The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon
Part 9: Faust Almighty, Bandaid!
When Almighty Faust arrived on the planet, there was a warm breeze—nothing survived. With her five young and innocent children in tow, she molded the world. Discord, with his strong arms and wild imagination, crafted the mountains and all the oceans. Their secrets would provide an eternity of exploration. Cadance, with her boundless love, found the energy to help the mortal races love and prosper among each other as one. Celestia, with her wisdom and leadership, brought unto them sentience, government and law. Nightmare Moon, with her powerful desire to outdo Celestia, gave the mortal races all of their own needs, desires and unexplainable habits-- rage, physical passion and unsolvable mathematics. Chrysalis stood away from them as they worked to build a new home together, nurturing the needy and hungry-- when they were done they called it ‘Equis’.
The second time Almighty Faust arrived on the planet, she stifled the breeze. Why, the whole thing was teeming with life! She smiled as she borrowed a form that would be deemed ‘local’ to the native population. Boundless, unlimited power folded and folded and folded again, into infinity, until it took a physical shape. She stood upon the barren earth and it blushed with moss and flowers to cushion her divine hooves. Giving her long mane a toss, she surveyed herself in a nearby fountain. A white alicorn with fiery red hair and beautiful blue eyes. Leaning a little, she flicked herself with adornments. A crown of golden laurels and a dainty little necklace appeared upon her. Her hooves shone as little hoof-gauntlets materialized from nothing. Satisfied with the simplicity of the shape she’d chosen, she smiled at her image.
“That was totally wicked!” A colt said from behind her, startling the goddess. She gave a start, turning about. She’d forgotten what it was like to see in only one direction at any given time. “You’re amazing! Are you a princess from another country!? What’s your name? Don’t you have any guards? Princesses shouldn’t wander around at night alone, y’know!” he was a scrappy little thing with a bandanna around his neck. The royal signet of a messenger was painted delicately on his shoulder, and the cutie mark on his rump had a winged horseshoe. He scampered around Faust’s pillar-like legs, admiring her ivory fur and serene glow. She watched him go with an ever-growing smile, her eyes shining at his energy. “I know! I can guard you and take you to the palace! What’dya say?!” his eyes were big and shiny and full of young energy.
Faust grinned, blessing him on the spot and nodding. With that, the colt wheeled around and started forward with authority. She followed him, leaving a spot in the courtyard where she’d touched down covered with massive flowers and mosses. They’d split the street open to receive her divine form. Had the colt been the only one to see her land? How lucky indeed!
The few ponies that were out and about at night stopped to stare. A white alicorn with hair as red as the autumn leaves was strolling down the street, led by a foal. Some pointed, others gasped, and all gave her a wide berth. Stallions looked upon her beauty and sank to their haunches in reverence and desire. Mares stared, their eyes glazing over a bit as they took in every inch of her. Who was she? Where did she come from?
The colt led Faust through several streets, beyond several courtyards, and beyond a private vineyard. The stallion working it exploded into confused cursing when all his grapes suddenly swelled up like pregnant watermelons. A pet shop they happened by instantly went silent, for all the animals were craning to see her as she passed the window. She lifted her wings to stretch them, and the trees around them rustled happily to enjoy the warm gust.
She clip-clopped along, pausing only to admire a bakery for a time. Cooking was something she’d always really enjoyed the thought of. Taking a bunch of somethings and making something else entirely was like divine magic in its own way—and making others happy with this craft was something to be commended. She stopped and gestured at the bakery, but her little charge was very insistent. “No no, it’s further down the street, silly!” he chided, turning around and putting his forehead against her butt. “This way, this way!” he chirruped, laughing as she stumbled forward. “I’m just a royal messenger, but I can’t let a princess get mugged or something on my watch. Canterlot can get dangerous at night, you know,” he confided behind a hoof. Faust made a little shocked face, putting a hoof over her mouth. “Yeah, that’s right,” he said in confirmation. “We’re almost there, c’mon.” he coaxed. Faust followed him, sighing a little. Perhaps a cake or something later. She’d grown very fond of strawberries after Discord had invented them. Mmm, strawberries… shaking her head a little and ignoring the mortal stomach, she cocked her head as they approached what could only be the palace of Canterlot.
