Chapter Thirteen
Surprises, Pleasant and Otherwise
It was like getting hit with a huge, soaking-wet comforter at high speed. Unpleasant, but immensely less unpleasant than it might have been. The shot still slammed me face-first into the pavement and knocked me silly. The energy sort of wrapped itself around me, but it didn't vaporize me.
Which was a bit of a surprise, given the sheer size of the gun. Oh, my aeronaut armor was of excellent quality, and it had some hefty anti-magic protections, but it didn't cover my legs, wings, or head and wasn't made to stand up against siege-level weaponry.
I heard Skyla scream something unintelligible and I tried to call out to her, but my head swam and it took me several seconds to even think about getting to my hooves.
When I managed to get my head up and take a look around, Skyla was gone, but the thugs were still there. Oddly, they all looked like they'd gotten a couple of taps on the head with a sledgehammer, too.
"Hnnnn… Wow, that was a good one!" The pony with the big axe said through gritted teeth.
The pony with the scarred face hefted his iron-bound cudgel in his forehooves and blinked his eyes rapidly. "Where's the pretty one?"
"Kill this one first," the gray stallion with the saber said, pointing his sword at me.
I went for my blades… and then everything made sense. My magic backed up with an unpleasant pulse, and my short blades remained inert, lying on the street underneath Gray's hooves. Suppressing fire, the pony on the gun had said.
Scarface chucked, a low nasty sound. "Figured it out have you? That ugly screw on your head is useless now. Go on, try your freaky wings, I love that stunned expression on your stupid face!"
I wasn't about to entertain them by flapping uselessly around, trying to get airborne on magically deadened wings, but using them seemed like a very good idea. At four-to-one odds, I couldn't afford to play nice.
I took a half-step forward and flicked the edge of my right wing into Gray's face. I wasn't wearing wing blades, but a stiff feather viciously whipped across an eye can do a lot of damage.
Gray screamed and shied back far enough for me to scoop up my short swords with the tips of my primaries. I flipped them into a forward grip in the first joint of each wing. It was the weakest way to hold a weapon, but it gave me more speed and reach, which was exactly what I needed when outnumbered so heavily.
The best way to fight four ponies at once is to fight them one at a time. I feinted at the one with the longsword to make him hesitate, and then threw myself sideways at the one on the far end of their ragged line. The one with the huge axe.
Axepony reacted as I had hoped, by trying to split me in half with a powerful downward chop. There's no way I could parry it with my light blades, particularly when held with my wings, but all I needed to do was deflect it a little bit while continuing to slide to the left. Doing so put me on the far left of their group, and it was a simple matter to sidestep around to Axepony's right side.
At that point, he was the only pony that could reach me, and I had a couple of seconds of one-on-one time with him.
That was all I needed. His back-bladed return shot was easy to dodge, and before he could stop his heavy axe and start it back in my direction again, I had hit him five times.
He went down with a groan, and his axe clattered to the street. I kept him on my right flank, hoping Longsword would be stupid enough to try to lean across the body to strike at me. No luck there; he covered my right while Scarface circled around to cut me off on my left.
I turned and stepped left, even though I knew I barely had room to get around Scarface. His cudgel swung up, in much the same manner as Axepony's wind-up, but I could tell from the set of his shoulders he expected me to try to get past him, and was prepared to turn his downward blow into a horizontal swing as soon as I stepped sideways.
So I went straight in. The big guys never expect it. I used all the strength of my hind legs to leap forward, and scooped air with my wings as I threw them back to my sides. Scarface swung, but by the time his cudgel had passed the vertical, I was already between his forelegs, my horn rising up under his jaw.
My head slammed to a stop with a sudden jolt, and the cudgel spun out of his grip, painfully grazing my left knee. His lifeless hooves bounced off my shoulders, falling away to either side as I sidestepped and jerked my head to free my "useless" horn.
I spun and back-stepped as it came free, slashing with my short swords in the direction I figured Longsword would have moved to. But he was still standing on the other side of Axepony's body, gaping at the spasming Scarface. Gray was trying to get around to my rear, but was still a couple of lengths away.
