Nemesis personifies "the Goddess of Retribution, who brings down all immoderate good fortune, checks the presumption that attends it, …and is the punisher of extraordinary crimes".
- The Second World War, Volume III, by Sir Winston Churchill, quoting the Oxford English Dictionary
Fly, you fools!
- The Lord of the Rings, 'The Bridge of Khazad-dûm', by J.R.R. Tolkien
Cricket lovely Cricket, At Lord's where I saw it; Cricket lovely Cricket, At Lord's where I saw it;
- The Victory Calypso, by 'Lord Beginner'
Disclaimer: I am not Lauren Faust nor Hasbro. I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, nor Equestria Girls.
Opening notes: (The bulk of these will only be posted the once; apologies for their length)
This is a 'generation 4' (Friendship is Magic) fanfiction, mostly based on the main series and the spinoff Equestria Girls, but with crossovers from and 'inspired bys' some other franchises (pony or otherwise) in places.
I do not consider the comics, manga or annuals to be definite parts of canon of either My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Equestria Girls, although I may incorporate ideas which are useful and/or I just like the look of.
Even discounting sources outside the original online and TV shows and films, I cannot make head nor tail of the original Equestria Girls chronology, but for the purpose of this crossover fanfiction, I am assuming that 'Canterlot High' is a school with six year-groups: 12-13 year olds; 13-14 year olds; 14-15 year olds; 15-16 year olds; 16-17 year olds; and 17-18 year olds. Beyond this prelude section, at the outset of this story, it is September, an academic year is just commencing at Canterlot High, and Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, and company are part of the 13-14 year old group. Sunset Shimmer was 'Spring Fling' Princess for the first time in the previous academic year, and the next scheduled Friendship Games are not due to take place until the following academic year – so the timeline at Canterlot High is approximately a year and a bit before the events of what in the original Equestria Girls chronology would have taken place in the first Equestria Girls movie.
On an individual note, the character 'DJ PON-3' confuses me. The character's presence on the trip in The Legend of Everfree seems to me to indicate that the character is either a supervising adult or a student member of Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash and company's year; the character's presence in a class in Schedule Swap seems to me to indicate that the character is a student; but in many other respects (including the ridiculously cool car owned in Rainbow Rocks) it seems to me implied that the character is an adult. At the initial time of the post of these preludes, I am undecided how to handle the character.
There seem to me to be distinct differences in some cases between Friendship is Magic ponies and human world Equestria Girls counterparts. For example Friendship is Magic Filthy Rich looks to me to be a successful entrepreneur who values his community links. Equestria Girls Filthy Rich looks to me on the other hand to be a greedy corporate magnate, eager to demolish Camp Everfree and replace it with a spa development just to swell his bank balance. So where one pony or human has been depicted in one of the shows, but not an other-world counterpart, I consider it reasonable to depict a counterpart character who varies in terms of… well… character from the known original-world one.
I am unclear on exactly what hard and fast rules there may be for what does or does not 'change shape' when transitioning from Equestria to the world of Canterlot High; whilst ponies clearly transition into humans, at least some carnivorous Equestrian vegetation is clearly unchanged between the worlds (see for example the plant which interferes with the bike race in the Friendship Games movie) and I intend to use this blurriness to excuse a sea serpent (specifically Steven Magnet) retaining his shape when transitioning from one Everfree Forest to another, later on in the story. Spike from Equestria becoming a dog upon transition is a template I intend to deviate from for dragons who have not been magically hatched and raised by ponies, should any such dragons transition.
There are distinct gaps in terms of Equestrian history, at least in terms of what the TV and online shows and films depict. I will be putting things in some of these gaps, touching on matters such as Clover the Clever and the Pillars of Equestria. I will not be looking to contradict what I consider reliable 'sources' on Equestrian history (although I view in-universe entertainments such as a Hearth's Warming Eve play as distinctly unreliable sources, since their primary purpose is to amuse the in-universe audience) but occasionally things will have slipped past my notice, and I apologise in advance for these. Please consider them part of the 'well, it's diverging from the shows and films' thing. At times I may assume 'same name, different ponies' as having happened in Equestrian history – for example that Star Swirl the Bearded (Pillar of Equestria and teacher of a young Princess Celestia and Princess Luna) was named after an earlier Star Swirl who predated Equestria, and may or may not have mentored 'Clover the Clever'.
