Stories in Stone Q&A yet again. · 1:56pm Feb 15th, 2016
Alright given that the 4th book is on it's way and the 3rd is wrapping up, and i have a bunch of new readers, I am doing another Q&A for Stories in Stone.
Have something that's bugging you question wise? Or something about the stories history?
So long as it's not a spoiler for the upcoming chapters or books i'm willing to answer it here. If i have an answer, some questions are unanswerable, some answers unaskable..
Here's a few i've been asked before in mail and such.
Q: How close does SiS follow show canon?
A: Up until about second season was followed fairly closely. After the Wedding i couldn't really follow the show canon any more because of deviating into MoT. Really only LRG even tried to follow canon. That said there are more than a few nods to the show canon here and there.
Q: Who forged the Waning Moon and Brilliant Dawn?
A: The father of Forgescale, Bright Pyre. He was still around when his son came back [ Dragons live a long time] He wasn't fond of how Forgescale was acting and a argument came of it that turned into a fight. Forgescale won easily but due to it being his father he simply banished him. Still the fight was enough that Pyre was wounded and was probably going to die any way had he not been found by Luna and some Guards at the edge of Equestria territories. Luna brought him to Celestia and they both helped him recover and gave him a place to hide inside the Manterhorn. [ This is one reason the 2d incarnation of Ponyville was turned from a mining town, and mining under Canterlot was stopped. The first dragon war started many years later.
Pyre swore a life debt to the Guards and Princesses for saving him, though the guards that had helped Luna when he was rescued had all died before they claimed the debt. To honor their memories and give the Guard a chance against the dragons when the war started, Prye forged a large number of Dragon Slayer blades using techniques he had learned in his great age. He wasn't a fool however so he tied the blades into the life force of the specific wielder that they were made for. When the specific wielder died, the blades fell apart. Still with the amount of blades he made, he made a few mistakes. A scant hoof full of the blades confused the spell that would cause them to self destruct and instead of the single pony they were made for they followed the blood line. [ Jer'rahd's Grandfathers blade is one. At current there are no Dragon Slayer blades left on Equss save what the Waning Moon, and Brilliant Dawn became. ]
After the first war Pyre took to sleeping all the time and saving what little life he had left until such a time as he could repay Luna and Celestia.
That time came when Luna presented him with the fragments of a broken Dragon Slayer. The weapon was shattered , but not broken in a way that he had designed it to be. Luna told him what she wanted and offered a good bit of her magic to to enchant it as well as presenting him with the unrefined Starmetal ore to do so.
As this request was one of the last two things he needed to do before he could die he put everything he had into forging the blade.
The results were a blade that never lost it's edge. was disruptive to magic, carried the blessing of the Moon and the Goddess of War and had it's own partial soul from existing as long as it did and fighting in five wars.
Later when Nightmare Moon came to power Celestia came to him to request a weapon that could be a counter to the Waning Moon. She however presented a second defective Dragon Slayer blade, and intact one that had been recovered from the ruins of his home by a one Cyan Sparkle, the last of his family line.
The blade itself had only seen one war before it was retired, though Celestia did not bring raw ore to be forged, but already forged draconic and Lunar Republic star metal weaponry that itself had seen many battles.
Like before Pyre put his all into forging the blade, creating the Brilliant Dawn, a weapon that if not greater than, was at least the Equal of the well used Waning Moon.
With his last deed done Pyre left the mountain and the pony lands behind him, flying south for the fabled Dragon's graveyard to pass from the world.
Is there a new Sea Pony queen? Or did Nightmare Night scatter them to the point of the dragons?
Are the underground elk carnivores?
Is Fluttershy a permanent host of Grace?
What did the diamond dog make Applejack promise?
Are the elements truly dead this time?
Is Jer'rhad stuck in his dire horse form for the rest of his life?
such as it isDo the Giraffes have gods? Or the elk?
