Rage Review: Resist and Bite (Chapter 16, Part A)` · 4:48am May 5th, 2020
Chapter 16: Slavery Experience (Part A)
Charlie gets 1000 XP and goes up a level! He is now a Level 2 Slave!
Charlie and Luster Dawn were both in the prison cell sleeping on the bed while embracing each other and snoring softly. And the main reason why they were embracing each other was to make sure that they were in each others sight. They do not want to get separated again.
At least that's what Charlie told Starlight and Sunburst when they found them together like that! 
o/o Wake up, little Luster, wake up, little Luster ... o/o
Though I could see why the separation would frighten them, especially under these circumstances.
Two riot police disturb the tableau, and Charlie wakes up little Luster.
Charlie then helped her off the bed and the two riot police officers immediately walked up to them and grabbed them by the chains of their cuffs. Then they began to drag them to the open area in Canterlot.
"Drag" implies that the two Ponies are resisting, unless the riot cops are just making matters harder for everyone (including themselves!) by deliberately pulling them off their hooves. Which would make little sense, especially given the masses involved.
They both looked in front of them and saw some other riot police units dragging some changelings, yaks and ponies to the open area as well as some youngs. And the view made them feel a huge melancholy.
So is "dragging" really SOP for the Chinese cops? Because, if so, I can't see how the tiny Chinese force is successfully managing any significant number of prisoners. What they should be doing is herding them under the threat of lethal force (and even that wouldn't let them handle a whole city).
Consider just how many Chinese troopers would be required to "drag" even one Yak!
Once the two riot police units have finished dragging Charlie Lam and Luster Dawn to the open area of Canterlot.
"The" open area of Canterlot? What, is there only one?
One of the units pushed the two ponies to the working area.
How is one MP "pushing" two Ponies? One with each hand?
And the exertion made them vexed and irked.
I can bet it did!
Story does not seem to grasp the concepts of of limited strength or endurance, or muscle strain injuries, as it would apply to the guards if they worked so inefficiently. The procedures shown would render slave labor management difficult even if the Chinese had adequate numbers to enforce their will, and impossible with such a tiny force.
"Get to work. And if you two are disobedient. You two will be transferred into the torture room or the sparring headquarters!" The riot police unit warned.
CHINESE MP: Or the time-out room! Or the bouncy fun ball chamber! We are whimsical tyrants!
What the Chinese forgot to do was assign Charlie and Luster to any particular job. Apparently this is a sort of free-form high-initiative slave labor system.
Charlie looked around the place and saw many ponies, yaks, changelings, dragons and griffons moving large rocks, pushing metal carts, some are filled with coals and some are filled with bricks.
Doing all this at random, if the Chinese are managing them all the same way that they are Charlie and Luster.
Some were also carrying hefty metal plates and destroying their own houses ...
What, destroying their own houses with the metal plates? Hitting the outsides at random?
If so, that's a very inefficient way to bring down a house. Any sizable structure is designed to resist broad-front force applied to the outside; this is necessary to prevent it from being brought down by the wind. This would especially be the case for those in a city like Canterlot, which is built jutting out over a mountainside and hence would have to be sturdy against strong winds during storms.
Sledgehammers, ropes and long hooks would be better-suited to the task. (Hooks used to tear down buildings to create firebreaks are the origin of the "hook" in "hook and ladder company" referring to a group of firemen). For really large buildings, explosives would work better, and these would ideally be handled by Chinese military engineers (arming slaves with explosives is an obviously Bad Idea).
Having each family or group of tenants demolish their own building is also a Bad Idea. Firstly, because it will take them a long time to do it, and a very variable time based on their strength and fitness; secondly, because they might have hidden means of escape or resistance within their own rooms. It makes more sense to pick out the strongest slaves (such as the Earth Ponies, Dragons and Yaks) and form them into large gangs, with each gang demolishing one building at a time. Larger but fewer gangs are also easier to manage than smaller but more numerous ones.
Luster Dawn wants to find her partents, which should be difficult but turns out to be easy because, Plot Convenience. There is a brief touching reunion, interrupted by the Chinese:
Suddenly, Starlight was pulled back and thrown onto the ground by a riot police unit wielding what looks to be like a shotgun loaded with rubber bullets to Charlie's assumption.
