Carrot Consquences
Carrot Top trotted out of the Ponyville schoolhouse with a distinct spring in her step. Humming happily, she walked to the front of the line of foals, where Cheerilee was waiting. The school teacher’s saddlebags were bulging, crammed full of healthy snacks in preparation for what would (hopefully) be the successful nature walk.
“Ready?”
“Ready!” Cheerilee responded, turning towards her students. She began to explain the itinerary to the foals. Carrot Top looked out over Ponyville, her mind wandering over how peaceful everything looked in the warm morning light.
Right down to the blurs of yellow and orange that were beginning to bounce through the streets.
“No.” She gaped, her eyes growing wide.
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!”
“No what?” Cheerilee asked, oblivious to the doom that was approaching them.
It was like watching a swarm of ants wash over a picnic as her copies flooded Ponyville. They hopped onto roofs, bowled ponies over on the street, hauled them back up only for them to be knocked over again, smashed into windows and sent other ponies running in a blind panic.
And a large group of copies were heading right for them.
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!” They shouted in their disjointed chorus.
Cheerilee twisted towards the onrush of voices, her own eyes nearly doubling in size at the incoming avalanche of ponies. A cry of panic rose from her students, the foals stumbling back from the horde, a few tripping over each other.
“Back inside!” She shouted, quickly ushering her charges into the relative safety of indoors, “Ursa drill! Get under your desks and cover your heads!” As they did what she asked, Cheerilee looked back towards her friend. “Carrot Top?!”
Carrot Top was standing stock still in the middle of the road, her eyes locked right on the advancing horde. The carrot farmer couldn’t force herself to move, the weight of what she was seeing crashing down on her. And a moment later, they crashed down on her as well.
She felt herself swept away, suddenly carried upon the backs of dozens of her copies, Cheerilee shouting after her.
- - - -
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!”
“Down to just the one word I see.” Trixie growled, “Think they’ve stretched themselves just a little too thin?”
Focusing, she conjured a scintillating sphere forged from the colors of the rainbow. With a flick of her head, she pitched it in a curved arc, slinging it right past the eyes of a few that were leaping towards the windows of Sugarcube Corner.
“Oooooo!” They cooed, distracted by the shimmering ball of light. With another glow of magic from her horn, Trixie sent the bouncing ball flying down the street, the clones chasing after it with a bust of happy giggles; but more were still coming.
“Yesh” Ditz responded, mumbling through a mouth full of broom handle (hastily provided by Mister Cake before he locked the door).
She swung the broom, at another one that was coming in from the opposite direction, but it hopped neatly over the strike and landed next to one of the first floor windows.
“Help!” It beamed, reaching for said window.
Raindrops dropped from the sky, landing on the copy with all four hooves. Exploding with a wet pop, the weather pony found herself drenched head to hocks. Snorting, she lazily shook the water from her form, glancing down at her friends.
“You alright?” She questioned, anger evident in her voice.
“So far, yeah.” Trixie nodded. Raising an eyebrow, she spared a glance at her friend, “You look upset.”
“Weather schedule for the next week got destroyed when one bounced in to ‘help’.” She growled, pouncing on another one, “There’s another group of these things coming out of the Everfree by the way.”
“This is completely nuts.” Ditzy sighed, spitting the broom out of her mouth to talk, “I thought that we were done with clones!”
“Obviously, we missed one.” Raindrops growled, decking another, “There were timberwolves. And then...I dunno...it made more or something.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea! But considering we’re up to our eyeballs in Carrot Tops here, I’m not sure what else could have happened!”
“Where’s our Carrot Top?” Trixie inquired, whipping another explosion of light and color into the faces of a different clone group.
“No idea. They all look the same from the air.” She answered with a shrug, “We’re going to have to work this one out on the ground.”
“Oh.” Trixie frowned, scanning the street around them, “...Which way do you want to start?”
Thinking for a moment, Raindrops pointed down a street. “Towards Bon Bon’s. At the very least we can pick up Lyra while we’re there.”
- - - -
“Get...OUT!”
Bon Bon’s hooves connected squarely with the mindless Carrot Top’s side. The impact of the strike catapulted it back through the smashed window of the Confectionarium that it had entered via moments before. Hind legs neatly hitting the floor, she flicked her mane with an annoyed huff.
All in all, Lyra thought, the form of that buck had been excellent.
