70 years ago, Equestria was rocked by an arcane cataclysm which warped the bodies, minds, and magic of every equine species in the world. In the modern era, Ponykind is forced to rely more on technology than magic. Mages work to discover how to use their new bodies to cast ancient spells Equestria once replied upon. International politics are weaker than ever. Eldrly ponies lament they are entering their twilight years at a mere 120 years of age.
In this new world, some have gained abilities once rare or even unheard of outside of the pages of comic books. Some of these ponies, inspired by the Elements of Harmony's work last century, chose to use their powers for the good of all. Others, decided to walk down a more selfish path. The conflict between these groups spills out into the streets of nearly every city and town in the world, and has plunged Equestrian into chaos.
With Princess Twilight focusing nearly exclusively on undoing the effects of the Cataclysm, there is little the Crown can do to keep Equestrians safe from themselves. It is the absolute worst possible time for an existential threat to come to Equis... And so, one has. Unbeknownst to all, an Interstellar Empire works in the shadows, priming Equis for invasion.
Fate has chosen one Equestrian archeologist to be Equestria's shot at remaining a free people. Fortunately for all ponykind, their unknown enemy has enemies of its own.
Thanks for the chapter, meep!
I quite liked it, especially as I'm currently taking linguistics!
Your prose was exellent, as always, and I'm looking forward to what comes next!
I really enjoyed the language puzzle. I straight up had this whole train of thought about Mbě.
Hi, Meep!
Damn, one chapter and you got the fishhook sunk deep, haven't you? Already tracking this, so I don't miss it.
Looking forward to the next!
10999082 Wait I conlanged well enough to pass muster to a linguistics student? Woo! :D I wrote a program that generated this language :3
10999167 Well, I mean... I can do two kinds of work reliably with my writing style: What I was doing for Beta, which was meant to be for younger folks (YA) and then I can do this, which is meant for older people.
10999195
What's this Beta you mentioned? Doesn't ring a bell to me.
Oh dear, that's a very not-good box.
I really feel like there's a lot more to Morning Snow than we are seeing so far, though I'm not 100% sure which direction he's going to lean on that. Makes me want to think he's one of those vigilantes.
The sovereign stones seem too dangerous to make, let alone use. That's an example of a device that's simply too easy to mess up when you try to use it.
Alerted ponies, supers, I recognize a sectoid when I see one, oh my!
That's one fatalistic archeologist. Though it's understandable when your job has such a high attrition rate that losing two people, one of them an apparent friend that was teaching your a language, barely deserves a mention. Poor gal needs therapy, and a lot of it
The asshole boss certainly doesn't help.
Ouch. Losing life expectancy hurts. I imagine how desperate we'd become if suddenly being 40 was the same as being 90. The elder one has a lot of reason to hold out to hope... And the young ones have no idea of how much they lost
Gotta give it to though, hands are very nifty.
10999222 Beta is an old series of stories I wrote with the hope of making something interesting to others such that I could have a shared universe. It didn't work out that way but a lot of folks like it. There's a read order on my user page if you're interested.
10999822
Thank you, don't mind if I do.
Wow
Sure it doesn't
The "reality warping artifacts" might have been why
...that's a pretty scary thing
Which Princess is this?
It's clearly not Twilight like I first thought
...interesting
11001784
It's Twilight. You don't think it would be a bad idea to debate her without proof of your claim? I do.
11001870
I might be confused
Wasn't it Twilight that defended Lyra, why would Penny need to debate with her about Lyra's innocence?
Or was it to prove to the student that even Twilight said that Lyra was innocent?
Sorry if I'm just misunderstanding/misinterpreting something wrong
11002022 Maybe I stated it wrong? The implication is this teacher is afraid to confront Twilight Sparkle on her child being wrong on a paper without being able to prove that they are in fact, actually wrong. The Professor wants to not have to be given an impromptu history lesson for 30 minutes that starts with "Um, actually..."
The moment is here to show the reader that Lyra didn't do it. The character within this universe, to whom this is her reality, doesn't much care who caused The Change and is just thinking about her job and the politics thereof.
11002029
Oh okay thanks for clarifying that for me
ASARU!
I had been wondering how the XCOM side of things was going to come into play, that was an interesting way to do it.
I could get to like this.
Okay, okay... I DO like it! You caught my interest, Meep!
I quite liked the Hitchhiker's Guide reference, as well as the chapter overall!
Absolutely loved this chapter! Even before things get decidedly lethal in the X-Com tradition, and before Asaru is there to help, we can see that Amber is rather capable all in her own right.
Also, Asaru seems to much prefer how things turned out here, since he actually gets to have a proper friend while playing back-soul driver instead of them combining into a temporary gestalt. And the League of Mages as the EXALT of this story is particularly fitting, though also extremely worrying.
I wonder if Amber remembers that Morning Snow said he frequently uses the tunnels? That being the case, he's likely down there, too.