How would Charlie know that the shotgun was loaded with "rubber bullets," as opposed to regular lethal rounds, or for that matter beanbags filled with yummy, yummy Skittles, by looking at it from the outside? For that matter, why would the Chinese (who we've seen are sadistically-murderous) choose non-lethal rounds for their shotguns?
And why shotguns -- pitifully-inadequate weapons against Dragons or even Yaks -- in the first place? Automatic rifles, with armor-piercing rounds, would make far more sense!
The MP's shove around Sunburst as well, then order everyone back to work.
Starlight and Luster Dawn obeyed the invader and slowly stood up. Then, the invader pushed them to the destroyed houses with his gun, so that they can grab some dandy materials for the metal walls.
Wouldn't, um, metal be an even dandier material with which to build metal walls?
Charlie bregrudingly obeyed the officer and walked towards him slowly. But then, the riot police unit sped him up by gripping onto his cuffs with his left gloved hand and threw him next to the pile of coals.
How is the MP strong enough to do this one-handed?
Charlie helps Sunburst to his hooves; Sunburst is grateful to Charlie for his help.
They introduce themselves, and:
"Nice to meet you too mister Sunburst." Charlie said with a smile "Oh and yeah, we should probably get to work because the riot police units are probably going to assault us if we don't." He told him, and Sunburst got bewildered by the words 'riot police'.
Why is Sunburst "bewildered?"
Equestria canonically has "police," and even the occasional "riot." The meaning of the compound "riot police" should be obvious to a smart Pony like Sunburst, and if by some chance it wasn't, wouldn't the meaning be obvious from context?
And then, an amazingly-momentous thing happens:
"Riot police?" Sunburst asked with a perplexed expression "You mean the bipedal invaders in those rough armour?" He asked again.
"Yep, you are correct." Charlie said with a nod "And they are called humans. And I am also one of their kind, you probably already know since you first met me in that snack house." He told him.
"So your kind are called humans?"
"Yes, homo sapiens." Charlie replied with another nod "Anyways, come on we should get to work. Can you push that wheel barrow over here please?" He asked.
Sunburst nodded and walked to the large wheelbarrow.
That's right, boys and girls! Charlie spoke his usual "I'm one of the Invaders" explanation and his listener understood that Charlie meant it solely in the sense of being the same species!!!
Notice that Charlie hasn't learned anything. Sunburst was just a bit smarter than anyone else he's ever had this conversation with, and so made allowances for Charlie's own stupidity!
They get to work loading and pushing a wheelbarrow.
And I'll break this segment off here.
They seem to be milling around pulling random things and being attacked viciously by the guards at intervals. Seems like they're being slowly worked to death, with the work being deliberately pointless as an added bit of sadism. Which would be in keeping with the behaviour of the Chinese here so far.
This is the only explanation that I can think of that makes any sense.
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If this is true and the Equestrians aren't noticing this, they're stupid. And if it's not true, the Chinese are stupid.
I like to think everyone in this story is stupid.
Wake up, little Luster, wake up
Wake up, little Luster wake up
This story isn't so hot, it doesn't have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot
Well, after they're done tearing down all the buildings...
On a related note, I hope that convenient "Insert Staff to Engage Factory Reset" slot from the movie is still there. And that the general hasn't shattered the fragile and timorous Staff of Sacanas with his elbow.
"Or worst of all, the comfy chair!"
Also, I have to appreciate how the slaves are hauling mass quantities of improvised weapons and plates that would make suitable cover, and no one's doing anything because Charlie hasn't gotten up the gumption to resist yet.
Sorry, did I say "appreciate"? I meant "loathe."
I'll admit, I really do look forward to you doing these.
It would've long since gotten too exhausting and backbreaking if they were like, 70 lb (32 kg if rounded up), and they were dragging them around regularly. ...That's the impression the author gives you, anyway, that they're collectively that light, that easy to manhandle.
How many times over are they outnumbered, again, against physically superior beings?
Realistically, if I had to guess, their morale would be terrible if they were using such horribly inefficient tactics, because the job would just be so tough... without even factoring in the Equestrians doing anything to oppose them, like they realistically would've by now, or at least be planning it (Jin has literally murdered them for no good reason, like with that orange dragon, and he ordered that mare to be executed in the Prologue, and even if they don't speak Chinese... they'd have noticed he didn't object in the slightest, and that he said something right before she got murdered, as if he was giving an order).