I wasn't going to turn down a gift like that. I charged Longsword, bringing my blades up in a crossguard that caught his sword between them near the hilts. He tried to get out of the bind, but he'd obviously had no experience fighting twin blades, and all his instinctive reaction did was allow me to free one sword while maintaining control of his weapon with the other. My freed blade rose in a deep cut through his neck, and he fell.
That left Gray. When I turned to face him, he was backing away from me, holding a hoof to his dripping face, and attempting to keep up a decent guard position with his saber.
I twirled my blades in a fancy pattern that would have had Maestro Flèche scowling in disapproval. "An eyepatch can be kinda sexy," I said, jabbing the point of my left blade in the direction of Gray's remaining eye, making him flinch. "A white cane? Not so much. I'll let you go if—"
There was a flash and a blur, and Gray's head tumbled to the pavement. It was followed by the rest of him a moment later.
"Your pardon, Majesty," Ao said, flicking blood off of her long curved blade. "Did this one interrupt?"
I sighed. I had hoped he would turn tail and run so I wouldn't have to kill him. I wasn't going to criticize Ao directly, but I had to say something. "That was a really clever line. I was hoping he'd remember it."
Ao looked down at the head, considering. "The chances of that are slim, Majesty."
I let it go. "Have you seen Skyla?" I asked.
"She is abusing the few remaining guards on the wall."
"Can you get me up there? My wings won't work."
It was a struggle, but she managed to get me high enough to hook my forelegs over the edge of the parapet, and I hauled myself up the rest of the way.
Skyla was hacking away at a prone guard that was well past caring, screaming, "You! Hurt! My! Auntie!"
"Captain!" I called out to her. "It's okay! I'm fine!"
She looked up, and I flinched. "It's me! Auntie Twilight!" I hurriedly called out to her, and was vastly relieved when the madness drained out of her face.
"Are you hurt? Where—" She dropped her cutlass and ran to embrace me.
"No, no; none of it is mine." I returned the hug briefly and then pushed her away. "We need to get out of here fast, but I want to take a quick look at that gun."
Skyla nodded and wiped at her tear-stained face.
The gun had six rotating barrels that shot different spells. One created a pure blast of deadly energy, of course, but another projected an anti-magic seal, much like the ones used in Equestria for large sporting events. Only much, much more potent. At a rough guess, I wouldn't be able to fly or use magic for nearly a day.
"Curse it!" I growled. "I'm going to have to hoof it out of here. Well, maybe we can get one more gem out of it." I turned the levers that secured the housing at the gun's base and swung up the cover. The crystal that powered the weapon has huge. It was also familiar.
"Ao, check me on this, but does this look like one of the castings we made?"
She peered into the gun housing. "It does indeed!"
I automatically tried to reach out with my magic and then cursed again. "Ao, there's a hank of cord in my left saddlebag, can you get that gem out of the gun and lash it across my back?"
She gave me a nod that was almost a bow and went to work. I turned to Skyla. "Do you still have the booby-trapped crystal?"
She blinked at me for a moment and then turned to rummage through her own bags. "Yes, here it is!"
"Good! Do you still feel up to the little sabotage job?"
"What? Oh the loading platform, yes... Yes, that's a good idea."
I put a hoof to her cheek. "Flurry, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I just… I'm fine. Really."
I lowered my hoof, leaving a bloody print behind. "Okay then, Captain. I would respectfully suggest that you get a good bit of altitude, drop that gem on the cargo on the platform, and then wait for us a league or so outside the town. Ao and I will join you as soon as possible."
"I… I don't want to leave you."
"Won't be for long… Captain."
She started and blinked at the word. "Yes… yes… half a league down the road. You have fifteen minutes, and then I'm coming back for you, Ms. Nightshade. Understood?"
"Aye, aye, Captain!"
Skyla helped lower me to the street and then she soared up into the night. I galloped down the street, Ao flying above me. The frightened and curious unicorns that had come out of the barracks to see what was going on were only too eager to get out of our way.
