Rage Review: Resist and Bite (Chapter 12, Part B) · 4:02am Apr 13th, 2020
Chapter 12: Failed confrontations in the dragons land (Part B)
Our Nominal Heroes walk into the "dragons land."
While walking, Charlie and Luster Dawn strolled through some rocky paths with no anxiety of the environment.
That's good, my little Ponies. Because the Dragons' Land isn't a "hostile environment." At most it's a slightly miffed environment. Feel no anxiety of it.
And the whole place seems very empty like the Kirin Village, Griffonstone Couldsdale and the Changeling Kingdom.
In all of which you were ambushed. Smart creatures -- like my cats -- would know what to expect here.
Too bad these are just Player Characters.
Luster Dawn sees something and screams, as is standard practice for a member of the elite Distressed Damsel Corps.
There was a green dragon lying on the rocky ground with no signs of life.
"Oh my, what happened to this dragon?" Luster Dawn asked petrified.
CHARLIE: It died! It's a good thing I spent a semester learning forensic medicine!
Think I'm kidding? This is what Story actually says:
Charlie bent down and carefully scrutinized the green dragon. First, he extended his right hoof and placed it on his neck area to check if the carotid pulse was in good condition, but it wasn't pumping so he must be dead. Charlie then sighed sadly and removed his hoof away from the dragon's neck.
"He's gone." Charlie told Luster Dawn.
AC97 says this as well as I could:
(Uh... how would you know a dragon would even have a carotid artery pulse? Or a pulse anywhere? It stands to reason dragons don't necessarily have the same sort of circulatory system... right? Not to mention the thick scales/hide?) (AC97)
Indeed. He's trying to feel for a pulse on a kind of creature of which he's only ever met one living example (Spike), and briefly. He has no idea of Draconic circulatory systems or where the scales are thin enough and the pulse strong enough to make his technique practical. He also has no idea of the normal heart rate of a badly-injured Dragon.
(The Shadow Wars Storyverse Dragons can go into a non-breathing torpor in emergencies, during which the body is powered by the organic nuclear fission battery system and pulse rate is immensely slowed, with antibiotic releases slowing tissue deterioration. Alicorns can do something similar, with organic nuclear fusion instead of fission).
Charlie's slowly looked down at the dragon's chest area and found some evidence.
"Huh? What's this?" Charlie asked himself quietly.
He then looked closer and saw twelve bullet wounds in the dragons chest. He observed it for a few seconds and saw that they were 5.8x42mm calibre bullets, probably from a QBZ 191 assault rifle. (story)
AC97 points out:
- How in the hell did he not notice that it'd been shot first?
- How in the hell did he know that it'd been shot specifically with those cartridges? You haven't found any spent cases of said cartridge nearby, have ya? Are we supposed to think he just peered down into its chest cavity and went "yep, those are definitely 5.8x42 bullets," because A: he could see the bullets without blood or whatever obstructing it, and B: that the bullets were 100% undeformed against the dragon's hide.
- How do you know/guess it was "probably" specifically that kind of rifle that did it? There's more guns chambered in that cartridge in the Chinese military than that?
(AC97)
(1) It could have been slumped forward over the wounds. We don't know how large was the Dragon.
(2) Presumably from the entrance wounds (even if this was a relatively small Dragon, it's inconceivable that such a small-caliber rifle would generate exit wounds. But how would he know what the entrance wounds from that caliber of rifle would look like in Dragonscale and flesh?
(3) I have no idea. Has Charlie ever seen bullet wounds of any sort before this adventure? Remember, he was an engineering student, not a medical student.
"There must've been a spine-chilling conflict between the dragons and the Chinese." Luster Dawn said trembling in her words.
"Indeed there was." Charlie said as he stood up, them he looked at her "I can't believe that the Chinese soldiers would do such a menacing thing.
Charlie, have you been sleeping through the earlier chapters of this story? The Chinese soldiers have have been acting exactly this way all along!
Luster tells him that many Dragons in the capital (Canterlot? Ponyville? Albany, NY? Who cares?) have also been killed or enslaved.
Whereupon, Charlie makes this immortal Heroic Oath:
"I'm so sorry Luster Dawn. But be assured, I will make sure that all of the creatures in the land will be saved by the Chinese, and I will not rest until I succeed."
