Amidst the chaos of the war afflicted city, one could be forgiven if they didn’t immediately notice the two figures who suddenly appeared on the sidewalk, accompanied by only a slight ripple in the air. Of course, once the onlookers noticed them, they’d immediately wish they hadn’t.
The first to emerge was a gray stallion in a suit and fedora. His only truly distinctive features were the binocular cutie mark and the fact that he had neither mane nor tail. And yet, despite the odd feature, he was rather forgettable.
No, it was his traveling companion that made ponies run in terror. She stood three times as tall as even the largest of stallions, and with more legs and eyes than any pony should have. Bone wings lay against her sides, and bone-like growths covered her crystalline skin. Countless black, thorny vines took the place of her tail. A "Mohawk" of horns protruded from her head, continuing down and blending into the spines protruding from her back.
Oddly, if you asked the two of them who was stranger, the six-legged monstrosity would have pointed to her ordinary-looking companion.
Said companion wouldn’t deny it.
Thankfully, the monstrous one shifted her appearance to that of a unicorn mare that was ordinary except for the long, messy mane cascading around her neck. She opened her mouth to speak, revealing numerous teeth that had yet to fully shift.
"Thanks for the ride, August," the faux-unicorn – Death – said. "I’ve got to learn how to do that on my own someday."
"I only do this because I have already done so," the gray earth pony replied. August’s statement may have sounded cryptic, but it was clear to those who understood time travel.
Death nodded, not really grasping the intricacies of time travel but understanding the general gist. "Still, it was nice."
The observer didn’t reply.
Death asked "Your past selves don’t know yet, do they?"
"No. You still cloud their vision."
Death didn’t acknowledge the answer, but then again, he knew her companion didn’t care about such things. "And you’re fine with me doing this, right?"
"You must do this because you have already done so," August replied in the same monotone. "Your own history depends on it."
The dark goddess smiled an honest, cheerful grin. "No paradoxes?"
"There was a stable entry condition, nullifying the bootstrap paradox; your presence has too small an impact on the course of events to matter."
Death rolled her lavender eyes. "Make me feel useless, why don’t you?" She reached back and, from the fold in space by her side that led to the afterlife, withdrew her favorite pair of guns.
She loved her arsenal of future weapons. The concept of firearms hadn’t even been invented yet, meaning her favorite little toys were completely unexpected by her enemies. Sure, she could just make them drop dead with a thought alone, but that wasn't any fun at all. "I’m off, then."
The reaper charged off, brandishing her weapons in her black magical aura. It didn’t take long for the dark goddess to find a group of vampires terrorizing a helpless family.
"Have mercy! Please!" the mother cried.
"Hey, leave them alone!"
One of the vampires looked over. "Well, well, well, what have we here? A little filly out on her own?" He showed off his fangs. "Have you brought daddy a drink?"
"No, I brought my guns," Death deadpanned. She liked deadpan humor. "These are 3.5 hoof-length, fully automatic horn-activated guns, weighing in at a whopping 30 lbs. each. Forged in curse-fire, quenched in the blood of the damned, and cursed by the dark enchanter Black Hammer, these guns are my favorite weapons."
A loud bang punctuated the air. The left gun, engraved with the word Inevitable, smoked gently. The only one not looking at it in that moment was the vampire closest to the living ponies; his body had yet to realize it was lacking a head.
"It fires custom 2/11 type bullets, imbued with a simple but effective curse."
*BANG* Another vampire dropped dead, courtesy of the gun inscribed with Demise.
"Each shot links my soul to my target, allowing me to crush them with the weight of my soul, and drag them to the pits."
*BANG*
Blood splattered everywhere.
"The space expanded magazines can hold a whopping four thousand rounds, and I have additional magazines if I run out."
*BANG*
Only a single vampire remained.
"So I’m never going to run out."
"MERCY!" The cowering vampire said.
"Funny, didn’t that mare you were bothering ask the same thing?" Death countered. And before the vampire could reply, Death pulled the trigger. She looked over at the cowering family and sighed, "You can go now. You’re safe."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"It’s not a problem," Death replied. She motioned towards the sky, darkening with sinister magic. "It looks like rain; best be hurrying along."
She pulled the trigger once more, ending the life of one of the pillaging vampires that were overrunning the city. "Sixty five."
