This story is a sequel to The First Fall Revolution
Cloudsdale prepares for war against an unknown invader. The Stormlings ready for battle, for their mountain homes to become islands in a sea of war. This is not their story.
Castellot reels from a riot led by the Unmarked, a riot which has caused one of the Element-bearers to disappear. The capitol takes stock and grieves, and debates how to respond. This is not their story, either.
Wallflower Blush lies in a cave, far from civilization, far from the battlefield. She watches, and learns, and dreams. This is her story.
Continuity: The Song of the Spheres
Branch: The Heirs of the Everfree
Chapters (4)
(My own EqG AU has a Derpy with an unfortunate habit of stumbling out of the universe and into the space between.)
Ah. "-tria" as a suffix for worlds. I suppose Midtria would've been giving the game away too early.
The Elves have gone into the West and diminished. Well, there's one deus ex machina off the table. Also, Wallflower is not yet mentally prepared to hear about some of the effects of Gaea's blessing.
I was expecting Svartalftria to be the other side of the elven coin, but I suppose that would actually be home of the dwarves.
... Huh. Not sure if Wallflower just had no interest in fantasy or if the concept was forgotten entirely. I'd expect faint memories of the Fair Folk to hang preserved and distorted in the amber of pop culture.
Hmmm...
And yeah, finding out that you've been speaking to something that seems more and less than human will lead to some uncomfortable questions. I hope this doesn't lead to any unwise decisions on Wallflower's part.
I do love seeing the wider, multiplanar context for this sort of thing. This also provides a nice chance to breathe amidst the rising (and, in some cases, exploding) tension. Eagerly looking forward to more.
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Technically speaking, Wallflower didn't stumble out of the universe so much as into the part of it where she can see all the different worlds (what some might think of as the different universes, like Equestria and Homestria).
Technically, "-tria" translates more directly to "land" (thus, Equus-tria = pony + land = land of the ponies), but you're right, at this scale it refers to worlds rather than mere kingdoms or continents. Also, Svartalftria isn't the other side of the elven coin because I thought Niflheim was the home of the dark elves, and for some reason didn't think of actually doing my research to make sure I was correct.
I think I'll keep it, though, keep the clearer link between high-elves (Alfin) and deep-elves (Nilfin).
You know, that's something really strange; going through LotR and especially the Silmarillion, the elves' reputation as "Perfect-Good" really doesn't hold up. Gildor Inglorian and his company tell Frodo, when he first asks if he and his friends can come with them, that they're not interested in the hobbits, so why should they stop for them? And Feanor just seems like a jerk. Elves are usually stronger than Men in capabilities, yes, but ethically they seem just as shaky as them, even the ones who should know better. (Feanor, pro-tip: back-talking to the people who helped create the world is generally seen as a bad idea.)
Lack of interest in fantasy, and narrative convenience on the author's part.
Glad to hear it! Yeah, currently Wallflower's arc is different than the other's; while Sunset, Rarity, and Platinum are in the thick of things, Wallflower's on the outside looking in, giving us a cosmic-eye view of things. Of course, once that view starts seeing the war, things are going to change.
Not just wondering who you're working with but what they even are is definitely going to shake people, just when trust is most crucial.
Now, where would be the fun in that?
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The elves may have diminished, but they’re far from the only deus-ex-machina still on the table. Unless I’m misreading things, Luna still has the option of writing to Princess Twilight et al. if things get too far out of hand. Between Discord, the Bearers, and two basically-goddesses, to say nothing of Harmony, Starlight would piss herself if they showed up in her world with a half-decent plan of attack.
Quite a moving scene; you really know how to Breg-a-lad.
I regret nothing.
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Neither do I, my friend.
Bit of a Ship of Theseus issue there. Though one that can possibly be settled with an X-ray machine if you're feeling prosaic.
Heh. I do appreciates the subtler Tolkien references.
Well, that's unfortunate timing.
And yeah, while Wallflower isn't sure what she's gotten herself into, she knows she in it with a friend. It's definitely a better position than when she first awoke.
What's a Stormling?
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The Cloudsdalers, back in The Children of the Storm.
