This story is a sequel to The Elements of Friendship, Book IS [interlude one-point-five]: Bonds
Peace has found Equestria once more, and they have had their Queen of the Night returned to them! But a dark figure who looms over Equestria's past returns to the present: Discord. The chimerical despot over Equestria in a bleaker age threatens to throw the stable regime into a dominion of anarchy. Worse still, he has removed his one weakness, the Elements of Harmony, from the equation. How will Twilight Sparkle defeat the draconequus deity without the Elements of Harmony? How will her and her friends stay in unity without the Elements? And what connection does Discord have to Equestria's Queens...?
Updates on Wednesday afternoons.
Can be found on TV Tropes.
The Elements of Friendship, Book I: Harmony
The Elements of Friendship, Book IS [interlude one-point-five]: Bonds
The Elements of Friendship, Book II: Chaoskamπf
The Elements of Friendship, Book IIS [interlude two-point-five]
The Elements of Friendship, Book III
The Elements of Friendship, Book IIIS [interlude three-point-five]
The Elements of Friendship, Book IIII
Hey there. :-D First time reviewer to this series, but I HAVE been reading it previously. Nothing to blame the lack of earlier reviews on except self-admitted laziness. Anyway, excellent job, so far on the emotional content, world-building elements and future chapter set-up in this story thus far. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that Discord is going to be MUCH more dangerous here than in canon (in comic book lingo, the Joker with Mxyzptlk's powers) and it will take some serious doing for the Element Bearers to get back to normal and recover their elements (which means it would take some seriously powerful beings to distract Discord long enough for the Element Bearers to GET the time they need).
Okay. Sorry about that. Got carried away (sheepish grin). Anyway, I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
Amras Felagund,
I have been looking forward to this installment enter since I read Book 1, so far... I'm pleased, although this is the first chapter and is only the prologue I can see that it is going to be a very complex and dare I say "chaotic" story. I have read many fanfictions before and this is really good for a prologue, especially the amount of world building it has in it. I look forward to the test of theirs novel.
Good Luck.
Okamiluver,
of the Satoru Blue Tribe
Is that so, omniscient narrator?
Why did you put bold letters throughout the text spelling "discord"? I mean what. Why.
6010372
It will decode a cipher.
It may be short... but it's a good little slice-of-life. Lots of focus on Twilight and Spike's relationship and not just things that are working out easily, and I love that.
But it does have a lot of cute happiness in it.
It's also interesting to have Twilight as the "It's not that friendships aren't valuable to others, but that I cannot form them" previously. I know she was like that last book too but... I do like it.
And to be honest, after about 8 k words per chapter I start to get daunted a little with reading them. Not saying you should change it, the pace of the chapters is up to you, but I do sometimes procrastinate reading chapters once they reach around 10k+ words.
Hello there. Thanks very much for getting this next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Splendid job on the exchanges, emotional content and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Good "breather/set-up" chapter considering what will end up happening. I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
I wonder if the issue with Spike and Twilight's authority is going to come into play with Discord later.
You are apparently missing an italics ending tag at "flaming pit."
Also strikethrough is just [ s ] not [ strike ].
6086007 Thanks for the heads-up. I really should've double-checked all that.
6087030
There is a little error
it is not "Mein geliebten Drache"
it is "Mein geliebter Drache"
6087851
Danke schon.
Are you aware that chapter one and two are out of order?
6010966 Has anyone even figured out the ciphers yet? Best I've seen is my finding the initial Book IS hint and someone figuring it was a Vignere Cipher.
"I won't partake in any cake!"
6498082
Yes, I am aware. Discord is an... unruly subject. He simply couldn't abide by the prospect of the chapters being posted in their proper order, as it would make sense.
6505085
Oh... my apologies.
6505085 Some draconequui just want to watch the world burn.
I was wondering how you'd approach this, but immediately launching into a reformation arc? Not what I expected. I'm interested to see how this plays out...
Sorry I took so long getting back to you, but this IS an excellent chapter. Again, superb work on the exchanges, emotional content, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
Hello there. Yeah, I can understand this chapter taking so long considering all the chaos in your real life. Anyway, quality over speed. :-D As usual, excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content, action, emotional content and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this, but am quite willing to be patient, knowing full well that real life has to come first.
AN UPDATE! PRAISE THE SUN!