Equestria has 'windigos' which are entities which look to me to be demonic ice spirits of some kind. At some point later in proceedings, demonic spirits which take slices out of different areas of the 'elemental' pie may show up. (And there will be at least one windigo too.)
I am also giving notice that a counterpart 'Sombra' is scheduled to turn up in the same world as Canterlot High during proceedings. I consider it necessary to expand the available cast a bit. Human world counterparts of Zecora, Doctor Hooves, and Fizzlepop Berrytwist are also pencilled in, and others may be added. Not all Friendship is Magic characters will have living Equestria Girls counterparts however, and vice versa. And there may be cases – as with 'Commander Hurricane' – where the name of a historic Friendship is Magic character is the title of a job position in the human world.
Things may get rather confusing at some point with two Twilight Sparkles wandering around Canterlot High and the wider area beyond. At least as far as author notes go, where other distinction is not used and confusion may be possible, Twilight Sparkle from Equestria will be designated as ERAFOSS Twilight Sparkle, and Twilight Sparkle from Crystal Prep will be designated as CPT Twilight Sparkle.
Names of Things and Places:
There seem to me to be several different spellings around on the internet of the language and alphabet Star Swirl the Bearded used to write his journal in (seen at the end of Season 7 of Friendship is Magic.) I intend to use 'Auld Pon'ish' which reads – to me – like how it sounds.
The Friendship is Magic Wiki, at the initial time of these notes, quotes an older version of the Hasbro website as using the name 'Canterlot' for the city in the human world in which much of Equestria Girls takes place. So, I'll go with that.
I am unable to find a name for the 'human world' of Equestria Girls, so will likely use 'Dôn' if it does become necessary to use a name.
Magic in the Human World:
In Forgotten Friendship the human world version of Trixie teleports, multiple times.
The human world version of Trixie is not a pony from Equestria as far as I know, nor does this Trixie have a powerful magical artifact, nor has she ever participated in some kind of 'group magic' with people who either are ponies from Equestria (in any shape) or in possession of powerful magical artifacts.
And yet the human world version of Trixie teleports. She appears to lack precise magical control, but nevertheless she has figured out how to do something magical and trained herself until she can carry it out several times in quick succession.
The human world version of Trixie seems to me to demonstrate that at least some humans are capable of figuring out how to make a version of magic function in the human world.
Reminder:
Humans in the world of Equestria Girls have the same sort of range of colour schemes in terms of skin and hair colour as the ponies of Friendship is Magic.
Warning: This fanfiction is rated 'M' to be on the safe side. Although much of the action is taking place elsewhere, the premise is that Discord is taking over Equestria and the world beyond, after the failure of Princess Celestia's student Twilight Sparkle and her one-time pony friends to stop him during the events of what would have been, had they played out as in the show (where the ponies won) The Return of Harmony (parts 1 and 2). And there will also be other horrific opponents, lacking in moral and/or ethical restraint, hanging around… (On a related note, characters may at times have mental and/or emotional breakdowns.)
Further Warning: Character deaths – even if Mirror Pool clones are discounted – are very much on the cards. Especially where persons with a predilection for making statues in high breakage risk environments are on the loose or where being surprised by eldritch abominations or particularly malevolent characters and entities are involved. Only plucky adventurer type characters with names like 'Daring Do', 'Doctor Caballeron', or 'Juniper Montage' get a free pass when confronting maniac tyrants, dragons from another dimension, or demons older than Equestria.
