Chapter Fifteen
Slow-burn Serendipity
We burned through almost all of the energy in the engine crystals finding a suitable valley high in the mountains and powering down into it. Then the crew struggled with the ground anchors and a dozen heavy cables to keep Nebula held down and steady against the gusty winds.
Skyla, Ao, and I ran ourselves ragged keeping everything going smoothly and lending a hoof wherever it was needed. The unicorn rebels were actually eager to be doing something productive, but they were the greenest lubbers imaginable[1] and needed constant supervision.
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[1] I do not mean that in a pejorative way. It is simply the most efficient way to convey that they had absolutely no experience with airships, and any action they took on their own initiative was more likely to hinder than to help.
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Cream Puff labored heroically in the galley, producing lots of hot mulled apple juice and savory oat pasties to keep the rest of the crew warm and fed.
Skyla found me below decks, unshipping one of the bilge pumps and forced the hot meal on me.
"Have you eaten?" I asked her.
She held up another pasty. "These are the last two; I'll join you."
We inhaled the food, gulped the drinks, and went back to work. Lance and Swift had built a little rock dam to make a decent sized pool from the rill of glacial melt-water that trickled down the stoney valley. I set up the pump next to it and connected the long hose that stretched back up to Nebula's hull.
"When the pool fills, we'll pump the water into the ballast tanks," I told them, eyeing the basin and making a rough estimate of its capacity and the rate of inflow. "We'll have to repeat that a dozen times or more to fill the tanks, so have Filigree check the pool every couple of hours and get some of the unicorns to operate the pump when it's full. Nebula will ride easier with some weight in her bottom."
"I'd be happy to do that, Ms. Nightshade," Lance said.
"Thank you, but I have another job for you and Swift Wing," I replied. "You guys know the basic concept of good guard/bad guard, right?"
= = =
While the interrogation of Loose Leaf started, Skyla and I settled in on the stern gallery with a nice pot of tea and a plate of biscuits for a preliminary brainstorming session. We both agreed that it would be wonderful if we could transform the Empire of Earth into a peaceful and prosperous monarchy like Equestria or the Crystal Empire. The only other point we agreed upon was that such an outcome was a ridiculous fantasy.
"A widespread program of sabotaging the gems won't work," I told Skyla. "The earth ponies will just institute a tighter system of supervision and tracking, and any unicorn that produced a flawed gem would be severely punished if not killed outright."
"I suppose so," she grumbled. "So what do we do? And, I'm not going to take 'nothing' for an answer! I know you've seen countless worlds that are worse, and there's no way we can save them all, but we are here right now!"
Well, at least it proved that she'd been listening to my counter-arguments.
"We will do something, even if it's just taking the rebels back to Equestria with us when we return."
"And leave behind thousands of others in slavery? That's just not—"
I held up a hoof. "Let's get some more information first. There are a lot of things we can do to help the unicorns to help themselves, at the very least."
"What about the pegasi? What's going on there?"
"We should know a lot more in a few days. Loose Leaf is a goldmine of information if we can get it out of her."
Skyla frowned at me "Why don't you just ask her? She would tell you whatever you wanted her to. She worships you!" And then under her breath, "For some bizarre reason."
"That's the problem," I replied. "A pony that worships me—or is utterly terrified of me, for that matter—might tell me anything they think would please me whether it was true or not. By taking this slowly, and giving Loose Leaf a friend to unburden herself to, we should get some decent information eventually. I can then crosscheck whatever she tells me against our other sources."
"Eventually," Skyla said sourly. "What do we do in the meantime?"
We were interrupted by Good Guard Swift Wing, who came down the ladder from the chart room and through the cabin, shaking his head. "That mare is crazier than a bag of sparrows!"[2]
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[2] A traditional pegasus idiom that I've never been able to make much sense of.
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"I assume Bad Guard Stalwart Lance is with her now?" I asked.
"Yes, Ms. Nightshade," he said, nodding. "I'll go 'rescue' her from him in a half hour."
"Did you find out anything?" Skyla asked him.
"I learned that pegasi are lick-spittle curs and witless tools of the oppressors," he said with wry smile.
"Present company excepted, I hope?"
That made him chuckle. "Of course, Captain! I also learned that there are thousands of others like her waiting to cast off their chains and flock to the side of the—" He paused to clear his throat. "Dark Mistress. I'm pretty sure she is wildly exaggerating, but I'd bet there are at least a few other crazy cultists among the pegasi." He glanced in my direction. "Uh… no offense, Ms. Nightshade!"
"None taken," I said, and forbore to mention that I had quite a few enthusiastic supporters who were perfectly sane. "Any mention of me in particular?"
He nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah. It seems there's this sort of prophecy—"
I groaned. "Oh blistering sun, not a prophecy!"[3]
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[3] Anypony who thinks that prophecies are intriguing, mysterious, or in any way helpful, has never been the subject of one. See my annotated and expanded edition of Predictions and Prophecies for details.
