This story is a sequel to Under the Heavens Above
Twilight has never been one for making mistakes; in fact, up until now, she's been doing pretty well with her life. She is an Alicorn Princess, has had a successful academic life and has wonderful friends. But perhaps she has been a little too successful... Now, with her two hidden relationships now exposed to both of the Royal Sisters, Twilight must now face two angry demigods and explain to them just why she did what she did.
Rated T for very light references to affairs and conversations concerning adult situations.
This story is the 'morning after' for my previous fanfic:→ https://www.fimfiction.net/story/293054/under-the-heavens-above
Chapters (2)
I quite enjoyed this sequel! I hope there's another.
Anyway, it seems there is a formatting error though. The Cadence finding Twilight scene happens twice with different endings. The first one happens before we find out she's even flying to Canterlot.
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Glad you liked it.
Anyway, I accidentally had a mix up with an old doc I sent to a proof reader with the one I meant to upload. It is fixed now.
Well that was... heavy I wasn't expecting something like this when I read the first story.
I kinda hate how much you're pushing the anti-lesbian agenda. I don't much like how Celestia is acting as a whole, and Luna's flip-flopping attitude is driving me up the wall, but the ant-queer stuff is total bollocks
welp I gotta say, first and foremost. I hope for a sequel. I think we all need closure from this. Perhaps Twilight getting her magic forced back into her, and a timeskip to when equestria finally cools down. I can see the nobles and other ponies turning to Cadence as their new regent as she is perceived as the proper non-scandalous one. This brings me to my second point.
I hate cheaters. Having suffered through seeing the effects of an unfaithful father, my sisters first two relationships, and my brother (who's betrayal was one of the factors that lead to his death), I have no pity for people who cheat. Cheaters and those who hurt their alleged significant others are the scum of the universe to me. If I see someone who beats his wife/husband or cheats on them, on fire, I wouldn't even spit on them to save them. But you managed to make me feel very, very bad for Twilight. I know very well what it feels like to be violated by another person, and the "triggering" feelings of that where eclipsed by just how bad I felt for Twilight. The remorse was palpable like a dollop of rotten aloe vera on the tongue. I honestly, want to see a "good" end to this. Things can never be the same, but they can be good again, with time. People can learn to forgive and forgive themselves.
It is my sincerest of hopes that we will get to see Twilight in the future, mended, and pursuing a healthy relationship.
Now my third point. I can tell people will be in a stinker over the anti-homosexuality in this. Before anyone accuses me of being some white cishet male misogynist or any other useless jargon the millennial kiddies like to use to silence differing opinions. Think of what kind of world we see in MLP. Most of the ponies on screen are female, even with the latests of episodes, the ratio of males to females is still skewered. Males form most of the Guard, thus are directly in danger of dying, and Equestria itself can only be called a Death World. Forests full of monsters, both mythical and meme-tastic (bumble bears), parasites that devour everything, ancient chaos gods, centaurs that devour magic, changelings, flora that maims you by playing "pranks". The list goes on. This is a world that from a realistic, screw your feelings standpoint, could, possibly, not afford to let non-heterosexual relationships be a norm. Ponies are a prey species, no level of sentience, magic, colors, friendships and rainbows will change that.
None of this applies to our world as we are an apex species, and frankly, by most beliefs, we are overpopulated. Do not attempt to force your human-centric systems of morality on things not human. I'm female, I fancy both sexes, I lean more towards my own sex, and to be honest, the anti-LGBT mentality in Equestria, theoretically is not misplaced. In fact, I'm sad to say this, but if a major catastrophe would to ever hit mankind, whatever gods may or may not exists never let this come to pass, we may see the civil/social right to love who we choose to taken away for matters regarding the preservation of the species and/or its genetic diversity. So please, put the LGBT flags down, and enjoy this work for what it is.
