Chapter Twenty
Running for the Gate
I rushed the job on the anti-magic gun, fighting back a compulsion to work on each part until it was perfect. Instead, I put the majority of my effort into completing the mandala and maximizing its range. That meant scavenging a waveguide barrel from another gun and connecting the mandala to the power gem with a cable rather than a purpose-built receiver. It was unwieldy, but it would work, and I finished it with several hours to spare.
I made good use of some of those hours getting some much-needed sleep. Oh, there were dozens of other things I could have done to improve our chances, but I'd learned through hard experience that being sharp and well-rested would improve our chances the most.
According to Loose Leaf, the Black Gate was built high in the mountains to the north of us, and guarded by a hereditary group of pegasi. Or rather it had been guarded by them. Being the primary location associated with the Replenisher of Graves, as soon as word spread that she had returned, Twilight Sparkle's secret followers[1] had infiltrated the place and taken over.
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[1] There were a surprising number of them. Less than Loose Leaf had boasted of, but they numbered in the hundreds. I am pretty sure that their prime motivation was resentment at serving an "inferior" race rather than devotion to a centuries-old story of a dreadful boogey-mare.
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I stood in the bow, scanning the mountain range ahead of us in the distance with my spyglass. It was hardly more than a jagged purple line on the horizon. Not much in the way of detail was visible beyond bits of white on the tallest peaks.
Loose Leaf was with me, describing what we should expect as we approached. She told me that the gate complex was located at the head of a hanging valley, and if one discounted ponies who were exceptionally skilled in mountain climbing, there was no way to get there except by air. The buildings to either side of the gate were built of the same black basalt that formed the gigantic trilithon of the portal itself, and were the living quarters and central library of the scribe caste she was born into.
"So… what sort of books are in the library?" I asked her, as casually as possible.
"There is a section for each of the great families' records, military history, and genealogy. Otherwise, it's general history and philosophy, mostly," she replied.
Focus, I told myself. You can come back to the books later. Aloud, I said, "And the approach is up the narrow valley? How are the winds?"
"Rough when the valley below is hot and the air is rising. And during storms of course. Otherwise they're mild. It should be easy to sail Nebula right through the gate in the evening."
"What about the imperial ships?"
"Cutters and cruisers would fit easily," she replied. "Are you going to capture some more of them, my liege?" Where a normal pony might be grinning at the thought, Leaf's expression would best be described as unholy glee.
"I'm keeping my options open," I told her. "What about the bigger ships?"
She thought for a moment and then said, "It would be pretty risky with the battleships. It would be an awfully tight squeeze, and I think the imperial flagship might actually scrape the sides of the valley when it got near the gate, even if the air was dead calm."
"But they can fly over the valley?"
Loose Leaf frowned. "I've never heard of an airship doing it, but it should be possible. Not much room for error, though, and no ship could make it over the crest of the range behind it. The stompers always use pegasus chariots or ornithopters to go north."
I nodded distractedly. Her information was useful, but it hadn't triggered a sudden, brilliant plan. "We'll just have to play it by ear," I muttered.
Loose Leaf laughed delightedly. "Very witty, Your Highness!"
"Huh?"
She stopped laughing and began to look a bit uncertain. "Your… hum… pun is it? 'By ear.' It's funny because…" She trailed off with one wingtip pointed toward my freshly regrown right ear.
Fortunately for Leaf, who would have gnawn her own legs off rather than offend me, the speaking tube for the quarterdeck whistled just then.
It was Sirocco, reporting that we were under attack.
I quickly stowed my spyglass and leaped over the starboard anchor, getting clear of the hull so that I could see what was happening. Loose Leaf followed close behind me.
We had gotten used to the cloud of ornithopters that followed just within sight of us and had mostly ignored them as we rushed toward the mountains. I assumed their purpose was to simply observe us and guide the battleships as they caught up. But it seemed that the little machines were to take a much more active role.
They were clustering into three groups in an inverted arrowhead formation. The sides were rushing forward and the central group was climbing fast. It was a classic griffin envelopment; the two "wings" would harass us from the flanks, while the "beak" attacked from above. It was a good tactic for a swarm of flyers that were both quicker, and able to climb higher, than us.
I banked hard and came down on the quarterdeck behind the mizzenmast. I took the big telescope from Star and focused it on the climbing ornithopters. As I had feared, they weren't carrying guns. Instead, there were canisters about the size of a foal slung under their bellies.
