#auraverse horror au

[kindheart525]

(Horror AU question) How would Varmint and Mounty react to their siblings’ deaths?

I think there would be a lot of mixed, mostly negative feelings. First and foremost both Varmint and Mounty have a very strong work ethic and would feel no choice but to push on without their siblings, going into survival mode and working even harder now that there are fewer hooves to take on the work. There’s still the whole rest of the family and a country in crisis that they need to take care of, after all.

I think Mounty would try to keep his head up about it as he always does. Along with coming up with new ways to streamline the extra work he has, he would be trying to share fun stories about his dead siblings to keep their memories alive and keep up a little bit of morale. He’d especially do so for the sake of his young nephew Volcanic Jasper, who I’ve established is under his care after his parents are killed. He wants the colt to grow up with some part of his mother. Mounty is not a stranger to losing close loved ones, but losing three siblings to a dangerous villain is much different from losing a grandparent to old age, so I think the loss does wear on him more than he wants to show.

Varmint would be a lot less chipper and optimistic about it. Three of her siblings just died and she will do everything in her power to keep any more family members from falling in harm’s way, even after the villain is pronounced dead. She’s stoic in attitude but also angry and hurt inside. Obviously she’s sad to lose so many family members and she’s angry at Iolite for taking them from her, but part of her is also angry at her siblings. Why the hell did Summer have to go and cheat? In a way, she’s the reason all of this happened. Iolite wouldn’t have turned if it weren’t for her disloyalty breaking her mind and heart. Why didn’t Brack and Obbi stick with the rest of the family when there was an active threat? Why didn’t they do more to keep themselves safe? Why couldn’t Varmint have done more to keep them safe? This put the whole family in danger. It really keeps her up at night.

[kindheart525]

Who's the killer?

YES I’m so glad you asked! I had to do some more research into slasher tropes for this. One trope that a lot of slashers have in common is having a traumatic backstory of some kind, so I made a short list of some of my characters who have suffered the most and settled on

Iolite!

In this AU, the accidental curse she cast on Summer had an extra side effect where the dark magic spread to Iolite’s own mind and heart, subsequently corrupting her. Now she’s out to take revenge on others’ hearts after her own was broken and betrayed, which brings her to the group of protagonists that lead this story.

Brackish and Taffy both have a history of being careless with love, both romantic and platonic, which would remind Iolite of what Summer did to her. But on the flip side, even loving, stable relationships trigger her. She couldn’t bear to see Rainier speak of his lover so adoringly and faithfully, thinking of what she didn’t have. She was about to take out one half of the resident couple, YngSidian, before Obbi’s thoughtless missteps did the job for her. She took out Polly to make Yng suffer more, because not even platonic love is safe around her. Plus, to Iolite, Yng and Polly were both “raising children from the ashes of what was once real love” (having stepchildren from their partners’ previous relationships) which she couldn’t let stand. Of course, ignoring that neither of those previous unions were “real love” at all, but Iolite isn’t thinking rationally.

Erudite doesn’t have a love life so he was killed for being a little bit annoying and reminding her of Crash. And queerbaiting /JOKE

What became of Summer Beauty, you might ask? She and Iolite are “back together” and “married,” which would seem like everything that canon Summer would have wanted. But this Summer is imprisoned underground in the crystal caves, hidden from the world as scars keep growing on her body, with Iolite visiting her to vent and rant at her about her evil plans. And when Iolite is finally defeated, Summer is transformed into a lifeless crystal statue, all part of an extra curse Iolite cast to make sure that Summer can’t live without her.

In addition to these victims, Iolite has also taken down the entire Crystal Family and rules the Empire in their place. And when she’s eventually defeated, with nobody else to step up, Yngvlid takes over and attempts to restore the kingdom with help from her Yakyakistan connections. She becomes known as a warrior queen of sorts, but she’s hiding her own scars from her battle with the villain.

[kindheart525]

Who in the mane six do you believe would take the losses the worst?

