This thread is ONLY for discussing House Earthborn, and is not to be un-pinned from the top of the forum.

House Earthborn character chart:

I don't know, it seemed like a good place to finally put this, since it's the only available character sheet.

>my face when the best house has no ongoing discussion

Time to change that!

Here, have some Earthborn fluff: Earthborn: the beginnings!

-the disappearance of the sisters, and the strange fact that it had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the natural course of the world the ponies live in left AJ in a state of shock and disbelief;

-the rising civil unrest and disorder leads her to gather the rest of the Elements together and form a peace-keeping group focused on maintaining order in Ponyville during these troubled times;

-after Twilight leaves for Canterlot, AJ asks Granny Smith and Applebloom to travel south to Appleloosa and settle there for the time being, away from the trouble; they comply and leave, meanwhile AJ and the rest of the Ponyville-based Apple family helps to keep peace in town;

-meanwhile, the entire Equestria is slowly being divided into two groups – those who are still loyal to the Princesses and those who declare them false gods; AJ takes no side in this conflict and declares that the Elements will help anypony who's in need, regardless of their beliefs;

-at the same time, the southern part of Equestria – the Frontier, slowly becomes flooded by refugees from other parts of the country, most of these ponies have given up on Celestia and Luna and considering the unstable situation at Canterlot, they choose to settle the farthest away from the capital;

-Applejack messages Braeburn to ask if her granny and little sister are safe, in return she recieves an information about the upcoming gathering of earth pony clans, including the Apple Clan, Pie Clan, Orange Clan and Cherry Clan;

-a series of full-blown riots ravages the southern parts of the country: Fillydelphia, Colterado and Dodge Junction become targets for aggressive groups of loyalists trying to disrupt the meeting of the clans; AJ travels south with her brother and a group of other apple relatives to help quell the riots; the rest of the Elements stay in Ponyville;

-Ponyville ponies start a revolt against the local goverment, and drive the pro-Celestial authorities, including Mayor Mare, away from town; the Elements are forced to use more drastic methods but instead helping they make the situation worse and make the crowd turn on them;

-in the meantime, a racist sentiment of unicorn superiority starts to gain momentum in Canterlot, and soon its main perpetuator – political party „White Horns” starts gaining more and more followers; as an answer, the earth pony clans gathered at Appleloosa decide to form the Earth Council – a political entity tasked with defending the earth folk against any persecution;

-Appleloosa itself, thanks to the massive influx of refugees, has grown almost five times in size and population and will continue to grow even bigger in the following months and years, finally becoming the biggest city in the Frontier;

-the sudden grow spurt of the city was accompanied by a massive increase of industralization and mining operations; factories, warehouses and mines one after another started to litter the appleloosan landscape;

-during a particular mining operation at Mine nr.17, earth pony workers discover a strange item – a stone tablet covered in old equestrian writing, in the following weeks, the miners manage to uncover even more ancient artifacts that seem to belong to some long lost civilization of ponies;

-the Earth Council creates a team of archeologists and historians to research these ancient artifacts;
meanwhile even more mining teams report finding strange old items deep withing the bowels of the Appleloosan Ridge;
-after months of intense study and research, the scientists finally uncover the truth – the Appleloosan Ridge was once home to an ancient earth pony tribe, which existed separately from the three pony tribes of old, furthermore, they seemed to have no knowledge of the warring pony tribes of Old Equestria, instead all evidence pointed to them maintaining relations with various buffalo tribes and even the zebras from the eastern desert; the members of the tribe called themselves the Earthborn;

-Granny Smith and in turn the entire Earth Council becomes fascinated with the history of the tribe and their once great civilization; after reading the summary of the research, AJ decides that it would be smart to try and implement some of their ideas into the post-princesses earth pony society;

-meanwhile, the information about the horrifying outcome of the Great Debate in Canterlot reaches Appleloosa; more and more messengers report of increased unicorn hostility towards earth ponies and pegasi, this time not only in Canterlot but thorough the entire northern Equestria;

-Applejack furious at the recent turn of events starts gatherning an army of volounteers to raid Canterlot and free the subjugated ponies from the unicorn oppression, but is stopped by her granny who suggest a more cautious approach to the whole situation; the Earth Council organizes transports for the refugees fleeing northern Equestria; unfortunately, the news about the mistreatment of earth ponies reaches the general public of Appleloosa and neighbouring cities resulting in growing anti-unicorn sentiment among the populace;

-the research on the ancient Earthborn tribe continues and sheds new light on their history, particularly the reason for their downfall – it turns out that the tribe has fought many wars, even against the changelings, but won all of them thanks to their mysterious ability to leech life from the very soil of Equestria; they met their end when once approached by „two mysterious but majestic creatures of horns and wings”, they refused to follow them and their three tribes; „the wrath of Sun and Moon” descended upon them and obliterated their civilization for the crime of not bowing to the new gods;

-this new revelation shakes up the mood in the Earth Council, even AJ is shocked by it; she realizes that such a once great and prosperous civilization has been reduced to ashes only because they didn't want to follow those who falsely claimed to be gods;

-AJ torn inside by her dilemma of whether or not to stay true to her element and once for all reject the Princesses, is suddently approached by a messenger traveling from Canterlot; the message the pony carries is a desperate plea for help from none other than Twilight Sparkle; AJ has no choice but to travel into the nest of wasps and try to help Twilight in these dark times;

-she arrives at night and meets Twilight and the rest outside Canterlot; travelling through secret passages they finally reach the ritual chamber, where Twilight gives away her plan to merge herself, AJ and Dash into an alicorn in an attempt to regain control of the country; Applejack clearly seeing that Twilight has lost her mind and doesn't realize what she's attepting to do, refuses to participate in this trickery obviously devised to sway the masses, and runs off into the distance; branded as a traitor to the throne by a mad mare who's clearly lost her mind;

-once she reaches Appleloosa, AJ calls for a meeting of the Earth Council and tells of what happened in Canterlot and the current state of the capital; after the Council returns to its duties in the newly constructed Halls of Stone, Applejack gathers a large crowd of ponies on the main town square and gives an inspiring speech about the Earthborn Tribe and the Element of Honesty; Granny Smith observing the whole situation from afar, sees AJ as the best candidate for leading these ponies into a brighter future;
-even though the situation across Equestria has somewhat stabilized, there are still messengers coming to Appleloosa from every corner of the divided country, bearing unpleasant news; one of such news is that Twilight Sparkle apparently became an important political figure in Canterlot, somehow seemingly more important than the so-called „rulers” - Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, moreover she declared that Equestria shall be known from now on as „the One Nation Under Moon and Star”;

-infuriated by this, AJ asked Granny Smith to once again call for the meeting of the Council; during that meeting - to the total surprise of AJ – she has been chosen as the leader of the Frontier ponies; immediately after her enthronement, in an act of defiance against her former friend, Applejack declared to the Council that from now on, the four great earth pony clans: the Apple Clan, the Orange Clan, the Pie Clan, the Cherry Clan and any lands they possess are no longer part of the Equestria proper and as such, Canterlot has no authority on these lands; furthermore, the four clans will cooperate with eachother, creating the foundation for a new nation, based on the principles of truth, hard work and family bonds and inspired by the marvelous accomplishemnts of the ancient Earthborn Tribe;

-and that nation will be known as House Earthborn.

Thoughts, suggestions and critiques welcome

2039291

Really neat stuff there, I'm curious if that ancient Earth pony tribes' story of being "wiped out for not believing in the goddesses of Sun and Moon" is complete truth, or if there is another side to that story that portraits the ancient Earth Ponies in a less-than-innocent light.

Though I would like to now how an Earth Council was formed under Twilights nose without her knowing. Did she know and just not care? Or did she underestimate the size and progress that the frontier gained and decided they weren't worth worrying about?

All in all, it was pretty interesting, got a little slow towards the middle, but that's hardly worthy of complaining about.

2039432
There's probably another side to the story, but I doubt we will ever know what precisely happened more than 1000 years ago.

Notice that the Council was formed as a response agains the rising racial tensions in Equestria. At that time Twilight was still a good pony at heart and she had other matters to attend to (like mourning her parents deaths).

It probably feels slower because there's no real personal tragedy involved, mostly politics.

Wow, didn't know that Earthborn had records of the Princesses committing genocide. We all thought that Applejack was just mad at Twilight for killing Pinkie Pie and destroying Ponyville and heard some vague prophecy about Unicorn magic bringing about the end of the world.