Now the rant that will get me tons of hate mail and downvotes aside. I feel broken. This is the first time a fanfic has hurt me. I have cried tears of joy from some, I may have gotten sad due to occurrences in some fics bringing back bad memories, But this one really hurts. This is without a doubt one of the best fanfics I have read since my time on this site. Thank you for writing this Voltage Drop.
woow, that was..quite a shift from the first arc. You were right to put tragedy on this. I really hope you continue and make a sequel, this ending sucks. I mean, it's powerful, and very emotional, but it really, reallllly sucks for this to be how it all ends. Twilight is no longer an emotional wreck thanks to, well, having almost all life sucked out of her, the press and rest of Equestria know of the cover up and will soon learn that Twilight was, more or less, a martyr, and I don't see the three remaining Alicorns mending the situation between themselves with what happened.
I was a bit relieved when you didn't have somepony later find out that Celestia received all those pleas for help that Twilight was sending, and chose to ignore them. I was kinda getting that vibe from her for a bit. Cold, calculated rage is very ugly, and Celestia has it in spades in this.
This story is really well done, and I couldn't put it down until I got to the end, but, damn that ending.
This story broke my heart, but it's a testament to how well crafted the tragedy was. I can readily relate to the panic attacks Twilight experiences and the troubles caused. Thanks for sharing this story with us.
Well, that was jarring ways I didn't even think possible. You know how to gut someone and drag them around by their innards, I'll grant you that.
Unfortunately, your unnecessary polemic against homosexuality is delivered with the subtlety of a Chick Tract and effectively neutralises my ability to care about what comes next or anything like that.
I actually enjoyed the first half of this story, but it all fell apart when I got to the part about Celestia's speech. At that point, the story basically devolved into a big contrivance to force as tragic an ending as possible and I loath that kind of shitty emotional manipulation in a story.
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Your logic doesn't make sense.
Firstly, you claim Equestria is a death world, but most of those threats you mentioned are limited to a small portion of Equestria that it is specifically mentioned no one really goes to. All the rest are relatively rare external threats, not exactly the kind of thing that could shape a society. The rest of Equestria has been shown to be relatively peaceful and monster free.
Secondly, the whole argument from gender ration always bothered me, because that is clearly just a result of the animation process. Treating that as canon is ridiculous. No one treats the weird clones that keep appearing, sudden alicorns that only appear for a few seconds or random body parts disconnecting as canon, so why this?
Thirdly, even if I give you the gender thing, your argument still doesn't make sense. You argue that a species as endangered as ponies, with a gender imbalance, would place more importance on heterosexual reproduction. However, you then immediately point out that the guards are mostly male. This doesn't make sense. If society so heavily valued males for reproductive service, and the world was as dangerous as you say it seems, you'd think the opposite would be true, that males would be barred from service and only females could serve. Again, this is just an animation thing, it's easier to make a few guard models are reuse them. It's not canon, and if it is canon, then your theory makes no sense.
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Heheh, Yeah, I know the ending was rushed, but it wasn't because I was trying to manipulate emotions. I started writing this during a month long contest and by the point I got to Celestia's speech, I running close to the submission deadline and had run out of ideas. Pretty much, day to day, I was writing this by the seat of my pants as I struggled to keep the plot moving while meeting a 50k word goal (which I sadly couldn't pull off, but it was a personal record number of words).
A dark part of me half-hopes that the magic depletion is fatal; not because Twilight deserves it, but because Celestia does.
loved the first part but this one doesn't get a fav the ani-lez is just stupid its Tabo not wrong
6921436 I don't think the princesses are against it, the nobles are. and usually the common world is the one that disparages homosexuality, as it does nothing to further the base species as a whole. However, ponies have an out from that limitation, in the form of magic, a properly skilled mage could create a temporary member for same sex couples to have children with( - Gay males).
People need to calm down, im not antigay but i still enjoyed this story and hope to see more from the author. Another episode would be much appriciated.