Not so the overseer's pegasus thugs. The guards must have freed them, because they swooped down on us before we had made it even halfway to the gate. They screamed, "Demon!" and "Monster!" at us—or more likely, me—as they circled, looking for an opening. When they quickly discovered that I couldn't fly, they made the mistake of rushing Ao. She cut one out of the air almost instantly, and barely missed getting the other. The remaining pegasus went back to circling, darting in and out, slashing and feinting with her wingblades and careful to keep out of Ao's reach.
But not out of my reach. I scooped a dropstone out of my saddle bag, saying loudly, "So, it has come to this."
Ao heard the phrase and curled herself back away from the pegasus. The pegasus realized that something was wrong an instant before the slung stone caught her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and her out of the air.
I grinned at Ao. "Sometimes, throwing rocks works."
She shook her head, chuckled, and opened her mouth to reply.
And that's when the keep blew up.
The massive concussion shattered windows, blasted roof tiles from the barracks, and knocked everypony in the streets off their hooves. Ao and I scrambled upright and gaped at the huge fireball rising over what little remained of the keep.
"I… I think my estimate was a teeny bit off," I said, horrified. I had intended a distraction, not wholesale devastation.
"Even Your Majesty's mistakes are awe-inspiring," Ao said.
"Aww… You say the sweetest things!"
It may seem strange to ponies that have never been through such extreme and terrifying circumstances that a natural reaction to shock and horror is humor. But I can assure my readers that joking and laughter is often a good defense against such things. "Giggling at the ghosties" is an emotional release that can keep a pony functioning rather than breaking down.
So… after some tearful laughter, only slightly tinged with hysteria, we turned and galloped for the gate. Quite a lot of the townsfolk joined us. The guard took one look at the huge herd of ponies rushing down on him and decided that running was a great idea.
Most of the unicorns scattered across the countryside and had no inclination to be anywhere near Ao and I, so we were alone when Skyla met us a half league down the road. Her mane and feathers were slightly singed, and she wore a stern expression. "Some of the gems might explode, I think you said?"
"'Some' covers up to 99%, so, technically, my prediction was only a point off."
"Ha," Skyla said. "Ha."
Ao and I absolutely collapsed laughing, and after a heroically maintained moment of pouty-face, Skyla joined us. Ah, sweet release! We'd have time to be appalled later.
= = =
There was no way I could have made it back to the camp before dawn, especially with my injured knee starting to stiffen up, so we spent the few remaining hours of the night in a small thicket of scrub trees, covered by our cloaks. Ao and Skyla used their healing magic on us, and we got a bit of sleep.
The morning light revealed the smoking ruins of the keep and the imperial airship anchored a few furlongs upwind of it. A dozen or so pegasi flew overhead, scouting the countryside for escaped unicorns, so we kept under cover and watched.
It was difficult to tell what was going on from a distance, but when ponies began to pull carts out of the town to where the airship was anchored, I had a hard time repressing a shout of triumph. "They're loading up the booby-trapped gems from the shed!"
Ao grinned at me. "If we are fortunate, they will be distributed to the whole fleet before the imperials find out what we have done to them."
Skyla shook her head. "I still don't see how a song can turn those crystals into explosives."
I shrugged. "Any highly-charged gem will detonate if it's smashed. The trick is to get an undamaged one to do it. It's not the song that creates the flaw, it's the pattern that's introduced into the unicorn's magic by the rhythm of the song they're singing. Instead of a controlled release of energy, when the magical load on the gem reaches the altered pattern in its matrix, all of the mana is released in one big burst, just as if the crystal had been shattered." A memory suddenly popped into my head that provided the perfect analogy. "Do you remember those popsicle stick 'bombs' that Rainbow Dash taught you to make when you were a foal?"
Skyla frowned for a second and then said, "Oh, right! You bend them and weave them together in a certain way and then, when you drop them or pull out a stick the others all fly apart! It's really that easy?"
"Well, the pattern has to be exact to create that reaction. Most rhythmic voids would just mess up or stop the mana flow." I couldn't help grinning at my own cleverness. "Fortunately, The Bells of Canterlot has an overlapping four-six beat that is ideal for inducing the right thaumic orientation and spacing."
