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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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I'll have to read this later... Wooo! New chapter!!!
Oh my......wait i can do that one better
Thanks for another amazing and well thought out chapter. You sure have a way with your cliffhangers, don't ya?
I look forward to seeing just how far everything goes, and how intricate things will become.
See you again soon.
All I ask is that you don't noodle incident this.
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next chapter title reveal: "10 – Cadance – Universal Love Part 1"
You know... in hindsight it's extremely obvious Cadence went through something similar. I mean, her powers pretty much do roughly the same thing Pascal's do. Roughly.
And one thing I don't think any of them have properly considered yet is that Pascal could have gone the whole way, and, in the justification of self-preservation, should have gone the whole way. But in the end, with his existence hanging by a thread... he chose to sacrifice everything for them.
Sure, it ended well for him, but as far as he and anyone else knew he, the being known as Pascal, was going to die if he chose that.
If nothing else, he deserves to have his reasoning heard before they crucify him.
This reveal just kinda ticks me off. They were ready to stone Pascal for a supposed crime that they committed?! That's some fucked up hypocrisy right there!
Hm. So you're making Cadance a mind controller too? That only makes me hate Shining Armor even more. He's a hypocrite. I never thought of it that way but he really is a self righteous hypocrite. It does explain why Cadance came to Pascal's defense though. I assume Candance will explain why only Pascal is hated by everyone for his mind control and not Candance as well.
Why do I get this image of Twilight in her laboratory and the various girls coming by as she gets confused as The Sample generates a strange signal when she gets angry thinking about Pascal, until Rarity gives it her mind about Blueblood?
Cadence super charged peoples desires even if she didnt create them, for two whole days? Wonder how many offspring she is reposnsible for from that time?
I am steadily growing to hate Twilight and Shining Armor, their bitchy and hypocritical attitudes are pathetic and yet they go unchecked. No one slaps them and tells THEM to shape up.
I'm also becoming annoyed with Spitfire and Lyra.
They have no idea what Celestia and Luna went through, no concept of what it means to rule a nation, let alone a species, especially not a species imperiled. And yet they blame Celestia for her actions in dealing with the slavers? They just want someone to pin frustrations on, and yet they don't even acknowledge that, so far they actually seem to believe she deserves scorn and disrespect for essentially saving the entire species. Do they not understand they owe her their existence? Every little thing in their lives?
Fucking ungrateful. I can't stand when an ignorant, truthfully or willful, decides someone who knows better is only worth disrespect and frustration when that person is responsible for helping/saving them, and has done their best to do right by them. Shit hits too close to home.
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honestly, mind control of any form is the sort of thing that should be considered a terrifying prospect, especially from the military/security context. Shining Armor also has negative experiences in the form of Chrysalis. so, when presented with a new mind controller, who's had open access to 3 of the 4 Alicorns, and you just accompanied the 4th right into their grasp, rampant initial paranoia is actually a commendable reaction.
so yeah, while cadence might be a mind controller, so is chrysalis, and Shiny is understandable in his general concerns about mind control.
Interesting. Though, I wonder how this will go. MLP canon revealed that she was originally a pegasus, and ascended at an early age, then raised to use her powers for good as a princess by Celestia. Even attended the same school as Shining. ...but other than that, not much is known about her past other than some of how she and Shining met and whatnot. Let alone how she turned the knowledge and understanding of love when she was a pegasus into actual spells involving it. Or anything about her powers, in all honesty.
I honestly have to agree with some of the people here. Claiming there was another sexual rampage from someone with far less subtle powers, and she not only isn't a social pariah, she occupies a position of power? That... makes at least three flavors of no sense in the Equestria you've presented.
Twilight's being needlessly bitchy with the tail thing.
I'm also inclined to agree with the others that Shining is being a dick while Cadance's reveal is quite fascinating. I knew she'd take a special interest in Pascal, but I never expected this.
I just hope Twilight won't change Pascal into her 'ideal' stallion image so that she could think of him as a proper 'pony of interest'.