The stuff about no one liking lesbians is really out of place, adds nothing to the story and is just weird. Why is the fact that they're both female matter more than the fact that Twilight raped two people. And why does anyone have sympathy for Twilight here? Why is Celestia so bad for blaming Twilight when it is entirely her fault? Why should Twilight just be forgiven and have her mistakes covered up and why do Luna and Cadance think that Celestia's story is worse for her. Frankly Twilight is getting away too lightly if anything.
Twilight got off lightly. I don't know why anyone would sympathise with her when every problem in this story was entirely her own fault. For me this story was ruined because you expect us to sympathise with her and see Celestia as cruel. Also again the anti lesbian stuff served no purpose at all which is why so many people complain about it. There doesn't need to be any added controversy to the fact that Twilight forced two princesses to have sex with her so why bother including it especially if it is never addressed properly.
Excellent story. It definetly needs sequel.
Throwing the story under the proverbial bus because the author dared to write a character/setting that doesn't dance to the tune of something you like, makes the story all better.
This story and its prequel were unbearable slogs. If there really is an anti LGBT tract in the rest of the story to go with the bullshit of condemning pre marital sex from the last story, then I'm glad I stopped.
(Side note: I can't believe I'm actually dissecting any story to this level - I despised this stuff back in high school. I'm such a hypocrite!)
This was a very emotional story, both for the characters and the readers. I am going to first say three things:
1) I will recommend this story to people - it is very good.
2) The comedy tag does NOT apply to 'Under the Heavens Above'. I would go for Drama myself.
3) Current version needs some editorial review (nothing major, minor typos and a few missed words here and there)
On to more important stuff…
Just wow… that's how I felt reading this story watching the turmoil build and build and not knowing where, when, or how it was going to blow up.
Now, let's discuss the manticore in the room, namely, the anti-homosexuality undercurrent.
There has been a question of whether this story is anti-homosexual piece. I'm not sure, and I'm honestly not sure it matters. Personally, I didn't feel like the author was shoving "DO NOT DO THIS" down my throat like some authors in the world do. (Jack Chick anyone?) Yes, Cadence has an anti-homosexual stance and she has her reasons. Now I don't feel that her reasons were completely and clearly defined by the author, at least, I didn't clearly follow them (granted it was 2am when I was reading everything and I was bloody well tired!). I will say that on its own merit her stance added nothing to the story as a whole and as such it honestly doesn't need to be there.
However…. she also implies that this stance reflects the view of a large part of pony-culture and thus it adds weight to The Bad Thing (™) that Twilight has done and adds another nail to her coffin she's already built of lies and deceit against Celestia and Luna. So, in my opinion, it can be argued that it does serve a purpose in the context of the overall story by increasing the magnitude of her mistakes. But this is still a rather weak reason for it to be in there in the first place and still doesn't really add anything to the story at this level.
Where this stance DOES start to add to the story is the fact that we learn from Luna via Twilight's recollections, that in the olden days physical relationships were not only common but encouraged between all members of the royal guard, regardless of sex! This implies it was accepted - at least on some level - in the past. And now we add one more tidbit: the fact that at the end when Celestia and Luna both explain that they fell for Twilight not because she was a mare but because she was now immortal and the sting of losing another loved one was removed, and Cadence did not fault Celestia and Luna for this reasoning:
So, now we have dueling opinions here - one the one hand, per Cadence, homosexuailty and pre-marital sex is bad, but homosexuality has been accepted on some levels within Equestria in the past, and Cadence has accepted it within the context of what has been going and she did not flat out reject that reasoning! So how do you resolve this duality? I have no idea, because it wasn't resolved with "Under the Heavens Above" or "Royal Affairs". To me, this is another plot point for a future sequel: just how does the populace of Equestria handle homosexuality these days? Does anypony really care or think like Cadence does? Do they have an opinion in regards to their immortal leaders playing "hide the feathers" with each other rather with stallions? This may become an important point in the future of the story, but only the author knows for sure. But it's from discrepancies like this that conflicts comes from and conflict is what makes stories move forward.