The seat of power, the city itself, was grand, but the palace was breathtaking by any standard. Faust glanced up and down it. Her vision pierced earth, water, stone, flesh, and all the metals within. One, two, three, four of her children were here. Heh! Give the poor things a whole planet to enjoy and they all stick together like so many flecks of pollen! She stifled a little laugh, but then quickly looked up at a mean voice. “What’s your business, messenger? I don’t see your white flag up,” a stern, grey-coated guard said to the colt.
“I’m escorting her majesty--” he gestured behind himself, for Faust had stopped a good twenty stretches behind him. “Uhm… uhm… I’m not sure what country she’s from, but she’s definitely a Princess! I mean, lookit her!” he waved both hooves at the horn and wings on the goddess’ body.
Both guards standing at the archway stared at her. As with any armored pony, they knew the visages of all five of the children of Faust. She fit none of their descriptions. Yet there she stood, an alicorn! They gaped at her, having no idea what to do. Faust finally looked up from a flower that had shot up between the cobblestones to see her. She saw them staring and made a startled little flinch, then smiled bashfully. All that knew her knew Faust was a rather shy goddess. She didn’t like to be stared at like that. Flaring her wings open, she offered a more confident smile. “Uhh, uh-yeah, let her by,” said one guard. The other mutely agreed. The messenger colt went back to fetch her, then let the red-headed alicorn into the palace.
“I work here too, like I said!” The colt told Faust. “I can run super-fast, so I was made a royal messenger to carry mail back and forth between nobles and such. Since you’re visiting from a foreign nation, I guess I can take you to the royal apartments, if you like? I can squire for anypony that needs a light-hoof’d servant!” he offered himself, bowing deeply and hitting his chin on the marble floor of the palace steps. Faust smiled gaily, then patted his head. Snapping a little stick from a little tree nearby, she knighted him with all seriousness. He jumped up and saluted, quick as a flash. She smiled only wider. She loved children, always so eager and happy to please. “So uhm… in we go I suppose!” he turned about, rushing up the stairs to press on the double doors. Faust walked gracefully up the white stone stairs, tilting her head back and admiring the architecture. For one that crafted galaxies and kissed the swirling cosmos to life, it was always fascinating to see the works of others. Especially others that had to very seriously work and labor for their creations. (Faust loved art and music, because of this) This castle was certainly amazing, she thought. She arrived at the top of the stairs to find her little servant heaving at the huge double doors. They just wouldn’t open and his tiny little body couldn’t budge them. Faust glanced through them to the other side, and found the bar. They must have closed it for the night to visitors. Lifting the bar and setting it aside with magic, she let her little knight push the way open with one door, then quickly rush back and heave the other one out of the way as well. “Here we go!” he panted, wiping sweat and puffing a little.
Faust smiled, nodding a few times. She stepped into the white and gold hallowed halls. The palace was many stretches wide, and even more stretches tall. It was made to invoke the feeling of being small and insignificant, part of something greater. She looked upward, admiring all the stained glass windows and pictures that needed light to be seen. Such craftsmanship! She really needed to visit more often and see what creations others were coming up with.
“Your Majesty!” the colt called from way up ahead. Faust caught herself standing still, then quickly shook her head. Walking forward at a quicker clip, she made a gesture or two at the fantastic artwork. “Oh yeah!” he said enthusiastically. “Princess Celestia has them all changed every couple of years, or when a big event happens that needs to be remembered.”
Faust touched her chin thoughtfully. She wasn’t in any of these, thank goodness. She hated seeing herself in artwork. She’d only ever commissioned one painting of her face (well, the one she took to allow mortals to see her), and that was still in Celestia’s safe keeping. That had mostly been to see how all her children looked when they were little. She gestured to one that was covered in brilliant flowers and designs. That was where she needed to go. That was where Chrysalis was.
“What? The garden?” the colt asked when she showed him the image. “It’s down that way, in the rear of the palace. But I’m not allowed to go there, I’m not royalty or a guard.” He wilted some, holding a hoof out to direct her. Leaning down, she kissed him on the forehead. He blushed a joyous sort of scarlet. “I-I-I’m around if you need me tomorrow or something!” he called after her as she went. She waved and smiled, then went on.