Not sure if Celestia and Luna truly did things as bad as these records say they did, or if it's more likely grey-grey.
When AJ learned Twilight's plan about merging into an alicorn, did she spend a moment trying to reason the unicorn about the spell's dangerosity and about it not being the best way to try and fix the mess? Did the farmpony try to comfort her unstable friend and acknowledge Twilight's pain from the loss of her mentor and her parents?

2044666
2039291

Knowing Applejack's character, yes she would have but Twilight was always kind of an unstable pony and when she sets her mind on something....god forbid she ever change it. Applejack probably tried to reason with her and convice her othewise. The thing I don't understand is why she ran off. I mean jesus AJ your friend is going crazy aren't you supposed to be the "loyalist of friends and most dependable of ponies'? Why did you run away when she needed someone to slap her out of it. Honestly (haha puns are great ) AJ running off doesn't really fit with her character. Did Twilight say something cruel? Did she have something she needed to do right then? We speak about this moment as the time when AJ lost faith in friendship but it seems like shes already abandoned them.

2050584
Indeed, this event's description in House M&S's thread paints AJ in a poor light, and this thread, here, doesn't tell what AJ tried to do to make things get better before she ran away from Twilight.
Maybe she was stepping on thin ice while trying to reason her friend, and despite her words of comfort, her honesty made said ice crumble?

I also wonder why she left them... Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity were still there, and the cowmare wouldn't leave them like this.

2050584>>2050732
Here's the thing. At this point in time, AJ is the only member of EoH who not only doesn't want the old order back, she openly speaks against the Princesses.

The whole concept of EqD revolves around whether or not Celestia and Luna were truly as powerful as everypony claimed them to be. Another thing to remember that the Elements of Harmony play a big role in the setting and are far more important than in the show (where they don't really matter besides the pilot episodes). Thus, AJ had to choose between staying true to her element, or betraying it by choosing to go along with Twilight's plan and perpetuate the cycle of "the Benevolent Lie". She choose the former.

If you piece these bits of info together, you should be able to imagine pretty well just how the coversation between AJ and Twi went (hint: it wasn't friendly).

2052218

Oooh ooh.
About the future scenario where AJ and her group of sycophants turn into "True Earthborns":
Is the alteration magical in nature? Evolutionary? Biological?

Risking to be nosey, my take on this is that Earthborn is fascinated with Everfree Tribes' conection with nature. More precisely, to soil. If they truly believe the Earth possess such...esoteric properties, they could pretty much alter their organic structures to sustain their physical integrity via..."dirt assimilation"? "soil amalgamation"? How to call this?

2164943

And thus the Earthborn will have earned the nickname "Dirt Eaters"

Earthborn Weaponry - The Punt Gun

So Pinkie Pie may or may not be related to the Apple clan. Anyone else think that might be used to explain why her parents and sisters are with Earthborn?

2582537

I was thinking that too but for the most part I think it's just a Earth Pony thing, but it certainly would add a certain level of background drama to things. How Applejack agonized after allowing Pinkie Pie to die.

1. Earthborn and the Thunderhoof Tribe, are they the same thing or just a military alliance?
2. Concerning numbers, do they employ levée en masse [Mass Conscription] ? google it
3. Exactly what in Equestria do you think the Spirit of Truth is?

my guess, AJ's hallucinations I mean AJ got her eye from the tribe right? They might have given her drugs that made her hallucinate, and it might've been too strong, or she overdosed, or both. Now this is obviously non-canon, but a funny thing to think of.

4. The Repeating Hoof Cannon, is it supposed to work like how the Puckle Gun works in real life? I mean there are limited footages of how the puckle gun works, and it sure didn't work like it did in 'Empire Total War' and 'Assassin's Creed Rogue'. So, early machine gun or early repeater?
5. Unicorns, do they just cut any 'horny' ponies they found? On the spot? Or taken to a specialized facility?
6. Mass Production, they obviously employed it. In this type of production, there are ought to be surpluses. Do they sell them to other factions like Stormwing or Mercenaries? Or is it just their numbers are so high they still can't keep up to the quotas like our Soviet's Red Army?

3716333 Its to late for me to give my own ideas to all of your questions but here are a few of them.

1. Id say military alliance, Odds are, like how Stormwing is allied with the griffons, Earthborn are most likely allied with the Thunderhoof tribe, probably due to applejacks connection with their leader in the past.
2. I wouldn't doubt it, mostly because they are a very military and warlike group from what ive read, tough not barbaric too say, it seems like all strong and fit for battle ponies are trained and raised to be warriors, I think I remember reading that they start training really early (age of 12 I think?) and are put into a unit at the age of 15 I think. It wouldn't surprise me that at the start they used mass conscription to increase their numbers to overpower the other houses/tribes, if what I read was correct, they have the most land which would require plenty of soldiers to capture and then hold.

4. I was originally going to say something more automatic with spinning the back bar thing and all but I realised that the puckle gun looks very similar to this one, considering most of the weapons during this time, I actually wouldn't doubt it if it worked similar to the puckle gun, Not an expert on guns or anything but judging by their designs, the Repeater Hoof Cannon is probably a more bulky and more mobile version of the puckle gun from what I've seen. The one thing throwing me off is the word "repeater" being in the name but as far as I can tell, it cant really be a repeater like gun unless it uses cartridges and the bullets automatically load themselves, which doesn't seem to be the case.(once again, not an expert on guns, so sorry if anything I said was wrong)

5. I would say on the spot, they don't seem to be the kind of army that would try to capture, bring to a specialized facility and then cut off the horn. I mean, if your part of the earthborn's then odds are you hate unicorns just as much as the next pony so I don't think anybody would care if a soldier just found a unicorn and cut off their horn and then arrested them/executed them on the spot, They probably would never take the chances that the unicorn would use magic to get away. They REALLY hate unicorns and magic. Tough I think it might be the only time they are this barbaric as ive read that AJ is very honorable, I think(might be confusing her with Dash) so she would treat other criminals in a less barbaric way (prisons, judgements, id believe executions for the worst criminals, so on and so on.)

3725366
4. What I meant by Early Machine Gun is an equivalent of the Gatling Gun, shooting in rapid succession and all. From what I can see in the illustration, if it is a machine gun, it would be hoof cranked from the back. By Early Repeater is shooting and reloading at fast rates compared to muzzle loading firearms. If it's a repeater, the operator must rotate the drum magazine and then fire, which is much faster than reloading a hoof cannon in my opinion.

5. You also have to take account on the fact that not everypony is the same. If a soldier found a unicorn with a horn intact, he or she might not have what it takes to cut the horn right away, or lacking equipments to do so. There must be those who joined the Earthborn because they don't have a choice in their life. There are ought to be those who didn't agree with AJ's ideology in the Earthborn, one of those ponies might be Applebloom. Who knows?

3725445 4. But from what i can tell, machine guns, even early, could shoot much more then just 10 bullets in short succesion, it does seem designed based on the puckle gun like you said so thats why im thinking its similar to that, comes down to what you really want to think but id say puckle gun, could you imagine how powerfull a gatling gun weapon would be in this universe. Tough they are highly advanced in their military equipement so i could beleive they would have such a powerfull weapon at their disposal, it just seems wrong at the same time.

as for 5. When it comes to equipement, they could probably use whatever sharp weapon they have on them at the moment, i doubt they dont have atleast a knife or something as a backup weapon if their using spears. Tough for the idea that they might not have what it takes, if they didnt then odds are they might be punished for letting the criminal go. It just seems like Earthborn are very strict when it comes to magic, considering one of AJ goals is to get rid of all magic from what i understand, so if anything it would be forced upon the soldiers in the army to do it, even if they didnt want to. Its true tough with mass conscription being a high possibilty, Its pretty much impossible for all of them to agree with her ideology, tough im pretty sure a really large ammount would rather listen to her then to let a unicorn go free, Its just what they've grown up with. Tough this also raises the problem of a possible rebellion within the ranks of Earthborn, with such a large number of soldiers, if the ammount that dont agree with AJ is big enough, it could lead to a new movement, its gotta be hard being Aj(and pretty much any of the leaders). I think applebloom was young enough that she could be influenced into believing the same thing AJ beleives, hence why she provides so much weaponry for the army, after many years of being told that magic is evil she would have grown to accept it. But if she didnt, that could mean she could be providing for other races, if that was the case tough why havent we really seen much advancement within the other forces and why is Earthborn still far in the lead when it comes to military if she was betraying them? It just seems like applebloom would be on her side. The ones that could not agree would be ones like granny smith and ponies who had grown up with magic(considering some of the best apples(those rainbow ones) are made trough magic and helped build her hometown to begin with). What do you think?

