How far will one stallion run to escape what pursues him?
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Those Griffons are damned lucky Bucky and his Family are leaving. Otherwise, if Bucky had enough time to recover before they arrived, they'd be so fucking boned.
4988495
Bucky will be heading off to Griffonholm rather soonish.
The griffons should be concerned. Celestia is sick of their shit.
How many more arcs are you planning on writing? I feel like this is one of those stories that could work if it continued into the next generation of ponies in his growing Tribe.
4988513
There is still a loooooong way to go before this is finished.
It ends with a funeral.
4988507
Which is why the ones attacking the various islands are lucky. They won't have to deal with Bucky on the Islands, nor will they be in their homeland when Bucky arrives. They are pretty much in the safest place in the world right now.
Growing up
The feels!!!! I have diabetes. My favorite was the Crush and Rising Star exchange. Poke, dialouge, poke, dialouge, poke, dialogue... Also, the killer line:
I'm still laughing
4988521
Hmm, fair point.
**Goes home**
What happened here? Why is everything burning?
4988531
*Giant Message Written into the Side of a mountain in ice*
Bucky Was Here.
So Bucky has replaced his horn with a shadow/crystal composite, and replaced his eye with a sunstone. Now I'm wondering what he's gonna replace his leg with, if he decides to do so.
4988669 I´m pretty sure that we´ll see some type of modification of his armor.
4988701 Like maybe using the leg plate as a fully functioning prosthetic?
the sun set upon a land she longer called home. | no longer called home?
Fantastic chapter!
4988531
I would think something more like "How is everything frozen and on fire at the same time?"
4988517 Didn't you say this story followed BUCKY'S life? I can only imagine who's funeral...
4988736
Twilight Sparkle: Pyromancer. Unknown potential for burning. Alicorn of magic. Ability to tap into a ley line directly. The single most powerful abjurer who has ever graced the planet.
Bucky: Umbramancer / cryomancer. Known for being clever. Potential alicorn of war. Knows enemies inherent weaknesses. Ability to tap into ley lines. Favours weapons of mass mind fuckery.
This post contains a spoiler!
Hmm, Rising hints at Bucky may wanting to replace his stump... Have my prayers been answered?! Probably not, but I imagine he will either make a prosthetic leg or replace his flesh when he presumably ascends to Alicorn.. Also couldn't he just use Aversion magic or have somepony else use Aversion magic to make him look normal?
4988772
Major minor spoiler
Bucky is going to spend a lot of time studying Lugus' griffon talons...
4988783 Ahhh I think I know what he is planning... But is Aversion magic a no go?
4988793
Aversion magic takes a lot of energy... and Bucky is currently having trouble making his harmony magic function well.
That part with Sentinel...it hit me in the feels harder than usual. It's probably because I was listening to a beautiful orchestral version of Phantom of the Opera. And it just so happened to be All I ask of You, one of the saddest/most romantic songs of the whole production. It fit the scene waaaay too well.
"It may stop, but it never ends"
Matt Howarth
4988798 Well I meant somepony else could help him if Bucky couldn't do it himself.. Like Twilight or Lyra..
4988878
**Walks into Sugarcube Corner**
I'd like to buy a cupcake.
**Waits**
Hey! I wanna buy a cupcake! Why am I being ignored!
4988885 I meant to make him look normal.. or wait.. am I getting that mixed up with another magic? Oh gobshite I'm not very good with magical terms..
4988710
That would be a full time drain on his magic. Probably not the best, unless he used a a sunstone to power his armour perhaps?
4988710 Just like that, but without the claws and the bone smashing enchants...maybe not too black too...
4988952 It´s only a minor part of the armor, running in low-level mode most of the time...
Wow. I was pretty shocked at Loch's response to her mothers request to say goodbye. This wasn't the first time mothers weren't great in the story, but I can't help to think they (edit) didn't (/edit) want to be bad. Then again, she was sold into marriage and physically abused. Perhaps it was better she didn't see them.
The other events in this chapter were very nice. Things are coming to a close, goodbyes are being said, and new beginnings are happening. Something we all go through in life (for me quite often as of late) so this chapter tug at a few deep emotions and memories for me.
Also: 4 chapters in one day? Aren't you afraid of burnout?
Good luck to you in maintaining all the names of the children.
4988669
MEC
TrooperKnight ahoy!4988746 Personally I reckon it'll be Barley 'O Blivion who ends up kicking the bucket, but at a guess I'll say that he gets his wish of being surrounded by foals on his deathbed.
