They called themselves "Markists", and they lived together in scattered towns and cities throughout America. They were distinguished from their neighbors by their colorful skin and hair colors, their doting affection for equines and equine puns in an era where the horse had almost completely disappeared from the popular imagination, and for an ability, verging on the supernatural, of always being able to find peaceful solutions to any conflict, no matter how intractable.
In the year 1985, the world's most popular living physicist and the best-known historian on network television teamed up to uncover the secrets behind this group, before the current standoff between the superpowers disintegrated into all-out atomic warfare. In the center of it all stood two women, living in two different eras, both named Celestia.
Color me intrigued.
A McPoodle-written exploration and explanation of the Equestria Girls setting? Hell yes. Eagerly looking forward to more, especially the implied reincarnating Celestia.
Promise me Feynman never banged Celestia.
8611757
Short answer: I promise he never banged her.
I'll spoiler-tag the long answer, because I'd prefer that my main character's personality be revealed through the story than through comments:
I pride myself on keeping my historical characters as accurate as possible (other than possibly changing their names for obscure reasons).
"Gus Guiseman" didn't met "Crystal" until after he started on the Manhattan Project, at which point he was already married to the love of his life. And it took him several years after her tragic death in 1945 before he could even look at another woman.
So yes, I promise that Feynman wasn't banging Celestia, or even flirting with her. They were just friends and co-workers.
And the other Celestia, when she enters the story, will be under-age and Feynman will once again be happily married, so that's not going to happen either.
(And now I'm wondering if either of this story's two downvotes came from somebody reading your comment and jumping to conclusions without bothering to read the story.)
I love the historical references used in this story, as well as the larger implications of Markism having supernatural effects in an otherwise natural world. I had recently read The Making Of The Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, so this was perfect to read through for me. I really look forward to seeing the rest of this story.
I have many questions, and I get the feeling that I'm going to need more background to even discern which ones matter. Still, deeply intrigued.
The use of a nuclear weapon in anger in retaliation for a personal issue is quite disturbing. It's difficult to pull apart what is similar and what is different from our world. I assume the president is a Ronald Regan with a different background due to converting (or being born) a Markist. It's interesting to see that getting a mark doesn't necessarily mean you believe in being peaceful though. Doing the wrong thing while thinking it's for the right reasons I guess anyone can fall to.
I think so far I can assume the following about Markism:
It's primarily a religion somehow centered in America, or at the very least very strong there since Markist names aren't used for anyone but people who live or immigrated to America.
Converting somehow involves changing your skin colour, but you still have to do something to earn a cutie mark. Converting involves getting a new name, though it's unclear who chooses that. They are appropriate for everyone involved thus far though.
If you think I'm cribbing my own work here by ending with an exclamation--specifically the end of Chapter 4 in Best of All Possible Worlds, you're absolutely right.
And hopefully, I've earned a similar amount of investment from you at this point that I got back then.
8625280
This story is set in the Equestrian Girls universe so everyone has a different skin tone. I don't think that getting a mark or even converting will changes the skin tone.
8637771
What you state isn't what is supported by the story's narration and blog posts by the author.
This might turn into the Equestria Girls universe, but it is implied that it is similar to ours, in fact exactly the same a thousand years ago, before a divergence appeared (according to the author's blog post). Also, your comments about skin tone is distinctly referenced by Qaddafi as an insult (multi-coloured freaks), which implies he isn't one. Everyone who didn't convert doesn't have their skin tones mentioned, everyone who has a pony-style name does, as well as their cutie mark. The implication being, those that aren't Markists have neither unique skin tones nor cutie marks.
Well now. This seems... familiar, actually. Eerily similar to the process by which I have people in this world discover their marks, though I didn't put anywhere near the same amount of thought put into the chemical engineering of the chameleonic substance. To say nothing of the secretiveness of the religion.
Definitely looking forward to seeing someone take on those themes while putting a lot more thought put into them.
8637771
Well...
