It was past midnight and thus technically Saturday when they got in. The base-bound garrison troops of the EUP had at least been useful for creating a teleport relay to get Sunset and the nexus pylon to the battle site in time, but she had no desire to return immediately. Not when they could take Duchess Carrier’s private train back. The beds were just as good as the one she’d slept on as Celestia’s student, and the food was excellent.
Sunset had written her report for the EUP before dinner, along with filling out her separation from service paperwork. She did have school next Monday, after all. All of that had been turned in at a more reasonable hour that morning.
She watched the Swannification ceremony’s parade from the stands on the boulevard next to the palace. The swans marched in a series of chevrons behind the float. Princess Twilight stood atop it, having assumed the royal “swan pose” with her wings. It didn’t look right with her purple coat. This looks so weird without Celestia doing it.
At least Sunset didn’t have to give the speech. All that honking was simply undignified for an equine.
It still took up the rest of the morning, which helped quite a bit since the victory party Sunset’s friends said they were organizing wasn’t until after noon.
Sunset figured the party would have food, so she skipped lunch.
As she entered the ballroom at the Carrier mansion, Sunset noticed quite a few ponies she wasn’t expecting. “Princess Twilight!”
“Sunset.” The alicorn shook her head. “You don’t need to use my title. I’m sorry I thoughtlessly put you up against some monster that you had nothing to do with.” She bowed her head, then raised it to look around the room. “But I’m glad you found new friends here to help you overcome it.”
“Eh.” Sunset raised her front right hoof slightly off the ground and twirled it around. “It’s over and done with, Twilight.”
“Still, from what I’ve been told it was quite a battle.” Twilight trotted up to Sunset and put a foreleg over her withers. “You cast dozens of powerful spells while maintaining a flight enchantment through the whole fight.”
“Uh, yeah.” Sunset tried to shy away from Twilight’s grip but her purple captor didn’t seem to get the hint. “I’m a pretty powerful unicorn, it happens.”
“Still.” Twilight looked away from Sunset, out over a table that Pinkie was beginning to set up as a buffet. “I should look after my own land.”
“It’s not your land yet, Twilight.” Sunset smirked and followed Twilight’s gaze at the rapidly-assembling buffet. Something inside her rankled at Twilight’s words, but she wasn’t entirely sure why. “Besides, it’s not not my land. I was born here, thank you very much. And if I want to come back after graduation, it’ll continue to be my land.”
“Okay okay.” Twilight removed the foreleg and took a few steps back, only to lean in and narrow her eyes. “I’ve also received certain... budgetary concerns.”
“As I am no longer a member of the EUP, I cannot speak on any such topic.” Sunset matched Twilight’s eye narrowing.
“Don’t worry too much about it.” Twilight’s eyes returned to normal as she shook her head. “There does seem to be a bit of room to move the budget around. I’ve found a lot of agricultural subsidies that exist mostly on inertia. I can phase those out and see about giving Equestria a better distributed layer of protection.”
“One that doesn’t involve the presence of one to six of a dozen or so ponies.”
“Uh, yes, that. I’m thinking about some really wide-range reforms once I can free up some budget.”
That got Sunset’s attention. “Oh? What do you have in mind?”
Twilight swept a hoof and gazed off into the distance. “The current depot-hub organization relies on the ability to raise vast conscript armies in the event they’re needed, but requires considerable lead time to do so. It also means Equestria periodically stockpiles vast arrays of wargear as it pitches out equipment that rotted without ever being used. I want to create a leaner, full-time professional force that’s more responsive to Equestria’s actual needs.”
“That’s pretty thoughtful.” Sunset trotted up alongside the princess. “I’ve got a few ideas on how to provide numbers without actually employing vast arrays of ponies.”
Sunset noticed as she moved that she’d seen Pinkie working on the banquet, then as soon as her field of vision moved past her had seen her again opening the door on the opposite side of the room, but dismissed that incongruity. It was, after all, Pinkie.
Ghost Pepper trotted in after her, bearing a package of some sort. Pinkie took it and marched off towards the kitchens. She passed through the door into the kitchen and immediately came back out, sans package.
