Chapter 2: Celestia's Reign Begins
Celestia looked at the body in the mirror in horror. While she was always used to being gigantic, now she was hunching to avoid the ceiling. Her neck cramped awkwardly, her head pressing against the formerly comfortably small study in a flush of feathers. Long yellow claws flexed where her front hooves should have been, clenching and unclenching in discomfort. Her slender, scaly legs terminated in savagely clawed feet that had to make an effort not to shred any of the myriad spell books she had pulled off the walls in her panic.
It had been only once she realized that she was not only immune to magic but also incapable of casting it that she had calmed to a resignation with her current lot in life. Now staring into the face of an alpha predator with her usual quiet and calm, she wasted no time reassuring herself that her current transformation was not by any means the most alarming threat to her rule she had faced even in the past four months, let alone her lengthy history as diarch of Equestria. Then she remembered that there had not been a threat she had personally handled in over a decade, and her attempts to rouse her spirits died like a dust devil robbed of its winds.
She turned back to the creature in the mirror. Long, beautifully shimmering plumes recreated the tones of her mane and tail in wide, fanning crests at her rear and head. Each one could flex for emoting when she wished it to, which was very much worth noting to her. To her relief her eyes—despite holding slitted black pupils—were still a friendly pink colour and still seemed to carry across the warmth and intelligence she attempted to project to all the world whenever she could. Of course, all of that fell by the wayside when one looked at the front half of her head, and therein lay the problem. There was a battle axe of keratin and bone not unlike those used by the Buffalo resting where her face should be. As if that were not enough, the end of the axe was not merely a blade. Rather, a slender, savagely pointed hook served as the edge to the beak. Celestia shuddered at the memory of what precisely the hook was used for, her warm and intelligent eyes shutting against the thought.
Nevertheless, she composed herself and rallied her courage, reminding herself that no solution to a long term problem was ever found in the throes of terror or despair. With an effort, she managed to squeeze the tall, sinuous body towards the door of her study, her head bobbing in time with her feet and scraping the ceiling as she walked. Her feet, being only two where before she had four, swayed awkwardly with every step. She was briefly reminded of an intoxicated minotaur, narrowly avoiding staggering into her lectern, fireplace and scattered stray books like she was. Her foot caught on the plush purple couch at the centre of the room midway to the door, and with a squawk the dignified ruler of all Equestria found herself crashing into the floral patterned floor with the sort of “thump” a cushion makes upon hitting carpeting. Celestia sat in a pile of fluffed feathers and tangled limbs, forcing herself not to give in to cynicism and frustration.
In that moment, Celestia wondered how, exactly, the terror bird race had posed the threat to ponies that it had been so infamous for. She attempted to use her arms to engage in a pushup, only to find they could not bend that way. Rather, she had to use them as a prop while her back legs righted herself, and in her rush to stand she banged her head against the ceiling. Miraculously, her steps to the door were erratic but uneventful. Now the task ahead changed, and her analytic mind found itself working towards a framework of a strategy. She knew she had to avoid her guards. Not only would being confronted result in an encounter she could only see resulting in an arrest for her, but even if she could restrain herself from attacking her ponies, even the chance of such a thing was something she wished from the bottom of her heart to never be confronted with. Composing herself once again, she leaned down and reached out her claws towards the portal. Hooked hands with a measly single finger and thumb worked at the knob with a rough gracelessness. Scratches in the woodwork formed when she missed the golden instrument, and during her attempt to wrap a talon around it she punched a hole in the deep purple panelling. At last, she managed to secure her hold on the door, pushing open the wooden structure and leading herself out into the hallways of Canterlot Castle. She only prayed the guards were as—she attempted to summon a euphemism—ceremonially-minded tonight as they were whenever anything else went wrong.