Faust watched the events of the recent past. Yes, the past. Faust was not omniscient, despite being the creator of all. One did not know the future, no matter how powerful or divine, once free will was breathed into something. The slightest tip one way or another kept things going in a general direction, but so long as creatures like ponies could make their own decisions about themselves, there was no such thing as “fate” or “destiny”—despite their silly cutie marks. That had been Discord’s idea. That was more to nudge them along the ‘general’ plan, the plan that would help the world out the most.
Faust watched Celestia kill Chrysalis in a moment of desperation. Celestia was the wisest, yes, but that didn’t mean she could handle everything so fluidly as she often did. The poor thing had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but a simple rule like ‘don’t kill your mortal sister’ was certainly one that needed to be followed. She watched Chrysalis dive at her, try to feed on her, and then get struck dead. Faust sighed quietly. She felt so, so bad for her youngest daughter’s lot in life. Suffering so much that others did not have to, or even think about. She would need to make it up to her. The timing seemed about right, for thousands of years her misery had extended—and while Faust did not like to interfere in the workings of Equis (it was a gift to her children, after all), this would have to be the exception. It was clearly an accident, she could forgive that.
Faust emerged into the royal gardens, then out onto the hill by the carnival. Celestia lay hunched over the changeling queen’s broken form, sobbing loudly. She was stained with blood, misery, and self-loathing. When she sensed her mother, though, she whipped around in a panic.
“Mother!” Celestia’s eyes were huge and her pupil’s tiny. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t want her to prey on me and destroy Equis! I didn’t mean to kill her! I-!” Faust swept her daughter, suddenly much smaller, into her forehooves. The red-haired goddess was no giant, but Celestia was most certainly upon her knees before her. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Celestia chanted into her breast, weeping. Faust quietly shushed her, stroking her mane over and over. Celestia fell to miserable mewling. Easing her eldest daughter down onto her belly, she went instead to Chrysalis. Leaning over the body, the mother of the gods leaned down and kissed her on the mouth. Time stopped.
=-=-=-=
Chrysalis stood upon a beach. It was a sunny, carefree day with fluffy clouds and not a care in the world. “Pupa! Pupa sweetie wait for me! You’re pregnant you don’t need to be running that fast!” Chrysalis stared in shock as her two former bodyguards ran right past her, swollen in the belly and chitter-laughing between themselves. They weren’t changeling queens like she, they could only bear one young in their lifetimes, but it was still bizarre. A pair of pony stallions rushed after them, twin brothers. They left shoe-prints as they went across the soaked sand, and the waves quickly washed them away. She stared at them, wondering why she didn’t chase. Those two were deserters! They should’ve stood by their queen’s side and as they’d been trained!
“Geode! Geode honey wait up! We’re supposed to go swimming later when the sun’s going down! Ack!” he was splashed for his trouble. The twin brothers looked at each other, then quickly took wing to catch up with their mates. Chrysalis watched them go until they shrank out of sight. How long was this beach? It seemed to go on forever. She watched the group go, then turned to survey the beach the other way.
Faust Almighty stood not ten paces away, her hooves awash in the warm water. Chrysalis flinched, “Mother!” she said, mouth agape. She leaned back with a mix of fear and shock. Faust tilted her head, lifting one hoof and pawing idly at the sand. “Mother?” Chrysalis said again, tilting her head and squinting her eyes. She wasn’t sure she believed it. “Oh wait, I must be dreaming…” she looked around to find something wrong with the world that would confirm it was a dream. But no, it looked like any of her mother’s pocket dimensions. She usually made them, frought with symbolism, whenever she wanted to talk with one of her children. The red-haired alicorn turned slowly, sloshing along the warm waves toward her. A blue crab scuttled by to be out of the divine’s way. “Not a dream…” Chrysalis whispered, tilting her head up and up until her mother stood before her a head taller. “Why am I here?” she asked. There was a long silence between them. Faust seemed to be surveying her—admiring her. “Yes, I’ve grown big and strong, no thanks to you.” Chrysalis grumbled. The deity turned her head to look behind herself, and her daughter leaned. There was a set of large hoof-prints leading off into the distance, but they were pointed towards them. Chrysalis followed the prints until the was looking at herself. They were her own, and there was only one set. “Yes, I’ve walked alone for a long time! I’ve had no choice! I’m only mortal and you refuse to make me otherwise.” Faust turned back to face her, then leaned and crushed her into a hug. “Augh! Hug! Too much hug!” Chrysalis squirmed wildly.