Ah, valuable intelligence provided to both sides. Though Wallflower may be hard-pressed to survive long enough to deliver it. Still, she’s turning this misstep into impressive diplomatic work. Now if only she didn’t have to deal with something as intractable as elvish pride...
Well, we’ll see what happens from here. Who knows? This conversation could be the beginning of Mankind’s salvation, or at least greatly contribute to it.
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Indeed. For a former recluse, Wallflower sure is rolling high on her Diplomacy checks. It really is amazing what can be accomplished when people actually communicate.
You’ll definitely want to make a note on this chapter thwt you added to the earlier one. Anyone who’s been following along won’t see the one there if they just look at the newest entry. (They may look back and see what they missed given that first sentence, but still.)
In any case... yeah, this is going to be extremely tricky to work out. I can’t blame Stumper for not knowing how to handle an emotionally vulnerable teenager from an era centuries after her own adolescence, nor Wallflower for being so hurt at this betrayal of trust. Really, it’s up to Gaea herself to try to clear up this one, and I doubt whether Wallflower will listen to anything she has to say.
Oh, and there’s the whole elvish intelligence thing. Good luck getting that information where it needs to go when the only one who does is a mute girl stuck in the woods.
We’ll have to see where this goes from here. Though I suspect we’ll be focusing on the more local issues next.
Last chapter, we saw the benefits of proper communication.
This chapter, we see the consequences of poor communication.
I am sad and angry and in desperate need of something to punch.
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*carefully moves out of range of wrath*
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Added, thanks for the advice.
Poor Stumper, like she said she was just trying to help. She's been trying to be a good friend to Wallflower, but the way she's gone about that has tragically undercut her intentions. And, like you said, you can't blame Wallflower for her reaction; she basically had to go to the enemy she was supposed to be fighting in order to learn that Wallflower's master isn't as blameless as she made herself out to be and that her service might very well last for the rest of her life.
That was something important I realized while writing this; Wallflower Blush did not want to be caught up in this. She wanted no part in all this wizardry and war: all she wanted was her garden, like Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. She's been torn from her home and forced to fight in a war she didn't even know about, and now she learns that there's secret lore that's been kept from her and that she'll be trapped in her new role until she dies, which, thanks to her commander's interference, might be a long time in coming. So much has changed for her, all without either her consent or knowledge. She's a slice-of-life anime character suddenly thrown into a fantasy-adventure one, with virtually no time to adjust. There are some parts of it that have been nice (her joy at casting), but at what cost has she gained them? She's on an adventure with Gandalf as patron and Aragorn as companion, but she's had no preparation or preexisting desire for adventure, Gandalf turns out to be Saruman, and Aragorn is less a trailblazer and more a soldier following orders. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
And even if Wallflower does, given the words of Gaea's we've already heard in the story, will they do more good than harm? 'I will marry none so much lesser than I' is not a good way to turn down a proposal, after all, even someone who thinks of themselves as a social sprout like
meWallflower can see that. For all we know, Gaea could make this even worse, which would be bad; however low her Charisma (Persuasion) checks might be, she is right about the Windigos, and according to Tein they won't come alone. So not only is the intelligence the elves gave confined to a mute girl stuck in the woods, as you put it, the knowledge of the Windigos' return is confined to her, her likewise-stuck friend, and an egotist who seems to have a way with words less like Elrond's than Gollum's.As for where we go from here, I'm trying to get into a cycle with these stories, alternating between the three main branches of the story; Everfree, Cloudsdale, and Castellot; with a few interludes thrown in here and there. Next up, we rejoin Applejack and the others in
RohanCloudsdale to see what's been happening since Thunderlane showed them that 'What-in-the-world' thing in Children of the Storm.Wait what?
Are those worlds or countries?
Wait, is she basically looking at elves going to war?
They can see her?
Isn’t that what she said?
So elves had magic?
If she said that to sunset’s face, then she probably would have been my favorite character.
They’re friends?
Why not?
How does she know that?
Who’s willow? And does she know timber is involved in this?
I highly doubt that.
Why is she calling her gaea?
A man?
That just gave me genji vibes.
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Part of the history of this world, somewhat like J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion.
Worlds.