"Captain!" I called out, rushing forward. "They're going to bomb us!"
"Will the anti-magic paint hold out?" Skyla asked. We had used that last of the goop on the quick repairs we'd made after the battle, and the coating on the damaged areas of Nebula's upper envelope was nowhere near as thick as I would have liked.
I shook my head. "They've had direct experience of how good our magic defense is. It's likely that those bombs are pure chemical nastiness."
She stared at me for a second and her jaw went tight. "Recommendation?"
"We haven't sighted their airships yet, so I'm betting this is a desperation move to slow us down," I said, thinking out loud. "We can climb faster and further than they know, but I don't think this is the time to reveal that ace in our mane." I lapsed into silence for a few, very long seconds. Everypony on deck was watching me silently.
"Captain," I said. "My recommendation is to out-fly and out-fight them. We've got magic guns up top. That'll make the bombers climb out of gun range, where they'll be less accurate. We can put a dozen unicorns on the dorsal catwalk as fire suppression teams to handle any hits, and everypony else on the deck guns to deal with the wings."
She nodded. "Very good, Ms. Nightshade. Anything else?"
"I'll take the wheel. Make sure everypony has their safety lines clipped on. The ride could get pretty rough."
She began issuing orders, sending ponies to their stations with speed and efficiency. She whistled up Ao and asked her to provide moment-to-moment reports on the position of the bombers. The last command she gave before making sure her cutlass was hanging properly from its baldrick and flipping down the shaded lenses of her goggles was to Star.
"Let fly the colors!"
"Aye, aye, Captain!" the big mule cried out with enthusiasm. The big Jolly Roger unfurled from the sternpost and snapped in our wake.
I took the wheel from Sirocco and unlocked the synchronizing levers that kept the steering fins, rudders and elevators working in tandem. He moved to the telegraph and clipped his line to the brass bullseye on the rail. Sky remained with her ear to the cupola speaking tube.
The little ornithopters were quick; we didn't have to wait long. The wings swept in first from astern, strafing the deck and no doubt hoping to distract us from the bombers moving into position above.
The Nebulas gave back with a will, many of the rebel unicorns screaming defiance as they fired their weapons. Several ornithopters were downed at the first pass, tangled in netting or broken by magical fire. Somepony was even using my improvised anti-magic gun, which had the effect of shutting down the engines of the craft it hit. There were also a few cries of pain from Nebula's waist; we hadn't escaped totally unscathed.
The wing squadrons banked sharply, turning to come at us again, and I shifted my magical grip on Nebula's controls. When they were a quarter furlong out, I pushed the levers hard, switching between the controls as quickly as I could to produce a configuration of her flight surfaces that would have had old Gudgeon tearing his mane out in despair.
Nebula shuddered as her elevators, rudders, and steering fins all went into hard opposition. If she had been a single-pony vessel, she would have spun on her long axis like a drill bit. As it was, she swung the tons of timber and iron of her hull nearly thirty degrees to larboard, right into the path of the strafing ornithopters on that side. The fast little flyers had no chance to swerve away, and shattered against our hull like glass thrown at a brick wall. The noise was appalling.
The squadron on our starboard side missed their shots, which were aimed at targets that were suddenly a dozen lengths from where they were expected to be. Our own crews mostly missed as well, many of them sliding about on deck until brought up short by their safety lines. Some of the Nebulas were wounded by debris that crashed along the deck, and our larboard fore engine started making an ugly grinding noise.
As Nebula's hull swung back into line, Skyla shouted. "The bombers are above us! They're dropping the bombs!"
"Sirocco! Larboard engines full astern!" I commanded. The hull was starting to swing back, rising then on the starboard side, and I slammed the elevators to the full down position at the same time as I hauled the steering fins to full up.
Nebula's nose dipped and her stern rose like an enraged pony about to buck with all her strength. The rigging and masts groaned in protest at the sudden massive torque between hull and envelope that they had never been designed to take, and I heard the sharp cracks of lines parting under the strain. Then I spun the wheel hard left and there were more ugly sounds from above me as Nebula yawed and pitched violently.
The insane maneuver twisted us out from under most of the bombs. They fell past our starboard side like ugly metallic hail. Two hit the envelope at a steep angle and bounced off before they burst, flinging a lacework of fire across the sky. Only one struck fairly, spattering its flaming chemicals just forward of the aft dorsal hatch.