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Not to mention racist. Imagine Pascal saying around "Yeah, since Twilight was pissed at me, she gave me a donkey tail to show people how much of an "ass" I am ". (laughs)
Next day, a group of donkeys including Matilda are protesting in front of Twilight's Castle with placards like "Princess of Racism" or "Friendship for Who?" .
8096517
The tail thing is a bit racist.
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Personally I think Twilight should be given fifty lashings. She did use a spell that would killed Pascal Mentally, physically and spiritually right?
Alter his mind body and then his soul to be the mort normal boring pony ever.
gonna be honest, The letter from Luna presents a strong reason for dismantling of the current governmental hierarchy of Equestria. It projects some sort of subconscious fear of Luna being irrelevant again, so she's seemingly clinging to her position of power by trying to FORCE additional responsibility on Pascal when his actions in attempting to minimize his responsibility and liability with his abilities are in fact well founded and reasonable choices to make. Responsibility is not required EVER to be shouldered by those with or in power. Responsibility comes from the individual, not the power that individual has, and it is their choice whether or not to abandon that responsibility. While Pascal's abilities are far reaching and have incredible potential for good or evil, that doesn't excuse Luna attempting to force a sense of black and white morality upon him by effectively saying "get used to it, or I'll force you to get used to it." This seems to be the issue with the sisters; they are ALL about maintaining the overarching status quo at all costs. They can't even seem to consider that an avatar of change, especially of acceptance, cannot and should not be chained down by a concept so grounded in moral theory, Because it does not even stop him from eliminating it by CHANGING what it means to have responsibility. Pascal has already shown that he has good ethics from the perspective of the needs of the equestrian people, and that is all that is needed, because like it or not, he's a force of nature now. The world in this story has literal checks and balances to prevent him from actually fucking things up permanently. What seems to be the issue though is that the current Equestrian Diarchy (I guess it's a Triarchy now thanks to Twilight being princess, though she's still growing into the role) relies far too much on the two major pillars of Celestia and Luna, when it seems that they really are not fit for ruling. Celestia has a severely scarred psyche that can legitimately hinder her ability to rule effectively by imposing certain concepts as "good" or "bad" in a manner that does not align with any moral codes being shown by other equestrian citizens, and Luna has shown a level of strong bias by placing personal responsibility above all else thanks to her experiences with Nightmare Moon, even when collective responsibility and responsibility TO said collective benefits Equestrian society more.
TL;DR we have a bunch of heavily damaged characters in positions that they really shouldn't be in, and now they're trying to maneuver Pascal for reasons they believe to allow for the objectively best outcome, when in reality it can potentially make everything come crashing down.
TL;DR of the TL;DR: WORDS WORDS WORDS, BLAH BLAH BLAH PHILOSOPHY BLAH BLAH BLAH POLITICS BLAH BLAH BLAH "RESPONSIBILITY"
9290209
I suppose... though there's a small detail to consider: part of their authority can be transferred, and part of it can't. They can transfer the authority of ruling the country, but they can't transfer being alicorns or controlling the celestial bodies.
Same goes for Pascal, really - if he gives this power up, there's literally nobody else to pick up the mantle.
So I can still sort of understand, in-context, why Luna would rather play on the side of "get used to it" - especially in a situation where the current wielder a) has proven himself to be at least basically trustworthy, b) has fucked up enough to have mistakes to learn from, and c) is intelligent enough to learn from his mistakes. I can see why she'd rather keep Pascal, in lieu of having to find another candidate - assuming that's even possible.
And this goes for both sisters, as well - they're broken, true, but they also have 1300 years of experience, not something that really transfers. As long as they're not being actively agitated, they can perform their functions fairly well - the last 1300 years seem to indicate this. Perhaps not a fair comparison, but in the last 100 years (so 1/13th of their rule), we've had two major "world wars", destroyed much of our ecosystem, developed (and then promptly lost control of) nuclear weapons... I'm not sure we're in a position to judge. ;]
But yeah - the entire institution of "princesses" is a fundamental problem in this particular reality. I mean, is Twilight any better, basically? No, she's not. Not even close, let's be honest. Neither is Cadance, to be honest, and don't even get me started on Shining Armor in all this.
