3160269 I hear that. I think I almost burned myself out at times. I think I'll go and enjoy reading some of the story updates on my fav list once we're done.

Or maybe play some Starcraft 1 for nostalgia's sake. Dug up my old copy of it from the box.

3160280 Neat.

3160280 Alright, chapter 4 is done~! Time for chapter 5.

3162505 Ok, so what would chapter 5 be about? I know that aside from Eye Glass' side of the story and the bit you wrote about Moonraker, what else should we add?
Also, regarding Moonraker's new 'recruit', I think we should omit that part for a later date, because even with accelerated cloning, I doubt they can accelerate a baby's growth and birth in a matter of days(even if it's part zerg).

In addition, I think Down Pour is an experiment that Twilight wanted to test out to see if Sovi's genetic 'material' was compatible with Rain's. She probably called in Moonraker when Down Pour came out an earth pony instead of a unicorn.

And about the tech Pinkie had QB develop, since you're planning on sending Pinkie to Char, do we reveal QB's identity or just have an infested pony stand in for her for the tech exchange? And maybe have Pinkie ask for a favor...like borrowing some of the infested ponies for an 'expedition' she's planning to the archive world. Or at least create some from the Diamond Dogs accompanying her to Char, poor sods. Pinkie and guards go in, PInkie comes out.

The reason why would be the archive world would probably have guardians keeping the archive safe, like those giant protoss golems in Wings of Liberty. Guns and missiles might be effective against those, but I'd like to see an infested pony take on one of those bad boys

3163763 A quick question about that last part, if they are going to the archive world isnt there a risk that they run into one of those hybrids that Amon commanded. Or if not there should be plenty of remains there since there was quite a large battle at the spot where the archive is located.

3164063 Well, centuries have passed since Amon wiped out the protoss, and he was mentioned in the notes to be dormant again. Some of his hybrids are probably still there, but dormant as well. Kind of like a sleeping army waiting to wipe out life in the Korpulu Sector should Amon awaken again. So unless the Diamond Dogs are stupid enough to awaken the hybrids...

The idea I had for the archive world is this. The archive itself was sealed underground, right? So there has to be an underground complex on that platform which can be accessed to locate the archive, probably booby trapped to guard against Amon's forces and other big nasties. And I had the notion of Stage aka Daring Do going through the complex with some Diamond Dog guards who basically become trap fodder

3164187 Okey I see that whould make sense for them to be asleep. But didnt Zeratule say that among all the info in that archive that there is a warning for anyone to find it to not make the same misstakes the protoss did? If so it whould make sence that unless you are a hybrid or a zerg it wont be super difficult to get to it, but it whould ofcourse still be well guarded.

3163763
3164063 I was thinking that for chapter 5 we just put in the Eye Glass segment, how Twilies visits big bro, and for the Moonraker bit, maybe we can change some text in there to bear the meaning: If you are lucky, in some time you might come pick up a new recruit. : Also, Twilies having a talk with Pinkie in regards to the tech pick up. (Don't worry about that part, I have it getting planned up in my head~ Though you pretty much spoiled a third of my planning. )

From what I recall, Amon had his Hybrid pretty much self-destruct and take out the life in the Koprulu with them. He may have 5-6 tops left in reserve, but that'd probably be it.(Still enough to fuck up all of pony kind. Recall the secret mission in WoL? The terrans' weapons were useless vs that hybrid, so I recon that they too wouldn't have been able to kill them, so with the protoss out of the way, there pretty much isn't a stopping to them. Except a wielder of IMMENSE psionic energy, who comes close to a protoss...or a chaotic being born of the Void... >3> OOOOH, you sir just gave me an idea for the Archive finding segment.) And I'm not sure if that from the WoL mission is an underground complex, because how in the tits would you warp in space shipts the size of carriers, voidrays(slightly smaller than carriers, but still big) and a mothership underground? And even if they had any traps, or statue guardians, I think they were taken out by the zerg and hybrid....unless...you meant that the Archive itself was lowered in an underground complex, unfound by the zerg and hybrid, and that this secret complex is booby trapped. If that's the case I can buy that.

3164715 3164711
Yeah, that could work.
And about the underground complex, yeah I'm talking about what's under the platform. Since the protoss pretty much sealed the sum of their knowledge underground, the doors must be tough to withstand any forced entry, leaving it safe from Amon's Hybrids. Maybe the complex was a Xel'Naga structure.
The protoss also mentioned that they're leaving the knowledge for future species, so the underground complex would probably have guardians and/traps protecting the archive from unworthy intruders. Though I think it's best defense would be that the entrance is hidden and only beings of intellect can find it.

