Funny thing happened when I was working on this chapter. The format suddenly became dark with the page values reversed. It bugged the crap out of me and I couldn't figure out why it had happened and thought that the web page had been changed. Then about two weeks ago I accidentally clicked on something and turned night mode off and fixed it. I never even knew about night mode!

I have a feeling Tigerlily will have pregnancy complications which prevent her from foaling. Janet will be just fine, but the offspring will be a sterile, ugly mule, and that will be the end of the herd Bolt bloodline.

10025996
I assume you mean Snap Dragon rather than her mother Tiger Lily. Good try with trying to predict what lies ahead of them, but you'll need to try again. Sorry.

another great chapter

10025996
Ugly mule!? I take high offense at that derogatory term of any half breed foal Jennet may or may not have. If she did have one, it would be the most snugly adorableness ever born! Everypony would come from all across the land just to gaze upon its overwhelming cuteness and make unending dawws at it.
i.pinimg.com/originals/df/63/c4/df63c4e9574a099e7151568d744f5d2b.jpg

10027909
I guess it's a question of how "historically accurate" you want the story to be. Seems like there's a fair bit of bias in the show in regards to mules.

I suppose this is just another manifestation of the advent of civilization. Once you start grouping up for prosperity and protection, other groups start taking offense, and war is inevitable.

I have high hopes for ch. 69

10034091
Whelp. Someone went there... and it wasn't me.

Suddenly, his vision was filled with color. Blinking his dazzled eyes, Wild saw the butterfly was now sitting right on the end of his muzzle! Wild quickly swung his hooves up at the butterfly, and with a flash of pain, he smacked himself across his muzzle as the butterfly flitted away.

Outsmarted by an butterfly!
Hopefully none of the mares saw that... He would never hear the end of it.

He wanted to fight that way? Fine. Lunging in close, Wild savagely bit down onto the griffon's shoulder.
The griffon let out ear splitting shriek as he frantically clawed at Wild Bolt, throwing him off with a strike of his paw. "You bit me, you dirty mud pony! I'll rip your guts out for that!"

Wild: "Actually, it was you who tried to bite me first..."

"You're no pony!" The last Griffon exclaimed, pulling Snap back with him. "Stay away! You're some kind of monster!"

Wild: "Tell me, who attacked us unprovoked out of nowhere, threatening to kill us?"

Peering more closely, Wild noticed figures gathered outside the shimmering dome. By their size and distinctive shape, there was no mistaking it. They were too late. The griffons were already here.

Not good. Not good at all!

Finally caught up with the latest chapter.
Good work! I enjoyed reading it.

10025732
Night Mode had been around for some time.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/788681/night-mode
In fact, I believe I didn't turn it off yet since I saw the blog post. The dark design looks far better in my opinion.

Found a typo:

Plan ones, horned ones, winged ones,

Should be "Plain".

'I didn't choose the Herd Life. The Herd Life chose me'

- Dark Storm

This story really is an example of Xenofiction. Stories, that explore species other than humans in a not humanly way. Ponies are esential and can not be replaced with other species/universum. Also diving into pony mythology.

Story has been added to Xenofiction group

There's a lot that I like about this story. From the rapid changing of eras, to seeing a village grow through the generations; seeing how all the mythos have played out. It's hard to keep track of who was killed during the Spider attack. I can't recall anyone notable, but I feel like I should. And It's hard to believe everything has progressed so far before Celestia has even become a fully developed mare. But I feel like things kinda derailed with Ash dealing with becoming Ruin. The fumbling way the "Elements" are being handled. And Discord's mom in prison. But i'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out!

I must say this is really good story. Very original and emotional. I am glad i decided to read it and am looking forward for the next chapter. Great work :)

Dead story?

10697148
Sorry for not putting anything out for a while. Got a bit burned out. I've been recharging myself with my fellow brony's on Pxls.space doing pony art and I hope to restart writing again. I've tried several times to write and got a little bit farther, about half done with the next unpublished chapter, but its slow going.