As she flicked the safety on for both guns, the blood soaked dark goddess looked over at a very familiar face. Her eyes were unusually full of malice, and yet lacked the pain she knew should have been in them. "You Sparkle right now?" She knew full well that little Sparkle wasn’t in her right mind at the moment.
A split second later, her eyes softened. "Yes. What are those weapons?" Sparkle asked.
She lowered her firearms slightly, relaxing somewhat. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with yet," she replied.
It was at that moment that she could see the recognition blooming in her eyes.
"Lady Death, what brings you here?" Sparkle said, bowing her head.
She simply chuckled. Really, why did ponies insist on calling her that? Even as a mortal, she’d been no Lady; she was a child of rape. "None of that ‘Lady’ business. Just ‘Death’ will do. And I’ve got a few things I need to fix. First of all, congrats on the successful use of your first city killer."
"What?" Sparkle asked, her tone displaying her confusion.
Death blinked. What, had she never thought that this was a city killer? It wouldn’t have taken much at all to change it from an anti-vampire weapon to an anti-life weapon. In fact, excluding Princess Cadance’s Lovely Little Bomb, which hadn’t been invented by its namesake yet, there were few pony weapons more fearsome.
Still, Death enjoyed messing with ponies’ heads, especially Sparkle’s; she knew she’d find it funny when she got older. "Wait, am I too early on that one?" She looked up at the black sky. "Oh, I am. And this one is the tame version of it. Huh." Her gaze reaffixed on Sparkle. "Second thing: Don’t let it eat you, no matter what it says." That last bit was genuine advice. She remembered having to deal with…
Never mind. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of the past; she had things to do.
"Death, ma'am, I still have no idea what you’re talking about," Sparkle nervously replied.
"You will," the dark goddess said. "Before sunrise, you will."
She flicked the safeties off, ejected the spent casings, and chambered the next rounds in each of her guns. Not missing one last chance to mess with her head, Death said, "Anyway, I’m off. Things to do, ponies to see, vampires To BlOw To A pUlPy MeSs, EaT tHeIr CoRpSeS, aNd FuCk ThEiR sEvErEd SkUlLs. Catch you later!"
She broke out into a dead sprint, charging at a group of oncoming vampires. "Leeroy Jenkins!" she shouted.
Oddly enough, in the time Death normally lived, Leeroy Jenkins was the name of a great warrior in griffin culture, one who charged headlong into battle without a care for his own safety. One of Death’s friends, a griffin by that name, fit that to a tee.
It also just so happened that a fleeing griffin hen, who was with child at the time, would see Death charging toward the vampires that had been pursuing her, and she would see Death slaughter them. This hen would remember that name, and name her child that. That child, growing up hearing the story of the heroic pony "Leeroy Jenkins," would become a soldier and eventually save dozens of lives with the same reckless strategy. In telling the story of his name to those he saved, he would change the original from a pony to a griffin. More griffins would name their cubs Leeroy Jenkins because of that, until one day, sometime in the future, the Leeroy Jenkins that Death would befriend would be born.
In short, a griffin was named after himself.
It was, perhaps, the most oddly shaped shield Shining Armor had ever created. It stretched through the streets of Canterlot like some sort of twisted series of veins, ever growing as his troops captured territory. And as it expanded, it grew to envelop nearby buildings. Thanks to a series of way-stations and runes, other guards could direct and power the expansion as needed.
Only ordinary ponies were allowed through the barrier. Shining wouldn’t admit it, but how to distinguish based on souls was a trick he’d learned from his sister. However, it left them with a problem; Princess Celestia, not being a normal pony, could not enter the barrier without Shining Armor first compromising its integrity.
Celestia herself didn’t mind though. She hovered above the barrier and shot down the fliers who continued to assault her. Her continual barrage of solar beams proved to be an effective means of deterring vampires. As for slaying them, that was another story. Each beam took a fraction of a second to charge – plenty of time for a blood-gorged vampire to dodge – and the light from her horn was absolutely destroying her night vision.
Sixteen explosions reverberated through the air within the space of five seconds, and Celestia’s attackers completely halted their assault. Before her, a unicorn appeared, brandishing her weapons. "Princess," she spoke.
"Death."
The dark goddess smiled. "Lovely night, isn’t it?"