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"I'm afraid so, ma'am. Loose Leaf has it memorized." He plucked a folded piece of paper from under the coverts of his left wing. "Here; I wrote it down."
And Twilight Sparkle said unto the pegasi,
"I will be back to check on you.
And if you haven't straightened out,
I will tear your wings out by the roots,
And beat you senseless with them."
And so shall it be when the ponies of the sky
Fail in their duty to the ponies of the earth.
It was amazingly direct for a prophecy.
"She swears it's no joke," Swift said in response to my suspicious frown. "There are several books of commentary on this so-called prophecy, 'explaining' what it means. It seems like it's pretty straight-forward to me, but I guess there's a lot of disagreement among the blacklips. Loose Leaf doesn't have any of the books with her, but she seems to be solidly in the you're-doing-it-wrong-you-fools camp." He cleared his throat and went on. "Evidently, the one thing they all agree on is that you stopped a big war between the tribes about three hundred years ago and set up the empire."
"What?" Skyla blurted out, staring at me, aghast.
I flopped a wing across my face and dragged it down my muzzle, sighing. "Pestilential multiverse! This sort of thing is always happening to me!"
Skyla and Swift just gaped at me.
"I'll fix it! I'll fix it!" I told them.
= = =
A feral storm rolled in that night, and we were all up late keeping Nebula as stable as possible. She bashed her keel against the rocky ground a couple of times and ripped a fairlead out at her starboard head, but nothing else of significance occurred. I checked the keelmast gear and winches by hornlight before I crawled into my bunk for a couple hours of sleep.
That morning Swift and Lance resumed their charade while Skyla spoke with the rebels about their options. I drew up a set of plans for Filigree, and he went to work crafting another gun matrix to extract lift gas from suitable minerals, and Star and I scouted the valley to find the suitable minerals that could produce a decent amount of the gas.
We returned to Nebula about noon, having marked out several promising deposits. We had our saddle bags stuffed with rocks, and in addition, I was floating as much of the minerals as I could along side.
"I'm feelin' a mite low, Ms. Nightshade," Star said, as we unloaded our burdens.
"Altitude sickness, from working so hard in the thin air," I told him. "Go sling your hammock and get some rest."
I was tired from being up most of the night and hauling a double load of stones for miles, but at least I wasn't nauseated. I went down to my cabin and attempted to bring my personal log up to date, but the soft singing of the unicorns who were charging our crystals made me drowsy, and it wasn't long before I 'closed my eyes for just a second' and fell asleep at my desk.
= = =
Nebula was burning. Skyla and I were the only ponies aboard, and there was just one parachute left. Don't ask me why we couldn't both fly away; with the weird certainty that comes in dreams, I knew one of us was going to fall to her death.
Dream logic also told me that if I could cut the parachute in half, we could both use the halves to escape. But the only sharp instruments I could find were my fighting blades, and they were so slick with blood that I couldn't get a grip on them.
With a hissing roar, Nebula's burning envelope dropped on top of us and I woke with a start.
I groaned and tried to slow my panicky breathing. "Oh, Luna! Where are you when I need you?" I muttered.
It was a foolish thing to say, because I immediately realized how much I missed her and began to feel even worse. I thought that I should have written more emphatically about how much I loved her in that last letter. If I had...
My train of thought hit that badly set switch and roared onto another, unexpected track. Parachutes. Huge power gems were common in that world. So was orichalcum. The only problem was that etching the mandalas would be prohibitively time-consuming. Unless...
"Sugarpine!" I shouted, galloping on deck.
He didn't have the information I needed, but it didn't take me long to locate one of his group who did.
She was an exceptionally beautiful sea-green mare named Katydid. She wore her light pink mane very long and combed back to hide the scars criss-crossing her shoulders.
"Amberdale is the nearest metal-working center, but they don't do much specialized casting there," she told me. "They mainly smelt the ore and ship it out in ingots. Some rough foundry work for large pieces that are finished later is about it. They do have a small stamping mill, though. Just trivial stuff like buttons and medals."
"How big can the medals be?" I asked her.
She shrugged. "The Imperial Star of Valor is bigger than my hoof! Stomper soldiers just love their glittery decorations."
It might just work! I was very careful not to grin at her. "Do you know the layout of the town and the buildings? The more details you know, the better."
She nodded, then took a shaky breath. "I was the overseer's... " She squeezed her eyes shut and was silent for a long moment. "He took me everywhere with him, so I know the whole town pretty well. I can draw out a map for you."
I really wanted to comfort her, but a hug from a jagged-fanged horror wasn't likely to do her much good. "Make sure to mark the overseer's quarters and put down a description of him, will you? Also the ponies in charge of the stamping mill and the foundry."
She looked at me blankly for a moment and then slowly nodded. "I'll give you their names and describe them, but you will have to write it down, ma'am. I don't know how."
"You can't write?" I asked, surprised.
"It's illegal to teach a unicorn to read and write," she said simply.