Honestly would've been a more plausible/sensible outcome for Twilight to literally stomp Jin's head to paste in the Prologue, in one strike; she'd know the Chinese attacked Ponyville, killed and enslaved her people, if her guards knew, and Jin's realistically just that far her physical inferior, less durable, no matter how much armor he has (no, you don't pin down a horse, let alone an alicorn down that easily, with one foot pressing all-too human body weight down on her). Just ask Sombra what Twilight's thoughts on slavery are. Or you could maybe ask Tirek how Twilight responds to such violent acts (if it weren't for Executive Meddling, she'd have punched him, though really, she'd be inclined to use magic anyhow).
Just imagine how horribly wrong having say, Pinkie demolish houses can go. She might hide a weapon she found hidden in the walls or anywhere else in her mane's Hammerspace (which she really can do), and kill a guard accordingly with it at an opportune moment. And there'd be nothing they can do to stop her, because they wouldn't see it coming.
Also, when they're drastically outnumbered, why would they act as if non-lethal/less lethal force would save them reliably, against anyone doing more than nothing to fight back, especially Equestrians, with the natural weapons they have? It would make more sense for each and every last one of them to have lethal force at the ready.
(Not that it would save them from how outnumbered they are, to begin with, even if they did so, least of which because some of them have hands, claws, can easily kill or overwhelm them and use their own guns against them, without casting magic/telekinesis [which also, unicorns seem like they do have their magic free, for working])
Non-lethal force doesn't even stop humans all the time, especially if they're drugged up.
The words "riot" and "police" are indeed words in Equestria (aside from the latter demonstrably existing), due to an internet search of "MLP transcript riot" and "MLP transcript police" yielding results, and they do have the word "rampage" in their vernacular.
I guess the author thinks they're that naive, sheltered to the concept of violence, that it'd be that hard for them to grasp intrinsically, automatically.
Y'know, you're right. That makes at least five times he's done the same thing of implying/outright stating that "I'm with the Chinese." The only reason it went any better with Sunburst is he knew that Charlie went on the journey with Luster (speaking of which, did Sunburst have literally anything to say about Charlie becoming an alicorn? I don't think so).
(Can't wait for you to cover the... action involved in this chapter; I think you could also cover how Big Macintosh is quite probably OOC, based on his appearance, namely the part about thanking them, as opposed to a dismissive grunt, or some such.)
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That or the Chinese in charge of the prisoner/slave labor literally have no idea what they're supposed to be doing and are just trying to make it look like they're keeping busy to stay out of trouble with their superiors. Or those superiors are working at cross purposes and they've given them contradictory commands to obey.
According to Anne Applebaum's book Gulag, that happened all the time in the Russian Communist prison camp system. After a while you get the idea that literally nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing.
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Seems quite possible, especially given what an IDIOT is Jin.
That doesn't solve the manpower shortage problem, or explain why the Equestrians are so pathetic -- but nothing really can.
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The only thing remotely "smart" about Jin is how he to my knowledge hasn't executed his underlings (no, not the slaves) for their failures, pulled a Frieza in his leadership approach.
Almost everything else is layered idiocy, like his approach to slavery, his approach to combating ponies, especially alicorns and/or unicorn wizards, who only lose because: they forget to use magic, fly, or if they do remember, because the author underestimates their abilities at least a thousandfold, the last of which becomes very apparent later, or his lackadaisical approach to fugitives running about (sure, send one guy after a magical unicorn, and an alicorn, after someone's already died as part of a group, even if they didn't directly do it).
You'd think the Chinese would've been reinforcing their entry point into Equestria (the Everfree Forest? That's where Charlie came in, at least), but they didn't, far as we can tell, because one, Charlie didn't land in some established teleportation receiving area upon entering Equestria, immediately get gunned down (that's a basic common sense tactic: post armed guards to make sure nobody can use the teleporter, then enter the area unauthorized, especially pertinent if it's so laughably easy to hack and use remotely, as Charlie did), and two, they've all gone to Canterlot, to build a stupid freaking wall. Or at least, they should've reinforced a nearby area for that purpose, like Ponyville, if that's a logical decision, because it's closer to the presumed entry point.
You know what a key difference between this story and the typical MO that Equestrian villains had/have is? As Jordan pointed out a while back, the villains would often perform a decapitation strike first, but in this case, no they didn't do that.