There is a special technical term for anyone else who proceeds to stumble uninformed and unprepared into a nest of ancient evil and to then serve up the equivalent of a five-course gourmet banquet by blasting it with magic of a kind that it feeds on – that special technical term is: 'yummy ice-cream sundae dessert with delicious cherry topping'.
A Prelude: ('some years earlier')
The archaeological expedition was unfortunately necessary. He was a wizard, but some challenges were best faced with a team of specialists with trowels and brushes, skilled in physically excavating – inch by painstaking inch – the past from the moorland peat.
And he needed to know if a group of Equestrian ponies had left their homeland centuries before to come to this desolate place?
And what they had left behind – other than strange stories and fables – if they had?
Mischief of some sort must have been involved in the journey. Ponies would not choose to travel to a place such as this unless they were driven by it – either away from it, or to seek somewhere secluded away from their peers to plot it.
But any clues still left after the centuries might be delicate, hence the archaeologists – with a wary eye kept out by himself for trouble in case there were any 'surprises' after this time that the ponies had left behind, which the archaeologists, unschooled in magic, would be at risk from.
Not all archaeologists were adventurers and explorers like that up-and-coming novel character, 'Daring Do'.
The archaeologists might not be skilled in magic, but they had ways to discover where to dig, and within a couple of days, they were uncovering the rough foundations of crude shelters. And plenty of 'ancient pony cult' items, of course. Enough that the expedition sponsors would be pleased and the professor who had sceptically committed himself to this expedition would be able to write a paper on the finds. The wizard had seen much of such stuff before, and the items did not interest him so much as the speculations of these experts in reading the spoor of what was found and where, and the orientation of fire-pits.
And then there was the stone tablet discovered at the end of the first week, in what the archaeologists believed had been some kind of memorial or sacred shrine – that tablet interested the wizard greatly. It was carved with squiggles and symbols that the archaeologists had no clue as to the meaning of, but which the wizard had seen before, and knew to be Auld Pon'ish. And there were crude drawings, etched into the rock, and traces, the archaeologists thought, of pigments, suggesting it had once been richly painted, before it had become buried in peat.
It must have taken a great deal of effort to create, given what evidence the archaeologists had seen so far of tool technology level, and must therefore have been important to the culture in terms of what it showed.
It concerned a catastrophe of some kind – the main 'picture' on the slab featured winged ponies falling from the skies as some kind of monster stormed the clouds – and it referred to 'The Day It Rained Pegasi'.
It told of a failed attempt by ponies to 'drive away' with 'the Fire of Friendship' a spirit of some kind which 'Clover the Fool; Clover the Oathbreaker' had summoned, and how a group of ponies had fled their homes.
That was as much as the wizard translated for the archaeologists, feigning to be unclear of the meanings of some words. There were details which they did not need to know, right now, although they might figure out much of the rest from details which he had given to them. They had taken careful notes – enough to be able to figure out some of how Auld Pon'ish worked.
It was probably for the best if words such as windigo remained abstract concepts, devoid of meaning to them.
It was clear now, though, to the wizard, what the ponies from Equestria had been doing here: they had been fleeing a terrible war which had ravaged their land, and they had been desperate enough to seek out even a place such as this.
Who knew what had happened to them in the end though?
Maybe they had died out here; maybe they had been called home after the war was over; maybe they had remained here and integrated with the local population (if that had been biologically possible); and maybe they had recovered, regained their courage and prepared, and returned home of their own free will, someday, to seek either their vengeance or their destruction.
A Second Prelude:
It was to be a relatively normal day at summer flight camp for young pegasus ponies. Well, it was to be a relatively normal day – one of the fillies, by the name of Rainbow Dash, would perform the incredible feat of a sonic rainboom.
But it was to be a day completely uninterfered with by time travellers fighting for a future which had not happened.
A Third Prelude:
Clover the Clever, having proven to be not so clever after all, went to seek advice from a witch. 'Oh great and wise witch!' Clover said. 'I have loosed great and terrible evil upon the world, and not even the Fire of Friendship avails against it! Tell me what must happen to defeat the evil!'
