Apple Bloom was simply trying to live out her life with her adoptive family. You know: grow up, earn her cutie mark, master a furycraft or two, help bring in the harvest, that sort of thing. Until one day, aged thirteen and still with neither mark nor fury, she is thrown into the metaphorical deep end when she learns of a plot to start a war with the griffons. Can she find a way to preserve peace, even when there are warmongers on both sides?
A fusion-style crossover fic, combining My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with Jim Butcher's Codex Alera, a world in which everyone has the ability to commune with and control at least one of the six types of furies, the spirits of nature.
I've tried my level best to explain fury-related concepts within the story, so no reading of the Codex Alera should be necessary.
Fair warning, I've read Codex Alera several times, so my comments are going to be laced with nitpicks about fidelity to the source material.
That said,
Superb prologue. You actually had me wondering how close you'd be following the Codex Alera, and I heartily approve of the role you've cast Rainbow Dash in. Nopony could be a better Amara, at least in terms of skill. And I can see why Granny Smith would be a logical... High Mare.
Octavia as Fidelias is going to be... odd in my mind simply due to her name.
My biggest issue here, however, is, so far as I understand furycraft, water doesn't counter air, so water would be useless for containing a windcrafter. You half-bury them and sprinkle dirt and salt on them. Granted, being on the airship makes the burying part impossible, but sticking Dash in a barrel of salt would've been more believable than the water tub.
This has the makings of a great adaptation. I'm going to keep reading and try to keep my ranting to a minimum in future comments. The water thing just made me
a lot. Sorry.
...and so the plot undeniably goes its own direction already.
And I can't confidently assume the reason behind AB being furyless anymore. All the more incentive to keep reading and supporting this story. 
Good. I was giving myself a headache trying to match AJ, Big Mac, and Scoots to Aleran characters. Guess I don't need to worry about that as much as the prologue led me to think.
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Yeah, Rainbow as Amara was kind of obvious, wasn't it? As for Octavia as Fidelius... come to think of it, I can't quite remember why I picked her. My first idea was Cheese Sandwich just for the shear WTF value, but I just couldn't get the characterisation right. Having Octavia in the role made it a bit easier.
I can certainly see where you're coming from with the countercrafting trap, but I think it's just that I interpreted Amara's imprisonment a little differently - she was out of direct contact with the air, and so couldn't windcraft. I've simply recreated that concept with water instead of earth. In hindsight, I probably should have made it salt water. Maybe I'll fix that at some point.
As for nitpicking, I don't mind as long as it's thought out and civil.
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Yay, I have a fan!
Try not to stress too much when you can't instantly link a particular pony to a specific Aleran; my planning for the series has them only in loosely analagous roles rather than simply dropping ponies straight into Carna.
That said, the overarching plot of this story is probably going to be the closest to one of the Alera books. That'll probably become a bit clearer in the next few chapters.
As for AB's furylessness, well. That's gonna be interesting.
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Ok, I see where you're coming from with the counter-craft. Still, there is a scene in the fifth book that lays the methods for containing each type of furycraft, and they all rely on opposing elements.
The salt water would be a good fix - both easy to do and reasonable for the world.
I really like how the Dash/Scootaloo dynamic is starting out. And Scoot's firecrafting is pretty good so far.
Eyeing the character tags, I have a suspicion who Apple Bloom just collided with.
So, is Scootaloo flightless for the same reasons as in FiM, or because she has no wind furies?
Finally, I'm not sure whether to admire or face-palm at the boldness of having a farm right on the border between Ponera and the Grifflands with only a canal as a barrier. Especially since Griffons can fly. Shouldn't there be a garrison of soliders between the Griffons and civilian farm ponies?
Impressive woodcrafting trick on AJ's part.
Suggestion: do something to differentiate the flashback section from the present. Italics, or a header like "years ago..." AJ's line leading into the flashback was a bit too subtle, so I was confused for a bit when AJ and Mac were suddenly both back at the farm and at-ease.
Heh heh heh. Well, Gabby is definitely not Kitai, personality-wise, but she'll work well with AB and Scoots. And probably Sweetie Belle, if she ever joins the story. (I'm guessing that'll happen around the Academ's Fury period, and since Rarity's a Duchess, that'd make Sweetie the politically-experienced friend, or Max without the family problems)
Utilizing Gabby like that made for a very smooth integration of a fury-craft infodump into the narrative, so extra kudos.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I knew it! Right from the start, I knew what you were going to choose to be the... things from the Wax Forest! And it looks like they're going to be extremely troublesome in their own special way. 
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I've added a line to make it clearer that AJ is flashing back, and added in a header to indicate both the flashback and the return to present day.
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Alrighty, there we go. I've salted the water, and tweaked Rainbow's escape to account for the effects of salt on Tank.
That backstory was awesome. I really like Clean Leaf as a character, so now I'm sad he's suffering "death by backstory"
), in Ponera. AJ and Dash are obvious, Rarity's a Duchess, Twilight's potentially one too by now in the present unless Night Light's still around.
Sunset's an unexpected but welcome inclusion to the cast. I can't wait to see more of her (but if I guess her role right, it may be awhile). And if I understand the references right, we've now accounted for four of Mane 6, and Derpy ("Muffin" engine from BubbleWorks. Heh
I think I'm starting to be able to piece together the key events of the past, but some things still elude me.
