Snippet · 2:29am Feb 20th, 2017
As an apology for the continuing lack of progress on the fic, have a snippet from the relatively distant future:
The formerly plain, if not unaesthetic prototypes, she concluded, had been Raritied to within an inch of their mechanical lives. Golden filigree ran down the long, paired barrels in a suggestion of speed and power. Intertwining silver outlined the magnetic coils, weaving back to the breech in a horn-like spiral. At the root of the barrels, the main bodies of the weapon were streamlined teardrops - pearlescent white for the Day Guard, and ebon black for the Night, matching the embroidered battle saddles to which they were attached - each glinting with the polished jewels of nanocircs and thaumic cores alike surrounding Equestria's sigil. It would, it was necessary to concede, be impossible to evade the conclusion, facing these across the field, that you had picked a fight with the very epitome of elegance, grace, and good taste.
If the suggestion of power behind the melodious hum - that had replaced their former rasping purr while in hot standby - was anything to go by, they'd probably leave a discreetly fabulous pile of ash behind, too.
Whenever friendly aliens show up, there's usually unfriendly ones dogging her heels in some manner. One of the rules of first contact fiction. :)
Leave it to Rarity to resurrect the Baroque era.
Also, magnetic coils and a target turned to ash? Are these plasma pieces? If so, that's rather thematically fitting for the Day Guard.
4429253
Heh. Especially considering she's been reading through the fashion section of a library from the people who think your standard-issue rocket launcher should look something like, well, this:
download.gamezone.com/uploads/image/data/1183282/gjallarhorn_in_game_sm.jpg
(Shared cultural values: Anything worth doing is worth doing fabulously!)
4429249
To be perfectly honest, that tends to annoy me because, so often, the author doesn't manage the transition well and I'm left feeling as if the martial conflict is an interloper into a narrative which had developed perfectly good social and interpersonal conflicts in the meantime.
4430846
FWIW, the author agrees with you on this point, and has no plans for extended on-screen martial conflicts.
(The technoturgy, on the other hand, will... last... FOREVER!)