Pinkie Pie 1000%. She’s functionally lost both of her children. One died a horrible and untimely death, and while the other is still alive, they severed that umbilical cord by choosing their country over her. She doesn’t blame Cheddar for this decision, since their loyalty is also to their dad who lost a spouse AND a child. But it hurts so, so much. She lives every day wondering if she’ll see them again, and even if she does, it may not be the same. Wondering where she went wrong that they find their stepfamily so unpleasant to be around. Wondering why she couldn’t protect her baby Taffy. And of course, her twin sister and one of her best friends are both dead, and the rest of her friends and sisters are so far away as she remains in hiding.

Rarity may also be separated from everypony in hiding, but her whole family is still alive. Twilight lost Shining, Flurry, and Cadence, and her eldest daughter was missing and feared dead for awhile; her whole family is very traumatized by the end of this, but her children and spouse are still with her. Applejack lost three out of her five children which has understandably done a number on her emotional health, but she’s still pushing through and has a lot of remaining family to depend on in these trying times. Rainbow Dash died pretty early on and even though her surviving family is struggling and mourning, she at least got to miss out on a lot of the turmoil this AU entails (if you don’t count Crash lecturing her ear off in the afterlife).

So unlike most of her friends, who have also lost and sacrificed but still have support systems, Pinkie is feeling especially isolated and taking it hard. But she’s not completely alone! Fluttershy has also joined her in Seaquestria, along with her niece and nibling too. Fluttershy herself is reeling over not only losing a spouse and sibling but also finding out the killer is her own family. However, it’s still in Pinkie’s nature to try to make others smile even if she struggles to do so herself. More than ever, Fluttershy reminds her of her late twin in her most outgoing state, and Piper and Rosie remind her of when her own babies were younger, which lifts her spirits to think about. So, the girls are providing each other a lot of comfort in their own special and unexpected ways.

[kindheart525]

I just realized Solar Sapphos would probably be the last remaining member of the Crystal Family in the horror au.......

You’re absolutely right! Ngl I kind of forgot about that connection when I mentioned her in my answer for Luster, but it accidentally worked out so well for her personality, which is described in my nng list as follows:

”A bit of a Final Girl type. She's reliable and determined but a bit mousy, she keeps to herself but when something needs to be done shes the one who DOES it.”

So it makes a lot of sense for her to survive. I’m sure you’re wondering, how exactly did Iolite manage to miss her? Especially since Amour’s death shows that the villainess isn’t above eliminating foals. Solar Sapphos happens to be really good at hiding, and managed to evade Iolite through the many secret passageways hidden in the ancient Castle of the Two Sisters, outwitting her even as a young and terrified foal. This castle becomes a meeting space for the other vigilantes (including Yngvlid, Snowcone, Aurora, and Luster) who take Solar’s survival within its walls as a sign that it’s safe.

As for Solar herself, along with being raised by her remaining parent, she is being trained by Yngvlid and other royals to take on the throne when she is of age, so the Empire may be returned to the original Crystal Family once again.

[kindheart525]

Mobid question here, how do Killer!Iolite's victims die?

Ngl I’m not a very morbid person (hence why I had to do so much research on horror tropes to write this AU because I had no knowledge of my own) but I still thought this was a fascinating question so I had @frostcorpsclub help me come up with the deaths!

I know more characters die than what’s listed here, but I decided to go with the major ones.

Trigger warning for mentions of gore, hanging, choking, eye trauma, decapitation, and generally torturous and horrific deaths

Obsidian: In a chase, her signature pink hair bow is unraveled/caught on something and Iolite uses shadow magic to hang her with it. It looks like an accident until looked into further.

Polished Antique: Iolite pushes him into his own family’s vault where he's crushed by tons of bits (a la Scrooge McDuck)

Brackish: Gets trapped and submerged in a pit of grain*, a fate that’s incredibly dry for somepony who devoted his life to being a swimmer and making mares w-

Saltwater Taffy: Iolite kills her with a curse; every time she says a bad word against another creature, her throat fills up with crystal. She’s killed as she tears into Iolite for killing her family members, choking on crystal shards and her own blood.

