Spectrum
Princess Celestia had always put great faith in the essential wisdom and goodness of Harmony. Today, with the Day Court filled to the rafters with throngs of nobleponies, she was still certain about the goodness, but her faith in its wisdom was being sorely tested.
"It's all quite simple, Auntie," said Prince Blueblood, designated spokespony for the aristocratic mass crowding the throne room. "For a long time, only you—and Auntie Luna, of course—were permitted castles, as a symbol of Equestrian unity and togetherness and suchlike."
Celestia took as deep a breath as she could without anypony noticing. "Yes, Blueblood, I know. I'm the one who made that decree."
Blueblood started pacing in front of her throne. "Now, it's rather ambiguous whether or not the Crystal Empire is technically part of Equestria. We haven't officially annexed it yet for what I'm sure is a very good reason, presumably so it can act as a buffer state against the yaks." He whipped his head about to face Celestia and grinned. "But Ponyville? Ponyville is indisputably within our borders, and presents a clear precedent. Given that, I think my proposal is entirely reasonable."
Celestia glanced at the scroll, just to make sure it hadn't somehow gotten more ridiculous since she last looked at it. "You want a castle twice as tall as Twilight's, also made of harmony crystal."
Blueblood stuck his muzzle in the air. "Well, it clearly isn't expensive. She got hers for free."
"She got hers after realizing the true meaning of her harmonious virtue, becoming its living embodiment, returning Tirek to Tartarus, and restoring magic to Equestria."
"Yes, and she didn't pay one yellow cent for it!" Blueblood stomped a hoof on the carpet, making a rather undramatic thud.
Celestia held back a sigh through centuries of practice. "My point, dear nephew, is that this sort of thing must be earned."
Blueblood nodded. "Of course. And given my years of work contributing to this great nation of ours, I think I'm due some small consideration."
Those same centuries of practice helped Celestia keep her thoughts about that statement to herself. "Blueblood, do you already have an enormous spire of solid harmony magic?"
"No," he said rather slowly, "hence the petition."
"Well," said Celestia, a bit of curtness slipping in, "then I think you have your answer."
Blueblood frowned. "I had assumed one had to clear this with you first, Auntie. You've always favored that..." Disgust flickered across his face. "That esteemed new princess, and if castles sprouted up whenever somepony did something that deserved one, why, we'd probably be hock-deep in the things!"
Celestia lifted an eyebrow. "And how would this differ from what would happen if every member of the nobility were to build his or her own castle anyway, as opposed to the many luxurious estates they already possess?"
"Yes, but Auntie, you have to understand. They aren't castles." The assembled nobility murmured their approval of this point.
It was at this point that Celestia sensed a disturbance on the Astral Plane. She also sensed that if she left to investigate it now, the architects and stonemasons of Equestria would probably be able to buy the country out from under her by the time she got back. Celestia held back another sigh. She just had to hope that whatever was going on in the higher realms could wait or take care of itself.
Sunset looked around. "Hello?" All she could see were stars and haze. "Is anyone there?" The ground seemed to be solidified mist, thin enough that she could still make out a few bright lights through it. "Where am I?"
Her gaze moved from the ground to her hoof. Or hand. Or impossibly twisted bit of solar corona. The extremity seemed to be all three at once, and other forms that Sunset couldn't even process. "What am I?" she asked.
As if in response, something glinted on the edge of sight. She looked away from herself to see six jewels orbiting her. One of them was cheek-heatingly/ear-flatteningly/photosphere-roilingly familiar.
The Elements of Harmony floated away from her in a line, led by Magic. They arranged themselves into the formation they'd had on the Tree of Harmony. After a brief flare blinding even to the eyes of a sun—and the less time Sunset spent thinking about that, the better—the Tree was there. So too was a white-coated alicorn with an oddly forked horn and a crown adorned with all the Elements, and a woman wearing a toga straight out of the ancient Marediterranean and the world's most powerful charm bracelet. Like Sunset's hoof, she was all of them at once and more besides.
She smiled. "Hello, Sunset."