Wow i went really long on 5. there, get used to me doing that i go overboard alot :|

3726609
Then there would be a law that every citizen would have to carry a bonesaw? From what I think, a unicorn's horn is attached to the skull, chances are it's a bone as well. I don't think a normal knife would be able to cut the entire thing off, maybe scratching it, but not the entire thing.

When I think of Mass Conscription, I think of the French Revolutionary Army. They are all united under one thing, nationalism. For Earthborn's case, hatred of spell-based magic. AJ had it different by the fact that she had more time for training, making her armies more diciplined than our Revolutionary Army. If we think it that way, if they are run that way, Earthborns are surely to be feared if not for their enemies all over their boundaries stretching it thin. Either way, if they are united under one ideology, likely most of them, a rebellion is very unlikely or would be hard to fabricate one.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders are seperated to their respective factions: Earthborn, Whitegold, and Stormwing respectively. In this universe, the hatred we know of is between the Mane 6. Do you think the CMC would stay in contact with each other? Albeit in secret?

3728306 Id say the military would carry something to cut off horns while on patrol, while citizens would have to report (or even capture if they can) any unicorn they can find.

Im not a military history fan(tough this is kinda making me want to start reading up on alot of military stuff to get an even better grasp on whats going on), but if i get what your saying, then things like cutting a unicorns horn off isnt a problem anymore, as they most likely look at the unicorns as plagues of equestria, ponies capable of bringing its end. Hence why any soldier would be willing to do it. Once you think of something as a lesser being then you, then its easy to mistreat it and hurt it without feeling remorse.

As for the cutie mark crusaders, based on their personalities originally, its possible that both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stayed in touch, but for some reason i have the feeling Scootaloo, growing in Stormwing, would have grown a powerful sense of duty, honor and loyalty, especially based on how much she admired Rainbow dash to begin with, she would probably hate the idea of betraying her friends but would hate betraying her faction even more, especially considering that would mean becoming a fallen if found out, which is the worst consequence for any Stormwing, From what i understand 14 years have passed since the beginning (if you base it off the original story), then they would have grown up with these ideologies, hence, Appleblooms care for her friends and Sweetie Belles somewhat rebellious nature and kindness would make them stay in touch but Scootaloo's sense of duty and loyalty would probably clash with seeing her friends, i see it like this: She hates that she can't see them anymore but has decided to close all communication with them due to her beliefs and loyalty to her faction. But she wishes one day to see them again and hopefully, not as enemies anymore.

3733767
Now that's a reasonable law, rational as expected from the Earthborn. AJ would be proud of you

A unicorn would be lucky if he/she wasn't killed on sight, eh?

Indoctrination of ideologies, propagandas, wars would always be the same, right?

Let's start a new topic! The Eye of Truth, the biological/magical chunk of meat that AJ's hiding under her eyepatch. It would interesting to discuss how she got it, and how it works, and how it didn't work with

We should note its actually called the One true Sight. Not the Eye of Truth, Im just to lazy to go back trough this long wall of text and fix my earlier mistakes XD, figured this out after writing all of this

Edit: I went overboard with this.... wow...

3734848 Thats funny, i really wanted to talk about that XD
What i know is that she met this spirit of truth that, when they made a deal (or really, a pact in this case) together she got that eye. Now, notice how AJ always keeps an eyepatch on her right eye? This is the Eye of Truth. I think she has that for two reasons: 1. Seeing the truth and all deceptions at all time would be quite hard to take in, so she uses it when she needs to or when she feels threatened. 2. If it is from a spirit like being, and how it works, i would say its Magical, think about it, a whole faction focused on destroying all magic, and yet, their own leader is using it to some extent. AJ probably realizes shes kinda stuck with it and it HAS saved her before, and so, because of this, she realized how useful this is. Due to this, she has to hide it from her faction, so that they will continue to respect her, imagine if they found out? and i doubt the eye looks 100% normal. I think the only ponies who would know would be Big Mac, Applebloom and Granny Smith.
Added: I would like to add that, she would have known it was magic to begin with, so she probably realized simply how useful this would be and that she could not let it go to waste, no matter how much she hates magic. The one and only time she ever broke her rule, turns out it saved her and her family on multiple occasions too.

As for how it works, it probably lets her see some change in the aura of a pony or something like that, a visual queue that points out when something is lying, but it can also warn her of ambushes and such, which makes me think it lets her see hidden things as well, because hiding something is hiding the truth of its existence, she would be able to see hidden enemies and be ready to react to it. However, the fact that it doesn't work on Rarity could be because Rarity is so skilled that even the eye of truth cannot truly detect it, simply because other ponies lie, while Rarity makes her lie feel so true, it becomes the truth to anything that hears it, including AJ's own Eye of Truth. Things like Cold reading and such would also be 100% impossible with her. its also possible shes using magic to hide her lies, magic powerful enough to block even the Eye of Truth.

(if you don't know, Cold Reading is a technique in which someone reads all the body signs of another being and how they react to what they say, do, ect. Or what they hear, see, experience, ect. By reading these signals they can then try guessing certain things, and then look at the reactions of how they react to those guess, whichever guess is the closest to something about that being you continue to emphasize on it until you get a clear signal that shows your correct, (while also being able to recover from false guesses quickly) meaning you figured out something about someone without even knowing anything about it, or them. Cold reading can also be used while trying to see trough someones lies, the slightest of movement, can be the biggest signal of a lie for the very perceptive. and almost anything has some sort of sign, no matter how small, whenever they lie, except for Rarity herself. Tl:dr, basically, you take note of the body signals people give out when they hear or see things, or when they lie, and try to narrow down your guesses until you get the truth. Or, when seeing a lie, trying to notice body signals to determine if someone is lying or not.)

Maybe the Eye of Truth is magical in one way, but also uses things like Cold reading (tough in a more magical way) to determine if someone is lying or not, which would explain its inability to see trough her lies.

What i think it does NOT do, is tell her the truth. It can reveal lies, but it wont tell her the truth, and so she has to figure out the truth herself. Which explains how it cant read Raritiy's lies, since if it could see the truth of any situation, even if her lies felt like the truth, they would still be lies and it would tell AJ the truth.

It should also be noted it sees trough illusions and such, meaning it has to be magical to be able to see trough magic itself. This would also mean it can see hidden things, like ambushes.

ANOTHER way it could work for ambushes is she sees those Visual Queues that i was mentioning before, but from other ponies around her, maybe the visual queues are slightly different and have more intensity based on what kind of lie and how big of a lie it is. Helping AJ determine the lies and even the source of it. If ANY pony knew of the assassination attempt, she would see it, and anypony that knew SOMETHING was going on but would hide it, she would see a small little signal, which would lead her to the bigger ones, and then, finally she would see the big picture and figure out whats goings on.

Its pretty vague, so it comes down to how you see it.

3736400
Yeah sorry, I just call it the Eye of Truth because I only remembered its functions, my bad on that.

Earthborns wanted to rid off spell-based magics because of how great the powers are. Add the fact that M&S unicorns are being tyrants and one of the journals that stated how cutting unicorns' horns came into practice. Then we have baked their hatred for magic! The buffalo tribes and the Druids probably used shamanic magic, which could be an exception, but things escalated as time goes so...

But AJ being secretive on One True Sight is probably a good explanation, it could be her secret weapon, as Spike is to Twilight. If I take your theory on its function, then she would mostly use it in closed space, where not many are around. Having half of your vision seeing something else seems to be a not so comforatable sensation.

I don't think she would be able to see through ambushes. Ambushing is just hiding, and hiding isn't a lie, they just hide. Maybe it's her other skills that gave her the title "Ever-Vigilant", not One True Sight.

What if it functions like, pierce through one's thought then look if in his/her mind, checks whether it's a lie or not right in the mind. The fact that it won't work on Rarity might also how she lied. Maybe she convinced her mind that it's the truth she's telling even though it's a lie. That's a pretty wierd logic from me.