Erudite Spell: Having died alongside Taffy, he is afflicted with a similar curse, which also causes fatal crystal growths. It affects his hooves so he can't run for help, and his horn upon which the crystals grow down and slowly blind him, stabbing his eyes and penetrating his brain.

Rainier: Iolite captures him and keeps him around in a secret place (like Summer) because he actually gives good emotional advice and there's a tiny, tiny, tiny glimmer of her true self inside him. She curses him with a fate akin to bamboo torture*, except instead of bamboo it’s an apple tree that’s growing inside of and slowly hilling him. It’s the slowest and most agonizing death of all of them. It also parallels the trees that his grandparents once planted to symbolize their love, but with an extremely horrific and dark twist.

Crash Racket: Iolite decapitated him and put his head on a pike, which she showed to Summer to torture her. “Is this the type of head that was worth breaking my heart over, Summy?”

Summer Beauty: I’ve described it before but I felt it would be fitting to put the description here too. Iolite put a curse on her so that the instant she is killed, Summer will “self-destruct” and turn into a lifeless crystal statue, much like the famed Crystal Empress Amore. Through this, Iolite has ensured that Summer cannot live without her.

Iolite: She tears her wings in a hoof-to-hoof battle with Yngvlid before falling into a crystal pit where her heart is pulled straight from her body.

BONUS Crystal Family: They all die in a very Romanov-like fashion where they’re locked in a basement together and Iolite and (mind-controlled) Aurora fire shots at them. Yes, including the little filly.

*The links are to Wikipedia articles; no videos or graphic photographs.

[kindheart525]

God, I feel sorry for the parents in the horror au, especially Applejack & Limestone

Applejack and Limestone seriously went from five kids to just two (Varmint and Mounty) by the end of all this. And lost a niece and nephew (Taffy and Rainier) too. The remaining Apples and Pies end up having a similar deal to the canon Sombra War timeline where they’re helping to mobilize with the military and food supplies, and helping the country rebuild once word has gotten out that Iolite is dead.

[kindheart525]

In the Auraverse au, are any of the other mane 6, their partners and kids on Iolite's chopping block?

I can imagine maybe Killer!Iolite at least noting the tension in the marriage of her aunt Fluttershy, and her wife Marble, where they do things behind the other's back and don't talk to each other: it would set off Iolite because that tension reminds her of how Summer was so avoidant and demanding back when the former was dating the latter and everything went to shit, so Iolite would either take out either one half or both of Marbleshy to "spare them of a love not meant to be", as with all bad marriages and relationships.

In fact, among happy couples and those that would make shitty partners, I imagine Iolite would go after relationships that need work but all parties are willing to put in the work (and there's potential to improve), because she can't tell the difference between those kind of relationships and genuinely toxic relationships.

You raise an excellent point about Iolite’s view of relationships. While before she was very logical and reasonable, you’re absolutely right that she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between genuinely toxic and reasonably flawed relationships in her corrupted state. It goes in line with how she’s chosen some of her other victims, whose only “crime” was simply having a past relationship or being someone else’s second love. Even if the ones suffering for it weren’t anything close to disloyal or cruel, who wouldn’t have dreamed of acting as Summer did.

She approaches Marble and Fluttershy’s relationship the same way. I never thought about the comparison between them and Summer, but it honestly makes a lot of sense. The avoiding of communication, the stubborn refusal to see eye to eye on certain issues, and especially their going behind each other’s backs is a stark reflection of all of Summer’s worst traits in Iolite’s tainted mind. Even if they’ve promised to work it out, even if they don’t behave at those extremes anymore. It makes no difference to her.

We as the audience know that both Fluttershy and Marble were wrong. But in Iolite’s view, Marble not only refused to communicate with her partner, but she also withheld affection from her own child for a period of time. It doesn’t matter that she no longer feels such resentment. Not to Iolite. This mare failed love in a much bigger way.