She did, yes.
Yes, but "they" aren't actually an elf; most of what Wallflower's seeing this chapter is simulations generated by Gaea/Stumper, like entires in a magic-VR encyclopedia.
She said that "they view us as they view mortals, with suspicion and distrust." A fine difference, yes, but an important one; according to what Stumper said, the elves view Everfree as they view mortals, which logically implies that Everfree (or its representatives Gaea and Stumper, as the case may be) is not mortal (if they were, Stumper would say "they view us like they view other mortals," like Wallflower thought she meant).
All tribes/races in this continuity have some form of magic, yes.
Lol.
Yep.
We shall have to see.
Off-screen infodump.
Willow was encountered way back in Up Through the Roots in one of Wallflower's dreams, meeting with Stumper. He's another one of Gaea's servants, working as a go-between for her and Camp Everfree. He was also mentioned in The Gifts of Gaea, saving Principal Celestia's life when she was younger. Though he hasn't had much screentime yet, he still has his part to play in the wars to come.
We haven't seen any of the four mentioned in combat yet, keep in mind.
She isn't calling Wallflower Gaea, she's talking to herself and referring to something Gaea told her.
If Man is written with a capitol M, I mean it as a reference to the human race, not only the male members of it.
In what way?
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I don’t think I understood that reference.
So homestria is a world?
So she’s inside of a vision?
And those same elves were in the everfree forest?
So willow is timber’s father?
I may forget that, but I’ll try to remember.
Because it’s similar to what genji believes.
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Google it, it should clear things up.
It's a bit complicated. "Homestria" can refer to three things; 1) The world of Homestria 2) The country of the Kingdom of Homestria, located within that world, or 3) The continent on which that kingdom stands. It's similar to how "America" can refer either to the country of the United States of America or the North (or South) American continent. Context can usually provide clues to which one the specific use of the word is referencing, thankfully, so we don't have to guess: for instance, because most of Stumper's references to Homestria occur in the context of other worlds, we can fairly safely assume that she means "Homestria, the world" as opposed to the kingdom or the continent. It can get a bit tricky, though. Thanks for asking, and making me actually clarify that.
Yes.
Wallflower saw Nilfin in the Everfree back in Up Through the Roots, if that's what you're referring to.
Yes.
That's all anyone can ask. And speaking of remembering, please, in future, if you make a point-by-point reply like this, please use the Quote function to show what parts of either the story or the comment you're replying to that you are talking about, it makes it much easier to follow along.
I thought as much, I was more wondering what that is.
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I’ll see what I can find.
Wow. That’s a lot to take in.
Not exactly. Does that mean magic was already in the human world before sunset came around?
It’s not really something I’m used to doing, but I’ll try and keep that in mind.
You know, despite the fact he’s half-machine he’s still a man on the inside.
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Yeah, it is.
Yep, though it was fading before she brought Twilight's crown over. Like Celestia said in The Gifts of Gaea, Sunset brought magic to Homestria, but she brought it back, not for the first time.
That's all I can ask.
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So their planet is called homestria?
So will it fade again?
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Yep.
Perhaps in future, but judging by the behavior Sunset was alerted to back in The Sun in Flight, magic growing more powerful in the world (as opposed to staying localized), that appears unlikely.
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The characters don’t get confused by that?
Damn, homestria gets all the fun.
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Like I said, context clues make it a lot easier to tell which meaning someone's trying to use.
And peril. Don't forget the peril.
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Oh ok.
That’s true, too. But, nothing life threatening.
Does that mean the rainbooms could recruit her? Because, they’re gonna need all the help they can get.
What does that mean?
She means her visions, right?
Is that their version of being asked out on a date?
Is there a difference between stag and bucks?
How does she know rarity?
Ouch. That hurt a little.
Are those her comrades?
Thirty-four hundred seasons?
By the way, whatever happened to that wolf?
Can she not talk?
Is it me or is wallflower starting to get paranoid?
What’s aether?
Piping?
Gift?
How does that make sense?
Hey, if sunset can get over it, then so can you.
Trees can do that?
Why did she say that?
Oiorava?
And yet he can be squashed.
What?
Is she in the present?