They attacked Ponyville first. They, according to the pony guards, had shed blood in Ponyville, so in other words, this isn't/shouldn't be a surprise to Twilight; she knows they've killed her subjects. Therefore... she should've started out willing to fight right off the bat, and good luck beating her when she's had time to steel herself for what might need to be done.
(Also, that blog post of Jordan's, the topic at hand, does also kinda allude to the reasoning of why the Chinese winning so easily is rather stupid, with those numbers: they are not say, holding down Manehattan, or other cities, and they didn't bring the firepower or manpower to flatten them, as far as we can tell.)
Assuming Star Swirl is still alive (no, the Pillar Busts seen in The Last Problem is not actually evidence they've all passed on, they were there before, including the S8 premiere, and in any case, taking a note or two from secondary canon
[even if the Journal has been contradicted in some ways lol], he can reverse aging, and he would fall under "highest level of unicorns" as Magic Duel described), he could say, send some of them to another dimension via portal, never to be seen again (like the Dazzlings). And a lot of other things. (you'd wonder if Rockhoof could still throw a tank around, also, or at least flip one; probably for sure could throw around a jeep like it's nothing)(For a teaser on the "backstory" that isn't that far ahead in this story, it involves the recurring question of Inexplicably Omniscient Scanner [so what else is new?])
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One, I never said "they killed them all," two, why would that make her any less liable to play hardball against them? Ask Sombra how Twilight and her friends feel about slavery, even before you factor in "they've murdered her subjects," which again, she'd know.
"They only killed some of their subjects" isn't a distinction that would amount to much, because it's happened either way, and she'd act accordingly, with sufficient ruthlessness to solve the problem, because hey, they threw the first punch for all she knows.
It's not necessarily as easy as you think to deal with a moving target, especially an aerial one. Let alone the number discrepancies they have, even if their aim was perfect.
And how did R&D come into play? How did the development process for them go? Why did they never make an effort to get them off after escaping the first time, like anyone with half a brain would do? If they can't get them off, why are they so arbitrarily durable, other than to make Charlie more important than he should be?
Are you just never going to accept that Twilight Sparkle is so far their physical superior it's not even funny? I'm just not sold on them being able to even hurt her by striking her with batons, and it wouldn't really be at all surprising if Twilight could just snap any restraints you try to bind her legs with right off via brute strength, because uh, hello? Super strength, she has the strengths, advantages of an Earth Pony, is an Alicorn with Celestia's stature.
This still doesn't address the point of "why did they ever need Charlie, how did they conquer Equestria, why were Twilight and her friends, and her subjects too stupid and weak to use magic, their natural abilities in the first place? Why is magic nerfed anyway, when it is used?"
Exactly what would've ever stopped unicorns from snatching guns and other weapons out of their hands, and turning them against them, during the initial invasion? Capturing said weapons for study/future use? It's not like there's just so many of them that they'd never be able to focus without being shot.
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I liked your song parody. All I did was substitute "Luster" for "Susie."
(Literally) sleeping together and caring if the other party lives or dies is a pretty low bar for romantic attraction. Especially when there's only one bed in a prison cell.
If Story makes sense, the only reason why Jin would be reducing their sense of isolation, and running the risk of them scheming together by putting them in the same cell would be to deliberately increase their social bond so as to use each as hostage for the other.
(*nods*) The metal plates (Story seems obsessed with metal plates, doesn't it?) are intended as wall armor, and would thus work as hard cover, certainly against shotguns and batons; probably even against rifles and machine guns. The bricks and coals could be used as projectile weapons. No tools are mentioned, but anything that can be used as a tool can also be used as a melee weapon.
This seems to me like a setup for the "one man breaks his bonds" scene from the title sequence of Thundarr the Barbarian.
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Yes. The story seems to be assuming that the Ponies are on the average smaller than Humans, but still large enough to perform grunt labor; so we can logically model them on Human children (say about 10) but with adult musculature for their size. We know from canon that the Earth Ponies are stronger pound-for-pound than Humans, that the Pegasi are also strong but mostly specializing their strength for flight, and that the Unicorns are the most delicate Pony Kind (the only ones who might legitimately be seen as "fragile," but they can reinforce their strength with telekinesis (Rarity and Twilight being able to lug around Tom the Boulder, when they were both Unicorns).