Thus, Marble Pie is eliminated.

Iolite would probably more easily “”forgive”” Fluttershy since she had the whole “she was a lost and defenseless baby” excuse for Rosemary. She never refused to love her, unlike the little one’s other mother, Iolite would reason. Of course, we could have a much more complex discussion about the ethics of Rosemary’s adoption, but the other fact of the matter is that Fluttershy is family. If she weren’t, Iolite might consider her wrongdoings more critically and her fate would be more uncertain. But this is a once-close family member. Those children are her cousins, and they need at least one parent alive to care for them.

If Zephyr hadn’t been killed by Sombra’s spell backfiring, Iolite wouldn’t have ended his life either. She might have put him under her own mind control spell or locked him away in some cave like Summer, but regardless she would have kept her Papa alive. She has different standards for family.

Where is Fluttershy now? As soon as she caught wind that the seaponies were going into hiding, she packed her kids up and rushed to join them. Anything to keep Piper and Rosie safe from whatever darkness may still be out there. Fluttershy misses her friends and all her animals very much, and especially her wife and brother. She’s terrified out of her mind and she hardly knows most of the seaponies she’s hiding with. But at least Pinkie’s there to keep her company.

[kindheart525]

How strained would the rest of Auora's relationships get after Iolite is defeated in the au?

Refresher on how Aurora’s doing since I haven’t answered asks on this AU in a little bit

I don’t think Aurora has any relationships that don’t have at least some level of strain. I’ve already covered the strain in her relationship with Snowcone, whose lover brutally died at Aurora’s unconscious hooves, but that kind of guilt informs Aurora’s interactions with everyone else she’s close with. For example, she also had a role in the murders of Shining Armor and Flurry Heart, her own uncle and cousin but also her mom Twilight’s beloved brother and firstborn niece. I imagine Twilight does not have as much difficulty separating Aurora’s brainwashed actions from her personal tragedy—that is, she doesn’t even subconsciously hold Aurora responsible and makes sure she knows that. (Not that Snowcone doesn’t have that ability, but her emotional association is much different from her intellectual understanding.) But some part of Aurora still holds herself responsible for the tragedy so she can’t fully believe her mom’s assurances. It’s not just about the death of family members, but also the fact that Iolite killed one of Twilight’s best friends and caused the rest to be separated. The fact that Twilight had to lead an entire kingdom through crisis while dealing with this heartbreak. Aurora desperately wishes she had stopped Iolite before she got too powerful so all of this could have been avoided, even though such a feat was impossible.

During this time I think Aurora would be closer with her mother Tempest, who also carries guilt from past villainous deeds. Tempest carried out horrible orders for the Storm King while fully conscious and willing, while Aurora had absolutely no control over herself, but she’d understand the guilt is no lesser. Though she would make a point of acknowledging how noble it was of Aurora to try to fight against it and to work so hard at making amends thereafter, both of which display a strong moral compass despite everything. She would have more concrete steps to offer Aurora for her rehabilitation than Twilight and her simplistic “don’t feel bad you did nothing wrong” approach. Of course, Aurora’s guilt is not completely gone around Tempest, and she sometimes catches herself comparing her situation with her mother’s (how many actual deaths was Tempest responsible for?). Still, she finds a lot more comfort in her.

Since Iolite was Aurora’s best friend and that…obviously didn’t end well, Aurora isn’t sure how closely she can count on other friends. Although she trusts the other vigilantes as much as she can trust another outside of her family, she isn’t sure she’ll be able to go back to anything like her friendship with Iolite before everything went down.

[kindheart525]

which auraverse characters are the most likely to die in the horror genre?