"Um... Hi?" Sunset bit her lip and other analogous awkward motions. "I take it you're Harmony, then?"
The other being shrugged. "As good a name as any. It's a shame we have to meet this way. I was looking forward to this."
"You were? I wasn't sure if I would ever come back to Equestria. I mean, my legal status is still kind of in the air." Sunset smacked herself. "What am I saying? We've got much more important things to worry about! The human world—"
"Can wait. For a little while, at least. Time flows differently here, especially when I ask it to."
Sunset took a deep breath. "Okay. Then could you please answer my questions?"
Harmony nodded and bent her boughs. "Certainly. We are in a higher-energy realm, one reserved for those who have either transcended their physical forms or were never truly bound by them. I believe ponies call it the Astral Plane."
Sunset's assorted mouths went dry. "I... thought the Astral Plane was where dead souls went."
Another nod. "That is how most transcend their physical forms, yes."
"So, am I...?"
"Your former body is currently a bit of ash on my roots, but we'll be fixing that soon." Harmony smiled. "You see, Sunset, I called you to me because you're a special case."
Sunset took a moment to respond, still processing the "ash on my roots" comment. "How so?"
Harmony spread her various limbs. "Even on this plane, most beings cannot appreciate hyperdimensional anatomy."
"The whole 'being a human, a pony, and something else at the same time' thing?"
"Precisely." Harmony brought her extremities to her heart. "They are all symbolic representations of the same fundamental soul."
"Could we settle on one, please? I have more headaches than I do heads right now." Most of their bodies... Sunset decided the best word available was "diminished," or maybe "receded." After a few moments, only the human bodies remained, but she knew in the back of her mind that all the others were still there, just rolled up too small to see. Still, at least they weren't all in front of her. She rubbed her temples with her hands. "Thanks."
Harmony shook her head. "That was all you. Your ability to perceive reality on so many levels at once shows just what you are: A Catalyst of Harmony."
Sunset stood silently for a fair length of time. "If you were anyone else, I'd think you had made that up."
"Speaking as a Catalyst myself, I assure you, I didn't. We aren't part of the reaction, but we do massively enhance it. Consider the Battle of the Bands." Harmony gestured, and a screen appeared in midair, showing the final confrontation between the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings. "On their own, your friends were able to put up a fight, but were still overpowered. With you..." In the memory, the enormous energy alicorn materialized. Harmony smiled. "Well, I think that speaks for itself."
Sunset sighed. "Yeah. It says that I got the world started down the path to oblivion."
Harmony nodded reluctantly. "That world never was intended to be very magical."
"'Intended'?" Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Who intended it?"
Harmony shook her head. "Even with the dilation effect, we don't have enough time for that."
Sunset crossed her arms. "Can you at least explain how the magic of that world works?"
"In a word, quietly. The human world—well, that human world—wasn't meant to be especially magical, so the magic hides from those who look for it. When they start looking too hard, it discourages them." Another gesture opened another window, showing part of the painful testing in the NAHTI.
"What about Pinkie Pie?" asked Sunset.
"Pinkie is a special case, but you already knew that." Harmony gave a familiar, enigmatic smile, the same one Princess Celestia liked to use when challenging Sunset to figure out something for herself.
Sunset knew that she had more pressing matters to worry about, but she couldn't completely quell her curiosity. "And cutie marks, or icons, or whatever they call them there?"
"There are a few ways to coax that world's magic into a cooperative state, rituals and such for the necessities." Another window opened, a cafeteria full of singing, dancing students gathered around one purple girl, seen through a glass door.
"What makes them necessary?"
Harmony shook her head. "We're getting back to the parts I can't explain."
Sunset threw up her arms. "This is ridiculous! 'Intended,' 'meant,' 'necessities.' Who's the one making these decisions? Your analogue?"
Another shake. "I don't have one in that world. It wasn't magical enough to warrant something like me."
"Who, then?" Sunset huffed.
Harmony gave a little grin. "I know you've had some issues with authority in the past, Sunset, but this one's a bit above your weight class."