3164711
3164728 Guys, I just realised something. Rain is part zerg and part khalai, so technically she and Down Pour are Hybrid. Since Pinkie serves Discord, we can have her have a verbal fight with Twilight, where she blames her for trying to make an army which Amon can use. And it's legit because Amon could possibly take control of such ponies through their psionic connection. And it'd be one hell of an army - they can infiltrate any faction in the Koprulu, they can use psionic energy and they have the ability to command zerg.

Thoughts?

3170485
Makes sense, Pinkie did mistake Rain for a Dark Templar so it is plausible that she's a psuedo-Hybrid of sorts, though her ability to command zerg is probably limited to lower tier zerg like the zerglings. While this is an interesting thought, Amon would probably only be able to command Down Pour, with him being the only Pony-Hybrid and all. So unless we make a sequel with him as the anti-hero/hero, I don't think it'll be relevant to the story unless we intend to awaken Amon from his slumber in our version.

As for Pinkie arguing with Twilight, I think it'll make Twilight's indifference to Pinkie's death more plausible. One less obstacle for her to deal with in the future.

Also, with the Diamond Dog without their prophet to lead them in the future, who should we put in charge of the Mercenary Fleet? Penny Pincher? Twilight? Or have most of them splitting off into separate factions to accommodate all the possible candidates?

3170591 Yeah, that's my point, this opens possibilities for us, depending on what we decide for Down Pour's future.
If you ask me, the destruction of Castanar seems like a perfect place to end the first story, and start up a sequal. Waking Amon makes for a great plan(and sequal name - The Koprulu Sector - Awakening). Down Pour gets taken over by Amon,[About the Diamond Dogs we can have them get split - half under the command of Penny Pincher, and the other half under Twilies] and becoming his Prophet, like Pinkie was for Discord. That connection can amp his powers, making him something like Kerrigan(regarding psionic use). Yes, Rain's ability to control zerg might be restricted to low teer ones, but unicorns who are hybrdised in such a way(DP would ally with Twilight, because of her ties with QB, and have Castanar's tech replicated, so that he can have an army of hybrids like himself made to serve Amon) along with Down Pour himself can have a greater expand on control over zerg. When he has enough he goes on to find the few actual hybrids, which Amon had left as back up. And if Twilight is with him, that's something to add when she and Shining are revealed. -pants- This is where my idea stream ends.

3170775 These are some interesting ideas, have you tought anything about how our protaganists will get invoved in this?

3170775 So, what you're saying is, that Down Pour, possibly older, becomes Amon's prophet and Twilight defects from the Greater Good? If so, I can kind of see Shining joining his sister in her schemes.
Or, finally see the whackjob she's become and try to actually redeem himself. Which still results in his death, leaving Center Stage as Empress. I'm really big on redeeming characters, so you gotta excuse me for that

But that's just one possible idea among others that we could go with. Another, is instead of making Down Pour the new prophet, maybe another clone DP would fit the role, you know, since she proved that a foal from Rain and Sovi's DNA can be born. She could have made a unicorn version. Even with the genetic defect of a unicorn clone's ability to use psionics, i think the zerg part of the DNA will fix that real nicely. But she had the schematics for the accelerated cloning tech from QB, so this Down Pour would be older.

As for the Diamond Dogs, I was originally thinking that Twilight would take over, but leave Penny Pincher in charge since it would damage her standing with the Dominion.

But if we're going with the Twilight becoming Amon's prophet...here's how I can see it happening...

We have Hawkens and Eye Glass expose Twilight for the fraud she is, she would disappear and go into hiding as a fugitive, and with mercs being greedy, she probably bought out a lot of the Diamond Dog's forces to protect her ass, leaving Penny Pincher with Pinkie's cadre of resoc-ed celebs(Center Stage included), the Iron Feathers along with some veteran loyalists.

Penny Pincher would still be allied with the Greater Good but with a significantly diminished military force(Raynor's Raiders style), giving his organizational skills a true test while the eccentric celebs drive him bonkers. All while trying to carry out Pinkie's mission of finding and taking out Amon.