“Dear…” Bon Bon smiled, a little too widely, “You need to have a conversation with Carrot Top.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t have summoned more on purpose!”
“That doesn’t change what’s out there!”
“Help?” A clone questioned, peeking it’s head through the smashed window. Bon Bon turned and decked it on the snout, sending it toppling away with a yelp. She turned back to Lyra with an exasperated sigh, another clone hopping past and the sound of some other window in the street shattering punctuating the scene.
“Right.” Lyra rubbed the sides of her head, “Solutions, before we have to go begging to Canterlot for money again.”
“Maybe they can be tricked?” Bon Bon suggested, glancing out the broken window. Three copies of Carrot Top ran past, carrying hammers in their mouths. A moment later Windowpane charged after, yelling at them to give him his tools back, “They don’t seem to be acting very smart right now.”
Lyra frowned, tapping her chin with a hoof. “We got one to lock up when we tricked it into kind of a logical paradox. Course, then it snapped out of it the minute we mentioned help…”
“HELP!?” A copy shouted with a manic grin, poking her head into the room.
Bon Bon face hoofed, a teeth grinding grimace crossing her muzzle. “This is going to become a thing, isn’t it?”
“Fraid so.” Lyra frowned.
As her significant other turned to deal with the new clone, Lyra called her instrument to her side. She needed something to help her think.
Maybe some kind of big event we could lure them to? Something that would just confuse them? She thought, idly strumming her lyre with a hoof. No, that’ll take far too long to set up. And going from clone to clone will take too long…
Her absent minded strumming moved into the tune that she had played the other day at the pool. She focused on the melody, blocking out the sounds of the chaos outside the shop, and letting the melody organize her thoughts.
They respond when you ask for help, and they have some kind of hive mind. Maybe if we asked them to do something really big that would require more than one pony to accomplish…
“Lyra!”
Snapping out of her deep thoughts, Lyra looked up to see that her friends had arrived. Most of them at least.
“Still looking for our Carrot Top?” She asked, trotting outside.
As she crossed the threshold and stepped out onto the street, an avalanche of flowers rained down upon the heads of her and her friends. Happy giggles rang in their ears as a trio of clones hopped past on the roofs above, tossing the complete stock of Daisy, Lily and Rose’s flower shop onto the streets below.
“Fraid so.” Raindrops snorted, shaking a bunch of roses off her head, “Still haven’t been able to pick her out of this mess.”
Lyra nodded, motioning for them to follow her, running down the street. “Well, I have an idea! We need to get to Town Hall.”
“Why?” Trixie asked, joining her friends in chasing after the musician.
“I’ll explain on the way!”
- - - -
A pained grunt escaped Carrot Top’s lips as she collapsed to the ground, the clones supporting her having scattered like a disturbed school of fish. Groaning, she pushed herself back upright, shaking the stars from her eyes.
She almost wished that she hadn’t.
Carried along to the same street that the Day Spa was set on, she was now awash in a middle of clones engaged in acts of “helpful” destruction. One was attacking the the spa’s roof with a mallet, shingles being tossed left and right from the flurry of strikes. Another was being chased by Blossomforth, spritzing every pony she passed with a collection of the latter’s fragrances.
Setting her jaw, she charged towards one of the many other nearby copies. This one was currently involved in painting the side of a building green.
“Hey! Stop that!” She shouted, yanking the paint away.
“Help?” It asked, frowning in confusion.
“No! Stop helping! You’re hurting ponies!”
“Help!” It grinned, returning to the paint.
“For Luna’s-”
A pile of envelopes dropped from above, mostly bouncing off her body, though a few remained stuck in her mane. Squeezing her eyes shut, Carrot Top mentally counted to ten to bite down the desire to start screaming.
This is all my fault. She thought. Ponyville’s going to get completely wrecked again and it’s all my fault.
She could even hear the ponies passing in the street muttering behind her back. They obviously thought she was a clone too, but weren’t sure why she was just standing there. She took a few more deep breaths, trying to work out what to try next.
“Carrot Top?”
She felt a friendly hoof rest on her withers, Cheerilee’s concerned voice reaching her ears.
Opening her eyes, she twisted to look at her friend. The school teacher was biting her lip, her eyes full of concern.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ve been better.” She answered with a sad smile, “How’d you know it was me?”
“You were the only one not running around frantically, trying to “help” ponies.” Cheerilee responded, pulling her friend into a hug, “They didn’t hurt you at all, did they?”