The writer is the only with power enough to stop Discord, maybe use his powers to make Discord mouth dissapear in the next author nothes
6784549 Well he finally used his author powers to fix the discorded chapter order.
... So... I'm pretty sure... that I'm supposed to be lost at the sudden appearance of Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and eight flunkies with super flunky names like Snake-in-the-Grass and Rougshod and freakin' Toady.
What... happened, there? The Twilight scene follows but that scene... and those characters...
Did Discord do that? ... What other things could be changed?
Again, excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Though I think turning Pinkie into a unicorn MIGHT have been a big mistake on Discord's part. I mean, she was ALREADY extremely good at making the impossible look easy as an Earth pony. As a unicorn, Pinkie might actually be as powerful as Discord himself, meaning she might actually be powerful enough to take him even WITHOUT the Elements.
Okay, half-joking aside, I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
Hey, a nice chapter! Glad to see it's still ali-
Really?
Really? Just slap together some vaguely Slavic-sounding and pseudo-Russian stuff, add the word "Soviet" to it and we get our bad guys?
I don't want to say that I'm offended, because I'm not. Just mildly irritated.
At least do it properly and hey, don't hesitate to ask for help
Let's see...
That's a Slavic god of thunder and war (like a mix of Zeus and Ares for Greeks). Well, ok
That's a diminutive of the name Ivan. Not very fitting for a king, but it could be just Celestia speaking of him fondly.
Pervaya implies feminine, while Pyotr is masculine. Should be "Perviy" ("The First").
No comment, it's just a mix of everything, taking the English word "Rock" and trying to make it sound like a Russian surname, while playing on the fact that the name itself actually means "Rock" in Greek.
Well, that's the only part of the chapter that made me cringe, the rest is very good, can't wait for more :D.
6845121
Your comment regarding Pervaya and Perviy has been noted, and the correction applied. Also, your acknowledgement of Vanya caused me to look into diminutives for Gavriil, and that has been corrected to Gavrik. Rokin as Pyotr's surname is an appellation applied to him by the People, in reference to him being a rock wall between them and the mysticism of Equestria. Also, it's a pun on the roc, a titanic bird of prey found in Orlalvov. It is unable to be tamed, and also is a reference to Pyotr's uncompromising personality.
That's not how this worked in canon. Changing the way Maud didn't say anything to misinterpret (or didn't make a very deadpan joke on purpose) scene just makes Rarity look pushy and...
Hm. And greedy.
I get the feeling that not all of these changes are going to be quite as obvious as Fluttershy's er... weird psychotic break moment...
6845121 also if it has that much russian theme in it you can at LEAST throw a ton of vodka in there and have something in relation to the Finns kicking their ass.
6866763 True, you'd need a lot of vodka to be able to find the words "Finns won a war against Russians" in any history book.
But I'm not gonna be drawn into that discussion again. On this website we forget that the real world exists (with its traitorous Finnish country who wasn't going to be thankful for everything Russia has done for it up until 1917, but instead decided it wanted Soviet territories and started THREE wars against it, all the while being funded by Sweden, England, Germany, France, etc.), but instead just enjoy the colorful ponies. So then, peace bro?
6867232 LOL Finland won its independence from Russia and well take a look at the winter war my friend.
Russia invaded with more soldiers than there were people in Finland. Still for every one Finnish man fighting for his country 20 russians died and another 15 went missing.
Even if the war ended in more of a political favor of russia it is far to say that Russia got its ass handed to them.
Just ask the White death XD
6867288 I didn't want to, but ok. Time for a short history lesson from a Russian perspective. You, of course, might have had something different taught to you from your history books.
The Finnish territory was a part of Swedish kingdom (a province) from around the 12-14th centuries up until the beginning of 19th century. Then Russian-Swedish war followed, which the Russians won and according to the Friedrichshamn peace treaty of 1809 the Finnish territory was conceded to Russians.
During the next hundred years the Russian empire has transformed the former Swedish province into a practically autonomous state with its own government, currency, post and even army. Finnish language was a state language. All the managerial positions were held by locals (Finns).
All the taxes were kept in Finland, St-Petersburg didn't meddle in Finland's internal affairs. Russian migration into Finland was prohibited, the rights of the Russians living in Finland were restricted and no Russification of the province was allowed.
In 1906 according to the Russian emperor's edict the Finnish women were given a right to vote, first in the entire Europe.
In 1917 the Finns decided they wanted independence and the Soviet government was the first one to recognize it.