I'm afraid I gaped like a landed trout for a bit, trying to wrap my head around this new atrocity. "What? Why?"
"They say it would be a distraction from our duty to the Empire. I've heard of some who learned, but the penalty is blinding for the unicorn and prison or death for the teacher, so it doesn't happen often."
"Oh, I am going to wreck those miserable stompers!" I growled, unthinkingly baring my fangs.
Katydid's face lit up in a sweet, wistful smile. "That would be nice."
= = =
I explained everything to Skyla and she eagerly agreed to the plan. I spent the rest of the day drawing up a very specific pegasus disguise matrix for Filigree, as well as a mandala that looked a great deal like an imperial medallion. We didn't have the facilities aboard to actually produce a stamp, but Filigree assured me that any competent craftspony could quickly and easily make one from his prototype.
The next day, while Filigree did the metal work, I went over Katydid's drawings of the town with her to make sure I had everything down correctly, and held several meetings with Star and Sugarpine to try to glean enough information to be able to pass for a low-level functionary on business for a high noble.
They both had experience dealing with ponies of that sort, but neither of them had any direct knowledge of all the little details that could trip me up. The only pony aboard that had been part of the imperial hierarchy was Loose Leaf. Well, the other pegasus prisoner also, but he wouldn't be much help.
So I finally sat down with her and had a long chat.
The key to posing as a divine/infernal being is to never answer any probing questions. The only appropriate reply to a pony so impious as to ask, is an expression[4] suggesting that a plague of carnivorous parasprites might feature prominently in that pony's obituary.
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[4] It's mostly in the eyebrows, but according to Luna, it's the tiny curl of the upper lip that really sells it.
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It was a technique I did not have to employ, because Loose Leaf was nothing if not worshipful. In fact, the main problem with getting any information out of her was getting her to stop praising me long enough to say anything else.
What finally worked was telling her to write down a list of blacklips who were intelligent enough to realize how magnificent and absolutely correct I was, along with where they were posted. After that, she was to give her new friend Swift Wing as thorough a briefing as she could in regard to successfully posing as an imperial official.
Before I left, I laid my wingtips on her shoulders and said, "You have my blessing, Loose Leaf. Soon you will be freed to do my work in the world, and the world will change because of you." Her eyes rolled up in her head, but at least she didn't faint again.
By the morning of the third day, I had cobbled together the Amberdale Operation and Filigree had completed the waveguide that would shoot a pegasus disguise, as well as a prototype for the medal stamp.
There was one last-minute change to the plan, though. It made the most sense for Skyla to be the officer remaining aboard, but for some reason, neither disguise gun would work on Ao. Ao would have to be the one to stay behind. Ao was not pleased by this turn of events.
"This one is uncomfortable being so far from you should you require assistance," she said, after I had been disguised and was gearing up for the flight to the foundry town.
"I'll have the raptor set with me and it's only about four leagues from here,"
Ao got a bit twisty. "This one would require a half-hour or more to cover that distance. Much ill could befall you in less time."
"I promise I will be careful," I said.
She shook her head, sadly. "Always, your intentions are good, Majesty."
I didn't ask her what she meant by that comment because I knew what she meant.
"If we pull this off, it might mean freedom for thousands of these poor ponies. I have to take the risk. You'd do it yourself in a heartbeat!"
She sighed and nodded but didn't say anything.
"Don't worry, Skyla and I will be back by the evening watch change."
She nodded again.
"I'm all set," Skyla called out as she descended from the quarterdeck. "Ready, Ms. Nightshade?"
I nodded.
"Excellent!" She didn't even glance at Ao when she told her, "Take good care of my ship, Ms. Ao!"
Her ship? The flurry of expressions and slight head movements that I traded with Ao behind Skyla's back in desperate silence were rather intense and information-dense. In the space of three heartbeats, we had agreed that immediate mutiny was a very bad idea, given our current circumstances, but the moment would not be forgotten.
"As you command, Captain," Ao said, softly.
Skyla dove over the rail, and I followed her down the mountain.
= = =
=
Honestly Twilight you have too many responsibilities to do the air pirate thing anymore the Nebula would be a proper living airship in Flurry's hooves instead of the fancy memento of your past adventures it was becoming.
i think it's amusing to note that some carnivorous parasprites appeared in one chapter of the classic "Fallout Equestria" story.
YOUR SHIP?! Luna and I built this ship and put our souls into it! YOU DARE TO USURP ME ON MY OWN SHIP!? Your mother is gonna hear about this.
No! Wait! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! ANYTHING BUT TELLING MOM! She'd send me to my room without dessert.
I must admit, that is a hilariously direct prophecy while still being quite uninformative.
It's always good to have realistic goals. Hopefully they'll end up doing more good than har—
Aaaand they just triggered the Princess of Education. Bravo. All hail the rise of the Book Empire.
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Prophecies, man.