As for Twilight, she would be a fugitive on the run from Dominion Ghosts, (Lyra?) until she stumbles upon another facility similar to Castanar(Skygeirr Station), and uses the data and tech she took from Castanar to create Down Pour 2.0. so she could have an unstoppable army, but with the lab being so close to some Xel'Naga ruins, a part of Amon reacts to the void energy psionically connects with the clone, making it his conduit to the waking plains.

Thus creating the prelude to Koprulu Sector: Awakening(Badass title by the way)

So...what do you think of the minor change to your idea?

3170820 Hmm...well, as a start we have the bringing down of Twilight and the restoration of Stage as an empress(Wow, Great Britain all over. XD). We will definitely need to involve all of the factions. I recon Discord won't be very pleased with his protege biting the dust, so he turns serious and:
A: Spits out Maud as he did Pinkie;
B: Possesses Sunset Shimmer(we're still including her as an Umojan mage the CMC rescue in Consortium space right?)

Getting her to (if needed be) forcefully take the command of the Umojan forces and engage Down Pour and his army. During that, whilist revealing Amaka and Twilight and taking their asses off power, the CMC help build up an alliance between the Khalai and the Dominion in order to too combat DP. Consortium will either run and hide, but when they somewhat realise that that won't be of ANY help, they decide to join in and help. No idea how the Confederates fit in. WAIT! DP convinces the Confs that he knows the coordinates back to Equestria and after the Confs help him deal with the other factions he will take them back under Celestia's rule(or his hybrid bretheren take control of the Confs, since they are pretty much zerg), thus earning himself extra firepower, pony and zerg mdatshields, and for after they clean up the Koprulu of the other factions - a way to naturaly breed more numbers for Amon's army, because cloning alone can't help you wipe out life in the universe.
Thoughts?

I was thinking that Discord could bring Pinkie back through some chaotic magic, he certainly unpredictable in that sense. We could have Pinkie's soul wandering in the void, but due to her connection to Discord, she ends up in front of Discord who's in the middle of torturing hapless ponies to insanity-induced suicide. She pretty much begs him for another chance to get back at the 'meanies'.

This gives you a chance to continue Pinkie's unique brand of humor while also introducing Discord to the story. Besides, any other pony would commit suicide within minutes after they get popped back out the altar since they aren't as crazy as Pinkie.

I was thinking of using Trixie as the Umojan Mage, the showmare gives off the vibe that she'd be the type to mix around with mercs as well as the personality to tick off Gilda. The merc station/platform would be likely a place that's full of cutthroats and criminal scum, as well as the typical conman.

Speaking of conmen, I can imagine Flim and Flam at the merc station trying to sell black market tech to Apple Bloom, maybe a few choice upgrades for Tom. After all, what else are the CMC going to do with all the guns they stole from the Diamond Dogs and the Cadian militia, give them to a defenseless colony?

Sunset Shimmer feels more like a Confederate Noble type character to me and due to her being a former student of Celestia in the movie, I think putting her in the Vas Lore or the Bluedblood family, due to her snooty behavior.

I'm not very good with politics, so let me try and get this straight:
Amaka and Twilight will be on the run, separately. Amaka possibly flees to Greater Good HQ. Twilight creates an army of Hybrids for Amon's forces in a crazed attempt to seize power.

The CMC, along with Sovereign 2.0 and Seeker are trying to forge an alliance between the Khala and the Dominion? How would they end up with that role in the first place? Did Starsong capture them when they escaped Castanar, or tracked them down to Meinhoff?

How would a single pony be able to take over the Vatican army? I know Discord's powers are formidable, but as Pinkie has proven, they have their limits. This is how I can see their involvement. As a religious order, they probably see the Hybrids as abominations to be slain in the name of their goddess, so they divert part of their forces to fight Down Pour's forces.

Pinkie could pop out of the altar and 'convince' the cult of Discord to join her or something. Not as grand as the entire Vatican Fleet, but still, it doesn't mean she can't make it bigger through the same thing she did with the Diamond Dogs. Though Pinkie is your territory so you get the final decision with her.

The Confederates join the fight on DP's behalf when he promised them a way back to Equestria? Sounds sketchy at best. I think the promise of better 'zerg' and victory against the Dominion sounds like a better offer to the ears of self-serving nobleponies. This somewhat eliminates the Confederate's dependency on new zerg from QB since she was their only supplier of new zerg strains.