The witch stared at Clover.
'Clever, I have heard you to be, but a fool you are for trying to defeat something which is of fire with fire. You have a box though, I have heard.'
And Clover brought out the box, and showed it to the witch.
'Do you know what I see?' the witch asked Clover.
'No.' said Clover.
'Look into the box then, and tell me what you see.' the witch said.
Clover did so.
'I see nothing.' Clover reported.
'Exactly.' the witch said, and nodded. 'There is no hope there. But has it gone – and if so where – or was it never there in the first place? Tell me how you think that this will help Equestria.'
'I think that this is a riddle too complicated for me to answer, and I should ask for help from my old mentor, Star Swirl.' Clover said after thinking long and hard. 'Actually: maybe I should have done that earlier. Thank-you great and wise witch!'
And Clover departed, leaving the witch with the empty box.
- From 'The Tale of Clover's Box'
A Fourth (and final) Prelude:
'From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.'
This is a final masterpiece of Star Swirl the Bearded, but it is not a spell, but a prophecy of how one age ends, and another begins – of how a pony, utterly alone apart from her faithful dragon companion, will fall from one world to another.
A pony with the cutie mark of a star, falling from the skies like a star.
This is an eddy in fate's tide.
And the fire and the shadow will gather, and magical lands be torn by war, and even alicorns may die as those never supposed to be heroes or heroines stand with a group of high school students and their teachers and mentors in one place, and rally to unlikely banners in another.
At least in the short-term, the trials and horrors would have been much less, had Star Swirl been experimenting with a spell that day, and not a prediction of how things may yet be.
Or may yet have been when he was writing it – for the group of ponies referred to in some tales as 'The Mane Six' have confronted a Lord of Chaos now and just been defeated for their insolence. And despite the frantic efforts of the Celestia who is a Princess to retrieve the situation, that same Celestia who is a Princess has failed, the Lord of Chaos has – at least for now – 'won', and the star has fallen. The star is plummeting through the gulf between worlds, head-over-hooves-over-head-over-heels, spinning and transforming as she goes.
But the Celestia who is a Princess has had many 'star students', even if she has not always parted company on the best of terms with them, and as fate would have it there is one who is perfectly positioned… Although perfectly positioned for what remains to be determined.
Author Notes:
My thanks, first and foremost, to Analytical Engine, Chiropteroid, Danifa94, Puget Sound, and probably several other members of the crew of the 'Miscellaneous My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Thread' over on the alternate history forum. Their comments (and occasional encouragement) have been invaluable. Although some of the diversions regarding matters such as a pony version of 'Treehouse of Horrors' and multi-dimensional Twilight Sparkle conspiracies have been at times somewhat distracting.
Over on the alternate history forum, this project has had various identifying titles, but often has been referred to as 'The Return of Harmony Discord', with the word 'Harmony' struck through; only I can't get strikethrough to work on this website, in a title, so there has had to be a rename.
Regarding the opening quotes, I include them whilst having in mind – at the time of writing this in September of 2022 – what I can foresee of the overall picture. At the time of the initial posting of these notes, I hope to be able to get at least as far as an Adeste Fideles scene in the runup to a Canterlot High Christmas – which might perhaps constitute as good a place as any for an end to 'part 1'.
Regarding the actual preludes, observant readers will have figured out that despite the fact that a 'wizard' is involved, the first prelude is in fact set in the human world. One of the themes running through these preludes is of war and refugees, and the first prelude concerns the excavation of a settlement of refugees from Equestria who fled an early war there (shortly after the founding of Equestria, and which war as far as I know is invented by me for the purposes of this story.) It is actually a war (at least in my plans at the initial time of posting of these notes) which will have echoes and consequences for characters dealing with the 'now' of the story. (The ripples of Discord's rise are assumed to stir up things which otherwise would remain buried in a universe like that of the complete run of Friendship is Magic, and ponies in this story will in some cases be driven by desperation to try some highly risky things. And there are also consequences to a physical Element of Magic being at Canterlot High…)
The second prelude indicates that the plot of later seasons of Friendship is Magic is well and truly derailed – Starlight Glimmer will not be time-travelling to try and disrupt Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom. (And if you're into 'timey-wimey' stuff, you could maybe argue the non-interference makes the bond between the pony 'Mane Six' less crucial and strong.)