I'm going to say that I have no idea if the author intended this to be an anti-homosexual piece, but I just don't see it. I think if he (she?) did then I don't think that Cadence would be so understanding of Celestia's and Luna's reasons for becoming involved with Twilight, and I think that there would have been more of a negative fallout from the royal guard being overly promiscuous in the past. But I didn't see anything negative come from these points. (To clarify - L+C having sex with Twilight was proven to be bad, but mares having sex with each other was NOT proven bad within the story.) So, from my standpoint, when I read these stories the anti-homosexual bent was just a plot contrivance and not the author's personal attack on homosexuality. (That begin said, IF it was an outright attack then the author failed because I, as his reader, was able to ignore it and move on. So, go me!)
So, do I know what I'm talking about? Not really. This is just my take on this story. You can take it or leave it, it's just my opinion. But, to me, the author is either really horrible at convincing people that homosexuality is bad or there are really interesting plot points that are just begging to be resolved. Personally I think the author just really wants to beat Twilight with the "Fate Really Hates You" stick a lot.
Moving on to other things…
I want a sequel. The author - yes you, Voltage Drop - has got this story stuck in my head so deep I can't stop wondering what the hell is going to happen next. How do Celestia and Luna resolve their feelings towards Twilight? Towards each other? Towards the populace at large whom they felt they had to lie to about a changeling attack rather than tell them the truth of what happened? (well, OK, that was all Celestia, Luna just went along with it grudgingly). And what about Cadence? Does her feelings on love and relationships apply equally to immortal alicorns compared to the little ponies? And what does this mess do to her relationship with Celestia and Luna. And for the love of Discord (whom I'm assuming is still a statue in this story) what in Tartarus' smokey abyss do Twilight's friends and family make of all of this?! Oh, and what happens when any of those notes Twilight fired off asking for Celestia to save her from Luna get found? I can only imagine they will stir the political pot should they ever be found.
And finally, what is to become of our now greying, non-magical, blank flank of a former alicorn? My money says she recovers enough from magical drain to realize there's nothing left for her in Equestria except pain and grief and hatred. So she then leaves Equestria and permanently moves to the Crystal Empire to be with Cadence and Shining Armor followed very shortly thereafter by Spike and her parents. (Personally, I'm pretty sure that Spike's going to be on a round the clock, panicked suicide watch for a long time to come…)
For me, these stories go in the Favorites folder.
eh… that's enough out of me for now, I guess.
6922787 Agree on all points. Also want to add that Cadence stance on sex has place if stallion to mare ratio is about 1:1. But statistically it looks about 1:5
Also Cadance was a little concentrated on the fact that Twilight was sleeping with both Princesses. Like any coin there is another side to it. Twilight was seduced by both Princesses. It's not like she could seduce both of them. (Yeah i can see Twilight barely 20 years old seduces TWO Princesses thounds years old). Also Celestia and Luna both come out here not old, wise etcetra, but like little foals. CMC seem more mature than those two in the story. If i give estimates Luna is about 10 years old and Celestia is somewhere beetween 5 and 7,5.
That's really... sad. I mean, imagine if the two person you loved with all your heart decided to gave up on you because of just ONE mistake! While, it is a rather large one, i think the princesses acted WAY out of the line... It shows that while they didn't manipulate or have been using Twilight for their own twisted pleasure, they are willing to gave it ALL up, it shows that they don't care of loosing Twilight and shows that Twilight are of little use to them and therefore can be pushed away whenever they pleased!
It's... tragic really, i think they hurt Twilight FAR more worse than the latter had to them. Its true that they've been hurt greatly by Twilight, but its all physical! and all hurt to them is their goddamn prides! Its not like they we're humiliated in front of THOUSANDS MAYBE EVEN MILLIONS of people and looked down upon in the time span of mere seconds. Being stripped of your title, whom you spend your whole life working for, in front of millions of people... While Twilight on the other hand, was hurt. Emotionally and Physically. Like i said earlier, being hurt physically is really no big deal. Atleast, when its compared to being hurt EMOTIONALLY, being mentally or emotionally hurt is far more painful and often last your whole lifetime and perhaps even more.... I think they hurt Twilight to the point that to her being killed seems the better punishment.