"Even as a 'Catalyst of Harmony'?" said Sunset, complete with air quotes.
Harmony nodded. "Even so."
Sunset scowled and drummed her fingers against her forearm for a few moments. "It's the lack of respect that gets me."
"Oh?" Harmony raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"There's this incredible power in each and every person in that world, enough to warp pony magic into a bizarre, fascinating new state. But the only way most of them are allowed to use it is getting a symbol they aren't even allowed to talk about." Sunset snorted. "And I'm guessing magic is the only reason why those rituals have managed to stay secret even with the Internet."
Harmony nodded. "Can't let the ceremony get away from the people who revere it too much to ask questions."
"It got out to Mr. Discord," said Sunset.
Harmony shrugged. "Because he's Discord. The rules only apply to him when he lets them, and even then, it took an outsider's perspective to make him realize what he knew."
"It doesn't seem fair that he gets an instance in that world and you don't." Sunset held up a hand. "I know, I know, Discord, fairness, not a good mix. But..." She trailed off, then buried her face in her hands. "I really should've seen this coming sooner."
"I was going to bring it up eventually," Harmony said, patting Sunset on the shoulder.
"Well, at least I'm going to be able to clean up after myself." Sunset took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "So, what does becoming a spirit of harmony entail, exactly?"
Harmony smiled and moved a back a few steps. "In your case, it's functionally identical to becoming an alicorn."
Sunset's jaw dropped. Something warm stirred in her core. "Don't I have to earn that kind of thing? Perform some great magical feat?"
"You don't think beating the sirens counted?"
"Did it?" The warmth was spreading to Sunset's limbs.
Harmony shook her head, her grin widening. "Nope. Have you ever heard the saying, 'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them'?"
"I'm familiar with Spear Shaker, yes. I'm not sure how you are."
Harmony waved a hand, producing a screen that displayed the stage of one of Canterlot's better theaters. "You do get a few perks with the job.
"Anyway, alicorns come about for two reasons. One is, as you and the line noted, achievement, the great feat that elevates you to a higher state of existence. The other is necessity, the world elevating you because it needs you. Celestia and Luna were born great, because the original method of celestial motion wasn't sustainable. Twilight and Cadence achieved greatness."
Sunset gulped. "And I'm having greatness thrust upon me."
"As we speak," said Harmony.
"But I'll be able to fix this?"
Harmony nodded and sighed. "More than can be said for the current attempt."
Sunset's hair began to tingle as she frowned. "What do you mean?"
Harmony raised a hand, summoning a still image of the human Twilight flying in front of Canterlot High. "That world's Twilight is currently learning the difference between bearing an Element and being borne by one." She sighed. "In its desperation to defend itself, that world's magic has possessed the most receptive vessel."
"The analogue of the Bearer of Magic," said Sunset.
"Precisely." Harmony shut her eyes. "But at this point, it's like a fatal fever. The body's going to kill itself by trying to cure itself."
"And I'm medicine."
Harmony smiled. "Just what the doctor ordered."
Sunset snickered. "Well, kill or cure." She blinked. "I'm going to be needed there constantly, aren't I? If this is what happens when I'm not there, then this was the last time I'll ever set hoof in Equestria."
Harmony bit her lip. "Not necessarily."
Sunset gave her a flat look. "I'd appreciate honesty over kindness right now."
After a few moments, Harmony said, "It will be for quite some time. You'll know when you'll be able to leave that world, but right now, it wouldn't last an hour without you there."
"And given your perspective, when you say 'a while'..." Sunset sighed. "At least I'm not leaving much behind."
Harmony gave a sad smile. "If you want, I can nudge Celestia, and Luna can send a message to your parents."
"Tell them..." Sunset paused for a moment. "Tell Celestia that I'll try to make her proud, and tell Mom and Dad..." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."
Energy surged from Sunset's heart, orbiting her as she rose into the air. "So, I rematerialize, rush to the portal, and let the flux suck me in?"
Harmony smiled. "Nothing so crude." She raised a hand and splayed out the fingers. An oval opened above Sunset, a gateway into stark white emptiness.