Skyla thought about it for a minute before her face lit up. "We can teach it to more unicorns! As many unicorns as possible... and they can teach others until every unicorn everywhere knows the song! The imperials won't be able to use any gems for fear of them being bad ones!" She turned to me smiling in a rather disturbing way. "We can topple the Empire!"
Oh, Sun and Moon, I'd created a monster! "No, no!" I said. "You don't understand! Doing that wouldn't just destroy the Empire of Earth, it would devastate their whole civilization! Our little scheme to cripple the Western Fleet is one thing, but—"
"If their civilization is based on slavery and oppression, maybe it deserves to fall!" she replied, hotly.
"It's not just the rulers who would be affected." I explained. "All the oppressed people would suffer a host of—"
"At least they wouldn't be slaves any more!" Skyla mantled her wings in anger.
"Might this one make a slight observation?" Ao asked, placidly.
Uh-oh.
Skyla looked at her warily, but nodded.
"If the honored captain wishes to attract the notice of the enemy patrols, she will have to shout somewhat louder."
Skyla scowled at the both of us. "This isn't over," she said in a low hiss.
"I promise we will talk it over when we're safely back aboard Nebula," I said, shifting to make myself more comfortable. "There are... options."
= = =
We slept as much as we could while the sun was up and didn't leave the thicket until full dark. My knee had stiffened badly despite the healing I had received,[1] and I could only hobble along at a walking pace. Skyla and Ao took turns carrying the big gem.
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[1] That's usually the way of it. Wounds that seem trivial in combat often turn out to be more serious once one's adrenaline has worn off.
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I told both Skyla and Ao that one of them should fly ahead to let the crew know we were okay, but neither of them would leave me.
We didn't pause for rest until we came to a small creek that flowed under a low stone bridge. The water was cold, shallow, and a poor substitute for a proper bath, but we were filthy. It took me at least a dozen times dipping and shaking my wings to get all the feathers unstuck from each other and clean enough to preen, but I felt much better afterwards.
We had to leave the road and hide about an hour later as a large troop of armored earth ponies came trotting toward Redkeep. Lying on the cold ground, still wet, made my knee ache and practically freeze up, so we wasted more time while Ao and Skyla cast a couple more spells on me.
The treatment made my knee feel much better, and I was starting to regain the use of my magic by the time we arrived at the rebel camp, about an hour before dawn. I had expected that a sentry would call out to us as we approached, but we reached the area of the camp unchallenged. It took my exhaustion-fuddled brain a few seconds to realize the implications of that, and a few more to gallop to the big clearing.
Nebula was gone.
= = =
=
This is what I wanted to see. Twilight fighting to the death. And drama. But mostly drama. I miss Luna. And crazy Twilight.
Twilight is going to be pissed. I wonder how devastating her anger will be to the empire when she comes to retrieve it.
Ao saves the day! Yay!
The cliffhangers, they wound me so!
Whoa! That is about the worst thing that could happen to Nightshade and Skyla and Ao right now. But I'm sure Nightshade will do worse to the crew that abandoned her and stole her ship
Alright, so just what 'Surprises' is twilight in for? Or, are these 'surprises' for the Empire and who they are fucking with? Let's see.
So not dangerous at all, YAY armor! Surprise one for the Empire!
And pissed you off a bit, still, yeah could be worse YAY armor!
Yes but they hit you in the back, in the armor, and given they called out a setting and were nearby, multiple strengths, this one was likely more a sniper rifle type hit then a canon.
Skyla having a bit of fun? Though.. where would she go.. unless she's up there dealing with the gun.
Oh shit.... also holy shit that... well did not see that one coming. Smart move on their part, but it will only delay things a bit. She knows how to fight without magic, and she's still got the same Earth Pony strength and stamina as you.. if not more.
I know... it might actually be something close to a real fight if you do.
Still, they really do not know who they are fucking with. Though that 'suppressing fire' yikes. Empire is not fully idiotic. Just used to dealing with a certain type of threat.
Go wing hands!
Well the BEST way would be to somehow get them fighting each other, but unlikely to happen in these circumstances.
Good old Equine Shield usage. To bad they only count as soft cover.
Not a lot of finesse in these guys, Though they are used to just needing a show of force against easily pacified targets now and then and little else, not anyone skilled at fighting.