Added: I have got...to stop...writing so much... sorry i go so overboard with all this all the time, i just go crazy when I'm talking about something i really like or when ideas start racing trough my head :\

3737104 For ambushes, the problem is she was able to detect assassination attempts and such trough the use of the One True Sight , so that's why i'm thinking, instead of seeing the ambush itself, she see's the secrets surrounding it and eventually pinpoints exactly what the secret is, which turns out to be an ambush, so no technically its not finding the ambush, its finding the secrets of the ambush which leads to her finding out what the ambush is and then countering it. At least that's how i see it. Having an innate talent to predict ambushes and such tough would be pretty cool, il hold onto that one and see if i might like that more. (it should also be noted it sees trough Lies, Deceits and Illusions, so maybe hiding could be considered a deceit? if one were to look at it that way then it would reveal it, however i find that might be pushing it JUST a little.)

The piercing trough thoughts makes sense, however, i find that the "weird logic" as you stated is somewhat flawed here,
first of all we know that it can also see things like illusions, one way for this to work is that it cannot READ the thoughts of an illusion, hence why she knows it is one. but at the same time, what if its an illusion of a tree or something? how would she see it then? Its a little iffy at that point.
Also, if Rarity was making her lies become the truth for her, she would literally be messing with herself, since im pretty sure EVERYTHING she says is a lie one way or another unless during certain very special circumstances, like if telling the truth would be more beneficial/prove to be harmless, or when talking to Sweetie Belle. Because of this, she would be screwing up her own thoughts and views on everything. so yea i understand what you mean but that's something that really, would break her mind way to quickly if she could do that, and would prevent her from functioning right. However, the idea of someone truly believing its the truth, when in reality its not, preventing the One True Sight from working seems quite enticing to elaborate upon.

SO i like the idea, but it just seems very flawed considering the current circumstances.

Something else i wanted to bring up, since AJ went to see Rarity at one point or another, does this mean, that they have had meetings with different faction leaders? for some reason i had the idea that each and every leader would never go see another leader, either trough hatred or fear of being put in a life threatening situation. However, this pretty much means that negotiations have been made, possible alliances could have happened, and special interactions between each of the mane 6 are now possible OUTSIDE of battles. Why did i think this was impossible?

Which brings me to this, what would AJ and Rarity have talked about? What were they originally going to do? How did it go? What did they gain/loose from this? ect ect ECT.

Maybe a generic scenario, Rarity might've said something like, oh we'd let you through our lands, 'cause Whitegold's the buffer point between the two nemesis. AJ would surely accept, now Rarity would need to go there by herself to convince AJ that she mean it, probably considered an alliance in which her mercenary army would follow behind. And maybe she had another deal with M&S, having them lie in wait for the Earthborns, and had a two side pincer attack, the front and the back.

All these for a considerable fee, a Whitegold Rip-off. Corrupted politicians in a nutshell.

I think we should hold the "One True Sight" topic for a while. I mean, it's like discussing what is a truth and what is a lie, that's out of my league for now. We would need an actual philosopher on the topic for that!

3740437 I wonder how many negotiations are actually done? I mean, its clear alot of the factions hate eachother, but its clear that they are not ALWAYS at war, its been told before that due to "said thing' happening at "said time" "said faction" went at war with "said faction #2", which means that there are declarations of wars and stuff.

And so, who would Earthborn ally with the most? They seem ok with Whitegold, but really i think all factions except for a select special few (CoL and possibly Everfree) would ally with Whitegold, they are just the least hostile and most useful to have economically wise. We know Earthborn hates Moon and Star, and apparently they want to remove the Everfree forest(didn't know of this until today), so that leaves them with Stormwing + any custom faction that may exist. So, would they ally themselves with Stormwing? i don't see why not, now Stormwing accepting is a different story but would Earthborn be willing to ally themselves with an enemy that has a common enemy? They both hate Moon and Star. You know the saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"? Well it seems to apply here, and with both of their military strength combined they would almost be unstoppable. The one and only thing getting in the way here is that Stormwing does use magic and AJ is really against that.

3745669
Whitegold's the big one in terms of diplomacy. Earthborn-Stormwing Alliance is somewhat likely, their ideologies are fairly similar, militaristic. Something the Whitegold won't be expecting is an Earthborn-M&S Alliance against Whitegold. Nah, those nighthooves would probably do something or two to prevent that from happening.

Speaking of espionage, Earthborn seems to employ it too, the Orange Clan. Babs Seed's a spy! A spy she is! Do you think they just deliberately use espionage even though they are an all-honest society? Or the Orange Clan's just using the tactic in secret?

3746709 I wouldn't even be worried about Earthborn-M&S alliance simply because it would NEVER happen unless these events happen:
1. Earthborn must be willing to accept magic, which is ALL of M&S pretty much.
2. M&S must be willing to accept Earth ponies AND pegasi, which is most of Earthborn
3. AJ must be willing to accept what twilight did, her ideologies and goals.
4. Twilight must be willing to accept AJ's ideologies and goals. and stop thinking of her as a traitor.

1 and 2 are possible but 3 and 4 are impossible unless one faction converts to the next, however thats not an alliance anymore. For both to exist would be impossible since both their ideologies and goals pretty much negate one another.

As for the espionage, using such tactics wouldn't be considered dishonest, its a means of collecting information. Their not lying to anybody. I'm not too certain on how espionage and honesty stand together but i wouldn't consider spying on someone means your being dishonest. And even if it was its pretty much required during a war, breaking her own ideologies is bad but if a situation arises that it is necessary for the survival of the faction, then odds are they are willing to use it. I wouldn't be surprised if AJ herself uses spies to find out more about her enemies, considering she likes to know the secrets of others.

I'm more surprised that Babs is part of Earthborn, i thought that she lived in Manehattan, did her family leave the city while the war was starting? Did she leave on her own to find Applebloom maybe? Why did she not stay in Manehattan, within Whitegold? Maybe Rarity didn't like the fact that Babs was close to the apple family (if I"m correct isn't she their cousin or something?) and so she got rid of them.

3763323
maybe 5. A plot by Whitegold or the Cult, although being carried out by the latter is unlikely and simply scary to imagined of what they're trying to achieve.

As for espionage, well... If your spy got caught, then you would be seen as untrustworthy due to acts of espionage, sending someone to gather information you're not supposed to know. Reconnaissance and Patrols, those are gathering information cleanly. If the enemy failed to keep the information secret from those two methods, then a really bad job they're trying to do! Earthborn isn't untrustworthy from their ideologies, they're not the kind anyone would expect to stab in the back, the opposite of Whitegold. It would be pretty weird for a person to be honest, but untrustworthy, no? If they're honest [to the core], then they're trustworthy as well!

During the Gathering of Clans event, Babs probably moved to Colterado with her parents, or refused. For the case of the latter, her family might managed to contact her again, then she became a spy for the Earthborn. Although it would be more diverse to see a member of the Apple family being loyal to another faction, . . . like M&S?

3764533 Yeaaaa Whitegold doesn't seem like the faction that would do something like that, right now the only reason they aren't being destroyed by the other factions is simply because of their immense influence in the economy and trades. Also, they aren't provoking anything so why waste our time with them? so the Cult would make sense, in which case i think more then just EB and M&S would join together to stop them.

For the espionage that seems true actually, i never really considered that. I guess AJ would really gain most of her information trough negotiations and stuff with her One True Sight. Scouting and stuff would help too, preventing ambushes and invasions, tough this of course puts Earthborn in a disadvantage against the other factions. A key weakness they seem to lack. So far we have found two Key Weaknesses to Earthborn. 1. Lack of magic, preventing any form of direct retaliation against other forms of magic. and 2. Lack of Espionage and such, which means less information against the other factions. Due to Earthborn's size, numbers and military might, it seems only natural for them to have weaknesses in other places that are not focused on power and might. Can you think of any other KEY weaknesses? of course it seems like they do it in secret or something. Maybe Babs and such have NOTHING on them that could connect them to Earthborn. I SERIOUSLY doubt that Earthborn follows its rules 100%, AJ isn't stupid, she probably knows how important it is, however she probably also knows how important it is to keep these things a secret, hence why it would be so minimal, making it less good then the other factions spies, also, Babs and such would have to live outside of EB, or at least, look like they are not affiliated in any way, allowing AJ to look Trustworthy while still maintaining SOME form of information on her enemies.