“Maybe a bruise when they dropped me to the ground.” Carrot Top sighed, pulling herself out of the hug, “I’m more worried about what they’re doing. Ponyville’s going to get wrecked at this rate.”
“Hey, we can still fix this.”
Carrot Top was about to ask how, when the actions of another clone interrupted her. A cake- presumably liberated from Sugarcube Corner, but who could really tell to be sure- lazily arched through the air, and splattered face down, atop her head.
“HELP!” Shouted the clone, bouncing off and throwing more cakes and pastries at anypony it passed on the street.
Carrot Top felt her right eye twitch.
“Carrot Top…” Cheerilee blinked, “Clam down.”
With a smile that bordered on manic crossing her muzzle, Carrot Top spun around to face the copies. “Hey! I need the help of alllll of you! Every last one!” She shouted, frustration reaching a peak, “I need every last pony to help me count to a million!”
Almost at once, the chaos stopped. Each clone froze in the middle of whatever activities they were engaged in, more than a few falling to the ground with heavy thuds if they were in midair at the time.
And then they began to count.
“One.” They said in a perfectly creepy unison, “Two…”
Carrot Top and Cheerilee blinked, exchanging confused glances with each other.
“Huh...I wasn’t actually expecting that to work.” She admitted with an embarrassed smile.
“Forty five.” The clones echoed.
“Wait…” Cheerilee blinked, “Weren’t they just at ten?”
“Five hundred thirty five!”
“Wha?”
“Thirty two.”
“...Great.” She sighed, “They forgot the order of numbers.”
“Well…” Carrot Top grinned nervously, “They do have a one in a million chance of landing on the number.”
“Which could happen at any moment.”
Carrot Top groaned. “Let’s go find the others.”
- - - -
By the time they caught up with their friends, the townsfolk had began to drag the frozen, still counting copies to the town square, in light of any other ideas. Large piles of orange and yellow were stacked up around the plaza, with more being dragged in every moment.
“One thousand, three hundred and fifty six!”
“This is going to get annoying really fast.” Carrot Top sighed.
“Carrot Top!”
She looked over as Trixie and the rest came rushing to her side, Lyra carrying her namesake instrument along with her.
“Are you okay?” Ditzy asked, tilting her head, “I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to find you in that mess.”
“Me either.” She responded with a shrug, “Wasn’t expecting them to actually start counting to a million either, so I guess we lucked out there. For now at least.” She quickly added at the end.
“Oh, so that was you?” Trixie raised an eyebrow, “I was wondering why they had started randomly shouting out numbers.”
“I was frustrated.” Carrot Top answered with a nervous shrug.
“So you had them count?”
“...It was all I could think of. Please tell me that you have some kind of plan?”
“We do.” Lyra nodded, motioning to the town hall, “We’re going to throw a parade.”
“....What?”
- - - -
The explanation of the plan had been quickly passed around as townsfolk continued to drag copies into the square. The piles of copies continued to grow, even more so when the farmers began to haul carts of them into town.
Carrot Top felt her stomach do a flip, her expression growing ashen. “Just how many of these things are there?” She grumbled to Lyra, watching Applejack dump a cart of hers off.
“Looks like it’s over a hundred so far.” Cheerilee commented, doing a quick estimation, “I’m guessing a clone had to escape during the chaos and just made copies all night.”
“I did ask for a small army.” Carrot Top sighed, her head drooping.
“Stop it.” Cheerilee chided, her voice becoming stern for a moment, “You can’t keep blaming yourself.”
“Earth pony messing around with ancient unicorn magic.”
“Did you know it was unicorn magic at the time?”
“Cheerilee…” She sighed, “I didn’t know what it was! I didn’t even stop and think about how long the one copy would be around!”
“And we’ll fix it. We dealt with timberwolves just last night. We can handle this.”
“Doesn’t make me feel any less stupid for starting it off in the first place.” Carrot Top sighed again, “I just wanted to help…”
“Alright!” Lyra called out, grabbing everypony in the square’s attention. Which, at the moment, was most of the group that had assisted the night before. She stood at the top of town hall’s stairs, in that odd two legged stance that only she could pull off. “I’m going to start-”
“Seven hundred and thirty five!”
“...Playing at the signal, and lead them back to the pool. Anypony who wants to help-”
“Two hundred and twenty two!”
“...Follow alongside the group. If any of them try to run off on their own, turn them around.”
“Nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine!”
“Land sakes!” Applejack shouted, “Let’s get this underway before this countin’ drives everypony insane.”
Lyra looked to Carrot Top and nodded. Nodding back, the farmer trotted over to the nearest pile of clones; it didn’t really matter which one.
“I need everypony to help with a parade.”
They stopped counting immediately, springing back to their hooves. Lyra launched into action, quickly strumming out a fast and jaunty tune. “Everypony follow me!” She shouted, galloping towards the Everfree forest.
With a unified squeal of glee that would have knocked Pinkie Pie over, the clones rushed after her. The volunteer group took off next, following close behind until they could clear the town limits.
- - - -
The procession into the Everfree rumbled along, the mass impact of hooves on the ground shaking the leaves from the trees in a bizarre reflection of the Running of the Leaves. Lyra continued to lead the way, her horn glowing to amplify the sound of her lyre over the low roar of the hooves hitting dirt and the clone’s continued cries of “Help!”
Carrot Top cantered alongside the line, keeping her eyes peeled for any clones trying to slip loose. Thankfully, they seemed quite focused on Lyra and the music, at least at the moment.
“Hey, Carrot Top!”
She blinked as Applejack and Green Grape fell into step on either side of her. Both farmers kept glancing at the ground, then back to Carrot Top and occasionally at each other, but neither one seemed all that willing to speak first.
“Umm. Can I...help you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry!” Green Grape shouted.
“We got ta talkin’ back down the line there.” Applejack elaborated, “Found out that this whole mess probably got started when we both wanted yer help on the same mornin’.”
Carrot Top just nodded in response.
“Look. I shouldn’t have implied some kind of “us vs them” thing about helping Applejack.” Green elaborated, her head drooping slightly, “I thought that setting the traps was a waste of time. I mean...we’ve not had a timberwolf attack in my memory.”
Applejack nodded slightly at that comment.
“Of course, that stance feels kind of foolish now.” Grape muttered, “But I am sorry that I had a hoof in pushing you towards this.”
“It’s okay Green Grape.” Carrot Top sighed, with a shake of her head, “I should have had some common sense-”
“Ahh. But ya can’t blame yerself too much.” Applejack interrupted, “Ah mean...wanting to do too much. It can cause problems.” She finished with a nod.
Carrot Top blinked, tilting her head slightly as she looked right into Applejack’s eyes. She didn’t say anything else, but Carrot Top felt like a sense of understanding passed between the two ponies at that moment.
“Yeah. It can.”
“Hey, Applejack.” Green Grape piped up, “How about next season we get all the farmers working together on timberwolf duty? We’re all on the outskirts of town, so we’d have to deal with them first anyway….”
“Ah reckon that makes sense.”
Carrot Top smirked slightly as the two farmers began to talk over the possibilities of a timberwolf defense militia. Nudging a copy that was beginning to stray from the line back into place, a thought popped into her mind.
“You know, we should probably block up the pathway somehow.” She nodded towards the pair, interrupting their conversation, “You know. So that no other pony goes down there and we’re right back in this situation again.”
“Good point.” Green Grape nodded, “I’ll see if I can grab a few ponies from the line and we’ll go find a rock or something.”
“A rock?”
“It’ll be a big rock.” She grinned, letting herself drop back.
Carrot Top smiled to herself, holding her head a little higher as she continued to canter along. Perhaps there would be some good fallout from this after all.
A deep and chilling howl pushed that thought from her mind. Half panicked mutters washed down the line, the “parade” skidding to a halt, everypony searching the forest around them for where the howl came from.
Carrot Top caught a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye, a large form constructed of wood and plant matter stalking through the trees.
“We got company!”
A few of the trees groaned in creeking protest as the unified timberwolf from the night before pushed its way into view on the right side of the precession. It’s wooden body was still marked by the ashy burns of the alcohol fueled firestorm. Throwing its head back again in another howl, it took another bounding leap towards the line of ponies.
And then it froze, its glowing eyes finally noticing just how many ponies were there.
“HELP!” The whole gaggle of Carrot Tops shouted back at the monster.
It took a nervous step backwards, tilting it’s head at the small army before it. Carrot Top didn’t have much insight into what went through the minds of those woody predators, but she could only describe the timberwolf’s actions as confused.
“Hey!” Cheerilee grinned, seizing upon an idea, pointing a hoof at the timberwolf, “Does everypony think that poor gentleman needs help?”