Well, it sounds like some centuries ago it was the pegasi who were the oppressors, until time-traveling or alternate-universe Twilight made them stop. And then rather than coexist peacefully they just hoofed over the scepter of imperial oppression to the earth ponies.
"Being a savior is much harder than it looks." -Princess Twilight.
"Tell me about it." -Jesus.
Is it just me or does that prophecy sound familiar..
I assume most of the annotations in Twilight's edition of Predictions & Prophecies consist of aspersions cast on the prophets' lineage, moral fiber, and ability to pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
What concerns me here is that I can't tell if Twilight's referring to the incident her analogue caused or the multiverse itself. Given this Twilight's track record, she very well might try fixing the latter.
Also, if this world's Twilight was around three hundred years ago, that suggests time's moving slightly faster in this universe. Hopefully it won't be by an significant amount upon the ship's return.
Oh dear. Oh dear. The Empire of Earth has made a truly terrible enemy this day. Illegal literacy does not please the Princess of Books.
Given the details we have, I give the mission about a thrity percent chance of success with minor issues, sixty percent chance of success with major issues, and ten percent chance of Amberdale exploding somehow. Looking forward to seeing how wrong I am.
...
Are we SURE the portal displaced them in universes and not just in time and space...?
Because that prophecy sounds pretty much exactly like what this Twilight would say in a temper...
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Oh yeah!
Since one fix usually leads to something else breaking... Good thing she's immortal, huh?
And, as far as predictions go, yours isn't bad at all!
Ponies of the earth. Not earth ponies, ya wee numb-skulls, ya slimy gits! Watch over all earth-bound ponies. Uhg, can no-pony follow simple instructions anymore?
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So this is what it feels like to beat Seraphem to the commentary. Strange.
Haven't come across that term before. Does apparently mean what it seems like it would, but is she detaching it for repairs or to move it elsewhere on the ship? For that matter, the fact that Nebula even has bilge pumps says a lot about it being designed for water landings. I don't imagine too much use for them on purely-airborne vessels.
Ask and ye shall receive. Refilling ballast is certainly a good use for them even on ships that don't have to worry about drilling holes in the hull.
Hm... if this were Equestria, Swift Wing would probably be cast as the over-eager bad guard. The pegasus martial history is even stronger here, but at the same time, Lance's lack of extra appendages gives him more percieved clout even on top of his size. I'm guessing he's the one doing the quiet "I have absolute control over you and your fate"-style intimidation, while Swift plays up the racial angle a bit in his attempts to "placate" the bad guard. Get the imperial pegasus on his side against the overbearing standin-for-commander, without going so far as to make it unlikely he'd be able to guarantee safety.
Oh, come on! I at least wanted to see if my casting was right.
Not to mention that, despite the declaration of war sitting in your cabin, you really don't want to start anything that could be construed as aggression. Twilight Town will be the first Equestrian place hit in any Empire-initiated conflict, not far behind any imperial unicorn settlements. I still advocate for cultural instigation.
She'll make a good empress some day -- as long as she keeps the piracy out of the throne room.
"There might be no way we can save them all, but they are here right now."
Yes. And then you don't have however many who are uncomfortable with their new freedom latching onto you or leaving the gates wide open for the next strong personality to desire power.
"Loose Lips sunk ships" is quite different from the other direction, isn't it.
Actually, it is more bizarre than Twilight Town. They, at least, had the auroch to thank her for, rather than just whatever happened centuries ago.
Not a bad plan. Just don't have that friend be Ao. That is, unless you want to start the first cross-dimensional religion.
Well, I had the assignment correct. Now just to see about their characters.
Wasn't the soldier male? ...Yep. So apparently the good guard/bad guard is for Loose Leaf. (EDIT: I have no idea how I didn't notice earlier. One of my quotes even said so explicitly.) That seems a bit of a convoluted way to make friends, but I guess my script would still work for it, as long as Stalwart Lance stayed a bit in the background.
Also, that is a really fun idiom.
...even correcting for exaggeration, you might be a bit late to avoid that religion. All the more reason to keep Ao away.
I actually do want to see this. Especially if the original version is quite old. "On a careful reading, the scholar will note that all this says is that somepony will do something at some point in the future." "What Seeing Stone failed to mention is that this 'savior' then took the throne for herself and began the events that lead to the kingdom's ruin." "Despite the many attempts that have been made to credit the find to me, as the prophecy would require, I hadn't even been born!"
And very successfully predicted angry Nightshade's speech patterns, even! The question now is what bottomless-black-hole-skirting combination of Star Swirl's time and space spells did she create in pursuit of charting the multiverse?
Of course there is. After all, what use would teachings be if they didn't generate as many interpretations as there are students?
And the fun thing is that she might not even have told them yet! The prophecy just left out the fact that she trailed off toward the end of the rant. The wing being applied to the face was able to be postponed until after she had left the
warzonecouncil room.All right, as far as invokations to Murphy go, I can't really blame you for that one.