Her bedchambers lay down the hallway, where she at least would have enough room for her now much larger body. When she had remembered the terror bird race during her ill-fated spell casting session, she had not remembered them as being quite so enormous. It was difficult for her to squeeze into shapes that might hide herself from her little ponies, but to her surprise and vague discomfort she found that her brain was naturally picking out places between suits of armor and towering white columns ideal for avoiding the searching eyes of equines. There was also, much more troublingly, a ghost of a desire to ambush them and chase them down running through her mind. She stopped the thought as quickly as she could, reminding herself of what exactly terror birds did to the creatures they ambushed and chased down and adamantly resolving she would sooner starve than imitate them in any respect. The very thought of doing so to her ponies was like poison to her being, and she fought it with every fibre of what she truly was. The name of the species she had selected from the book flashed through her mind with these thoughts, as did the translation for those ancient tongues she had once spoken that now served as the language of scholars. Titanis xenosapiens, they had named it. “The alien-minded giant”.
In her musings, she grew distant, not noticing the faint sound of hoofsteps pricking at her ears. However, Celestia’s eagle eyes nonetheless spotted a guard turning the corner at the end of the hallway the moment his hoof had hit the floor in front of her. In an instant, her eyes focused in on the sign of movement, the plate glass windows and royal tapestries of the hall blurring into the background. Her eyes were so strong now that she could see even the individual tufts of fur against his flesh and the flow of the muscles around his wrist bone. Fear flashed through her mind, and her body ached to disarm the guard and knock him cold with a kick rather than face his judgement. She suppressed the instinct like she did all her baser ones, opting instead to make for a set of smaller chambers she had often used for private transportation from her study to her chambers. She had already begun moving by the time her potential antagonist had turned the corner. Almost immediately she realized the problem with this plan, but her hesitation only caused her to catch the leg she was raising to walk with on her ankle joint, and she found herself careening toward the hallway anyway.
The world slowed to a crawl, the frame of the door rushing towards her in slow motion. She knew exactly what was going to happen to the giant body making its way towards the small hole well before she hit it. With another loud “pompf” noise, Celestia wedged herself so far into the hallway that her chest lodged against the frame halfway down its feathery length. She struggled to push herself through the rest of the way with several heaves of her sickle-clawed forearms, but digits meant for savaging the hides of prey attempting to escape were never to win the battle for purchase that the climbing limbs of other races with hands would allow her. The sound of approaching hooves silenced her efforts, causing her to shut her eyes against her inevitable fate.
Her feathery bottom was still fluffing out into the hallway, and the guard on duty gave the protruding posterior a scrutinizing glance. “Excuse me, ma’am? Those chambers are for use of her majesty Princess Celestia only, Mrs...Griffon?” Celestia gave a muffled protest. The guard managed to move past the hiccup of not being able to identify his intruder’s species. Undaunted by Celestia’s protests, he continued to list legal proceedings with a robotic efficiency.
“Per section seventeen, verse five of the palace conduct legal manual, I request you join me on escort to the nearest official palace office, where you will be fined thirty six bits and forcibly ejected from the palace.” Celestia’s mind reeled at how the stallion was able to so easily force the proverbial round shape presented by her current species and dilemma into the square slot that was the standard protocol of guard duties.
“I would be happy to cooperate,” She said as loudly and clearly as she could, “but, as you can likely see, I am rather stuck at the moment.” Although she knew the stallion could not see her face, Celestia attempted to give the same motherly, reassuring smile she was famous for across the entire Equestrian nation. Rather unfortunately for the Princess of the Sun, the guard on duty could not see the reassuring beam of a beatific alicorn. He could only hear the infernal squawking of the giant creature before him. He raised his spear, and Celestia felt a pointed tip of metal touch to the curve between her thigh and her still quite-too-feathery-bottom.
“Simmer down, ma’am. We need to escort you to the authorities.”
Celestia made her best attempt to shrink down and appear unintimidating, a task she was finding perfectly impossible in her current form. Even if she were to lie prostrate, she could not hide the fact that half of her body was an ideal tool for mayhem and mauling, and her hooked claws would still be visible. She did try, to her credit, to avoid sounding like a giant, murderous bird of prey when she next spoke. “I’m trying to cooperate, sir. This is still all very new to me.”