"If you’ll excuse me," Celestia said, "I must be off."
She shook her head. "If you want Canterlot to survive the night, you’ll stay right there and listen to what I have to say."
Celestia stopped dead in her tracks. "What is it?"
She pointed to the clouds in the west. "Miles beyond those clouds is a pegasus wielding the Conquest Longbow. He’s planning to shoot you."
"A sniper cannot possibly aim that far," Celestia said.
"The bow is cursed. In exchange for its wielder’s life, it fires a metal arrow at Mach 7. That will pierce any shields and any walls, and destroy anybody. Even you. And, the arrows can adjust course in flight," Death explained.
Celestia’s brow furrowed. "I wouldn’t ask this of you normally, but can you kill him for me?"
Death shook her head. "No. I’m friends with the maker of the bow; I promised him I’d see it used before it broke. However, I can give you a place to regenerate safely without vaporizing Canterlot." She partially undid her transformation, unfurling a bone wing which quickly grew to a disproportionate size. The portal that replaced the membrane of her wings was completely black, leading to a void made just for Celestia.
"You know," Celestia said as she entered the portal, "This will be the first time I’ve ever set hoof in your world."
Death opened her mouth to correct her on that fact, then stopped. "Right, time travel." She turned to face the direction the arrow would come from and held her wing outstretched. Death could feel the archer in the distance loosing strength, meaning that he was seconds from firing. "Celestia, did you know that bow was accidentally made as a tribute to you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Black Hammer, who made the bow, built it after a griffin legend, The Four Horses of the Apocalypse. You and the White Horse of Conquest became synonymous over time, but he didn't know that. It's poetic that the first, and likely the last time it will ever be used is against its rightful owner," Death said. She looked up. The archer dropped dead; Death could feel it.
"Really? I-"
*BOOM*
The arrow streaked across the sky, punching a hole in the clouds and leaving a visible trail of heated gases. She felt the archer's soul leave its body; Death snatched it in an instant.
Death snapped her wing shut. In her mind's eye, Death saw Celestia's body explode into a shower of gore. Then, she ignited with the light of the heart of a star, a light so terribly bright that it would have vaporized any mortals standing within several miles. When it died down, Celestia floated gently in her reborn body; the elements of which had just been forged in the heart of the sun.
Before Celestia, a small, golden flame appeared. It grew in size and warped in shape until it took the form of a pegasus. "Where am I?" the pony asked.
"You are dead," Death's voice replied, emanating from everywhere and nowhere at once.
He looked at Princess Celestia. "Lady Death! I did it! I brought you the soul of the Immortal Princess!"
The portal opened up, allowing Celestia to step outside. "Unfortunately for you, Celestia is still very much alive. In fact, I did not want her soul. You attempted pointless murder; enjoy your time in the infernal pits."
As the portal closed, Celestia could hear his scream of terror. "Was that really necessary, Death?"
"That wasn't his only crime." Transforming her wing away, Death looked Celestia in the eye. "You owe me a favor. One day, almost two years from now, I'll be desperate. I'll need Luna's help. Tell her to help me, would you kindly? I'll consider us even."
Celestia couldn't help but wonder what Death would need help with. It scared her to think of the possibilities.
For the first time since she'd arrived, Death looked towards the shield Celestia had been guarding. Inside, among several other ponies, stood Captain Shining Armor. Death pointed towards him. "Shining Armor, you'll lose somepony precious to you very soon."
After a quick stop to drop off a package she'd brought with her from the future, Death momentarily stepped out of the universe. Around her, the chaos of the in-between roiled and rolled. Below her hooves, the bubble of her home gently glistened. Behind her, one ethereal but unbreakable tendril connected her to the pocket dimension that served as the afterlife, another connected her to the universe below, and a third faded off into the distance.
She let her transformation dissipate, revealing her monstrous self. With nary a thought, her location on the outside of the universe shifted. She stepped back inside.
It was a simple cabin that she found herself in, occupied by a single mare who was sipping her tea, unaware of her entrance. "Marionette," she intoned.
The unicorn mare spluttered and whipped around. A second later, she was on the ground, prostrating herself before her. "Lady Death, to what do I owe the amazing honor of your presence?" She said, quite seriously.
"Time, Marionette, is a funny thing. It was your past self who incurred a debt to my future self, and yet it was my past who collected from your future," Death intoned.
