This story is a sequel to Guiding Light
For those who have not read it already, Guiding Light is required reading. This is the second book in the series.
Warning: Description contains spoilers for Guiding Light, and the first chapter of this one.
After learning of her ascension from the Princesses, Aurora must deal with her changing instincts, the secrets she must keep, and the scorn of the nobility, who see her only as an undeserving student, and a threat to their lifestyle. A threat that must be removed.
Note: This story shares canon with Rites of Ascension (with permission), and is "set" a significant time after it ends. Since Rites is still unfinished, there may be minor differences in canon and story elements that have not been explicitly stated. New additions to RoA will most likely not result in a change in this story. Also, there may be personality differences - copying a character's personality doesn't do well for good writing.
However, this will certainly not be just a clone with an OC. It is part of the reason I had not cited the canon influences in Guiding Light, since readers would make assumptions. Even if there was no ascension element to my story, I still would have likely used the same canon.
Twilight “changed tribes,” and supplemental canon says Cadence did too.
Anyway, Aurora's reaction is understandable: how she wanted to prove that earth pony magic is just as amazing as the other tribes' magic, but now that's undercut by her being a nascent alicorn. But is that the real reason the princesses kept it a secret?
BTW, it looks like there was an error with the close tag for the italics.
I always thought that “hay bacon” makes no sense for MLP. Even if we accept that ponies would want to simulate meat, why not use soy or other beans, which have far more protein and mold together more easily than hay?
That aside, this is an interesting start. I suspect there are other dangers that the princesses are keeping from Aurora, but maybe I'm being too cynical.
8361334
Thanks for the input.
There are actually quite a few differences from canon. Since this story takes another (Rites of Ascension) canon, there are a few things different. For one, Twilight's ascension is a lot different. (And covered up. To keep ponies from doing crazy and dangerous things to get alicornhood.) Also... in this canon, Cadence is not an alicorn. She is a winged unicorn. Also dead, at this current point. Her and Shining's descendants may still be alive, but... the Crystal Empire doesn't exist either. There's a reason I put the AU tag there... Anything past Season 2 is considered non-canon for this story.
Winged unicorns are very rare, but are not alicorns. And it explains all those animation errors.
(If you want, i can explain further.) Also, it would explain why Twilight having wings didn't make other ponies freak out that she was a Princess.
The hay bacon part was meant to be an internal thought, so it's just italicized instead of quotes. And yeah, soy would make more sense. But hay fries don't make sense either, since they still have potatoes. i'm pretty sure I only put that in there for ironic humor and... also sort of to foreshadow something. Kinda. More sublte than most of the stuff people miss, and probably only apparent in hindsight, since it could mean anything now. That's why I'm telling you.
Yeah, the Princesses haven't told her everything yet. She's still overwhelmed as it is. And the Princesses don't know as much as they think they do.
Whoops, almost forgot to add it to Groups.
8361658
Oh, do I need to read Rites of Ascension to understand this? Because apparently the AU backstory confused me.
8361786
You don't really need to. But never assume that your ideas of canon are accurate.
(Though pretty much, other than the mechanic of ascension itself, and the pony "hybrids," there really isn't that much difference. Well, one more thing: Discord wasn't reformed, but he won't really play a part in this story.)
Still, I would recommend it, if only because it's a really good story. But this story is self-sufficient.
But I hate exposition dumps, so I won't ever just explain the universe straight out. The information is spread out, and almost unnoticeable.
8361856
I just glanced at "Rites of Ascension" and it looks daunting to me. Started 5 years ago, still incomplete, and over 400,000 words long. I'll add it to my RIL list, but I don't know when or if I'll get around to reading the whole story (I like to go through fics on my RIL starting from the shortest, in order to knock them out quickly, so some longer fanfics can sit there for months). I'll just keep in mind for your fanfic that it's largely ignoring anything after S2.
8361911
Ah, yeah. I'm almost the opposite, often preferring the long ones.
It is still updated regularly (about once a month).
.....I;m sorry for a second there it seemed like she mothering/"my little ponying" the princesses. Is that foreshadowing or am I reading too much into this?
Either way, WOOOO!!! It begins again!
8364242
You can never read into this too much.
You might be wrong, later, but always read into things. That's the fun part.
I just hope I can get the next chapter done relatively soon. Like, within the month.
Now I really understand those fanfictions that only update monthly. The more planning involved, and the more canon already established, the longer it takes.
That seemed to happen rather quickly. I'm not sure if that's a positive or a negative yet.
I really liked the previous story, but it always felt a bit aloof to me. I'll have to see how this one goes.
