This story is a sequel to Rekindled Embers
Thanks to the efforts of Emberglow, her fellow Elements, and all who stood against tyranny, the twisted heart of the Holy Equestrian Diarchy was exposed and expunged. Some time has passed since then, and all the creatures of the land have settled into a new normal. While there are those who still cling to their old fear and hatred, the seeds of change have been planted in the hearts of many who once blindly followed a bigoted faith. Others have already embraced peaceful coexistence, following Emberglow’s example.
But sudden, unfathomable arrivals trigger a seismic shift, upending what everypony thought they knew and threatening to undo everything Emberglow and company achieved. Can they uncover the real truth once again and protect Equestria? Or will renewed violence and conquest sweep across the entire world under the purview of those who would claim absolute power?
Edited by LysanderasD and the inspiring applezombi
Cover Art by JodTheCod
I like the premise so far. It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here.
discord would never brag about being older than everyone 👀 seems like a lot of flowery prose in this one
EXCITED
Its here!!! Love this premise so far and can't wait to see where this goes!
Stars, the announcement of this was a bit of a jumpscare. I didn't expect this at all but it feels good to be back
Still reading through the first story, but from what I've read so far, this sequel is going to be monumentally important.
Oh cool a sequel!
you should really tag it as a sequel, I almost didn't see it.
Hooo, was just scrolling down and suddenly saw the word "Emberglow" on the description and immediately jumped into it. Wasn't expecting a sequel, but here we are. Already off to a great start. The first chapter got me hooked already.
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It is tagged as a sequel, but since I'm not the author of the original, it doesn't notify people. Hence applezombi's blog post and my own pinging of everyone in the discord server.
Hype acquired. Looking forward to seeing where this goes from here… and just how bad it gets before the situation’s truly resolved.
After reading the first story, I am hyped for this.
I'm not sure who will be more pissed off by this: Terminus, Heartwing, Rarity, or Sunset Shimmer.
Thrilling chapter.
Reading about what the Saints said made me just as angry as Heartwing.
You know, I had some hopes for this story, and I know I'm gonna get downvoted, but I'm getting more and more disappointed. From what I can read, author puts more stock in writing fancy prose lines instead of focusing on showing not telling areas which would be so much more impactful.
The next parts starts to describe how he barely paid attention, to which I say could have been improved by simply showing that a chunk of the travel had passed and he didn't even notice. Simple things like that really improve the story.
Now let's move on to the story.
So...the previous war meant nothing? The fight for peace meant nothing? There's obviously been some time since the war, namely the two years you mentioned, so why is everyone so ready to accept the old world order again? Even if the "Saints" have come in, I find it kind of strange that ponies would flock to these Saints again. Especially if the last two years have been with the Orders trying to reorganize peace again. Then again, I have no idea what happened in the last two years, and this could be easily explained in later chapters if you showed us distrust continuing throughout the last two years. Just a thought.
There is one good thing I have to say, though.
You've made me really hate these fake Saints.
I can agree with you, Sir Heartwing. YOU AIN'T FLUTTERSHY.
i dont know wht is happening but itd seem like stuff is heating up fast lol go beat their asses discord
also feels so different from the previous story doesnt seem like really same pace or meaning which is why im writing comment
Well. That leads into some interesting questions.
There is a bit of a Ghostbusters II issue in that apparently the whole “nightmarish Ice Age with zealous knights calling for penance through blood” thing didn’t have nearly as much of an impact on the culture of the Diarchy as one might expect. Still, cultural inertia is a powerful force, it’s not clear how much the Empire did to reinforce the lessons of that disaster, nor is it clear how much the average pony on the street understood the background events. And this is the innermost core of the Diarchy; the peripheral territories are likely enjoying far more tolerance and openness. For now. (Still, talk about gratitude… to say nothing of how well the orders reorganized after most of their senior leadership was gutted. Sometimes literally.)
In any case, the encounter with the Saints raises a number of questions. I look forward to seeing them answered. And to seeing this false Twilight’s faith inevitably confront a disagreeing reality. She may not waver until the last, but it won’t end well for her.
Hmm. Could Chrysalis’s clone spell be involved?
Looking forward to more.