Being stripped of who you are for just one mistake is just... sad. Tragic even.
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actually to what i heared is the ratio would be 1 to 37.
and yes i think in pictures 
)
i can be wrong ofc but just saying that might aswell be the case.
( i see it infront of me 1 stallion having to please 37 mares
as for the story i must say the writer should continue cuss this story ended on a way that is not a real ending.
so i suggest either tag as incomplete and continue or tag discontinued cuss tag as complete doesn't fit in the slightest.
so continue pls?
6924786 yeah epiloug seems like nightmare continuation of dialog overheard by Twilight that made here cast the spell. And again like i preveously stated the Princesses react way out of proportions. Okay the spell made them have sex with Twilight and each other but the alternative was puppy love to Twilight!!! Basically by doing what they've done they recreated fact that cracked Twilight.
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I know right!? Also, Celestia is a , pardon my uncouth words, bitch in this story!
Anyway, still looking forward to the continuation of this story!
6924952 more like a child that places blame on anyone but herself. At least in the last paragraph she gets a little better but still she matured from 5 year old to 8 year old. Hell my sister isvmore mature the Tia in this fanfic. Also Luna aparantley has ether anger managment problems or she dose first thinks later. Seems like second one by the way.
Damn, this was a rollercoaster of feels. Thank you, Voltage Drop, for writing this; spent a good part of my free day reading this and its prequel. And damn, that ending was bitter (not the bad bitter, but bitter-sweet without the sweet.)
You managed to ruin every major character and the mlp universe. That would be fine if it was done on purpose, but I feel like you did it by accident. And by the way, a universally accepted anti-gay sentiment makes absolutely zero sense here and the whole thing reads like your own personal opinion on same-sex relations, rather than what is believable. If there was like, some kind of prevalent religion or belief system in your story of which everyone was a part, which pushed against homosexuality then fine, but that isn't the case here. I mean you have the princess of love discriminating against types of love, and even your lesbians hate lesbianism. It just reads weird and is frustrating.
This was a really good read so far. The setup and interactions between the characters are all top notch, I can tell you put in a lot of work thinking this out. Twilight is especially good, her reactions are pretty much lockstep with the show. It was really fun to read a conservative view on relationships that hasn't been made into a strawman by it's opponents. It's a type of logic that doesn't receive the respect it deserves. That being said, it feels sort of weird here simply because it goes against my personal thoughts of how sexuality would be viewed in equestria. That being said I have read a lot crazier premises in fimfiction. And Twi is portrayed as at least liking males in the show. I guess it's mainly just having Cadence coming out and saying gay sex is bad feels wrong to me. I guess essentially the problem is me. The view of what love is from the author simply doesn't match what my view is. Once again though, great fic, and your understanding of the characters is profound. Good job.
EHHHHHHHHHH....... From how you've built up Luna I can't believe she would allow this to happen. She was on the verge of rebelling against Celestia in the the last fic. This is too far. She would straight up fight Celly before she let this happen. Or at least just tell the press the truth. She was adamant about even tarnishing Twilight's reputation, and was willing to admit the truth to even just prevent that. To save her from this, I can't imagine she would stay silent.
the punishment was a crime far worse than that which was committed to begin with
7308459 Agreed. It was an ending which, in retrospect, I wish I had written differently. I have some alternate endings in mind, so there may be a well needed update in the near future.
I like how this story came out. While it does stretch the personality of both Celestia and Luna beyond what they would actually are, the idea that Twilight would give up all her magic in repentance is appealing to me. I hope you can write more on this story plot from that point, it would be interesting to see where the Alicorn sisters go from here with Twilights life hanging in the balance.