"Debt, my Lady?" she asked, her body quivering visibly as she spoke.
"Your puppet and her followers summoned me and demanded my power, and had the gall to short me in payment. As I do not care for damaged souls, your puppet was worthless. You are one soul short," she replied.
"The city. Canterlot. Take your pick from them, then. I'm sacrificing them as a gift to you!" she cried.
The weight of her mere presence pressed on the minds of mortals; in that moment, the effect tripled. The psychic aura Death projected took on a truly hostile tint as it wormed its way into the mortal mare's brain. Visions of agony and terror filled her pathetic mind.
"That is slaughter, nothing more. Souls who die without my personal attention are meaningless to me, one of the thousands that die every hour all across the globe. The soul who is murdered in my name is no more important to me than the child who dies of pneumonia," Death said.
She raised a hoof and set it on Marionette's head, and then pressed down.
Marionette screamed. The pressure was more than just physical; her mind and her soul both felt like they were being crushed almost to the point of bursting.
And then it was gone. Death retracted her hoof and set it on the ground. "Death should be meaningful. A natural death frees space for new life. An unnatural death should save lives. You do neither. You are pointless." Death turned away from her. "I won't kill you now. I won't tell you to stop. Your debt to me will be paid soon enough, when my past catches up to you. I have already had my vengeance; it is certain. Enjoy the rest of your life; it won't be long."
Death stepped out of the cabin. Having teleported straight to her soul, she actually had little reference of where she was in the world. Thus, she was pleasantly surprised to see that she had appeared near the outskirts of Ponyville.
"It looks different without the skyscrapers," she thought.
High above the city of Canterlot, Sparkle appeared on Thorn's back. "How did it go?" the dracolich asked through their link.
"I got it," Sparkle replied.
"Well, I'm almost done. Can we rejoin before we ignite it?" Thorn asked.
Sparkle shook her head, even though Thorn couldn't possibly see her from that angle. "No, Thorn. I don't want to. I'm tired and I don't feel like being Sparkrovitar right now. Maybe later."
Thorn growled.
The last thing Sparkle heard before he forcefully slammed the link wide open was, "Too bad."
Death... I have a Feeling about you.
Oh shit!
6036314
What kind of feeling?
6036327 One of Those feelings. Especially when
SeptemberAugust is involved.Sparkle is Death.
Now I am certain. The moment when Twilight ascends, is the moment Sparkle becomes Death.
Also,
or something like this was said before.
Thorn... what a trivial attempt. You will not manage what you want to do.
Well... we know Thorn has impulse control issues. This shouldn't come as something overly surprising.
6036341 We've known that for a long time now, what with her cutie mark being only just barely different from his during the aborted sacrifice cult chapter...
6036327 Thorn is going to hurt Sparkle... I'm assuming it's going to be bad, very bad. I really hope it doesn't end with him needing to be reborn, with a purified whole soul.
Every time I see a reference to the observers I get paranoid that they're actually there for a similar purpose as their original creations.
Sparkle (or Sparkrovitar) pretty much becomes Death. Also, this makes me think Twilight becomes Life.
I didn't notice before, but it's pretty obvious now. Death is Sparkrovitar. which means A: Sparkrovitar completely consumes both Sparkle and Thorn B: he becomes a permanent being because of this
and C: still arbitrarily male because either bored, or Thorn's actions at end made him the dominant contributor to Sparkrovitar's personality.
either way, that about kills my interest completely. I liked your depiction of death, but the fact that he's Sparkrovitar just ruins it for me.
6036440 - To be fair, Death doesn't really act like the combined entity. He does have some decidedly draconic features in his alicorn form, but I am still not sold on Death being Sparkle. Plus some references to her sense of humor later in her life, leads me to believe that this is far from the end.
Not saying things are going to be all right, and though Sparkle was decidedly a good pony, despite her natural magical proclivities, the combined entity doesn't seem to share that motive. Death doesn't seem to care for killing without just reason. He's clearly against unnatural predation.
And here we see Death, to tally wrecking any sense of time and linear progression, confusing readers in a wonderful way.
Nice touch with the Darksiders references.
6036486
And here I had a long and complicated list of reasons why Sparkle might not be death, or at least not entirely. You know, multiple souls merging, memories overlapping, that sort of thing.