And this whole Gathering of Clans thing I'm not sure of, was it a journal? if so care to enlighten me a bit?
But for an apple family member working for M&S...... I cant think of one at the top of my head. I'm not familiar with AJ and her 1000000 relatives so i wouldn't be able to name one, but if one was made up then having an apple family member against their own family would be cool and a great setup for many interesting conflicts. Especially if the member was close enough to Applejack to know her well enough. Predicting her and such. Maybe the Apple Family had a unicorn along the line? And he chose to join his fellow Unicorns instead of joining his family? That would be interesting. It would make things even more personal in between EB and M&S

3776500
True, destroying Whitegold would mean destroying Equestria's economy.

The Weaknesses of Earthborn
1. Utter denial of Spell-Based magics, the most common type of magic in Equestria.
2. Lack of Espionage, very low.
3. Large Armies, the larger the army, the harder it is managed effectively.
4. Logistics, even though they could mass produce supplies, delivering them is another thing. Do you think they used trains? They are operated by unicorns back in the original show, so I guess they don't. Actual steam engines are implemented in Fortbusters and Beastbusters, which are both ultimate units. So they are probably experimental, and probably won't be used else where other than the military.
5. Large territories, surely there are still plenty of rooms for ponies to dwell despite Earthborn's sky high numbers? Then they are easily infiltrated by spies or worst, armies.

PoorYorick posted in this thread his journal on the beginnings of the Earthborn, the third comment. Lastly, what do you think powers Apple Bloom's most daring invention, the Ponycopter? It's too small to be powered by the steam engine, and having a burning furnace up while flying in the sky isn't such a good idea. Pedal-powered doesn't make any sense unless Earth Ponies are that strong, oh my...

EDIT: OK, Earthborn used Espionage. "Earthborn Spy Agency" is the name. Madame Orange is the informal leader, thus supporting the theory that Earthborn used espionage in secret, or is it openly. . ?

Passing through, don't mind me…

House Earthborn: Beginnings
• by PoorYorickDA, Nov 10, 2013, 12:52:38 PM
• Literature / Characters & Settings / Sci-Fi & Fantasy / Settings
-the disappearance of the sisters, and the strange fact that it had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the natural course of the world the ponies live in left AJ in a state of shock and disbelief;

-the rising civil unrest and disorder leads her to gather the rest of the Elements together and form a peace-keeping group focused on maintaining order in Ponyville during these troubled times;

-after Twilight leaves for Canterlot, AJ asks Granny Smith and Applebloom to travel south to Appleloosa and settle there for the time being, away from the trouble; they comply and leave, meanwhile AJ and the rest of the Ponyville-based Apple family helps to keep peace in town;

-meanwhile, the entire Equestria is slowly being divided into two groups – those who are still loyal to the Princesses and those who declare them false gods; AJ takes no side in this conflict and declares that the Elements will help anypony who's in need, regardless of their beliefs;

-at the same time, the southern part of Equestria – the Frontier, slowly becomes flooded by refugees from other parts of the country, most of these ponies have given up on Celestia and Luna and considering the unstable situation at Canterlot, they choose to settle the farthest away from the capital;

-Applejack messages Braeburn to ask if her granny and little sister are safe, in return she recieves an information about the upcoming gathering of earth pony clans, including the Apple Clan, Pie Clan, Orange Clan and Cherry Clan;

-a series of full-blown riots ravages the southern parts of the country: Fillydelphia, Colterado and Dodge Junction become targets for aggressive groups of loyalists trying to disrupt the meeting of the clans; AJ travels south with her brother and a group of other apple relatives to help quell the riots; the rest of the Elements stay in Ponyville;

-Ponyville ponies start a revolt against the local goverment, and drive the pro-Celestial authorities, including Mayor Mare, away from town; the Elements are forced to use more drastic methods but instead helping, they make the situation worse and make the crowd turn on them;

-in the meantime, a racist sentiment of unicorn superiority starts to gain momentum in Canterlot, and soon its main perpetuator – political party „White Horns” starts gaining more and more followers; as an answer, the earth pony clans gathered at Appleloosa decide to form the Earth Council – a political entity tasked with defending the earth folk against any persecution;

-Appleloosa itself, thanks to the massive influx of refugees, has grown almost five times in size and population and will continue to grow even bigger in the following months and years, finally becoming the biggest city in the Frontier;

-the sudden growth spurt of the city was accompanied by a massive increase of industralization and mining operations; factories, warehouses and mines one after another started to litter the appleloosan landscape;

-during one particular mining operation at Mine nr.17, earth pony workers discover a strange item – a stone tablet covered in old equestrian writing, in the following weeks, the miners manage to uncover even more ancient artifacts that seem to belong to some long lost civilization of ponies;

-the Earth Council creates a team of archeologists and historians to research these ancient artifacts;
meanwhile even more mining teams report finding strange old items deep withing the bowels of the Appleloosan Ridge;

-after months of intense study and research, the scientists finally uncover the truth – the Appleloosan Ridge was once home to an ancient earth pony tribe, which existed separately from the three pony tribes of old, furthermore, they seemed to have no knowledge of the warring pony tribes of Old Equestria, instead all evidence pointed to them maintaining relations with various buffalo tribes and even the zebras from the eastern desert; the members of the tribe called themselves the Earthborn;

-Granny Smith and in turn the entire Earth Council becomes fascinated with the history of the tribe and their once great civilization; after reading the summary of the research, AJ decides that it would be smart to try and implement some of their ideas into the post-princesses earth pony society;

-meanwhile, the information about the horrifying outcome of the Great Debate in Canterlot reaches Appleloosa; more and more messengers report of increased unicorn hostility towards earth ponies and pegasi, this time not only in Canterlot but thorough the entire northern Equestria;

-Applejack furious at the recent turn of events starts gatherning an army of volounteers to raid Canterlot and free the subjugated ponies from the unicorn oppression, but is stopped by her granny who suggest a more cautious approach to the whole situation; the Earth Council organizes transports for the refugees fleeing northern Equestria; unfortunately, the news about the mistreatment of earth ponies reaches the general public of Appleloosa and neighbouring cities resulting in growing anti-unicorn sentiment among the populace;

-the research on the ancient Earthborn tribe continues and sheds new light on their history, particularly the reason for their downfall – it turns out that the tribe has fought many wars, even against the changelings, but won all of them thanks to their mysterious ability to leech life from the very soil of Equestria; they met their end when once approached by „two mysterious but majestic creatures of horns and wings”, they refused to follow them and their three tribes; „the wrath of Sun and Moon” descended upon them and obliterated their civilization for the crime of not bowing to the new gods;

-this new revelation shakes up the mood in the Earth Council, even AJ is shocked by it; she realizes that such a once great and prosperous civilization has been reduced to ashes only because they didn't want to follow those who falsely claimed to be gods;

-AJ torn inside by her dilemma of whether or not to stay true to her element and once for all reject the Princesses, is suddently approached by a messenger traveling from Canterlot; the message the pony carries is a desperate plea for help from none other than Twilight Sparkle; AJ has no choice but to travel into the nest of wasps and try to help Twilight in these dark times;

-she arrives at night and meets Twilight and the rest outside Canterlot; travelling through secret passages they finally reach the ritual chamber, where Twilight gives away her plan to merge herself, AJ and Dash into an alicorn in an attempt to regain control of the country; Applejack clearly seeing that Twilight has lost her mind and doesn't realize what she's attepting to do, refuses to participate in this trickery obviously devised to sway the masses, and runs off into the distance; branded as a traitor to the throne by a mad mare who's clearly lost her mind;

-once she reaches Appleloosa, AJ calls for a meeting of the Earth Council and tells of what happened in Canterlot and the current state of the capital; after the Council returns to its duties in the newly constructed Halls of Stone, Applejack gathers a large crowd of ponies on the main town square and gives an inspiring speech about the Earthborn Tribe and the Element of Honesty; Granny Smith observing the whole situation from afar, sees AJ as the best candidate for leading these ponies into a brighter future;

-even though the situation across Equestria has somewhat stabilized, there are still messengers coming to Appleloosa from every corner of the divided country, bearing unpleasant news; one of such news is that Twilight Sparkle apparently became an important political figure in Canterlot, somehow seemingly more important than the so-called „rulers” - Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, moreover she declared that Equestria shall be known from now on as „the One Nation Under Moon and Star”;

-infuriated by this, AJ asked Granny Smith to once again call for the meeting of the Council; during that meeting - to the total surprise of AJ – she has been chosen as the leader of the Frontier ponies; immediately after her enthronement, in an act of defiance against her former friend, Applejack declared to the Council that from now on, the four great earth pony clans: the Apple Clan, the Orange Clan, the Pie Clan, the Cherry Clan and any lands they possess are no longer part of the Equestria proper and as such, Canterlot has no authority on these lands; furthermore, the four clans will cooperate with eachother, creating the foundation for a new nation, based on the principles of truth, hard work and family bonds and inspired by the marvelous accomplishemnts of the ancient Earthborn Tribe;

-and that nation will be known as House Earthborn.

