"Tales" series minor crossover, largely Tales of Xillia; concepts and abilities such as artes are borrowed and the storyline itself is tailored to reflect the general Tales design.
Twilight Sparkle finds life in Ponyville exciting and enjoyable: every day brings her a new friendship lesson or a challenge to rise to. She is as devoted as ever to living life the way she was taught a good pony should, and making Princess Celestia as proud as she can.
When Princess Celestia recalls her to Canterlot, Twilight discovers that not all of Equestria is as happy as she had once thought. Power outages and failing artes plague larger cities, but Princess Celestia has found a solution that she asks Twilight Sparkle to learn to tap into, so she can begin a New Power Initiative that will heal all of Equestria.
But there are heavy consequences for tapping into powers that ponies were not meant to have...
Woop woop, new BlackRoseRaven story! I will be watching this with interest.
Gee, that’s not ominous at all...
I love the Tales series with a passion. Xillia is a great one (Jude x Milla) but Tales of Berseria or Legendia are probably my faves.
It's kind of sweet to see this look at early Twilight (or the AU equivalent thereof), still adjusting to the blessings of friendship. It helps to cement how things are in her world, before it's apparently going to start falling apart....
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I think what really inspired the idea behind this story, to be entirely honest, was Phantasia. I remember playing it forever ago and it always kind of stuck with me. I rediscovered the Tales series like just last year with Xillia and I've been poking through the games since. I picked up Berseria just a bit ago, actually, and I'm looking forwards to seeing how good it is. Lots of people have recommended that one to me now.
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Oh yeah, dude. It's great. It's one of the only ones where you play as the bad guys. And its actually a spirutal prequel to Tales of Zestiria. Basically, you play zestiria and have to destroy this evil presence but in Berseria you play as the people who caused it in the first place.
Great stuff.
(And don't worry, that's not a spoiler. The actual game is extremely in-depth with characters and plot.)
Sweet to see a bit more of Spike’s take on things and his relationship with Twilight, though it did get a bit repetitive.
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Thanks. I wanted to drill it in some, admittedly, although I might have overbalanced it. These first few chapters were really hard to get right because I wanted them to feel... "normal," so to speak. Writing normal is probably the hardest thing for me.
Well, things have finally started moving, and quickly!
More Clockwork Empire? Oh boy.
I doubt it's the same one in Blooming Moon, but still, hearing the name makes me happy.
Well, that escalated quickly. I thought Celestia said Lord Black wouldn’t start shit because he knew he’d get stomped in return, but it seems more the other way around (Celestia certainly isn’t above sanitizing the truth to those who can’t do anything about it).
Man, Celestia doesn’t do anything by halves.
(Except when it comes to locking her secret transports, apparently.
)
Bringing in the other Manes seems to have even odds of being the right thing to do to change the course of things, or to make things even worse.
Well, I have even less idea of what’s really going on now, so Twilight’s mindset is coming across very well.
I'm not even sure who to root for now....
I'm not sure whether "Mare Imbrium" being Luna (or somepony in her service) is too obvious to be plausible.
Twilight doesn't seem to grasp that Celestia could have been ruling before the Summer Sun Celebration was instituted. But I guess something did go wonky before then.
It's a bit of a jarring shift from the benevolent princess we know from the show, but besides this being an AU, Celestia is first and foremost going to do whatever she can to protect her little ponies, or at least as many as possible. One can't be held responsible for the whole multiverse, I suppose....
Boy, does that sound familiar...
My question is what brought them back?
Maybe being civil to your compatriots would be a start in trying to turn things around.
I really need to reread all of your old stories, as I feel I should know exactly which world this is, and who this Traveler was.
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"Rip Tear Kill! Make Them Die!"
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Yep, that’s the world I thought it was. Still lost on this “Traveller” though, unless it’s the dynamic duo. But it’s singular not plural, so I don’t know. Plus, the mystery of how they came back to life.
And here we go... shades of gray, but as always Celestia seems to end up the darker one.
Figures this ties back into Blooming Moon, but then when you’re dealing with a multiverse I suppose it makes sense.
Well damn, that escalated quickly...as usual.
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It admittedly gets a little fast. I think I fell into the same trap I did with Moonrise so long ago now, where I decided it would be better to just push things along versus writing 100K words.
Not that. I didn't end up writing nearly that much anyway.
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I will forever be terrible at better balancing Celestia.
Ah, seems like there’s a bigger story going on in the background...
At this point it kind of feels like Equestria deserves to be wiped out.