Perhaps what they should really do, would be to move towards a constitutional diarchy, instead? The princesses are symbols, I get that - so let them be that: symbols. And, like I said, the fact that they're basically forever means that they have knowledge and experience that just can't be replaced. Removing them from power altogether would not only be a very costly mistake, it would also make Equestria incredibly weak on the international stage.
Sadly, the potential for trouble, problems, and abuse... is not something that can be removed out of the system. It's just not possible. And personally, I think "the devil you know" applies fairly strongly here. Pascal is, for all intents and purposes, an aspect of Harmony personified - a yet another check on the whole system. If you were to ask me for my thoughts about him - I would have to answer that I strongly suspect that arcane 'wayward emission' was anything but coincidental.
After some time has passed, having re-read my comment, I feel I wanted to elaborate a little more on this point.
I'm not sure how to properly drive the point home - I'd love to do it with a jackhammer, if at all possible. The truth of the matter is simply that: the potential for abuse of any kind of power cannot be removed, unless you summarily remove free will entirely (and if you only remove it from him, does that make him a mechanical overlord?). The point of trust is not to be sure someone can't do something bad - that's not trust! Trust can only exist at all if there's a potential for abuse - trust is nothing more than your personal belief that the person you're trusting will not abuse their abilities, power, or whatever else they have.
And as for Luna's letter - she's exactly right. It goes right back to the point I was trying to make earlier, "the devil you know" and all that. Pascal, being in his position, has a huge advantage in that he's survived making his mistakes, and he can now learn from them. That is not to be understated - that's how you gain experience and wisdom. I never understood people who have a "zero mistakes" policy - those that leave when you fuck up, or say "no second chances" and such - because it literally makes no sense! We make mistakes because we have imperfect information and imperfect judgement - contrary to popular belief, we always make the best choices we can at the time we make them. Hindsight is 20/20, and the only way to be in any way better is to be sorta bad at first. That's the entire point of experience. And if the person that hurt you seems genuinely sorry about what they did, that's all the more reason to keep them around - they know now, and with any luck, they'll strive not to repeat what they did, as they've learned.
Then there's the whole issue of tossing power aside. No matter how much Pascal would want to, he has responsibilities now, and there's no way he's weaseling himself out of them. Equestria itself, in a way, has accepted that it'll come to rely on his existence. He could have backed out before this, but now that option is no longer available - he is the Prince of Norms, for good or ill. Flailing about and looking for escape will not grant his freedom, and it can only serve to hurt those around him in the long term if he chooses to abuse his power, or worse - if he decides not to use it when it'd be clearly beneficial to do so. To be able to help and decide not to... is not something that should be expected of him. For better or worse, he accepted a position of power - and it is now his responsibility to bring the best possible outcome to Equestria. It is no longer optional - he is now a ruler, much like the Princesses, with everything that entails.
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I love this comment of yours, in no small part because I have family issues where I am firmly on the side of cutting ties, so this gets me thinking...
Also, 8bitmadness' and your comment together make me think of this famous line: "With great power, comes great responsibility..."
When one has the power to do something, it is on that person to use it both responsibly and (if they care about others) to the benefit of the world, and be judged on the consequences and merits of those actions...I think anyway...although they also have a responsibility to themselves no matter what.
Come to think of it, one more small point to make here. If you can't internally understand the position you're in, take a look around: how others treat you, what you're privvy to, what items you're given to care for, etc.
That line above clearly shows exactly how high a position he currently has. He seems to be a bit oblivious to it himself, but if you think about it... it's clear as day.
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I sincerely hope it doesn't have to do with alcohol abuse. :-) That's one of the worst things one could be dealing with, and the solution is not only painful for everyone involved, but can also fail...
Well, whatever you're dealing with, I hope it gets resolved with minimal damage.
be a chimera-- err, a draconeuss (or whatever Discord's species is called) for a day?
Damn, I knew it, it was the only logical explanation... there's still the illogical one, but I prefer the first one