“Heya Sunset. Getting this hop warmed up?” Ghost looked around at the decorations. “I see Pinkie Pie’s famous style, but in your colors.” That was indeed the case; although “balloons and streamers” was Pinkie’s go-to strategy, the streamers and balloons were in Sunset’s yellow and red.
“Yeah, talking with the bossest of mares here.” Sunset poked Twilight.
“Hey! I am not the ‘bossest of mares’ yet!” Twilight prodded Sunset’s hoof away as she glared at the unicorn. “And since when did you talk like that?”
“Eh, I picked up the slang in my time at the EUP bases.”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Didn’t you spend less than an hour total on those bases?”
“Yeah, but I’m a quick study. Comes with being the princess’s student, right?” Sunset attempted to nudge Twilight again, but Twilight’s aura intercepted the hoof.
“Greetings, Sunset.” Charge Carrier had entered, wearing a white dress with sweeping lines. Her wings were opened just slightly with the tips raised, accenting the lines of the dress. Sunset had learned that high-society pegasi trained to hold that pose, as it was not a normal resting position. Although the dress looked simple, far more went into the look than a normal unicorn might suspect.
“Greetings yourself. How’s the data I sent you?”
“Hmf.” Charge grunted sharply. “I suppose we shall have to work on decreasing the size of the system. I believe I can eventually bring it down quite a lot, once we can begin working at higher frequencies.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still working on getting technologies into locally workable forms.” Sunset lifted her right forehoof and moved it in a circle. “There’s so much that’s within our reach, we just don’t know it yet.”
Charge smiled at that. “Indeed.” Sunset considered that response. Unfortunately, her days of studying the smiles of Princess Celestia did not prepare her to study the smiles of others. At least, not others who had different facial bone structure.
“I’m here too!” Stellar Flux emerged from a servant’s door at the far end of the room. The wall there had been obscured by a curtain, and Sunset wondered if some sort of surprise lurked behind it. “Ready to get the sun raised on this party?”
“Yeah!” Sunset reared and pedaled her hooves. “Let’s do this.”
Stellar Flux smirked. “If you insist. Hit it, Pinkies!”
Pinkies?
Sunset had no more time to ponder that before the curtain opened, revealing several ponies positioned behind it – Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, and two Pinkie Pies – and standing in front of a mural of Sunset’s defeat of the Ice Skate.
The mural showed Sunset soaring forward, fiery wings spread, flanked by electromaser shots on each side, her two bit constructs hovering over her, and her horn lit to fire off a beam of superheated metal. Its linework was crude but bold, reminding Sunset of her work helping Pinkie with art. Above the mural was hung a banner proclaiming “Congratulations Sunset Shimmer on defeating the Ice Skate and being an *******!” There was clearly a last word there, but for some reason it didn’t seem to register properly to her.
Although Sunset couldn’t see it, others in the room noted a slight orange glow above her head.
Sunset looked over at Pinkie Pie, then turned to Pinkie Pie. Wait… “Human Pinkie?”
“Yup!” Now that Sunset was looking closely, the Pinkie that answered was a tiny bit shorter than the other, and noticeably leaner. “We came to congratulate you!”
We… Sunset noted that Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack were also slightly younger than adult ponies. The Twilight behind the curtain also had no wings but did have glasses. “You guys came? Thank you.”
“Yeah! We felt bad about not being able to help you out, so when Starlight called us last night we rushed on over.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Starlight called you?” Sunset wasn’t sure what was going on there.
“At first we thought it was bad news, but then she explained everything.” Applejack broke in. “We got the word and came a runnin’.”
“What… did she explain?” Sunset felt a headache coming on. Something was up, but she wasn’t sure what.
“Let’s let her explain it, darling.” Rarity replied.
“Gladly.” Stellar levitated a folder from under the refreshment table and removed a set of papers.
Sunset took the papers with her magic and quickly paged through them. “These are the medical records of a pony named Firestreak. Female pegasus pony, age 33 years, she was pregnant at the time this was written up, it’s her first foal, no acute health issues, chronic health issues… pegagen insensitivity syndrome?”
Stellar filled in the conversation as Sunset paused. “These days it’d be called ‘primary pegagen insensitivity syndrome,’ since her wings never developed at all.”