That's not actually all that difficult to figure out: even though you've been here almost a week now, you're still not used to how heavy your wings are without their full magic.
And, iisaw, I love how good you are with the subtle reminding of worldbuilding.
...the only thing I can think of connecting them is that the gems originally were taken along on jumps between worlds before being set into the gate. Let's see what the actual answer is.
Etch one and use it as a pattern for the others?
Aw, don't be too hard on yourself. I'm pretty sure her memories were neither jagged nor fanged, and you did fight for her. Then again, you also fought against her briefly, in the shadows of the morning... yeah, you may still want to be careful.
Ok, I'm beginning to come around to Skyla and Seraphem's points of view.
That's not a policy you implement because of prejudice or to keep ponies focused on their work. That's one you implement on a group you've conquered. Either the old king was a unicorn and the imperials were part of a racial uprising themselves, or the unicorns have already tried to revolt and had some measure of success before they were crushed. Either way, y'all will have to be even more careful in how you go about liberating them.
Also, apparently I was forgetting a chunk of the history. There's still a couple salvagable points to the trade empire theory, but for the most part it's pretty well sunk.
For some reason, I'm getting a Kaylee vibe from her.
Also: See, Twilight? The teeth aren't a problem.
She's come quite a way since Twilight Town.
Do not cross the Spirit of Balance, for it will not hesitate to cast you down.
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Thanks for the detailed feedback. I love it when you and Seraphem pick up on subtle details/hints or are misled by my—ahem—less than comprehensive information.
So, Twilight set up the Empire, huh? What's the bet that she left behind a list of detailed instructions that her successors have sort of followed but only in a form annotated by some Earth Pony priests to explain what her 'symbolic' references to unity and equality 'really mean'? That's pretty much the story of most religions when you cut away the nonsense about 'not questioning the priests'.
Meanwhile, I think that Twilight will insist on brining a few of the rebels home with her anyway simply because she doesn't think that they'd ever be safe or happy in this somewhat-brutish world.
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It remind me that Cat prophecy from " Red Dwarf " show
Okay, sorry for the wait, been a very busy week. Now time to get some backstory and find out just what Twilight is dealing with and how bad Twilight fucked this place up leaving Twilight to try and fix it a bit out of Twilight guilt while having to struggle whether or not to reveal she isn't Twilight, but Twilight to the people ready to worship Twilight?
Good thing you have plenty of unicorns to help recharge it now.
Raw power, experience, skill, and trying to get a bunch of newbies that have likely never been up in an airship before to not do something stupid. All while in a situation that most experienced, well trained crews would balk at. Why ever would they have to be run ragged doing that?
Called it.
"What are you doing!"
"Casting out another anchor."
"You need to make sure the other end of the rope is tied to something first!"
"Oops, my bad."
Hey now, this isn't the UK, you can call it Cider.
Assuming that's more meant as 'unpacking' to pump the water up into the ballast tanks. Though why would they use a bilge pump for that, don't they have dedicated, non bilge pumps? I can get having a bilge pump, the ship is made to float on real water too. But, why would they be using that rather then a regular pump? Also positive or non positive displacement pump? Given the fact it needs to pump upwards, likely quite a ways, guessing positive. Also bilges.... EEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!! (You do NOT want to know what goes into those things.... I wish I still didn't.)
Well, not like you need to play that for your Blacklip, guessing to talk to the other one... and DAMNIT STORY stop teasing us! So close to answers!!!! You are just just... I hate you.. I love you...I didn't say anything at all..... baka
Wait... why that way? She seemed more then eager to do anything at all she could for Twilight, why isn't Twilight just asking her? Or, is this to not reveal Twilight isn't all knowing or make the mare question things. Though that would also apply to why her crew doesn't know about Twilight in that case.... So yeah....huh?
Both disagreeing on just what they should do about and the method's to achieve it.
Still even though getting it to Equestrian levels of realistic utopia are far fetched, could at least start them down a path to becoming better then they are.
All I'm seeing is Grand Admiral Thrawn's way of dealing with a factory that had been making 'faulty' speeders for the Empire. Workers would personally test each speeder they worked on to prove it wasn't sabotaged. Here, each unicorn would have to test each gem to prove it wasn't faulty. At close range.
Nor should you. As much as I get Twi's point, just turning a blind eye to this is not right either. But, there really is only so much you can do.
Which is good, show that this isn't Skyla being petulant, whiny, ignorant. Not treating it as one of wrong the other right. Skyla is handling this well, smart, understanding, thinking, not just ignoring stuff for the sake of 'drama'. But Twilight has more perspective and is simply looking at the bigger picture. Neither is fully wrong in this and both are dealing with their disagreement respectfully and, for the most part, calmly.
Have I mentioned lately HOW MUCH I BUCKING LOVE THIS STORY!?
Oh hey, are bringing that up, so.. the answer is?
OH! That.. makes a lot of sense. Be to eager to tell them what the think they want to hear, rather then the truth. Okay, you get a pass on that story. For now. But no playing keep away with this now!