Sunset gawked at it. "What is that?"
"No one's had a chance to decorate that world's Astral Plane." Harmony smiled. "On the bright side, we'll be able to stay in touch."
Sunset shouted, trying to hear herself over the roar in her ears. "Good, because this conversation isn't—!" The power completely enveloped her, and she shot into the other world.
Harmony sighed. "No, but you're going to have some more pressing concerns for a while." She looked around. "Junior?"
To the eyes of one focusing on human representations, Harmony was answered by a young girl, perhaps six years old, wearing an iridescent dress and a hat shaped like a toy castle. "Yes, Mommy?"
"Could you please give Twilight the all-clear?"
Junior nodded and looked at a bracelet around her wrist. On the band was a circular crystal medallion as big as the back of her hand. She poked it near its center.
Twilight started, then looked at her hindquarters. Sure enough, her cutie mark was glowing again, just as it had outside of The Village. "Really?" she said. "That was it?"
Discord, who hadn't been there a moment before, put an arm over her withers. "Well, you know what they say. Harmony works in mysterious ways."
"Can't say I've ever heard that saying." Twilight gave her haunches a flat look. "Still, given recent experiences, I can't disagree with it."
"I've always felt that it's one of her few admirable qualities," said Discord. "After all, few things can kill chaos quite like clear, concise communication."
"But I have no idea what happened to Sunset, and..." Twilight trailed off, then sprang into the air to put herself muzzle to muzzle with Discord. "Wait, 'her'?"
He grinned. "Long story."
It had been a tolerably interesting few minutes for Mr. Discord. He'd had plenty of time to examine Twilight's new strengths and weaknesses.
She lunged at him, demonstrating the former: a respectable turn of speed, an ability to ignore gravity equal to his own, and enough raw power to be dangerous were it paired with any degree of competence.
He moved a bit to the side, demonstrating the latter, that Twilight had all the combat skill and tactical imagination of a thrown rock. Mr. Discord was hardly a veteran soldier, but even he knew that there was more to fighting than just charging at the other guy. He sighed and brought his fingers into snapping position. It was time to make this more interesting.
A new sun flared into existence overhead.
Mr Discord looked up, then at his hand. "I'm genuinely not sure if I did that." He barely ducked under Twilight's next punch.
Meanwhile, the new sun, who hung only a few dozen feet above the combatants, realized that this wasn't how she meant to comport herself. After a moment of morphic confusion, Sunset returned to the humanoid form she'd grown used to over the last few years, though with a few new additions. She wore a calf-length dress that shimmered like polished crystal. Her ears were pointed and poked out of her hair. A nearly foot-long, spiraling horn grew out of her forehead. Her calf-length hair had a streak of stark white-blue amidst the red and yellow. She hung aloft on wings of fire, cherry red at edges, shading into brighter, hotter colors further in, with that same blue-white brilliance burning at their roots.
And yet, all of that was window dressing compared to what had happened to Sunset's mind. Her senses and thoughts had opened up on levels she'd never even thought possible. She could feel how the world was teetering on the edge of dissolution, and knew how to pull it back. She spread out her arms and pulled them back in until her hands were over her heart.
There was no flash of light, no burst of sound. Between one moment and the next, her friends simply appeared, standing in a circle around the statue. After a moment, they staggered and looked around, questions forming on their lips.
"Sorry, everyone." Sunset's voice was soft, but carried clearly to all of them. "We don't have a lot of time. Just hold still and this will be over quickly." She turned to the girl who'd been floating agog since she pulled herself together. "Magic?"
Twilight's body nodded. "I am prepared to aid in the restoration of cosmic homeostasis."
Sunset blinked, then cleared her throat. "Um, good. If you could put yourself between me and the statue?" Magic did so, and Sunset smiled. "Then we'll begin. Everyone, just focus on fixing the damage."
"Wait," said Dash, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, "why didn't we just friendship laser this to begin with?"
"Ah'm guessin' it has somethin' t' do with Sunset's fancy new wings," Applejack drawled.