Sadly, the quiet, predatory hiss that came from her throat only earned her a jab to her bulging birdy behind from the blunt of the spear, and she found herself being forced further down the hole with an indignant screech. Her fortunes turned, however, when she found that she now had enough room for her to slink, and she seized the opportunity with a push from her clumsy legs. The guard gave an order of “halt”, but by that point the two-legged creature was tripping and charging its way down the chamber. The guard’s eyes widened when he realized the creature was heading for Celestia’s chambers. Rather like when flying, Celestia was finding that it was much easier to run in this body than to walk. Even with her steps being as uneven and poorly spaced as they were, the velocity of her body alone seemed to keep her propelled along. By the time the guard had managed to rework his spear to the appropriate position and prepared charging stance, Celestia had already crashed into the wall next to the doorway. His cries of “halt” fell on deaf ears, her beak shattering the lock on the doors and allowing her to simply throw them open. The soldier had only managed to hike halfway down the passageway by the time the prehistoric predator had closed the doors on him. Halting mid-stride, the unfortunate guard was not quick enough to stop himself from smashing into the door. Wood and metal pushed open, and by the time he had arrived to a halt, he was in a pile at the feet of the creature he had tried to arrest earlier.
He gulped, looking up at the monster before him. What he had thought might have been an oddly deformed griffon before showed itself to be far worse than he could have ever imagined. The long claws and savage blade at the end of the creature’s face swam within his vision, and he knew the creature would strike long before he had a chance to prepare some kind of defense. “I have a wife.” He said quietly to himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and awaited what would come. The creature reached out a sickly claw towards him, talons giving a click once they had unfurled. He cringed. It came as a surprise, then, when the claw delicately grabbed his chin, bringing his eyes up slowly to face her.
“I hope this experience helps remind you to treasure her, my little pony.” The monster said in a halting croon. The words were hard to distinguish amidst the clacks of beak and the harsh rush of air, but the way the creature spoke with delicate care made him raise an eye in curiosity. The monster removed his helmet with a clumsy click of its second claw, fumbling several times and pinching his throat a few times. Nonetheless, it removed the armor with great delicacy, setting it to the floor quietly. Once the metal box had slid off, he cringed again, expecting once more for the worst to happen. Instead, he found his mane being stroked by a slow, rough, but nonetheless caring hand. He looked at the creature in confusion. It was only now that he noticed the colour of the creature, quills and all. He looked into the eyes, and though they had cruel slits and were ringed with crimson skin, he could see a gentle smile hidden through them. The creature lowered its head down to his own level in the same way he had seen another giant, white and benevolent creature do a thousand times, and suddenly he knew exactly who he was talking to.
“Are you...related to Her Majesty?” He ventured, looking at the creature before him in confusion. The creature tried several times to force a hiss or squawk from her throat that would sound like comprehensible Equestrian. At last she managed to give a sound like nails on a chalkboard that nevertheless conveyed what she wished to say.
“IT’S ME,” She managed to force out. She tried to say the words “bad spell” in explanation, but the words came out as useless clucks and hisses.
“It’s...you?” The guard scrutinized, piecing together the information he had been given. His eyes widened at last, horror at his prior actions overtaking him. “Y-your Majesty,” he stammered, averting his gaze. Had he not already been lying on his belly, he doubtlessly would have bowed. “I must beg apology for my conduct earlier. I was merely following protocol, and—” Celestia pinched his lips shut with those firm talons, forcing him to look at her again. She gave a gentle nod, and the soft, warm expression of her eyes showed that all was forgiven. The guard, now far outside protocol, had neither rules to fall back on nor standard procedures to enact. He gave an awkward “is there something I can do for you?” in an effort to help her.
Celestia tried opening her mouth again, but realized she was getting nowhere with attempts to speak. She looked to her room for other options. Her eyes tracked the plush, gigantic bed, myriad bookshelves, artifacts and mementos on display and writing desk for options. Almost immediately her now-fantastic vision found a solution. However, with this solution came yet another problem. Once again she found the delicacy of walking was well beyond her, with her legs criss-crossing and knocking into furniture clumsily at every step. Several times she found herself near to the ground, only to then notice the guard had caught her before she could fall upon her face again. She did her best to express her gratitude by giving a warble each time. Eventually, after a series of false starts and near disasters, she made it to a writing desk, and with less effort than before she managed to navigate her front talons to tear open the drawers containing the writing supplies. The predator’s weapon she wrote with was capable of only producing chickenscratch (a pun she would have enjoyed were it not for her situation), but she did manage to spell out a rough “GEt LunA” for the poor stallion looking to her for orders.
