• Member Since 11th Jul, 2011
  • offline last seen 32 minutes ago

SaddlesoapOpera


Saddlesoap Opera is a Canadian Brony who loves to write and read fiction of nearly all kinds.

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The history of Equestria spans dozens of centuries, and many terrible foes have risen up from the past to threaten the future once more, only to be defeated.

When a vicious and powerful enemy older than any Twilight, her friends, or even the Princesses have faced before returns, they will have to reach out to an ally just as ancient for help... but is she still the heroine she once was?

This story takes place after the end of Season 3.

Honourable Mention: Best Fimfiction, Pony Awards 2013


Full-Cast, Illustrated Audio Drama version by Scribbler Productions can be found here!

Hardcopy editions from Ponyfeather Publishing can be found here!

Chapters (9)
Comments ( 556 )

Ooooooh! :pinkiegasp: Grogar, I assume? Sounds cool, let's see where this goes!

It seems Alice: Madness Return Equestria version. Megan´s madness infects her own inner world.

Oh boy, Grogar brought the Smooze back? That can't be good. And it sounds like a fob for ...
No Twilight, Princess or not, that's not your turf. :twilightangry2:
Bring in the human, Megan!

I wonder what will become of LD when someone reveals her involvement.

> [...]the Megan? Isn’t she just an old Pony-tale?”
> “Like Nightmare Moon?”
made my day!

2262109
She was just a pawn. Gathering the floom is her only involvement and I doubt that the recipe for the Smooze is well-known.

I can hear the faint ringing of evil laughter...

Shall read later.

Wait... a blue ram? You don't mean that villain from the G1 special, do you?
th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/069/e/e/grogar_by_xd_385-d5xnr8l.png

I'm eager to read this, but am I gonna have to know anything about MLP pre-generation 4? That's a journey I'm not looking forward to making.

2262379 I don't imagine so, no doubt it'll all be explained.
Buuuut, if you're interested, then I know a little:
Grogar was an evil necromancer-type character. Precisely what he was wanting to do, I don't know, but it probably wasn't anything good.
The Smooze was a giant, amorphous, sludgey thing which spread across the land (whatever it was called pre-G4) and covered everythiing. Interestingly, it partook in a song and dance number with the witches who had summoned it as it went, but I don't see this iteration of Grogar doing the same. :pinkiehappy:

2262475
Good enough for me, thank you kindly.

2262286

But I can imagine her and Megan and the M6 storming Grogar, and he'd be all "That pony there doomed your entire race", then bad juju would occur.

Well, that was grimdark as fuck. Well done.

Well that doesn't look good. :twilightoops:

DAT PINKIE DEATH.:pinkiegasp::pinkiesad2: This is so wonderfully dark.

Wow. Just wow. I want to hate you for this... But I can't. Good show.

Holy fuck it's Grogar :rainbowkiss: best villain

2262772 grogar? bitch please no one can stop the smooze.

Nice way to throw in a canon villain that never gets much justice, Lightning Dust. I have been wondering what Dust did after 'Wonderbolts Academy'.
I'm thinking this could possibly be a finale for a later season.

And then they died.

Jeezus, you already killed off half the Mane 6! Great story, noticed a few grammar mistakes, but overall you get 4/5 moustaches :moustache::moustache::moustache::moustache:

Hot damn! More G1 and G4 crossover, I have no idea why, but I'm a sucker for that stuff. I don't even like G1.

I have to say great story.
Would the smooze be able to get into the Everfree Forest?

Oh now this is going to be good... if theres one thing that G1 had that we Bronies don't give enough credit, its that it had incredible villains to work with.

Grogar the necromancer remains in the world of the living, and has brought back the Smooze. These ponies are so screwed.

Well written. Delicious concept. I eagerly look forward to more.

An interesting premise, but a little too early and heavy on the dark themes for my taste.

Megan thinks she is crazy and is going to therapy poor magen I wonder how she is going to react to RD also are the changlings going to be revealed as flutterponies that groger corrupted? becasue only they can stop the smooze.

Loosing one element in the initial onlsaught seems appropriate - three seems like darkness for darkness sake

Okay, this is looking to be seriously badass. Keep it up! :twilightsmile:

2262379
And one more.
Megan was the name of a human in old G-1.
She helped defeat the bad guys.
I guess that's pretty obvious, but you shouldn't need to know too much about her.
Judging by what we've seen of her so far, she's older and acts remarkably different.

For that cover art alone I will follow this story.

Comment posted by DrOblivian deleted Mar 14th, 2013

FOVORITED INSTANTLY!!!! SMOOZE DONE RIGHT!

2263773 2263060 2262614
I feel I should point out that nopony is dead. The effect is clearly described as being something like utter despair -
the Ponies simply can't find the strength to carry on, and fall down in surrender. Something like being traumatized
into catatonia. As I have said on my other stories, I do Dark, but not GRIMdark. Don`t expect BAD END.