Guess that's thrown out the window
6036486
I'd rather not fill the comments with spoiler text, so i'll just PM.
I swear Sparkrovitar has entirely ruined this story. Everything since Sparkrovitar's introduction has been an inevitable, catastrophic spiral downwards. Me and a few others warned that Sparkrovitar was causing problems, and the response was thus:
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/578/024/a8c.jpg
I have read the "epic spoiler" and I think that it is a terrible, horrid idea that is full of fail. In no way does this seem like a good idea to me. Sorry, but I like Sparkle as Sparkle, not as "Sparkle in a male body" or "Sparkle reborn with a different personality" or anything like that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! It's a disaster waiting to happen.
I feel like this story has lost a lot of what first drew me to it. I liked seeing both Twilight and Sparkle more often. I liked seeing them interacting with each other. I liked seeing the parallels and differences in things that they went at together. More and more this story has less and less of Twilight in it, and focuses more heavily on Sparkle. Now I do understand that to an extent, since Twilight's story follows more closely to canon than Sparkles and you "don't want to repeat things everyone knows and have seen before". That totally makes sense and I'm fine with that, but I still wish we could see more of Twilight, and especially Twilight and Sparkle interacting.
The description talks about both Twilight AND Sparkle, the cover features both of their cutie marks, but we only see one of the two of them.
Honestly, I think I'm about done with it, and that sucks.
6036486
Damn it, it is taking all my will power to not open that spoiler..
6036486
Wait if changes to Sparkle mirror to Twilight does that mean Twilight will get penis too?
Thorn probably dun goofed. I wonder what Sparkrovitar will think of that, and do about it?
Nitpicks:
"Among", to me, implies several objects, ideas, etc. beng differentiated from. When it's a general scene (chaos) or a single thing, I believe it should be "amid" or "amidst".
possibly, but you probably meant "pursuing"
to
Okay, the Hellsing is a little too heavy-handed here...
edit: adding a comment on the Sparkrovitar stuff. it's interesting indeed, but (spoiler stuff) I kinda agree that the story feels like it has lost its way. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing Sparkle's progression, but the change to a male self seems rather... random, unless there's some big master plan. What, getting together with Twilight to make a superpowered offspring who then becomes Death or something? xD
Read the spoiler and all I have to say is this:
I like Twilight as Twilight and Sparkle as Sparkle. To change this is to change why myself, and I feel, many others decided to read and follow. Namely the interactions, parallels and divergences of the timelines.
And I share the opinion that sparkrovitar was a train wreck waiting to happen from the get-go.
6036371 WAITWAITWAITWAIT...
When did we get his cutiemark described during that part?
6036556
I'm going to have to agree with you on this one. Every time Sparkrovitar comes up, I find myself skimming through the story until his part ends, then end up forcing myself to go back and read it thoroughly. Yet, with every other section of the story, I'm enthralled. A good story shouldn't do that, and when multiple people agree on the same issue, glares at Sparkrovitar you might have a tiny problem. Nevertheless, such a thing will not stop me from reading this story (partially because there aren't enough good dark mage Twilight stories out there), but I definitely won't be reading with the same amount of enthusiasm as before this issue came up.
I don't mind Sparkrovitar, it's a novel concept. I will be glad when it is dealt with, however. Having a living phylactery that influences the owner's mind makes sense, though the sudden turn kinda feels like it had no buildup behind it.
Death, though.... just kinda feels like a really, really bad anime character. I think it was a bad idea to should that much from his perspective. It could have just been a snippet of him speaking with Celestia and that would have contributed just as much, I think.
I dunno, just my opinion. I do enjoy the story. I'm eager to see where all of this is going and what Sparkle is planning.
6036556
I like the scenes showing the interaction between Twilight and Sparkle, but I never got the impression that somebody else than Sparkle is the story's main character. Twilight is mentioned in the summary only to show the difference to Sparkle (who gets two paragraphs of her own, unlike Twilight with her half-paragraph), atleast that's my impression. I was surprised when we saw things from Twilight's perspective for the first time (wouldn't mind that returning from time to time, though).