Not gonna lie, I can’t really blame her.
Aren’t you supposed to buy her dinner, first?
Telecontolor?
A what?
I mean, it kinda depends.
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Where did they mention that?
These last two chapters just made me realize how bad this really is.
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Not bad of an analysis.
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How bad the situation is, or my writing?
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The situation. Your writing is all good.
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Ah, thank you!
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It was mentioned in the long description.
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Given what Gaea seems to have been keeping from her, justifiably so.
The answer's in the quote you put right under this question in your original comment.
The music she first heard in Up Through the Roots.
Whatever Gaea did to Stumper to turn her into her current form.
It's complicated. Basically, plants are sentient (able to sense and react to stimuli) but not sapient (able to think or form mental concepts), more like a computer program (something that obeys a set of direct instructions) instead of an artificial intelligence (something that is capable of conceiving what it needs to do even if its instructions don't cover it). They are still intelligent, however, capable of responding to stimuli with something more than simple chemical reactions, even if they aren't as conceptual as people.
With regards to the more physical nature of their memories, they don't have brains to serve as memory storage organs, so they store them in other ways, ways which are typically more physical than human memory storage. In the case of trees, they store their memories (the stimuli they received and potentially their reactions to it) in their rings, allowing Wallflower to go through those rings like they were files.
It is all a bit confusing, though, you're right.
Eventually.
In the fictional world of Homestria, at least. "Hearing" isn't the right word, though; the tree is simply recording whatever vibrations affect it, especially its sensitive leaves. Wallflower is simply deciphering those vibrations, determining what their cause was (which is easy because of narrative convenience).
Like she said, it was part of Stumper's training; address elves with noble titles like that to avoid 'slighting' them and quite possibly inciting a war.
Elvish for Everfree and Dreamwalker, respectively.
That doesn't diminish his titles.
There's a lot of "What?" in this quote; what parts specifically are confusing? If everything is, what's the most confusing?
Yep.
For the first few moons it would've been understandable, yes, but she nursed her doubt and hatred far too long.
Different times, different cultures, different customs. Plus, it would've been a political marriage, one with a different style of courtship than the romantic style we're more used to.
A scrying-shield is a spell meant to prevent extrasensory magic from detecting inside a certain area, basically a magic curtain blocking other magic from seeing or hearing what's behind it.
In some cases, a soldier can be more responsible to their conscience than their commander, but the point Tein's trying to make is that "I was just following orders" isn't a legitimate way of diminishing guilt; if you know your orders are wrong, you have a duty to go against them.
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You’re welcome.
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Ok, I see it.
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Ohh. So aether is just a place?
Well that’s a sucky gift.
Wow, plants are complicated.
Narrative convenience?
It doesn’t? I would assume getting squashed would.
The part about hammers and blows.
If she’s in the present, then does that mean gaea isn’t a sleep?
It depends on how long a moon is and what she did.
That is true.
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Somewhat. Think of it like the dreamscape, Luna's realm from "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?".
It has its perks, and its costs.
And creatures are even more so.
Making things easier for the author, possibly at the cost of logic or realism.
Gaea hasn't fully manifested yet, so him getting squashed isn't as certain as one might think. Plus, just because someone dies doesn't mean their life loses meaning. Adagio's death doesn't mean the end of her legacy, for example: the impact she's had on her sisters and the world at large will live on long past the time when her death-rattle falls quiet.
Ah. Basically, Tein's warning her that multiple attacks (or blows) are coming, and almost all at once, combining together to strike with the force of a hammer. 'The hammer-stroke' is his name for the launching of these attacks, the start of the Windigos' and their allies' big push.
She isn't fully asleep, yes, but neither is she fully awake; conditions aren't right for her to unveil her full power, drastically limiting her capabilities for the moment.
What I mean is that Wallflower remained distrustful of Sunset for too long, long after most of the other Wondercolts managed to forgive her. Caution is admirable, but not to this degree; if trying to reform herself for (what appears to be) several months or even a year, as well as saving the world, isn't enough to convince you that someone's changed, what is? There comes a time when trust is needed, otherwise paralysis or self-destructive behavior (like Forgotten Friendship) results.