With the blades, hooves, pommel's what? She said not messing around so, going for killing blows, or at least debilitating? Or still pulling her punches? this does kind of matter quite a lot to judge what is going on, being vague about that isn't a great idea.....
Okay... going for the 'end them' blows and taking any shot she can to put them down. Good, really bad idea to do otherwise right now. Also... ohhhh vicious. So she took the feats for a natural gore attack.
Useless, hard, sharp, pointy horn. Yeah chalk that up to another surprise.
For that, this is good, the very first one was a bit to vague on what she was doing, but all the rest, very good, enough to be clear what is going on, without focusing on it to much, keeping just enough to get the point across, without being gory, or without putting to much focus on it. The focus is on Twi's maneuvering, her skill, her quick thinking and ability to pull this off so easily. Not on the end result, and yeah, good job for the tone of story this is.
All show, no use, leaves you open, to easy to knock your weapon away... yeah poor idea.
Unless she also took Dazzling Display, then it's great for intimidate Checks.
Or not... was curious if he was going to do anything but.. ummm..... okay so who got him?
Ah, and yes, just a little.. still good timing I guess, now where is Skyla?
She was WAY to used to this.
called it, get their high ground support dealt with. Good call, also way to go trusting auntie Twilight to handle herself. Smart.
ouch.. 'abusing' is a small way to put it and... she's over that line... this is going to cause a bit of PTSD once she clams down isn't it?
Secondly.... they had this coming, and it's sweet how much she cares.
See if she can make it portable.
But, yeah get away before reinforcements show up.. and hope that suppression doesn't last long.
ouch... effective. Also damnit, they DO know how to shoot spells... crap, just when you think you have an advantage. Still Twilight likely does, just through a larger spell selection to choose from and more through knowledge of how to deal with magic.
Oh!? Ohhhhh so those take really REALLY powerful gems.... the main control gun for an important location like this.. I can see it. Good news, means likely won't be many of these things. Also SCORE!
*insert Zelda 'item get' music here*
Definitely can't leave without more BOOM! Not after that reception. Give them a nice going away gift to remember you by.
Going to have one hell of a crash once the adrenaline fully wears off though. Just hold it together till you are out of here.
SYMBOLISM!
Also....
Three we go, that a girl. Listen to Auntie Twilight, but still don't let her get away with taking to huge a risk and look out for her, she is handling this amazingly well.
I don't blame them.
Oh, right.. so.. run from or fight the ancient demon spawn?
Fight.... to bad for them.
Gotta love code phrases.
God aim, and yes I fully buy she practices manual tossing those things just in case. She's is pretty much Batmare at this point as far as 'crazy prepared' goes.
far more often then you would think. Sometimes, simple really is best.
YAY!
That should buy you some time.. lets hope it got the airship too.
Maxim 37 Twilight. "There is no overkill. Only 'open fire' and 'reload'."
Yes, yes they are. And this was a big one.. right up there with the first Hydorgen bomb test.. where the guy who designed a lot of it had goofed, didn't factor in the potential fissioning of part of the casing, and got a much MUCH larger boom then they expected. So, good going Twilight, you are in good company.
True.. but let's face it... you are just so used to this by now you can't help but snark.
All with their heads down and very pointy objects pointed at him...... Smart guy.. so more recruits for the rebels? At this point the ship might start getting a bit cramped.
Awww, no? But.. you said "most" of it was only most, why are they alone? Most means some did not.
Stupid shoddy foreign gems, it's there fault for being to fragile!
yeah preferably while in the air and getting the fuck away from here.
injured knee?
Oh, got clipped by the cudgel.
Dang, missed it.
Fun fun fun time!
She already explained this to you Skyla.. though guess making sure everyone is up to speed can't hurt.
That what.. and also.. damnit RD!
And knowing RD, made sure they were still nice and sticky. But, nice analogy.
Twilight is also the Princess of magibabble exposition. Because I fully understood that.
Yeah.. at that point.. they'd just crack down on Unicorns harder, make them test gems themselves, hold loved one hostage, act even worse to try and crush any rebellion. Not a good idea.