In 1918 a revolution began in Finland which grew into a civil war. The Whitefinns (dunno the English or Finnish equivalent) called Germans for help, which brought several divisions into Finland, occupied Helsinki, Vyborg and then, yes, kicked the Red army out. After that a genocide was started in Finland against Russians still living there, around 20 thousand were murdered or killed in concentration camps and 90 thousand were imprisoned.
The next several Soviet-Finnish wars were started by Finland itself (while being funded by England, USA, France and/or Germany) who wasn't satisfied with having independence but also wanted to chomp off some of the Soviet territories for themselves. All of those attempts were thwarted by the Soviets, who, yes, suffered losses due to not having a very good army at the time and thanks to Finland having the help from aforementioned European states.
So yeah, go Finland. Yay.
and now, back to the story. I'm really interested to finally find out what happened between Shining Armor and Twilight.
6867371 you have an odd vision on history... very very odd...seem to leave out a lot.. but I can see a fight as its brewing... Im out. You have your history and we have ours... enjoy... mind you I do not fault you for your way of thinking just as I request you do not fault me for mine. Let us just relax and let this go. See you if I see you.
Chapter e? But that's not after...
Actually, thinking about it, e is totally after i^4.
But then, is i less than -1... and is -i between -1 and 1? Perhaps comparing imaginary numbers to real numbers is folly.
Frankly, I don't have the patience to look for the cipher letters to decipher the cipher at the end. Last time I tried, even, I wound up with gibberish anyway, since I either missed something in the cipher or were decoding it improperly. I know it must be at least a somewhat large bit of work to embed those things, so I'm sorry they're going to waste on me. Hopefully someone is appreciating them more than I am.
But I am enjoying the little stuff like that, and am noticing the little... differences that don't quite make sense.
... I haven't even started the chapter yet.
Reasonable words, actually. I dunno what Discord's on about it being superlatively crushing for Spike, there are much worse ways to tell Spike he has no chance with Rarity.
And we're gonna be close to finally learning what the deal is with Fluttershy!
And... we get to see the first discorded Main 6 here. LiarDash.
Oh, and I wouldn't expect the ghost of a thousand year old racist to be capable of much reason anymore (I guess depending on how ghosts work in this universe. Maybe there's no mental/emotional deterioration with time), so I'm more surprised that she was reasonable for the length of time she was.
I just wanted to say that I am really glad you are still working on this fanfic. Keep up the awesome work!
Hey there. Sorry I took so long to get back to this. Nothing to blame except self-admitted laziness. Thanks greatly for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. As usual, very good job on the emotional content, exchanges, action and future set-up in all the right places. I will definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
6010966
oh hElL nO !!!!!!!!!!
NoT AnOtHeR DaMn CiPhEr!!!!!!!
I hOpE sOmEoNe pUtS sYrUp iN yOuR sHoE fOr tHiS!!!!!!!!
Eldrich horror lines can go that far, huh?
So are each of Discord's multiple-choice past going to be different fan theories? I'm afraid I didn't recognize the first, but this second one... is a bit more common.
Also, the number of this chapter is real, rational, and accurate.
Hello there. Thanks very much for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Again, great job on the exchanges, emotional content, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. And pretty good details on some of the characters' backgrounds too. I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
What Discord did to Maud was awesome! I kinda wanna see what he does to Marble and Limestone.
7017738
Discord's past could be for the fan-theory. But I thought it was more a "Joker" thing. You know, he keeps telling a different story about his past because he finds it more fun and interesting.
7019884
Well... yes, it's clearly the joker multiple pasts thing. I was just wondering if all the pasts are going to be fan theories (for the yuks, and because if breaking the fourth wall and using fan theories, Discord is the right character to do it) or not.
Hey, the second half of this entire page is in italics after Twilight reads the Cult of Pie's journal entry.
7470605
Fixed. Thanks for alerting me.
I like this story and it's good that Spike and Twilight made up. I hope that Rarity and Spike are healed soon.
So, did Discord win and actually got you to stop writing? I'm sorry but I love your novels (all three of them) too much to handle you not writing them anymore.
Dun dun DUUUUUUN!
Well, there are some rather different things about Celestia and Selene... namely they don't age, and all other ponies do. I can't remember if there are more changes... and it's possible the books are still wrong, because it's possible to believe yourself objective and internally consistent but the evidence just doesn't bear out... but I suppose for Twilight to be convinced it must be convincing indeed.