Saved "by" the Chinese? Well, Charlie is ethnic Chinese, so why not?
Luster Dawn was truly astonished by his words.
LUSTER DAWN: You can speak actual WORDS?!!!
"Thank you so much Charlie, I am glad that I have met a friend like you."
LUSTER DAWN:Arrogant, bombastic, diplomatically-inept ... I feel so much better by comparison!
The sad thing is that Luster Dawn isn't thinking any of these snarky things. On the evidence, she's thinking something along the lines of "Wow! What a stallion! When this war is over I want to bear him loads of foals!"
They go deeper into the Dragon Lands. But then:
... a spear was thrown the ground near them which made them stop in their tracks.
Duh-duh-DUH!!!
"Whoa! What was that?!" Luster Dawn exclaimed in fear.
A spear, Luster. You can plainly see it, on "the ground near" you. And, rather obviously, meant as a warning.
Charlie noticed that the spear was thrown on their right side. He looked at his right and saw a grey scaled coloured two legged and two winged dragon standing on a mountain. And it was glaring at them, and it also looked like it has been beaten up very badly considering the bruise marks and blood on his body and face.
"Everyone! Charge towards the ponies!" The dragon yelled and it was a male.
(1) What is with everybeing in Story and spears. Is Author truly unaware that any other non-gunpowder weapons exist? In the case of the Dragons, this is especially egregious as their natural armament is far better than mere spears.
(2) What do "bruise marks" look like on the surface of Dragonscales? Or if they are visible from beneath the Dragonscales, how? And how does Charlie even know they're bruises? How many bruised Dragons has he seen?
(3) How does Charlie know the Dragon is a male? Before one says "the obvious way" (as the Dragon is male), everything about Dragon anatomy (especially the body armor) strongly implies cryptic genitalia, in the case of the male retracting behind the armor plates when not in use). Archosaurs generally have internal testes and either retractile penises or cloaca, anyway.
Fifteen Dragons charge down the hillside at them.
When Charlie noticed this, he grabbed Luster Dawn's hoof again and attempted to run to the exit with her. And Luster Dawn immediately blushed when Charlie held her hoof again.
(1) Really and truly, quadrupeds can't run very well with one of their two forelimbs intertwined with one of the two forelimbs of the other one.
(2) "The exit?" This implies that this is literally set up like an encounter screen in a computer game.
(3) Luster, I don't care how fizzy are your sex hormones. In the middle of immediate danger, you should not be thinking about mating with him!
Charlie then turned around and began to run to the exit with Luster Dawn behind him but, three more dragons stopped them in their tracks, and these ones have lots of constitutions on their chests, legs, wings and faces which startled Charlie.
CHARLIE: This one has a dual executive and a single Supreme Judge! And that one establishes three legistlative houses! Ooh, that one over there has a hereditary monarch chosen by lot from five noble houses! How interesting, these constitutions!
Then, the fifteen dragons behind them have officially made it at the location ...
To "officially" make it at the location they have to get to third base, and then they're formally betrothed.
Charlie examined the dragons and saw that they have been brutally attacked by some soldiers either with batons, knives or by combat. And the torn metal armour they were wearing were probably shot by some 20 gauge shotgun shells, and 7.62mm sniper rifle bullets.
Why is Charlie such a ballistics expert that he can at a glance diagnose the weapons used on armor made of unknown metal when it's being worn by Dragons who are threatening him with spears?
"Just one minute and fifty five seconds here and we are already being threatened." Luster Dawn whispered to Charlie indignantly.
All these things have happened that fast? And how does Luster Dawn know the exact time?
A slightly-injured Ember steps forth to challenge them:
Then, the female dragon began to walk to the stallion alicorn and unicron mare. She then stopped 7cm away from them.
Three inches?
Did Author perhaps mean some other unit of measurement?
Challenge and response, leading to:
"Charlie Lam?" She asked perplexed "That's an unusual name except for Luster Dawn. Anyways I'll as you again, why are you two in my land?" She demanded again.
Again, why doesn't Ember recognize Luster Dawn? She should know that name for exactly the same reason Thorax should; namely, she is a friend of Twilight Sparkle (and even more so of Spike) and she is kin to Smolder who is close to Twilight.
And again, Luster Dawn's not part of Charlie Lam's name.
The usual conversation about motives ensues. Leading to:
"Humans are homo sapiens, very intelligent. And they were the ones who invaded you all." He said.
