There's a lot of unpleasant surprises that can be found in photo albums. A third pony in what you thought was a private moment, inexpertly applied bodypaint, or just evidence of that time that your mother dressed you up like a burrito.
Twilight Sparkle was expecting to come out of Family Night with a few fresh blushes on her cheeks. What she wasn't expecting was a mysterious pair of wings in her baby pictures.
Hopefully Celestia will have some answers.
Many thanks to Present Perfect for supplying the brilliant concept, and to Evehly for the beautiful artwork.
Chapters (1)
Nice concept and good story
7311829 Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Well done and well put sir. Honestly an enjoyable short read.
7311842 I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Seems kind of sad that they only have magic because their universe is broken.
7311879
My question to that is who do we need to do what for for them to come along and break /our/ univurse? WtB 90/90 Magic! 200mil and full trimmed rune pl8 + skimmy!
7311882 Do you think Twilight's friends and family will still love her the same?
Intriguing headcanon and nice story. Je l’ai aimé.
7311915 I feel like that's not proper French, but I won't complain. Glad you liked it!
7311890
I believe it was apparent in the story that they do indeed..
I wonder how the Six will remember Twilight's ascension. Maybe just that she disappeared and then reappeared later? I presume everypony will still remember her not being a princess until it was made official. Would they remember ever commenting on how she was the only non-alicorn princess? Or that she never flew until after the cutie-mark-swap episode?
I'm assuming that the same effect also wiped out anypony's memory of Cadance being a pegasus...?
I see what you did there!
"How can I, have sent you, away? The blame was my own, the punishment yours,-" and i'm just gonna stop now
So, in the world of magic, effect can precede cause. (life just threw me another curve
)
7311924 *engage French enthusiast mode*
Hmm… I looked it up and it appears to be grammatically correct. However, one of the results (the subreddit of which I just subscribed to) showed that native speakers would probably prefer the simpler j’ai aimé, or alternatively ça m’a plu or c’était bien instead. It looks like je l’ai aimé would still work, but I’d have to make it clear what the ‘it’ in ‘I liked it’ refers to.
It’d help to have a native French speaker confirm this.
God dammit.
I'll admit, I was hoping for something other than a "Celestia explains what's going on" kind of story, but if I could have come up with something better, I'd've written it myself. :B I won't deny it's not interesting though!
7312191
TIME FOR ROUND THREE
Death always forgets how the little horse-shaped ones move.
I would have given up the power if it was possibly, to watch my family and friends leave over time would kill me.
7312191
Would it matter if Fluttershy was an alicorn? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW
Kind of falls down when you remember that big list of things that have, to date, BTFO one or more alicorns: Discord stomped Celestia and Luna, Chrysalis stomped Celestia using the love energy of 1 (one) pony - and presumably Cadance as well, Sombra stomped Cadance, Discord's house plants stomped Celestia and Luna, Tirek stomped all five princesses at once without using a single drop of alicorn magic, Starlight Glimmer fought Twilight to a standstill, and Celestia and Luna got stomped by clouds. Clouds!
Even if Twilight tells her friends and family what's happening, will they even remember that? I mean, in the long run this won't affect how her friends see her given that they'll still remember how they met and everything they've done together, but it's still a troubling thought to imagine your life being rewritten like that
Although, the "corrections" wouldn't be perfect. Like say, what about moments like when Twilight was being chased by the Hydra and could have flown? Or when they went to Cloudsdale the first time and needed to use the cloudwalking spell? Will some reason be made up to account for this, or will there be moments where a person feels a sense of unease when they can't explain why?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/2/18/248189__safe_twilight+sparkle_rainbow+dash_pinkie+pie_fluttershy_rarity_applejack_crossover_30+minute+art+challenge_death.png
7312433
Discord: From my understanding of this story, Discord is so... wrong that he doesn't count.
Chrysalis: Cadence likely doesn't have the control to fully unleash her power or was knocked out before she could react to anything. And Celestia was likely holding back because using her full strength likely could kill everyone.
Sombra: Again, lack of full control and she probably wasn't thinking doing about a frontal assault.
Plants: Discord
Tirek: Had DISCORD'S power. And it was only to a standstill.
Starlight: Key word was standstill. And was because Twilight wasn't willing to just kill her (Twilight could have just snapped Starlight's neck with telekinesis).
Clouds: I've got nothing.
Again, this is just hypothesis based on my understanding of the story's logic.
Socially acceptable.
Wow, this was pretty powerful. Just a question, though. Is Twilight considered immortal in this story? Because if she is, then honestly the darkest part of it is that one day she might forget she was a unicorn.
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7312506
There's also that little Alternate Universe tag at the top. An author's under no obligation to explain just how "alternate" their AU is, and it can be especially effective if we think we recognize parts of it.
7312054 They will probably remember her doing something that earned her the actual title of princess, whereas she was previously just a 'baby' alicorn.
7312436 If Twilight tells anypony, all it will really do is make them really paranoid about their own memories for the rest of their life. Not fun.
As for timeline corrections, they would be perfect. Order doesn't visit Equestria often, but he brings his A-game when he does. To counter your examples; She would have flown against the hydra. That encounter goes down largely the same way, except she flies around a little and doesn't bounce on a bubble. As for the cloudwalking spell, just because Twilight's an alicorn doesn't mean Applejack and Pinkie Pie are suddenly able to walk on clouds.