“Take a closer walk with me,” Faust whispered, turning and putting a hoof on Chrysalis’ shoulder. Suddenly and without warning, a hundred-million images rushed by through Chrysalis’ mind. Was this the future? Neigh, a prophecy. A veiled and uncertain future.
Atom. It was an unfamiliar word, floating around it her mind. Chrysalis didn’t know what an ‘atom’ was, but the images she was being shown didn’t make any sense. Imagine, buildings tall enough to touch the sky made of glass and iron! Rushing trains moving at the speed of sound across entire nations! Millions of tiny, techni-colored ants rushed through the vein-like streets and across the land. They bred and eat and shat and built until there was no space left… a dot fell from the sky. A tiny dot covered and orbited by a hundred other little dots. When it struck the ground, all was white light and nothingness. The buildings. The trains. The mortals upon the ground. All were ash.
The Changeling Queen stared in icy-veined horror as the ash and dust blew away like so many leaves in the fall. No trees stood, no flowers bloomed, and not even an insect crawled on the ground. Gone. All of it gone.
As she watched the images fly by in a stomach-churning blur, she saw nations argue-- she watched all the finger pointing and raised voices and violence coming to a head in a great series of mushroom shaped clouds of world-consuming fire. Silence. Then, coming from the deepest of tunnels, she watched her changeling hive meet and interbreed with ponies—survivors of the terrible firestorm—A strange and funny-looking half-breed was born. A pony that could change colors? Or was it a changeling that could produce love in and of itself, to give to other changelings for sustenance? She wasn’t sure what to make of the new half-breed. She’d laid with quite a few stallions over the years and she’d never given birth to such a creature…
=-=-=-=
Chrysalis sat up with a shriek, startling Celestia back a few steps. The changeling queen coughed heavily a few times as her wounds healed themselves over. Faust sat with her, stroking her hair. “Am I a…?” she whispered, touching her wounds as she remembered she had them. They were gone. Faust nodded a little. “And was that my…?” Faust shrugged a little, smiling coyly. The future was not set in stone, but it was certainly heading in a general direction. Chrysalis stared at her destiny, laid out before her. Equestria and all her holdings, only temporary! A few handfuls of thousands of years! Equis herself would come to ruin someday. However far into the future, it didn’t matter. Her resources would run out, and only creatures that could produce and feed on love would survive while it germinated and rejuvenated herself.
Equis was a cylinder of light and dark ages. All the children of Faust would have their chances to rule and be loved by all, taking turns with each other. But only her youngest, strongest daughter would have what it took to rule once it had all come to ruin in the far, far future. Then, when time reset itself and civilization began anew it would be the other four’s turn again. Chrysalis fell to her belly and wept happily. Faust held her close, tucking her daughter's head under her chin. She was not the weakest or the most cast out. She was the most important of all. And now, she was immortal like the others. Faust smiled, leaning and kissing the top of her head.
End of Part 9
Holy Shit.
4088964
Indeed
I got to admit I'm surprised that Faust had such a great plan in store for Chrysallis or that she was so understanding towards Celestia's plight and Chrysallis' suffering. She is really the mare version of (insert creation god of any religion ever)
Damn it... I wanted to hate Faust, I really did... but then you make her all shy and cute and bashful and motherly to Chryssie, and... and...
Ghhhhh....
My eyes...
My feels....
Uh ... what?
This fic has taken quite the odd turn from its original premise.
Now what would be the lucky stallion that is willing to do with Chrysalis.
not even remotly where i thought it was going (ie, "daughter of mine, you done fucked up now!"), and for a second when you mentioned mushroom clouds i had to do a double take and make sure it wasnt our smashing little species getting up to our usual mischief being talked about. but yeah, dis, i like. at least 2 more chapters were fausticorn sticks around if you please. i'll settle for 1 but he who dares wins.