Earthborn and the practice of dehorning unicorns.
• by PoorYorickDA, Mar 18, 2013, 6:34:08 PM
• Journals / Personal
• Mood:  Fear
INTRODUCTION
This war has seen it's fair share of atrocities commited against the ponykind, and perhaps none is more well known than the infamous practice of cutting off unicorn horns employed by House Earthborn. But it wasn't always like that. Here, we will look at the history of this terrifying practice, and how it came to be.

THE BEGINNINGS
The very first mention of cutting the horns of the fallen opponents can be dated back to March of the 7th year ATD (After The Disappearance), around the time of the first meetings of then newly formed alliance between House Earthborn and Thunderhoof buffalo tribe. Old warriors of the tribe would tell stories of their battles and their practices of taking the horns of their fallen enemies as a battle trophy. At that time, both Supreme Commander Applejack, and the Earth Council would consider such acts to be barbaric. Little did they know they soon too would give in to their own savagery.

FIRST BATTLE FOR NEW PONYVILLE (June 10th to June 11th, 8th year ATD)
New Ponyville - a small little town, built by unaligned settlers looking for a place to relive the old, peaceful days from before the war broke out. Being situated in the middle of Equestria, where many trade routes intersect, this small town would soon turn prosperous and rich. Of course, the major Houses couldn't just leave the strategically important town alone. Soon, House Earthborn and House Moon and Star would clash in a battle for control of New Ponyville. 35 000 Earthborn troops led by General Tree Branch battled the army of 22 000 Moon and Star soldiers, commanded by Battlemage Comet Trail. It was a sound victory for House Earthborn, that established the House's rule over the town. But soon, the importance of the victory itself would have to take a backseat to the discovery that was about to be made.

At that time, the fact that House Moon and Star has been practicing slavery on earth ponies and pegasi was considered nothing but a rumor. But now, all the evidence one pony could want has been laid upon the terrified eyes of the witnesses of the battle. Both pegasi and earth pony slave warriors captured by Earthborn troops wore multiple marks of heavy magical abuse, and worst of all - every single one of them had their cutie mark ripped off and replaced with a mockery of a cutie mark with a symbol of hoof shackles. The sounds of anger and disgust quickly filled the air around the town. General Tree Branch was quick to send for the Supreme Commander herself. When Applejack arrived at the town and witnessed the atrocities commited by Moon and Star, something in her mind snapped. It was at that moment when she suddently remembered the stories the buffalo warriors had told her long ago.

She was quick to order her troops to gather all of the captured unicorns from Moon and Star and bring them to their knees. She approached the captured Battlemage, and with a swift move of her blade, she dehorned and then immediately beheaded him. After a brief moment of silence, she gave a commanding look to General Tree Branch. He knew what had to be done - every single captured Moon and Star unicorn was to be dehorned and finally beheaded. Applejack silently, and with a grim look on her face, watched the entire execution to make sure none of her soldiers would go soft on these bastards.

APPLEJACK'S RETURN TO APPLELOOSA, THE APPLELOOSAN DECREE (June 20th, 8th year ATD)
After her return to the capital of the house, Supreme Commander Applejack immediately went to inform the Earth Council about the outcome of the battle and the grim discovery that has been made. The ponies gathered in the Halls of Stone were quick to begin their debate on the subject, but their political rambling was cut short by the head of the council - the matron of the Apple Clan herself - Granny Smith. The sudden silence that filled the Halls of Stone was a sign for Applejack to continue. She told the Council about everything -the battle, the captured slaves and the execution of the unicorns of Moon and Star.

Hours have passed when finally, the gates to the Halls of Stone have been opened, and a lanky figure of the Councils' spokespony accompanied by both Elder Matron Granny Smith and Supreme Commander Applejack emerged from the depths of the Halls to announce the new decree:

-Any unicorn caught in the territory of House Earthborn is to be immediately dehorned.
-Parents having a unicorn child are obliged to either perform an act of dehorning on their child themselves, or ask the local medical facility to perform the aforementioned act.
-Hiding a horned unicorn, or preventing/interrupting an act of dehorning are both acts of treason and therefore punishable by death.
-Any unicorn found fighting for, sympathising with - or otherwise being affiliated with House Moon and Star is to be immediately dehorned and executed.

TO BE CONTINUED...
(Stormwing units coming soon, stay patient!)

Earthborn - dehorning unicorns, part II
• by PoorYorickDA, Mar 21, 2013, 5:57:12 PM
• Journals / Personal
• Mood:  Alarmed
THE AFTERMATH OF THE DECREE
After the decree has been announced, ponies gathered on the Appleloosa's town square began to whisper, argue, shout and finally fight each other over the decree. There were those who supported it wholeheartedly, and couldn't wait to make every unicorn suffer dehornification. Then, there were those who were against the decree, mostly earth ponies and pegasi who had unicorns as their friends or mates. Lastly, among the raging crowd, there stood a number of unicorns, shocked and paralyzed by what was happening around them. Soon, a riot broke out on the square, just in front of the Supreme Commander and the Elder Matron. Applejack was quick to order her honor guard to aid the town militia in quelling the riot, but she knew she needed to do something to calm the crowd, lest it will tear the town apart. She took her ceremonial, ornate hammer, and slammed it against the stone stairs which lead to the Halls of Stone. The resulting thundering sound made the crowd stop the infighting and turn their attention to their leader.

Applejack stood there for a moment, not moving, just measuring the gathered crowd with her one eye. Her stern look, one which only a loving, but harsh mother could give, made all of the ponies on the square freeze with fear. Finally, after putting her hammer down, she spoke to the crowd:

-"The Appleloosan Decree will officially come to life in fifteen days from now on. Untill then, any unicorn living under the banner of House Earthborn is free to leave with their horn intact. Unicorn refugee groups shall be granted escort services from local militia forces. Any unicorn wishing to serve House Earthborn will be allowed to, provided they first undergo dehornification."

-"M-my lady, if I may..." - the lanky and frail council spokespony standing next to AJ began to adress the supreme commander - "...the decree was supposed to have an immediate effect and I -um, I do not believe there is anything about letting unicorns go, and..."
-"Then add it" - Applejack responded with a calm voice, her eye still measuring the now tamed crowd.
-"B-but the Earth Council has to approve it first, and I don't believe..."
-"I said ADD IT!"
-"Y-yes, of course my lady!" - the spokespony bowed in fear - "By your command it shall be done."
-"Good." - Applejack responded, giving the pony a stern look - "once you're done, gather the messengers."
-"And what about you, my lady?"
-"There is a certain Elder Matron I need to talk to" - said AJ, turning her attention to Granny Smith.

To Be Continued!

Earthborn - dehorning unicorns, part III
• by PoorYorickDA, Mar 24, 2013, 5:14:31 PM
• Journals / Personal
• Mood:  Noble
-"Elder Matron Granny Smith" - said Applejack, with her usual gruff and commanding tone, focusing her eye on the old, green-coated mare in a councilor's cloak -"I demand to speak with you."
-"Of course, Supreme Commander..." - old matron replied - "..but, if I may suggest - we should take our little conversation inside the Halls, away from all this... ruckus."
-"Agreed" - Applejack took her ceremonial hammer and followed the matron deep into the bowels of the enormous stone structure.

They walked for couple of minutes in complete silence, passing cold corridors filled with enormous stone colums holding up the high ceiling. Each of those colums gave a testament to the unique workmanship of earth ponies. While the architecture of unicorns was all about soft curves, gentle corners and light stuctures that almost seemed to float in the air, earth pony style was about sharp, rough edges and geometric shapes, violently chiseled out of heavy stone. It was a futile endeavor, to seek any semblance of the typical unicorn grace and beauty in these halls - instead, everything here emanated with pure force and brutal, uncompromised strength - everything here was built to endure - a true testament to the earth folk's ability to tame and and reshape the very foundations of this once glorious kingdom.

