The Document of PGS: One Last Change · 6:10am Aug 26th, 2016
People who've kept up with PGS will know that the most recent chapters have dealt with an excursion to find and rescue Rainbow Dash after her presumed death in the Castle of the Two Sisters. You may also be aware of a very curious conundrum that's plagued the story ever since the chapter with that scene was published.
Namely, that there is zero reason to assume that Dashie is dead beyond a shadow of the doubt; she's pinned beneath the archway in front of the keep, not the keep itself, so the demo charges placed in the keep won't actually pose any obvious, immediate threat to her. Twilight could easily have teleported across the chasm after waking up, gone back to the site of Dashie's presumed death, and dug her out (unless she was pulled out of there by an anonymous ninja). Nor is there any actual reason why it's so imperative that the gang escape from the castle before the demo charges go off, at least, not until the GEKKO gets back up and Peace Walkers its ass after Snake. And by then, they've almost cleared the gatehouse and gotten away. As far as they knew after Trenton left, they could have just waited out the detonation and climbed over the rubble to escape.
tl;dr, it's a plothole that I never bothered to fix; it's nagged at me for years, and if I'm going to move forward with this and other stories like it, I can't let myself tolerate plotholes like that. So I've changed the chapter, and the ones after it, in the following way.
This is Trenton's new explanation for how demo-ing the castle will play out:
"This castle is old, and built upon a ruin stretching back hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Its remains still run beneath this castle, serving as sub-levels, catacombs, dungeons. In the event of a rapid evacuation, to prevent the equipment here from falling into enemy possession, demolition charges placed in key structural points, in the structures and on the castle's foundations, will detonate. The keep, and most of the surrounding complex, including much of this courtyard, will implode and collapse into those catacombs and sub-levels, burying or destroying everything beyond salvage. In minutes, virtually everything you see here will simply be so much rubble in a giant pit."
(Emphasis added)
This gels with my preexisting headcanon for the castle, which is that it was built atop an older ruin, with parts of what you see in the story predating the Castle of the Two Sisters itself.
In a nutshell, a significant part (though not all) of the castle grounds collapse and fill the lower levels with debris. The curtain wall on the castle's far side is still there, as is part of that courtyard (and the portal), but the keep and most of the ground surrounding it have fallen into the earth. Going back to the crude diagram of the castle I drew oh so long ago, basically, everything in the red circle would have collapsed. Including Rainbow Dash.
It's far easier to assume that she was buried alive and was crushed or suffocated to death, and indeed, that's the assumption that everyone makes from then on. Snake's narration in the following chapter notes that, if IRVING didn't kill Dash, then she would have been killed in the collapse, and the denouement with Luna has been altered to reflect this as well. Nor would they have found a body if they went back to look; nor would they have had the time to search the rubble anyway. Pinkie's optimism seems far more misplaced, and Rarity's despair far more appropriate.
It's better; it works with preexisting backstory and lore; it took me two or three years to think of, and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for overlooking such an obvious solution.
I won't meddle too much more with the earlier chapters after this. Between Dashie's apparent death and Applejack's characterization as a violent drunk, I've fixed the most glaring problems I've had with the story, and I can commit more fully to finishing it off in a timely and effective fashion. Do bear with me as I muddle through that.
Geez, man, it's only a story. Who cares this much about such tiny details? Honestly.
You'd better not fucking forget to put Snake on the stairs in your revisions as well, you fucking hack.
4175473 How would you even know if there are stairs in the chapter Mr. I-Need-To-Be-Drunk-To-Edit-Your-Work?
Maybe this blog would have resonated more with you if it were COLOR-CODED.
4175485
Why do you mock me? Colour-coding is helpful for the kind of work I do. As is being drunk.
You should try them both. I think you'll come to agree with me.