8365093
Yeah, it kinda bothered me, too. As I'm sure I've said before, I'm still working on my writing style a lot.
8365093
I personally feel this was TOO accelerated, but not really in a good way. It wasn't like "SUPER AMAZING REVEAL!" like when Goku became a Super Saiyan for instance, or when Naruto found out that his Dad was the old Hokage. It just felt kind of rushed through.
I don't know if this was a formatting issue or what, but it also felt like too much of the fanfic was 1 or 2 liners, which probably contributed to the feeling of everything feeling rushed through.
That's not to say that I am opposed to the new ideas brought into the story currently, you just need to slow things down some, and really work on adding more detail/depth, or at least pacing issues.
Also, Aurora says that no one can change Tribe, but that makes no sense, since it should have been well known that Twilight was originally a Unicorn. Even more so since her parents are Unicorns and it's Canterlot. Even if you say "OH well there's a cover up, because Auroroa mentioned about the lack of history", then it makes even LESS sense, since that says that already KNEW Twilight changed Tribe.
I'm being hard on you because I KNOW you can do better, your previous story showed that this is a ways away from your best work.
And then the rest of that section is in italics. Dunno if you meant it. There are a few more messed-up italics later in there as well.
I am enjoying this a lot, can't wait for the next chapter.
8812641
It might be a while, but I haven't given up. It's not dead. Not really. (My creative ideas were getting stagnant for it, though, so that's why there's a hiatus.)
8812641
Just a heads-up if you don't read my blog posts - I'm currently writing the next chapter.
8850934
Okay cool
Ah, and now the consequences start to show themselves. Not as heavy on the angst as Rites of Ascension, but that's probably a good thing since that story went heavy on pretty much everything(for better or worse). I'm interested to know why she's the exception to the "rules" of ascension (unicorns only, long-term growth, etc), but I wouldn't expect something that juicy to be explained so soon.
Also, it lives! I'd almost forgotten about this one!
Great Job!
I really enjoyed this and can't wait for the next chapter!
8965890
Yeah, while I still like Rites of Ascension, the tone is far different from what I want for this story. (And I doubt I could sustain that writing style for long.)
About how long it took... oof. I really just needed a while to think about everything. Develop the story more than a vague idea. Also to take a break and work on other stories. Even when I said I would continue it again, it took way longer than it should have to get a new chapter out.
Things should move faster now, but... with all the stories I am keeping up, it will probably still be a bit before another chapter is released. Not as long as this one was, but... I still feel kinda bad about it. But I can't abandon those other stories either. (And I have to constantly stop myself from starting new ones.)
8965932
Thanks!
I remember reading Guiding Light some time ago.
Nice to see the sequel is getting forwards.
Sadly I'm currently short on time so it will be a while before I can start reading this one.
(You would be surprised how many old stories suddenly got updates out of nowhere in the last few weeks...)
Aww now I'm caught up. Happened upon this story about a week ago and just got sucked in. Really like this world of yours, and how it has some minor connections to Rites. I was just poking through the list of updated stories and this one caught my eye. Of course i had to go back and read the first one before getting into this one. Only minor critique... She's extremely verbose for a young teenager. :p
8970252
Yeah... I started out that way due to inexperience. The in-universe reason for her high vocabulary was that she had no friends and lived in a library with two scholarly parents... but the real reason was that I didn't really know how to write for kids, and I knew I didn't know how to write for kids. Still, her vocabulary isn't that far off from my own at her age (when I was little, all my parents had to do for punishments was to forbid me from reading.)
8969871
Totally understand that. I've put off reading some of my favorite fics' updates quite frequently for similar reasons. It sometimes is even better, since you often get to read more than one chapter in a single setting.
Hey look at this...
Cool chapter dude
Almost missed this, if I didn't see it in my feed...
9322718
Oof - this is exactly why I need to be more consistent with uploading.
Don't worry, my health finally isn't terrible, so I'm already working on the next chapter.
Weirdly, I got a notification via email about this, but it wasn't showing up as an unread chapter.
In any case, glad to see a new addition to this story. Had a little laugh at Cherry's double-take, exactly the kind of reaction you'd expect from realizing your daughter is on the path to godhood.
9323000
Yeah - writing that scene was a nightmare, since I knew I had to get it right.
Reactions for events that are that big and/or unexpected are hard to write. Most importantly, something that big requires more than a single reaction (just how coming to terms with her new situation has taken a long time, and Aurora will continue to have trouble realizing just how much is going to change.