"Wait, you mean those invaders are called humans?" She asked.
"Yes, and that is why we-"
Charlie was cut off when Ember gave him a suspicious expression which perplexed Charlie and Luster Dawn.
"Hold on a second mister Charlie Lam. How do you know about these humans if you are an alicorn?" Ember asked.
Points to Ember for noticing that the obvious Alicorn is an Alicorn.
Points from Ember for not getting that an Alicorn, as a member of an elite Pony Kind, would be more likely to know something mysterious than would a non-Alicorn!
When Luster Dawn heard the question, she immediately began to sweat apprehensively because, Charlie was not one of her kind, he is one of the invaders despite the fact that he is from a different country. And she had an 'Uh oh' expression on her muzzle.
Actually, she should be apprehensive because this is the exact same point in the conversation where Charlie said something stupid three times before!
And Charlie does not disappoint!
When Charlie heard Princess Ember's inquiry. He sighed and began to blurt everything out.
"Well you see Princess Ember, I'm not an alicorn actually." He said, and all of the dragons got bewildered.
"What do you mean?" Ember asked.
"Well, to be honest. I am actually a human who has transformed into an alicorn." Charlie confessed the truth.
That's right! Say it in the exact manner most calculated to imply that you're a Human version of a Changeling Infiltrator! Say it in the manner most calculated to make Ember thoroughly paranoid!
After all, just because this exact same approach has failed you three times in succession, why, that's no reason to change your negotiation strategy, now is it? Fourth time's the charm!
"Not a threat?" Ember asked getting even more vexed "Your kind has killed my father with their monstrous long weapons that has killed many of my kind. And many were arrested including some of our youngs! And we were left to suffer with very small amounts of resources!"
(1) I want to know just what "monstrous long weapons" succeeded in killing Torch. I wouldn't care to attempt the feat with anything short of heavy naval guns.
(2) "Very small amounts" of what "resources?"
"Oh my, I am so sorry Princess Ember." Charlie said in sorrow "But, if you comply with us, we can-"
"Comply?" Are you sure that's the word you want to use to the already pissed off Dragon Lord Ember?
Do you honestly think that I will help you after what your kind has done to us and our friends? Your kind enslaved and slaughtered us! And how can we know that you are not going to transfer us to them?"
Charlie tried to calm the enraged Princess down.
"Princess Ember, try to calm down-"
To make a long story short, the Dragons all prepare to breathe fire and Luster Dawn teleports them both to safety.
"Uggh! That was our last destination!" Luster Dawn exclaimed "We went to look for assistance the Kirin Village, Griffonstone Cloudsdale, Changeling Kingdom and Dragons land, and the Kirins, Griffons, Changelings and Dragons all declined to assist us! Why is everypony so stubborn?!" She asked with an enraged expression.
Now, Luster ... my theory (and this is just a theory) is that Charlie Lam is the worst negotiator since Abel tried to convince Cain to go to that sibling relationship counselor. As diplomats go, he is roughly as effective as a small gob of bubblegum stuck on your right front frog. Seriously ... the boy's just not too bright.
Out of options, they decide to head back to Canterlot.
(we need to disband that organization, or at least, prune out those who shouldn't be there)
It's possibly questionable if he'd know what entrance wounds would look like in human flesh, anyhow.
Ah, but the narration didn't describe anything like "they had to move around to see what killed it/happened to it," nor did it describe anything along the lines of "they had to flip the dragon over," so that comes down to "the author probably should've done a better job describing it/the author didn't think you'd notice its wounds first/soon upon seeing it."
(it doesn't help that we have no freaking idea how large the dragon actually is supposed to be, if it's even say, taller than 13 feet/4 meters, or even shorter than that, no frame of reference, not even a vague "big dragon," or "bigger than they were")
Exactly, and he seems rather... sheltered with warfare, and in general, regardless, no? Certainly at the very least ungodly prudish.
If he was paying attention in anything as recent as the immediately prior chapter, he'd have realized that.
(truly a sickening prospect, and sad)
Also... what would the spears be made out of, in Draconic Lava Land, one wonders? All metal? That could be a notable detail for the chapter/author to include, them being "completely metallic shafts" (but yeah, regarding dragon claws, Baby Dragon Spike could easily disembowel you, lol, they're no joke, and furthermore cut through like, plate armor).