2264181 2263597 2263000 2262772 2262475 2262063 2261988
I am pleased to see that folks have not forgotten that magical Ram and that purple ecological disaster.
Bringing them together has resulted in quite a wonderful villain scenario, if I do say so myself!

Wow this is really bad half the M6 gone ... Hmm I wonder if nuking the planet at this point would work, or glassing it, could also fire the Death Star laser at it, oh wait that would allow it to escape into space, anyone know of any Blue Giant stars that the planet can be launched into?

In other words KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

The story has been put in read later folder, that's for sure. Although I know nothing of previous pony generations. :pinkiecrazy:
Also, that's your best cover yet. Was this one also done personally by you?

The purple sludge with the unblinking eyes sort of reminds me of the heartless from Kingdom Hearts.

Whoah....Dark Instrumentality and a broken hero. I just hope that said 'despair' doesn't kick-start someone's memory....all we need is for Bright Eyes to decide that she needs to kill...
Oh, wait. That's exactly what we need.

2264234
I know. It was a joke. Cuz you know, it looked like they died.

2264304
Smooze and Heartless are not the same thing.

2264289
It was indeed! I continue to cobble together all of my own covers and chapter graphics from assorted sources. On the cover, the silhouette is free-use clipart, the vista's a Deviantart vector, and the photo is a public domain shot of NYC.

2264346
Hee hee! Your appreciation of Bright Eyes is always welcome. I should point you to a very nice fan-pic I recently got shown!
But sadly, not all problems can be solved with lethal secret agent butt-kick training. The danger is a bodiless blob that is hazardous to touch, and its creator is ALREADY DEAD! DUN DUN DUUUUN! :pinkiegasp:

Okay! THIS IS AWESOME!!! :pinkiehappy::pinkiehappy::pinkiehappy: I've never seen G1 before, but this made my day! Now, I'm going to ask in the most polite way possible, MORE, DAMN YOU, MORE!!!!! :flutterrage::flutterrage::flutterrage:

Man, I never watched it until G4, but G1 really did have some kickass villains in it.

All those ponies hit with the despair, I know you said you don't do Grimdark, just Dark, but when they don't even have the will to breathe, with nopony taking care of them, they won't survive long. Also, Pinkie is my favourite, and I don't want to say this, but she's gotta be dead. Whether the Smooze is some sort of dark magic, a parasite or some sort of non-lethal sentient lava, all the ponies only got a dose to a portion of them and they got despaired. Pinkie got a full body dose at least four times and pissed it off. That last bit of her scene makes me think the Smooze decided it would be better to smother her inside it, and even Pinkie can only go so long without air.

Forgetting Ponyville for a sec, let's look at what's gonna happen with Megan.

Initial reaction: denial that Dash is even real.

After much convincing and persuading: giving in and following her delusions, reasoning that she'll never escape them (Dash might try to leave, but she'll end up deciding that the Princess must know what she's doing and will follow orders).

After arriving: assuming that when looking at them the ponies of today look like the ponies of old, she'll be wondering why Applejack didn't just get the Flutter ponies to stop the smooze. Preferably with a 'silly pony' reference that makes AJ really angry. She'll then wonder where all the other ponies she knew are. After all, only about ten or so years can have passed on Earth, they've still gotta be around if AJ is.

Over in the badlands, the common fanon that changelings are Flutter ponies that were Discorded something shocking means that everyone is screwed. After all, the Smooze started in a volcano in the badlands. The changelings are commonly thought to reside in the badlands. They're gone, game over.

Now, the real questions are: What happened to the Rainbow of Light? Considering it's powers, it's been argued that it became the power source for the Elements of Harmony, which means they could conceivably follow a power trail from the Elements to it's residing place, but they'd need to activate the Elements to do so. With three ponies out of commision, the more sensible story twist would be that the Rainbow resides inside the Element of Magics gem. After all, the Element of Magic is usually the focal point for the others and it was the only one that resided on another plane of existence until called into being. If they're wrong however, they would have irrevocably broken the Elements to try and get it.

What's Grogars next move? An all powerful necromancer won't just return the Smooze, it was beaten before, it could be beaten again. On top of that, there's new ponies, new races, new gods. The ponies of old only ever faced one foe at a time, so they always won. The most logical thing for Grogar to do would be to stack the odds even more against the ponies, and what's the most common thing for a necromancer to do? Revive dead things. Even if villains of the past were his rivals, if he's bringing them back, he could quite probably bring them under his control or resever their connection to the world of the living with little difficulty, or just deal with them once the major threats (the ponies) are done with. So move over Discord, because the dead are about to rise and there's a new chimera in town. Move over Luna, because someones after your job and he puts Nightmare Moon to shame in terms of scary looks, and he's not afraid to hurt things to get eternal night. Move over Twilight because he wants your assistant, after all, he was his slave first (hey, he's a guy out of time, how's he to know it's not the same dragon?).

TIRAC! TIRAC! TIRAC!