The guard parsed the script far more easily than he had her attempts at speech, giving a salute and a “yes, ma’am!” to go with his workings. While the stallion went to his business, Celestia worked on the next stage of her plan. She knew that only the pony who had crafted the spell that had trapped her in her current body could help her escape it, but she also knew that to summon her here she would need a magic user to send a message to her former student. Her claws pressed for purchase and slashed awkwardly, the longer message she had to prepare this time giving her more trouble than before. In the monotony of trying to steady the giant’s talons enough to write with, her thoughts turned to her ill-fated transformation testing she had engaged in earlier that day. It had been guilt that had won her her current body. Guilt and forgetfulness. Perhaps age had softened her, but Celestia preferred to imagine it was her charitability that had produced a desire to learn more about the perspective and minds of her old, long-defeated enemies. She turned her thoughts back to the day she had ended them, her eyes growing misty and distant. Perhaps she was growing old, she mused. She had enough memories of darker times to be so. Ponies marvelled at how she could be so cheerful all the time, and she could only respond that living in an age of love, prosperity and friendship, it was difficult to find reasons not to be. She remembered the ages of Sombra, of Discord, of Tirek and of the Terror Bird Tribes of old, and she knew no reason not to love the world she lived in.
It was amongst these reassuring thoughts that Celestia found the inner peace to move her pen across the page without tearing it or flooding it with ink. The short, sharp letters started to cautiously form from the tip of her quill. She sagged once she had finished the last of the symbols, relief flooding into her. Having time to wait until Luna arrived, she knew she could at least attempt practicing her walking while she was waitin—
“Sister?” Celestia’s thoughts were abruptly cut off. She looked up, seeing Luna cautiously look through the doors of the ruined study. Luna took one look at the form her flesh and blood was currently in ownership of and let out a mortified hiss. “What mockery is this?”
Celestia gave what she hoped was a sheepish smile in response, but ceased doing so upon seeing the grimace of revulsion Luna reacted with. She opened her mouth, then cut herself off midway through a horrifying squawk. Remembering the notes and pen beside her, she scrawled a quick message on the page. The unfortunate paper was tattered and wrinkled by the time she was done, but it nevertheless held a barely-legible message for Luna to read. “BAD SpEll”. Luna’s eyes squinted at the message, pupils flicking back and forth between the words.
“Was this...something done to you? Or did you attempt this spell and obtain this result?” Luna took a tentative step forward. Celestia pointed to herself with a claw, her head bowing away from her sister’s judging eyes. Luna only sighed at this, putting a hoof to her temples.
“Sister, you may be oft taken by a naive optimism,” Celestia tilted her head, put off by Luna’s bluntness, “but you are never rash. What could possibly have driven you to do such a thing?” Celestia swallowed, raising her head to face her sister and the consequences of her actions. Of course, in this form she couldn’t explain the motives that had driven her to test a transformation into her ancient, long-defeated enemies, but even in her normal state she would be hard-pressed to do so. She sidestepped the centuries of emotional growth and shortcoming, family history and personal failure that her response would need to convey by simply shaking her head and giving what she hoped was a smile.
This time, Luna searched Celestia’s eyes and face with scrutiny to see if the horrible mockery of her sister’s proud form could communicate anything of the pony she loved that was housed within. Her searching eyes noticed some of Celestia’s emotions in the shine of the ancient predator’s eyes, and the tension from before began to slowly seep out of the room. Of course, once Luna’s eyes had flashed with recognition, her expression shifted. Luna flicked her tail.
“Do you have any idea of how to fix this particular disaster, then?” Her pony counterpart’s exasperation was thinly veiled, and by it Celestia knew her sister had picked up on her desire to evade the subject of her motives.
Celestia walked to her chest of drawers, knowing precisely how to communicate this particular thought. A long, scaly claw tenderly unfolded to point meaningfully to one of several photos sitting amongst ones showing Spike, Cadance, Luna and Sunset Shimmer. The photo showed Celestia standing with a radiant smile next to a dusty, unkempt and exhausted pony wearing a beautiful blue Gala dress. Despite her state, the shorter pony was beaming at the camera.
Luna only rolled her eyes at this. “‘Tis your solution for everything, sister.”