Well.... ehh true once they know about it, will always be some asshole willing to use it so, really would screw over a LOT of stuff.. but at the same time.. anything after the Empire would need to rely less on magical gems, otherwise, unicorns would still be stuck as slaves pretty much. All forced to charge gems all day.
And... gotta say I'm with Skyla on this.. but I do see Twilight's point. This is a good dilemma, Twilight is taking the longer view, looking at things from the big perspective, Skyla from the smaller, more personal one. Both have very good points. But as said, I'm with Skyla, either way, any new civilization would need to be far less depended on magical gems in order for unicorns to not be slaves. And this might be the unicorns only true way of getting freedom... buuuut what Twi isn't bringing up is just bad it would go for them to try that and how the Empire could just go all out in pacifying them, murdering hundreds of random unicorns anytime one crystal explodes, all kinds of terror and oppression beyond even this. it's... not an easy call at all and.. good job story.
I so love Ao.
Good, good, try to work out a way to help the unicorns as much as possible, without making things far far worse, and still agree with Skyla, they should do all they can to help.
Be glad you can at least know it'll heal completely in a few days.
She has a point though... without you two, they are screwed and, well, they are going to be panicky and might do something stupid....
Yup.. went out looking for you.. or got found by the empire? Or just ran to avoid being found? Either way.. this is definitely a bad surprise. Still like Twilight isn't going to get her ship back.
Well, things are getting interesting.. even more so then before.
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Thanks! This is Twilight telling it after all, and the last thing she is going to do is dwell on the gore. So going too far in the other direction is understandable, I think. (The five "hits" were stabs to the face, neck, heart, and twice in the lungs, BTW: I did multiple-opponent drills in the dojo with my students, and picked the most fun fights to synthesize into that scene! )
Gee, maybe I got something out of those English Lit. classes after all!
8168525 oh wait i was wrong this is where twi goes medieval you do not steal a persons baby like that twi loves that ship
Bloody PIRATES!
8168525
Do you have any specific suggestions for writing pony martial arts as opposed to writing human ones?
8168394 Its more likely that Empire scouts found the campsite and her crew was forced to escape and assume that Twilight, Flurry Heart and Ao are badass enough* to survive on their own until they can contrive a way to meet up again at a later date.
*A perfectly fair and reasonable assumption mind you.
8168923
Oops! I replied to you on the last chapter, so you might not have been notified.
Not gonna lie, kinda feel like the Nebula was stolen by the renegades they met.
Seized by a fit of nostalgia, I went back to The Celestia Code and found this little bit:
Twilight certainly has changed over the series.
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Not clear that Twi is actually subtly criticizing Ao? How's this?:
For some reason, I really love that description. It does make me wonder what a levitation aura would feel like, though -- unless the gun shot something meant purely to emulate a kinetic force, I'd imagine its spell would sting a bit more than a smaller unicorn who's trying not to hurt the target, even through the armour. And if I remember correctly, it was set up for suppressing fire (just checked; it was) so I doubt they wouldn't stick a bit of knockout (or nastier) magic into the spell matrix, unless this world is even more magic-poor than I thought. Completely inconsequential and shot through with several wild assumptions, but fun to consider.
Yeah, for those reasons. Is levitation almost downy, or like a very soft fur?
Well, splash damage would be desirable for suppressing fire. Hopefully Skyla wasn't clipped too badly.
Why do I get the feeling he likes a bit of "excitement" in his down time?
Ah. That explains things. Nice wordplay, there.
When they have magic, alicorns must be terrifying in close combat. Once you get through the blades twisting with more dexterity than any physical grip could match, you still have to deal with the sheer strength of the wings. To say nothing of the teeth Twi's sporting now.
And this. There's something so much more personal about goring your enemies.
Talking to Skyla's going to be interesting for a while.
I don't think this is quite what people have in mind when they decry black-and-red alicorns.
All right, maybe she's not going to have so much trouble with the blood dripping down your face. Talking to Shiny and Cadance is going to be interesting for a long while.
That's after taking into account slower recharge rates in this world, right? Your plans would be shot to absolute Tartarus if you were ship-bound for a week -- if you were any other pirate, I'd imagine several of the helpfully-right-there unicorns would find themselves "strongly encouraged" to head right back to crystal-charging duty.