Well, Bucky will soon learn what overgrown fried chicken tastes like.
4988809 You beat me to it!
4989700 they have already been decided or did you miss that?
All this feels.... Ah, feels...gud. <:D
Griffon raids huh? Just couldn't let these islands have complete peace. XD
This is probably one of my favorite chapters...
4990234
Scootaloo!?! NOOOOOO!
4990639
No rape happens.
There is actually a very different outcome.
See, you reacted before the delivery.
4990647
No, I did not. You did not properly read my post, and then you assumed what I did or did not do. In that case, you reacted before you understood what I was saying. I never said she raped him. But by her words and the actions she backed them up with, she was displaying her intent to do just that. Just because it did not happen doesn't mean that essentially threatening it while beating him is appropriate. That is what I said. The fact there are no repercussions and that she is rewarded for it in the end is absolutely asinine. If this is the kind of example that was set, then logically speaking this is going to become a more common thing.
My point is, this is not equality. But it is being treated by the males and females present as though it were. If it were a stallion who walked up, beat the ever-loving hell out of his female superior officer, pinned her down and broke her bones and told her he was going to take her and make foals with her, can you tell me what the reaction would be then? Can you tell me he would be defended by the mare, and then given a promotion and then she would willingly and happily become his wife? That this would be healthy and acceptable by anyone there?
True equality would have been flogging her regardless of what Deadspin had to say on the issue. Just as any stallion would be. Loch's father was flogged to show everyone that stallion on mare violence was now a thing of the past. Now the first known indication of the opposite happens, and the perpetrator is not flogged. This is taking sides, therefore not harmonious. This is favoritism - which is partially what Deadspin was just beaten by this mare for to begin with. Equality means that everyone gets the same punishment for the same crimes. The fact that it was treated as alright by the end of this chapter is so jarring and unrealistic by any standard of sapient thought and school of logical consideration - regardless of the societal differences, upbringing, and biological imperatives. Even within the confines of the story to this point, this is something the others should all be against.
Is it revisited in one of the upcoming chapters and handled appropriately then, or does she maintain the handwave treatment? Told she was wrong for what she did but not actually dealing with the consequences of her actions?
4990678
No, it isn't equality. It is too soon in the process to even begin to have that happen, but it is a much needed step in the right direction. Sour Mash and Deadspin begin to show that mares and stallions can work together as equals. Deadspin finally found a mare that he admits is his equal. This is the beginning of the social shift, a shaky terrible beginning that is pretty awful all things considered, but it is better than no change at all.
The mares earned the right to be just as miserable as the stallions. And trust me, they get that misery that they wanted. In time, you see Sour Mash and Deadspin working as a team. They share command and their brigades are unofficially merged into one unit.
You also get to see Sour Mash drafted into fighting a very different sort of war by Bucky.
The short term change is not sustainable, the long term change has to be built upon better foundations and this gets acknowledged.
Is there a perfect resolution? Nope. Do things get better? Yep. Are they even approaching normal? Nope.
Change usually takes some kind of catalyst. Sour Mash picking a fight with Deadspin made everypony who witnessed it stop and consider their gender roles.
4990698
I am aware of what change requires, as I have been a social leader most of my life. I have been the instrument of change both overt and covert. I have suffered for the people I cared about, shedding my blood and the blood of others to keep them safe and alive in the harshness that is reality. I have been enthroned and dethroned more times than I can count. I have a deep understanding of how social structures actually work from experience, likewise with the innermost workings of the mind that holds greater insight than my book learning provides me with. I have had to, because life is more dangerous than most people realize. Some of the supposed horrors in this story have resonated with me due to similar experiences in my own life, and I respect that. Some issues, like this, also take me out of immersion so hard that I've actually developed a glaring blood-pressure headache over the wrongness of reaction.
My point remains. Just because these two are alright with it in the end and learn to work together peacefully is not healthy for their society and culture at all. I reiterate, a stallion was flogged and could have died for his abuse of mares. A mare abuses and threatens to rape a stallion and she is given everything she wanted, and then some. The only negative impact in this chapter for her at all is that she's afraid of Keg Smasher because he is large and has authority. That indicates that she does not respect those who are not physically more capable and of greater authority to herself at this point. This is unhealthy, and by favoring her method, realistically speaking - it would spread to others.