The problem with the drag-them-around model of labor management is that it would be a tiring way of treating children and that it doesn't take into account the fact that the Griffons, Yaks and Dragons are way too big and strong to treat in such a fashion. Even absent physical resistance from the slaves, it would tire out (and possibly injure) the overseers to work in such a fashion.
I'm willing to believe that Jin's troops are physically fit, I'm not willing to believe the each and every one of them is the physical equivalent of Tarzan or Doc Savage. (Neither of whom would be stupid enough to waste their strength in such fashions!). As someone (you?) pointed out, Story is treating the creatures of Equestria as if they're a bunch of children cosplaying, rather than actual Ponies, Yaks etc.
Mmm, if there's about 50 Chinese ready for duty and 100 thousand Equestrians in Canterlot, it would be around 2000-to-1. At those odds, a plan as simple as "We all run at the guards and kill them; they can't shoot us all" would work.
They couldn't shoot them all. If every single shot was an instantly-mortal wound, and each guard had ten magazines for their rifle, that would be only 300 shots per guard, each of whom would have 2000 foes.
Yes, I know, morale, but that cuts both ways. If the prisoners turned on their guards, there's a good chance the guards would fire a few shots and then run away.
This is made easier by the stupid provision by the Chinese of metal shields and throwable weapons to their prisoners -- oh, and their constant demonstration to the slaves that even cooperating is no guarantee against random murder.
If you want the obvious examples of Nazi deathcamps and Soviet gulags, those facilities were guarded by company to battalion-strength forces, precisely for this reason. Also, they didn't try to manage their laborers by physically shoving them everywhere, while walking among them with easily-snatchable firearms.
Finally, this camp is located in the middle of Equestria, a land hostile to the Invaders. Escapees would find themselves near friendly towns and villages, possibly armies marching to relieve the capital city, rather than in the middle of another country in wartorn Eastern Europe, let alone Northern Siberia.
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The ridiculous despair of Twilight Sparkle and the nerfing of herself and her friends -- and indeed of the whole nation of Equestria -- engaged in by this story is absurd, and insulting.
Author points out that bullets kill and less-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets and metal sticks hurt. Well, this is certainly true -- though bullets aren't magic; they only kill if they can hit and penetrate their targets somewhere vital; and all weapons hurt, that's the definition of "weapons." The fact that the Chinese are cheerfully willing to kill with their weapons is nothing new: Equestria has canonically faced murderous foes before.
Twilight doesn't like to kill, or even hurt, but she has shown herself in canon to be quite capable of using potentially-lethal force when faced with a sufficiently serious threat. She wasn't holding back against any of her foes in the Show; the style (imposed by censorship) simply prevented depicting actual fatalities onscreen, when she fought foes (such as the Changeling Warriors) individually-weak enough to likely be killed by her attacks. Neither did her friends hold back (save perhaps Fluttershy, and she has one of the most dangerous powers of all Twilight's war-herd.
And Pinkie can canonically cannonade with cannons. While doing the can-can, if she wants to.
(I loved writing that!)
Absolutely.
The one thing that may enable one armed guard to cow a crowd of prisoners is that, if they charge him, someone has to charge first, and that someone is very likely to get gunned down. Dead men (or Ponies) don't get to enjoy being feted as heroes. And so no one charges -- unless the guard is stupid enough to go right into the midst of them and start shoving them around, in which case the guard is very likely to get cold-cocked and torn to pieces.
If the guard's weapon is non-lethal, then the calculus shifts. Some bruises or even broken bones may seem like a fair price to pay for heroism, and freedom. So the prisoners are much more likely to mob him.
Now, in most Western prisons, the guards don't constantly carry lethal weapons. This is because we actually care about the lives of the prisoners (and we're afraid that the prisoners might steal some of the weapons). We are instead more clever about the way we manage convicts.
The evidence is that the Chinese have no concern for the lives of the Equestrians, and indeed may be attempting a rather elaborate and silly form of genocide on them.
So non-lethal weapons make no sense.
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(think it was me that said something along the lines of "cosplaying humans," albeit not the wording of "children")
Exactly. It's like the author thinks at most, each and every one of the Equestrians weigh like, 120 lbs, at most, given the ease of which that they're thrown around.