Bradford is the last human I'd want handling first contact... except in situations exactly like this.
11004839 Also a canon way, but so few people played The Bureau... Don't play it because of it being the thing that sets up the game's lore tho. Just watch the cutsceens on YouTube. It's a TERRIBLE game, but it's still canon.
11004724 Hi only other person to play The Bureau!
Yeah, that would be great wouldn't it
Well, doesn't that sound pleasant
Give it some time, I think you'll be suprised
Well that's certainly a way to get down faster
Well that's concerning
That is even more concerning
Yeah, that tends to piss people off for some reason
I like him already
11005122
I did that once... probably gonna do that again now just to refresh my memory
11005726 Okay just don't do the hardest difficulty. I don't think you can actually beat the final battle on that mode. Not because "OMG! HARD!" but because, well, I don't think there's enough ammunition on the map to actually kill everything at that difficulty, and you have to kill everything before you can push the big red button to win. Like, the actual mathematics of damage output vs enemy HP just don't fucking add up. 5 sniper rifle shots? Yeah well, takes 3 head shots to down anything WITH the equipment that boosts head shot damage. The fight was clearly not tested for that difficulty level, because if you can win, you need prefect play. Oh and your NPC allies? They are of no help. They're too dumb to be of real use at that difficulty. They'll die long before you, and long before they take down anything. Also, I factored them into the damage calc.
It's a real shame, because the story is great, and is the only example of a second person shooter I know of.
11005739
Ah no not play the game, watch the game on youtube
Thanks for the chapter meep!
11014237 You're welcome :3
I can recognize save scumming when I see it!
Poor Amber, you can't get things past The Commander. The Commander sees all. The Commander knows all!
heh Poor Amber...she's going to end up dealing with a lot of embarrassment and feeling dumb with misunderstandings with Asaru. Having someone literally living inside her head makes it pretty much impossible to dissemble and pretend to not be bothered.
Morning Snow to the rescue! That was a brutal chair throw!
Yeah....he's a combat veteran of Powered Wars? Snow is almost certainly powered. Asaru is going to push to try to recruit Snow once he and Amber get somewhere safe.
Okay, Amber, you want to take Mom's RV, that's all well and good. Get a tow hitch and bring your jeep and bike as well if you can. Having multiple vehicles can only make things easier in the long run if you have time to do it.
*Urgh* tell me about it
He has no idea what the leaders of the League would do with one of the Stones does he?
Ouch
Now, I will freely admit that I am paranoid enough to be very suspicious of Morning here, simply because of his timing
Thanks Morning, my paranoia has calmed a bit
Even if they could, they'd probably need to have some understanding of where they teleport
Gonna have to figure out how to word it though, because not many are gonna believe the "Alien Invasion" thing at first
Commander rummage eh? XD
XD
Lings make great cuddle partners. And "cuddle" partners too.
Alas that there's the other side of that job...
11014522
I actually didn't catch where the commander used save scumming in the chapter...
11017148
What is Save Scumming if not going through all the possibilities and picking the best one? Save Scumming = living across potential timelines
11017174
Ahhh, I actually thought that was something like a reference to some minor inconsistencies in the lore of each game and declaring them to be technically seperate timelines for the purpose of this fic.
Save scumming it is then, I think that makes more sense than the conclusion I jumped to in my tiredness XD
Finally got around to reading this, verra nice. Looking forward to seeing what the princesses are like, Twilight is going to be enchanted I 'm sure.
:(
I like Vahlen . . . given, I've barely started XCOM 2 (though I am vaguely aware she is responsible for the snake waifus).
The Bureau, eh? Probably the only XCOM game genuinely bad in every aspect, though I still played it because XCOM. Not for the first time, I find myself pleased that 2K went back to their roots for XCOM 2, having the game play similar to Enemy Within instead of the strange hybrid The Bureau is/tried to be. Even more sad is that The Bureau would have been better if it hadn't been so rushed for its release. Releasing only a year or so after Enemy Within, and you could feel the game was just slapped together purely to ride the coattails of Enemy Within's reception. I'll be looking forward to where this one goes, Meep. The fandom has too few XCOM fiction imho.
Nice.
Good throw, dude.
95th percentile implies hundreds of thousands of horrifying chair throwing earth ponies, depending on the population size.
Things happen.
Morning seems like a potential recruit if and when the local XCOM gets up and running.
Seems like a reasonable plan, assuming the princess isn't compromised somehow.
11038216 Good to hear from you, DJ :3
Well, this story is frickin' awesome! I can't believe I dipped out of FIMfics for a while and got here two months late! I love how you've put together the concepts of XCOM and ponies in such a smooth way whilst simultaneously detailing a unique pony setting in which anthos both make sense and are a relatively new development. Oh, and there's superpowers, but magical ones, while magic also had a believable nerf.
And all that in three chapters on top of good character building and an engrossing plot. Your worldbuilding skills really are ridiculously good.
Where is more... More is required