Second chapter!

For Wedding March, at long, long, long last.

Oh god, I'm sure seventeen thousand words seemed like a good idea at the time. Future chapters shan't be quite as door-stoppery, I swear.

Comments

[DannyJ]

Wait, who are you? Why am I following you? What's this story in my feed? Wedding March? Huh? When did I favourite that?

[redmar]

I'm glad that you managed to get a new chapter done. I figured Wedding March had been updated when I saw an update and a feed at the same time.

[Carabas]

4287651
Don't tell you're already losing your memory of things which happened a glacial aeon ago. Keep up, old-timer.

4287658
Updates and feed notifications are such wonderful ways of proclaiming story necromancy, bless them.

[Reese]

Seventeen thousand? My. Well, I expect that they're excellent and quite look forward to reading them! ...but, ah, I'm afraid that I probably won't be including one of my error-spotting comments, or at least not for the whole chapter. It's going to take long enough to read that as it is, and I have to get up very early tomorrow. Sorry. :)

[Carabas]

4287744
Nae worries. If there's ever a chapter to back away cautiously from in the name of getting some sort of sleep, it's this ludicrously big yin.

[Reese]

4287748
Heh, thanks. :)

[nightwalker]

Good God! Great to see and all, but that is a heck of chunk of horse words.

You know, you CAN split thinges like this into smaller chapters, right?

Still, look forward to getting to this afternoon!

[Carabas]

4287780
T'would have been exceedingly sensible, that, but I couldn't find a satisfying splitting point ... at least, not without leaving the two chapters awfully lopsided.

Hope it satisfies regardless!

[Spamotron]

Glad to see you posting again Carabas. Did you enjoy the season 6 finale?

Chrysalis's ability to create an artifact capable of shutting down even Discord's magic sure was impressive. Of course it probably takes the kind of resources that she needed her massive hive to obtain. Alone like she is now its unlikely she would be able to make another one. It's a good think Equestria has no enemies with significant resources and connections that might want such a potent weapon and the amorality or arrogance to ally with someone as dangerous as she is.

[Carabas]

4287931
Glad to be posting again. I enjoyed the heck out of the season finale, especially every scene with Discord and Trixie at loggerheads ... though I'll confess it totally scuppered what I'd had in mind for Wedding March's last chapter. At least it was kind enough to do that before I'd written and published said chapter, and I was able to whip up another idea for it.

Enemies with significant resources and connections and ancient articfacts and an interest in what the changelings and Chrysalis might bring to the table are such pesky things. Thank heavens Equestria has none of those. None whatsoever.

[readsponies]

Aargh, that chapter was glorious, but too short!

[Carabas]

4288076

[howard035]

4287931 That throne was made of darkstone, which we've never heard of before, though any kind of anti-magic material is something that would be tremendously useful and you'd think it would be more common. I've heard speculation that darkstone comes from meteors, and the four stars that weakened Nightmare Moon's imprisonment spell from the Elements of Harmony were made of darkstone. Of course, meteors are not that common, though I bet King Thorax would be willing to sell the pieces for a pretty penny.

[Carabas]

4288188
It's an intriguing new substance, darkstone. I've no settled plans for what I might yet do with it, writing-wise, but a meteoric origin could tie in very nicely with certain Palaververse elements.

[howard035]

4288275 I just assume the materiel has to be fantastically rare, or else Chrysalis would have risked some of it by having a changling litter bring forth a darkstone artifact during the Canterlot invasion, unless that throne is literally all the darkstone she knows of and Chrysalis doesn't want to risk her hive's primary defense in an invasion.

[Spamotron]

4288188
Yes special materials with odd magical properties have a long history in myth and fiction. However blocking all magic except Changeling magic is way too specific and contrived to be a natural property of the material. Whatever powers raw darkstone has Chrysalis must have done something to it to get that effect.

That both widens and narrows its potential as a plot device. It widens it because it makes it reasonable to be able to manipulate darkstone to have a range of effects. The Fire Queen making a darkstone altar that blocks all magic except dragon magic for instance. It narrows it because we can assume you need specific skills and knowledge to make darkstone useful. Some random thugs stumbling across some darkstone chunks and being able to disable any and all magical defenses of their marks isn't happening.

[howard035]

4288400 Oh, I agree. the fact that when the darkstone was shattered other creatures could use magic suggests it's more than just the raw material.

[Celefin]

4288275 Can you make bullets or cannonballs out of it? Not that anyone would be interested in a material whose properties include bad ballistics, rareness, brittleness and passing through magical barriers completely unhindered.

[Carabas]

4288400 4288462
True, the fact that the power of the throne was lost when it broke suggests it might have due to some property of the wrought chair itself, rather than just the material in and of itself. You need to do something more with it to make it useful.

It could be that it functions as an amplifier of sorts - if you've got a base spell which nullifies all magic except magic done by a particular bunch, but which is otherwise energy-costly and inefficient due to limited scope, then impressing that spell as an enchantment on darkstone could jack the effect up a thousandfold. Worth contemplating.

4288509
Put suitable ensorcellments on it, as suggested above, and you'd have one hugely expensive and hugely dangerous bullet right on your hands, no denying that.

[Celefin]

4288829 Which begs the question, what has a larger geopolitical impact? A (possibly) successful attempt on Celestias's life or making it known that one might have the means to undertake such an attempt? The power of planned intelligence 'leaks'.

[Carabas]

4288891
Ooh. They'd both be pretty impactful, though I'd lean towards the former. Leaking it risks the possibility of the alicorn in question making a public demonstration of why publicly waving around means of killing her can be a very bad idea.

Sleekit, the best sharpshooter in Clan Glenwoe, and by extension the best sharpshooter in all Corva, examined the strange little piece of shot in his claw. It was made of some black, glistening stone, with fine runes etched along every surface that shone faintly with a dark red light. It radiated murder.

"Cormaer's picked ravens were hard at work on ye, weren't they?" he murmured. "Weel, gie me a long-gonne and a high perch, and I'll plant ye between the cuddy queen's eyes afore she can blink."

He paused. It seemed to have gotten a lot brighter all of a sudden, and his own shadow now ran right before him.

"No," said a gentle voice at his back, which seemed to crackle with fire at the edges, "I don't think you'll be doing that."