The third prelude constitutes part of an Equestrian 'old story' which as far as I know I have made up (although it is in part inspired by the real-world myth of Pandora's Box.) In the Friendship is Magic series, there is mention in a play-within-the-episode of Hearth's Warming Eve in season 2 that 'Clover the Clever' has a mentor known as 'Star Swirl'. I assume, for the purposes of this story, that if Clover did have any so named mentor, it was a different Star Swirl from the subsequent Star Swirl the Bearded – not least since if the Clover's mentor had been Star Swirl the Bearded, then that would mean that Star Swirl the Bearded was potentially older than Equestria, depending on how exactly you qualify time spent exiled in 'limbo'.
The fourth prelude… well, I've left that major piece of magical writing by Star Swirl the Bearded in this universe, but repurposed it as a prophecy. The Friendship is Magic episode Best Gift Ever puts predicting the future and knowledge of the future into Equestria as something which is sometimes possible, in the shape of the reindeer 'Alice', and those Star Swirl the Bearded penned words looked to me a quite good lead-in, as a prophecy, to the final hammer-drop on Friendship is Magic's series of events. 'Eddy in Fate's Tide', by the way, is the name of a card in an expansion of Iron Crown Enterprises' 1990's Collectible Card Game Middle-Earth: The Wizards. I am a fan of the turn-of-phrase of some of their card names.
There will be some jumping backwards and forwards between events in Equestria (and the surrounding areas) and events in the human world, in updates to this story, but for as long as they remain alive, I intend to keep coming back to ERAFOSS Twilight Sparkle, Spike and company. CPT Twilight Sparkle is scheduled to make only one brief appearance before part 2.
And now for some sneak previews:
…"You're not kidding me." Spike said. "As an attempt at a friendship lesson about 'honesty' that was an almost total – how do they call it here? – flaming train wreck. Still: what you lose on the swings, to borrow from the old fairground pony huckster saying, you gain back on the roundabouts, at least in this case."…
…"Twilight: did your dog just talk, or was it a Trixie trick?" Wallflower asked, without taking her eyes off of Spike…
…"Can she see us?" Twilight asked, peering into the crystal globe…
…The pony still technically known as 'Pinkie Pie' screamed all her rage and hatred at the changelings, then turned to the fellow earth ponies on the catapults.
"PREPARE TO UNLEASH HELL!" she shrieked…
…"We'll just take the detention." Sunset said. "If this is somehow against school rules. I don't think I can explain it logically without using the word 'magic'." She paused. "Only leave the tree, please? It's a nice tree."…
…Discord felt very weary for a moment. One more pony corpse to the credit of the bloodstained ruins of Spyte…
…"As you will." Sombra said. He lifted his staff, of carved oak, two handed and called lightning down from the heavens, and threw it horizontally across the intervening space…
…"It's… it's snowing." Twilight said, holding her gloved hands out to catch snowflakes and laughing at it as it fell all around her. "It shouldn't be, but it is." And she laughed again…
Omakes:
(alternate opening quote)
It's just a haystack.
- Last words of Equestrian cofounder Commander Hurricane.
(alternate opening quote)
No, that's not how you do it. This is how you do it. Let. There. BE. LIGHT! And that, by the way, Clover, is your death warrant.
- The Countess Almathrada.
NB
As of September 15th, 2022, there is a slight delay to writing, caused by trying to sort out something for this alternate universe where Sunset Shimmer might be living at this point. Posting of further sections of this story, here on fanfiction dot net, will continue once this issue is sorted out to my satisfaction.
