What Shall be True

Just some comments about the creation of the story as a whole, as well as a full explanation of Twi's transformation. Feel free to skip it if you're not interested.

Story aspect creation:

Twilight: It’s funny, actually, how much Twilight didn’t end up like I’d originally planned to write her. The first chapter was more or less according to plan, as I tried to replicate the style of her dialogue to that displayed in the show. But after that…I guess this proves just how much characters write a story as opposed to authors, because she just kinda took off on her own style.

Future Pinkie: Future Pinkie was a tricky balance to achieve. On one hand, I wanted to keep her usual Pinkieness and keep some character continuity going. On the other hand, I had to play with the traumas and the sheer quantity of guilt that she had to shoulder on account of her betrayal. I wanted to keep the latter a little more subtle, there only for foreshadowing perceptible to the clever. In the end, though, it ended up being the other way around. So…weird surprises.

The future 5: The future versions of the Mane 6 were so, so tricky to get right. Like with Pinkie, I wanted to balance their base character with the changes that have occurred in the intermediate time. But the levels with which these two aspects were balanced also had to be different for every one of them, based on their base characters. Rarity was basically her old self, but a lot more accepting of the notion of death (hence her basically unreactive behavior when Twilight tells her the world will end if she leaves). Fluttershy I imagined as changing the least, just a little less trusting of ponies in general. Dash and AJ of course have their little blood feud going, which was a nice way to throw in the lessons of forgiveness that Twilight would later have to take to heart. In the end, I’m pretty satisfied with how they all turned out, and I just wish Rares and ‘Shy had more to do throughout the story.

Spike: Spike…dear gods, what can I even say about this guy? He may be my favorite character in this whole thing, despite only being there for one chapter. It was so much fun to write his deadpan straight-guy to Twilights’ first-chapter madmare, and some of the most fun I had was imagining him in his last few moments. There’s a good reason he’s counted as a main character despite being dead. It’s partly to hide the spoiler of his death, but mostly because he has such an impact on the story that I couldn't take him out period. It’s the same reason Sauron is an iconic character despite saying nothing.

Chrysalis: Writer’s cocaine. Hands down, the most fun character to write. Combining evil intentions and witty snark with subtext of a traumatic past, and then packing all that into a nearly-omnipotent being? I almost broke the story to put more of her into it.

CMC: The CMC were something not featured in the original story, but I changed that once I realized that the story seemed to happen only to the Mane 6. And looking back, adding little nods to the other characters of the show certainly did a lot to help the story. As for their cutie marks…I did what I could to play with some things being hinted at in the show. I gave Applebloom a cutie mark concerning zap apples, mostly due to a comment in Family Appreciation Day where somepony said the Zap-apple jam was the best it’d ever been because she’d helped. Sweetie Belle, I imagine as being a medic, for reasons unknown (though the CMC’s antics probably gave her lots of practice). Scoots was the hardest to place, until I realized her special talent was a bit more abstract. But looking back at episodes like Cute from the Hip, I noticed she has a certain drive to jump in and defend ponies who can’t defend themselves. So I ran with it.

Some possibly confusing aspects:

Let’s address the elephant in the room…

Twilight’s transformation: I have this headcanon concerning Alicorns, which I designed to fill in the gap between pony-like alicorns (Twilight and Cadence) and god-like alicorns (Celestia and Luna). My headcanon goes that the act of a pony becoming an unaging (but not immortal) alicorn is based around them proving they have the right stuff to be a leader of Equestria. But the act of going from a pony-like alicorn to a god-like alicorn is the affirmation and acceptance of their role in society. By this logic, look at the story: Twilight grew from her regular size to three inches taller when she basically took Equestria’s fate into her own hooves, and became a fully realized alicorn when she declared to Chrysalis, Equestria, and herself that she was Equestria’s rightful ruler.

Now look at the show: we see Luna transform into Nightmare Moon when she tries her very hardest to throw down her sister and take control of Equestria. Celestia is the single most important pony in the nation, with Luna as second-most, and Twilight and Cadence being basically irrelevant to the politics of the country. This correlates perfectly to their sizes (and even their magical strength), with ‘Tia being number 1, Luna as number 2, Cadence as number 3, and Twilight bringing up the rear. So, I drew a line between correlation and causality.

I know it’s a little confusing in the story, but I tried to keep it as clear as possible. I originally wasn’t going to include it, because it’s a headcanon and it can be pretty out-there. The original rendition of the story had the Mane 6 basically just re-stealing the Elements of Harmony and blasting Chrysalis with the Rainbow of Death. But I changed it when I realized that there was no character development to be had. So instead, I turned the story from Twilight seeing a dark future to Twilight finding the strength within herself to carry on against impossible odds (something the show never really shows her doing).