Tumblr anons forcing me to learn about horror 😂 /playful

In all seriousness, I did do a little research into tropes again, and found that the most likely characters to die include:

Comic relief

Dumb/asshole jock

Horny girl

Nerd

Final Girl’s best friend

Final Girl’s love interest

If we’re talking about the universe where Yngvlid is the Final Girl, then Obsidian is definitely going bye bye. Probably Polly too since he’s her closest friend. Sorry Yngy I love you

Obsidian is stupid in a funny way though so I feel like she would die even if Yngvlid weren’t the protagonist. As @frostcorpsclub said: “The killer doesn't even kill Obbi on purpose she accidentally falls into their weapon while cry running”

Rainier would also be very likely to die. I had somewhat of a hard time with the comic relief category because every funny character I write gets an angst arc; nobody gets to be pure comic relief. Still he’s funny enough to be the star of a lot of my memes so into the jaws of the monster you go Rainy Boy

As the Auraverse’s resident dumb asshole jock, Brackish is an EASY target for a killer. Good riddance. I also realized this means Red Cedar loses both of her boy toys

I have at least 4 nerdy characters, but I’m going with Erudite Spell for this category because I know my audience wants to see him suffer /hj Something about his attitude just seems to fit the vibe I’m imagining for a nerd in a horror movie as well

Blue Velvet’s whole arc is about her being a horny girl so she’s a possibility, but I also think Saltwater Taffy fits that description and would be a funnier and more gratifying death for horror fans to watch

Either way I’m not doing the “asshole jock and horny girl hook up” trope for obvious reasons, I’ll just say she finds someone else to hook up with and subvert expectations a little

At this rate y’all are going to make me develop a full on Auraverse horror au lmao, maybe if I have it fleshed out enough I’ll doodle it for you guys but no promises 🥰

[kindheart525]

Oh, I just realised something! In the Horror Au, Sugar Belle could be on Iolite's chopping block for cheating on Night Glider, along with Double Diamond for partaking!

I got both this question and a related ask anticipating that Orchard Blossom and Cherry Jubilee could be on the chopping block on account of Orchard being a divorcee, so I’ll answer both of them here. To be honest, I haven’t really developed this particular storyline nearly enough to give you a good answer. Additionally, I’m not really sure how Iolite would be made aware of their situation to be able to target them. The SugarGlider family aren’t well-known citizens like a number of her targets are, she doesn’t know anybody who knows them, and nobody even really gossips about them unlike in Terramar’s situation. Plus, Iolite was killed eventually, so she didn’t have time to comb through every inch of Equestria for unfaithful lovers to kill. I’m not making any solid confirmation on whether they’re safe or not, except that Orchard and Cherry are still alive and losing Rainier was their “punishment” if you want to see it that way. It’s just not something I plan on exploring.

[kindheart525]

If there was anyway for them to interact, would Iolite go after Terramar for cheating on Scootaloo with Rumble (Careful homewrecker, you could meet the same fate as Crash)?

If she murdered Terramar, how would Scootaloo and Seaweed react? As much as Scootaloo hated Terramar's guts, I doubt she would want him dead, plus I think Seaweed would miss him, despite their strained relationship.

I feel like it would be very easy for Iolite to learn about Terramar even if there’s no scenario where they’d interact in the main Auraverse. She’s hunting down creatures who betray love, and both hippogriffs and Ponyvillians would surely be whispering about him. Perhaps she heard about him from Saltwater Taffy, the hippogriff princess who especially can’t keep her beak shut (which eventually leads to her own doom). Either way, Iolite doesn’t hesitate to kill Terramar, and Rumble too for knowingly fornicating with a hippogriff who was not only taken but married. It doesn’t matter that he eventually came clean if he made the choice to partake in this betrayal in the first place. Being slightly more mature than Terramar isn’t enough to escape consequences.