Actually, I'm generally rather surprised by the negative influence Sparkrovitar seems to be enacting on part of the reader base. Maybe it's because I'm also reading the blog, but Sparkrovitar was never a truly unwelcome event for me. In fact, I thought it to be foreshadowing and find myself a bit surprised by the (warning, spoilers--obviously) oncoming sealing of Sparkrovitar--he seemed to fit one of Death's characteristics in the blog. It probably would have been good to introduce those concepts not just in the blog but also the story, I presume, and maybe that's tied to the negative reaction.
I'd even go so far to say that Sparkrovitar wasn't even used to his full potential. It might be due to the apparend focus of the story on action/adventure, but he could have been used to explore the question if Sparkle actually is nothing but a symptom of the sick Sparkrovitar (the blog even described it as a strange case of a split personality disorder) or if her former existence as a non-fused soul is enough to justify her continued existence to Sparkrovitar's disadvantage. Maybe we'll see a bit of that in the next chapter, though.
And concerning the other part of the spoiler: I've always heard that character growth is considered important in stories (a stagnant character is usually boring). That one particular change may be a bit more...unusual as it appears to be less of a mental and more of a physical change (which is why I would argue that it might even be seen as a smaller change--in fact, might that just be the problem with it?), but I'd still consider it as a kind of growth. It also does open up new and interesting avenues to explore (like Sparkle having to find out that switching bodies is more stressful and strenuous on her mind and the ponies around her than anticipated, even with her knowing and preparing for it, and having to deal with the fallout generated by it). Again, it was foreshadowed in the blog and not in the story (atleast as far as I can remember), but Sparkle changing bodies at one point in time was pretty much clear to me. Even if there wouldn't have been that one spoiler post that outright stated it).
...not much to say, just that I can't wait to read more and would recommend to everyone making a drama about Sparkrovitar : just wait. We don't know what will happen, nothing is 100% clear yet, so.. just wait and see if you like the outcome before you complain.
I, for once, love all of this <3
I really hope I'm wrong and that future death isn't Twilight, because I don't want Twilight to be male. It's just weird. Even though she would technically be Sparkrovitar... But eh.
Death time travels.
Death is named himself Leeroy Jenkins to the griffons.
Death has guns.
What?
6037736 lord death is twilights unborn child so for death to occur to ponies he has to be able to time travel hence the guns clearly death has been to the future and got himself some toys
6037637 really? its twilights unborn child from the soul she sacrificed to save shining armour
6038053 I hope that isn't a spoiler from the tumblr you just gave me, because I am just speculating.
6035585 Well to be fair he does seem to be very power hungry, and he did transform his/her body without even telling Twilight, also did he even consult Sparkle about the transformation or did he just do it? From what I can tell he seems nice enough in that he hasn't caused any problems yet, but what if someone were to get in the way of him and the power he desires what would he do then, or how far would he go to obtain power? There is no clear distinction into how much autonomy he has, you said he's the complete soul of the parts that are Sparkle and Thorn. If so then is Sparkle the true personality or is she merely a fragment that can be erased if Sparkrovitar gains enough control? How much control does Sparkle have over Sparkrovitar? There's not enough information to determine his true intentions or how he interacts with other ponies to form an honest opinion of him.
I knew that Sparkrovitar was a bad idea.
I think I know why Sparkrovitar is such a horribly bad idea, Thorn's immaturity bleeds over and lessens the empathy that would normally be had by Sparkle, so the result is a fused soul with incredible power, affected by greed due to the dragon part recognizing the vast power gained, and with empathy weakened or almost gone due to Thorn's mentally fairly immature mind.
plenty of time for a blood-gorged vampire to dodge – and the light from her horn was absolutely destroying her night vision
within the space of five second
he knew the arrow was second away
I don't want too
1. Erm... Her night vision of the vampires?
2. Seconds.
3. He knew the arrow was seconds away.
4. To.
So I see people keep saying Death is Sparkle. But one thing is complety making me say no which is his statement saying that while he was mortal, he was a child of rape. Was Sparkle a child of rape? I shouldn't think so. He stated such:
So yeah, wondering about why currently.
I agree with ABitterPill and EndGamer.
I came to read this story , and like this story for , Sparkle and Twilight and their interactions together as sisters. To change who Sparkle is in addition of the reduced time Twilight get to appear would completely kill my interest in the story.