Rainbow visibly winced at that, hugging herself with her wings as if to make sure they were still there.
Sunset continued to page through the forms. “Why did you ask me to read this? And why do you have it anyway?”
“To answer the second part first, you of all ponies should probably be the one to fill in the Equestrian government about the concept of information security. I claimed to be a surviving relative.”
“Stellar!” Sunset rounded on her. “Why would you do that?”
“Because…” Stellar looked down briefly, before looking Sunset dead in the eyes. “That foal… was you.”
“My… mother…” Sunset looked down at the papers. “I never knew my mother. Until now I never even knew her name.”
“And this brings me to the question you posed on that train back from the desert last time you were here.” Stellar trotted up to Sunset, then extended her hoof and ran it along Sunset’s back.
Sunset shivered at the unexpected touch, but didn’t give ground. “What are you talking about?”
“I accused you of being an alicorn, and you asked where your wings were then.”
“No, you…” Sunset’s head was encased in an orange aura. “Ugh, that’s not…”
“Sunset!” Princess Twilight ran up to her, followed by Sunset’s human friends only because they had to cover a greater distance.
“That’s another thing I suspected.” Stellar looked down. “Her own empathy magic is helping her deny this, messing with her head to keep the knowledge out.”
“Yup.” Ghost Pepper looked at the anxious cluster of ponies. “Ah saw it happen when Discord was talkin’ to her, but I didn’t think it was him doing it. Now it seems Ah’m right.”
“So, what does this mean? How do we fix it?” Human Twilight anxiously pranced in place.
“Nuh… nothing’s wrong!” Sunset declared. “Everything is fine, and we should celebrate the Ice Skate’s defeat and leave it at that.”
“No, Sunset.” Fluttershy walked up to her and rubbed against Sunset’s side, draping a wing over her. “You’re obviously not okay, and you need to tell us what’s wrong.”
“Nuh… nuff…” Sunset collapsed to the floor, legs sliding out from under herself. Her human friends rushed in and hugged her. Once the last of them had made contact, each of them lit up in an aura colored like their geode. As the other ponies in the room watched, the auras intermingled and swirled, washing over Sunset.
“No. No!” Sunset’s speech was coherent again, and she pulled her legs up under herself, propping up her front in a sitting position. “No, I can’t, I mustn’t be an alicorn.”
“Well why not?” Pinkie asked.
“Because…” Sunset’s eyes began to brim with tears. “If I’m an alicorn, it means all those terrible things I did, to everypony, everyone in this room. It means that maybe I was right. That it was my destiny. And I can’t accept that. I can’t accept those things I did might have been right.”
“Uh, you never did anything bad to me.” Pony Pinkie’s correction went unheard.
“Sunset, you’re being a silly pony.” Human Pinkie poked Sunset on the nose to ensure she was listening. “Those two things have nothing to do with each other, and I’m a person, or pony, who knows all about non-sequiturs.”
“Huh?” Sunset blinked her eyes free of tears momentarily and stared into Pinkie’s.
Pinkie stared back. “You are an amazing, wonderful person. Pony. Alicorn. Whatever you are, we like you and you’re a good friend, person, pony.” After a pause, she continued. “Staring contest!”
Sunset blinked almost immediately. “Pinkie, no. I… I don’t want that anymore.”
“But Equestria wants you.” All eyes turned towards the door where Princess Celestia stood.
“Princess… how much have you heard?” Sunset wobbled to her hooves to greet her former mentor.
“Oh, quite enough. These big ears aren’t for show, and your distressed wailing carried well.” The voice from behind Celestia indicated her sister had followed her into the manor.
“Greetings, your majesties.” Charge Carrier formally bowed, then straightened up. “I was not aware you would be attending.”
“Neither was I!” Princess Twilight turned around. “By my recollection you should still have a day of vacation left.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Twilight, but when I heard Sunset was in Equestria I simply had to stop by and see her. And Luna let me, as a good sister.”
“Yes, and you shall remember this tonight at the concert.” Luna stepped around her sister into the room. “The Ice Skate has been defeated?”
“Yeah.” Sunset turned slightly to face her. “I did it as a temporary member of the EUP, so the regular forces have at least one victory to their credit.”