As for Seaweed and Scootaloo, they’re going through a lot of complicated feelings. Even though Terramar wasn’t a good husband he was at least somewhat better as a father, and Seaweed does love both of her parents despite the dysfunction in their family. So you’re absolutely right, she does miss her dad a lot. Scootaloo hated Terramar’s guts and definitely joked about wanting to bash his head in once or twice, but, like you said, that doesn’t mean she actually wished for his death. But she also doesn’t forgive his cheating just because he died an untimely and horrible death. On top of this, she feels really bad for her daughter having to deal with her dad cheating AND getting murdered, but doesn’t really know how to make things better for her. While sorting through her complicated feelings, Scootaloo likely made a poor attempt at a joke about karma getting to him to try to make herself feel better, but it obviously didn’t land well with her friends or Seaweed. She was quick to backtrack because she really didn’t mean it, but now she just prefers not to talk about him. It’s similar to canon but less “silly midlife crisis” and more “near doomsday circumstances.” Scootaloo and Seaweed at least get comfort in their closest friends as they have joined the Apples (which include Apple Bloom and Shamrock Shake) in their food production efforts. So, they’re not completely alone.

[kindheart525]

Wait what happens to Luster in the horror au?

Provided that I decided to include other nng characters in this story, that would mean that Luster is raising Solar Sapphos alone. She misses Flurry a lot but she…already knows how to cope with tragedy. The circumstances of Flurry’s death, though—and the death of many others—inspire Luster to take on a new kind of magical research. She wants to find out how Iolite became the villain she was, researching both traditional dark magic and also the broader category of magic driven by emotion, both positive and negative. I imagine she’d work closely with Flurry’s Aunt Twilight, who would also desperately want to know how this was able to happen. Luster doesn’t spend a lot of time outside these days because of how consumed she is by her research, but her hope is that it’ll be worth it once she figures out how to more certainly prevent another supervillain from terrorizing her home like this.

[kindheart525]

What style of movie/series would the horror au be? What kind of tropes inspire it?

I drew from the slasher genre for all of my research while developing the horror au! You can read more detail about the tropes I was inspired by in the posts where I introduced the cast, but I mainly drew from these sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl

https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/lq0llu/what_is_the_usual_order_of_who_dies_in_horror/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlasherMovie (particularly the “Tropes Applicable to the Genre” section)

[kindheart525]

AU question! How would Aurora react to Iolite being the killer? Because oof, I can't imagine it would be easy for Aurora having her best friend go off the deep end. How does Iolite feel about Aurora in her murderous state?

Would Aurora feel guilty about how telling Iolite about Summer's infidelity, since it caused their world to go shit? Obviously, she wouldn't regret exposing a bad girlfriend to try to save Iolite from a bad, but she would probably feel that her action, well-intentioned as it was, caused a domino effect.

Tysm I was hoping someone would ask about Aurora! As you know, Aurora is Iolite’s best friend, especially through the whole debacle of her getting cheated on. But Aurora also has a very strong moral compass and is staunchly loyal to her country, even at the cost of a friendship. She would protest Iolite’s descent into darkness and fight against her hard, but it would be practically fruitless once Iolite forces an enchanted helmet upon her head that places her under mind control. From then on Aurora is Iolite’s right hoof, following orders just as her fully-conscious self would, yet committing all kinds of atrocities that she would never dream of in her right mind. Unlike Summer, Aurora hasn’t been cursed, and unlike Zephyr, the nature of Iolite’s death isn’t able to harm her, so once Iolite is dead Aurora is finally free.

Then comes a long journey of processing her trauma from Iolite’s reign. Knowing that a trail of death and broken families now follows her even though she wasn’t conscious for any of the role her body played in such travesties. Like you said, she wouldn’t regret doing what, under any normal circumstances, would have been the right thing concerning Summer. But she would feel intense guilt over everything that came after. What happened to her own family—her cousin and beloved uncle. Her own country that she swore to protect. Aurora becomes sort of a vigilante as she sets out to undo as much of the damage left by Iolite’s reign as she possibly can, joined by her sister Snowcone who is driven by her agony over the death of her beloved Vee. They become a power duo, but must deal with a bit of a rift that forms between them first. For evidence is found that Aurora was personally present for the murder of the Crystal family. The murder of Veuve. Perhaps she even actively contributed to the bloodshed. Aurora obviously can’t remember. She insists to Snowcone with complete honesty that she fought as hard as she possibly could to keep herself from succumbing to Iolite’s spell, and Snowcone believes her. She understands it wasn’t really Aurora who took away her love. But still, she struggles with it.