Ah, another reminder that this technically isn’t the Equestria we know from the show. Makes me feel slightly better about Celestia’s raging, delusional incompetence.
And of course she finally sees reason but some random jerk screws it up at the last moment. I’m reminded of BLCA in how apparently nothing is ever allowed to get better, but then I’ve got another chapter to go today, so let’s see how this goes....
Son of a... well, Rarity’s not the Bearer of Honesty, after all.
Holy time skip Batman!
About time Thorn got a taste of his own smug medicine!
Well... this seems to be working out surprisingly happily.
Yeah, I was starting to have Starlit Knights flashbacks when Pinkie got zapped....
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Thorn? More like Thornos amirite
Great chapter, as always! It’s wonderful to see more ties to Blooming Moon, what with Morgan now on the scene.
Looks like Morgan’s getting the hang of constructs real quick. She certainly takes after her mother...
Another great story! Though I’m am still curious as to what brought Ponyville back to life after the Tyrant Wyrms ripped through it.
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I'm kinda-sorta thinking of doing an addendum to explain that. The quick version is that it has to do with when World Without End was destroyed: it caused a "reset" throughout a bunch of worlds on the chain.
But thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed. It was a weird personal idea that kept gnawing at me ever since I finished Hecate's Orphanage. I always get drawn back to these ponies, it seems.
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Ah, I see! It was nice to get another story in the universe, even after you said you were pretty much done with it. Moonrise and Six broken ponies were some of the very first MLP stories I read, way back on fanfiction.net, so it’s always a pleasure to see more in this universe!
This hit just the right bittersweet note somehow, especially when Twilight literally walked out on her old life.
Somehow only underlined by the reminder that technically this isn't "our" Twilight (though she's more than close enough).
I should really get back to the other stories sometime to get more context for all of this....
Spike's holding down the fort, and Twilight goes off to star in Starship Troopers.
Quite a ride.
All I can really say is well done! And I’m glad you tied this back to Blooming Moon; it’s a pleasure to see some of my favorite characters again!
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Thanks very much, I really appreciate that.
And yeah. This is sort of like a... I dunno. An addendum to the series? A coming home. It's mainly just something I had in mind for the longest time, and I can never get away from this universe for long. Something always seems to pull me back; the fact I can... be more relaxed in writing this, I suppose. Just follow all my weird ideas to their conclusion, and not worry about things.
Thanks again, though, for reading through and all your comments. I much appreciate it.
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Thanks, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed. It was a fun little jaunt for me, too. I always say "well this is the last story" but. We've all seen how that goes.
I do love these characters, coming back to them, all these little adventures. It never really ends; there's always something more on the horizon. I've got a hundred other mini-stories and snippets and character stories in mind, but. It always comes back to being a question of time and all, and unfortunately commissions and monetary projects do have to come first.
But I'm sure I'll be doing more in the future at some point. Out of curiosity, what else would you be curious in seeing yourself?
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Oof, I can’t really decide. They’re all so good. But I would enjoy seeing what Antares and Innocence are up to, they’re among my more well-like characters.
Amazing work as always. I especially liked that quote at the end. Truly words to live by.
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Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The story actually developed much differently than I'd expected it to, but I feel it helped better push that ultimate message. It's a little idealistic at times, maybe, but I've always liked striving for ideals in these stories, in spite of how dark and weird things can get.
Very haunting chapter
ok, we have established that Spike is roughly a child. Does he get paid with wages? Who are his parents? Your drilling in how important Spike is...but? Where is the real emotion? More and fun makes jack a dull boy?
The fact that no one is cocern or readily acknowledges him. Yet says how important he is? What of Twilights kindness? Where is that same kindness towards her assistant? Seems...ever so proffessional? Makes one wonder how Sweetie Belle, Scoots, and Applebloom have it? Because your really have not sold the idealic? Nature of this beggining. When one of the party is having a crap time? Well everone else has a good time?
A further note: in the text Twilight acknowledges that she infantilizes him. But...then what does that say about him working so much? In her own words...a baby?
You aay someones good until your blue in the face. But it does mean its so.
My point exactly see the problem with this stuff. Is well? Why would folks not have this problem else where? We only see ponyville? But there is a whole world?...hmmm?
Wow! You acknowledge it. Which is good. But...if she...knows. Then why has she not fought harder? Perhaps a little too convient of a problem to have? A person who people infantize but hey? He can clean up...all your messes.
I like this description
Dude this great. Like I really had to sort derp at the beggining but...it really makes all this sweeter. Have her question. Great job!
This is excellent.
This exactly.