A question if you wouldn't mind. Quoting chapter 7:
Was Celestia just wrong on this thought of hers then? I can see it being that way since despite her being the most logical of the sisters she doesn't really know Faust's plans for her children. But if she is right then it doesn't really seem like the other children would ever get a chance to rule again, specially if down the line Chrysalis just drains them dry.
4088964
l.wigflip.com/gXEolZdh/roflbot.jpg
given that it's about Chryssi!
4089040
Considering that Fausts vision showed Equis ruin with only chrysalsis children surviving....
4089073
Not just Chrysalis's children survived it.
IT'S BACK!
4089040
I think Faust decided to give Chrysalis a forking path in her fate. What Celestia said had been true, at one instance of time. But now, Chrysalis has been shown another possible path. Her place in the hierarchy.
Now the circle is complete....something, something, something ponies.
4089181
Well it'll be interesting what she does with it then. She's immortal now, so if Celestia was right she has all the power she needs to drastically increase her hives numbers and invade where she pleases. I'd be surprised if she does a complete 180 on her personality over this new option Faust has given her. Also be surprised if she doesn't try to lord it over her sisters at some point, like trying to steal a certain sister's beloved nurse.
Sure there is the 'no killing your siblings' rule, but nothing against causing them to hate you for all time. And I can't see her letting go of all her grudges when she felt she was getting kicked around or talked down to by her siblings for the last few thousand years. But we will see what happens in the future.
She deserved the back hoof.
Well, that happened. This story was interesting at first, then the rewrite made it intersting-er, and now it's even interesting-er-er! I am more interested-er than I thought I could be from the span of a single chapter!
Please sir, can I have some moar?
I don't really care about this cosmic stuff, i'm here for nightmare and band aid
4089089
Yes but it involves the fact that it will be her lording after everyone else dies in what appears to be a hail of fire.
Her 'gift' in the end despite the torment it'll cause the others to please her daughter.
Unless this is something's that's just going to happen naturally.. In which case I have no clue.
4089345
I wanna believe that Faust in this isn't twisted enough to burn the world in fire for her daughter. o.O;;;
I was thinking the vision was showing Chrysalis one likely path in the future, but was more meant to show her that one day she will have her turn to rule as Discord and Celestia has. From what the vision said it also described how each of the children will rule at one point and be the most loved at one point or another, meaning that they would all have to be alive and not die in fire for that cycle to continue.
4089330
I have to agree, despite all the fun Chrysalis conjecture I mainly just wanna see more NMM and Bandaid. Wouldn't mind to see most of the others finding special someponies in other spin off fics at a later date though.
Okay, I think the story needs to take its anti-crazy medication now...
Chrysalis - Pony Goddess of the Kali-Yuga. I approve of this!
Oh...
4089496
not really. i actually makes some sense.. the auther needed a reason to revive Chrysalis. and this is a good way to go about her redemption. Chrysalis now knows that there is a plan for her after all. the most impotent plan of all. rebirth. faust knows the end will come one day. and changlings are the only ones who can survive it. thats why faust had her made. as a kind of backup plan if all things go to shit.
4089386
The thing about it is that unless something problematic happens, each will 'have their turn'. It's not something that was shown to be stopped, and that means they each will have their time on top so it's likely something is going to have to happen to the people to change things out, because the only two compatible ones are Celestia and Cadence, the rest are vastly different in things.
4089943
Right, that's what I said...so we are in agreement then at least on that part of all this.
Now as I said in a prior post I'll be curious to see what happens with Chrysalis on realizing she is not immortal. Will she try to 'hasten' her time to ascension? Will she steal Bandaid away from NMM now that she can't be killed by her? Will she increase her swarm size and start seizing other areas? Will she try to consume her sisters so her time of ascension never ends?
While the answer to any of those questions would be great to see, I am still more interested in finding the answer to when Bandaid will get to third base with NMM, unless he already did in the tunnel of love.
It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with it, and now I got it. Faust has created a world which has the extinction of entire civilizations is preplanned. The extinction of hundreds of millions of lives in the cataclysmic fire of war has been placed into the natural cycle of that planet.
It is not just a contingency, it is a desired plan.