If anyone wants to hang out and work on pony pixel art come join me in pxls.space, the Brony Discord is Manepxls --discord.gg/4B4xvpD

10697848
I'll check it out

Rip this story

2 years no update removing story from list.

11160709
sorry

Ok, so first off - the story sat at my to-read list for something over 2 years and I did read about the writers block for it. The current situation makes everyone pressed for cash so I don't dare accusing anyone of not doing hobby writing. I will just sitting here patiently for more.

I as somebody who wants to write one day myself do conentrate on world building first with characters affected within that world following close behind. I am also amazed how great characters you build up to life, doing the JoJo Bizzare Adventure loop where your characters at first are basic and solid but you play off their introduced characters as we progress. We can see it with the different healers and I am certain a pegasus healer will eventually come along that maybe knows how to stich skin together without complications. Surgery and pegasi are the only fields not touched down upon yet with the healers plot.

And the characters we got are 2 tiers better than what we had in the show. Starless is pretty much the best iteration of Twilight/Starlight/Trixie/unicorn protag I've read for a 2-3 years as she doesn't develop any overwhelming power advantage and a lot of her stenghts come in her character. Wild Bolt is an amazing idea of taking an edgypunk rebel character and then squashing him into a ptsd veteran. And that without introducing a war and having what I completely see as an edgy rebel in a primal setting. Intrestingly enought I didn't like Celestia in the story as too much as she is Chekov reloading an armourysworth of guns while Ash is just okay due to beeing introduced early on with a protag syndrome. The opposite is Dark who started off as a good character (scince the winter graves retrospection) and just kept building on as a character thats not allowed to win too hard outside of beeing reliable af.

The storyline itself is grand as we constantly jump between like 3-4 protagonists at the time who are in the middle of a worldchange events that also links up to their personal lifes. It's a careful balancing act that makes the story so good and why it's craftsmanship deserves a favourite. Maybe to ease writing you could try to cut down at the segments. You might want to never have more than 3 open arcs at the time. We're at like 6 now. I think the strongest is the Entantress rebelion and the weakest is the whole Alicorn of Destruction plot. It's not really a good fit for the overall arc and just exists as a runway for protagonists to awaken/mull over mary sue powers. The early Shadowmare arc wasn't really that special and kindda irks me it's the last chapter of what we had. Finally have Radiant make contact with the Enchantress would be more gratyfying. With so many moving elements dream bombing ponies with little direct setup would be simply too unearned.

I would also love to see The Unicorns Hidden Valley whose map seems to be deleted from the blog. Would be awesome if you PMed me it or reposted.

11245267
Thank you for your kind words. Its been a while since I visited this story. At first I got majorly burnt out and took a break, then I got sick with covid last year and spent a month in the hospital on oxygen. Since then I've been working on recovering, but its a slow road as I can quickly lose my breath doing the most simple things. I thought about trying to restart my writing but since my sickness, I've not been able to focus my mind onto tasks like I used to and my memory has some weird farts that keeps cropping up, like the time it took me 5 min to remember what a "cupcake" was called or even the name of the state of "Nebraska"

As to the picture of the maps, I still have them. I don't know if this will work but I will try anyways
camo.fimfiction.net/tG3Pq3jPKApFcwYfkqups4B8Ma0C7y88ip9jpGU39IQ?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsnipboard.io%2Fanot21.jpg
camo.fimfiction.net/d0cr9m44L_33rYLQ8IXDzu2_30Op1G8Vq7kJWL7DWwk?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsnipboard.io%2F1po8Cq.jpg

11250360
I can sympathise, man. As an asthmatic with allergies my own breathing isn't great and I suffer from times where my mind barely works. I hope you get better. Loosing word memory must be a huge pain.

Ah, thank you, kind sir. I was just mistaken to think there was a 3rd map.

11250360
You once told me the future of the story, I could help or work with you to continue it until you're better.