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What are the differences?
Perks? All I’ve seen were the costs?
That is true.
Ohh. So that’s what it’s called?
Oh yeah. I forgot about her, but wouldn’t her impacts most likely be negative?
Aren’t they just elves?
So she’s hibernating?
True, but sometimes changing isn’t enough. Although, it does help.
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Many and varied, but in concept (a place side-by-side with but not exactly in physical space) they're the same.
Living for several hundred years is a perk, and there are others that, like you implied, we simply haven't seen yet.
That's what I call it, anyway.
Not all of them. She was a would-be conqueror, yes, but she was also the fire that reforged Sunset and the other Rainbooms, and her influence on her sisters was, as we shall eventually see, not entirely negative either. She made a lot of bad choices in her life, yes, but no one is purely good or evil; like much else in this series, her influence will still be felt, for ill and for good.
Wallflower's audience is only elves, yes, but Tein is talking about non-elven participants in the coming war. Evil is assembling its own coalition (however loose) to attack Homestria; almost everything's coming out of the woodwork as the hour of doom approaches. As for who those other participants are, we shall have to wait and see.
More like she's being forced to self-quarantine until everything's safe for her.
Then what is? Sunset changed and showed a clear desire to make up for what she did in the past; if Wallflower had talked to her about how she felt, I'm sure that Sunset would've tried to atone for that, too. And it needed to be Wallflower who reached out; if the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" is to be preserved, then the responsibility of demonstrating that a wrong was done and needs to be addressed is on the accuser, as opposed to the responsibility of demonstrating that nothing wrong was done being put on the accused's shoulders. Without Wallflower reaching out and telling Sunset about what she did to her, what can Sunset do? How can she make up for wrongs she didn't even know she committed?
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That’s a perk? Sounds like a pain.
So there’s no good or evil in this series?
I’ll be honest, that’s a lot.
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It can be both, but you're right, immortality is surprisingly painful for mortals.
Oh no, there is, it's just that most of the time individual characters are a mix of both. They are neither angels nor devils (er, for the most part), but Men.
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Oh so they can live forever? I just thought they lived longer than normal.
You also say “this series”. Is there a specific name or is that just the name?
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Their lives are bound to Gaea's now, and Gaea's immortal, so yes they are.
I've been trying to come up with a name for it for a while, and now I think I've finally found one I'm happy with. This series as a whole is "The Song of the Spheres," subdivided into three main parts; "The Children of the Storm," telling the story of Cloudsdale, "The Seekers of the Stars," telling the story of Castellot and Crystal City, and "The Heirs of the Everfree," telling the story of the Everfree Forest.
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Those are some odd names.
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I'm an odd person.
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Are there reasons for those names? Are they meant for foreshadowing or something?
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"The Song of the Spheres" is a philosophical concept, one that says that there is a pattern, a musical (though inaudible) pattern, to the movements of celestial bodies like the Sun, Moon, and stars. Here, it references both the fact that this story is a tale (a "Song") and how momentous the events in it are ("the Spheres" are in space, a region far beyond the mundane everyday).
"The Children of the Storm" is meant to reflect both the physical weather of Cloudsdale as well as the fact that its inhabitants were raised in harsher conditions than most of the other states, making them children of both the physical storms of the weather and the metaphorical storms of life.
"The Seekers of the Stars" is meant to reference the stars, literal, which Castellot/Crystal City are frequently associated with, and metaphorical, in the form of Sunset and Starlight. In addition, searching is one of the main themes of that arc, whether it's the Unmarked searching for meaning, Shining searching for justice, or Sunset searching for her friends. "The Children of the Storm" is a test of various characters' character, while "The Seekers of the Stars" is about finding out what those characters are.
"The Heirs of the Everfree," on the other hand, is about legacy, about your choices and the impact they have on the world. Namely, this arc's about Gaea's legacy, from her diplomatic blunders with the Nilfin to whatever she did to Stumper and Wallflower. It's about what happens after the test of character from "The Children of the Storm," what happens after The Big Battle or The Big Event. What do you do after your trial of fire? What legacy do you leave behind?
Mainly, though, I just thought they all sounded good.