There are actually plenty of people in this story with "normal" skin and hair colors--it's just that very, very few of them live in Canterlot. As to how you get one's skin from variations of brown to green/blue/paisley/whatever...that answer will be revealed in due time.
8638608
I was wondering how long it would take you to notice...
Well, that explains why I didn't recognize the name "Gus Guiseman." The bongos should've tipped me off.
In any case, it'll be very interesting to see what he does now that he's been confronted with his own subconscious... Well, "cowardice" is a very strong term. Let's go with conflict aversion. Still, a mind like that confronted with the mysteries of magic... This should be fascinating indeed.
Well, that isn't ominous.
Fascinating stuff, though I have to wonder just how the connection to Equestria works. Presumably through the dreams. And I suspect there's more truth to that cosmogony than anyone in the car realizes, though highly distorted. Also, now Gus's name makes sense.
Canterlot should be quite the sight to see in these days. Looking forward to it, and how to resolve the conflict with path integral formulation. I suppose the infinite integral doesn't have to be over a very large infinity...
Can I has more? Plz?
I wonder how Truth Delver knows Gus' alternate forum. Better yet, if that same form extends to all Jews, or just him. That makes the implications pretty disturbing considering the holocaust.
8664644
Physical resemblances (which makes Delver a bit of a racist), plus that rule that all griffons in the show have names starting with "G".
This chapter is about the most useless one in the book, if all you're interested in is the main plot.
It exists to indulge my love of history, and to begin the weaving of an alternate history for this world.
I do love good alternate history, and this certainly qualifies. Eagerly looking forward to seeing how the ripples spread.
Consider this chapter my response to particle_pony's little comment on the Prologue regarding the womanizing ways of Gus's real-life inspiration.
Ah, the nuclear war that thankfully wasn't. About two years later than in our timeline.
As for Gus... Yeah, he's got a lot to think about.
Is it bad if I ship Blue Bush and Trixie?
And so we see the incredible significance of Gus's creation. Synthetic Sun Stone is a huge invention for Markists, not least because it avoids the whole "toxic hallucinogen" requirement of modern mark-dreams. Also, fascinating explanation for the abnormal coloration of Markists. Mildly magical pigment chemicals won't fly in a world much more like ours.
All around, very cool stuff... though I do have to wonder about that countdown. (Not about the mystery herald, though. Pretty clear who that is, or so I assume.)
Well, the cliffhanger here is one of those ones that I couldn't leave you hanging on for a whole week and still consider myself a decent human being, so I'll relent and let you see Chapter 9 this week as well.
"And then he ends up in this... 'Ponyville' for some reason. Now that name has to be made up."
In any case, it's not every day that a human manages to become the Sidekick of the Novel. Certainly not the very first one. Fascinating stuff, and great stuff with the background pony psychology. (Brush the nasty things under the rug and pretend they don't happen. No wonder no one remembers Luna.)
Speaking of Luna, the human one has to be a fascinating entity for Markists, and Celestia in particular. If I'm reading the cosmogony correctly, pony Luna is remembered as the Demoness, and the human one being born has to lead to some uncomfortable questions. With Celestia, her sister's presence leads to a number of a questions regarding her counterpart's plan. Is it guaranteed to work, or will both Lunas strike their sisters down in keeping with cosmic parallelism?
Truly fascinating pair of chapters. Now to see what Gus makes of this, especially how it's clear that Equestria isn't the paradise the Markists want to believe it is.
Thank goodness for all the Latin terms in science. If you can recognize the pieces, the puzzle is a lot easier to assemble, even if you've never seen the picture on the box.
Still, I do have to wonder what Celestia plans on doing when she finds Luna, assuming that she's looking for her sister. She's clearly come to some realization, but what?
Also, very nice Do/Jones parallels. And the fate of human Daring is tragic, but all too believable. Furthermore, the broken and warped parallels say a lot about the causal link between the worlds.
...Oh.
8753489
You know how sometimes, you'll write or say something you think is brilliant, but an hour or two later you realized you screwed up big time?