I see the Consortium pretty much trying to profit from the whole conflict by selling weapons to the factions, but ends up targeted by Twilight when she finds the Vatican's efforts to repel the Hybrids annoying. So she sends Hybrids to destroy the Consortium factories. We could have Stukov stopping the assault with his fleet of advanced warships. Or have Penny Pincher's faction coming in to stop them(or try to) on behalf of the Greater Good.

3170960 Hmm, you make a very interesting thought. Yes, we can go with a second (unicorn) Down Pour, but wouldn't all of the DNA material for his making get destroied in the Castanar battle? Because I doubt that someone in that particular situation would stop and be like. "Hey, there is some valuable genetic resourse on the station. I should go get it." Instead of screaming loud as fuck whilist running for their life. But maybe Twilies by some miracle chance ends up having a spare sample.

Nono, you got me wrong. (Going with your idea.) After Twilight is called out by Hawkens, Shiny is proclaimed guilty in treason and executed, she is going to have lodads of mercs and ghosts on her tail. After the abrupt demotion of Pinkie, Penny Pincher deems Twilight too...dangerous and unstable, cutting her GG membership. Then she goes to that base, (I am writing the part that explains the tech works.) after first getting a replica of the cloning tech from QB, cuss station explossion. Then we get DP 2.0, who gets possed by Amon(DP is the Prophet, Twilight becomes something like his deranged second in command.).

After Rain's funeral they give her the courtesy of telling her Khalai part of the family(on Castanar they find Amaka's ties with the GG) and bring Amaka to light. From there and their friendship with Stage they try to build the alliance.

Alright, you convinsed me on Pinkie's part.

I like where this is going =p, our little group of heroes getting tangled up in something that is way out of there leage. I can also imagen Twilight snapping when her perfect plan is slowly but surely falling apart around her and there is little that she can do about it. What is left after her decent into madness will pretty much be a demented mastermind with a first class spec ops training, and that whould be a very dangerous foe in my oppinion.

3171100
Well, I was taking Twilight's nature to have backup plans into account, so she probably managed to save the data as well as the genetic samples and stored them away on Spike, the personnel she needed were probably researchers the Diamond Dogs had rescued in the aftermath.

Executing Shining is good and all, but wouldn't that leave the people's trust in the Dominion shaken and possibly shattered? I mean an Imperial hero and leading emperor candidate(if he's not emperor already) being declared a traitor? I can see a lot of rebellion if that occurs and Hawkens is a smart pony, so I doubt he'd reveal that secret to the public so willingly.

Also, Cadia(if its already annexed) will probably see this as a lie cooked up by those in power and be among the first to rebel and cause problems. Or, if they believe the info, be the first to call for Shining's blood, leaving the conservatives, lead by Shining Night to protect his name.

Basically, all hell will break loose if Shining is revealed early on and I don't know if anyone in the sector besides the Emperor and Hawkens knows about Shining's connection to Twilight. I mean, they're related yes, but I wonder if they know about the part he played in the assault on Cadia and as far as I know, that's the only crime he committed.

Maybe we could have him leading a rescue mission for his wife in his attempt to redeem himself but gets caught up in all the chaos and probably dies trying to save Center Stage. Thus, satisfying your desire to have him killed off, while Hawkens gets to keep the Dominion safe.

How would we go about releasing Center Stage from her resoc-ed state if she's still with Penny Pincher?
I think we should let her have some fun as Daring Do for a bit before she ends up in trouble, and in need of rescue. Possibly Shining Armor, or maybe someone else like the CMC, or one of the Khalai, like Rylus or Starsong?

I think that we should give the CMC a little down time on Meinhoff, like maybe a few months to recover from all the shock they received on Castanar, especially Scootaloo. They could stumble on Rain's journal(originally Karn) and find out what she was doing while they were guests on Amaka's station. So a revisit would be in order, but the simple courtesy call drags them away from what they thought would be a peaceful life.

As for Seeker, she's still loyal to to Zamara and she needs to bring Sovi back to her. Solution: Bring back the head of Sovi 1.0 and officially state to Zamara and any present Matriarchs that she had to kill him because he resisted. When everyone else leaves and Zamara is left to grieve, Seeker comes out of the shadows and tells her the truth.

What do you think?
3171174
Glad we to have your approval Rame
And you're right, Twilight was more or less holding back this whole time due to her inhibitor, but I think another reason she created Sovi 2.0 was so he could turn it off for her. Allowing her to do whatever she wants without any consequence. That is indeed a most deadly foe to face, whether the CMC or some other party faces her head on, its unknown.