Celestia sighed. “Indeed. But it is quite a shame you did not ask for my help, I should have enjoyed clashing with such an opponent. I could use a battle like that, it’s one of the things I’d been unable to cross off my vacation list.”
Luna patted her on the side. “Sister, I’m sure we’ll be able to find something like that in the future.”
“Yeah…” Sunset considered. “I might even be able to make something to fight you if you want that.”
“Oh, indeed?” Celestia approached the pony-pile centered on Sunset. “Becoming an artificer are you?”
“Yeah, something like that…” Sunset looked away.
“But, we should really resolve the main issue.” Celestia moved in further, leaning down at Sunset. “My dear student, the fact that you might be an alicorn now does not retroactively justify your previous behavior. It was that behavior that was blocking you from becoming an alicorn in the first place.”
“I… what?” Sunset stood up, her friends backing off slightly to let her rise.
“I foresaw the possibility. I had some theories about how to do it, but they all required you to be liked and trusted. Not feared and resented.”
“Is this some kind of zen thing? Where she achieved it by denying it?” Human Pinkie had stood up as well.
“Not… exactly. It’s impossible to ascend on your own, as far as I can tell.”
Princess Twilight pondered this for a moment. “What about Flurry Heart, then?”
“Well, that one I’m a bit murky on, but I’d imagine it had something to do with being inside Cadance when she restored the Crystal Heart.” Celestia shook her head. “In any case, I have a method of confirming if Sunset is indeed an alicorn.”
Sunset tried to back up, but her friends, even on their hooves, were still pressed up against her. “If this involves seeing if I die when killed, forget it.”
“Goodness no, Sunset.” Celestia laughed as she stepped forward. “It is merely a scanning spell. I check how many magical cores you have.”
“Oh, right. Discord said the same thing.”
“He did? Well, I’ll see in a moment.” Celestia’s eyes lit up with energy along with her horn, followed by a similar aura surrounding Sunset. Five sparks came out from the unicorn, one from her own horn, one from the center of her back, one from the bottom of her barrel, one from her throat, and a final one from between her eyes.
“Uh, is this, confirmation?” Sunset stared forward at the five sparks, now forming a pentagon orbiting in front of her.
Celestia stepped forward, leaned over the human-turned-pony Rainbow Dash standing between the two of them, and wrapped her wing around Sunset. “Yes, it does. Be at peace, my former student. Your journey has not been what any of us expected, but the destiny I foresaw for you has come to pass. Equestria has called for your service, and you stand ready.”
“Nope.” Sunset vanished in a spark of light, appearing on the other side of the room. “I’ve just finished up with being drafted, thank you. Right now, I just want some normal, non-magical, non-statesmareship living to do. If service to Equestria really is my destiny I’m sure I’ll eventually be drawn back here, but right now I feel like going back to my home in the human world and catching up on all the stuff I’ve missed for a bit.”
“I…” Celestia stood, mouth working silently, for a moment. “I must admit this is an entirely unexpected outcome. Still, that just means more work for Twilight.”
“Hey.” Princess Twilight shook her head. “I get that you think I’m going to do a better job than you two, and that’s why you’re handing me all of both your duties, but this is kind of getting out of hoof.”
“Princess Twilight, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be having any sort of coronation.” Sunset could feel Rarity’s eyes boring into the back of her head. “At least not yet.”
“But, the basic law states…”
“Yes, Twilight, I know. Alicorns are given the title. Fine. But that’s all I’m taking. We’re going to the Royal Gazette, writing up the decree acknowledging this, and then I’m out of here.”
“Let her go, Twilight.” Luna shook her head. “She is wroth, and needs time to process the currents of fate.”
“Thank you.” Human Twilight placed herself between Sunset and her own alicorn counterpart. “I’m sure this is fascinating to you, but we need some time to be relieved that our friend’s not been blasted to bits in the service of a foreign military.”
“Well, let’s not be too harsh here, folks. This is still a party. Let’s eat up and enjoy for a bit longer!” It was nearly impossible to determine which Pinkie had said that, only having them stand next to each other could give them away.
Everypony complied.
Sunset looked at herself in the mirror. The portal was powered up, so her reflection was human. She waved her forehoof and saw the corresponding arm wave.