Applejack and Granny Smith reached the now empty council room, the matron - visibly exhausted by the long walk - sat down on one of the stone chairs in the center of the room. The Commander just stood there, not a sign of exhaustion on her face - even though she travelled the whole distance in her heavy armor, while carrying her hammer.
-"Elder Matron Granny Smith, I need to..."- suddently Granny raised her front hoof and touched AJ's cheek -"What's wrong?"
-"Dear Applejack, you don't need to be so formal. We're alone here, we are allowed to act as a family once in a while, you know?" - a kind smile painted on Granny's face made Applejack drop her stern, formal attitude - "Now, what it is that you seek? Do you seek a word of wisdom? Perhaps an advice from an old hag like me?"
-"I seek reassurance" - Applejack took off her helmet and looked straight into the eyes of the matron - "I need to know if we're doing the right thing."
-"You certainly did the right thing back there, on the town square" - Granny nodded - "a couple of minutes more and the situation would end with bloodshed, and that could spell disaster for the whole house. House divided is a house defeated, as they say." - Granny looked around the room, as if suspecting somepony is spying on them - "And don't worry about the council - they are prone to overreacting, I won't let them bother you." - the old mare patted her granddaughter on the shoulder.
-"Thank you, Granny, although that isn't what I was talking about."
-"It is not? Well, then what is it?"
-"Unicorns" - a sad expression began to creep onto AJ's face - "I want to know why are we doing this."
-"Ohh, that" - suddently Granny stood up and started trotting around the room - "I don't understand, I thought you weren't particularly fond of unicorns."
-"Believe me, Granny..." - AJ grabbed her hammer with her prehensile tail - "If I could, I would personally cut the horns and smash the skulls of every single of those Moon and Star scum, and then bite off the horn of their so-called archmagister and let my soldiers have their way with her, until i decided it is time to cut her head off and plant it on the highest mast of the Canterlot castle!" - the rage in Applejack's words made Granny shake with fear, AJ seeing this immediately dropped her hammer and lowered her voice - "But I want to know why are we dehorning all unicorns, even our own citizens. What are you not telling me, Granny Smith?" - AJ lowered her voice even more, her tone was almost like begging. Granny Smith started trotting even more nervously. - "There's something you're hiding from me, you're not telling me the whole truth. You know I hate using The Sight on my family but you're not giving me any choice." - now the commander's voice became threatening, much so that the green-coated matron finally decided to stop trotting around and explain everything.
-"Dear Applejack, the truth has always been laid bare before your eyes, it is fragmented and seemingly unclear - true, but the fact is - you just need to connect the pieces of the puzzle." - Applejack stared at her granny, confused and uncertain of how to respond to her words. - "I see you're confused. Now, let me explain it to you."
-"I was hoping you'd do. And no wordgames, no half-truths, no metaphores - straight to the point!"
-"Of course." - Granny returned to her chair, sat down and began explaining the situation - "I know of your views of the Princesses and I agree with them. However, even if they weren't the all powerful goddesses we all believed them to be, both Celestia and Luna played a very important role - they were our guardians." - the old mare stopped for a second to take a deep breath, AJ knew she isn't going to like what she was about to hear.
-"Go on." - the young mare insisted.
-"Of course, of course. The fact is, with the princesses gone, Equestria has become a target for dark forces that many ponies cannot even comprehend. And those who do comprehend, usually fall victims to their own hubris and begin to underestimate them."
-"Twilight..." - AJ whispered angrily.
-"Magic has a fickle nature, it cannot really be controlled, only persuaded to abide by our will. But what if the persuader is full of ill will? What if the persuader doesn't realize what really lies beyond our mortal world? I'm sure you remember what happened in Colterado recently." - Granny Smith turned her eyes to Applejack, watching as the young mare suddetly begins to remember the horrors she saw not so long ago.
-"The Cult. Those... things!" - Applejack started shaking.
-"Now, now dear Applejack, no need to get nervous. We won, right?" - Granny's words of reassurance seemed to calm AJ, but the disgusted look on her face did not seem to go away. - "What am I saying is - there's something that desperately wants to breach the barrier between our world and the beyond. Twilight and her troupe may not even be aware of the dangers they're about to unleash on Equestria. They want to connect both worlds. We must sever that connection."
-"Sever the connection... Sever the horns!" - the sudden realization painted a concerned look on AJ's face. - "are you saying that every living unicorn is a potential danger to our world?"
-"Not without their magic" - Granny Smith smirked silently, as she got up from her chair the second time and started trotting around the room again. - " I've always thought that unicorns had the most potential to turn this land into a truly prosperous kingdom. But now, it seems that potential will be used to bring destruction. And all that because of one proud filly, who cannot accept her own limitations."

The sudden loud noise coming from the corridors made both mares stop the conversation and focus on the entrance to the council room. The noise grew more comprehensible and finally could be indentified as a gallop of a pony, probably in armor. The door to the room busted open and revealed a military courier with a letter in his bag. The courier quickly trotted closer to the Supreme Commander to deliver the message.
-"Supreme Commander, Elder Matron" - said the messenger giving the proper honors to both of his superiors - "Here's a message from Fillydelphia, my commander. General Beefcake requests your aid."
-"Thank you, now dismiss" - the pony galloped off, just as AJ started to read the letter - "Damn it."
-"What's wrong my dear? An attack on Fillydelphia?" - Granny asked.
-"Thankfully - no. But it may be just as serious. Scouts from Fillydelphia report an increased diamond dog activity in the southern parts of Ghastly Gorge. There's a possibilty they want to raid our gem mines." - said AJ as she prepared her hammer and put her helmet back on.
-"Whitegold?" - Granny asked, her voice filled with disdain for the scoundrels from Manehattan.
-"The letter doesn't say anything. It may be just random daimond dog tribes looking for easy loot. Not sure why Rarity would bother with our gem mines, when her city lies on the biggest deposits of gems in the entire Equestria." - Applejack responded, hiding the letter in one of her bags and slowly walking to the door.
-"The Mistress of Deception works in mysterious ways, Applejack. Don't forget that" - Granny quickly bridged the distance between her and AJ, to give her last farewell before the departure. - "May the earth bring strength to you, and suffering to your foes." - not minding the cold, unpleasant feel of AJ's armor, Granny hugged her granddaughter and gave her a loving smile. - "Earthborn Endures!" - Granny made the traditional Earthborn gesture of stomping the ground with her front right hoof.
-"Earthborn Endures." - AJ returned the gesture, and immediately ran off through the corridors of the Halls of Stone, outside to meet her honor guard and set off to Fillydelphia.
-"We couldn't ask for a better leader" - Granny whispered to herself, trotting off to her private chamber, deep within the bowels of the Halls.

(My face when i need to write my own fanfics because no one else will, )

Alright, just a little thing I noticed. What's the supposed fabrics worn by some units, specifically battle buckers? The idea of it being leather is gruesome. I'd like some ideas on what they wear to battle, that is not leather. The only material I could think of currently is Flax.

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Well certainly not bovine - ungulate leather.
Reptile, Monster leather perhaps?
Hell, maybe even killed enemies might work. They are no Everfree.

Heh, oh well, that's what I would think anyway.

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Considering most ponies don't eat meat, employing leather sounds messed up. It's more of the Cult's material, in my opinion.

3898288 WEEEELLLLL, it might sound messed up but, in the show animals are shown to have.... Two different variations. Human (though i don't like saying it like that, their living, have personalities, lives, etc etc like humans) and animal. I remember in the Final episode of Season 1 Twilight turned rabbits into HORSES, these "Horses" Are very different from the ponies, first of all they appear more animal like, and are MUCH bigger then them. We never see a Mare or Stallion who looks like them, meaning somewhere in the history of Equestria, Ponies and Horses became....separate species if that's at all believable.

Because of this, now that survival, war and such has broken most of the normal morals of the ponies, using animals that are not....... like.... seriously whats the word for it? Sentient? Human? Social? anyways, animals that are not like the ponies or griffons and such might be considered ok for some, i mean heck there are cows in Applejacks farm that, even though they talk and appear to have personalities and such, they are kept in the barn and trapped there, if these animals were the same as ponies, then that'd be slavery and i doubt AJ would get away with slavery in the normal MLP. Yet Applejack uses them. Soooo using leather MIGHT not be as bad as we think it is. It literally be like us using Cattle. They just don't eat them like we do.