"Sirocco! Larboard aft engine full ahead!" I ordered. The damaged engine had begun smoking, and I tried to ease the strain on it. "Forward engines to half ahead."
Skyla kept relaying a running report of the firefighting effort until Ao broke off, going aft to help put out the flames. Nebula was still oscillating and yawing badly, and I concentrated on getting her back under control. Skyla drove the gun crews back to their stations with insanely cheerful encouragements.
The surviving wing of ornithopters swung wide around us, following their lead pilot, who was no doubt wondering if there was any point in pressing the attack after losing an entire squadron. A concentrated barrage of fire from the gun crews—who had responded remarkably well to Skyla's shouted exhortations to bloody murder—resulting in several more losses, made up the officer's mind, and he led his flyers away from us at top speed.
The cupola tube whistled, and Ao reported that the fire had been put out before any major damage had been done. A repair crew was already patching the holes in the envelope and the number four gas cell. Within a minute, we could see the bombers from the deck as they dropped down to join the other fliers retreating toward the southern horizon.
"Good to see the imperial scum run, isn't it?" Skyla called out to the crew.
They cheered. Even the wounded ones.
The single note of dissent came from our damaged engine which gave a metallic shriek of protest before freezing up entirely.
Sirocco immediately rang both forward engines to stop and cursed under his breath.
"Ring up the fore starboard engine to full ahead, Sirocco," I told him. "A little left rudder will compensate for the imbalance."
He did so and then turned to me. "I've never seen anything like that, Ms Nightshade! I've never even heard of the like!"
I flipped the synchronizing levers back to their locked positions and said, "The old designs can do some things no sleek and modern craft would dream of. Would you kindly[2] take the wheel? Keep her a spoke or two left, and she should fly straight."
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[2] "Would you kindly" meant the same to an airship crewpony as "if you please." It was a genteel way of indicating a direct order.
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"Ms. Nightshade, please assess the damage to the engine," Skyla said.
"Aye-aye, Captain," I answered, and made for the main deck. Behind me, I heard her calling Star to the telegraph and giving command of the deck to Swift Wing. She was going to tend to our wounded, despite the fact that we had taught and drilled all the rebel unicorns in healing and palliative spells. But as old Commodore Cloud would say, that was "only right and proper."
I opened the access hatch to the larboard fore engine and disconnected the big cable that fed power from the gem to the engine. Then I opened the cowling on the engine pod itself. The damage was bad, but not as bad as it might have been. The props showed impact damage, and the forward bearing had fused itself to the drive shaft. It must have seized up when struck by ornithopter debris. Fortunately, the engine itself seemed to be undamaged, but the shaft, bearing, and propellers would all have to be replaced.
We had spares aboard, of course, but it would take at least a day to make the repairs, or even longer considering that they would have to be done in flight. Long before that, we would arrive at the Black Gate or the imperial fleet would catch up to us; we would just have to make do with three engines. The engine had control rods that would feather[3] the props automatically, but those had been destroyed by the damage to the drive shaft, so I did it directly by twisting the blades with my magic. Then I closed the pod's cowling and the access hatch, leaving the power cable disconnected.
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[3] "Feathering" a propellor is a technique used when an engine is stopped to reduce drag. The blades are turned edge-on into the wind, so that air resistance is minimized. Skilled ponies will use this same technique with their oars when rowing a boat.
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We had to keep ponies at all the battle stations in case of more unpleasant surprises, but after Skyla had made her rounds—praising and healing the crew to the best of her ability—she ordered Cream Puff to light the galley fires and prepare a generous hot meal to be carried to all the crew at their posts.
Sugarpine and Loose Leaf joined me, Ao, and Skyla in the captain's cabin for a meeting over our food.
"We defeated the attack, but they managed to reduce our speed by almost thirty percent, so it wasn't a complete victory," I said to the group. "We haven't sighted the fleet yet, so we still have a chance of making it to the Black Gate before they catch us."
"The pegasi at the gate will flock to your aid, Princess Twilight," Loose Leaf put in. "You need only send a courier to ask!"
I shook my head. "Enough to fight off the fleet?"
"They would gladly die in your service," she replied, dodging the all-too-obvious answer.
There was a moment of awkward silence in the cabin and then I said, "I'd kinda prefer they didn't, actually."
"Her Majesty is quite tender-hearted," Ao said to Loose Leaf with a wry smile. "Often, entire months go by without any ponies killing or dying for her."