She turned around for a bit. “Princess Twilight, it’s time for me to head back. After all this I’m going to find Wallflower and I’m going to give making her mine my best shot. Either that or I’m going to sleep for an entire day.”
The aforementioned Princess looked up at the mirror. All of her Canterlot High friends, along with her counterpart, had returned through it already (although they’d had some time to chat at the party.) “Wallflower, really? I’d bet Rarity ten bits you’d end back up with Flash.”
“Nah. That was entirely for my convenience.” Sunset shook her head. “Wallflower… once she's calmed down, there’s a kind of adorable serenity to her. I’m looking for a po– person who can appreciate things calmly and deeply.”
“I guess she’s got that ‘gardening zen’ thing going for her?” Twilight shook her head. “Nopony had Wallflower in our bet.”
“Did Cadance get you started on that? Well, we’re not dating yet. I gotta go win her over.”
“Sunset, I’m still sorry you got roped into that fight.”
“Twilight.” Sunset shook her head and sighed. “Twilight, please. It’s all over now. I’m going back over and I don’t think anything more needs to be said.”
“No.” Twilight advanced forwards, almost to the point Sunset might consider pushing her back. “I failed one of my friends. I don’t like that.”
“Twilight, you’ve gotten kind of intense here.” Sunset backed up a step. She could feel the energy of the mirror against her tail, a faint pull combined with a static charge.
“Sunset, hear me.” Twilight began glowing. Not her horn, but all of her. “I, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, hereby swear to you…” Twilight began levitating slightly, her wings spread but unmoving. “...to not call you to aid Equestria until the next time you return of your own free will.”
“Holy Tartarus, Twilight. Was that the so-called ‘alicorn oath’?” Sunset staggered in shock, a hoof slipping sideways. “Did you seriously bust that out of the depths of history just for this?”
“Yeah.” Twilight landed and ceased to glow, and now gazed towards Sunset in an almost sheepish manner. “I, uh, read about Celestia doing it to seal really important agreements hundreds of years ago.”
“Twilight, the last one of those was the Dragon Non-Aggression Treaty. It’s not for things like this.”
“Sunset, don’t say honoring a friend’s wishes isn’t important.” Twilight’s sheepishness had vanished, and the steely princess-ness had returned.
“Well, then I guess thanks.”
“I’m glad I was able to do it for you. Until we meet again, Sunset.”
“I don’t know exactly when, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon enough. Until we meet again!” Sunset hopped backwards through the mirror. With a few bounces and stretches she found herself back on two legs in front of Canterlot High.
She gazed over her friends, who were standing around waiting for her. “It’s time to do that dramatic confession. Rarity, my outfit!”
“Of course!” Rarity pulled out a rack of outfits from behind the other side of the statue. “Bomber jacket, darling? Perhaps this dress uniform-inspired suit?”
Sunset beamed as Rarity went down the options. I’ve got great friends here. I’m not in any hurry to leave.
Princess Twilight shrugged as she prepared to go back to finish up her duty in Canterlot. Well, I’ll just let Sunset do her own thing for now. I’ve got everything under control, nothing will happen between now and my full coronation.
Good ending. Shame Sunset still lacks wings though.
"Sunset is totally an alicorn, she's just genetically predisposed to not grow wings," is the best headcanon explanation I have heard to give Sunset what she's due from her Daydream Shimmer stint in EqG3 and I love it.
It's not really a "foreign military" to Sunset, since it is her home nation's military
...Twilight, did you really just think that
Oh Twi you sweet summer child.
I know it’s not important to the plot, but I can’t help but wonder who everyone bet Sunset would end up with
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It's foreign with respect to the person who said the line, and I dispute the idea that it still counts as her home country in any case.
Is that last line Twilight said an allusion to another sequel? Because Twilight's practically asking for one like that. Sunset would be invited to the coronation as well and that technically counts as coming to Equestria willingly...
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It’s a reference to the show’s finale aka the battle of the bell.
10232808
"Alicorn without wings" is kind of a...clunky explanation.
Daydream's wings seem more like magical projections than actual wings.
Is this story still alive?
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Yeah, epilogue has been tricky and 2020 gonna 2020.