Refill ballast tanks, look for ore to replenish lift gas, train the rebels how to not screw things up trying to 'help'. Make any other repairs you can to the ship.....
Well a bag of sparrows would be going rather crazy.. lots of birds confined like that.
Or, is it saying whoever put the birds in the sack is crazy?
I'm with Twilight on this one.... huh?
Well somepony has opinions. Still, already revealing stuff. Hmmm, given the early remark.. the 'warrior' pegasi only serve the Empire because they fear a return of the Demon and see a strong, militant regime like the Empire as the best defense?
Hmm, so it's a random per pegasus thing, not a 'blacklip' thing? The slur about that is just for not being a 'true' pegasi and fighting?
ALL HAIL THE GREAT MISTRESS TWILIGHT! OUR MARE OF KNOWLEDGE, MAGIC, AND KICKING MAJOR FLANK!
Yeah she's pretty well had her fill of those.
it's now a ten volume set isn't it?
Took the words right out of my mouth. Nice twist story.
But that.. that might explain a lot. "Duty to the ponies of the earth." And the pegasi took it as serving the "Earth Ponies" as loyal, dutiful slaves in all but name. When.. given this is Twilight.. more likely the pegasi were assholes, and pretty much acting like the Enclave from FoE. This was Twilight telling them they had to work together, had to help each other, that the Pegasi had a responsibility, a duty, to help the other tribes as EQUALS, trying to get them to all get along and work together, and it got horribly misunderstood what she meant.
Still, Twilight found one thing about this world she likes. They know how to get to the point with their prophecies.
Yeah, I'm with her.
Yup, makes sense. Granted 300 years... we know some worlds move at different rates, but this is just odd. Still it works. And, so tried to enforce a revelation like in Hearthswarming and bring them together, only because it was enforced and not natural, they never really got the underlying premise, and it all went horribly wrong. The 'Empire' was meant to be a unified body of all three, but ended up becoming what it is now.
This.. is.. AWESOME! Just, perfect reaction.
Oh so NOW you want to fix it fully? Not like this was really YOU that did it, but still, can see why she would want to fix things. Though this does raise the question of why ONLY the pegasi seem to remember her if it was this big a deal and she founded the Empire.
Glad this is going along smoothly...... nope I won't say the rest.
If she didn't pass out face down in her book I will be very disappointed in you story. Twi may be a badass, but she's still Twilight and needs to be adorkable at times.
1. Yup, that is just odd but, you get it works
2. thanks for no trying to draw out this is just a dream.
*Starts answering* "Oh wait that was rhetorical, wasn't it?"
Poor Twi.. thought this is good just, small touches to show how much she loves Luna, reminders of their relationship. Twilight will push it back, deal with the issues now and not let these things interfere but now, alone, being able to feel them and let them out a bit. She might be a ultimate, world saving badass that everypony looks at with awe, respect, and even fear. But... she's still just a pony. And little reminders of this like here are amazing.
Oh? She come up with a plan in her subconscious? Also leave it to Twilight Sparkles brain to do something like that.
So parachutes, orichalcum, gems... slowing something.. some form of massive spell..... not quite enough context to get what she's going for yet.
Just in case you needed a reminder why this 'Empire' needs to END!
Somepony is planning a little raid... what are you up to Twilight....
No... no... this.... THIS is just in case you had ANY remaining qualms about these fucking worthless pieces of shit deserving every, last scrap of rage and righteous fury Twilight is about to unleash to end their pathetic, worthless, horrible GGGAAHHH! Twilight... go full Tirak buster on them. They deserve it.
It'll help. By now, they know what you really are.
Yes, yes.. good, good Twilight. Pay him a little visit. I am liking this.
Okay... they were bad before this... they had pissed her off but this... THIS!
Abandon planet guys, abandon planet!
If this story does not end with these fucking MONSTERS ENDED!!! There is no way it will work out good. After all this.. if there is not some real, major victory over these... these.......barbarians......... you better fucking destroy these bastards before leaving this world story.
Fortuitously, it seems Twilight agrees. Hey Skyla, good news!
Without telling us of course, gotta keep that suspense, and the unspoken plan guarantee.
Okay so solo infiltration, with a little pit stop to say 'hi' to the overseer?
And Twilight would know about this. But, good advice, make sure you seem above them, don't let them control anything.
And to stop Ao from taking notes about it to better teach beings how to properly worship the Dark Mistress.
Which..... is actually pretty much true. So good on you Twi and, nice touch showing her you care like that.
Two different a base form to work? not enough similarity to make the illusion fit her movements?
yes but you've seen how these ponies need keepers and minders, plus, well, you and Loose Leaf can spend time gushing about how amazing Twilight is an working on new ways to praise her.
Yeah..... Twilight's had a habit of ummm.. screwing these things up pretty badly out of good intentions. She means well but.... at least she fixes her mistakes in the end. And also, that Twilight will always do what she feels is right.