And is this how it goes? Forever and a day will they exist in a constant cycle of death, to reach to a certain grand height only to be destroyed when they reach this desired level? A grand reset button to bring them down low again, to restart? Why? Is she afraid, is she greedy, is she simply cruel and sadistic? To have no future, to be thrust into a world that is unwinnable by design, a world where they will inevitably fail and die because they are never allowed to succeed. The greatest act of cruelty is to craft this world, this place where there is no hope, no future, and no chance of ever moving past anything. Changelings themselves are incapable of survival without parasitic actions upon others, and who made them that way? If Faust made them that way, then what greater act of cruelty is there, and if she made them for the sole purpose of aesthetic pleasure then what monster is she!?
No life is so grad that it can make and remake life as it sees fit, to create endless suffering for simple joy, to deny a future for no other reason that gratification!
I would not call Faust a god, I would call her a devil. Cruel, selfish, and capricious at best, deluded and insane at worst.
It’s an interesting view of the future. It’s especially interesting when one considers that Chrysalis’ holiday is the Day of the Dead; perhaps it’s only too logical that she would be the one to rule after the end of Nightmare’s rule (after all, who else but the goddess of artistry could inspire ponies to create such enormous towers and marvelous machines?), when the world itself begins to die, getting everything ready so Discord can kickstart creation again on the next go-around.
That was...something.
Honestly not sure what to make of it. Good portrayal of the top deity though, and I like the emphasis on the future being perhaps somewhat predictable, but not set in stone. Fits the theme set by Celestia not having things go according to her chess game in the first story.
As a reward for getting the most unintuitive and downright backwards biology, lording over a hive of destitute and starving insects, growing into a bitter bitch because her siblings don't seem to actually care, and getting killed by her "wisest" sister, Chrysalis gets to be queen of the Equestrian Wasteland and all 200 living beings within it.
Winner?
Um...
Wat.
4089828
Actually from what she said it's not a 'backup plan' since all her children will have their time to lord.
It's like she preplanned it so that everyone goes extinct after a while and then the next set can rule..
4088964 LOL! That is the best first comment ever. Especially after this chapter
Well, that happened.
4089040 Yes. Celestia is wise and our grandmaster chessplayer, but she can't see or know all.
4089330 Yes, true. Bringing Faust in was pretty hamfisted (and pretty taboo, come to think of it). But in this mythos I just couldn't help the idea of what might happen if Bandaid met the High God Faust.
4089345 Mushroom clouds denote nuclear holocaust, usually. However many tens of thousands of years in the future it might be.
4090026 There's no such thing as a civilization that lasts forever. Planetary resources are not infinite. Faust is playing the long, LONG game in which Equis will be "used up" and need time to germinate and come back to a path of fruition. Nuclear holocaust, however unlikely, is one such way that everything can irrepairably go to shit. So:
Discord crafts the world and makes it habitable.
Cadance brings up the sentient races to copulate through love.
Celestia Rules over the sentient races (well, a good portion of them).
NMM complicates them with things like rage, sex drives, and mathematics.
Chrysalis takes care of the survivors when they eventually build themselves up and it all comes crashing down...
Until the world has had time to recover, in which Discord will-- and so on and so forth. Its like a set of "seasons" for a planet's lifetime. Faust isn't being evil, she's insuring the survival of Equis and making sure all her children get the chance to rule equally. Its just by this cycles count we are in the "NMM" era of things and Chrysalis hasn't had her turn yet. She had no idea.
4090137 Precisely right. A+ for you.
4090318 More like "caretaker of the planet" to ensure that it even HAS a future.
4089330 But now we get FAUST and Nightmare and Bandaid.
Chryssie has been Touched by a Fausticorn.
4089828 "the most impotent Plan of all. Rebirth." Can't tell if typo or clever joke.
4090620
Hmm ... The only way Celestia,Luna or Cadance would let the ponies of the world destroy themselves in nuke fire is if they were not there to stop it.
either dead or removed from the world by some other means (AKA Chrissy deciding to eat them like she did to Luna a thousand years ago and tried to do to Celestia last chapter. Canterlot wedding did not happen so no munching on Cadance ... yet) ...
I kinda don't get it ...