Also back to the current story, I found Sweetie has a kill switch device next to her heart and Twilight has the trigger, should we have someone discover it later on? She did get hurt badly thanks to Pinkie so maybe a medical exam might reveal it?
We know Apple Bloom has been working on a solution to Jet Stream's so maybe she could turn it off or have it removed by a surgeon, a black market one perhaps.

3172974 I think it whould be very dangerous to tamper with the killswitch but at the same time it sort of needs to be removed or disabled before they flee. Or else Twilight could just axe Sweetie of so she wont be a problem for her later even if she whould lose one of her "weapons". I think that she whould rather sacrafice her then to have her as a lose cannon that could mess up her perfect plan.

On a slightly diffrent note, when and if Twilight go rouge we can have Hawkens send Lyra after her. If my memory serves me right then they didnt really like eathother and it gives an opportunity to have another actionscene. I know Lyra will probbably die in that encounter but it can also show the readers just how dangerous Twilight can be even when not manipulating others to do her dirtywork.

3173120
Hmm, maybe they'd be out of range of the kill-switch trigger when they flee? I mean, it wouldn't be the first time one of her plans fell through the works because she didn't take in all the variables. Still, guess we'll worry about it later.

Your memory is correct, Lyra hates Twilight's guts and considers herself a rival to her. Lyra probably ignores the order to wait for backup and charges in, only to be taken down badly due to Twilight's psionic powers no longer limited by the inhibitor. We could also give Skyfall a speaking role when he finds Lyra's body, or just make him growl in anger. Either way works.

3172974
3173120 I shall agree. How about we do this: After Castanar gets blown up, Shiny already moved on Korhal and up for coronation, Hawkens only reveals that Twilight is conspiring to overtake the power(doesn't reveal that she is Shiny's sister, because as you said - mass chaos), that she is behind the Cadian invasion and that she had abducted Stage. Of course he makes that revelation in front of Shinig who is in front of public media, pretty much making him do that rescue mission where he dies.

Now a fugitive - Twilight is kicked out of the GG and goes to that station, where the needed tebjh replica is already installed and has a unicorn DP made, so that he can turn of the inhib, but what she doesn't see coming is the clone falling under Amon's control and taking the boss spot from her. That is the final blow that wrecks her sanity. Then we get Lyra recklessly charging into a 1v1 vs Twilight, where she is killed.

On Sweetie's kill switch, Twilight doesn't have the trigger at hoof when the CMC escape out of range. Now, how does this sound, when they rescue Trixie as thanks she uses her Umojan Magics to do what the Medic does to the Heavy in the Meet the Medic trailer(how she keeps Sweetie's chest cut open while she tries to get the thing out and then heals her back up).

As to how we get Stage back, through Sovi 2.0's memories the CMC go to the Archive Planet, in order to prevent the GG(who they still consider to be Evil), or other Khalai, and there either they, or the High Templar they find fix up her brain. (Can we have Shiny die by a boobytrap, or from a hybrid(like from the game)?)

3174119
3173120
Yeah, that sounds good. Hawkens would suspect Shining being part of the attack on Cadia and pulls more or less postpones the coronation until Stage can take the throne. Effectively keeping Shining away from the throne while simultaneously sending him away on a wild goose chase so he can't interfere. Just to be safe.

I think Twilight's insanity was already evident in the story, so coupled with the execution squads from the Greater Good and the Dominion hounding her everywhere while also whittling down her mercenary fleet of Diamond Dog Defectors, she grows desperate and locates the station, etc.

That's one way they could remove the kill switch. I was originally thinking something more simple like Apple Bloom's kill switch deactivation program. I mean, her laptop may have been taken away, but she still has access to the rootkit and she'd probably be able to make a new one, given time. Regardless, my concern with the kill switch is how they would find out about the kill switch? Metal detector? Xray scanner in a medbay, or something silly like Sweetie finding it out with her Ghost visor.

Hmm, I just got an idea, let's say Apple Bloom still has the program on a separate hardrive on Tom and while looking at Jet Stream's body, Rainbow remembers the kill switch and asks Apple Bloom to deactivate it as a kind of final farewell. The program is wireless so it seeks out all nearby kill switch devices, including Sweetie's turning it off without anyone being the wiser. How about that? Too convenient?