And this is why Twilight Sparkle deserves every scrap of praise Ao and Loose Leaf offer.
Still a better 'chosen one' then Thomas Covenant.
So between finding out she kind of sort of in a way caused this problem, and the shear DEPTHS of the Empires atrocities, Twilight is ready to fuck them all up good.
YAY!
Now how will she screw up this plan?
8204122 I had a busy week okay?
Well, not one without potable water systems or other fluid transfer systems that could leak. The bilges are more about a collection system for all the various run offs, spills, drips, and other such stuff then about water leaking in. And as above, they are freaking DISGUSTING.. as I said it's a collection spot for.. various 'fluids'.
Good points, really.. I'm horrible with names so wasn't keeping track of who was what race or would have seen that.
No it won't, not if the nebula gets back first. The Portal is only in Twilight Town because they built on there, all they have to do is get back, take it apart, and then rebuild it somewhere secure and they are set. There is no way at all this Empire could stand up to a war with Equestria.
Not after the shit that comes later this chapter. These fucking monsters need to be ENDED!
It's the centuries that matter, it's built up the story to even larger, more mythical proportions. Made it that much grander and powerful.
This wasn't her. This was another Twilight from another dimension. Keep in mind, we've seen one Equestria where Twilight met a her that was centuries older and risen to Celestia level's of being the eternal guardian and caretaker of Equestria.
Ohhh good point.
Told you. Yeah these things had all the marking of brutal, evil, fascist Empire that would never loose power without being forced out.
8205477 Well A Twilight did. And yeah seems more like Twilight was going for a "You three work together and stop fighting! Type thing, but they kind of sort of misunderstood things.
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8205777
It's immensely helpful and gratifying to me that you guys take the time to show me your reactions this way. There is a certain circuitous path I'm laying out here and it's good to know you're following it without too many WTF?! moments. Thank you so much!
Re: bilge pumps,
The pump that Twi removed from Nebula is used to transfer water from one ballast tank to another, and is called a "bilge" pump because it's identical to one that would ordinarily be used to for that purpose, and Nebula's ballast chambers replace the space that would normally be considered a bilge.
Nebula's actual bilge is... well... look out below!!! (Or, "Chunder!" if you're an Aussie. )
8205777
I actually cheated and went back to look up Lance's introduction.
True, taking apart the gate would solve that, but I don't really think they're going to. It's a big effort, and the reward is questionable unless they're planning on starting an all-out war -- and even in that case, it could be nice to have a way back without relying on mages back in Equestria. Moving it's not an option, either, without a fleet of their own already in the Empire or a couple morths of work. I just meant that if the Empire made the first move, before Equestria was fully prepared, they'd be able to take Twilight Town before getting pushed back to their own world.
I do agree the Empire would have a difficult and ultimately futile time making much progress beyond that, though -- and that's assuming their guns don't just blow apart from the stronger magic. At the same time, I think Equestria would have a bit of trouble making headway of their own. The Empire's used to the low magic and they are quite familiar with the technology to compensate, on top of having the more martial culture and willingness to expend population as a resource. Once Equestria builds up enough stores and outfits enough ships, their ability to supply charged crystals and to open portals to anywhere in the Empire will give them the victory, but it will be a hard seige until then.
Oh, definitely. And I will admit that ending a war makes for a pretty strong base even before the centuries' embellishments.
What tells you the prophecy is a different Twilight? It's certainly very possible (if I remember correctly, our Twi's world census did have a focus on classifying her counterparts, and wasn't really about spending enough time to fix each world), but that's almost certainly not the native Twilight, and I don't think she found many -- if any -- other travellers, even among those that ascended to take over from the sisters.
Actually, that's an interesting thought: how is the native Twilight doing here (or did/will do)? Or do we think that the lack of the Princesses indicates it's different enough from Equestria and its neighbors that there might not be any Twi version? She'd be one of the more powerful "factory workers", certainly. Unfortunately, standing out like that would leading to catching her supervisor's eye... I really hope she's not another Katydid.
>>Seraphem
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I know you already said a lot of this, iisaw, but my thinking with the bilge is that you need some way of getting the liquids outside the hull. If your ship is meant to float, you obviously don't want to be drilling holes everywhere; if it's only ever in the air, you can just figure out where the wet spots are and put in a gravity drain (and maybe some pipe) -- the ponies below might not be happy, but they already have cloud homes they're used to dealing with.
Nebula is in an interesting place because it is built to land on the water, and so has some areas that can't be drained with a series of holes along the keel. A good part of that can be mitigated by filling the area with the ballast tanks (that should be there anyway), but unless they take up everything from at least five feet above the water line, loaded, she's probably going to have some bilge pumps that are used for more than just ballast. At the same time, a more pure or inland airship -- maybe it lands on stilts when no dock's available -- might not, because it's built so that any liquid anywhere always has a way outside without any extra power.
