigued by that didn't appear in this chapter is Sunset. Now I love Sunset, she is my second favorite character of the show (only behind Twilight) so seeing her in this would make my day. And based on the cover art I can certainly look forward to her in the future.
Anyway, great first chapter. The depictions were beautiful and really helped paint a picture in the eyes and mind of the audience. The characters are great and I certainly look forward to seeing them grow and develop further in future chapters. You certainly earned a like and tracking from me.
And on we go. Some nice worldbuilding and Trixie has a bug up her fat blue plot.
Interesting, very interesting.
I'm still certain that Vinyl is blind, but that's just me.
Anyway, to the meat of this if you will. This was very good. All of the characters are still very good. Not all of them are enjoyable, namely Trixie and Blueblood but like I said before they aren't really meant to be. At least not yet. I loved the ending with Twilight not being able to create magic, knowledgeable yes, good at in a practical sense no. I enjoyed her internal struggle as she relived her past strugglings. A great moment of characterization and really the audience begin to love Twilight as a character even if you knew nothing about from watching MLP beforehand.
I loved the world-building, and you did it the right way. The world, while a major focus, is also second next to the characters that are in the world. A piece of media and literature can have an amazing world but if the character that is in that world suck, then you're out of luck. The six schools of magic and chaos are an interesting addition to the world as a whole. I really enjoyed their induction and usually it the setup as a classroom works perfectly as it lets the audience learn about this important plot point without sounding like a massive exposition dump on them. I am also convinced that the Schools of Magic are going to the mirror to the Elements of Harmony and that Sunset is going to be the 'wielder' for lack of a better term of Chaos Magic.
After it is all said and done, great chapter. I am certainly looking forward to more in the future. Keep up the amazing work so far.
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Ah, had it almost right - I had a vertical slash down the center also.
Hard to see though, that portion of the image is really tiny, but is there an all-encompassing sphere also?
My drawing had a circle at each point and one in the very center of the hexagram portion of the Star of David... adding another circle bounding the whole would be eight circles total... I'm probably reading too much into that though.
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I don't think it's so much that she can't create any, but more that she can create so much without trying very hard that it's challenging to control, so she overthinks things and either can't concentrate or holds back so much that nothing ends up happening. Look at how much she fixates on the idea "just a spark."
I think I've said enough on this for now, honestly. I'll bet we'll find out exactly what happened at the exam. Maybe not right away, but soon.
(Goodness, it even feels like a JRPG, kind of. I love it)
Man, that bit about history was sweet. Small differences, but boy did they really change things in the present day. I'm looking forward to the first time we meet earth ponies and pegasi.
Ah. Without alicorn Bearers to act as a symbol of unity, lowercase discord ultimately triumphed... though that raises questions about what Celestia is and has been doing.
Huh. Chaos magic instead of necromancy. Interesting setup for this world.
Ah, dear, sweet, socially oblivious Twilight.
And so we see the issue. Twilight's magic is a lake behind a dam, and the key challenge for her is getting it to come out in a controlled stream rather than not at all or all at once. Well, she'll learn. Heck, she's managing even in the same room as Trixie. Compared to that, saving equinity should be a snap.
So this is the magun opus of the albinocorn eh? I look forward to reading it but first im going to let the chapters increase before i jump into the fray
Trixie how dare you.
I think I might like this. Like this very much. Favorited, without reading the story (mainly because it's Albinocorn, so it's gonna be good).