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I'm not applezombi, of course the story is going to have different vibes. If it was identical to the original, there would be no point in writing it. Much as how fanfiction expands and modifies the show in interesting ways, I'm trying to do that for the Rekindled Embers universe.
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I'm taking into account applezombi's direct input on the state of the setting, here. There's an entire primer in the Discord server they put together detailing the state of the Diarchy one year after the previous story's events which I am following.
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Among those questions, are these "Saints" even aware they are fake?
Something is fishy in the Diarchy. These "Saints" are accompanied by some sort of humanoid bodyguards.
Aliens, extra-dimensional doppelgangers, evil clones, taking all bets!
Well this is getting stranger and stranger highly advanced medical technology? At first I thought these were somehow disguised imposters, but perhaps they're something far less... organic, in nature.
they never doubt, and that will always lead to their downfall, no matter how long it takes, the lies of the Diarchy will never become a reality. Turquoise should have doubted, if only she wasn't so stubborn
Man, these imposters are really putting up a show. I feel bad for Turquoise but happy her back legs are working again (for now at least).
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Terry Pratchett was very good depicting these kind of people, and their shortcomings.
I wonder how often Emberglow visited (if at all) during these two years.
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agreed... maybe some reverse contamination from the mirror portal?
Between EqG being much more technologically advanced, Equestria having a dark age and the unique magics we see developing on the human side of the portal we have no clue what's possible at this point.
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Maybe never?
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Honestly, that would be kinda messed up for Ember to have never visited her after the battle in new canterlot. She worked for Turquoise for a whole year as a squire and then doesn’t even visit? Wtf?
I know she visited once right after the assassination attempt on Flurry but that would still be effed up.
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Funnily enough, neither LysanderasD or applezombi brought this up at all during the editing process. I don't know if either of you are following along with the RP in the discord server, but in the two years that elapsed, Emberglow is pretty busy between making a home for herself with Rarity, her doctoral duties, and her job as an ambassador. So it's a bit of a toss-up as to whether or not she visited, I'd say.
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By RP I assume you mean Role Play? In my eyes none of that is cannon then. And if it is supposed to be cannon the why isn’t he (applezombi) writing a sequel instead?
That was probably my biggest issue (and really the only one) with Rekindling Embers is that the denouement was really abrupt and left a lot unresolved and the epilogue just goes and skips 300 years later so they are all dead by that point. It left a really bitter taste in my mouth that these characters I had come to love (particularly Emberglow) were suddenly just gone really messed me up and also kinda makes it difficult to read this story as well.
Also no I am not in the discord server and frankly I’m not sure I would want to be if potential sequel material is being hashed out there. I’d much rather read a proper sequel/side story then just read a list of events that happened after the series originally ended.
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This is the canon sequel. Applezombi is working on another cool project right now.
As for the roleplay, it isn't necessary at all to keep up with in order to enjoy Rising Flames. I drafted the original outline for this story before Rekindled Embers was even finished, and I was able to given I was zombi's editor for the latter chunk. This rebooted 2.0 roleplay hadn't even started at that point. And while the outline has undergone major changes since, the roleplay still remains totally separate barring a few minor references.
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Oh. My bad.
Sorry, I must have missed that this is The Sequel. I’m still having trouble getting over how RE ended and I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention. It really did feel like a slap in the face.
MF made me cry but for the wrong reasons.
Still! This is an interesting concept, and I do look forward to how this story develops. Hopefully we can get more details about what was going on during the two year time skip.
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Sorry I know it's not the hip thing to do but I don't keep up with anything on Discord.
I have enough distractions on the internet to keep me more than busy.
I was really just thinking that Amberglow may have been avoiding visiting Turquoise because of it being so painful to think about how Turquoise betrayed Amberglow for her faith.
Seems like quite the technological jump, hoping we’ll get more info on how all of this was developed!
This raises a wide variety of questions. How? From whom? For what purpose? Could it be the work of ancient aliens?
Probably not that last one, but at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.
(And I do wonder if Turquoise’s desperate study of the holy text might lead her to notice subtle discrepancies once the awe dies down a little. Heck, even that Altar contradicts the tale of Applejack and the Flimflams.)