Faust "Someday you will kill all three of your sisters and your brother then it will be your turn to rule the world for a while ..." then they both cried happy tears ...
Foust "Oh yea ... after a while you will die too along with the rest of the life on the planet then I will rebirth all five of you to start the cycle all over again."
Thus sayeth the Faust...
4089069 1.bp.blogspot.com/-xTeXutUSmZk/UX7AXjM-M3I/AAAAAAAAA7Y/IjAHVETtXWo/s1600/carlos.jpg
Okay, so times are good. Then supplies run dry and times suck (Fimbulvetr). The sun, moon and stars are consumed or otherwise destroyed (Skool and Hati) Everyone fights spreading a great fire leaving a scorched mess. (Surt) Chrysallis rules over the interim as she helps the world mend itself in preparation for the return of her siblings ( Life and Desire) to put it all back in order and start over.
So, Ragnarok.
It's just to perfect I can't even explain in words how much I approve. Even if you didn't intend this it's fantastic.
4091230 Or rendered comparatively impotent next to advanced mortal technology.
4090026
Let us also not forget that even the most benevolent and sustainable civilization can be instantly brought low by meteoric apocalypse or volcanogenic cataclysm. On Earth, the Era of the Old Life and the Era of the Middle Life both ended that way, and neither the dinosaurs nor the trilobites were lucky enough to make it through. Chrysalis is there to be the life boat for ponykind when, for what ever reason, the sh*t REALLY hits the fan. Makes me wish us hominids had that good of a contingency plan for when our Era of the Recent Life inevitably comes to a close.
4090620
Ah, thank you for the reply, I thought it was pretty much a "Celestia's thoughts on everything are not always right" scenario.
Though you're reply to AussieBlue intrigues me...how is this NMM's time of rulership? Cadence still rules her own kingdom, Celestia rules the majority of the rest. It seems at best that NMM is a co-ruler, and not that well liked or cared for by the general public. If they each have a time where they are on top and the most beloved, then as opposed to this being NMM's era, would you more say her era is going to start soon instead?
And Faust and Bandaid meetups! I see two wonderous scenario's in my mind. 1) Faust, being a shy and sensitive goddess, and Bandaid, being a shy and sensitive pony, meet up and Faust falls in love. Hilarity ensures in the most awkward love triangle to ever exist!
2) Faust and Bandaid meetup and all the other siblings notice just how awkward they are when in eachother's presence. One of them lets out that they dated at one point. Minds blown!
Happy to see this being worked on again, for awhile I was just waiting for the blog of you cancelling it like so many others (Still desire that sequel to 'what Princesses need' but I know it'll never happen. Still Pinkie as Celestia's daughter? So many possibilities!). But more NMM and Bandaid hilarity is very well appreciated, despite all the analytical questions about evens that may happen several thousand years in the future in a currently non-existent fic.
4091230 We've already proven the others to be immortal. Nuclear fire would just hurt a lot, I think. But it would be Chrysalis who would be in charge then.
4091466 You raise a good point about NMM. How IS it her turn to rule? Well, I dunno, haha. That's kind of the chink in my mythos. NMM served to complicate the sentient races, so she's the rennaisance mare that drives them forward. Celestia's primary role was to lead and organize... so they're sharing a mutually beneficial "golden age" at the moment, I guess the benefit would be.
Very thought-provoking.
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Wait, seriously? You mean I’m actually a detective today?
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The thing about planetary resources is that they don't come from a world where there are literal gods, powerful magic, and where cut jewels already litter the ground in droves that have yet to be collected.
Just kinda odd to me, and even in our lifetime we are slowly (ever so slowly!) beginning to replace the natural resources we need with ones we can grow.
My biggest question is why?
Why did chrysalis see the future? I thought you wrote that you couldn't predict the future.
Why even kill chrysalis? She was revived with no hassle or consequence.
Why bring in Faust? I thought this story was about bandaid and nightmare moon, all these sub plots can really make a story feel cramped.
And finally, if I'm guessing correctly that chrysalis is now "reformed" from her little Epiphany it seems like the story will go into "I still think she's evil because she hurt me before and this will cause me to do things that could be self destructive." It's kind of a cliché.