"While we're discussing this," said Rarity, pausing to yawn. "Oh, excuse me. Now, what precisely has happened to Twilight?"
Fluttershy gulped. "Does it hurt?"
Pinkie grinned. "Can I try it?"
Sunset discovered that her ascension hadn't come with enhanced patience. She took a deep breath and said, "Girls, we really don't have time to discuss this. I'll tell you everything after we've saved the world. Again. Deal?" After getting five nods, she held out her hands at her sides and focused along with the others.
Mr. Discord considered the girls, a building sensation making his molars tingle. It was like the expectant feeling before a storm, a sense that something big was about to happen. Impulses screamed in his mind, to disrupt, to flee, to act.
In fact, the impulses were so pronounced, so emphatic, that Mr. Discord couldn't help but smirk. "If I obeyed my every whim," he murmured, "I'd probably be cleaning floors for a living." He didn't appreciate something else using his brain, even if that something was the meat body he had to live in. As such, he did the one thing his instincts were telling him that he absolutely mustn't.
Nothing.
Well, not quite nothing. He did move back a bit further from the energy buildup that was now making every hair on his body stand on end. Aside from that, he settled in for what promised to be some fascinating observations.
Around the Wondercolt statue, lines of energy connected the girls to one another. Soon, planes of swirling color and energy formed, creating a pyramid. The construct brightened, the colors roiling faster and faster. Power pulsed up, from the Rainbooms at the base to Twilight at the core to Sunset at the apex.
The intention was clear. The power had been gathered. Sunset merely had to apply it.
But there were two possible solutions, one for each kind of magic she had to work with.
She could favor the human magic. She could remove all of the joy and wonder and possibility and cleanse the world of the infection that had nearly overtaken it.
She could favor the pony magic. She could force the world's population into bodies not their own and turn it into the home she had just abandoned.
She remembered Rainbow Dash's joy, and thought of how she'd react to losing her wings.
She remembered Octavia's fear, and thought of how she'd react to losing her fingers.
She remembered one of Princess Celestia's lessons on negotiation.
"If you find yourself caught between two unpleasant choices," the princess had said, "then there's probably a third, better one the other party doesn't want you to pick."
Sunset looked down to where Twilight's body hung patiently, waiting for her to fix this. Where the magic of this world stood incarnate. Sunset bit her lip. She was a catalyst. She was just supposed to facilitate, not to interfere.
On the other hand, she wasn't a tree.
"What do you want?" she asked.
After a moment, Magic looked up, face blank.
"What do you want?" Sunset repeated.
Magic blinked. "I do not comprehend."
"This decision is all about you. You should get a say in the matter. Do you want to be replaced? Do you want to keep hiding from everyone, only coming out when they ask in just the right way and lashing out if they get too close?" Inspiration struck. Sunset reached down and held out her hand. "Or would you rather stop being afraid?"
Magic's jaw dropped. "I..." She blinked, the tears in her glowing eyes doing strange things to the light. She reached up. "I do not want to be afraid anymore."
Sunset smiled. "You don't have to be."
Their hands met. The colors on the sides of the pyramid settled into a horizontally striped rainbow. A point of light formed on the apex and quickly grew to blinding intensity.
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Hmmm. This is going to be interesting, whatever it is.
I wish I was a good enough artist to make fanart of Junior! She sounds CUUTE!
Is Discord her dad??
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Agreed.
6541618 If Junior is who/what I think she is, then from a certain perspective, Twilight is her dad.
Oh, FOME, you've clearly outdone yourself :)
Oooh. I like Sunset getting greatness thrust on her!
And she would be someone to go "Unacceptable!" and find a third solution, more than Twilight who's always been a little too much in love with rules and order. 
Also, Discord proving his chaotic nature by refusing to act chaotic makes a weird amount of sense.
And then Sunset was a tree. Fluttershy cannot even express how jelly she is right now.
This was some cool stuff, FoME! Really looking forward to the resolution and denouement.