“HEEEEELP!” Came the cry from the line of orange and yellow, the clones almost leering at the timberwolf lord.
It took another shuffling step backwards, the clones taking a step forward. The wolf took another step back as they closed in all around it.
“Everypony!” Carrot Top shouted, “Help me break that stick pile! Everypony take one!”
The timberwolf king turned to run, taking a few loping strides before the wave of clones slammed into its back legs. Toppling forward with a crash, it was engulfed by the copy swarm, crunches and snaps filling the air while they joyously tore sticks and branches away from its form.
After a minute of cracks, pops and snaps, the copies hopped back into the line, each one clutching a separate broken stick that had been part of the timberwolf in their mouths.
“Helph?”
Lyra very quickly began to play again.
- - - -
“How are you holding up?”
Lyra glanced back at the line of Carrot Tops, nodding to herself.
“I think so. Still got magic to spare.”
“Good.” Trixie nodded, pointing to the old stream bed that lead to the pool, “We’re almost there.”
“Okay. What do I do when I get them in there?”
Silence from the illusionist.
“Trixie?! Leading them back here was your idea!”
“I’m thinking!” Trixie winced, “It’s not easy dealing with this ancient magic on the fly. Okay, okay…they’re basically the water from the pool shaped into a pony. If I were pulling a pool like that together, I’d set up the enchantment to fall apart upon touching the water again.”
“That’s kind of a big assumption.” Lyra winced, the entrance to the mirror pool looming in the distance.
“I know! But it’s all I got!”
“Fine.” Lyra frowned, putting on a burst of speed, “Then let’s do this!”
“Wait!”
Lyra rushed down the stairs into the subterranean chamber. The water level of the pool was very low, down from a few feet to a few inches. Plunging ahead, she splashed through what was left of the water, pressing up against the back of the pool’s wall, continuing to play.
I hope this works. Or Bonnie is going to kill Trixie.
The clones were right behind her, rushing, almost tumbling down the stairs as they followed the music. Lyra winced, bracing for a possible impact when the hooves of the first one hit the edge of the remaining liquid.
The body melted away into liquid with a mighty splash, the pool’s level creeping higher on Lyra’s legs. And then the rest came tumbling in, crashing into each other, sliding down the stairs and splashing into the pool in an almost constant waterfall of yellow and orange. The water level surged, splashing higher and higher up her body, as the pool returned to it’s full volume.
“Yes!” Lyra crowed, treading water as the pool became deep enough that she couldn’t touch the bottom anymore.
The tumble of ponies suddenly stopped, as the last copy skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Lyra frowned, noticing the increased mental acuity that flickered in the copies eyes.
“Hi friend! Do you need help!”
Lyra grinned nervously, dropping her lyre into the pool.
“Could you help me get my lyre?”
SPLASH!
- - - -
Lyra trotted back out of the underground chamber, shaking the water from her coat.
“Did we get them all?”
Trixie nodded, a happy grin on her muzzle. “Watched very last one of them run down the stairs. So, if you handled things on our end…”
“They’re all water again.”
Trixie nodded, waving a hoof towards the opening. At the signal, Applejack, Green Grape, Cheerilee and Carrot Top began pushing a large boulder towards the head of the stairs, throwing all of their weight into moving the stone.
Lyra trotted out of the way as they shoved the rock into place, it slamming down on the entrance, sealing it up with its weight. Carrot Top sighed, wiping her forehead with the back of a hoof.
“Well...I guess that’s that. For real this time.”
“Suppose so.” Trixie nodded, “Guess we should head back to town then. Start cleaning up the mess they left behind.”
Nodding in agreement, the assembled ponies turned and began their walk back to Ponyville, leaving the pool thoroughly buried and the Everfree quiet. A few moments later, once the ponies were thoroughly gone, the underbrush rustled. A lone figure stepped out, and approached the rock.
Zecora glanced up at the rock, a thoughtful expression playing across her features.
- - - -
Carrot Top ripped another group of weeds from the ground, tossing them into her wheelbarrow with a flick of her head. It was another clear fall day, a slight chill snapping through the air as she worked.
It had been a few days since they had repaired the damage done by her pool spawned copies. All things considered, Ponyville had seen worse damage, which was comforting in its own way. The town had once again proven its resilience and things had returned to normal.
“Hey Carrot Top.”