And there it starts kicking in. I really hope this has satisfied Twilight's "If I knew how badly it would have gone..." but I'm afraid that a quick, straightforward scrap and Flurry dealing with her berserker side still counts as a (relatively) good night.
Ao might certainly be strange enough to qualify in sufficiently-paranoid locations, but, yeah, I have to admit that the nightmared alicorn with blood dripping down her horn would outshine a snaky wingless pegasus.
Definitely don't underestimate any of Blackmane's crew, though.
Bit more kick to them then apples!
I'm a bit tired. I originally read that as "And that's when her head blew up." Don't worry, my heart's made it back out of my stomach now.
...I take back what I said last chapter about entering trance states through song as a means to aid charging.
There's the empress's anarchist daughter everypony knows and loves!
I really want Luna to meet Ao some time. Then I really want Luna to give her blessing toward developing some form of a triad. Do weather vanes work on kirin?
And so that dire warning from last chapter comes together. We all know it's not going to be as simple as the crew taking off ahead of particularly perceptive imperials.
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I think I'm more on Twi's side, actually. The Empire definitely needs quite a cultural overhaul, but that's not always synonymous with tearing it down completely; look at the US. There's one real community I know of that was actually against efforts to improve their image because increased awareness comes with tightening constraints and heavier consequences before things would reach even grudging acceptance. That's taking it a bit too far, but as already said, the core holds true: any widescale attempt to change so fundamental a part of the culture will result in kickback against unicorns who'd rather just be left alone in their shacks and factories. Not to mention that it would be alicorns from an alternate world spearheading the movement, and people deciding what would be best for groups they don't belong to never goes well.
Sticking around a bit, being the unicorns y'all were originally planning to be for longer than the first engagement you entered, gathering a cross-racial crew -- that at the same time is noticeably heavily unicorn-populated, by virtue of who would be interested in joining -- and serving as a figurehead is all well and good. More so if you're "clearly" acting for your own gain rather than for the cause. You can even try to drum up some enthusiasm for reform as you go; a rotating crew (from the unicorns) to carry the message to settlements you leave to stern while you yourself convince the new recruits onboard could do wonders. But if you obviously lead the rebellion yourself, you will need that declaration of war Twilight drafted for you. And many of the casualties in war aren't combatants.
Sorry, Seraphem, apparently it's easier to word that if I talk directly to Flurry. I'm sure you can pick out my argument, though.
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Yes, it is certainly far more complicated then Flurry realizes to do this. But I am still fully behind her that the Empire needs to fall, it needs to be taken down. There is no 'reforming' at this point, they are a militaristic, totalitarian regime whose entire culture is based on enslaving 'lesser' races in all but name. There is no 'changing' that, the ones in power will never give up their power until they are forced out, until everything has crumbled around them. There is no way 'reform' could work unless it started with the Earth Ponies, and so far we have seen no Earth Ponies symathetic to doing that, let along any that might be able to enact change. At this point, there is only one hope to end generations of slavery and brutality. Revolution.
Flurry is 100% right this needs to end. But yes, Twilight is also right that.. it's not going to be as easy to do as she thinks, and even as awesome as they are, the two of them are in no position to take on the entire thing themselves, it's just to large.
Now, getting back to Equestria, keeping that portal working, and coming back with a nice, large force ready to kick the Empire's ass. All the yes. While Equestria would be nerfed fighting in the low magic environment, they have the edge in supply, they can simply charge a TON of mana gems in Equestria far quicker then the Empire could. As well as just being better at magic overall so better able to do things they won't expect.
The best Flurry can really do is inspire ponies to stand up, show them how to fight back, to fan the flames of rebellion and leave it to them to finish the fight... while doing as much damage as she can on the way through.
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It does seem like we agree on most of it all; I just think unicorn-driven reform is possible, if very difficult. In the end, though, it all comes down to our own understandings of the Empire, as reconstructed from iisaw's words.