Of course, there's evidence that Tirac might still be kicking around as is. Demons don't usually die, it just takes a long time for them to reconstitute when they're destroyed, and considering how many dragons there are around it could be conceivable that they're his creations. Hell, he could be the ones that did the changeling thing to the Flutter ponies instead of Discord (he did used to transform butterflies, his plans involved changing ponies, changing Flutter ponies wouldn't be a huge step, and if it's been a few generations, then the changelings would naturally be changelings now and wouldn't be able to turn back).

Or he could just end up bringing back a villain who is far weaker than him but still controllable because he's dead and Grogar just conveniently has the only piece of him that survived the explosion *cough*Sombra*cough*

Granted, all of this is speculation and probably wildly off what you have in mind. Still, interesting to think about.

2264361>>2264234 Now for the sake of argument, I gotta ask this question: How the hell do they breathe under all that gunk?

My guess is that it's the same way Pinkie breathed while Trixie took away her muzzle.
ibrony.com/file/pic/photo/2012/12/9dda1e034537af0e4cbf4928044c4315_500.jpg

2265139 You have successfully guessed every plot point I expected Saddlesoap to make. Well done.

But what about Discord? You failed to mention him.

2265218 Oh, I thought of Discord, but rationalised that he's probably just watching the chaos at this point. He's a force of nature, he's not good or evil (despite what the show/ponies wants us to think about chaos = evil (seriously, fuck that)) and he can't rightly try and stop chaos as doing so would go against his very nature. Hell, for all we know, stopping chaos on this scale could kill him or remove his powers, it's entirely possible that he's powered by the chaos that goes on everywhere. And really, if he didn't even pop in to save Fluttershy, why the hell would he help the ponies that have done nothing but treat him horribly and forcibly try to deny his very existence and reason for living?

You'll also notice that I mentioned that changelings are commonly considered to be Discorded Flutter ponies. It could be that that's where he is now, trying to undo that so they can stop the Smooze.

If you mean for the villains side, that's easy. Grogar wouldn't try and ally with him because he's not dead and as such, can't be easily controlled. Hell, for all we know, Discord played a part in Grogar being undead, after all, if someone is good at making chaos, why would Discord allow him to die?

Also, if we wanted to get really technical, what's to say that Chrysalis didn't die after being thrown from Canterlot and falling into a volcano or something? Can you imagine how screwed they'd be if the Changelings/Flutter ponies were under the control of zombie Chrysalis who was under the control of the guy who made the Smooze?

Then there's the sometimes fanon 'Nightmare is a separate entity'. An amorphous spirit that possesses others? Sounds like something Grogar could control. Hell, the Nightmare's movements could have been what tipped Luna off to all of this, after a thousand years, there's probably still some sort of connection in the Dream World Luna watches over (possibly evidenced by the fact that Luna has been unable to watch over it for a week and has been having 'nightmares')

2265292
Your thorough speculation is fascinating, but it seems we are waaaaaay different in our interpretations of Discord.
CHAOS, in the fundamental, entropic-principle-randomness sense, might not be evil... but Discord really, REALLY is.
He takes clear pleasure in others' suffering, violates their property, bodies and MINDS without consent, and does so
in whatever manner causes the MOST anguish. He isn't MADE of chaos, like some Fire Elemental is made of fire;
he's a DEALER of chaos. A SUPPLIER. He manipulates and connives and plans in great detail, playing characters
off each other and their own weaknesses to maximize their unhappiness, and one of his trademarks is the use
of marionette paddles. Does that sound like living chaos to you? ....Or does it sound like an 'evil puppetmaster' type?

Anyhoo, again, thanks for your detailed comments!

Wow. That scene with Pinkie at the end, man... just wow. :pinkiesad2:

Your pace is hella fast, but I'm guessing that the bulk of the story is about Megan saving the world, so you can get away with blazing through the corruption. Just make sure that later on, you slow down enough to get the character's emotions through, and to give the situation the gravitas it needs.

Still, tracked because don't nopony make Pinkie sad! :pinkiehappy:

2264234

Okay - I had read that as despair, which prevents you from escaping being smothered.

But after thinking about it the thing that really bothers me is it looks like idiot balls are being handed out. Warned of a threat that consumed whole cities, cities which they know and know people in, in addition to dire warnings from luna - We see the mane 6 building a sandbag wall????

Where is the scene where twilight is frantically reading through the library or the royal archives for a solution? Where is the scene where anyone dispatches fast flyers to see where the wavefront is and confirm how bad it is? - thus leading to a pro-active evacuation to the high ground of canterlot or cloudsdale?

Ignoring the above, the scene that is in the story - Where they first see the smooze approaching ponyville and consuming everything in its path - Where is twilight saying "The wall won't hold, everyone pull back and head to the other side of town, i'll meet you there with the ballon!"

If these things can't happen for story reasons - then you need to show some reason why they can't - what's bothering me is not that their cause is futile and they failed, what's bothering me is it appears they failed stupidly.

I like the concept, but I think the story would be better if some of the above was taken into consideration - cheers

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