She glanced up, nodding to Green Grape at the edge of the field. The farmer nodded back as Carrot Top trotted over to her.
“What’s going on Green Grape?”
“Well, I’m a little bit behind in my vines after cleaning things up in town. I was wondering if I could impose on you for some help?”
“When?”
“Well...now, maybe?”
Carrot Top almost said yes, her knee jerk reaction trying to burst forth. But she paused, thinking for a moment. Eventually, she shook her head. “Sorry, Green. I still have plenty of work I need to do myself. I’ll try to help out next time though.”
Green Grape frowned slightly, but nodded her head. “Fair enough. Next time.”
Watching her fellow member of the farmer union trot back down the road, she nodded to herself, not regretting the decision.
She couldn't do everything, after all.
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And now I'm left wondering at the possible military applications of the blasted thing
Good ending, and a excellent episode from you sir.
OH, crumbs. Zecora's going to do something very stupid while she's waiting for Corona to do whatever thing she has to be Azula Lite to do. (Sorry. Avatar marathon on Nick Canada today: Book Three, Fire.)
4082874
Well, maybe if you could find some way to boost their intelligence after splitting. Or repair the magic of the pool somehow.
Otherwise you'd have a group of soldiers who might just run off in a completely different directions from where you gave them orders to go.
4083363
Thank you sir! I was a little unsure on the last chapter, so I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
4083519
Well if Corona wants a damned army to invade Canterlot, than a damned army she shall have!
Providing it doesn't get distracted and wander away of course.
4083946
Well, that could have gone worse. Especially with the alpha timberwolf. Damn, Carrot clones, you scary.
In all, an excellent Lunaversal take on the Mirror Pool. Thank you for it.
4083723
Is that "damned" just for emphasis, or is the plan to clone demons?
4083972 One of the best episodes ever.
Great ending! I had fun reading this. :)
Hmm, the Carrot Clones brought pieces of the Timberking down to the mirror pool, didn't they?
That could be interesting...
4084411
Thanks Wolf! Glad you were entertained by it.
4084758
Uhh...yeah, I suppose they did.
Well, I mean...what's the worst that can happen? They can't copy themselves without saying the magic phrase. ...Unless Corona does something with the bits if she finds the place....
...Where is this idea coming from? How is Trixie able to be pinned to any of this?
Sorry it took me this long to review this story
I really enjoyed this. It was nice to see Carrot Top being the driving force behind the story. I found her dilemma understandable and I've got to admit that it was nice seeing how in the end she realised she didn't need to help them The Help clones were hilarious.
The mirrior pool has always been something I just accepted and didn't spend too much time thinking about it, but I did really like you explanation behind it
Though ultimately my favourite bit was the timber wolves attack. Not only was it action packed, it also showed the rest of the town also taking part in protecting itself which I am a fan of.
I will end by saying very well done.
4085595
Thanks Zap! Glad that you enjoyed it.
I did enjoy showing Ponyville coming together to protect everypony. Those kind of scenes are always interesting and fun to write in my mind, showing how the characters play off each other and what have you.
4085297 Well, Trixie does get blamed for a lot of horse apples that aren't her fault...
Anyway, I thought the ending was great. If you went with "Trixie pushes the last one in" I would have cried murder, there. So this ending was a good one. All in all, great fic.
4083363
Although I now have the mental picture of a million Pinkie-esque Corona's all glowing brightly and chanting "SUN! SUN!"
4094012
4089054
The idea of an extra clone sticking around was something a few people threw out there, and that I tossed back and forth in my head.
In the end, I decided against it. Mostly because the issues raised by having another Carrot Top around were more than I wanted to drop upon the Lunaverse. But perhaps the pool can be used again someday.
4093195
Thanks RK! Glad you enjoyed my take on the Mirror Pool here.
4099416
This was an awesome addition t the Lunaverse. I usually dont like to ones focused on Carrot Top but this was great. And i love you take on the clones. It was always my own headcannon that they were magically constructed golems of some kind with only the basic rudiments of a logic engine and pale imitation of the originals personality. And your origin explanation works well too; what dictator wouldn't want psychically linked, totally loyal spies?
4105761
One of the possible ponies behind the Mirror Pool in my mind was Princess Platinum. I'm not entirely sure why, but she seemed like the kind of pony who'd want to have an army of mind linked spies.
But I didn't answer the question on who it was specifically, mostly to avoid tripping on other possible plans for those old school characters. In case RDD had plans for them, basically.
