• Published 1st Apr 2016
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Group Precipitation - FanOfMostEverything



Stories set in the Oversaturated World, some silly, some less so.

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Long May He Rein, by SaintAbsol

"I'd still like to know why the shift occurs in one direction, but not the other."

"That's a problem for another day; besides, you said it yourself, this is just a social visit."

"Right... a social visit, involving a trans-dimensional portal and a meeting with a deiā€”"

"Twilight..."

Princess Twilight, now in the shape of a unicorn-aspect human, frowned at Sunset from across the lunch table. The rest of their friends, including her doppelganger, were seated at the same table, having conversations of their own (with a full mouth in the case of Rainbow Dash) as the two of them discussed things from their respective sides of the mirror. "Look, Sunset," she said. "I realize you don't like the word, but it's objectively what you are right now. Even if you didn't have a direct connection to this reality, you're still far more powerful that the vast majority of others, have some level of at least quasi-immortality, andā€”whether you want them or notā€”a group that worships you; you are a deity, Sunset."

"I know..." Sunset groaned, her head coming down to meet the table with a dull 'THUNK'. "Just... I don't like to think to hard on it; I'm trying to stay grounded." She eventually brought her arms up to rest her head on them. "Can't we talk about something else?"

Twilight still frowned, but eventually sighed and decided to honor her friend's request. "Well, if we can't talk about that, and you don't want to talk about magic... there is one thing that's been bothering me about this world."

Sunset glanced toward the rest of their friends, who were all doing a remarkable job of pretending they weren't listening now. "Well, I'm hardly an expert, but I guess it's better than nothing."

Twilight hesitated. "Well... it's like back in Equestria, only... there, there's a reason for it, given... well, the dominant species and all, but here... it... well, it's sorta..." She groaned. "Why are there so many naming conventions that seem to relate back to ponies?"

The entire table blinked.

"Or... I suppose you call them... 'horses', but..."

Sunset took over. "That word is spelled with a 'W' back in Equestria," she explained to the other group. It wasn't long before the light of understand sparkled in their eyes, and an uncomfortable silence followed. "But... now that you mentioned it, I never really noticed before, but you're right, it is a littleā€”"

"It's because of Glitterhoof."

Sunset and Princess Twilight both looked toward Pinkie Pie. "Glitterhoof?"

"Yeppers!" The Party Girl smiled. "Waaaaaaaaaaaay back when Scandaneighvia was still called 'Norway', there was this horse that showed up right when the king was having a tough time. He had these really sparkly hooves, and everyone started referring to him as Glitterhoof; the king took a liking to him and started riding him into battle and almost always won when he did. When the king got old, he ended up naming the horse as his heir, since him and his sons didn't get along."

Princess Twilight's face grew entirely deadpan. "You're making this up..."

"Nah, she's tellin' the truth." Rainbow Dash finally managed to swallow the mess of food she'd been chowing down on. "It's the one part of history class I paid attention to. Glitterhoof was crowned after the king died, and the sons started a rebellion. They would have probably killed the horse and taken the crown back, if the king's general hadn't decided that even a horse would make a better king than any of them and started riding Glitterhoof into battle himself.

"The sons weren't all that smart, so their rebellion didn't last more than a few years. And, by then, Glitterhoof had kinda endeared himself to most people, meaning that more and more of them were okay with having a horse for a ruler and a few towns even started changing their names to some sort of horse-pun. Plus... well, he had a lot of really strange luck while he reigned. Pretty much everything seemed to go right for his country; good weather, good crop yields, and the citizens generally prospered. It got to the point that, when Glitterhoof died, they actually crowned a colt he'd sired as the next king."

Twilight and Sunset both openly gaped as Rainbow Dash, of all people, started to explain about how this horse-run kingdom went on to, mostly out of luck and the 'king's' court using some creative politics, ended up encompassing a good portion of the world, complete with their horse-themed naming conventions for both towns and (later) citizens. To the point that, even when it finally fell, the naming conventions stuck around to the modern day. By the end of it, both of them could only stare dumbly for several minutes.

"This..." Sunset finally started. "This is a joke... it has to be a joke."

The human Twilight gave Sunset an incredulous look. "You've lived here for years, and you never learned the history?"

"It was never a huge priority. I usually just stole answer keys to pass most of my tests back when I was... less nice."

Princess Twilight's mouth worked for another moment, before she finally managed to speak once more. "I... you... how do you know this much about it?" She pointed a fist at Rainbow Dash, forgetting about her fingers for a moment.

Rainbow Dash just smirked. "Cause I'm named after one of Glitterhoof's successors, duh!"

Author's Note:

Inspired by this fascinating game of Crusader Kings 2. I'm not saying this is canon... but I'm not saying it isn't.

Also, by this point, the universe has stabilized to the point where pony Twilight can come visit. Call it about a year later.

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