In your story, how many more go on to say "I can break a stallion's bones, get a good job, and a submissive husband for my sexual and breeding desires!"? Because that is the message actually being transmitted there. To cite an example, I somewhat recently read an article on how a man broke into a store in an attempt to rob it. He was beaten and subdued by the female shop owner, tied up and drugged and raped for three days without rest. She was spoken of like a hero. We both know the act itself was wrong, but my issue lies with the response to it. The double standard presented was rewarded.
I do not mind that strife will lead to a better future for these characters. That is a good thing, both plausible and realistic. I mind that double standards are being rewarded and it is being hailed as acceptable by those who should be looking down on it based on their experiences shown. You might see it one way, and I completely understand that as a former writer myself. This might also be fine for those who just accept all words at face value. But the lack of appropriate reaction to that scene was, I feel, a mistake based on the profiles of the ponies present.
You and I both know it isn't equality. My issue is that the ponies are essentially treating it like it is. Is a situation like this a one-time thing, or does it continue to be a running trend?
4990727
In a coming chapter, Keg Smasher actually wrestles with the idea of flogging her. Beating her will cause all manner of problems, especially after his messages of don't beat mares. I don't want to spoil it, but he remains conflicted. There is a sizable conversation with Bucky about if this was handled right, and the nature of right and wrong in this situation.
There are no good answers.
4990741
At least that is something that is revisited. Though the lack of any punishment at all is damning. Is that addressed? Is there appropriate backlash for the double standards? Will I just have to accept everyone is happy now that the law has supported a mare beating and claiming a stallion?
4990756
It is addressed... but I cannot speak of the resolution.
In the end, there are no good easy answers.
4990764
There never is. Only more blood and froth and hope that some day things will be better.
I will continue reading to see this resolution. I am not attempting to judge you harshly. If I did not care I would simply ignore it. But if I find issues that seem out of place with with events and reactions in the story, I am likely going to fuss about it. That is because I do care enough to do so.
4990769
It is expected actually. This is one of the many moral morasses to be found.
You know, it is funny, but I received far more hate mail and angry comments over this issue, this whole kerfluffle with Sour Mash and Deadspin, than I ever did about Bucky's marriage to Thistle. Thistle who is fourteen years of age, and I've learned something, or made a faulty deduction, take your pick. People are totally okay with an older male marrying a much younger female, but toss around gender roles even just a little bit and let the pieces fall where they may, LOOK OUT!
My private message inbox was flooded with ragequit messages, angry opinions, and people telling me just how wrong this whole situation with Sour Mash and Deadspin was. The bile came in a flood.
But Bucky marrying Thistle? Hardly a peep was made.
I honestly don't know what the actual fuck happened there, and I am still scratching my head about it.
4990779
No attempt was made to say it was wholly morally acceptable, with Thistle. The characters themselves reacted poorly to it and tried to stop it. When it was accepted, Derpy had a plan in place to have Thistle taken care of properly until she was old enough to accept a mother's sacred duty to her offspring. I assume it was also to give Thistle a chance to try and acclimate to the lifestyle of her age. Finally -have- a proper glimpse of what her childhood should have been before moving into life-consuming responsibilities. I agree with Derpy. That would have been a smart thing to do. Thistle disagreed, and by that point the others had changed their minds to side with her.
Aside from the sudden about-face, I honestly find that was handled well. I would also have felt fine if it had been an older mare with a younger stallion as long as it was handled the same way. With the abject revulsion based in morality, to rejection, and then eventually cautious acceptance with rules and conditions.
On a personal note, I have seen a fourteen year old given leave with a twisted fuck of a twenty-five year old man by the girl's high-ranking police officer mother. The relative ages aren't so much an issue as is relative maturity and the personality and responsibility of the people involved.
The major issue I had with the Deadspin and Sour Mash incident (and really the whole 'Ball Busters' thing was just uncalled for on their part - no one'd accept a squad called 'Cunt Punters') is that the ponies involved treat it as if it is a permissible thing and not the horrible act of hypocrisy and blatant abusive sexism it actually is - the very same act their society was happy over preventing from happening quite recently. Not only is there a lack of punishment, but there is prestige and reward.
I cannot speak for others I do not see, but I would venture an assumption that it likely also rubbed at least a few others the wrong way. That if things had been reversed, Deadspin would be ostracized or perhaps beaten to death for what he'd done to Sour Mash. It would not have been acceptable according to everything this story has built up to at this point. The very fact it happened shows a strong and unhealthy sense of gender superiority and aggrandization that is the very opposite of what everyone was supposed to be fighting for, and then to receive the backing of the law himself, as well as induction into the forces, prestige, respect, and pay? She was honored for breaking a stallion's bones and telling him she was going to make him give her foals and that he wasn't going to be able to stop her.