But no, just rinse and repeat "oh they have spears," without some neat/intriguing tidbit regarding variety, necessitated by the usual temperature, or what metals they have at their disposal. (and there's always more weapons out there than spears, anyhow, as you mention)
Perhaps there could be something like obsidian arrows, as a nod to that being volcanic glass, if dragons actually had much use for those (which they don't, see "thick scales/hides").
And I'd want to know how many humans died trying to kill him, too.
What resources did they want? Far be it for the story to explain such a question!
Especially impressive considering Ember was supposedly three inches away from biting one of them, before she got angry (even if that was, obviously, probably a measurement thing)
can I accuse him of "Stolen Intelligence Valor?"I would say "poor Cadance, Adult Flurry Heart, and Shining Armor" normally, but they're far luckier to be absolutely forgotten in this timeline, and he'd only botch it with "oh we're obviously with the enemy again, I'm with the invaders," for a fifth time, anyhow, bonus points for it hypothetically being utterly ludicrous beyond even the aforementioned cases for them not to immediately recognize Luster, and listen to her (maybe they'd just kick out Charlie, if they didn't declare her a traitor, or something, if they thought she was his slave, or something, in this story, if they even knew who she was).
I'm going to blame the Omnigoggles. Probably included a handy "You Were Killed By:" popup.
As opposed to, you know, flying.
She's doing a speedrun. Dumping Intelligence saves four minutes by the time you clear the kirin village.
Honestly? After watching her people get slaughtered by jumped-up chimps with disproportionately armor-piercing hand cannons, I can see Ember violating some personal space bubbles.
Yeah, I don't buy that the skeleton crew of invaders brought anything capable of bringing down Torch, much less the logistic capacity to transport all the way out here. (Granted, "all the way" isn't nearly as much as usual, but the point stands.)
Minerals and vespene gas. I'd say gold and wood, but the Dragonlands don't exactly have lush forests available for chopping. Which comes back to AC97's comment about the spear shafts.
Charlie and Luster have officially hit the "trying the same thing and expecting different results" definition of insanity. Well, they did that by Griffonsdale Cloudstone, but at this point, they're firmly established as hopelessly irrational and delusional. Our heroes, everyone!
Also, interesting to note how Chinese forces only seem to strike when these two are with the cuter, less immediately dangerous-looking species. The more predatory ones that by could put up a better fight even by a shallow surface reading of the source material just sit in destitution rather than getting a chance to defend themselves when the camera's on them. (Never mind nirik pyroberserkers or changeling ambush mimics, because the author has no concept of combat beyond spear, gun, and elbow, in ascending order of effectiveness.)
5241600
Those nifty little things that started as Lab Safety Goggles never ceases to
Ass Pull/gainnew abilities convenientlyamaze us. I wanna knowthe Old One'sCharlie's secret to pulling it off.Is this what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a Low Intelligence Run?
...huh, that question really makes you think, doesn't it?
I want to know if anyone else actually believes that 20-gauge shotgun shells (solid slug?), 7.62 mm rounds, or 5.8x42 bullets would actually penetrate dragon scales or do anything other than annoy them.
Let alone what the heck ever it took to kill Torch of all beings. Field artillery? An armored battalion?
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My main gripe with portraying Luster Dawn that way is that she's the special student of somepony who has a history of extreme calm in the middle of crises (Twilight's "Twilighting" normally happens when she's faced with mundane problems), and (in Story) the child of two brilliant Ponies who have likewise kept their heads in moments of danger). It would require explanation (and probably be the source of much genuine and justified Angst on her part) if Luster Dawn tended to panic in the pinch.
Not that it couldn't be the case. Incompetent Heirs are a real thing in the real world, and the downfall of more than one real family. But it's not the norm.
Well, he could guess because he's seen the Chinese equipment. But this thing where he just glances at the wounds and immediately identifies the caliber of the bullet makes no sense unless he's either a trained combat medic, a forensic doctor, or a highly-experienced frontline soldier. And I'm not sure any of those could do it on a Dragon on their first view of one which had been shot.
... and Dragons vary more than do most MLP species in terms of size and shape. They can range anywhere from cute little Newborn Spike to hill-sized Torch, can be long and thin or short and stocky, and sport various kinds of horns, spikes, wings and armors.