Yeah nothing will happen...
10486754
If I can recall what I meant back then? Yes, there it is. My initial point when first writing that comment would have been: in the scenario of going to a hacker convention and challenging people to guess a password you won't yourself be ever using during that convention, and betting a large amount of money nobody else can use it either, it doesn't matter whether you're expecting a telepath or not - your current password should still have been created by software including but not reliant on your input running on a computer with no network access which was safely left and locked at home, with no other copies of that password made, and to this point you should have never seen nor typed your password as you clearly don't yet have any need to know it. You can look it up once you get home and change your password again. This isn't deliberate protection against mind reading, it's a straightforward result of the kind of thought process intended to produce security policy, and the sort of thing anybody expecting to build a business requiring such policy should have thought up. (Obviously, Sunset could by shaking his hand have pretty easily and rapidly acquired said unseen, untouched and unlearned password, but the narrative shouldn't have just skipped over the process if she had done that. And while the nonmagical, nonpsychic conventiongoers could have shaken his hand and gotten that kind of password in the same ways as Sunset could, without her advantage their chances would be just poor enough I could excuse him for either not having thought of or dismissed the possibility. It would have been accidental carelessness going in rather than willful blindness.) While mixing in random characters, cases and substitutions actually isn't a good method for creating complex passwords in a lot of real-world environments, with trying to use l33tspe4k a subset, that whole matter probably wasn't relevant here (and the problem takes too long to explain even by my standards).
However, after writing and before hitting "Post Comment" on that previous post it occurred to me that I might have been being unfair. The actual ways systems storing and comparing passwords work can be counterintuitive at times, so perhaps I was labouring under incorrect assumptions and he hadn't done anything stupid picking a password. (Confession: some years back, there was a period of about six months I resented and argued against the times I was required to keep my maximum password lengths under seven characters. While there really was something very wrong going on there, I now know that given the set of often very poor choices which led to that point, maximum password lengths were in themselves usually though not always strengthening rather than weakening password security. Still a bad thing, but for completely different reasons than I'd thought and the fault of a different set of people than I'd been blaming.) So after spending an hour or so looking up the likely real-world inspirations for our fictional character's work, I was enlightened and realized there were good odds the quickest ways to pass his system's password check wouldn't in fact involve attempting to guess or enter his password, and so bothering to create a good password might have been wasted effort anyway. I no longer knew which stupid thing he'd done, and softened my original criticism of him accordingly.
After posting and reading the author's response, I was further enlightened to realize this guy isn't supposed to represent a hacker showing off his homebrewed invention (still a bad idea, but if enough of his product was original, reinventing-the-wheel stuff he theoretically might have survived the convention before somebody found the spare time to pick apart his security) but an entrepreneur seeing a potential business clearly nobody else had the smarts and vision to notice and thus attempting to buy and assemble its pieces (software, employees, licenses, connections, testimonies...), who simply has no clue how much of what he's doing he doesn't understand. He's certainly an idiot, and potentially dangerously so, but not the kind who could have been expected to know better.
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Edit: Re-read your comment and saw the end portion of it. So yeah, that's correct.
Exactly how the mind-reading would work on a password that was generated following all security procedures isn't particularly relevant, since that interaction was inspired by certain past bitcoin thefts in the early 2010s that were caused by unbelievable foolishness. There was a real likelihood that guy wasn't leaving hackercon with his pride and business intact regardless, Sunset just had the fastest method.
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Memorizing a password can be one of the safest ways to keep it safe eve if you didn't make the password yourself.
But yeah, "A fool and his money are soon parted'".
And done reading! Haaa! Nice story!
...
Well, I'm shipping Ghost with Stellar... Since they went on that trip together...
...
Typo? Or did you mean they thought Stellar was Starlight or got the names confused?
...
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Starlight's the communications relay to the human side while Twilight is busy.
That seems... poorly planned. I mean, stockpiling supplies in the event that they're needed is fine, but not more important than maintaining a serviceable defense. It feels like they should have cut down on that long before, say, reducing a force meant to tangle with monsters down to one officer. Who's even gonna train those conscripts?
I would have dismissed it to, but now that it's been pointed out I suspect EG Pinkie is here too.