It's not about switching up the gender roles for this issue. With any gender, or the same gender, this was wrong. It was an abhorrent act, and everyone there should feel wrong for having allowed it considering they'd been trying to prevent this sort of thing. Keg feels bad about it next chapter, confused. But so far I don't see that anything has actually been DONE. There is no punishment yet.
That is the sort of thing that -should- upset someone while reading this. That because gender roles were reversed, the only fallout is confusion but it is otherwise acceptable. As an activist for human equality, I can tell you that real-life similar occurrences to this are the very thing we are campaigning against. You truly did not expect people to be upset over Sour Mash getting away with something a stallion could not simply because she is a mare? That very much is sexism, of course it is upsetting - just because it is a female inflicting damage and implied sexual abuse upon a male doesn't make it any less wrong than if it were the other way around. A male was expected to be slain for breaking the bones of a mare. He was whipped with a cat o' nine-tails, which tears flesh off rather than just splits it open. Many under the lash have died from system shock even before bloodloss. He was expected to be killed, and then very nearly could have been. All very public, showing the new way the law worked. A female breaks the bones of a male, she prospers and is protected by the law. For harmony's sake, one of two things should have happened - she should have been punished the same way as any male, or if females are essentially allowed to do this now, then they lose all protections they gained under the Laird's new policy to make things equal. Everyone gets the same punishment, or everyone is equally allowed to beat each other and take what they want. Equal in order or equal in anarchy. The latter is might makes right, rule of nature. Abominable to our thinking, given how civilized we believe ourselves to be. The ponies opposed having Thistle, underaged, thrust upon them. The ponies opposed the cruelty of Loch and Ripple's father. The ponies sat idly by and scratched their heads while Deadspin was injured and could have technically died in that combat. It's been stated that there is no comfort with the lack of realism where he just willingly submits and happily becomes married after being emasculated and potentially crippled in some fashion.
To revisit Thistle, the Isles have been a place left behind by time. As I said previously, states of survival and social climes are always different throughout history. In times of peace and security, we allow less and add more and more rules to suit the changing commonly-accepted sensibilities. In times where security is not able to be taken for granted, society broadens its concepts in the name of survival and seeking to gain the security to once again sit upon and become snobbish. Killing becomes more acceptable, with caveats. Civil rights suffer. Children must needs mature faster, and are taken for responsibilities as soon as they are physically capable of attending them - be they extreme labor or training for the males, or breeding for females. Which you have addressed in your story, as I pointed out to someone earlier. Keeping the populace alive and healthy is the only way to reach the point where ethics and morality trump the absolute need for securing stability.
If you are confused, I feel it is because you simply overlooked your own knowledge on the two issues from a neutral or outside viewpoint. You are certainly intelligent enough to know why people would feel as they did over both situations. To help with that, I have provided the issues as I see them, and as how they are viewed from an objective and unbiased outside viewpoint. Unfortunately the two views are a bit mixed up 'physically' speaking as I can only converse textually through stream of consciousness, making separating both into their own unique sections difficult. But both viewpoints are represented.
4990839
I wanted to create a real tar baby, a moral quandary with no easy answers with the Sour Mash and Deadspin situation, and ultimately, I am satisfied with how it turned out.
And it turned out wrong, faulty, flawed, dysfunctional, but with the promise of hope.
I like the fact that for people who really pick it apart like you have, there is a sense of moral outrage or moral ambiguity. I really wanted people to rip it apart and see it for what it was. Some people saw it as comedy, and that's fine, I wrote it with comedic pacing, and it was funny on the surface, but below, it is social commentary and acidic satire about the state of affairs on gender roles. It is unsettling. Two very fucked up ponies bumped heads. Deadspin believed mares were smaller so you could fit more of them in a house as a herd. How messed up is that kind of thinking? It is absurd and ridiculous, but there are people who actually believe in crap like that.
And yet, as you continue through the story, somehow, their love has a realistic feel to it. Maybe love is too strong a word. But you get the idea. Their relationship is about picking up the broken pieces and making it work somehow. They are the best examples the martial culture on the isles has right now.
Which is a pretty messed up state of affairs.