5241530
The mutual prudishness of Charlie and Luster is weird, especially since nothing even remotely sexual has passed between them. Compared to this story's Luster Dawn, Lizzie Bennett is a shameless libertine adventuress.
I know what effect Author's trying for. Charlie and Luster are supposed to be deep soulmates, drawn to each other by unfathomably powerful love, which makes them blush with excitement whenever they so much as touch in the slightest degree.
Jane Austen could pull this sort of thing off, if she so desired (though mostly she scorned this sort of an easy out in characterizing romance).
Author is no Jane Austen.
The main problem is that Author has not actually established any basis for love or even sexual attraction between the two, deeper than "Charlie's male. Luster's female. They're both good-looking. And Charlie and Luster are [ostensibly] helping each other, including Charlie saving Luster from danger."
That's not really a love story. Not even much of a Rescue Romance.
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And in any case, it would be something for which she can have some character development for, if it was a problem as portrayed here. Perhaps have her start magic blasting without much thought behind it out of fear, regarding tactics, if she can start out being able to bring herself to fight, and have her learn to grow past that, for something that might work. But since Charlie has to be around to save the day while she does exactly nothing to help fight (or, more accurately, bumble around and get lucky at some point, because he couldn't strategize his way out of a wet paper bag, whether it be in regards to diplomacy or war)... no character arcs here, which brings me to...
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Exactly. This story would be kinda less bad/annoying if there wasn't a "romance" involved.
The two of them have zero chemistry together, basically (blushing and/or holding hooves doesn't count, nor does exposition dumping that poor mare count [like, expositing copy + pasted descriptions from Wikipedia, not that he used Wikipedia in-universe, probably...
or maybe he had it pulled up on the Plot-Serving Goggles and cheated; maybe FoME and you inspired me a bit there]), and it's only a "romance" in the sense of "lackLuster Dawn is infantilized (along with everypony else), and Charlie's an idiot that's somehow more competent than she is, they do not complement each other very well, and he's unnecessarily made her feel bad/embarrassed on at least one occasion."(And it goes without saying that either Starlight and/or Twilight and/or their respective friends and family could easily make for more compelling characters in this kind of "ask for help plotline" [or even just a straight up fight] if they were allowed to be competent, and if the whole thing made sense, which here, between Lieutenant General "Metal Pads means I don't need to raid the castle with backup" Jin and the Chinese "how dafuq did ya kill a Dragon as big as Torch, and take down and capture an alicorn like Twilight, and the likes of Discord without magic, and somehow conquer Equestria/attack other places without dealing with four living alicorns, while being unrealistically sparse in numbers, only occupying like one city" Army, it... doesn't)
5241912
Regarding a dragon, even one say, as small as Spike, I think optimistically, perhaps shooting them with say, a .22 LR, would be kinda like shooting a human with 2.7mm Kolibri, with it only getting worse as you go up in their size.
By all rights, worse than say, declaring war on a bunch of brown bears, because they're bigger, stronger, sapient, and markedly more durable.
5241530
And this would be all the more painful to watch with Cadance, Shiny and Flurry, because they canonically have exactly the abilities and personality to comprehend what Charlie is trying to say. Indeed, they faced a similar situation when Thorax originally defected to the Crystal Empire from Queen Chrysalis. Furthermore, Cadance is an empath, and all three of them logically must know Luster Dawn (as she's Sunburst's daughter).
Not that Author would likely get these subtle points.
5241912
I for one don't believe it.
A 7.62mm rifle round might have the momentum to penetrate the weaker parts of the armor scheme on a small Dragon, but almost certainly not the stronger ones. What's more, even if it penetrated, it would be badly deformed and slowed to the point where it would do only minor harm to the tough flesh and metal-reinforced bones beneath. Against a medium-sized or larger Dragon, I doubt that it would do anything but splat or ricochet off the scales.
The rifle rounds might bruise the dragon, impelling it to take hard cover unless it was already in berserker mode. So one might be able to suppress a small Dragon with volley rifle fire or sustained machinegun fire.
Another possible reaction would be that the Dragon would breathe a concentrated Dragonfire stream at the gunners -- which would kill said gunners.
Rounds with less kinetic energy would simply annoy even a small Dragon, unless one hit a really weak spot (like an eye, though the eye probably has a tough third eyelid).