Er, I can't understand the last point. Are you saying that Stage gets left behind back on the Archive World for the CMC/Khalai to find later? Weren't we planning on using the archive world as a setting in the current story for Pinkie's party?

3174282 Yep.

Yep.

Hmm...how she finds out about it...I'd say a med scan, or her remembering about it seems like the better option.

Yep, too convinient. What if AP's programm proves...not so effective when she uses it on Jet Stream...which makes the guys consider other means of neutralising it.

No, what I meant was that Shining's search for Stage alignes with her going through the Archive World. And that there are Khalai that go to the same world after Sovi 2.0 tells them about it, or get the info from Sovi 1.0's head(btw, won't that thing get destroyed at Castanar, or is the halved courpse aboard Spike?)

3174372 Ah, so we have Penny Pincher continue the mission on his deceased Prophet's behalf while the Greater Good deal with Twilight then? Makes sense now. Shining wouldn't have his sister's network of information but I guess he'd have the help of a few Ghosts who would be assigned to aid him in his search while keeping tabs on him.

Yeah, we could have her complaining about a pain in her chest later on and have the resident doctor of wherever they are take a look and voila, kill switch revealed.

Well, I was thinking Seeker would find Sovi 1.0's body in stasis while sneaking around under Lyra's commands. The sight of her dead friend override's her brainwashing enough for her to remember the mission that Zamara gave her, namely the return of Sovereign to Zamara, or at least his head. She pretty much secures the head before running into Sovi 2.0 and the CMC.

Plus, this makes the trip out of Castanar a little awkward.

3174472 I'm picking up what you're putting down sir.

3174704
3173120 Kriss asked me how we're supposed to proceed with the CMC segment and I thought it'd be best if I posted my answer here so I can hear both your opinions on it so adjustments can be made:

We already planned for the gang to get their hands on some tech for Apple Bloom to build a new laptop, and with Eye Glass in the group, they have two recognized agents of the Dominion, one of which isn't supposed to be there. Though even if Twilight sees Eye Glass, he can just say that he came to watch a traitor's death or something.

My original idea was for Rainbow and Rain to have been secretly scavenging parts for their plan to escape under Twilight's nose for a while, at least enough time for Apple Bloom to be able to work with some tech again. After their latest scavenger hunt, they happen to find a bunch of Dominion troops guarding the wreck of the Iron Will. Rain realizes that they're recovery teams, which meant that there's still working tech left onboard the wrecked battlecruiser to recover, tech that they could use in their escape.

Rain Sight would pull rank on the marines, allowing her and Rainbow to enter the recovery site or we can have one of them distract the guards while the stealthier pony sneaks in and grab some tech.

My idea for their escape plan is that Apple Bloom rebuilds a rudimentary version of her old laptop, or a device that disables the Cadian battlenet Their original plan was to disable the battlenet defenses, which would temporarily give them a short time period to escape in a cloaked Tom, but with Scootaloo's face being shown in public by accident, they couldn't complete the cloaking device in time when they're 'arrested' by the Dominion troops.

However, they're given a lucky break when Twilight decides to send them to the Dominion platform, but two guards are onboard Tom to make sure they don't try anything funny. Once they're cleared away from orbit, one of the guard shoots the other guard, revealing Eye Glass had sneaked onboard.

Finally, Apple Bloom activates the battlenet's off switch, disabling their escort ships, before they short jump away, and with the battlenet disabled, Twilight can't track where they warped off to, thus forcing her to hire mercenaries to do her dirty work while she's busy helping Shining with Cadia.

So...what do you guys think?

3173120
3234485 I dig, I dig. Though Rain/Bow(git it? ) scavenging around and simply finding the IW wreck makes the story too relient on chance. Also I think that if Rain is seen won't be a good idea, cuss I'm sure Twiles will be keeping tabs on her. Being from the DI, Eye Glass outranks any common marine and since Twilight doesn't know about him he seems like a better choice for procuring the tech. How about while they're thinking of an escape plan, someone asks if AB can make another laptop like the one Twilight took. She says that she can, but she needs parts. Then someone suggests the wreckage, and for safety's sake EG, with RD for muscule, goes to see what they can find.

Thoughts?