Everyone's going to become anthropomorphic ponies now. At least, that's my guess.
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Well, it depends. If we treat the keys as gametes, then Junior has eight fathers, three of whom are female. If we treat those who turned the keys as the contributors, then she has six fathers, all of whom are female.
And yes, Junior is Twilight's castle, and the bracelet is the user interface of the Cutie Map. The Lockbox of Harmony was clearly a seed, thus the Palace-Tree is the child of the Tree of Harmony. And apparently adorable.
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Any amount of sense that Discord makes should be a weird one. Good to see I've done my job there.
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Just saying.
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Well, hopefully it's clearer than the show.
Celestia looked around the starry background, seeing nothing beyond what passes for ordinary around here. She sighs, "Guess it couldn't wait then."
A voice sounds from all around her, chuckling a little, "No, it's just your presence, while perhaps desired, was not strictly necessary this time."
Celestia huffed, her ears pinning back, as she turned around. There she was of course, right behind her, because manifesting within one's field of vision is something these cosmic forces just seem incapable of doing.
"Hello Harmony. Care to fill me in then?"
"Hello to you to. I suppose I should, though I suspect Sunset Shimmer could once she is done cleaning up the latest disaster in her new home. She wanted me to tell you she will try to make you proud."
Celestia stared at the spirit in front of her for a moment. "Wait, Sunset? She was here?" A cold fear shot through her, before the rest of what Harmony said registered. "Cleaning up... Harmony. What. Happened."
(Blasted 15 minute breaks)
Beautiful ending. Bravo. It'll be interesting to see the results.
That was one of the most awesome fanfics I've ever read. Thank you for writing it.
Alright- I think you just made something more epic than all three EQG movies multiplied by Laser Fights in the Show Proper raised to the power of infinity.
...I can't say much else. I'm gushing too hard to make a valid comment.
The birth of an anthro-world? Possibly. Harmony is about finding the balance between all possible extremes and needs, as impossible as that seems. With the power of the Elements, the intellect of Twilight Sparkle and the reality-changing of Discord to support her, it's just possible that Sunset will find the way to that ideal outcome.
6543212
We need the answer to this as the next chapter.
So, no comments on Blueblood's latest idiocy?
I think what I like most about this story so far is the physical implications you are hinting at. Low energy universes and high energy universes just don't come into contact with each other without some repercussions. Much like osmosis, the energy will try to equalize between the two, draining power from one, but potentially bursting the other as the energy bloats up matter from the planck level causing the curled up spatial dimensions to unroll like party favors. Too much too fast and the entire universe collapses into a burst of pretty but short lived exotic particles.
This is why we must always put pressure gates to keep energy flow to a minimum when crossing to other three dimensional spatial constructs. Again using the cell analogy of osmosis there are gates to actively transport particles against the osmotic flow. I don't see these happening automatically on such a low dimensional level and would have to be built into artificial gateways. Apparently Starswirl never thought to do that.
Patiently waiting for more but sad to see the potential end coming all too soon.
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Thanks! That means a lot coming from you. I hope you enjoy the resolution.
Now, to tackle the commentary...
Given her brief stint as a demon, I'd say her fury defines the absolute limit of Hell's. It's like the speed of light; no hellish fury, however furious, can meet or exceed the fury of Sunset. Unless the demon is massless. Or something like that.
I would certainly hope not! This Rarity would've had far less time to recover from such an incident. And if it had resulted in a pregnancy...
Yeah, given the necessary freshness of the trauma, I doubt she's had to deal with anything like that.
Well, given the morphic flux effect, they'd be more like Clifford the Big Red Dog, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility.
Because fighting a giant monster would be super-awesome!
Not necessarily. Probability space is infinite, after all. Star Swirl likely switched up just where he banished things on a frequent basis, especially since sending too much to one place might lead to someone tracing it back to him and complaining, wasting valuable work hours.