Celestia turned back to Luna with a snort. What should have been a smirk came out as a predatory sneer, so she shook her head, returned her expression to neutral and pushed her clumsy way back to her writing desk. “HEr SPEll” was the giant bird’s retort.
“Fair.” Luna confessed, turning to stare towards the stars of the evening sky. She pursed her lips. “Do you think she will be able to reverse her magic within the span of the next day?”
Celestia followed her gaze, then turned to look at Luna. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Luna sighed.
“We will have to make some arrangements for your current state, then. I presume you will not be taking court. Perhaps...yes, that might work.” Celestia wished to voice a set of her own suggestions and plans, but Luna pressed on, her face firm and unwilling to waste time parsing deeper meanings from Celestia’s limited means of communication. “We will say you have fallen ill by magical means and are consulting Princess Twilight on ways to get better.”
Celestia nodded, looking over at Luna in appreciation. The thought that perhaps she would do better to trust her sister’s judgement more often in the future flashed through her mind.
“In that time, Twilight and I will share your petitioners.” Celestia shook her head firmly at this. She scribbled the words as best she could, tearing the paper in her rush. A very ragged “SCrIbE” sat shakily upon the page not long after she had begun. Luna put a hoof to her chin, stroking it. Celestia added the words “FOR ME” to a second sheet of paper.
Luna blinked, understanding washing over her all at once. Her voice lowered to match the change in pace. “Very well. Twilight and I will take some time away from our own duties to stand court, while you will allow a scribe to aid you in judging written petitions for duties we feel we are unable to handle or petitioners who request you directly.”
Celestia nodded once again, giving Luna her best attempt at a look of appreciation. To her relief, Luna took this in stride, nodding. It was this particular allowance that Luna took as a chance to segway into the rebuke that had been building within her since she had first arrived.
“I expect—nay, I believe it fair that to say I deserve an explanation on why and how this terrible lapse in judgement came about. The thought of my own flesh and blood imitating such a horrible race of creatures sits poorly with me even with evidence right before mine eyes.”
Celestia laid a talon on Luna’s shoulder, making a point of keeping eye contact. The elder sister gave her sister a warm look, pink, slitted eyes shining and staring deep into their teal counterparts. Luna slowly and gingerly wrapped a wing around Celestia, feathers falling into place only after Celestia did not react. “Thank you.” Luna said at last. “We trust you will settle this matter in due time.”
Celestia nodded in agreement. The moment stretched out. Celestia leaned into the warmth of her sister’s wing, an experience that she noted she almost never had the chance to go through with. Luna, for her part, stared ahead, but nonetheless her smile turned from one of appreciation to one of tenderness with the way Celestia held against her. At last, Celestia noticed that the stars had started to come out in full force, and she reluctantly broke off the moment by sliding out of Luna’s embrace.
She gave a cluck, pointing to Twilight’s photo again. Luna sighed the sigh of one who has started their morning to find their sister has accidentally turned herself into a giant prehistoric carnivore.
“Yes, we will send her a message immediately. Is there any particular meaning you wish to convey for her?” Luna looked over Celestia’s form. The bird handed Luna the letter she had written not thirty minutes before. Luna’s eyes scanned over it. She blinked out of her thoughts at last. “Is there any more you would like to mention? Supplies she may need?” Celestia shook her head. Luna clicked her tongue. “We suppose you know what she will and will not do better than I. Very well, I will prepare a message for her.” Luna stood up to leave
Celestia put her talon to Luna’s shoulder in thanks once again, and the two sisters shared an embrace. After a moment of tenderness and appreciation had passed between the two, Luna trailed away and made for her study, leaving Celestia to reflect amongst the chaos of paper shreds and wood splinters she had wrought in her new form.
Celestia stalked over to the window, looking out over her kingdom. Dozens of thoughts swirled through her head, and none of them were comfortable. One thought, however, fought its wretched way to the forefront of her mind. It was this thought, unlike any other before it, that struck Celestia at her core and made her truly fear herself and what she might be capable of. For in that moment, Celestia realized:
She was hungry.
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Ima start reading now! looks to be very promising.
Terror Bird FTW!
I don't like Twilestia so much, but you got me with these Terror birds!