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So...about that well needed update
Damn Celestia, you messed up here. Man do i feel rage for this whole conclusion. Hope we see a sequel one day.
This fic made me hate Celestia for how irrationally she is acting. Twilight made a mistake, and her panic attack made it worse, but instead of telling the public the truth, she made up a story that put only Twilight in a hole- one even worse than the situation actually was, and it was all out of jealousy, because she thought that SHE was the hurt party.
I would have Twilight's back the entire way on this.
Though Twilight had done wrong and hurt Celestia terribly, Celestia now knew she had hurt Twilight worse.
Mistakes like this happen in relationships all the time, and what angers me most is that Celestia is trying to deny that she is still prone to them happening to her own. Twilight had done no wrong other than, panicked and at a loss for what to do, tried to keep from disappointing Celestia- as she always had in the past. The lust spell was the result of a PANIC ATTACK, for crying out loud.
In the end though, she is right. If Twilight wakes up, maybe she'll see and choose Luna instead.
Rather than post what I was originally going to post about since so many others have already done so and voiced my thoughts perfectly, I'll say this:
So many points of this part of the story is basically Twilight indirectly/subconsciously explaining why she needs a therapist and I don't understand why she's never seem to had one. Like her life would be so much easier in this universe if she had. You'd expect, especially in the story you've created, that that would just be a readily available resource, unless there's some sort of illogical stigma or shame associated with that as well.
Her rather apparent yet unconfirmed Aspergers seems so incredibly clear in this story, even in comparison with canon, and that's something I adore. I don't know if that's what you were going for, but I severely adore how it's all portrayed and such, as Twilight's thought process here reminds me so much of someone close to me with this, as well as myself in some regards.
I applaud you in that regard.
But aside from that, really, the anti-gay is illogical especially considering the male-to-female ratio. Unless herds are common and accepted in this universe, and there is a social reason for the homophobia (since that's how it works in reality), it just doesn't make any sense.
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A bit late, but here's your answer:
If a commander orders his army to kill your family and sack your hometown, will revenge-killing him restore the city and bring back your family? In all honesty, the magnitude between crime and punishment in this example is reversed in the story but it is still the same concept.
Revenge will not solve anything. Even if the loose ends are tied, the problem is not solved. You might have even made things WORSE. That commander's now leaderless army is running rampant and harming other innocent people, your family is still dead, and your city is still in shambles. In this story, Celestia and Luna still had sex with Twilight and each other, Twilight still cast the lust spell out of panic, the truth of their relationships has been uncovered, and Celestia made things even worse for herself and even Luna by lying and defaming Twilight in order to get revenge for Twilight hurting her. Twilight started it out of a teacher-student complex and fear, but Celestia thinking that she could have the last laugh made things only worse for all of them. Twilight at least sought forgiveness and felt remorse, doing something short of killing herself to show how sorry she was. Celestia lied about forgiveness and offered only payback.
Revenge is ultimately useless, tying you down in the grave you dug. Forgiveness, though, even if the person who hurt you is now your worst enemy, will set you free. Celestia might not have wanted to speak to Twilight for awhile, feeling contempt, but it wouldve been better than the effects of revengeance eating her alive like the story says they were.
Just got done reading this story again, it's too bad Voltage never got around to writing a sequel to this. Does anybody know if there happens to be a spiritual sequel about this story anywhere written by someone else?
Wow, what a horrible fic. I really can’t see this any anything other than some homophobe writing a little wish fulfillment in which a bunch of gay people get hurt because of them being gay. The only main character that doesn’t get hurt is an explicitly homophobic straight girl. Awful, awful fic, completely irredeemable.
I would ask for a sequel but the Author hasn't been online in 5 years, this can't be how the story ends right? Twilight gives up all her magic and is now in a coma? And the truth is now out in the open, jeez you might as well end the story with Twilight dying, this is probably just a fate worst!
If there's a fan made sequel to this, not just on fimfiction but on any site, please let me know, I hate to know this is how the story ends.