It's especially hilarious considering how easily Twilight Sparkle is thrown around, considering her stature, with "gems" like this, that happened earlier:
Quite literally dragging an alicorn of that stature by its horn, with the truly astonishing monumental stupidity that lies therein, along with ignoring her physical advantages over humans, never mind how easy it's portrayed, the getting ponies, dragons out of the way. "Twilight tried to struggle free" would probably be "Twilight threw him to the ground with little to no effort." She's not some 80 lb woman or something.
The author's really is treating them like they're as easy to beat down, forcibly get out of the way as toddlers, quite possibly even more so.
And that (assuming instant lethality for every bullet [implausibly, but for the sake of argument]) is assuming that they'd:
1. Be able to get every last shot off before being overwhelmed, be able to reload, uninterrupted, ten times.
2. That they'd never miss, which is rather unlikely.
3. That none of the griffons and other such beings capable of doing so (unicorns also seem to be able to, stupidly enough, use magic for their labor, or it's really inconsistent) would pick up guns from the dead/incapacitated Chinese, and shoot back at them.
It really wouldn't need to be a complicated plan to overthrow them, if the story didn't nerf them to oblivion.
It says something about a premise, when a "human wave"/Zerg Rush kind of prisoner/slave revolt would be sufficient to curb-stomp the invading force... assuming at least some of them got captured in the first place anyway (how did they capture Starlight the first time anyway? Plausibly? How did she not kill them all for trying, after say, possibly seeing ponies die, in the initial invasion?).
Really, just put yourself into the shoes of someone seeing such a mass uprising, against such massive numbers. You'd have a great reason to believe that your only chance to live is to run away (because they might kill you in revenge even if you gave up), because the fight is doomed. At least some of them would conceivably be overwhelmed by the self-preservation instinct in some capacity, and turn tail.
Especially pertinent, regarding "retreat in demoralized panic," because their leader Jin has casually and brazenly put himself in what would realistically be mortal danger on numerous occasions, if he weren't shielded by Plot Armor That Isn't Even Plausible, that if it were being realistic/plausible, in the wake of that, they'd be rather demoralized by such death(s) involving the higher-up(s).
(Well, all of that applies, if Jin didn't get himself captured or killed in the very first chapter, if Twilight for whatever reason decided not to go with non-lethal incapacitation, or if the guards didn't do him in via the process of him being a bloodthirsty Leeroy Jenkins, which good leaders don't do.)
And to add another layer of stupid to that, I'm pretty sure that there's numerous beings that could cut right through riot shields with their claws, like a hot knife through butter. (aside from the obvious dragon claws, canon seems to suggest that griffon claws are quite sharp)
Jin has senselessly murdered uninvolved slaves that had nothing to do with the commotion, he's ordered the execution of a mare for merely asking a question (it's easy for the masses to guess he ordered it through context, even if you understood nothing he said). He comes across as volatile to them. He doesn't even seem reasonable from their perspective, because he presents himself to them as (and is) a monster, regardless of whatever backstory's attached to him (which does get included in the story).
And if they were allowed to be competent, powerful, and had their existence acknowledged in-story... it's not like you have dealt with all of the named demigods either. I stand by saying that they could all believably defeat such a platoon, on their lonesome. All of them. And that's if they didn't use the below to their advantage:
Even aside from them, it's not like the invaders are holding down large areas of land. They logically just couldn't sweep every city in Equestria, round up everyone, go door-to-door, check every, nook, cranny, alley, sewers, as presented. With any luck, you gather up some of the decent mages, best fliers, weather ponies, and so on, and that's something you have going for you, against them, because they just couldn't get them all.
It's not like they have the raw power, intelligence, and/or resources of anyone like Tirek, Discord, Chrysalis (boosted self, or regular, depending on if she has her army), Sombra, Cozy Glow (her boosted self. though she had the explicit disadvantage of "inexperienced, can be thrown off-balance"), Nightmare Moon, and so on, who can believably come out on top against much higher numbers, being as powerful as they are.
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It's especially insulting when you consider that Charlie, the one whom they're being nerfed for, probably isn't even as competent as they could be in canon.
And no, "beating up Chinese soldiers" doesn't scale his competence up that much (why does he get to be a martial arts expert, a tech genius, and an Instant Expert with magic?), because he's an idiot on multiple different levels, especially diplomacy.