Skyla stifled a laugh with a snort, but Loose Leaf looked stricken. "Is she to be addressed as Majesty?" The deranged little pegasus turned her eyes to me. "Forgive me, Majesty! Oh, please forgive me! I did not know! I will—"
"Just ma'am, please!" I said emphatically, with a glare at Ao.
The kirin put on her best contrite expression, but her little mustache thingies rippled in amusement.
"Can we get the discussion back on track, please?" Skyla said, grinning faintly herself.
"The valley containing the gate is defensible, correct, Leaf?" I said.
"Yes, M—ma'am," she said, still sweating slightly. "At least it would be very difficult for the bigger ships to approach if opposed by even a small force."
"And if we arrived early enough to put gun crews on the rim of the valley above the gate?"
Loose Leaf considered it for a moment. "I think… I think that might make it too dangerous for any but fliers and chariots."
"And how many of those accompany the fleet?" I asked.
She looked very distressed, but managed to choke out the answer anyway. "Still too many to fight. There is no cover for Nebula, and in the narrow valley, no room to dodge their bombs! You must return to your world, where you will be safe! The loyal blacklips will hold the gate until you can return with reinforcements!"
I turned to Skyla. "That still might give me enough extra time to deal with the gate mechanism." I carefully avoided saying anything that would make Loose Leaf suspicious about what, exactly, I was going to do to the gate. "And if I can't make the adjustments I want in time, we will all just go home."
Skyla stared at the tabletop for a moment. Then she looked up at Sugarpine, who hadn't said much of anything during the meeting. "All your ponies have been thoroughly briefed about the gems and medallions. I will give a general order if they are to be used, but tell them that if they are in danger..."
Sugarpine snorted and held up a big hoof. "Like they were in danger just now? Captain, you'll have to give that order before they'll run from a fight with the imperials, and some of them might stick around anyway. For the first time in their lives, they've got the power to get some revenge on those damned stompers and, believe me, none of them want to let go of that."
"Living well is the best revenge," I told him, somewhat sharply.
He nodded. "Yes, ma'am, but blowing holes through the ponies that have oppressed and tortured my tribe for centuries is a really close second."
I bit back an answer to that. There would be enough time when we were back in Equestria to teach them all the inestimable value of forgiveness and friendship.
"One last thing, then," I said. "A serpent without a head isn't much of a threat. If we were to capture or kill the emperor, would that discourage the pursuit? Or throw it into enough confusion that we would gain a significant amount of time?" With help from various friends, I had pulled off a number of operations that were nearly equivalent to sneaking into an enemy fleet and kidnapping a monarch. Perhaps we could—
Sugarpine and Loose Leaf exchanged looks and both emphatically shook their heads. Loose Leaf said, "His barons and the council run the Empire. A lot of them might squabble over the succession, but they would all see his death as an opportunity rather than a setback."
I raised an eyebrow. "Not well-regarded, then?"
"Not regarded much at all," Sugarpine said. "He's… what... seven?"
Loose Leaf nodded again. "Technically, the colt's word is law, but his words are mostly echoes of whatever the regents tell him, and the barons are notorious scofflaws. He wouldn't be missed."
"Oh," I said, abandoning that train of thought. "We will have to continue on as planned, then."
Skyla stopped me when the others left her cabin. "Could I talk with you for a minute, Twilight?"
"Certainly, Captain," I replied, automatically, not really noting that she'd used my name.
"No, not Captain, Aunt Twilight. Just me."
I smiled at her, "Sure, Flurry. What did you want to tell me?"
She swallowed and grimaced. "It's not enough. It's not nearly enough, but I want to say I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for getting you and everypony else into this mess! I don't know how much it cost you to build Nebula, but I will pay you back every bit—"
I took her head between my wingtips, leaned close to her, and said, "No."
"What...?"
"No, you won't. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you've learned a lot from all this, and even better, you've taught me something very important."
"I don't understand. What could I possibly teach you?"
I let go and paced the deck as I answered her. "I've seen hundreds of worlds, and many that were worse off than this one. So many, that I let it change my thinking. It's impossible to help them all, or even a small fraction of them, so I… I stopped caring. I let things happen that I shouldn't have."
"But, you're right! You can't fix everything!"
"Yes, that's true, and I can prove it mathematically," I replied, nodding my head. "But what you've taught me is that I can fix what's in front of me. At least I can try. It should have been obvious, but some things are better learned in action. And for that, thank you."