4990867
In the conditions that they live in in the Isles, Deadspin's view was justified. The fact he was polite and relatively quite kind in it, I feel, should have been met with more understanding camraderie than the contempt and derision and physical abuse he suffered for it. When you live in a society where no doubt ponies have been killed trying to prevent their offspring being taken regularly, protecting the mares becomes far more important than any other concern.
Your story itself paints that this is just an issue with how their little slice of the world is forced to work, but that the real issue is those who are abusive and take their reality past what it ended up needing to be at the time. That the ones who are abhorrent were the ones who are the enemy. That is what you have conveyed so far in this story. Not the ones like Deadspin who apparently would die and have been dying to see the femalefolk kept safe for the future of their society. The fact that such a thing has been treated by the 'Ball Busters' as atrocious spits in the face of every stallion who ever died to keep them alive. They could not be there that day to complain about their treatment and want to do something about it if the stallions simply did not care or let them go off and get themselves killed.
Deadspin has not yet shown us that he is a bad pony. Only that he had a great respect for their safety and general love of the fairer sex in his heart. That he wished that would not be beaten or forced to do horrible things. He had his ribs broken, he was emasculated, and told he was to be raped because of this view. THAT is abhorrent. If that is the reaction that caring for mares' safety inspires in them, then how is it safe to take them out from under the flail? The moment they achieve freedom and equality, that their very representatives show that this is how they see things? This was exceedingly poor diplomacy on their part, and should be cause for alarm in all those who are level-headed and even-tempered, both male and female. The dead were disrespected here, every stallion who died in defense of their towns has essentially been slapped in the face when Sour Mash and by extension her compatriots, representatives all, basically come out and say that they never needed or wanted protection. It's about the same as going up to a veteran soldier and telling him that that bullet he took and those friends he lost at war was a complete waste of time and life on his part.
-
Loch's father showed he was a bad pony. He was reviled and punished. The story's flow treats him as bad, the ponies themselves treat him as bad. His punishment is severe and sets the tone for what is appropriate as far as responses to his actions go. He was a very fucked up pony.
Sour Mash, is a very fucked up pony. Rather than do what was expected of a recruit, she chose to champion a dominant uprising of her gender - the very existence of which, had it gained momentum would have destabilized the defense force of the island and brought a lot of ponies and foals to death. Rather than honor the sacrifice and loss of her husband, if he had been an honorable husband at all, she basically spits on his grave with her current views. She starts violence after violence has been shown to be outlawed and that there was a harsh punishment in place. She knew what the punishment was and committed the crime anyway, meaning she should have been prepared to face said punishment with at least some dignity. She instead met the concept of actually deserving punishment with fear and weak knees, showing she did not consider she could or would be punished for her actions and spoken intentions. She laughed at the relative kindness of the stallion tasked with training her for the position she desired simply due to a difference in personal views, even though his supported keeping her alive above all else. She was cruel and malicious. Given the flow of the story I am not convinced she did not create a case of Stockholm's Syndrome in Deadspin.
Deadspin is essentially the cream of the crop as far as products of their society go. Not abusive, not rapacious. Proud and protective. While this might be seen in a society like ours as 'pig-headed', where chivalry is now considered sexist rather than polite and empowering of women, he should have easily been one of the most desirable stallions on the island for his kinder and softer viewpoints. On that day, he could have lost his life or his effectiveness in the only role he knew how to play. For having an outdated view that was not damning or destructive, merely that it had only been a few weeks at best since he was forced to change the ways he had grown up with his whole life. I quite understand Sour and the other mares must have had to see their share of atrocities, but inflicting them upon someone who cares and means you no harm is even worse than simply being a victim. Because it is -creating victims-.
I will not say his views are ethically correct, again a product of the times and necessities of the location, but one of these three ponies was much closer to being in the right than the other two. Thus I agree this is a messed up state of affairs, only that Loch and Sour were the two most at fault insofar as these exchanges go.
4987971
Filthy Rich is probably the worst example for a "strong male in the face of a female." He may be a skilled businessman, influential and wealthy, but he's an emotional wreck because he couldn't get over his wife leaving him and became submissive to his daughter. The only reason he wasn't on my list of males who had negative treatment from the women in their life being played for laughs was because it wasn't played for laughs, not because he didn't get treated badly or because he had an effective response to it.
Kudzu already rebutted my implication that they are abusive relationships in another comment, although I still think the point that it's way more common for females to treat males badly and the males having no response being played for laughs than the opposite, which hasn't never happened but happens pretty rarely, is still pertinent.