Now watch as someone else finds a huge, glaring error. I don't do well with egg on my face. Would serve me right for asking for recognition on the editing front.
That aside,
Good story, and I can't wait for more.
5161786 Now if only we could generate heat somehow...
Good start, I have been waiting to see this since you suggested the idea and it looks promising. I did enjoy the Guard in this between his calm reaction to Celestia the overgrown Gryphon to panic at Celestia the Terror Bird. Also liked how you built some of the history for the Terror Birds and briefly Spike's origins.
dang. I caught up faster than I wanted to. Well! That was awesome to read, and oh no! A cliffhanger!
(/o.o)/ ^ |___|
Terror Birds sound absolutely adorable in an equinicidal sort of way.
She was hungry... and so she ate some fish.
Bad jokes aside, I love this story :D I'm a big shipper of any kind of pairing, but Twilestia always has a particular penchant for large emotional growth in characters stemming from their former teacher-student relationship. Can't wait for your take on their growth and epic internal battle of Celestia the ruler and Celestia the Ancient Terror!
Why not a Tia-dactyl. (Pterodactyl)?
Wasn't this supposed to be Twilights Reign of Terror? I can still remember the voting. Why is it about Tia now?
5163181 I wanted to distance it from Canine Complications and let people judge this story on its own merits, so I changed characters and character arcs. This also allows for some interesting character interactions we don't often see, while Twilight transformation stories are everywhere.
5162819 Because terror birds ate horses across their history. Pterosaurs were mostly fish and insect eaters, with some eating dog-sized animals or filter feeding. Ergo, not much conflict. Also because I like terror birds better, much as I love them both.
5161961 There will be a lot more worldbuilding about dragons, terror birds and the other races of Equestria. I was thinking of putting them in the author's notes so people can skip if they like, but either way I quite enjoyed doing it and it would make the story more interesting.
5161830 We'll see further down the line how true that is...
5161740 5161766 5162662 I am pleasantly surprised by how well the idea of my little terror birds has gone over. Glad to hear you're all enjoying them
5161786
No huge glaring errors, but a couple typos in the first chapter:
Missing space
it
Twilestia... with transformation... into terrorbirds... And yet with a premise like that, no comedy tag. Huh.
Lesbian terror bird sex commences!
Or, they share a romantic dinner... eating Blueblood's body! 
I don't know whether to laugh or facepalm through the back of my head.
Eh, both.
I liked that you switched it from Twilight to Celestia. Should make for an interesting story (and, as you say, Twily transformations are all over the place, while this is something rarely done). Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Good job so far with characterisations, and I haven't spotted any errors worth mentioning.
.....I get the strangest, strangest feeling that Celestia is a distinct offshoot of the Chocobo...Or perhaps the Chocobo is a distinct offshoot of Celestia, the kind Terror Bird......
5164447
Chocobos were inspired from Terror Birds. The things actually existed, apparantly. Imagine like Emus but even more evil.
naturalishistoria.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/skull-terror-bird-scientific-american.jpg
Celestia is best
ChocoboTerror Bird5164871 I know that....
I'm just hoping we can link Chocobos into this fic. Because Imagine Fluttershy and Luna with a chocobo. The adorable would be unstoppable.
5165012
I'm more of a moogle fan, myself.
You know, it's been nearly five years in the fandom and I think this is still the first time I've seen anyone use Terror Birds.
I actually had/have designs on the idea myself (though in a completely different direction), for the fic that I'll probably never write since about season one (which shows you how likely I am ever to get motivated enough to put fingers to keyboard, despite four year's worth of plot outlines and world-building). But they are a natural ancient antagonist for ponies, so it's somewhat astonishing that I've seen no-one else plumb the idea before!
You get a favourite, then, for the concept alone, and I look foward to seeing where you go with this.
I love this story. Please continue
5163792 You may have guessed a plot point, though not in the way you are thinking it will develop. I'll be sure to implement those corrections, though!
5165012 5164969 I am afraid that the most you'll get is an offhand mention. Do keep in mind that Chocobos never threaten to murder and devour anybody, so they're rather different animals.
5164871 More like imagine if velociraptors had battleaxes strapped to the front of their skulls and could run at highway speeds for extended periods of time.