Dunno its something i noticed in MLP that animals are the living beings in the world however there are also animal equivalents to the animals in our world. And then suddenly there are ANIMAL animals and also... NOT animal animals(?). Two version of the SAME animal (Pony=not animal, Horse=Animal) (Too many animals!!!!) Confusing yet....dunno. I know Cinemaresins (the youtube group that basically point out ALL the mistakes in every episode, normally nitpicking and exaggerating and mostly doing it for laughs but none the less, still true) point out these weird animal animals within an animal ruled world. I'm just gonna stop before i come up with an animal tongue twister -.- Just wanted to put that out there.

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I think Twilight didn't turn them into actual horses. I think Twilight did temporarily mutate them! There are horses, the delegates from Saddle Arabia!

I'm sure the cows were kept for the milk, the chickens for the eggs (There are probably eggs that had no embryo in them, so it's technically not genocide). For the pigs, Lauren did say that they need a place to stay... yeah.

These ponies are sentient like us humans, but there's one difference. Ponies live in harmony with other plants and animals, a thing we cannot do here on Earth. We humans are the top of the food chain, we considered ourselves higher than plants and animals. Human Rights didn't apply to them, so we are obviously a higher race. Although in the end, it depends on our morality...

Why do we eat meat? For survival, it's essential. Horses can eat meat, but they cannot digest it as far as I know. So they have no reason to kill animals for food. Killing them just for the leather is just very messed up! I doubt that their husbandry knowledge is that advanced for such farming! Not to mention the process of making the leather is just too messed up as well!

That is why, fillies and gentlecolts, it cannot be leather for Earthborn.

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So, Applejack started as good trying to help keep things stable, but slowly degenerated into a monster like Twilight.

3933807 One can only take so much pain before breaking. It seems like Applejack was already hurt from her conversation with twilight, and then finding out how M&S treats slaves, also believing her entire life is a lie due to the two sisters, and seeing the past of how these two supposedly annihilated an entire races for not following them. Plus its clear her battles with the Cult had an effect on her, all of this came together and when she saw the slaves she broke. The same thing happened to twilight only MUCH faster due to how everything fell apart around her in a matter of days or weeks only. Plus how unstable twilight is the begin with, requiring guidance from her friends and mentors to stay on track, when she lost both she was bound to go insane, it was only a matter of time, at least AJ had her family still, yet it seems her family also started breaking, such as how Granny Smith believes magic is bad, probably due to what she saw from the Cult (she clearly used that as her main example). M&S only strengthened her beliefs. The most interesting thing to note is that Earthborn doesn't see magic as evil, they simply see it as a power that ponies cannot control and must be left alone. However their methods of preventing magic from being used are questionable. Because even though they have very good reasons and arguments for why they should stop magic, to physically attack anypony that is capable of using magic, plus trying to destroy an entire ecosystem (Everfree), magical or not, might be going to far.

I like the idea of thinking of how each pony degraded, how they slowly broke, what events brought them to what they are now. Might make a thread about this.

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...The last thing an honest person would want is being taken advantage of the virtue he/she upholds...

...Honesty doesn't pay without a dash of deceit... "Apples to the Core" ? More like "Honest to the Core"...

Earthborn is very aggressive as the result of their history. They loathe two things: The Diarchy that once ruled them, and Unicorn Magic that possesses too much potential to be left in normal possessions. I see the Everfree as the aggressor in this since if they hadn't expanded, Earthborn wouldn't have retaliated, aka would've left them alone. But if Earthborn went into the forest and cut down their trees first, then it would make sense that Earthborn is indeed, the aggressor of their War against the Everfree...

The War with Stormwing would've been prevented if Earthborn had investigated WHY Stormwing flooded Ponyville. But no, they just went straight to... this smells fishy... there must be more into it, maybe to personal levels... Twilight...?

Earthborn's situation is dire, they are surrounded by all sides. Even though we all know that the other two Buffalo Tribes are neutral to Earthborn, but you can never be too careful. Because if you look at the locations, The Thunderhoof are in for a nasty pincer from the both tribes...

They would be outnumbered in both numbers and armor. The latter is included since Thunderhoof looked to heavy armor with disdain. Attacking Thunderhoof would mean provoking Earthborn's wrath, but why would Earthborn intervene? Their military is already stretched along their northern borders, and the south is busy with the Changelings. They should at best, capable of sparing only one army to assist...

Ha! What a speculation! They wouldn't do it either way, since the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Watchtowers are by those tribes. If Earthborn was to be driven out, they would have to face the Changelings next, and that's no benefit!

They hated the Sisters, that's fine for them since the Diarch is no more. They hated magic because they find it dangerous. Rationally, I think AJ did a boo-boo in this one. The practice of Slavery would've flocked more Earth Ponies to Earthborn, and some Pegasi too if they didn't prefer Stormwing. She should've known that Twilight's a prodigy, a genius. Not many are capable of using magic as good as her. The Dehornification was all based on the false fact that all unicorns are geniuses...

Now, there's a thing that I don't understand. How did Granny know about the existence of the Astral? Or rather, what hinted her to say that?

"What am I saying is - there's something that desperately wants to breach the barrier between our world and the beyond. Twilight and her troupe may not even be aware of the dangers they're about to unleash on Equestria. They want to connect both worlds. We must sever that connection."

How in Tartarus did she manage to find out about Twilight's plans..?

This is gonna be brief...

Have you ever heard of Wooden Cannons..?
Yes, that's right. Cannons made out of wood. MythBuster test-fired the cannon, and it seems fine to me. It would probably break in a heat of battle. But what do you think? Do you think Earthborn might've used wood before for building their "early cannons"..?

Here's the YouTube video...

3728306 On the topic of dehornification, there is the question in my mind if unicorn horns can grow back?

Horns afterall is matted hair and will grow back give or take a few months. The idea that a unicorn horn would be permanentely gone once removed seems rather illogical to me.

I went with an idea that unicorns that choose to live under Earthborn are given very strict house rules after their dehornification. If the unicorns who pledge loyalty to the House wish to stay alive and earn a living, they would have to file the stumps of their horns down on a regular basis. Any form negligence is punishable by death.
This even applies to young foals in the House who were born as unicorns and have been forced since their foalhood to keep their horns from growing.

: Hmm... *doing some research

: ...

: Those are Rhinos', 4228406 ...

: With the exception of Rhinoceroses, horns do not grow back if cut off entirely. Although Antlers do grow back, they are dead bones. Horns are the opposite, live bones...

: And by Live Bones, it's Actual Bones, differing not by much from Skeletal Bones. Rhinos' horns mostly consist of keratin, the same protein that are used in hair and fingernails, without any bone core at all. It would be illogical that their horns wouldn't grow back, being so similar to the aforementioned afterall...

: Yeah... I don't think a unicorn's horn is entirely keratin. There must be a bone core in it. I recall that bones do not regenerate by themselves. Now you sparked me an idea here...

: One of the top projects M&S might be investing in would definitely be, I quote, the "Rehornification Project". If they manage to find a way to restore a horn to the dehorned; a majority of the unicorns in Earthborn would surely emigrate north to become whole again...

4228482

One of the top projects M&S might be investing in would definitely be, I quote, the "Rehornification Project". If they manage to find a way to restore a horn to the dehorned; a majority of the unicorns in Earthborn would surely emigrate north to become whole again...

I can see that happening.

In regards to the complete dehorning process, I was under the impression that removing a horn completely was lethal.

And remembering back to the episode 'Green isn't your Color', Rarity has her horn filed in a spa, so I mistakingly assumed it was purely made of keratin

: I remember that scene..!

: It should be noted that though not entirely in keratin the horn is compose of, surrounding the bone core are. Imagine a unicorn's horn as a finger. The nail will always grow back no matter how many times you cut (clip) it off. But if the core, the finger itself is cut off, then sure the nails won't grow back...

: I'm very happy you bring that little detail up, 4229104. I thought their horns would stay that way back then...

There! Finally finished my analysis on Earthborn, the federation of cities under the Ever-Vigilant.

Started out as a question. Results are satisfactory, for me at least.

Spoiler: How the hay does Earthborn they fight the Changelings?

Actual Spoilers:
Friendship is Magic Issue #1 -> #4
FIENDship is Magic Issue #5

Oooookay so, was writing my notes when all of a sudden a question popped up in my head.
Earthborn Firespitters, what kind of flammable liquid would they use to create the flames their flamethrowers have?
I have no idea what kind of liquids and such were available at the time really. Or really what they use to power any of their machines at all. It be really nice to know. Any ideas?