I'd gotten her completely wrong-footed, and she had no idea what to say to me, so I saluted her and said, "And now, if you'll excuse me, Captain, I will go inspect the repairs to the envelope and make sure cell number four is sound and fully filled."
"Uh… Yes. Good," she said, her eyes still wide. "Carry on."
For some strange reason, as I prodded at the charred fabric and rough patches on Nebula's upper surface, I found myself humming a happy tune.
= = =
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This is good stuff
Hoist the colors high!
Damn it
This series would be so amazing as animated series if done right
I would LOVE to see that
something about this story reminded me of an old sci-fi novella called "a meeting with Medusa" by Arthur C. Clarke (i think): at the beginning, the protagonist is aboard a large airship, so large it used some sort of radio relay system to sent signals from the control room to the ailerons and rocket thrusters that steered and stabilized the ship.
BUT someone screwed up and somehow connected some of the relay signals to a SATELLITE, and the resulting half-second delay had disastrous results...when the pilot tried to compensate the wobble caused by wind, that delay made the wobble progressively worse, until the ship flipped over and the thrusters slammed it into the ground!
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Interesting! Delayed feedback a very real problem with large sailing ships even without radio links! Novices on the wheel can think that they didn't turn enough because it takes a while for the ship to respond, so they turn more than they need to. By the time they've realized their mistake, they try to correct, and make the same mistake, redoubled. Bad over-correction can easily dump a big ship on her beam!
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So would I!
Hmm. Flurry may have unknowingly averted a much darker future, or at least a much more suboptimal one. Twilight was unknowingly drifting towards a sort of apathy that would've been very dangerous in terms of all the good she wouldn't have cared to do. But now? Even if the Nebula doesn't survive, Flurry will have repaid its value multiple times over in all the lives her aunt will save or improve that she wouldn't have bothered to before.
In the meantime, there's still the matter of the approaching imperial forces. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the Nebulas deal with that minor issue.
This chapter demonstrates what makes this story so marvelous: a bloody battle with badassitude and "yarr", followed almost immediately by "little mustache thingies".
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I suppose they would be barbels, properly.
Hmmm, highly defensible valley, hundreds of fanatical pegasi, and an underage emperor who could easily panic and order a full retreat just because he's young and easily frightened. Unless he basically turns over everything to somepony else, I have a suspicion this won't go over too badly.
Worst case scenario: killer Twilight comes through the gate before Nightshade can adjust it. She's the one thing I think could actually cause trouble. I wouldn't be worried about the empire.
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well, perhaps killer Twilight is Narcissistic enough to fall in love with herself or something of that matter, besides if I were in her position it would be more trouble than it's worth to go kill an alternate version of yourself, better to join them to inspire fear even more.
But that's just me.
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Only I'd spell them barbelles. Much fancier and more elegant than common barbels!
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Yes, good lessons (no matter how unpleasant they are to learn) make for wiser choices!
So thousands of unicorns will end up in equestria..... Celestia is going to keel over trying to make sure economy van survive that.
Alright so, getting closer, and now they are rushing so guessing what the end point is going to be for this chapter... very very
'fun' time. And now, what is Twi gonna do?
Well that's not good. Then again this is Twilight so her 'rush' job is likely still better then most ponies careful work.
Okay you so just not getting the unimportant parts all set up and perfect, but doing it RIGHT still. Yup it's Twilight.
Nice, now how will it blow up in your face?
Ohhh so very much yes. Tired, exhausted Twilight is one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse. At least Evil Twilight's you can predicted and they have goals and plans. Tired Twilight... who knows what random idea will pop into her head that she will act on?
Oh right that.. why did i not think of that,it's a pegasus only thing, not something the Empire as a whole knows, so yeah would just be pegasi watching it, not a full empire force. Also, so any of the pegasi on the fleet ships telling them where Twilight is heading?
Fair enough, just using her as a symbol and rallying point to tell the Stompers to go buck themselves. Then you have the devoted fanatics like Loose Leaf.
This also makes perfect sense. Nice detail and yeah, the pegasi would do something like that. Also explains why the Stompers haven't just taken the gems, no clue it's even there.
Wait, they train and house the Scribes RIGHT at the portal? no wonder they have a tendency to buy into this all. Also Caste? Well, fuck this world even more.
The kind you do not have time to read Twilight.
Twilight is gonna Twilight.
And she says it so casually. Still, cut down their forces a bit more, only have to deal with the smaller ships, that's good. But no, to many and not enough crew to make it worth it.