5165862 You will hopefully be pleasantly surprised by later developments in the fic, and also how well-researched on the subject I am (given I specialize in them for my studies in paleontology, which is my career path, I know themquite well).
5164044 5167449 And lastly, thank you one and all for the support and praise. I look forward to continuing this madness, which I will be working on later this weekend.
5170341
Ah! Even better!
Actually, then, you will be the person to ask: have they ever come to a concensus on which ones had arms? I saw a documentary wherein it was mentioned, but it otherwise seems a bit sketchy. I had a good look around a year or... actually, a good few years, come to think about it...! when I was adding Phorosrhacos to my D&D campaign world, as near as I could tell, it was suggesting that some species of Titanis might have had arms, but also that it had been suggested this wasn't true. If anyone would know the answer in more detail, if ought to be you, then!
5170341 ..They have very..very powerful kicks. Genetics, perhaps? And an off-hand comment would be fine..as long as it confirms that the Chocobos are a real thing in this fic.
I'm a big fanboy, but i'm not going to ask you to subvert the whole fic with an entire scene dedicated to it or anything.
5170410 It is a point of controversy amongst scientists as to whether or not they did. The reason why scientists previously believed them to have hand claws is because they have unusually strong, flexible and smooth wrist bones, which is something that is very rare in birds and is common in birds with clawed arms like hoatzins or knobs on their wingtips like steamer ducks. As such, they assumed that they were likely clawed. However, a second review later pointed out that many birds (including the closest modern relatives of the terror birds) simply have flexible wrists, and have no special claws on the wings or anything. It is worth noting, however, that none of the examples of birds lacking elongate claws are actually flightless, nor are any of them predators specializing in animals big enough that claws would be useful to them.
As a last point, (EDIT: not all, but rather) several different species of birds have wing tips that terminate in claws. It's just that only juvenile hoatzins actually have a known use for them (to my knowledge--EDIT: Ostriches and other birds which have them can use them in self-defense, so it's looking pretty likely they had some kind of potent claws on their wings) beyond potentially preening/copulation in ground birds.
All of which is to say we lack the data to say much on the matter, and the birds presented here have the claws for the sake of Rule of Cool. (EDIT: With all of this in mind, do note terror birds likely did not have highly prehensile claws like they have here, and that I did that for narrative convenience more than anything else).
(edit: For some reason it triple posted my comment. Apologies.)
5170459 I'll consider it, but it's not my first priority and I already have a few reference jokes lined up.
5170600
Right. Thank you. I sort of thought that might be the case, but it never hurts to get it from the One What Knows!
I had myself half-thought to rule-of-cool it and have some species having arms in both my D&D campaign world (for the larger ones like Titanis) and for the unlikely-to-ever-come-to-anything pony-story application (wherein the larger and nastier ones would have had them).
5170699 It is indeed a joy to rule-of-cool them. We just have to keep in mind they are animals with adaptations, fears and desires and not unstoppable juggernaughts of badass murder and mayhem.
5170788
Indeed.
That is reserved for Anomalocaris and Brontoscorpio...
5179307 More like Spike's being a child reaching puberty that Twilight is trying to look after is important to the plot, and this needed to be established early in the story. Spike being able to beat Twilight at Ponopoly and her being happy to let him beat her was also dwelled upon for a good deal of time, and for a similar reason (describing both Twilight's tendency to rarely spend time with Spike and her ability to make it a good time for both of them when she actually remembers she lives with another person).
As for the blatantly obvious coincidence, I did think that was a necessary weakness when writing about them but also rationalized it as being logical given that Twilight would likely stumble across them when studying obscure races of Equestria, which is what she was doing when crafting the transformation spell.
Those last few lines were really well done. Nice job.
And on the last line - Blueblood could finally serve the crown.
[quote one of several photos sitting amongst ones showing Spike, Cadance, Luna and Sunset Shimmer.]I don't think you meant to say Sunset Shimmer there. :)
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Behold! Genetic manipulation (and a boatload of magic) has succeeded in creating the ultimate abomination of nature! I call it...
Mooglebo.
This entire thing has been nicely comical in a low-key way so far, but that there made me laugh out loud. I can't even begin to imagine how much coffee you'd need to make up for that kind of wake-up call.