Do the Waning Moon and Brilliant Dawn hate each other due to the inherent crafting to counter one another or the weaponry/ore used to craft them?
Has Sweetie Belle ever reacted to Cosmic Love before the Battle of Whitetail Woods?
How did Lyra and Bon Bon get their crystal weaponry?
Can Luna return the goddess powers to Chrysilis or is she stuck the queen?
Are their still viable populations of harpies, griffons and half-dragons?
Did Tirek wipe out the Buffallo?
How did Angel become the general of the wilds or whatever his title is?
If Rarities son is a half dragon god did Troph claim them as his own now? And how many dragon gods are there now if that's the case?
3755742 There is, and it did. NMN broke up the sea pony nation as a whole. To the point that the deep sea ponies were thought extinct for nearly three hundred years after the fall of Nightmare. It was only after the river ponies, [ Unofficially recognized sea pony crossbreeds with land pony ancestry as well] , noticed signs of them that any effort was made to find out what was going on. After the destruction of Neighlantis many of them moved to the deepest parts of the world and stayed there, though without the books whispering to them , most of them returned to how they were before and after a number of generations they made contact again with the surface, or at least those near the surface.
The current kingdom is in no way as big as the previous one and the current goddess's power involves undersea plant growth so the power level of the Sea ponies is greatly reduced.
3755743 The Watipi are not carnivorous and are not a reflection of the Drow as a parody of Elf and Elk. Okay maybe a little. The practices that AppleBloom spoke of have to do with their tendency to enslave most other races to do their work for them. Much like the Diamond Dogs did Rarity. However they are in such small numbers and so far underground that it's mostly Diamond Dogs and the occasional Deep dragon that they take.
3755745 No, like the others [ excluding Jer'rahd ] she was a temporary host. Grace had never had a host before and the sudden spark of power from Fluttershy tapping into the Wild instead of Kindness gave Grace a window to escape the sealed Tartarus, which she took. Grace is currently back in the Element of Kindness.
3755747 Aside from bringing Big Mac with her, nothing. AJ wanted to kick some ass but she knew she needed help, but she wanted to go alone. Forth made her take her brother along so she would survive.
3756186
Oh drow elves. Thank god for pathfinder letting me know what those are
3755748 Dead? no. Like the core book they cannot really be killed. Thier physical forms can be destroyed, but their spiritual ones cannot be. The only thing that has changed here is that Grace and Troph have rejoined the Elements fully. Suffice to say the Elements of Harmony have just leveled up from a Dagger , to a tac nuke.
How could Grace die in Tartarus?
3755751 Kirinimg13.deviantart.net/3d21/i/2008/043/8/b/green_kirin_by_lizzy23.png
While this image needs 3 section hooves and more fur this is closer to how Jer'rahd currently is, and will be from this point on. More on that next chapter.
So if the DROW elk are wapiti are the forest elk Roosevelt Elk?
3755753 No and no. No one is sure what requirements a race needs to have gods, but they are only reconized as their own race once they have a god in their ranks. The exception to this are the Zebra and the Harpies. Both had gods before , but either lost them or killed them for various reasons. At the moments there are currently gods of
Dragons
Ponies
Half Dragons [ Though the Equss council of races hasn't verified just yet due to the war
Minotaur [ Though it is thought that he was made by the Books ]
Sea Ponies
Diamond Dogs
Zebra [though they don't know it ]
Changelings
Hippogryphs [again contested by Griffon gods]
The Griffon Gods are currently exstinct and i likely missed one or two.
3755754 They are opposed, but do not hate each other... It's kinda like magnets, though the effect will transfer to the weilders as well. After the ten year span Twilight couldn't use the Waning Moon any more and Jer'rahd cannot wield the Brilliant dawn. In both cases the weapons would fight them and be relatively useless.
Luna cannot use the BD and Celestia cannot use the WM . Asteral Queen Luna was the exception to this and Celestia without her sun and God powers might be able to use the Waning Moon. But not likely.