Her head is going to blow up soon as she sees TWO Twilight's, wont it?
Hmmmmm, good way to avoid pursuit, though that would just give them time to plan and trap you, but, decent emergency escape option. Though leaves dealing with Dark Twi out of the equation.
You should be used to that by now Twilight, it's what you end up doing to save the world anyway. When you have plans, they tend to not go so good.
Loose... careful, you are getting close to the line between "Loyal fanatic" and "Sycophant."
Fast force ahead/gaining on them trying to slow them down?
And given it IS standard tactics, and this is Twilight, she already has a standard response to this tactic prepared, right?
Well explains sending them in, quick, and only a few need to survive to do some real damage. Good strategy, even if it doesn't defeat them, just need to slow them down a bit.
BOMB! As in BOOM! As in fire and concussion waves, not magic. So does it matter?
Conveniently having JUST the right amount to make things dramatic. Low mana levels, but the Narrativium levels are through the roof.
AKA BOOM!
\
Called it.
Also, wow, so right now, Nebula is pretty much the Bismark. interesting way this worked out.
Nice expression, it fits, and no, keep it for emergencies.
I have no idea what music would be epic enough for this, but it needs some epic music. That line gives me chills.
okay, reusing this one but, Story, you are just ASKING for it!
Been wondering when he'd show up again.
AKA, training wheels off, let mama show you how it's done!
Ohh nice, Skyla or Ao? Also, you know it works now at least!
You can do it baby, hold together and show these scallywags what a TRUE Free-Pony can do!
BOOYAH! That's how it's done!
Come on baby, you can do this!
THIS IS SO AWESOME Just, holy fuck you capture the tension the danger, the feel of this being desperate actions and Twi just being that fucking awesome to pull this off. And the signs of damage, of little things like this, are what really sell it! Showing this to us clearly!
Oh crap.... slowing down now... and that is not good.
On the plus side, maybe the chasers will be low on power by the time they hit you?
Also, Skyla is awesome! "HAVE AT YE SCURVY PONES! GIVE THEM A SHOW OF OUR MUZZLE FLASH! BLAST THE VILE HEATHENS FROM THE SKIES!"
And having an entire wave of bombs do nearly nothing.
Who wouldn't?
Damn but she knows how to keep up morale.
Well fuck. This is going to be great... and chances of fixing it in time?.....
Her trick here with the still going full on, or her flying? If the later, That's why she is the most epic Sky Pirate in Equetria!
And Twi knows how to use that to her advantage.
... you just had to... didn't you?
And another reason why Skyla is going to make one AMAZING leader with a bit more time and maturity.
Well, some good news... that can't be good.
True, not to bad, unless you don't have spare parts...... still.. hopefully you all are close enough to make it.
Nice, and, doubt enough time for THAT, or at least for that to make a difference. Still if nothing better to do, might as well.
Nevermind, yeah just find a way to get ready for them.
Ohhh very smart, thought she'd just be letting it spin like a ships propeller does. But this works a lot better.
Again I freaking LOVE how Skyla is turning out, just, how well she's doing with this, and how amazing she's become as a leader, and the support Twi has shown helping her, and letting her grow like this, it is just AMAZING!
Likely not even enough to slow them down, and Twilight is NOT the type to send ponies on pointless suicide runs. So no. Though having them ready when the fight starts can't hurt.
One. Ao is pretty much the most awesome part of this story.
two... she's not wrong....
Three, that makes her all the more awesome.
Wait she's been around Ao how long and hadn't picked that up?
Well, that is kind of the idea..... But odds of it working...... or you being able to DO that....
Yup!
Fair enough, but Skyla is going to fight that big time.
Oh.. but prepping the ponies for that and making clear they are fully ordered to save themselves and survive. To use it when you need to.
Yeah, Skyla, you more or less guaranteed that very few would actually DO that baring the most worst case scenarios. You are the type of commander that troops will die for.
Also this, and hell yeah! Get to really show those assholes a thing or two!
can't argue with that.
Kill joy
I like the way you are thinking, and yeah you would be insane enough to try that.
Well crap, stupid feudal systems.
Oh, well then. Yeah that's going to screw with that plan.
Oh... ohhhh boy, heart to heart time..... This is either going to be bad, or really sweet.
Sweet and touching it is. And its great seeing her realize her mistakes. THAT is the important part, and that she learned from this.
ALL OF THE LOVE THIS STORY!