As for Torch -- again, you'd need very heavy weapons. I don't think that even man-portable ATGM's like the TOW would do the job.
I mean, Torch is basically a good-guy version of Glaurung the Golden or Ancalagon the Black. Godzilla-scale and up.
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I'd also like to point out here that canonically, in To Where and Back Again, Starlight's first idea when she found out that Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were taken, was to go get Cadance for help (before Thorax crushed those hopes).
So the fact that no one, not even Starlight herself (quite OOC here, as usual for everypony, without proper reasoning for it), ever suggested going to them for help as a first resort (to say nothing of those Sisters) is supremely stupid (if we're not going for the somewhat likely assumption of "Author Forgot About Them"), and could probably fall under "plot hole" (which is fortuitous anyhow), to say nothing of never suggesting it.
I'd realistically wet my pants if I found out one alicorn (or powerful unicorn) was pissed off at me, let alone two, or four, if the setting was being realistic, even if I had a lot of people backing me up. All it would take are the words "they hurt Twilight, and killed some of her subjects" and they'd be out for their blood, no further questions asked, except perhaps "what do I/we need to know about them, before I/we end them."
...but yeah, they'd only ever have the same outcome with diplomacy, inevitably, as we all know. They wouldn't let them get one word in edgewise of the answer to "wait, what did you say happened to Twilight, to Equestria?"
Ok so this part really jumps out at me for a few reasons
1 20 Gauge would be useless against dragons
2 outside of hunters no one uses 20 Gauge
3 20 Gauge is tiny
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It's normally used for small game, isn't it?
5242274
I think it's literally birdshot. The basic problem is that save at point-blank range, not enough energy is transferred to any one location on a target to reliably penetrate even light armor such as a good leather jacket. Against dragon scales, which from the evidence are superior to ballistic plastics, it would be at best an annoyance.
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If the person writing this story said 2 Gauge I would readily believe it
For those not up on firearm knowledge the Gauge of a shotgun is determined by how many lead balls the diameter of the barrel it takes to make a pound of lead (0.4536 KG for those using metric)
5243034
They still make 2-gauge shotguns? Color me surprised.
But I suspect it would require something along the lines of an elephant gun to put a hole in an adult dragon.
...And I hate that it's taken me this long for it to occur to me (I forget if you've pointed it out), but at least one other thing the story/author forgot about entirely, in this game of Theme Park Equestria?
Hippogriffs.
They fell into a narrative black hole (or they've been lumped with the griffons [inaccurately] by the author), and have disappeared from existence. Especially strange considering that they were shown multiple times as being part of the general Equestrian population multiple times in the last episode, and they're obviously distinct from griffons.
Seriously, were they ever mentioned so much as once? I mean, sure, regarding the status quo, perhaps Skystar would be the Queen now, but... I don't remember say, seeing Silverstream mentioned.
So I guess they aren't a thing in the Charlie-verse?
(once again, unlike Jordan, my numbering scheme is "Chapter 1 = Prologue"; last chapter before this of what hasn't been reviewed as of yet by Jordan is found here)
Chapter 15: Captured
(quite easy to guess where this is going, probably)
1. why not use "about a meter" or something, not "70cm?"
2. Repetitive description; they describe Luster as almost getting caught, then they have the characters talk about it.
3. You mean "fortunate."
4. Where did this "twig" come from, one wonders?
5. Stop laughing, Luster.
Convenient, no?
How loud would using magic be? If the answer is "not very," way to fail again, Luster, Charlie.
You'd wonder if Rarity would've said okay by now. (also, Impatient Charlie in this case? I'll let you decide)
Also, convenient sewer passages... when aren't they a thing? Not against them on principle, but... "easy way out" so to speak.
For a second there I thought I was gonna read "hooves up," or some such. They "cocked guns?" Why? Why wouldn't they already be loaded or something? Are they Israeli carrying on patrol? With rifles or whatever? First I'd heard of it being a thing here.
Also, leaving the area completely unguarded? Why?
(Oh great, even under these circumstances, she's being picky)
...why was she standing on them? Also, bad dialogue, even by this story's standards.
I think "glide" would've been better. Also, if he's a newbie, again, it'd be something to see him faceplant into something... but I guess Luster has to be the Butt Monkey?