And you're very welcome! Writing seems like one of the harder mediums to get real-time feedback -- sure a detailed summary of what worked and what didn't at the end of the chapter is quite nice, but just from the position of fellow reader, commentaries like this and those on Project Horizons wind up making me think more about what happened, and see facets to things that I missed the first time through. Definitely glad I can help lift the veil on the strange an unpredictable thing known as "the audience's mind".
8206788
Yep, your thinking about the bilge/ballast think is pretty much right on the money. But to clarify...
The ballast tanks are built with rather large valves in the bottom of the hull that can be opened quickly and remotely. Think seacocks or scuttling ports; they will gravity-drain, and darned fast, too. When the valves are closed, they're (obviously) water-tight and will keep water from coming in, too! The decks above can drain into the ballast tanks, though they aren't designed to do that; anywhere on board can drain right out into the open air when Nebula is aloft. But anything that would normally find its way to the bilge will end up in the ballast tanks and can be easily dumped.
Nebula's pumps are mainly for shifting water from one tank to another, and that's to keep her trim when cargo is loaded or after a quick ballast dump has left her unbalanced. Her pumps are reconfigurable and movable, (which is what Twi did) and it would be possible to pump out the ballast tanks if Nebula was in the water for any length of time.
This is slightly off the topic, but In fact, Nebula is designed so that she can be completely stripped of her envelope and upper works, and operate solely as a sailing vessel if necessary.
8206788 Though the Empire making a 'first strike' would depend on them figuring out Twilight is from another world, figuring out where the portal is, working out how to use said portal, and how to find the exact world they want. Given they do not seem to be much for magical theory and their own limitations of what they can work with, that is rather unlikely.
Though yes Equestria would have a tough time making war at first, having to retool to use mana gems in everything, training unicorns and pegasi for the lower magic, getting used to this level of fighting. It would be slow for awhile, but once Equestria started working it out and got it's production running for materials... yeah they'd simply have far to many resources for the Empire to deal with, while the Empire couldn't strike at Equestria at all. The 'Three alicorns lock' thing keeping their dimension sealed off from all others, barring anything powerful enough to rip through that lock, which is pretty much a Red Queen level threat.
So yeah, even a 'first strike' is highly unlikely, plus Twilight Town is one of the most 'wild' and untamed places where there will be way more beings that know how to and will not hesitate to fight back, with magics that the Empire has never seen. But yeah it would be rather brutal.
As to Twilight.. because 'our' Twilight had no idea about this place. At no point has she ever mentioned anything, ever had anything that felt familiar, and she outright curses the 'multiverse' for this, which would be odd if this was her own fault versus simply another Twilight. It just makes no sense at all for this to be 'our' Twilight. We did not see her encounter other travelers but we only really saw one encounter with an alternate Twilight. Plus, her going around doing this could have given other Twilight's ideas and let them know this was possible. Though the 300 year gap makes that less likely, if it is then time is passing much faster in this world.
Just, every scrap of behavior, actions, the fact Twilight is totally lost on this, nothing makes this feel in anyway like something she did or that she has ever been to this world before. And we know there are a near infinite number of Twilight's. (Still holding out for a Council of Twilights)
Also doubt this world as a 'native' Twilight, we have yet to see any copies of other ponies we know, and this place i so different that.. yeah doesn't seem to be a 'verse that mirrors one we know, just it's own little thing. So likely no 'Twilight' native here.
Also spot on on the reasons for doing this and how much it can really help author's AND readers.
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Good point with the difficulties on the first strike. I was imagining that the gate only connects to Equestria for some reason; assuming somepony sees the Nebula heading back home (or even figures out that the first and last sightings were in that general area) it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to figure out they're from another world, and if there's only one world possible connected to it it's pretty easy at that point to trace her back. As for working out how to make it work, the ancestors of their technology built it and it presumably shares a number of similarites with what today's Empire is familiar with. They might be lagging on the aetheric theory, but I never got the impression that their magitek knowlege is lacking (and might actually be a bit ahead of Equestria's). I was forgetting about the three-alicorn lock, though.
That is good reasoning for the alternate Twilight, too. It was a different culture three hundred years ago, though, and she could just not have recognized the world with the warring tribes having settled into the current stable (if undesirable) caste system. My reading of her reaction was "Wait, these ponies were those foals? Did they not remember any af my lessons?", but I can definitely see where you're coming from.
And a Council of Twilights would be a lot of fun.
That prophecy! It's amazing that it reads so quintessentially Twilight, but would be absolutely out of character for any other rendition of her.
I dont think she was fainting that time... Ya mite wanna clean that room twi i think somepony sprung a leak
Given that only sadists rise to overseer, and how cowed she is, I imagine that it was terrible.
This is the kind of thing that Twilight might think about in her more frustrated moments, but never vocalize. It's a logical extrapolation of how she would act unconstrained by any self-consciousness.
Ao is so, so good at the earnest but very passive-aggressive worshiper bit.