Just this is pure, unfiltered, concentrated Princess of Friendship!
The starfish problem. You can't save them all... but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter to each one you do.
And I can understand this seeing so much, it numbs you, and seeing this fresh, through Flurry's eyes......
This is EXACTLY why The Doctor NEEDS companions around him. Twilight, remember this. This is just, SO GOOD!
ALL OF THE LOVING THIS! Just, having both learn from this and Twilight... just, it makes sense and, this is just so well done! I LOVE IT!
Now, next week, reach the gate, defend it, and I'm betting Dark Twi comes through at JUST the wrong time and we get some REAL action.
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Mea maxima culpa.
She learned it all from Fluttershy... who's going to give her hell for roughing up "her baby!"
A quiet philosophical debate on the ethics of organic, free-range, sustainable piracy!
Well, I have a bit of time with a full keyboard to work on these. May miss one more chapter for the last leg of the trip, but we should be home after that.
Does the "its" mean that she's optimizing the mechanism on the whole for long-distance targets, or that the range is more a factor of the mandala than the gun?
Sounds like the diary-powered portal to the human world. Then again, I have a feeling she wound up going back to that with the proper parts later.
...and after going back to check on that, it's more the reveal that makes it feel scavenged than the actual parts. It looks rather professional for a prototype.
I see she's learned a thing or two since her library days.
And here I was thinking that that hereditary group would have been a good breeding ground for the Cult of the Dark Mistress. Then again, the earth ponies probably wouldn't have let that go unchecked in the guards of the very portal she came through. The sort of "infiltration" that finds luckily-unlocked gates and particularly weak defenders?
Of course even that level of "devotion" means they'll probably be harder to re-educate than most of the earth ponies, doesn't it.
That actually sounds rather beautiful, of the "austere and imposing" class of "beautiful". More support for the peaceful infiltration theory, though.
I am wondering about her description of the blacklips as a "scribe caste". The pegasi are the only race we've really gotten more than a single general purpose for, and while the unicorns can be boiled down to "slave" with the occasional "slave in all but name", the impression I get of the earth ponies is less that governorship, craftspony, warrior, etc. is hereditary and more that they have some ability to follow their own path -- less than in Equestria, sure, but nothing that would be called a caste. Is that a pegasus tradition? Could lead to some interesting worldbuilding for ancient Equestria if it is.
Of course that's what caught her ear.
Why am I thinking the cliffhanger in a chapter or two is her leaning on the stern rail, tears in her eyes, as Nebula enters the portal leaving the burning monastery behind them?
You do a really nice job of making her worship sound like a discordant counterpart to Ao's, even just the dialogue before any descriptors.
I would say something about the difference in focus between Equestrian and Imperial airship tech, but Nebula is pretty unique even without Fluttershy at the helm.
Careful, Leaf, that's still a bit of a sore topic.
...confound these ponies! They drive me to puns!
And here we go.
Could just be logical tactics developing separately, but it's also probably the most promising thing so far for the existence of other nations in this world.
If some bright spark out here gets the idea of reusing the sabotaged crystals, the Empire's hopes for an early success against Equestria would really climb, to say nothing of if anypony figures out non-magical explosives.
...they figured them out quickly. The advantage would be down to numbers and experience, then, and both of those lean Imperial for however long it takes Equestria to develop better chemical-resistance spells.
Especially since the ornithopters are more maneuverable and might have a higher top altitude than you; any gains you make by climbing will be temporary.
Things like this more than anything make me wish for an animated version, just to see the camera swooping through the rigging and the scurrying crew, hear the thumps of the levers and the orders called, the fins and sails unfurling as Nebula jumps into the wind, the swelling music... Of course that's beyond just about any cartoon, so someone's magnum opus of SFM, perhaps. Or imagination works just as well.
8275387 8275425 And it appears I'm not the only one. A full series... that would be absolutely outstanding!
Isn't this what you spent all the time working on the mechanical telegraph for? I'll admit, though, that I just want to hear the di-di-ding-thunks as it hits the endstops at force.
Chalk "Fluttershy's evasive maneuvers" up on the list of things to keep an eye on when I finally get around to rereading Enigma.
And until Ao whistles for the rest of the fleet arriving, it's as good a thing to do as any other. That she chooses something directed toward other ponies shows good things in her future. At least the bombs didn't splash to any of the crew.