Aurora can’t remember a single detail of what happened while she was under Iolite’s spell, but some strange feeling keeps calling her to the abandoned crystal caves, like a faint echo of a memory she can’t identify. Eventually she gives in and decides to follow the calling, thinking that it might tell her more about what happened during Iolite’s reign.

And there, she finds the crystal statue that was once Summer Beauty.

[kindheart525]

Horror au question! Does Yngvlid attend some kind of therapy to deal with what Iolite did and the aftermath, or will she try to "tough it out", because she feels that she can't afford to let herself break with so much work to be done?

If she does get help, what kind of therapy and therapist does she get? Peach Pit with her art therapy, or Aura who might make things worse with toxic positivity?

Yngvlid isn’t anti-therapy by any means and fully supports the right of anyone to access it, but she wouldn’t seek it out herself in this AU. So much has happened to her and her loved ones/other creatures that she took it upon herself to protect, and she couldn’t even begin to talk about it even if she wanted to. Not even to a professional. Plus, she’s hiding a scar of her own from her fight with Iolite (kind of like what Summer had), one that she believes/hopes is benign, but if she revealed it to anyone she would surely become a subject of much speculation and study. Even worse, perhaps suspected of becoming corrupted just like the killer she defeated. So, she’d rather not talk about any part of her experience with anyone.

[kindheart525]

How do Red Cedar, Minted Glacier and the children of Obbi, Rainier and Polly cope with the death of their lovers/parents?

Btw, I love how much thought goes into this interesting and fun AU!

Thank you so much!! I’ve been having a ton of fun with this AU; it really lets me go outside of my usual comfort zone in tone and characterization and I’m really loving the exercise.

Red Cedar’s whole family has a pretty long history with the Apples, with her father’s friendship with Bright Mac, her mother’s friendship with Applejack, her sister’s relationship with one of the (surviving) Apple cousins, and her own relationship with Rainier. So, after a number of their loved ones get taken from them by this horrible evil, it’s no question that the two families would join forces. Cedar is treated by the Apples like one of their own just as much as her own parents love her, so she has a lot of support. Which she’ll need since she was most likely pregnant with at least one of her and Rainier’s children when he died (not sure which one but there aren’t 14 of them in this au). She’s absolutely devastated without Rainier, but she hardly has to parent alone with the whole family helping her.

Minted Glacier and Cherry Berry Sherbet would get a very large inheritance from Polly no question, but of course no amount of money can fill the hole he left with his absence. Mint would become very paranoid knowing his husband was murdered by such a powerful evil, and he would probably become an extremely private individual in an effort to protect himself and CheBe even though that evil is gone. But he would also want to do some good with all the money that he’s been left with. In the spirit of Polly’s philanthropy career but in a way that is much more concretely helpful, he would donate much of his fortune to help the families of all the others that were killed, like he would appreciate being done for him if he had any financial need. Of course he keeps enough for himself and CheBe (and his sister and parents too) to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, but the vast majority of that money is donated to a selfless cause.

As I get to Obsidian, I should explain that the timeline of the horror AU is a little different from the timeline of the original Auraverse. In the OG universe, Obbi and Yngvlid don’t get together until Obbi’s son Volcanic Jasper is about 12-13 years old, but there’s no way Iolite would wait that long to start killing. So, Yng and Obbi get together much earlier in Jasper’s life (which works because they knew each other for much longer anyway). Also, I like to think Iolite spent some time isolating herself as the evil gradually took over her mind, giving Crash enough time to at least get Obbi pregnant even if he doesn’t get much time with his son after that. After both Crash and Obbi are dead, Yngvlid sends the young and orphaned Jasper to live with his Uncle Mountain Peak to keep him safe on the off chance that there’s still any lurking evil watching her. Since Mounty is permanently single, she believes he has the lowest risk of attracting any of Iolite’s wrath, if she did have any power to resurrect Sombra-style.