All of this is true; aside from the part about weapons (the author doesn't know enough about firearms to plausibly portray them, I think is well-established), Tirek certainly tried to kill Twilight in S4 (blew up her house, rammed her through a mountain), and vice-versa, and the Legion of Doom all wanted her and her friends dead in S9.
A notable example of "Oh, yes, do not bet your life on 'Twilight doesn't have it in her'" was in A Canterlot Wedding, where she got really pissed off over... that kind of taunting (Chrysalis is, to put it mildly, a gigantic bitch). She was quite ready to fry her, and for good reason.
...And I don't think Jin would be strong-willed enough to throw off Fluttershy's Stare, or be able to easily deal with whatever animal friends she might have with her, easily take them down with a pistol.
Ah... alliteration is neat. Pretty pink pandemonium pony pwns pig-ignorant soldier/officer.
I tried, and must admit, didn't use a couple words off the top of my head, like "pig-ignorant"....Which I'm pretty sure that they've done on numerous occasions before anyway, even before the next point, lol. Like, oh, I don't know, theatrically tossing their shield to the ground before beating on somepony.
It's not like they wouldn't notice just how few guards there actually are, either... so doubly so.
I can't get over how hilarious the concept of that wall they're building is, after you pointed out the... multiple big conundrums involved. And it would be one of the most hilariously ill-advised genocides ever implemented (not a common sentence), because it's thus far involved both the slaves and Chinese being morons at every level, which would still apply even if genocide was not what they're going for.
(and yes, I'm aware that your wordplay involved more than just alliteration: it incorporated multiple "can" sounds, so overall, you did far better than I, will admit)
Fact of the matter is, with this story, also, Luster Dawn could've been replaced by a literal inanimate map, in regards to explaining where Charlie was directed to by the Talisman of Plot Convenience (the plot convenience that provides does amplify further, for the climax, by the way), because it's not like Charlie had to undergo much culture shock being in a world with magic, had to have Luster Dawn mentor him in how to use magic (she just tells him he has magic now, after he successfully pulls it off, and then he gets to remind her she can use her magic to teleport).
All Luster does is teleport them away once or twice from easily avoided diplomatic pitfalls, and exposit what's happened to Equestria, and just get impressed with doe-eyes at whatever Wikipedia Copy and Paste of the Day that Charlie's doing (for examples, like in the sixth chapter, Charlie's dialogue is... unoriginal, whether it be about "MIT" [on both pages, "find on page"/"CTRL + F", or just look with the naked eye, doesn't take long "Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization", sans quotation marks] or nightsticks [Baton wikipedia page,
"roughly cylindrical club made of wood, rubber, plastic or metal"], or "soldier" ["A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer."] or "police" ["constituted body of persons empowered by a state"], and the list does go on, like him describing Sydney, in a later chapter [credit to FanOfMostEverything I believe for catching that]), and/or she's there to just get wowed by his technology.
It's not like Luster Dawn is particularly involved in any worldbuilding, whatsoever, or at least recapping some things we know of based off of the show, (like for instance, what monsters are around, that they might encounter when travelling towards places, be they Timberwolves, Bugbears, the list goes on [that never happens, them encountering hostile, dangerous creatures, we've noticed]) which it would be a good opportunity to do so, seeing as Charlie's new to Equestria, doesn't know much of anything about the world. It especially shows, because as you've mentioned before, does Luster point out anything about the sewers for the city she lived in? Hmm... no.
(As for something the world may never know, how did the Australian Broadcasting Company, or whatever, report on the Chinese invasion of another world, so that Charlie could know about it? Did they hack into the teleporter to report on it before being asked to leave? lol)
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And that's one of the things which really annoys me about this story. While it's true that Equestria is a generally nicer culture than even a modern Western nation such as Canada or America, we know from canon that Equestria faces both external and internal violence.
Enemies like Chrysalis or Tirek do not go easy on the Equestrians. And Equestria has homegrown bad guys, ranging from jerks to bullies to out-and-out rebels and criminals. The average Equestrian might tend to face less serious violence in her life than the average American (and that's not even true during the time frame of the Show, because Equestria is repeatedly attacked by deadly foes in that period), but they are not so naive that the mere existence of violence would horrify them.
This is part of the infantilization of the Equestrians which is the great sin of Story.
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Even if that were true about the ponies, I can't see the dragons and griffins and yaks reacting like this, at all. They would have torn at least a few invaders limb from limb by now.