Oh my goodness, this jackass deserves to be bucked in the face, by Applejack, or Big Mac, no physical strength nerfing, or holding back. He thinks, what, chuckling is endearing? If this were being realistic, Luster would've snapped back at this chucklefuck for his insolence, or something.
A more appropriate response would probably be something like "I don't like this either, but we've gotta do it."
...but of course, she doesn't at least respond with "excuse me?!"
Whatever you can say about the sewers aside (regarding whatever about realism)... you guys can use uh... magic to illuminate? It's not too hard of a spell for unicorns by all accounts, let alone you, Luster, if you can teleport.
(And again, your horn should have more lumens than his dang flashlight, easily have the ability to shine brighter than, what, a spotlight?)
Ugh... so you blush at this asshole saying he appreciates your confidence? This supposed "romance" is a plague/blight.
Are you saying it didn't have a stench before?
And let me guess, no magic use?
...no magic use, and how convenient, no?
You weren't there for the "renovations," were ya?
(And yeah, this isn't exactly the best game plan, is it, you alleged genius. I'd think say, waiting until they're back before trying to break them out would be a better idea, the guards' lives be damned. I mean, to be fair, I guess doing a bit of exploring might help, but... you haven't say, memorized the guard schedules, or obtained them through hacking via Omniscient Except When They Aren't Goggles)
"Because I doubt there is still someone held in here," what? Did the author mean to say the opposite?
And why do you have one of those handy? Convenience I guess.
I get that you might be strong in your jaws or whatever, because you're an alicorn, but she has magic. It's not that impressive. She could destroy them easy if this were being fair, because it's not like they're enchanted to reflect.
(It's still funny how dragons are oh-so easily bruised in the Charlie-verse)
What are ya gonna do, claim to be with the invaders again?
Heh, how the hell are dragons so fragile here?
For crying out loud.
1. Luster Dawn has magic. It's probably not that easy to subdue a unicorn at the drop of a hat, if they're supposedly a high-tier magical student. Which is not a new problem, here, mind you. What was stopping her from using magic against them?
2. Tranquilizer darts don't work that quickly whatsoever; just like how Chloroform doesn't work as quickly as portrayed in the movies.
3. Would you even have the right dosage for an alicorn ready?
4. Why the hell do they, y'know, have tranquilizer guns? Let alone at the ready?
But most importantly...
5. How did they even sneak up on them, let alone close in on Luster without her alerting Charlie? Even aside from the Basic Elementary concept of "keep watch," where's his precious Goggles of Convenience now? Did the Chinese Soldiers just materialize into existence behind them or something, for the sake of the plot?
And now they're captured.
[end of chapter 15]
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Hmm, now that I reflect on it, perhaps "braked his descent" would be the best way to word it, or "eased his descent rate."
I was saying that you might have meant the opposite. Charlie was basically saying "I doubt there's anyone left here, so Imma check anyway," when he should probably be like "I think there might still be a few left here, let's check."
I'm saying that it's kind of silly for humans to do this much, what was it, blunt damage to dragons.
So... a severe lack of situational awareness, and lack of foresight? Got it. You'd think they'd have gotten better at this after failing with situational awareness multiple times.
(still doesn't address his scanner being useless there)
If it really were that easy, why wouldn't police use tranquilizer guns to just render fleeing suspects unconscious? Because it isn't.
There's a problem with an intramuscular sedative injection: it takes too damn long.
It can take over ten minutes to take effect, which even half of that would be ample time for someone like an alicorn to either maul you with their powerful hooves, or to blast you with magic. (Edited parentheses content in, probs too late in hindsight: And their physical strength is immense, part of why Twilight should never have lost in the first chapter, in the prologue, aside from how Celestia in canon got back up after being hit by one of these, which a human cannot rival with their physical prowess, or their durability [would've killed any human that has ever lived]; a human just can't pin an alicorn down with their foot like that)
I'll just quote some Chief of Police on this one, from an old article:
That would apply even if you managed to do a perfect intravenous injection, which is not an easy task, if the target isn't perfectly still. I'm fairly sure trained doctors and nurses have missed veins, in a calm setting, as well, on numerous occasions.
Also, if you calculate the dose incorrectly in regards to their body weight, give too much and they're dead, too little (which just might happen, with an alicorn), and they're not out.
5249925
I was just being sarcastic; answered on the other reply, regarding "will you continue?"