3173120>>3234672 That's quite doable, though Eye Glass, with the knowledge of how Twilight disabled the battlenet, could be the one to ask Apple Bloom if she could build a similar laptop from scratch and he could also be the one to provide the info on the recovery of the Iron Will's tech and thanks to his armor, he can pose as one of the guards if we don't want his identity revealed, Rainbow could disguise herself as a member of the recovery team with a suit taken from a knocked out member.

Twilight isn't the only one that can put on costumes

I pick Rainbow because the CMC are pretty much stuck in the hotel, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom due to their injuries and Scootaloo due to her indirect infamy thanks to the IF units. The only thing I can't think of is how we'll get Scootaloo to be found out by the citizens.

Any ideas? Cause I'm stumped on that one

3234709
3234801 Hmm...tough one. How about, deciding that she wants the gang to be closer at hoof, Twilight slips the current Dominion forces there the order that one of the clones has been found - Scoots - and has them barge in the hotel, while EG and Dash are out, and arrest her, along with the rest of the guys and has them transported to the station. And in order to conserve Dominion funds has them transported in Tom(all of this is happening after the cloak is installed). Finding out about that, EG and RD contact the gang(via some secret coms maybe?), while there are no guards over and they devize for Dash to turn herself in(since she wasn't arrested with the rest, Twilight would definitely put out word for the marines to look for her as well), so that they are all together, and EG shoots out a: "I'll be excatly where you need me, exactly when you need me. Just trust me on that one." : To which Rain assures the rest to do so. Later on having him as the disguised guard aboard their ship.

p.s. Okay, so EG disguised as one of the guardsponies, together with RD disguised as a member of the recovery team, go to get the stuff from the wreck, after EG asks and suggests the rebuilding of AB's lap top. While looking for parts for the laptop, they come accross the cloak device as a bonus.

3234709
3234672 I like the idea that they plan a little before they go out to find the parts they need the cloacking gear could still be a lucky find that was not planed, and the Iron will should be big enough for them to know where it is. Also the common grunt (marine) will probbably dont know why or even care if Eyeglass should be there or not.
As for Apple blooms laptop the way she got into the battlenet before was becaus of the old terran datadisk and that still took her a month or something so I dont think she will be hacking the battlenet anytime soon with her new laptop. We could instead have it so it intrefear with the radar or something making the ship really hard to keep track of.

3234801
3234709 Actually, I do believe that one of the most important capital ships of the Dominion would have some terran tech in it, quite possibly an adjutant containing such a disc. And since it's such a valuable piece of tech, they could have build the casing of the adjutant in case of the ship getting damaged to enclose around it, like an indestructible black box of sorts, which I think AB could crack--er...hack, open. EG and Dash could come accross said black box. (Just throwing theories out here, nothing certain, unless you guys agree.)

3234800
3234801
Hmm, I thought Apple Bloom's access to the datadisk is because of a program she installed into the datadisk itself. So I thought she could access the program with a specific access code from a specially made terminal/laptop...though now that you mention it, I think it'd be strange for her to remember everything she programmed into her old laptop.

So she can probably still access the trojan horse() program in the datadisk, but as you said, it'd probably take her quite a while to rebuild the program that caused an entire planet's battlenet to shut down. Unless she kept a backup copy of the program...nah, that's more Twilight's shtick.

Guess we could have Apple Bloom create a program that shuts down battlenet system on the escort fighters, kind of like those Lockdown rounds that Ghosts have. Eye Glass could sabotage the tracking software on the orbital platforms before he joined up with them on Tom. He could have asked Apple Bloom create a virus program for him to install into the computers.

Man, Eye Glass is coming in handy for such a minor character.

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3234812 That is WAY more believable than my idea! You have my

And that statement is totaly, completely, 100%

p.s. Yeah. It's nice to have multy-tasking secondary characters for everything.

3234812
3234813 If I remeber corectly then the way Apple bloom got into the battlenet the first time was that she hid some program on that old terran disc. And when they pluged it it in to download all the data her software got into the system and alowed her full accsess to the battlenet, but she still needed to be careful to not be detected.

PS. that makes her laptop a pretty dangerous weapon in the wrong hands/hoofs.

3234812
3234818 If that's the case, after she rebuilds her pc, she canmake another software , have as Nony suggested Eg take it in a flash drive to a space station, download it and then go back to the gang, giving AB access to the B-net.

3234832 That could work, but I think we should be careful here and not make it look like anyone with a little computer skill can hack and shut down the entire battlenet whenever they want. we dont want it to look like some cheep firewall program that you can just turn off at will.