I didn't think about keeping the portal open. That definitely does open up some really intriguing possibilities for trade, both material and cultural -- the Empire seems like it has some things it could teach Equestria about magitek. That could be fun as the
fiftheighth book in the trilogy, if this one ends in some way that would support it. Looking back at chapter four, it seems like it would be difficult but not impossible, and require most of the effort to take place in this world rather than letting Equestrian mages sitless-than-comfortably back in Twilight Town:My impression is that the Empire was built on trade. Opening that back up and providing an easy means of charging crystals could go a long way in supporting (though definitely not driving) a cultural revolution by reducing their dependence on the enslaved unicorns -- to say nothing of the exposure to and pressure from a world where unicorns, if anypony, are the elite. Either way, your last sentence really encapsulates the Equestrians' best hope for kicking the unicorns and burros into gear.
Leaving the clarity of iisaw's worldbuilding for personal headcanon, I feel like Equestria never had a strong equivalent of our civil rights movements -- Equestrians are less inherently prejudiced against other species so their history isn't as dark, but at the same time it never triggered the same demonstrations and revolution so the "everyone should be considered equal" mentality isn't quite as widely held; look at the mules or, to a lesser extent, Trenderhoof. If the portal is kept open and Equestria supports the fight for equal rights in the Empire (in whatever form it takes, peaceful to outright rebellion), I could see that also spilling through and the "lower" Equestrian races being inspired in turn.
8177960 But we have seen no trade. Every airship we've seen or heard of has been military, the only goods we've heard of being moved have been charged crystals, most of which are going to the military. Everything about the Earth Ponies has been about their military, their strength. Who are they even trading with? They see all others as lesser races fit only to be enslaved. So yeah, I see them as a militaristic authoritarian Empire. That sort of thing... does not change until those in power are removed. The unicorns have 0 power to make any reform on their own.
As to the portal, so long as they can keep the crystal's in place and charged, it should be able to stay open. That is the deal, now the only way in or out of that world is a fully functioning portal on this end. They get it fixed, they have a way. But yeah more likely they leave, maybe take some of the new crew with and never look back. But we'll see.
As to Equestria, yeah, they are innately accepting. even the ones you listed... we've seen no sign Mules are treated any differently, beyond a few expressions that could be insensitive. And Trender Hoof was more an issue of classism then racism.
But yeah, I agree the Empire needs to fall.. but I agree with Twilight that Flurry's idea just won't work and be far worse in the long run.
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8178087
You guys are awesome! I guarantee that the situation will become clearer soon, and you've both got solid grasps of pieces of the puzzle!
8178087 Well, I've just done the reply-on-the-wrong-chapter myself: 8178207. There's already a thumbs-up on it, so if that was you, sorry for pinging you needlessly; if that wasn't you, sorry for the trouble!
8178276 Looking forward to seeing where things wind up! This is not only a really fun story, it's also really intelligent and thought-provoking. Thanks for writing it! And thanks for avoiding spoilers!
Well, this is quite entertaining thus far. Though I do worry for Flurry. She's jumped right into the deep end of adventure, and now circumstances are holdong her below the water. Going by earlier footnotes, they'll make it out of this, but I'm not sure what mental scars Flurry will pick up in the meantime.
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Well... scars teach you things.
8177960 8178087 i like the points the two of you being up but i think you are forgetting the Mind control spell the guard were talking about before and from their conversation it seems that soon pretty much all unicorns will be little more than mind controlled drones so a peaceful revolution probably can't happen and as for the killing dozens of unicorns every time a crystal explodes why waste resources and probably incite unrest in the Pegasus community when you can just process them into more drones
note i've wrote this before reading any farther than this
8231105 Those weren't guards. This isn't even a spoiler, it was pointed right out. That was Twilight and Skyla saying that, to plant the idea that the Empire would do this among the Unicorns to help stir up more desire to revolt and make the upcoming overthrow easier to get support for, as well as causing more widespread panic and disorder for the Empire to deal with.
Great.
Nebula is gone!
Begin trope.
Lol
God damn, how do I become this witty?
Love the idea of using wings to hold blades. Makes far more sense than hooves or mouths. Also adoring and awaiting the inevitable conflict between Flurry and Twilight about how to deal with the Empire.