3755757 No. In fact she had sung it a number of times and loves the song which is why Button started it first. It was just the memory flash of her past life in that same situation that stopped her
Who got the weather/tide control powers when Aqua died?
3755759 Lyra is a member of the Crystal Royal Guard, or was until the wedding when she retired. She made friends with Cadence while she was a member of the six sixty sixth and was promoted to Cadence's gurdian. She visited the Empire a number of times during the ten year span to see Cadence, whom she is still friends with, and actually decided after the Changeling attack to keep up her training and get one of the spiffy weapons the Crystal ponies used. granted she never came and picked it up so it was still there when she showed up this time.
Bon bon's weapons were just wire, not crystal.
3755760 No, Chrysalis is currently a parasite living in a Changeling Drone named Locust. She's already dead she just refuses to die. Luna is stuck as Queen though she can pass leadership to Shin when he comes of age. Luna is for all purposes a Changeling now instead of a pony. Only the fact she kept the powers of a pony god while she was being changed has allowed her to remain as much of a pony as she is.
3755761 Harpies have nests everywhere and despite Tirek's attempts at Genocide the harpies are too scattered to be wiped out easily.
There are plenty of half dragons, far less than there were, but Gallopagos was home to more than just half dragons, and the half dragons have spread out into the world a bit more than just on the island. Like all the races they suffered a great deal of losses as Tirek simply killed them , but they are on par in numbers with most still.
Griffons were hit hard. There are no longer any griffon gods in the world and their population was easily halved if not 3/4 'd.
More on that later.
3755763 No , he did a great deal of damage though, but the Buffalo were not even a real target for him, he was just playing with them because he was bored.
3755764 Because there's not a damn thing out there that wants to mess with him. Just because Fluttershy can talk to animals doesn't mean they respect her little push over shy flank. That's where Angel comes in. Most animals love Fluttershy, most animals respect or outright fear Angel.
Angel is not an ordanary rabbit.
More on that later
What's Coppers ability? Or was it mentioned and o missed it?
3755765 Troph has respect for the half dragons, he's found he likes the dragon cross breeds more than he likes the dragons themselves.
There are currently 4 dragon gods left after Grim Jaw was killed.
Spike, Ice, The smoker one, and the other female [ i'm too lazy to go look up their names.
3756210 Her physical form was quasi mortal, same as Trophs. Grace could survive as long as there was a connection to her Element. Tirek sealing them in Tartarus cut that off. If Fluttershy had not done what she did, or Troph had not found a way to open the gate again Grace would have died and the Elements of Harmony would have been weakened. While the Elements cannot be destroyed normaly, Thanks to being seperated from her Element [ and without a host like Troph, Grace could be cut off from the source of her existence The Element of Kindness.
3756220 Forest Elk are just Elk though they have differing tribes and some markings .
3756248 Unknown yet. Because she was killed the powers didn't pass on they kinda were put back in the pot luck for another god to get later.
Was the female dragon at Dullahan a goddess?
3756285 No I never said what hers was, but i implied that it was weak
Is there still a cult to Nightmare Moon after all that's happened?
3756304 No, though she was powerful.
3756311 No Celestia pretty much took them all out. Also what cult would be taken seriously for worshiping a foal's holiday mascot?
Are the Scales ancestors of Twilights?
3756341 Platinum's family? Yes.
Cyan Sparkle's wife was Platinum's niece. The Scale family was a banker and accountant family so Platinum was a bit of a black sheep to the family, hence why after her death the family wanted nothing to do with Bleu and weren't to crazy about Platinum either , though she was still blood , though Bleu was not considered such.
Platinum's niece however followed in her aunt's hoof prints and wound up with a musical talent as well. The family was again mortified, though again , while not supportive , didn't try and stop her. Eventually they did warm up to the idea particularly after she and Cyan wed thus putting the bankers into at least a house of lesser nobility.