• Member Since 12th Dec, 2011
  • offline last seen Last Friday

Impossible Numbers


"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying, And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying."

E
Awe

Commander Hurricane is the latest in a long line of pegasus commanders, in charge of the Pegasus Empire and determined to protect its citizens from threats. She will never break ranks. She will hold the line. Officially.

But when the threat is an eccentric revolutionary who talks nonsense, and who fights with ideas rather than with physical weapons, what arsenal does she herself possess to combat them? The power of the storm. Nature at her beck and call. Destruction worthy of divine wrath. Nothing less than godlike power to put the commoners in their place.

She doesn't think it will be enough. And secretly, part of her doesn't want it to be.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 19 )

MINOR EDIT: I have changed the long description here so that it is not identical to the short description. The previous version was asking to be improved upon, but I couldn't think how to do so at the time.

10065325

Also, thank you for the nice comment!

Very nice. You remain one of this site's top writers.

(I was highly annoyed when the show gave us an "official" portrait of Pudding Head as un-Pinkie as possible, asidefrom coloration, a positively reptilian Pony who makes Zesty Gourmand look cuddly. Sure, there's no reason for them to actually look like Pinkie, but this sour-looking cuss is called Puddinghead??)

But if one shook its hoof and shouted challenges at the heavens, at her pegasi, at her, then the Pegasus Code insisted she respond. Violently.

This is an unexpectedly grim reinterpretation of that Simpsons "Old Man Yells at Cloud" gag.

I don't think I've ever seen Puddinghead portrayed as a mad scientist who can also practice politics. I, for one, welcome our new earth pony overlords

For centuries, earth ponies had just had figurehead mayors who took marching orders from unicorns and pegasi, in return for mostly being left alone to grow the crops and raise the cattle.

... Why are they raising cattle again?

And Puddinghead has the right of it. Hurricane is afraid. This is a battle she doesn't know how to fight. Outside-the-box thinking is terrifying to a mare who's her entire life inside the box, completely dependent on it to the point where she's not even sure if there's anypony inside it at all, or just echoes from those who were in the past. And she'll only really understand that after the exodus and the windigoes.

Wonderful tragedy of a mare trying to fight the future. Thank you for it.

10065921
Remember, it's a portrait. Unless somepony hauled it all the way south to Equestria, she had it taken only after the nation was founded and stabilized enough for her to spend hours at a time for weeks on end for the thing. And that was after years of struggle and privation. She probably looked a lot Pinker in her youth, but by the time that was painted, she'd been through a lot in both time and experience.

10066879
Pinkie has played a mad scientist before: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/11496/infernal-machines https://www.fimfiction.net/story/14777/contraptionology

10066879

Well, maybe, but I can't recall any other old ponies with that sort of face (and cheekbones!), and that hat still doesn't look enough like a pudding. :twilightsmile:

10065921

Huh, I wouldn't go that far - still working on improvements - but it's good to see you enjoyed the story at least. And honestly, my attitude to show canon past a certain point has been "it's basically more expensive fanfiction", so it has no effect on ideas I've had for Season Two characters (in this case, happily has had no effect).


10066879

This is an unexpectedly grim reinterpretation of that Simpsons "Old Man Yells at Cloud" gag.

You should see what I've got planned for "Man Getting Hit By Football". :trollestia:

... Why are they raising cattle again?

Milk? Dairy? And presumably they gotta get gelatin from somewhere. :trollestia:

(Also, I have no idea why your comments got downvotes. Does anyone have an explanation for that? :applejackunsure:)

Basically, I've nothing else to say besides "thanks" and "glad you liked it". If all goes well, more works will be on the way. :rainbowdetermined2:

10069982
And honestly, my attitude to show canon past a certain point has been "it's basically more expensive fanfiction",

Hear, hear. :yay:

“We’ll have proper buildings for medicine and herbs and things! We’ll have parley-ments where we can talk about everything important! We’ll make road thingies and big carts to carry lots of ponies from place to place! We’ll make big machine thingies, whatever we want, and you won’t stop us! You can’t stop us! You think you can fly just because you’ve got wings? Well, if the world hadn’t meant us earth ponies to fly, it wouldn’t have given us the brains to control the hooves to make the cogs that’ll move the wings that’ll soon get us in the air! You got an answer to that, dumb soldier girl?”

This actually fits in with my head-canon that Puddinghead could tell when something would like go into style and stuff. Like a puddinghead sense. And that the mlp version of the Write Brothers were earth ponies in the pre-equestrian era. Its like you read my mind. Good job. :)

10481894

Puddinghead sense. That's good: I like the idea that Pinkie comes from ancestors just as crazily brilliant as she is, (if in their own ways). I also kind of like the idea that Puddinghead, despite being full of herself, genuinely was a crowd-pleasing innovator, and that explains why she's so popular (and why she cries out "I am just about to be BRILLIANT!" Because she is, and she knows it).

Its like you read my mind.

Well, strange minds do think alike. :pinkiehappy:

Thank you very much for the comment, and I'm glad you liked the story. :twilightsmile:

10482189
yw. And as of now, im following you.

“I’ll decide whether I go inside or come out!” cried Puddinghead over the fresh roar of wind – a nice touch from Ironhead there. “A chancellor doesn’t listen to bullies, except to tell them where they can stick it!”

Was that wind from Ironhead or the windigoes? And is this Ironhead the same as Flash Magnus' commander? Cause that's his name.

10483185

Ironhead, and aye, 'tis the same one who commands Flash later. I thought it'd make a nice bit of continuity, implying Ironhead succeeded Hurricane after the founding of Equestria.

Comment posted by KalebLovesJesusChrist deleted Oct 21st, 2020

Then the reports had come in. Earth ponies were making machines. Machines for digging trenches and machines for shooting rocks into the sky. Machines for harvesting crops without spending all day out in the fields with family. Even machines that tried to fly.

What are these machines? also what machine makes it rain (besides the one for shooting rocks into the sky obviously)

Hey, kinda loved this. Would love to see more of this universe, too, but I respect the character piece that it is. Hurricane being the harsh fascist commander with just enough Rainbow Dash within her to stay sympathetic. Pinkie Puddinghead was especially fun too, that conversation was for sure the highlight, and her revolutionary zeal a perfect fit for the character.
Long live the earth pony revolution tbh. :pinkiecrazy:

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Locking on, prepare to fire...

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