Yeah, I just did that. If you read the original version of this chapter, it got dark. Like really dark. And I realized that I peaked too soon. So the worst part of this chapter's been backed down. Now the Luna in 1918 tried to kick off Spanish Influenza, but thanks to a Markist doctor, she failed.
For those who already read this chapter with the old version, I'm sorry. And don't blame my editors--I had the "brilliant" idea to do this just today, so they had no chance to send me any "what are you thinking???" notes before I published.
And anyway, this is still a pretty dark and messed up chapter. Just not "killed more people than Hitler" dark.
Not just a Celestia, a teenage Celestia. Given that, I can't be surprised that she's trying to tackle a sisterly problem on her own. Saddened, yes, but not surprised. And Nightmare Moon isn't due to come down for another few decades before accounting for any temporal flux between the worlds. This could prove very unpleasant indeed.
Well. That's certainly an ominous note to end on. And with the track record of Lunas through history...
We know this world survives to see the 2010s. The question now is how.
8769811
Maybe it isn't even how but how much of it...
Ayye my man stanislav petrov
static01.nyt.com/images/2017/09/19/obituaries/19Petrov2/19Petrov2-popup.png
Well, at least zero hour seems to be after Luna's birthday. I think.
As for the new discoveries... Yeah, the thing about astral projection that Gus isn't asking is a pretty big question: What's being projected? Quantum shenanigans are one thing, but they can't adequately explain a physically present thermal anomaly without citing Maxwell's demon. Heck, the fifth-dimensional wormhole is actually easier to explain than an externalized soul; it's likely a stabilized and enlarged bit of quantum foam. (Of course, the how is a lot more complex than the what.)
Fascinatkng developments. Looking forward to more.
I can't wait until the Soviets smarten up and nuke everything!
Shouldn't that trowel have shoved the pyromancer? Not sure how Gnosi could've counteracted its momentum.
Regardless, truly fascinating stuff here. Not the first time I've seen solar-powered magic, but it makes the best kind of sense given what you've established about this world. And a null-time bubble will be very useful in the near future if those nukes start flying.
This can't be good.
Again, this cannot be good. Either on the character or global level.
Hmm. Gus may have saved the world... or it might be too little, too late.
As for Luna's party... They took the gifts? Really? Just rub how little you care about this girl in her face, why don't you?
As for Celestia, I can only hope Father Delver can coax the truth out of her. Highly unlikely, but I can hope.
herewego
Hmm... Well, on the one hand, Celestia might have lessened the maximum damage Luna could deal. On the other hand, she's caused some serious damage to the girl's mental state on her own. This will likely get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Well, that's probably not good on a number of levels.
In any case, even with the countdown ongoing, it looks like Celestia and Gloria are managing to connect with Luna to some degree. Though I have to wonder how the Bounce House Brothers got that information. (Still, I love the origin for Tirek's Revenge.)
Of course, just because Luna's feeling a bit friendlier doesn't address global tensions reaching the snapping point...
Wonderfully tense moment to end the chapter on. Eagerly looking forward to the next one.
Hrrm. If I've done the math right, I think that 7 am deadline is at the same moment as Luna's impending breakdown. So maybe that, and not the bombs, is what the "end of humanity" bit is about. Mass conversion to Markism, maybe?
Woah
Usually I keep the upvote for when I'm done reading through however much has been pulished, but this first chapter blew me away a little, a comitment to both history as we know it and for the alternate connitnuity and religion (?) you've created.
Quite the ominous parting line...
It's almost shocking that you made a Ronald Reagan that's obstenibly worse than the real one.
Exclamation points make emotion even more visible, I have no problem with them, plus I want to know all about what ever quantum physcis/psuedo-magic is going on!
Pfft!
Goodbye Gordon!
8664644
Griffon holocaust is a phrase that is now permantely burned into my mind.
But, yeah, magic horses and mirrors, I can see where we're going with this, I think.