4083723
I can just imagine a herd of Corona clones.
"I'm the queen!"
"No, I'm the queen!"
"I'M the queen!"
"You're all ASHES!" [Real Corona goes into supernova mode, evaporating the clones into steam.]
4145820
Considering the intelligence splitting effect when it comes to the clones, I really would be afraid of an army of Corona's.
Great Story
Well that was an interesting light read. An interesting take on this, although I'm sad that it isn't picked up by Zecora in later fics. Or is it one of the planned ones that hasn't been made yet?
Excellent handling of the mane six in this, I enjoyed that nearly as much as I enjoyed the story overall. It was especially nice seeing bridges being built between the Trust and the Union.
4980235
Glad that you enjoyed that bit DJ! It was nice to see those two groups making some connections, rather than being totally antagonistic.
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Jeese GreatEater, I am so sorry that I totally spaced out on your comment for nine weeks.
As far as I know, there are still plans for the Mirror Pool. We'll just have to wait and see what they are.
4980279
This story was fun all around.
4145833 I think that could actually garner sympathy for Corona: she makes an army, and they basically start acting like Pinkie's clones or Carrot's clones, except instead of "Help! Help! Help!" they go "Protect! Protect! Protect!"
Your review is ready at the Pleasant Commentator and Review Group.
7942542
Everything you've highlighted are the reasons that I've decided to not write out the accent quite as much in fics from here on out.
Seriously though, looking at those sentences is almost painful now.
4083700
Not to mention hundreds of mindless ponies yelling "kill! Kill! Kill!" Or "Equestria! Equestria! Equestria!" Over and over...
Is it strange that I feel sorry for the Timberking? I mean, the way it was defeated was nightmarish. And if it does reform, it would most likely have PTSD. It comes to attack Ponyville, then sees Carrot Top just standing there. It then whimpers in pure terror before running away for its life.
If I have one nitpick issue with this story, it's that it felt too much like Too Many Pinkie Pies. Granted, the Carrot clones were more subdued at first than the Pinkie clones were. But it still felt like the show's episode. At least up until the Timberwolf attack. Then it began to diverge. But then the army of clones came and acted even more like the Pinkie clones. As I said, my issue is a nitpick, mainly because one of the things I like about the Lunaverse is that it doesn't just rewrite the episodes with different characters (with the exception of the Lunaverse version of Boast Busters, but that was functionally the pilot episode, so that's forgivable in that sense).
Granted, my nitpick is a minor issue that I point out with a critical mindset. It was still quite enjoyable. I don't let nitpicks like that get in the way of enjoyment. I just feel as if I have to address said nitpicks.
I won't lie. If I were to make a version of Too Many Pinkie Pies, I would go the opposite direction that you did and intentionally make the clones more comprehensive. But I'd have their (for lack of a better word) elimination be more respectable. My idea is that instead of creating magical constructs, the Mirror Pool is in fact a pool of dense ambient magic that connects two timelines. So what happens is that there are two timelines that become one. One where the pony steps into the Mirror Pool, and one where the pony does not. So it's not just a clone, it is in fact an alternate timeline version of that pony. Because the pool connects the timelines, the way to "eliminate" the doubles is to separate the timelines as if it were never connected in the first place. Doing so would have the doubles merge into one, since the two timelines are no longer intertwined.
9719743
There's never anything wrong with adding your own two cents to a discussion no matter how belatedly. I just wish the author was still around to appreciate the comments.
As for your idea of how the mirror pool works, it's not really consistent with what we see from the show, but is still a very neat idea and I would totally encourage you to pursue it in your own writing.
9719743
No.
Y'all is you all. Go to literally any dictionary. That is the only contraction in the south for You All. At all.
Ya = you as a Southern Stand in.
Ya'll = You'll. You'll = You will / You shall. Not You-all.
Sorry if that sounds harsh. But as a Southerner, seeing certain words misused (Looking at you Texas), really is a massive pet peeve, and way to many people in this fandom propagate misuse of my cultural accent / heritage.
9720076
What happened to the writer?
9721198
Check her author page.
9721209
Holy fuck. She died on the same day as my birthday. Man, that really makes me feel worse now. GGP was an awesome writer, and a pretty cool person, she's definitely going to be missed.
Thank you for pointing that out to me, and I'm sorry if me asking opened up any old wounds. Take care fam.