Check the wounded for anypony with mechanical knowledge who's not up to fighting in the next engagement, maybe? If you can't use the engine anyway, there's not really much harm in getting a hoof up on the repairs. Might make the difference in getting away from a true Nightmare Twilight and her guards a day and a half or so after you get through the Gate.
"...a bit drastic, Loose Leaf, but I suppose it is commendable, in a way. But surely you can see how that would be a waste of our resources, to say the very least?"
I forgot we were keeping the two apart to avoid hybridization of the religion into an Equestia-acceptable form.
On the one hand, that might not be as difficult as we're all expecting since Twilight has experience talking down wary-to-near-hostile Twilights from her time with the census, she'll almost certainly be able to drop the Nightshade persona once she enters the other world (at least, so long as Loose Leaf isn't still with them), and the Twilight there already encountered and was exasperated by the nascent Empire – her speech to them didn't seem particularly "cruel dictator" until we realized the implications of the blacklips recognizing Nightshade. On the other, the blacklips recognized Nightshade and we're only twenty chapters in and we haven't found the secondary plot yet. The chances aren't looking great.
For the first sentence, I was admiring their loyalty. That was apparently a bit too idealistic.
Ah. Somepony already tried that.
Yes, I know it was old age.To be fair, my headcanon for pony aging would put that a year below the CMC, or nearly twelve in Canterlot (Junior) High. Not fully capable by any means, but old enough they'd have a basic idea of the ruler he'll become.
I was wondering what she was doing during that train of thought. Skyla's learned diplomacy well.
Or that. Bits don't rebuild memories, but if she does go down in this, I have a feeling that's how Nebula would have wanted to go.
A really good message. I'd love to see how the show would fit it into a "Dear Princess Celestia..." though.
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I'm actually kind of dreading that. Loose Leaf is quite a force for how bumbling she appears, and if she turns that against our Twilight...
I've realized I tend to go quiet during action scenes. iisaw, imagine I'm (nearly) as excited as Seraphem during them and don't want to break out halfway through to put thoughts down.
Actually, that's more correct than it seems on the surface: unless you're one of the few taking Meghan at her word, Twi and Flurry are going to wind up outliving everypony but three, and maybe a couple other creatures depending on dragon lifespans. They're going to want to pick up the practice of revolving companions as well to keep their eyes fresh – though probably on longer terms than he does.
Also, I've been saying that Flurry's going to make a great Empress for a while now, completely forgetting that Cadance is also an alicorn. I wonder how that's going to work. Another diarchy?
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I didn't actually see it like that: you have half-empty big containers of goop that you coat everything with. You can tell that by the time you get through the hull, the rigging, and the envelope, you'll have run out of goop. Therefore, you prioritize, and the envelope, being the biggest and most fragile target, gets the largest bit of what's remaining. While that leaves none for patch jobs, by the time you get the time for large-scale repairs, you'll have been in a place more conducive to cooking up more goop for long enough to do so.
There's been several times I've been glad Fluttershy didn't make the trip. Thinking about it, none of that made it into my commentary, but it was in the back of my mind, at least.
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I love the "beat-to-quarters" scenes in nautical epics. I so wish they had continued the Master and Commander movies! I'm also hoping for something even remotely like that in the MLP movie.
Yeah, that's about right.
I take that as quite a compliment, thank you!
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I have to check those out, then. I did hear something about airships in the movie, and I agree that it would be an amazing scene for them to include, but that and the new animation program (also looking promising) are the only spoilers I've let past, so I can't really talk about it in any real detail. Definitely looking forward to it, though!
I really liked that ending conversation between Twilight and Flurry. Something tells me that, if they get out of this one more-or-less intact, Twilight may be a more interventionist Princess in the future.
In the meantime... if he is too young to rule, then maybe the young Emperor is young enough to save, if he has the right teachers.
Meanwhile, I do think that the Twilight cultists may need to be liquidated before this is over. Their hate is their guiding light and, once loosed, such hate is difficult to control. If Twilight wants to create peace between this world's tribes then she may need to forcibly disarm all sides and put in place a stricter law about living in Harmony.
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If you liked the Master and Commander movie and are interested in more film nautical epics then I strongly recommend tracking down the Hornblower series of TV movies. There are eight movies, based on three of CS Forester's novels (also well worth tracking down, ten in total plus some short stories).
Truly, a grown and wiser Twilight.
barbels. She's had plenty of dictionary time since meeting Ao. (Footnote perhaps explaining Dash not getting word?)