7312484 It's a pretty tense game, actually. Death can't lose, but Celestia's immortal, so he's not really allowed to win.
They play until the board realizes what's going on and self-destructs.
7312546 Yes. The main reason this is marked as AU is for immortal alicorns.
7312436
The thing about memory alteration is that minor details can be changed to justify the major changes. Twilight doesn't fly from the hydra because she could have broke her wing in an earlier accident. When she goes to Cloudsdale she casts the cloud walking spell on the other three who need it.
So reality is rewriting itself, like Marty being erased in Back to the Future. I can accept this. Good story overall so have a thumbs up and a fave!
Kinda chilling, really.
But god I love when this kinda shit happens.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Stuff like this makes you think; but i'm not awake enough to think yet, so i'll reread the story later and think then. Joking aside, this was an interesting way of looking at this. Good job King!
This was nice but I feel we the readers only got to see a tiny slice of the world building that could have gone on. There is much that is hinted at and not explained. I personally would like a reason why a pony sized concentration of magic should not exist. I feel it has to relate to the point of ascension and how a pony has made herself more powerful. Kinda like lifting yourself up with your own bootstraps, it should not be possible to do. That however doesn't relate to some sort of concentration of magic.
If what I have said makes no sense, I blame it on lack of getting enough sleep.
7312753 Oh, it makes perfect sense.
It's just that this is a lazy long-winded explanation of a slightly cool idea that really shouldn't have made it to the featured box.
Some 100 Follower Milestone, eh?
7312636 Immortal alicorns alone (unless it's Twi or Cady*) don't really qualify as AU since not much is known about them if you were to go strictly with what is presented in the show.
*I've noticed a lot of people liking to adhere to tweets from the staff and such regarding their status, so they'll get their exclusion for the sake of this comment.
7312803 I've been frequenting a large number of circles where it's been generally agreed that, whatever the alicorns are, they are not gods. Considering this story was inspired by and written for someone in one such circle, I felt that alone merited AU.
That, and it's just too depressing for me to try and convince myself that this could be canon.
7312807 Heh. 'Gods' always seems to have two ways you can think about it, as far as I've seen in ponyfic, where they are immortal and almost-all powerful (think Greek myths, I guess) but not all-knowing and then there's ones where they are manifestations or all-knowing avatars/divines. Lastly, I've also seen some art and ponyfic where they (Tia and Luna in this case) were originally (insert race here) before becoming alicorns.
But yeah, the whole erasing/re-write part is pretty saddening although immortality is a divided road.
7312763
It's a lazy long-winded explanation of a slightly cool idea, only the explanation and the logic of it is very much entirely contrived. It's barely a story, barely pretends to make sense, and doesn't even follow through with its premise past the explanation. Twilight does nothing after the explanation but give a few trite sentences in response. In fact, according to you over here 7312636 it's entirely possible for Twilight to simply explain to her family and friends her actual past instead of being saddled with the fate of being alone in knowing the truth.
And that's why I downvoted this story.
7312866 And I respect and entirely agree with your opinion. Your criticisms are very much appreciated, and if I'm honest, I expected people like you to be the norm rather than the exception. In your situation, I would probably downvote too.
Also, just thank you on general principle for telling me why you downvoted. That's a very appreciated courtesy.
7312873
7312879 ...
You confuse me.
7312882 I guess that's why he's called derpmind.
7312830 What is a god? What makes a god. The Norse gods has many restrictions and flaws, and weren't inherently immortal.
If a mortal being becomes powerful enough, can it become a god? If there is a supernatural entity that effortlessly changes reality and dictates the universe, but tells everyone that it's not a god and that it just likes to help, is it a god? What if there is one being that created the universe, but then it got sick and died, is that a god?
Oops, might have got a bit deep, there.
id say there should be a secound chapter of here telling her friends and family about whats happing before its compleate
7313018 That's the point, many different variations exist.
7311969 Got it. Do you think it will be sad that they don't remember her accomplishment?
Wow, that's a cool tie in to Cadences alicornship. In the show we only saw her as an alicorn because we're viewing events from Twilights perspective. And because we're seeing things from her perspective we see her as a Unicorn as well. Though I am a little confused on how an alicorn comes to be in the first place. Is it because the attacks by the draconequui loosened the rules? But I thought that created magic, and magic itself can't create an alicorn because of this quote here,
so yeah, I loved the fic but that little bit confuses me somewhat.
Fascinating stuff that does a nice job of addressing the distressing implications of some aspects of the show. There are bits that shouldn't be reattempted... though this does seem to have some distressing implications for Flurry Heart. Unless Sunburst is especially essential to the future, Flurry's continued existence may be subject to an audit soon. It's not like babies perform vital activities on a frequent basis.
Still, a lot of fun, filled with both food for thought and plenty of laughs. Thank you for it.
7313032 Alright then. It's just that I've heard people complain in the past about Alicorns being or not being gods, and wanted to make the point that either argument can be right.
I think the message might have been meant more for KingMoriarty anyway.
7313249 Yes! Glorious, diverse ideas!
7312551 I think through thinks far too much.