Great job all around.
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Yay! This was my favourite chapter to write. Backstory, exposition, airships, explosions, thrilling heroics, Firefly shoutouts, what more could you ask for?
Clean Leaf is my first serious attempt at an OC with actual personality, so I'm glad to see he was well liked. A pity I had to kill him, but such is the writers lot in life.
My first draft of this chapter had Sunset's characterisation completely different - she was Rainbow's friend from before the events of the flashback, was quite shy, and all the airship exposition was delivered by her alone. I told myself that the traumatic events yet to transpire would toughen her up into the mare she was at the beginning of Equestria Girls (well, a less evil version of her at least), but then I realised I had written Sunset as a self-insert.
I rewrote almost all of her interactions on the spot.
Assuming your guess is Demos, you're right, but your wait might not be quite as long as you'd expect...
Somepony needed to make the engines, and I have... other ideas... for the usual go-to business pony, so I figured, why not Derpy? Also, your count is correct, though it seems you missed the name-drop of a particular ducal BBBFF back in the prologue. But, further details will have to wait for the sequel.
I'm glad one of us is making sense of things, coz it sure ain't me
More seriously, the full backstory is more-or-less sketched out in my mind, I just need to sort out the finer details. Fortunately for me, there won't be much call for deep-level backstory stuff for the rest of this story, so I have plenty of time to plot it all out.
Who needs wings or wind furies when you have tree-buchets?
The Marat once had cities, before the creatures that your Changelings parallel attacked. I never paused to consider what those ancient cities might look like...
I loved the description of Eyrieport.
Did I ever mention that I had wondered how pegasus flight and wind fury flight coincided in this universe?
'ing Dash can barely glide without Tank because she's never actually worked those muscles.
Either way, I've got my answer now: too much reliance on furycraft has overshadowed the natural capabilities of the pegasus pony to the point that Rainbow
But boy, are potential future enemy windcrafters going to be in for a shock when salt no longer works against this particular pegasus.
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This is a bit of an insight into a background theme I've got in this 'verse - in much the same way the Alerans in Codex Alera had forgotten technology in favour of furycrafting, so too have ponies forgotten their own magic. I have dropped a few hints in this direction in earlier chapters, though this one is the first to directly hit on the difference between furycraft and pony-magic.
Nice that things are sorting out. I'm looking forward to the upcoming battle.
... That was an abrupt end to the chapter. It works as a cliffhanger and all, but still...
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It was a bit sudden, wasn't it? This is my least favourite chapter for that exact reason. I'm sure that a better writer than me could have written something smoother, but I'm not there yet. If I ever do a rewrite, this chapter would be high on the "needs work" list.
Oh, the anticipation!
Missing a space
There should be a "to" between "pointed" and "her"
I feel like you lost some of the impact of the Effoh's and Apple Bloom's entrance by showing them preparing to join the battle, but that scene did make me aware of how windcrafting would interfere with cloud manipulation. So... fair trade.
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Goofs fixed. That'll teach me to not skimp on the pre-publishing proofreading process.
*Reads Synopsis*
This is literally just Codex Alera with Ponies, isn't it?
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Essentially, but there are lots of seeds for things to go in significantly different directions.
Fantastic story, Pepperbrony. I await the next installment with eagerness.
That was really good, I enjoyed it tons! And I understood the fury stuff perfectly with the help of your blog post.
Ohhh this was good... really really good. Amazingly well done mix of Pony and Alera. This really did feel like a blending of the two worlds. While the story hits more or less the same overall major plot points as the first Alera book, it does so in it's own way that feels natural for the characters. Said characters being a so well done as well. Fitting the roles they are taking over from the book, while still being themselves about how they do this.
And the worldbuilding, again, so well done. Spot on use of Furycrafting, while also working in how Ponies natural magic would change this as well. But keeping clear the implication that Fury crafting has effected magic as well, ponies having relied on furies to the point their natural magical skills have been largely forgotten or lessened just due to lack of use. Such as the belief that only Windcrafterscan fly, rather then all Pegasi, something we see RD learn may not be the case, with her struggling at it being a result of never having used her muscles and magic that way before. Could even see it being because this is RD, and just how much time she spends flying, that she would be one of the only pegasi to have even enough skill and conditioning to do what she can with non-crafting powered flight.
Or, could see it more being that Ponera simply has lower ambient magic to draw on then Equestria. We know it has some, cause unicorns can still do magic, and griffons can fly without crafting. But Griffon flight does seem to be limited, being harder and able to support less weight then they could in Equestria so......
Loved nearly all the character swaps. Some were just beyond obvious that was the only choice that could be made... such as Chryssi as the Vord Queen or RD for Amara, others were a bit odd at first but worked in the full context, like RaRa and Svengallop. Loved the implied casting of Twilight's family as the Placidas, and High Mare Granny Smith had me laughing my ass off. Only one that felt a bit weak was Flim and Flam, since they utterly lacked the presence, and intimidation factor of Aldrick.
Beyond that, only real issue I could say I had was the pacing being rather quick, and I wanted to spend way more time with this story and giving things time to flesh out and be explored in more detail. But beyond that, amazing story that did a wonderful job combining two epic stories together.