In a way, I cheated - having the actual reaction "off screen" and heavily implied rather than explicitly shown. On one hoof, I feel a bit guilty about it, and on the other, I'm rather happy with the result - keeping the important character elements and saving a potentially bland, generic shock reaction up to the reader's much more capable imagination.
So glad to see this story up and running! I wish you the best in your endeavors.
9332922
IT LIVES!!! Glad I managed to get you back on this!
I take credit for that!
Edit: Kind of surprised no-ones responded to this.
I took this off my tracking because it took so long for you to update, and I only just recently saw that you had added two chapters.
Sorry about that.
I'm glad Aurora's parents took the news well. But I still don't understand why Celestia wants to keep Aurora's alicornhood a secret. And Twilight's alicornhood, apparently. Her explanation about it being a tactical advantage isn't very satisfying - it doesn't seem fair to ask Aurora to hide her true nature just so threats to Equestria won't know what hit them. And if Aurora is going to undergo more big changes, wouldn't it be best to prepare other ponies for them? I hope an answer will come soon.
9590474
I'll just answer your main question off the bat. Like in the story that partially inspired this one, Rites of Ascension, alicorns are powerful. Really powerful, and really hard to kill. That scene with Celestia getting beaten by Chrysalis was her not being able to show that power in a subtle enough way not to harm the other ponies in attendance. (And horns are just as much a weakness on alicorns as any unicorn).)
If enemies of Equestria, or even just ponies who really didn't want another alicorn to tip the scales with political power, found out that she was starting to become one, this would be the only chance they could count on.
In Rites of Ascension, Twilight took a lot of time to show any signs other than simple magic from the other races (with no real obvious appendages of ethereal hair). But Celestia is particularly worried about ponies finding out, since Aurora is already showing suspicious signs.
Anyway, while this story probably isn't going to progress that fast, since I have a few other stories I'm also actively working on, I'd still suggest reading Rites of Ascension, period. The characterization and future plot points of that story are probably going to differ greatly, but the lore in it is fairly accurate to this one. (Though if I had a chance to start this series over again with the new things I've learned as a writer, I'd probably have tried making more of my own lore from scratch.)
It also updates slowly, but that's mostly due to its really good quality in general. And there's a lot of backreading to do if you have extra time for just reading.
9590747
I gather from your explanation that ascension works differently in this ficverse than in canon. In this AU, new alicorns are particularly vulnerable. I'm not sure if I understand that correctly, but it would make sense that they would keep it a secret if that were the case.
I tried reading Rites of Ascension, but I couldn't make it past the first few chapters. It was too melodramatic for my taste.
9591323
Totally understand that. Rites of Ascension was written so that the author could get some practice before writing books on his own.
Therefore, even though he wasn't quite ready, he aimed for a more serious tone as well as writing almost all of the worldbuilding, etc, completely different from canon. The fic gets obviously better as it goes on, but it certainly has its problems as well.
IT'S BAAAACK
9755136
Yep, I don't plan to stop any time soon.
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9755140
HOORAY!!
(Sorry if people got a ping, I realized that Meadow's "I get off at six" was rather nonsensical with the way time is calculated in Equestria. They use the ancient Roman system, where hours are calculated from sunrise and from sunset.)
Also there was a glaring issue in editing where I literally just forgot to finish a sentence.
It returns! Excellent. And I see nothing wrong with Luna finding out as she is being sworn in. Nothing at all.
Ohh all caught up. Realy enjoying this tracked and voted up.
Good reason, yes... good enough, no
You're knowledge on this subject is based entirely on unicorn ascension... it's not that suprising if things happen differently
As far as any of you know yes
That makes sense
Speaking of Twilight's guard... where is mister "Number One Assistant" ?
I mean I realize he's probably a bit big these days, but it would be nice to hear what he's up to
Clearly, you called Luna "Princess" instead of "Sovereign"
That's 50/50 I think
I can't find enough limbs to rise a vote for this story ^.^
Wasn't original Faust's idea to make Twilight earth pony?
8970252
Verbose. Good speech pattern and ability to express thoughts? That very depends on family she grew in. Two unicorns, heh. It's not unrealstic, if you stop to measure by "loud samples" of our own society.
I was quite verbose and my language was more eloquent than today .. Then it was spoiled by learing German and English
9937561
SoonTM.
(To be perfectly honest, I had been focusing my efforts on a few other of my stories, but knowing people are waiting for more of this is motivating. Thanks.)
Because the path to ascension is "eventful"
Ohhh glad to see more of this universe!
I can't wait for more updates.
This is one of my favorite stories on the site, it's a shame it hasn't been updating in a while.