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Well, as Rame said, it took Apple Bloom a month to create the software so even if she did remember parts of the programming, I don't think she can recreate that quickly and what I suggested for scrambling the radar and tracking system isn't the one that shut down the battlenet. It's just a computer virus that EG asked her to cook up.

Which in retrospect is funny because...Apple. If you get this, then feel free to laugh

3234855 Im sure there is a joke directed towards apple computers here that I am missing

3234832 3234859 Not that funny now that I think about. The idea of Apple Bloom making viruses to create havoc on computers is just ironic, but only if you think about it that way.

Putting my poor attempt at humor aside, let's list out what we're planning for the CMC party here(I'm gonna throw in some possible ideas to fill in the gaps, feel free to come up with new ones):
Eye Glass and the gang plan to rebuild Apple Bloom's laptop so she can recreate the software that took out the battlenet.
Eye Glass and Rainbow trick their way into the Iron Will's recovery sight while Rain and the CMC stay back at the hotel to help the injured party members recover, while also keeping Twilight's attention on them when she checks up on them.
Eye Glass and Dash salvage a damaged cloaking device from an intact Phantom(Wraith...still deciding on the name) along with the parts Apple Bloom needs for the laptop.
Time-skip to Shining Armor's speech and announcement of Twilight's promotion to Admiral(We'll do Hawken's segment where the Emperor is given Twilight's message before this.) Twilight announces that they'll work together to hunt down those responsible for the assault before a squad of Dominion marines bust the door down to their suite and arrest everyone except Rain, who she believes is still of use to her.
Rainbow and EG are out gathering more parts when they heard the news and Rainbow is convinced to turn herself in while EG goes and carries out the sabotage mission on the Dominion platform.
Citizens start rioting and demand blood in vengeance for their Matriarch's death, forcing Twilight to pull them out of the local jail and send them to the orbital platform.
Wanting to rub it in the CMC's face, she uses Tom as their prison carrier but places two guards aboard to make sure they don't try anything.
Once out of orbit, Eye Glass shoots the guard and release the CMC and return everyone's confiscated stuff from the hotel, including the new laptop which is used to disable the escort fighters.
Eye Glass activates the virus which disables the platform's tracking software, allowing the gang to warp off to safety.

Does that sound about right?

3234855 I meant to use your suggestion of sending EG to the station with a 'poisonous' data carrier. What is on said carrier is another thing. So instead of battle net control, go for a mini EMP sort of thing which will shut down enemy tech for a few seconds. a minute tops, on command given from the lap top, giving the guys enough time to blast off?
3234859 I'm not getting it either.

3234889 I am a little confused about the arrest part, I mean cant Twilight just order them around already? And we already know that Apple bloom is of no more use to Twilight since she did not care if she died when the Iron will crached, but I am pretty sure Twilight still want Sweetie belle alive becaus she is a weapon in her eyes.

3234908 Yes, yes, I've been told my humor isn't that funny, I'll leave it to the expert, in this case, you
3234890 It's just a list of ideas we discussed compiled into a list, some of which are just placeholders until we can come up with something better.

As for Twilight ordering them around, she only has control over Rain Sight due to her giving her a forced promotion. She probably knows that Rain can't be trusted but needed something to placate her until she can safely capture her and Sweetie Belle. She probably left their friends alone because she didn't want to risk losing such valuable assets, so they're safe...for now.

The only use Apple Bloom and Scootaloo can be to Twilight are to be used as scapegoats for the assault on Cadia, though Apple Bloom was also blamed for the loss of the Icehouse and the escape of so many heavily armed convicts but our little engineer did create one of the most deadly piece of tech the Dominion has ever faced so Twilight might have kept her around as a weapons developer if she wasn't planning to use her as a scapegoat.

Rainbow is the only one she has no use for. How Twilight came to know of Rainbow has yet to be revealed, so it could be anything from a couple of coop missions together to a simple roll in the hay for all we know.

3234908 What was that comment you deleted?
3234934 Yeah, that sums it up. Only you mean that AB activates the virus using the laptop, cuss not sure how EG will do it.

3234938 dubble post of the same comment

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3234938 I say lets roll with this plan you put up there and see how it looks when writen. We can always add or remove thing when edeting.

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3234956 Roger, roger meamigo~

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3234993 Sounds as a good as plan as any