I skip any Sparkrovitar part to begin with , but this chapter well ... I like anime a lot , and get which one you "depicted" here , but that was to much of a genre shift in my opinion.
Anyway, I will waiting and see , but my hopes are not high.
Doing the math, I have come to the following conclusion. The guns have a 200 mm bore and a length from breech to muzzle of 2.2 m. This can be guessed to be reasonably accurate due to the following:
1. We have the measurement 2/11. If this is similar to how artillery is measured, then that means the length of the bore is 11 times its length, with the length being 2 units.
2. We also have the measurement of the guns' power plant, 2.5 hectoliters. Given that this is on the second order of magnitude and in SI units, we can assume this system of measurement is constant the system.
2a. We can assume the system is measured in SI despite the weight being expressed in imperial. This is because when the technical aspects were being described (the power plant) one system was used, as if reading off a brochure or specification sheet, and when talking about the part of the system the user actually interacted and dealt with, it was expressed in a familiar unit, something more day to day.
Unfortunately, we don't know what about them is automatic. Given that there are spoken word in between shots, we can assume "automatic" refers to some sort of auto-loading mechanism, not automatic fire. This is corroborated by two other thoughts. One, perhaps curses must be handled with care, making the loading process take 1-2 seconds. Two, firing a single shot can be difficult depending on the system. It's easier to do single shots on a 500 rpm system than it is to do on a 900 rpm weapon.
Or I might just be over thinking this.
6039126
There's no conversion. You're overthinking things. I don't know enough about guns to write it with any accuracy. I made "Equestrian" specs so no one would call me out on gun BS.
6038959
Have you ever been in an extremely dimly lit room and you can't tell the color of objects, but you can tell that there's an object there just by looking? Human night vision, as in, your limited vision at night, and not super vision. A bright, pulsing light will disrupt your vision, rendering you blind for a few seconds after each pulse.
Other than that, thanks for the fixes.
6039303 Ahh, that makes more sense. Blame the pulsing disco lights for everything. Celestia is one giant disco ball in this case.
It is also wrong that I feel bad for Death being worshipped as someone who just wants well... Death? If only there was some way to show them that he's dead serious about the wanton death, rituals, sacrifices and etc being useless. At least we know his shots are always dead on with the curses.
oh thorn i used to like you then you got greedy and became a dick i hope sparkle lobotomises you for this
This Death is fun, he feels like the Kid but grown up.
Alicorns are scary.
Oh time loops, so much fun.
Ahh, so that's how Dusk planned on taking out Celestia. I suppose this means they didn't know she would simply regenerate while simultaneously destroying Canterlot and their entire invasion.
Marionette lives near Ponyville? I wonder who she actually is.
Whoops. This is why playing at being a dragon while not actually being one is dangerous.
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It was described in one of the interludes. The one where she is kidnapped and almost sacrificed to Death.
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I knew where in the story it was, as seen in here.
I just didn't realise we got his cutiemark back then.
Thorn, I hate him. I feel like I should name him a traitor. He is going to cause something terrible to happen to sparkle, and I have a feeling that it is going to ruin her as an interesting character. Since she is the main, I feel like this is going to tank the story for me. This upsets me.
I really have to agree with the people saying they're not at all enthused with the material of the 'epic spoiler'.
Every author has the right to write the story exactly as intended, and I'm sure it'll be written well, but the story's heading in a direction that I feel leads far away from its original premise (identity, interactions, and parallels between two different Twilights), and is becoming rather less appealing to me. Sparkle becoming Death as Twilight becomes the alicorn of friendship seems like a pretty great idea; it's been heavily foreshadowed, and again, plays off parallels. Sparkle dying, rebirthing herself as a male (Obsidian Knife's involvement in all of this just doesn't seem necessary), and essentially changing who she is... doesn't. I'm really not keen on all of that. And I also agree that the story is gaining more and more tunnel vision on Sparkle. She's always had more focus, as it should be with her being the main character, but Twilight's very quickly becoming a non-character.
Also, it seems to me like Thorn's character has become distinctly less likable than it was in the beginning. I know he's a soul-devouring dracolich, and that it's been authorially stated he's a sociopath, but honestly, he didn't act quite so terrible earlier on in the story. Whether this is character drift or an actual plot point remains to be seen.
Damn, someone have to tell to Death that play with the time could be dangerous... and are giving me a headache.