My view of Discord is rather different from yours. While creating Equestria, his sister and counterpart (who, as you may have gathered, is based on Lauren Faust's OC,) worked herself into the closest thing she could get to an early grave. He worked with Celestia and Luna, his nieces, to complete the job. Once he ran out of displacement activity, he went mad with grief, and the world followed suit. n-over-salmon years later, Celestia and Luna stopped the draconequus, their memories of his relation to them hopelessly scrambled.
Granted, this headcanon was made back in Season 2. I haven't even begun to adjust it to the existence of the Tree of Harmony.
Precisely. Pinkie has always been my best evidence for the nonzero magic level in the human world. And Scoots2 is just plain awesome. Her stuff has been a huge inspiration, especially for stories like Mandatory Fun.
In Twilight's case, it's an homage to David Hahn, a.k.a. the Nuclear Boy Scout. Fortunately, Night Light and Twilight Velvet were able to keep the situation from going critical.
Personally, I'm not sure. I can definitely see the possibility, but this might just be case of right people in the right place at the right time.
Of course! I always love seeing background characters fleshed out, and you did a great job with them. (And I look forward to seeing Fuchsia eat her words.
)
Yup, though it can also be dropped due to arousal. A bit of accidental exposure is considered one of puberty's awkward rites of passage, like a cracking voice.
To a lesser degree, but yes, hence her confusion over Fluttershy's wings.
I said I was sorry.
You can tell a lot about a person at their worst, especially post-Harmony blast. Sunset, like Luna, was crying, apologetic, and ashamed of what she'd done. The Sirens? Even after the sources of their power and the avatars of their true forms were shattered, they just tried to pick up where they'd left off. It makes me wonder if a siren's mental architecture even possesses the capacity for guilt. So, yes, much like cats.
I hadn't considered their potential interaction with the windigoes. Fascinating thought, that.
Thanks again for the detailed analysis!
God, Blueblood is a dick.
So...wow. Sunset just got the ultimate, but suckiest, promotion possible.
I love it.
This is building to an amazing and unexpected climax. Can't wait to see how it all ends!
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I remember hearing Meghan McCarthy said Sunset would be Empathy if she had an Element. That got me thinking, Adagio was basically Sunset's old bad self, but even worse. However with the sirens basically being connected at the hip during RR its easy to see them all having a 'lack of empathy' as a united trait. They just express it differently.
This was... one heck of a ride so far. Not sure I really followed half of what happened, to be perfectly frank, but it was definitely interesting. Mr. Discord is pretty great, too. Looking forward to the epilogue.
Alright, caught up and waiting to see where this ends
Really well written. This is better than entire novels I have read.
Wonder if he realizes exactly what role that puts him into...
Nice story so far, great work.
6826243
Realize? He revels in it.
Deityship does not make one deserving of respect.
6542700 Eight fathers? Wouldn't it still be six? Please enumerate.
7954219
I'm counting all three Wonderbolts featured in "Rainbow Falls."
I'm not sure why this amuses me as much as it does, but now I want to write a story with a exceptionally expressive incorporeal character.
You planned this ending before Friendship Games? You weren't influenced even a little bit? If so, holy crap that last scene was familiar.
8495610
Coming up with body lanuage for a sun was fun, I won't lie.
The plan was indeed for Twilight to get possessed by the magic of the human world and Sunset to find a third option that would satisfy all involved. The hand holding might have been a carryover from Friendship Games. It's been long enough since the initial planning that I'm honestly not sure at this point.
Somebody should probably tell Harmony that line was most likely meant as a dick joke.
So was Sunset's transformation modelled off Daydream, or are you able to take credit as a seriously prescient fan author?
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This much time afterwards, it's hard for me to say for certain, but I do know that "My Past is Not Today," Rainbow Power, and the work of fan artist Jon Fawkes all went into the inspiration percolator. Plus "horse-magic angel" is a pretty small leap from "horse-magic demon."
Correct, you can't always get what you want or be given something like a castle free of charge.
Oh my!
Wait, did she transform into Daydream Shimmer!?!?
Wait, so Twilight isn't gonna destroy the world or has she gotten powers she can't seem to control, I'm a little lost here?
Thx discord. Your a real help.